The Procrastinator's Inbox

Tech Links: May 30, 2013

2013-05-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

Entertainment

Gadgets

Using brainwaves to create 3D objects? It’s not science fiction, it’s just science

More People Have Cell Phones Than Toilets, U.N. Study Shows

Sony and E Ink are Making a Digital Paper Notepad and it Looks Awesome
The Stupidity of Smart TV

Why The Apple TV Has Nothing To Fear From The Xbox One

News

Report: Kids Tend to Read Digital More Than Print

Udacity and Georgia Tech offer ‘massive online’ degree

Reading & Discussion

Are hacktivists heroes or hustlers?

A Framework For Copyright Reform

Is Bitcoin science fiction come to life?

How to Raise a Tech-Savvy Kid

Lifehacker has a great analysis of why Yahoo’s recent Flickr tweaking is a little but underhanded—paid users, who never had a storage limit in the first place, suddenly do, and there are ads now…

The Raynfall Agency posted a pretty good article on piracy; it includes the agency’s thoughts about what authors need to know, along with some practical tips for avoiding piracy of their works.

Resources & Utilities

A collection of patterns and modules for responsive designs.

Struggling to find the perfect word for your next sentence? Try the Power Thesaurus–a crowdsourced tool for finding the best synonym or antonym.

Turn An Old Computer Into A Do-Anything Home Server With FreeNAS 8

We’ve cured boredom and that’s not good

Security

Anatomy of a hack: How crackers ransack passwords like “qeadzcwrsfxv1331” Hackers get %90 of an MD5 password database using multiple analysis techniques including Markov chains, mask, combinator and hybrid attacks. These attacks combine dictionaries of previously-recovered passwords and passphrases with brute force and statistical analysis to expand the power of password cracking.

Technology

The audacious plan to end hunger with 3-D printed food - Quartz

Why Maker Faire may be Silicon Valley's most important export

Tech Links: May 27, 2013

2013-05-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

LEGO Android by Bruce Lowell

Business

Apple Calms Investor Fears With Earnings Report

Apple Has an Identity Crisis: Is It a Hardware Company or a Software Firm?

Apple Snaps Growth Streak: First Profit Drop in a Decade Comes Despite Strong Demand for iPhone, iPad

Entertainment

This 8-Bit Video Will Make You Miss Your Childhood in the 90's

How Developers Coded in 1985

HereIsToday.com is a single serving site that does exactly what it's name implies. With each click of the mouse, the little block of today-ness gets recontextualized and rerecontextualized into bigger and bigger swatches of history until the ribbons of color include just the slightest notion of human existence.

Gadgets

Square Stand turns your iPad into a point of sale register. Makes me want to open a store, just so I can own one.

Internet

How large technology companies defend the rights of their users. Notice how Verizon has zero stars on that chart?

Reading & Discussion

Microsoft has finally decided to roll out web-based Skype calling. Over the coming weeks, users will be able to make Skype video and voice calls from within Outlook.com on their browsers.

Resources & Utilities

Google Wallet is now integrated into Gmail. This means you can securely send money to friends and family in the U.S without leaving your Gmail inbox. Smart.

Rome2Rio is a handy travel search engine site where you put in the place you want to start and where you want to go. It shows you the map, the cost of the ticket (air, rail, coach, ferry and mass transit routes), duration of the journey, etc.

Software

A recollection of hacking the N64 with Action Replay and posting about it on Codejunkies with a Dreamcast.

Technology

10 Terrible Tech Frustrations My Toddler Will Never Have

Guest Photographers or: Why You Should Have an Unplugged Wedding

Tutorials

An introduction to Google Analytics for ecommerce

Quote

2013-05-13T17:00:00.000-04:00

“I was taking an advanced calculus class and my instructor was reputed to be a fabulous researcher, but he barely spoke English. He was a very boring and bad teacher and I was absolutely lost and in despair.

So I went to the campus tutoring centre and they had Betamax tapes of a professor who had won teaching awards. Basically I sat with those tapes and took class there. But I still had to go to the other one and sat there and wanted to kill myself.

