via youtube.com
Very funny.....happy April Fools!
Saturday, March 31, 2012
Thursday, March 29, 2012
10,000 Year Clock
Checkout this pretty out there project that Jeff Bezos is involved in. It is amazing in it's scope.....
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Lobbyists, Guns and Money - NYTimes.com
Florida’s now-infamous Stand Your Ground law, which lets you shoot someone you consider threatening without facing arrest, let alone prosecution, sounds crazy — and it is. And it’s tempting to dismiss this law as the work of ignorant yahoos. But similar laws have been pushed across the nation, not by ignorant yahoos but by big corporations.</blockquote>
via nytimes.com
Elephant Plays with a Galaxy Note! - YouTube
via youtube.com
This is not a fake. Think of what this elephant could do with an iPad!
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Latest BlueStacks ARMs your PC | The Download Blog
Angry Birds Space running in the BlueStacks beta app player for Windows.
(Credit: BlueStacks)The BlueStacks app player for running Android apps on Windows has taken a major step forward today with the release of its first beta, which can run even graphics-intensive Android apps on desktop PCs.
The BlueStacks beta (download) leverages a new, patent-pending technology that the company has developed called LayerCake, which does two things necessary for running Android apps on Windows. First, it powers the app on hardware that it wasn't originally intended to run on. That's basically the ARM to x86 conversion which runs the apps, and it comes with the blessing of one of AMD's head honchos.
"LayerCake is a disruptive technology that enables PC manufacturers to bring the best of the Android ecosystem to their customers. We are excited to work with BlueStacks to make the emerging Android mobile apps market part of the broader computing arena," Manju Hegde, corporate vice president, Content, Applications and Solutions at AMD, said in BlueStacks' statement announcing the new beta.
LayerCake also includes hardware graphics acceleration that wasn't available in last year's BlueStacks alpha. This means that it uses your PC's graphics card to make graphics-intensive apps, including Android NDK games like Air Attack HD, run more smoothly. "It's actually quite similar to the hardware acceleration in your browser," BlueStacks CEO Rosen Sharma said during a phone call with CNET yesterday.
There's more to LayerCake's hardware acceleration than that, though. It also can replicate accelerometer tilting in apps that utilize it via the mouse or arrow keys. Pinch-to-zoom is also supported on mouse trackpads.
Air Attack HD running in the BlueStacks beta app player for Windows.
(Credit: BlueStacks)BlueStacks saw enormous success during its brief, three-month long alpha test last year. "We had more than one million downloads in three months," said Sharma, who added that BlueStacks traffic equaled one-sixth of the Kindle Fire purchases during the same period. "It's possible that two months from now, we'll become the largest Android deployment on large screens," he said.
This beta debuts a significantly changed program. You can download apps directly from within BlueStacks, without using an Android phone, and it comes with a dock launcher that fits naturally with the Windows interface. Using BlueStacks' Cloud Connect feature for syncing apps, you can now send and receive text messages on your PC. There are plans, Sharma said, to expand it to include more of your phone's notifications, too.
Android apps such as Angry Birds, which cost money for their PC versions, can now run on your PC. So if the Android app is free, then you can run it on your Windows box for free, too. The multitude of simple photo editors are another example of Android app that BlueStacks can run on your PC. I'm not sure the world wants the Android version of Instagram on Windows, but chances are somebody will dig applying those filters to the photos saved on their desktop.
"This is a leveling of the playing field," said John Garguilo, BlueStacks' vice president of marketing and business development.
You can also run apps in either windowed or full-screen mode, and BlueStacks now comes localized for 12 non-English speaking countries including Korea, China, Germany, The Netherlands, Brazil, Japan, Argentina, Mexico, Spain, France, Italy, and Russia. Localization goes beyond translation, and includes region-specific apps. So, KakaoTalk will come with the Korean version of BlueStacks; Germans will get eBuddy; WhatsApp comes to the Spanish-speaking countries, and China gets Weibo.
Among the numerous pre-installed Android apps on BlueStacks for English-speakers are Fruit Ninja, StumbleUpon, and Evernote.
Monday, March 26, 2012
How Japan's Biggest E-Commerce Company Plans To Take Over The World - Yahoo! Finance
Japan hasn't had a single Internet company breakout to become a global success story.
Hiroshi Mikitani, the CEO of e-commerce site Rakuten, is hoping to change that.
He's gone on a shopping spree in the last few years to make it happen. He bought Buy.com in the U.S. for $250 million, Play.com from the UK for $38 million, and e-reader company, Kobo for $315 million. (There are other acquisitions, but the company was particularly excited about these three.)
