Neologies: Feeder

Art of Photography Show

2007-04-10T20:17:00.000-07:00

The Art Of Photography Show 2007 is a major international exhibition of photographic art taking place April 14 - May 28 at the two-level Lyceum Theatre Gallery.

Window Clippings 1.5

2007-04-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

Window Clippings 1.5 is now available for download. There are a number of new features that I’m sure you’ll appreciate. Read on to learn more!

Top-selling Blu-Ray discs sells 830 copies

2007-04-10T20:11:00.000-07:00

Blu-Ray and DVD-HD -- the two new high-def video formats that have been crippled into uselessness through ridiculous anti-copying measures -- are selling so poorly that a new disc can get on the weekly top ten by selling as few as 880 copies.

Focal Length and Aperture Explained for the Photography Novice

2007-04-06T13:40:00.000-07:00

A Cost Analysis of Windows Vista Content Protection

2007-04-06T13:39:00.000-07:00

Windows Vista includes an extensive reworking of core OS elements in order to provide content protection for so-called “premium content”, typically HD data from Blu-Ray and HD-DVD sources. Providing this protection incurs considerable costs in terms of system performance, system stability, technical support overhead, and hardware and software cost. These issues affect not only users of Vista but the entire PC industry, since the effects of the protection measures extend to cover all hardware and software that will ever come into contact with Vista, even if it's not used directly with Vista (for example hardware in a Macintosh computer or on a Linux server). This document analyses the cost involved in Vista's content protection, and the collateral damage that this incurs throughout the computer industry.

NPR: Elizabeth Warren On The Credit Card Industry

2007-04-06T13:36:00.000-07:00

In the interview Harvard Law Professor and credit card industry expert Elizabeth Warren dishes on abusive lending practices, the ever-malleable interest rate, universal default and all that fun stuff.

Google Suggests You Swim Across The Atlantic Ocean

2007-04-06T13:34:00.000-07:00

You can't always rely on the advice of computers, especially when it comes to transoceanic driving directions.

Most Likely Site of Credit Card Theft: Restaurants

2007-04-06T13:33:00.000-07:00

Visa reports that more credit card information is stolen at restaurants than at any other type of business. 40% of all credit card information theft is traced back to restaurants. But don't blame your waiter!

File format/codec support very important in convergence devices

2007-04-06T13:30:00.000-07:00

This is a huge problem! People don’t care how the video is encoded, they just want to play it. Right now, they can’t do this. The Xbox 360 supports limited formats. TiVo (HMO) supports limited formats. Apple TV supports limited formats. Despite these companies’ ideas and concepts that limited codec support is all people need, it is the first way to kill your product from ever being popular (v1 Extenders would have been a hell of a lot more popular had they supported other formats, I guarantee it).

CrazyEgg - Measuring Web Site Usability

2007-04-06T13:27:00.000-07:00

Getting advice from the book is great, but how can you measure the usability of your site? A number of new tools for tracking site visitors are raising the bar for website statistics tools. Particularly, instead of tracking the flat lists of usage and showing you illegible user paths, the next generation of site trackers is focused on giving you the insights on how people use a site. In this post we discuss CrazyEgg, which offers innovative ways of doing just that.

How to photograph smoke

2007-03-30T16:58:00.000-07:00

n general this looks like a relatively simple process. The post details how to get the smoke just right, how to set up your light and exposure, and finally how to process your finished image in your image editor of choice. If you're a budding a photographer looking to boost your repertoire, this could be a fun project.

How to create smoke in Photoshop

2007-03-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

The Abduzeedo weblog has a detailed guide for achieving an attractive smoke effect using Photoshop.

New California e-voting measure uses hackers to test voting machine security

2007-03-30T15:49:00.000-07:00

New voting machine review standards (PDF) proposed by California Secretary of State Debra Bowen would require independent code audits, extensive Red Team security testing, and support for paper records. Bowen's proposed standards, which have met with widespread approval from electronic voting reform advocates and computer security experts, could lead to the decertification of practically all the voting machines currently in use in the state of California.

Goldfish live in a deep-fat fryer

2007-03-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

A Japanese restaurant has combined a deep-fat fryer with a functional goldfish tank -- the boiling oil floats on the surface of the cool water, and the fish get to eat all the crumbs of batter that dribble down.