I thought at that time, in the future, why wouldn’t you have the most entertaining professor, the one with the proven track record of getting knowledge into people’s heads?

We’re still not quite there. In university you’re still likely to be in a large lecture hall with a very boring professor, and everyone knows it’s not working very well. It’s not even the best use of that professor’s time or the audience.”

—	Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales argues the boring university lecture will be the first casualty of the online education revolution.

Tech Links: April 16, 2013

2013-04-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

“Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” by Malaysian illustrator Tang Yau Hoong

Science

Why does music feel so good? "Music moves people of all cultures, in a way that doesn’t seem to happen with other animals. Nobody really understands why listening to music — which, unlike sex or food, has no intrinsic value — can trigger such profoundly rewarding experiences. Salimpoor and other neuroscientists are trying to figure it out with the help of brain scanners."

Software

What Tax Preparation Software Looked Like in 1991

Technology

A Brief History of Book Vending Machine

Living through the Evolution of Etextbooks

Princess Leia hologram could become reality

True Purpose Of DRM: To Let Copyright Holders Have A Veto Right On New Technologies

Why are TV Remotes so Terrible?

Tutorials

Wordpress Under Attack: How To Avoid The Coming Botnet

Architecture: Asian Cairns

2013-04-15T10:00:00.000-04:00

These Asian Cairns Architect Vincent Callebaut are a fresh look at the concept of vertical farming:

"The cities are currently responsible for 75% of the worldwide consumption of energy and they reject 80% of worldwide emissions of CO2. The contemporary urban model is thus ultra-energy consuming and works on the importation of wealth and natural resources on the one hand, and on the exportation of the pollution and waste on the other hand. This loop of energetic flows can be avoided by repatriating the countryside and the farming production modes in the heart of the city by the creation of green lungs, farmscrapers in vertical storeys and by the implantation of wind and solar power stations. The production sites of food and energy resources will be thus reintegrated in the heart of the consumption sites ! The buildings with positive energies must become the norm and reduce the carbon print on the mid term."

Gadgets: BioniCopter

2013-04-15T09:30:00.000-04:00

"BioniCopter" a Robotic Dragonfly by Festo

Meant to mimic the motions of a dragonfly the BioniCopter is capable of flying in all directions including backward, and can also hover indefinitely in the same spot. While many other remote-controlled dragonflies exist, many of which are available commercially as toys, the BioniCopter is the first device that can mimic the function of a plane, a helicopter, and a glider all in the same device. Learn more at Festo.

"In addition to control of the shared flapping frequency and twisting of the individual wings, each of the four wings also features an amplitude controller. The tilt of the wings determines the direction of thrust. Amplitude control allows the intensity of the thrust to be regulated. When combined, the remote-controlled dragonfly can assume almost any position in space. [... ] This unique way of flying is made possible by the lightweight construction and the integration of functions: components such as sensors, actuators and mechanical components as well as open- and closed-loop control systems are installed in a very tight space and adapted to one another. With the remote-controlled dragonfly, Festo demonstrates wireless real-time communication, a continuous exchange of information, as well as the ability to combine different sensor evaluations and identify complex events and critical states."

"Festo - BionicOpter" by FestoHQ

With the BionicOpter, Festo has technically mastered the highly complex flight characteristics of the dragonfly. Just like its model in nature, this ultralight flying object can fly in all directions, hover in mid-air and glide without beating its wings.

Quote

2013-04-15T08:30:00.000-04:00

“One century after the invention of the telephone, we still know the difference between the face-to-face presence and the telephonical presence. But we don’t feel it as a problem or a conflict anymore. We know how to enmesh them peacefully. That’s the same with the difference between the digital and the physical: We are learning how to enmesh them peacefully and, very soon, we will no longer feel them as a conflict.”
— "Digital Dualism and Lived Experience" by Stéphane Vial.
Cyborgology, April 10, 2013.

