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Not that I read past 100.
September 23, 2015 at 08:51PM
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Not that I read past 100.image | twitter | facebook
webcardz u can uze
The onlines and the online-not.
webcardz u can uze
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July 22nd, 2015: Happy pi approximation day! Hey, this is unrelated to that, but did – Ryan |
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July 21, 2015 at 11:00PM
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What Did You Do Today?
Whew, I’m so tired!
What Did You Do Today?
By ray
June 9, 2015 at 02:01AM
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Emergency Time
MySpace. Haha.
Emergency Time
By Reza
April 13, 2015 at 03:08PM
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Download Wrappers and Unwanted Software are pure evil
For all those nontechnical types- you’re being scammed…
Download Wrappers and Unwanted Software are pure evil
By Scott Hanselman
Call it Adware, Malware, Spyware, Crapware, it’s simply unwanted. Every non-technical relative I’ve ever talked to has toolbars they apparently can’t see, apps running in the background, browser home pages set to Russian Google clones, and they have no idea how it got that way.
Here’s how they get that way.
You go to download something reasonable. I wanted to download a Skype Recorder, so I went here. (Yes, I linked here to the URL because they don’t need Google Juice from me.)
OK at this point I’m screwed. The green button CLEARLY desperately wants me to click on it. I totally ignore the tiny "Direct Download Link" below the friendly button. I have no idea what that glyph icon means, but it’s pointing down, so that must mean download.
Welcome to the Download.com installer! How helpful!
More green buttons, awesome. Let’s go!
Pre-selected Express installation? Super helpful, I love that. Ah, and next to it there’s text in the same font size and color that I totally won’t read that says:
Install Search Protect to set [CHANGE] my home page and [TOTALLY MESS UP] default search to Conduit Search [THAT I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF AND NEITHER DO YOU] and [NOW THIS IS AUDACIOUS…] prevent attempts to change my browser settings.
In other words, we, Download.com, are going to totally change the way you use you computer and browser the way and prevent you from easily changing it back. We’re going to do it now, when you press Next, and oh, by the way, we have Admin on your computer because just a moment ago you pressed YES on the Windows Warning that we could mess things up, because everyone ignores that.
Or, you can click Custom, because non-technical relative ALWAYS clicks Custom. NO. They don’t. Technical people ALWAYS press Custom. ALWAYS. Always. Other people? Never.
Ah, nice, when I press Custom it’s set to…wait for it…the same stuff that was gonna happen if you pressed Express.
AND WE ARE ONLY ON STEP 2. What ever happened to clicking just once and getting what I needed?
OMG "It communicates several times a day with servers to check for new offers and change ads on my computer?" I totally want that. Thanks Green Button!
I’m sure that if I press Decline here that it will mess up my installation of the original thing I wanted to install…I have forgotten what that was, but I’ll just keep going.
Weird. I thought I was already here. I’m sure I want this also.
Huh. Does my Mouse not work? I’ll click it again. Backing up my files without asking seems legit.
Install Now? What have we been doing all this time?
I am disappointed in us, Internet, that this is a business. Someone wrote this, for their job, directed by their middle manager, who was directed by their rich boss. There was a meeting (there’s always a meeting) where it was discussed on how we could most effectively fool non-technical relatives into installing crap.
These are Dark UI Patterns.
A Dark Pattern is a type of user interface that appears to have been carefully crafted to trick users into doing things, such as buying insurance with their purchase or signing up for recurring bills.
This isn’t cool and it needs to stop. I won’t be visiting Download.com anymore.
I’ll only install software from Vendors I trust, like Oracle…
Gosh, maybe I need to install that "Crap Cleaner" everyone talks about so I can remove these unwanted toolbars.
Ok, forgot it. I’ll just stick with the official Windows Updates because I’m sure I want all those.
So, um. Yeah.
Sound off in the comments.
© 2014 Scott Hanselman. All rights reserved.
February 11, 2014 at 07:15PM
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Conspiracy theorists
I think we all know people that have these… character flaws?
