Intermittent

McDonald’s Theory

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:11:04 -0300

I use a trick with co-workers when we’re trying to decide where to eat for lunch and no one has any ideas. I recommend McDonald’s.

An interesting thing happens. Everyone unanimously agrees that we can’t possibly go to McDonald’s, and better lunch suggestions emerge. Magic!

It’s as if we’ve broken the ice with the worst possible idea, and now that the discussion has started, people suddenly get very creative. I call it the McDonald’s Theory: people are inspired to come up with good ideas to ward off bad ones.

Netflix now bigger than HBO

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 10:38:09 -0300

Netflix now bigger than HBO:

After several strong quarters of growth, Netflix now has 29.2 million people in the US subscribed to its $8-a-month streaming plan, which is, for the first time, greater than HBO’s domestic subscription base of 28.7 million. HBO’s figure dates to the end of 2012, but it’s unlikely to have grown much in the first three months of 2013, owing as much to the cable TV industry’s stagnation as its own trouble signing up new subscribers. (Outside the US, the situation is much different: HBO has a huge lead over Netflix.)

This is the beginning of the new channels overcoming the traditional ones. This is just the first of many more to come.

What a Windows 8 U-turn will mean for the PC

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 17:49:00 -0300

What a Windows 8 U-turn will mean for the PC:

Many PC OEMs are dissatisfied with what Microsoft has done with Windows 8 and the way the company has handled the negative response to the operating system. Privately, one OEM source told me that Microsoft is “destroying” the PC industry, while another claimed that Windows 8 has “handed over millions of customers to Apple.”

Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 15:40:35 -0400

Brown University creates first wireless, implanted brain-computer interface:

Researchers at Brown University have succeeded in creating the first wireless, implantable, rechargeable, long-term brain-computer interface. The wireless BCIs have been implanted in pigs and monkeys for over 13 months without issue, and human subjects are next.

A pickpocket's tale

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 07:03:42 -0400

A pickpocket's tale:

A few years ago, at a Las Vegas convention for magicians, Penn Jillette, of the act Penn and Teller, was introduced to a soft-spoken young man named Apollo Robbins, who has a reputation as a pickpocket of almost supernatural ability. Jillette, who ranks pickpockets, he says, “a few notches below hypnotists on the show-biz totem pole,” was holding court at a table of colleagues, and he asked Robbins for a demonstration, ready to be unimpressed. Robbins demurred, claiming that he felt uncomfortable working in front of other magicians. He pointed out that, since Jillette was wearing only shorts and a sports shirt, he wouldn’t have much to work with.

“Come on,” Jillette said. “Steal something from me.”

Again, Robbins begged off, but he offered to do a trick instead. He instructed Jillette to place a ring that he was wearing on a piece of paper and trace its outline with a pen. By now, a small crowd had gathered. Jillette removed his ring, put it down on the paper, unclipped a pen from his shirt, and leaned forward, preparing to draw. After a moment, he froze and looked up. His face was pale.

“Fuck. You,” he said, and slumped into a chair.

Robbins held up a thin, cylindrical object: the cartridge from Jillette’s pen.

Apple CFO Jerry Seinfeld Addresses the Shareholders

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 16:26:51 -0400

Apple CFO Jerry Seinfeld Addresses the Shareholders:

Hey what’s the deal with everyone and these accessories?

There is no better battery

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:05:25 -0400

There is no better battery:

The lead-acid battery was developed in 1859, for pete’s sake. It’s really heavy relative to the energy it stores, can produce explosive fumes if overcharged, and sometimes requires the addition of distilled water. Yet it’s still the best battery technology we have for supplying the high current necessary to turn over an engine. A century and a half and we haven’t come up with anything better!

[…]

But smart people have been working on the battery problem for decades and decades, propelled by the lure of the financial bonanza that a breakthrough would represent. And while they’ve made impressive improvements, none come anywhere close to competing with gasoline’s energy density. We’re still an order of magnitude away.

New music survey: P2P users buy the most, no one wants disconnection penalties

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 14:02:18 -0400

New music survey: P2P users buy the most, no one wants disconnection penalties:

Among the most significant findings: Americans overwhelmingly oppose the use of disconnection and rate-limiting as penalties for unauthorized file sharing. Also, the survey suggests users of peer-to-peer file-sharing software buy 30 percent more music than those who do not use peer-to-peer software.