Snippet: Bitcoin is Ludicrous

2013-04-15T08:00:00.000-04:00

Bitcoin is ludicrous, but it tells us something important about the nature of money:

"Bitcoin really is a tiny market in the scheme of things, and its recent gyrations mean that the dollar, euro and yen have nothing to fear from the competition. If a currency can lose 75 percent of its buying power in two days, it may not be the best store of value. But it also an important window into the strange and uncomfortable mystery of “What is money,” which is a harder question to answer than one might think."

Source: Washingtonpost.com

Link Round-Up: March 29, 2013

2013-03-29T12:00:00.000-04:00

Protests outside the Supreme Court

20 Horrifying but True Facts About How Your Food is Made Slideshow

Classic Craigslist: Crazy Roommate Wanted

In September of 2012, someone made a carpet-covered half-size Abrams tank. Now that’s protection for any high-traffic hardwood floors.

Nathan Pyle offers some tips on New York etiquette in the form of animated GIFs.

Tech Links: March 27, 2013

2013-03-27T08:00:00.000-04:00

"Belief in Evolution Versus National Wealth" by Tony Piro

Business

Orders Cut, as Publisher and Retailer Quarrel: A standoff over financial terms has prompted the bookstore chain Barnes & Noble to cut back substantially on the number of titles it orders from the publishing house Simon & Schuster... This is the first time that Barnes & Noble has used the sales of books as a negotiating tool, industry executives say.

Gadgets

The curious incident of the books on the Kindle

When will Kindle's become free?

Quarter of U.S. Buys Ebooks, Number Expected to Nearly Double by 2014

Internet

Amazon Introduces “Send to Kindle” Button for Offline Reading TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics . How To Add a ‘Send to Kindle’ Button on Your Site

Google Maps surmounts four of the Seven Summits: Aconcagua (South America), Kilimanjaro (Africa), Everest Base Camp (Asia), and Mount Elbrus (Europe). It's not quite a "street" view of the Grand Canyon, but 360 degree panoramas.

A libertarian nightmare: Bitcoin meets Big Government

OMGif! "On Tuesday, Google announced via Google+ that Image Search now has an “Animated” filter. That means that if you’re only searching for animated magic, you need never be bothered with a still image again. Finally that search for Jennifer Lawrence GIFs from the Academy Awards just got a whole lot easier."

Reading & Discussion

Ebooks are actually not books—schools among first to realizing this fact

E-Retailers now accounting for nearly half of book sales

Nation's first bookless library on university campus is thriving at UTSA

What does the SCOTUS' Wiley v. Kirtsaeng decision mean for publishing

What If The Google Reader Readers Just Don’t Come Back?

Resources & Utilities

Draft seems like a great tool for collaborative writing. Unlike with Google Doc, Draft collaborators can’t overwrite the master copy. When you share your document using Draft, any changes your collaborator makes are on their own copy of the document, and you get to accept or ignore each individual change they make.

Jolidrive allows you to access all your content from across multiple services (Dropbox, Flickr, Instagram, etc) with one login.

Software

Digg Developing Google Reader Replacement

Google Keep: How Bad Timing May Have Doomed Google's Newest Release

Google Keep vs. Evernote

Video Games

The SimCity Debacle: Another lesson in why DRM is a bad idea

Link Round-Up: March 25, 2013

2013-03-25T12:00:00.000-04:00

Bioshock Infinite ~ Developer Fun Facts

News: Proposed changes to marriage would open the way for Star Wars Jedi to perform ceremonies, says Free Church of Scotland.

The Geography of the Supermarket

March Madness explained with Star Wars

The Mystery Behind Chipotle's Secret, 1,500-Calorie Super Burrito

Star Wars fans can argue til the cows come home about which character is the best. Now StarWars.com is ready to settle the score once and for all. Well, not really because we know this won’t actually end any debate. But it’ll be fun to watch the characters pitted against each other just the same.

Tech Links: March 25, 2013

2013-03-25T08:00:00.000-04:00

The World’s Undersea Cables

A submarine cable is about 0.75 to 2.5 inches in diameter, or about the thickness of three ordinary garden hoses. The longest cable, called the Southern Cross, runs under the Pacific, stretching 18,500 miles.