Conspiracy theorists
By thuudung
The problem with conspiracy theorists isn’t that they lack information. The problem is that they lack intellectual character… more»
March 17, 2015 at 08:57PM
via Arts & Letters Daily http://www.aldaily.com
‘The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress’ Coming To the Big Screen
‘The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress’ Coming To the Big Screen
By Soulskill
HughPickens.com writes: According to the Hollywood Reporter, Twentieth Century Fox recently picked up the movie rights to The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, based on the classic sci-fi book by Robert A. Heinlein. It will retitled as Uprising. Heinlein’s 1966 sci-fi novel centers on a lunar colony’s revolt against rule from Earth, and the book popularized the acronym TANSTAAFL (There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch), a central, libertarian theme. The novel was nominated for the 1966 Nebula award (honoring the best sci-fi and fantasy work in the U.S.) and won the Hugo Award for best science fiction novel in 1967. An adaptation has been attempted twice before — by DreamWorks, which had a script by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, and by Phoenix Pictures, with Harry Potter producer David Heyman attached — but both languished and the rights reverted to Heinlein’s estate. Brian Singer, who previously directed X-Men: Days of Future Past, will adapt the screenplay and reportedly direct. Several of Heinlein’s works have been adapted for the big and small screen, including the 1953 film Project Moonbase, the 1994 TV miniseries Red Planet, the 1994 film The Puppet Masters, the 2014 film Predestination, and — very loosely — the 1997 film Starship Troopers.
Read more of this story at Slashdot.
March 4, 2015 at 12:11PM
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Messages From The Future: What Happened to Apple Watch
I can picture this happening…
Messages From The Future: What Happened to Apple Watch
By Joel Hladecek
As some of you know by now, I am from the future. And slightly annoyed to be here. But anyway, this is what became of Apple Watch.
Truth is, being back in 2015 is such a trip. All this talk about “wearables”. I have to laugh, I remember that! Ugh, It’s so quaint to hear that again. “Wearables”. For the record, in the future no one talks about “wearables” like it’s some classification of device. That’s just you guys coming to grips with the fact that technology is everywhere. It’s in everything, it’s networked, and no, you have no privacy. But that’s a different post.
Today I wanted to let you in on Apple Watch since I guess you’re only now about to see it launch. Weird.
A lot of you are asking “Why would I use it?”, “What’s the killer app?”, “Why would I pay so much for it?”. Yeah, yeah. You do that every time Apple launches a new device, did you realize that? Android users are staring at it dismissively thinking they would never want one since it probably doesn’t do that much.
“Why would I use it?”, “What’s the killer app?”, “Why would I pay so much for it?”.
Admittedly what the first Apple Watch did was only a glimpse at it’s value. A few years after Apple Watch was released it became pretty obvious what it was all about, and yet it still took a decade before absolutely everybody stopped doubting.
Indeed Apple Watch not only survived a decade, but it survived quite a lot longer than that. It outlasted PCs. It outlasted iMac, iPhone and iPad. The Apple Watch strand functionally outlasted almost every other product strand of Apple device and consumer hardware model you are aware of today. It was still going strong when I popped back here, but by then auto-implanted alternatives were becoming pretty common – even though they gave me the willies.
So, what did Apple Watch do that was so useful?
Much to the chagrin of a fair number of iOS App developers in this time, Apple Watch was not a platform that was ideal for, well, running apps. At least not like they do on iPhone and iPad. Sure people tried. But in short order it became clear that Apple Watch was about being used in conjunction with other devices. If your app did not involve another device or platform, your app-life was probably short lived. As a result many of the best app makers were also developers of apps on other platforms or device makers. You almost never made an app for Apple Watch alone.
And that was a clue into Apple Watch’s true conquering strategy.
Apple Watch became your key. First and foremost. It was your unique identifying digital self. Your ID for all manner of technical configuration in every other device and context.
Apple Watch became your key. First and foremost. It was your unique identifying digital self. Your ID for all manner of technical configuration in every other device and context.
When I look back, the clues are all around you today:
Apple Pay, Continuity, Apple ID, iCloud, Apple TV.
These are some of the “existing” components that dovetailed to make Apple Watch what it was.
Ultimately, Apple Watch was not a device for consuming media, or even much in the way of experiences (with the exception of communication). Primarily, Apple Watch identified you, it was the key that unlocked your information and preferences and configured all your other devices and environments.
Secondarily Apple watch served as an interface for simple tasks (related to these devices and environments) and as a communicator.
This is not to say that the devices around you became dumb devices (dumb screens, dumb terminals etc). They were never that. They still carried the lion’s share of computing power required to perform their specialized tasks. But they were merely normally “un-configured”.