Sony VPL-VW50 (Pearl) Review

2007-03-30T15:45:00.000-07:00

Wow this is one stylish piece of equipment; I have to say that Sony really did their homework and covered all the bases with regard to fit, finish and perceived build quality. From an industrial design standpoint the Pearl is nearly flawless, it’s stylish enough to cater to those of us who care about such things yet not so far removed from typical front projection designs; to turn off those who prefer simple unobtrusive designs.

Jet passengers may not get to chat on cellphones after all

2007-03-22T16:50:00.000-07:00

The once-highflying idea of letting passengers use their wireless phones on airplanes is about to be grounded.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin Martin is recommending the FCC drop its tentative plan to lift its ban on in-flight cellphone use, three agency officials say. They asked to remain anonymous because the proposal is still being considered.

RIAA University Campaign Sputters: Group Asked To Pay Up For Wasting School's Time

2007-03-22T16:40:00.000-07:00

[T]he University of Nebraska has told the RIAA that it can't help them identify many of the students accused of file trading. The school's system changes a computer's IP address each time its turned on, and it only keeps this information for month. After that month, the school has no way of associating an IP address with a computer or its user. The RIAA is angry about this, and a spokesman for the group criticized the university for not understanding "the need to retain these records". This is a ridiculous complaint. The university doesn't have a need to retain these records, and there's no reason it should do so out of some obligation to the RIAA. If there were any doubt that the university is really irritated by the RIAA's requests, it has requested that the RIAA pay the university to reimburse its expenses from dealing with this (good luck with that).

Top 10 Tuesday: Toughest Games to Beat

2007-03-22T16:34:00.000-07:00

Across the history of gaming there have been numerous titles that have knocked players on their collective butts. Narrowing down the ten most difficult was a tricky task in itself, since the challenge of a game can be very subjective. In gathering our top ten, we gave favor to titles widely considered difficult by both IGN editors and readers and that derived that challenge through game design.

Zero ounces to freedom

2007-03-22T16:26:00.000-07:00

Scientists have identified the No. 1 virus that infects San Diegans. It’s not AIDS, nor herpes, nor whatever fecal particle that has a history of sneaking into Jack in the Box’s tasty burgers.

The scientific nomenclature of the leading virus is called Santerium Sublimum—commonly referred to on “the streets” as Sublime. There are many negative ways the virus affects its victims, including, but not limited to, wearing “wife beater” tank-tops, driving large trucks, referring to strangers as “bro” and becoming the only known humans with the ability to smoke marijuana prior to getting in a bar fight.

Vista vs. Leopard in perspective

2007-03-22T01:21:00.000-07:00

So ... Apple will sell in one year what Microsoft sells ... in its first month. Sure, that's great, I guess. But Vista will just keep selling. And selling. And selling. And after the initial Leopard upgrade boom ends quickly, Apple is pretty much back to its million Macs a quarter.

Carlos Mencia Stealing Jokes from Cosby

2007-03-21T18:16:00.000-07:00

More creepy Russian playgrounds

2007-03-21T12:15:00.000-07:00

Russian Kids Playgrounds

2007-03-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

Strange Russian kids playgrounds.

The Marriage

2007-03-21T12:10:00.000-07:00

The Marriage is intended to be art. No excuses or ducking. As such its certainly meant to be enjoyable but not entertaining in the traditional sense most games are. This means I am certain to be perceived as being pretentious by some who read this, my apologies. This is also a very difficult game to understand, again my apologies, I have tried to assist those who are interested but frustrated with the rules summary below.

The game came out of my explorations into games as art. This thinking started a few years ago out of a series of discussions with Raph Koster when we both worked at Sony Online Entertainment. While we ended up taking different approaches to it, the aim of pushing out the edges of games as art in our spare time was a common goal. I was also very taken with Jonathan Blow’s “Raspberry” which seemed to me to start to push towards expression through gameplay.

'Yahoo Betrayed My Husband'

2007-03-21T12:07:00.000-07:00

Five years later, Yu, 55, sits in the dining room of a small house in Fairfax and weeps softly. She is a slight woman -- 100 pounds and barely 5 feet tall in slippers. Her eyes betray her exhaustion; but she is determined, too. She carries a thick stack of notes with her, and she has scrawled more on her left hand.

"Yahoo betrayed my husband and deprived him of freedom," Yu says through a translator, her voice trembling. "Yahoo must learn its lesson."