Business

Survey: 60% of consumers are banner blind

A Problem Google Has Created for Itself

Entertainment

The 40 Hottest Women in Tech

Let's build a ship - Timelapse builds the world's largest ship in 70 seconds Building the world's largest ship - the Maersk Tripple E

World Wide Maze is a "Chrome Experiment" that turns any website or search into a playable three-dimensional "Monkey Ball"-style maze game. You can control via the keyboard or link to your phone to turn it into a tilt-sensitive remote control. (Chrome browser only, obviously.)

Gadgets

Apple looks to protect dropped iPhones by shifting their orientation mid-flight

Canon Unveils the Rebel SL1, the World’s Smallest and Lightest DSLR

Electronic Devices on Planes: Is the madness nearly over?

Why You'll End Up Wearing a Smart Watch

Internet

Godspeed, Google Reader

How Google went from essential to evil in one short week TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics

Reading & Discussion

The Copyright Rule We Need to Repeal If We Want to Preserve Our Cultural Heritage

The Glory Days of American Journalism. Ignore the doomsayers: The news-reading public has never had more and better information at their fingertips.

Supreme Court Rules on Bookselling Suit

Science

Does studying science make you a better person? Study shows that people who study science are more likely to condemn unethical behavior than religious people

The Nielsen Family Is Dead. Nielsen Now Tracks (Almost) Everything You Buy: Credit, Debit and Bank Data Now Combined With TV, Online Viewing. Nielsen Offers Focus on ‘Zero-TV’ Homes. Nielsen Agrees to Expand Definition of TV Viewing. The 23,000 U.S. homes Nielsen currently samples are going to see some changes this year.

Software

The Commotion Wireless Project is a free, open-source (but still early beta) software platform for creating decentralized wireless mesh networks. The Open Technology Institute (part of the nonprofit New America Foundation) has just announced the developer release of Commotion, a free, open-source software project for building decentralized, ad hoc community networks of wireless devices. The goal of the project is both to bridge the digital divide and to enable those without uncensored internet access to roll their own networks and circumvent repressive internet censorship and telecommunication shutdowns. Commotion is currently being field-tested in Detroit (in collaboration with the Detroit Digital Justice Coalition) to bridge the digital divide in 48217 (one of Detroit's most impoverished neighborhoods) and in the Cass Corridor.

Link Round-Up: March 20, 2013

2013-03-20T12:00:00.000-04:00

Alternative Android Logos by Mjcowan

20 Haunting Ghost Towns of the World.

Brilliant Spoofs of the Classic Fantasy Novel Map. These are funny even if you aren't all that familiar with the subject they parody.

Japan's educators and politicians quarrel about what students should learn about World War II so much that most students end up learning very little at all. As adults, they don't understand why the rest of Asia knows so much.

Can We Please Stop Drawing Trees on Top of Skyscrapers? Because it's not going to happen.

Nigel Ackland has the new Terminator-style Bebionic3 prosthetic hand. He shows us what it can do -including things human hands cannot do.

Tech Links: March 20, 2013

2013-03-20T08:00:00.000-04:00

Source: Imgur via MUO

His charm was not resistible. Her capacity was massive. They had good potential together. The coupling was electrical.

Business

The Future of Customer Service: These Companies Are Getting it Right

Entertainment

App from Dutch director Bobby Boermans is an appropriately titled horror film that encourages viewers to download a free app that delivers second screen content during the movie. The film follows psychology student Anna Rijnders, who becomes addicted to apps, social media, and her smartphone. Rijnders finds a mysterious app called IRIS that begins sending cryptic texts as people around her die in mysterious ways. The second screen app for viewers — which looks like a cross between Apple’s Siri voice assistant and Hal 9000 — is available for iOS and Android, has information about the movie and its cast, and will deliver related content at select points throughout the film. App will hit Dutch theaters on April 4th, and enterprising filmmakers around the world will likely be watching to see how audiences react to the unique second screen tactic.
Meet the Rules of the Internet

Thorin Klosowski explains "Why I Stopped Pirating and Started Paying for Media," while EveryLibrary admonishes you to Beg, Borrow, Steal.

Why Do Movies About ‘The Information Age’ Hide Information?