My Apple Watch connected to any friendly Apple TV and suddenly all my movies and shows appeared. All my content was in “the cloud” after all. (Btw, we don’t call it “the cloud” in the future, in fact we don’t call that anything, it’s just “storage”.)
Within a few years an iPad or iPhone in your household could switch between users depending on who was using it. Your unique desktop and apps would appear on any workstation you sat down to. Because it knew it was you.
Apple Pay was just another variation on the theme. Apple Watch validated your identity and gave you the choice of credit card to use.
And I should mention, since there is a flurry of speculation, that yes, Apple Watch worked amazingly well with what you guys are calling the Apple Car (and other cars by the way). The Apple Car was particularly excellent. Your digital environment on wheels. Once identified, all your media was available, your seat, mirrors, mood-lighting, common destinations, and temperature adjusted to you, and of course you locked, unlocked and started your car with your Apple Watch.
There was some other stuff of course – once Apple and others started making things for the home. Thermostats, lighting, door locks and home security. It all responded to and was partly controlled by, your Apple Watch.
This system was ultimately more secure as well. None of your other devices had to hold content or information. It was encrypted in storage (sorry, in “the cloud”), and your Apple Watch merely unlocked it. But in this way, none of your other devices became points of vulnerability.
Do you see what I mean – Apple Watch – plus our finger print (and later more convenient biometric ID – another post) – was our digital key. So it was with us literally all the time.
And this is why so many of us were so willing to spend so much on our Apple Watches. It was the most central piece of hardware we owned; a functional part of every other device we used and every modern environment we entered. It was perpetually on display, occupying the familiar, ornamental status of horological watches of the past. But even more important than that, it was the sole material manifestation of our digital selves. And in the future, let’s just say, our digital world doesn’t get less important. For these reasons it was plainly worthy of inordinate expense and pageantry.
It was the sole material manifestation of our digital selves. And in the future, let’s just say, our digital world doesn’t get less important. For these reasons it was plainly worthy of inordinate expense and pageantry.
It was so much more than critics today seem able to wrap their heads around. More than a hobbled phone, more than the convenience of ready alerts and messaging. It was your key, your hub, it was you.
There was admittedly an awkward phase where Apple Watch was lovely, if a little bulky. You’re in that phase now, well, or are about to be. But Apple quickly slimmed the device, and generated many more models. Once the dimensions were improved, and battery life extended, Apple Watch found it’s sweet spot. One that lasted for many years. I could have spelled that “maaaaaannnny”, which is an actual word in the future, but I believe that’s still bad grammar in this time.
Anyway, having seen it all play out, I think Apple understood this larger system before most. Being the Apple with vision, they got all this at a time when other companies were scrambling around calling goofy, little, one-off technical experiments “wearable” when in reality few of them really were. No one wanted to wear visible gewgaws. It was just a fact. Existence of these technologies never sold anyone on wearing some device prominently on our bodies. Not on our clothes (except underwear for mostly medical reasons), and definitely not on our glasses. Not anywhere on display BUT OUR WRISTS. Oh, and our finger of course… ah, but that’s another post.
The post Messages From The Future: What Happened to Apple Watch appeared first on THE INTERACTIVIST.
February 27, 2015 at 08:14AM
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#1104; In which a Culture exists
Oh go ahead and say something witty and original!
#1104; In which a Culture exists
By David Malki
February 27, 2015 at 02:36AM
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Impact of vaccines throughout history
These are some great graphics that show what happens when a vaccine is introduced into the population.
Impact of vaccines throughout history
By Nathan Yau
Not that anyone who does not vaccinate their kids cares, but Tynan DeBold and Dov Friedman for the Wall Street Journal show the change in number of cases for various diseases after a vaccination is introduced.
Each row represents a state, and each column represents a year. So each cell represents the number of cases per 10,000 people, in a state for a given year. The above shows the change for measles cases, which you can see a quick rate decrease after the introduction of the vaccination in 1963.
I’m not sold on the color scheme, which seems arbitrary with six shades from minimum to maximum. Saturation only changes at the low rates likely used to accentuate the drop after a vaccine. However, as you mouse over cells in each grid, an indicator appears in the legend to show where the rate is in the color scale, so they can kind of get away with it.
Kinda like it, kinda don’t. Still important information.
Tags: vaccination, Wall Street Journal
February 19, 2015 at 05:16AM
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