Message in a Binary Bottle

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 07:22:51 -0400

Message in a Binary Bottle:

It’s 20 or 30 years ago. You’re working on a videogame. You don’t get any credit for your work, blogs don’t exist, there’s no internet and no fanboys. It’s just you, a crusty old terminal, and got a few spare bytes left in the ROM. What now?

> Type Secret Message

Visualising the Ubuntu Package Repository

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 13:37:00 -0400

Visualising the Ubuntu Package Repository:

This is the entire graph. The node colouring indicates the node degree (the number of edges connected to the node) - blue is low, red is high. Edges are coloured according to their target node.

Why your iphone images show up upside down?

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 11:10:34 -0400

Why your iphone images show up upside down?:

Before iOS 5, the only way to snap a photo with your iPhone was to tap the onscreen shutter button–always a somewhat awkward maneuver. But with iOS 5, Apple transformed the volume-up button into a shutter release, thereby making iPhone photography feel a bit more natural.

Just one problem: when you flip your phone around so the volume-up button is facing, well, up, you end up with upside-down photos and videos.

Lenovo’s 27″ tablet

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 09:58:00 -0400

Lenovo’s 27″ tablet:

I love this picture of the woman lugging it around:

China prepares to grow vegetables on Mars

Tue, 04 Dec 2012 08:19:41 -0400

China prepares to grow vegetables on Mars:

Four kinds of vegetables were grown in an “ecological life support system”, a 300 cubic metre cabin which will allow astronauts to develop their own stocks of air, water and food while on space missions.

Proteins Made to Order

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 05:12:00 -0400

Proteins Made to Order:

Proteins are an enormous molecular achievement: chains of amino acids that fold spontaneously into a precise conformation, time after time, optimized by evolution for their particular function. Yet given the exponential number of contortions possible for any chain of amino acids, dictating a sequence that will fold into a predictable structure has been a daunting task. Now researchers report that they can do just that. By following a set of rules described in a paper published in Nature (abstract), a husband and wife team from David Baker’s laboratory at the University of Washington in Seattle has designed five proteins from scratch that fold reliably into predicted conformations. The work could eventually allow scientists to custom design proteins with specific functions.

How cork is made

Thu, 18 Oct 2012 16:28:00 -0300

How cork is made:

An illustrated guide to the cork production process.

10 solid reasons RIM will make a comeback

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:12:00 -0300

10 solid reasons RIM will make a comeback:

Tim Collins for itworldcanada:

10 reasons RIM is poised for a comeback

1) Developers believe in BB10.

2) Teenagers and messaging.

3) RIM has always had the best keyboard.

I’m just gonna stop here.

In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt

Sun, 14 Oct 2012 22:50:00 -0300

In the Valley of the Shadow of Doubt:

As Errol explains, it turns out there were actually two photos — both taken from the same spot over 150 years ago. One image famously shows a road littered with cannonballs, while the other shows the same road with no cannonballs (they’re off to the side in ditches). Which one came first? And why would the cannonballs have been moved?

Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?

Sat, 29 Sep 2012 16:21:51 -0300

Does Apple have a Scott Forstall problem?:

“There’s no excuse,” Garner writes. “Quality control on Apple Maps had to have been terrible to not get this right. Bluntly, Scott Forstall should be fired over this mess.”

"The only “intuitive” interface is the nipple. After that it’s all learned."

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 13:23:02 -0300

“The only “intuitive” interface is the nipple. After that it’s all learned.”

- Bruce Ediger

How we screwed (almost) the whole Apple community

Mon, 13 Aug 2012 20:13:00 -0300

How we screwed (almost) the whole Apple community:

Have you heard the phrase ”That’s true because I saw it on TV” at some point? It was often the truth in the old days when people only had the TV or newspaper to relate to. What you saw or read was the truth, although it obviously wasn’t always so.

Today, thanks to the Internet, we consider ourselves much more enlightened. We can discuss and examine the source in a way that was not possible in the past. But are we really aware of all information flowing up over the net? What is really true and what’s not?