Internet

Intel offers snapshot of an ‘Internet minute’

Tumblr Is Not What You Think

News

Nearly one-third of U.S. adults have abandoned a news outlet due to dissatisfaction

The Supreme Court has held that the First Sale Doctrine applies to copyrighted material manufactured and sold abroad. This has a lot of implications for the e-book market.

Resources & Utilities

Google Reader Is Dead, Long Live These Alternatives, Including Digg's

The Maker Map is an open source project aiming to create a global database of maker resources – from workspaces to incubators – powered by the maker community and easily searchable on any device.

Technology

Dish Network Responds to Fox’s Latest Attempt Shut Down Its Hopper

Tutorials

Delete This: 7 Tips For Getting Your Inbox To Zero

Siri and Scroll trick turns iBook into audiobooks

Link Round-Up: March 19, 2013

2013-03-19T12:00:00.000-04:00

Amsterdam Castle in Amsterdam, New York, is for sale for only a million dollars.

How to win a climate change argument, in one chart.

Inconceivable! A mashup of Games of Thrones and The Princess Bride works well.

Student solves Rubix Cube while juggling

That crazy slingshot guy has managed to create a pump-action gun that can propel Oreos at injurious speed.

This is what 200 calories looks like. Powerful.

Photo: Putra Mosque

2013-03-18T11:30:00.000-04:00

Putra Mosque

Photographed by KukoqNyoq

Lecture: DNA Explained

2013-03-18T09:00:00.001-04:00

BBC Knowledge Explainer DNA from Territory

BBC Knowledge and Learning is exploring a wide variety of topics from social history to science in a series of three-minute online Explainer documentaries, and this short history of DNA really knocks it out of the park, both artistically and scientifically.

Territory Studio was commissioned to create the video in cooperation with writer Andrew S. Walsh and molecular biologist Matthew Adams. The video walks through the fundamentals beginning with the basic chemistry. Lead animator Will Samuel explains:

"We needed to find a graphic style to communicate the beauty and intricacy of DNA. We wanted to create nostalgia; taking the audience back to the days of textbook diagrams and old science documentaries, such as Carl Sagan's COSMOS and IBM’s POWER OF TEN (1977). Using the double helix circular theme as a core design we focused on form, movement and colour to create a consistent flow to the animation, drawing on references from nature, illustrating how DNA is the core to everything around us."

Humor: The Gamer Sutra

2013-03-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

"The Gamer Sutra" by Andy Kluthe and Andrew Bridgman of Dorkly

Photo: Penn Station

2013-03-18T08:30:00.000-04:00

NYT: Farewell to Penn Station, 1963

“Any city gets what it admires, will pay for, and, ultimately, deserves. Even when we had Penn Station, we couldn’t afford to keep it clean. We want and deserve tin-can architecture in a tinhorn culture. And we will probably be judged not by the monuments we build but by those we have destroyed.”

Interview: 10 Questions for Douglas Coupland

2013-03-15T09:30:00.000-04:00

"Generation A: 10 Questions for Douglas Coupland" by SimonSchusterVideos

Douglas Coupland, author of Generation A, answers ten questions ranging from if he would miss bees if they disappeared to if Generation A is a sequel.

Video Distraction: Giant Dry Ice Bubble Experiment

2013-03-15T09:00:00.000-04:00

"Giant Dry Ice Bubble Experiment!" by Brusspup

Video Distraction: Water & Sound Experiment

2013-03-14T09:00:00.000-04:00

Amazing Water & Sound Experiment by Brusspup

Brusspup synchronizes his video camera to a water stream run in front of a speaker outputting a 24 Hz sine wave.

"Ever since I created the first version of this video a year ago I've been wanting to try it again with more water and better lighting / footage. This is a really fun project and when you first see the results, chances are your jaw will drop. The main thing to keep in mind for this project is that you need a camera that shoots 24 fps.
The effect that you are seeing can't be seen with the naked eye. The effect only works through the camera. However, there is a version of the project you can do where the effect would be visible with the naked eye. For that project, you'd have to use a strobe light.