To make all of these acquisitions work, Rakuten is forcing all of its employees in Japan, and elsewhere around the world, to speak English. The idea is that one common language will unite the company as it tries to expand internationally. It calls the program "Englishnization".
So, will Rakuten actually become a global powerhouse?
Before we attempt to answer that question, we should disclose that Rakuten flew us to Japan last month to explain what it's doing. The flight was business class, which is heavenly. The hotels it put us in were extravagant. The food was fantastic.
As a result, we're hopelessly compromised about the company. But, we'll try our best to be objective about what we think it's doing.
Rakuten has its work cut out for itself. It's going to take a lot more than English to make its global domination plan work. It's going to have to take the model that works very well in Japan and try to adapt it to the rest of the world. Further, it's going to have to turn irrelevant web properties into thriving sites.
But it's an admirable effort. Normally, it's American web companies trying to take over the world. It's refreshing to see a Japanese Web company trying to take over the world.
What Rakuten Does
Rakuten is an e-commerce powerhouse in Japan. It's sort of like Etsy, but for all sorts of stores, not just arts and crafts people. It's a portal that allows small businesses to sell stuff. It helps the small businesses optimize their sites and attract customers.
The big difference between Amazon and Rakuten is that Amazon emphasizes the product, and Rakuten emphasizes the seller of the product. On Amazon, for instance, you might search for "Reebok sneakers." When you find a pair you like, you might not even realize it comes from some third party seller. On Rakuten you would know which store you're buying from.
The model has worked extremely well. Rakuten generated $2.8 billion from its Internet services in 2011. Overall revenue was $4.6 billion last year, up 9.8% on a year over year basis, despite being hurt by the Japanese earthquake. Its market cap is ~$13 billion, and the stock has been up modestly in the last 12 months.
The company also has periphery businesses in the banking, telecom, and travel industries. It even owns a baseball team! The Rakuten Eagles.
Rakuten has 78% of all Japanese web users registered for its marketplace.
It controls 30% of the e-commerce market, easily beating Amazon in Japan.
However, Amazon is coming after Rakuten. And if it's going to grow, it needs to find new markets. It already has just about everyone in Japan using its site.
Thus, the global expansion.
So, will the Rakuten marketplace work in the United States?
So far, the answer is no. Only 10% of the company's revenue comes from outside of Japan.
ComScore data reveals Buy.com had 4.9 million unique visitors in the U.S. in December, at the height of the shopping season.
Amazon had 111.5 million average monthly unique visitors during the fourth quarter of 2011. Macy's, the tenth most popular e-commerce site in the U.S. had 16.5 million in that period, says comScore.
We asked a Rakuten representative how it would fix that problem, but didn't get a substantive answer: "We’re unable to share this information but the transition to the Rakuten B2B2C marketplace model is going very well."
"B2B2C" is the Rakuten model. Business to business to consumer. Rakuten is deals with businesses, who market directly to consumers.
It's working in Japan, but it's not working in the U.S. yet. When we asked a Rakuten executive if the model could work in the U.S. he said, "Absolutely." He thinks small businesses in the U.S. still haven't figured out a good way to be on the web. Rakuten is trying to solve that problem.
While it's been struggling to make a dent in the US over the last two years, there's still hope for Rakuten. It has an incredibly smart CEO, it has a lot of money to invest around the world, and it's attacking big markets that are still developing.
More From Business Insider
Friday, March 23, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
How to Supercharge All Your Favorite Webapps with ifttt
Wouldn't it be handy if every time someone tagged a photo of you on Facebook, that pic were automatically added to your Dropbox folder? If items you starred in Google Reader were automatically added to Instapaper or Read It Later? Or if you received a text message whenever it was going to rain? If This Then That (ifttt) is a brilliant web service that let's you plug information from one service into another, allowing you to link all your favorite webapps to create super-charged integration between tools like Gmail, Dropbox, Instapaper, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Foursquare, and oh-so-much more. Here's how to use ifttt to get more from your online life.
How ifttt Works
The service can feel a little tough to grasp when you first dig into it, but it's actually very simple. You can use ifttt in two different ways:
- Create custom Tasks. Tasks allow you to create a work flow based on some sort of conditional statement (the pillar of all programming!). "If [this thing happens on one service], then [do that on another service]." For example, "If I post a new photo to Instagram, then download it to Dropbox."
- Use pre-made Recipes. Recipes are simply pre-built tasks made by other users that you can add to your ifttt account.
In the section below I'll walk through how to create a task from start to finish; then I'll highlight some of my favorite pre-made ifttt recipes that you can start using in a couple of clicks, no setup required. (If you prefer, you can just go straight to the recipes, though I'd recommend reading through how to create a task so you understand the basics.)