For this project you'll need:

A powered speaker

Water source

Soft rubber hose

Tone generating software

24 fps camera

Tape.

Run the rubber hose down past the speaker so that the hose touches the speaker. Leave about 1 or 2 inches of the hose hanging past the bottom of the speaker. Secure the hose to the speaker with tape or whatever works best for you. The goal is to make sure the hose is touching the actual speaker so that when the speaker produces sound (vibrates) it will vibrate the hose.

Set up your camera and switch it to 24 fps. The higher the shutter speed the better the results. But also keep in the mind that the higher your shutter speed, the more light you need. Run an audio cable from your computer to the speaker. Set your tone generating software to 24hz and hit play.Turn on the water. Now look through the camera and watch the magic begin. If you want the water to look like it's moving backward set the frequency to 23hz. If you want to look like it's moving forward in slow motion set it to 25hz."

Photo: Graffiti of Speed

2013-03-14T08:30:00.000-04:00

"Graffiti of Speed" by Shinichi Hagashi

Mirror Symmetry of Tokyo, Japan

Tech Links: March 14, 2013

2013-03-14T08:00:00.000-04:00

Every single time I walk into an Apple Store.

Source: Avengers (2010) #32

Business

Even Google won't be around for ever, let alone Facebook: In the world of internet technology a company can go from zero to hero in a very short time

Record labels object to Apple's proposed low royalty rate for streaming service

Would you have guessed that 160 people work at Buzzfeed?

Entertainment

The Coolest Experience I Had as an Apple Store Employee

Gadgets

The Apple iWatch Rumors Just Became Apple iWatch Reports

Electronic tattoo filled with sensors reads your vitals, reports them wirelessly

Google Glass: is it a threat to our privacy?

Internet

"Copyright Trolling" is a term used (by opponents of the practice) to describe copyright holders filing subpoenas to residential ISPs for the identities matched to IP addresses linked to content piracy. In this case, the piracy is often via BitTorrent networks, where peers can see each other's public IP addresses. Rather than filing suit after obtaining these identities, the content copyright holders attempt to extract settlements on the order of $2,000-3,000 from named ISP subscribers to avoid going to court. That's their plan anyway. The recent (and ongoing) story of Prenda Law demonstrates how turning the threat of copyright infringement lawsuits into a moneymaking venture (allegedly with a lawyer as both plaintiff -- through a shell company -- and counsel) can go very wrong for the "trolls"...

How I Got 10,000 Twitter Followers In A Week: Alastair Duncan, the creator of the popular Twitter account Star Trek & The City (previously), discusses his viral fame and interviews the creators of other popular Twitter parodies: Modern Day Seinfeld, Not Tilda Swinton and The Average Shark. The article also discusses Big Ben, Kim Kierkegaard and the hilarious fake Michael Haneke.
The Pirate Bay has announced via a blog post that they will be using North Korea as a haven to serve pages without facing prosecution from copyright authorities. There are some doubts about the whole situation - the "Kim Jung-Bay" signed blog post itself only suggests a "new provider", and while traceroutes have shown traffic going through North Korea, though there is also a thorough technical explanation of how it could be faked.

Why teens are tiring of Facebook: Facebook has become a social network that's often too complicated, too risky, and, above all, too overrun by parents to give teens the type of digital freedom they crave.

Reading & Discussion

From 'WarGames' to Aaron Swartz: How U.S. anti-hacking law went astray

Resources & Utilities

instaGrok is a website that presents information in a mindmap-style visual interface, which allows users to learn about topics by exploring the connections between concepts and facts.

Science

16 Golden Retrievers teach all about atoms. (SLYT) I for one would have probably done much better in chemistry if had been explained this way.

Folk Neuroscience: how inaccurate neurological concepts have become cultural staples.

Technology

Cypherpunk rising: WikiLeaks, encryption, and the coming surveillance dystopia by R. U. Sirius.

Tutorials

How to track your stolen laptop or smartphone.

Photo: Reef Dwellers

2013-03-13T09:00:00.000-04:00

Macro Reef Dwellers: A Retrospective by Felix Salazar