How to Create an ifttt Task
As I mentioned above (and as the service's name implies), a task is made of an If ... Then ... statement. Put in ifttt terms, If trigger, then action. The trigger and action are the building blocks of ifttt tasks, and you define them using available channels.
ifttt channels are made up of the services ifttt supports, like Craigslist, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, RSS feeds, Flickr, Foursquare, Gmail, Google Reader, Instagram, Instapaper, Last.fm, SMS, Twitter, and so on. You can see all of ifttt's 35 (currently) supported channels here.
To wrap your head around how to create a custom task on ifttt, let's create a simple task on ifttt that automatically downloads Facebook pictures you're tagged in and stores them in your Dropbox folder. (This task is available as a recipe in the section below, but it's a good example, so I'll walk through how to make it yourself first.
Navigate to ifttt's Create a task page (you'll need to sign up if you haven't already). ifttt holds your hand through the task creation process, so when you first visit the task creation page, you'll see this:
Step One: Choose a Trigger Channel
Click the bold this and ifttt will display this channel picker:
You want to trigger this task whenever someone tags a photo of you on Facebook, so Facebook will be your trigger channel. Click Facebook. (If this is the first time you've used the Facebook channel, you'll need to authorize the Facebook channel.)
Step Two: Choose a Trigger
Next you'll see all the possible Facebook triggers built into ifttt. Your options are:
- New status message by you
- You post a new link
- You upload a new photo
- You are tagged in a photo
- Your profile changes
You can create tasks that are triggered by any of those Facebook actions, but for the purpose of this action, we want the You are tagged in a photo action, so click that.
Step Three: Complete Trigger Fields
At this step, you can define trigger fields specific to certain channels. Our Facebook trigger doesn't have any trigger fields (there are no possible variables; it's triggered whenever you're tagged in a photo). When you're using other channels, like the RSS or Craigslist channels, for example, you'd paste a URL you want to watch in this step. (I'll explain a little more about how fields work in step six below.) Since this trigger has no trigger fields, just click Create Trigger. If all went well, you should see this:
Congrats! You've successfully defined your trigger. Now to define the action that follows the trigger. For our task, that means placing the tagged photo into a folder in Dropbox. Click the big blue "that" link to define your action.
Step Four: Choose an Action Channel
Now it's time to pick the channel that will react to our trigger. For our example, as you'd expect, the action channel is Dropbox. So click the Dropbox icon. Again, if this is the first time you're using Dropbox as an ifttt channel, you'll need to authorize it.
Step Five: Choose an Action
Dropbox only has one possible action: Add file from URL. Good news! That's exactly what we want! So click Add file from URL and move on to the next step.
Step Six: Complete Action Fields
If you recall, the tagged photos trigger from our Facebook channel didn't have any fields. Dropbox, on the other hand, does have fields that you need to fill out: The URL of the file you want to add to Dropbox and the folder inside Dropbox where you want to store your tagged photos.
ifttt is smart (brilliant, even), so it already has the action fields filled out so that the File URL is defined as the tagged photo URL on Facebook—which is exactly what you want. It does this using "Addins" that are supplied by default when you choose the Facebook tagged photos trigger. ifttt knows that if that's your trigger, it can supply the action with several attributes. For the Facebook tagged photos trigger, you can use any of the following information in your action fields:
- Uploaded by
- Fb Photo URL (a link to the page on Facebook where the photo is visible)
- Photo Small URL (a shrunk down, thumbnail version of your picture)
- Photo Source URL (this is the URL to the full image—and it's what we're using for File URL, defined by the {{ImageSource}} text you see in the File URL input)
- Photo Caption
- Uploaded Date
So keep File URL as is. You can set the Dropbox folder path input to whatever you like. By default, it's going to create an
ifttt/facebook/taggedfolder inside the root of your Dropbox folder. You can change this to whatever you want.
A note on addins: If you wanted, you could use an addin to, for example, place images in folders based on who took the pic. To do that (and for the purpose of illustration for how you might use addins), click the Dropbox folder path input, click the Addins drop-down, and select Uploaded by. You'll see a description of what the addin text will look like, and if you click the blue Addin tag, ifttt will append the addin to your input. You'll notice in this addin example, the Dropbox folder path becomes
ifttt/facebook/tagged/{{From}}; if I tagged a photo of you, you'd see it in your Dropbox folder atifttt/facebook/tagged/Adam PashOnce you've got your action fields all filled out, click Create Action.
Step Seven: Activate Your Task
You've officially created your first task. High five, baby! At this step you can add a description of your task. Descriptions are particularly useful if you want to share it as a recipe for others to reuse. When you're all finished, click Create.
That's all there is to it. ifttt will check each trigger every 15 minutes; every time a trigger returns true (in this case, whenever you're tagged in a new photo on Facebook), it'll execute the action (sync the photo to Dropbox).
Step Eight: Turn Your Task into a Recipe (Optional)
If you want to share your brilliant task with the world, you can turn it into a recipe. To do so, visit your tasks page and click the task you want to make into a recipe. On the task page, click the recipe icon (it looks like a mortar and pestle).
Give your recipe a description if you like, edit any of the fields, and create your recipe. Yum.
10 of My Favorite ifttt Recipes
Now you know how to create tasks. Awesome! You can scratch a lot of itches by smashing together various channels and using your imagination, but you can also enjoy brilliant recipes other ifttt users have already made. Here are some of my favorites:
Note: Click the image to go straight to the recipe. You may also notice my name in these images; when you activate the recipe, that'll all display your information.
Download Facebook tagged photos to Dropbox
Greet new Twitter followers with a direct message
Save all Instagram photos to Dropbox
Send Google Reader starred items to Instapaper
Put Foursquare check-ins on your Google Calendar
Sync Instagram pics to a Facebook album
Remotely download a torrent by sending a link in an email
Send an IM to ifttt, get an easy-excuse phone call
Post your Instagram pics to Flickr
It's no coincidence that most of my favorites rank high on ifttt's most popular recipes page. Browse through the newest to check out of the more niche recipes, or just to see some of the less obvious uses that haven't risen to the top.
Absurdly Specific
Most recipes have pretty broad uses, but you can use the service to fill really specific needs, too. You could, for example, have ifttt send you an SMS alert when something you're watching for on Craigslist shows up in a search feed.
I'm really into ifttt right now, so I've created a recipe that IMs me whenever someone creates a new ifttt recipe so I can keep track of new tasks I might want to try out. Jenna Wortham created a task that calls her—on the phone—whenever the stoned, non-Netflix-controlled Twitter user Qwikster tweets.
How Are You Using ifttt?
If This Then That is full of potential, which is why people like me love it so much. Whether you've been playing with it since we first covered it last week or today's the first you've tried it out, let's hear about the interesting ways you're using it in the comments.
You can contact Adam Pash, the author of this post, on Twitter, Google+, and Facebook.
Wouldn't it be handy if every time someone tagged a photo of you on Facebook, that pic were automatically added to your Dropbox folder? If items you starred in Google Reader were automatically added to Instapaper or Read It Later? Or if you received a text message whenever it was going to rain? via lifehacker.com
This is one of the coolest new web services I have seen in a while....check it out, you won't be dissappointed.
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Now this is coffee!!
BBotE FAQ
Q. Does BBotE have any calories?
A. Black Blood of the Earth has a impressive hit of caffeine but the goal was something delicious that this diabetic with a sweet tooth didn’t need to add sugar or cream to. No sugar & no cream means no calories (well, technically two calories as coffee has some nutritional value) and no fat.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Human Birdwings | Building a semi human powered flying device
Flying like a bird
Featured
51I did it! This weekend I brought out my wings again for a second test. And here it is. Do I need to say more? Just watch the video
Unbelievable if true....
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Here's what's wrong with Windows 8 | ZDNet
Here's what's wrong with Windows 8
Summary: Windows 8 is a massive gamble for Microsoft, and right now I can see the potential for it to fail harder than Windows Vista did.
via zdnet.com
Interesting take on the state of Windows 8.....
Friday, March 09, 2012
Iconic Photos
Iconic Photos
Famous, Infamous and Iconic Photos
Stan Stearns (1935 – 2012)
Stan Stearns, who took the definitive photograph at John F. Kennedy’s funeral, has died, aged 76.
If you love photography you will want to check out this site....
Thursday, March 08, 2012
"Kara" by Quantic Dream - YouTube
via youtube.com
This is a fascinating little short on robotic sentiency......
Killer Whale Submarine a killer personal submersible | Crave - CNET
Submarines are awesome. A submarine shaped like a Killer Whale is off-the-charts awesome. It can be yours for a cool $100,000.
It's a whale! It's a submarine! It's a whale submarine!
(Credit: Hammacher Schlemmer)Jules Verne had the market on imaginative submarines cornered for many long years. And then Hammacher Schlemmer came along and offered a $100,000 Killer Whale Submarine.
The Killer Whale Submarine can breach from the water, just like a real whale. It has pectoral fins with control levers and a 255-horsepower supercharged Rotax axial flow engine. I can't really explain what that is exactly, but it sounds super cool.
via news.cnet.com
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