Tuesday: May 18, 2010
- Brand new computer algorithm actually capable of detecting sarcasm.
...the team scanned 66,000 Amazon.com product reviews, with three different human annotators tagging sentences for sarcasm. The team then identified certain sarcastic patterns that emerged in the reviews and created a classification algorithm that puts each statement into a sarcastic class.
- Microsoft to give Hotmail service a makeover at some point this summer.
...users will encounter a first screen that’s on overview of new messages, sorted into categories, with e-mails from known contacts in the top heap, updates from services like Facebook and Twitter at the bottom, and a bar up top that lets you send a status message.
- Everything you never knew about ball lightning hallucinations.
For hundreds of years eyewitnesses have reported brief encounters with the golf ball- to tennis ball-size orbs of electricity. But scientists have been unable to agree on how and why ball lightning forms, since the phenomenon is rare and very short-lived.
- Square Enix did quite well this year with their multi-million selling titles.
One of those titles happened to be Final Fantasy XIII, a game that literally makes you literally click one button for ten plus hours and nothing else. On the flip side, if you manage to stick it out past the twenty hour mark the game begins to get somewhat enjoyable.
Monday: May 17, 2010
- YouTube now gets about two billion hits on a daily basis.
YouTube has decided to share this information just as they turn a whopping five years old. According to the source article, the first video ever posted to the service can still be found on their site to this day (and you can view it here). Congratulations and a happy birthday, the Interwebs have enjoyed many a rickroll thanks to you.
- Google may have been accidentally snooping in on your wi-fi connections.
Let this be a lesson to you all to never leave a wi-fi network unsecured. The good news is that Google has agreed to stop collecting this data, at least for now.
Wednesday: May 12, 2010
- HTC asks for ban on Apple products after filing patent complaint.
Engadget is taking a deeper look at just what patents are involved here between the two companies and the implications of the federal lawsuit (which HTC has filed along with their patent suit). Should be an interesting battle - or about as interesting as Nokia versus Apple.
- Twenty fresh high-quality free fonts courtesy of the folks from Smashing Magazine.
Every designer knows that it can never hurt to have some quality fonts laying around in your design arsenal for a rainy day. Having too many shitty fonts in your library and using said shitty fonts often, well that's another story.
- Scientists have discovered that Jupiter somehow managed to lose a stripe.
The band was present at the end of 2009, right before Jupiter moved too close to the sun in the sky to be observed from Earth. When the planet emerged from the sun's glare again in early April, its south equatorial belt was nowhere to be seen.
- Rogue star mystery finally deciphered thanks to Hubble Space Telescope.
The massive, hot star seemed out of place when astronomers first spotted it in 2006, and now thanks to Hubble, we know why. The misfit, 30 Dor #016, appears to have been ejected from a cluster of even heftier stars, pinging off of them and off into space at tremendous speed.
- Google will probably have an e-book store of their own in the near future.
Interesting news when combined with the all-to-recent rumors of an Android tablet coming to Verizon. And apparently Google has already even gotten approvals from roughly 25,000 authors and publishers.
- Eight websites you need to stop building according to The Oatmeal.
After carefully perusing this comic (and laughing a little bit too loud for office-level volumes) I was a little discomforted by the fact that the Pork'd mock design looks ridiculously similar to the current version of GLM. I guess I was a little generic with this iteration, might be time for a redesign methinks.
Tuesday: May 11, 2010
- Fifteen things about Star Trek that you may not have previously known about.
I had no idea that a) the main tag line of Star Trek (to boldy go, yadda yadda) was lifted from a White House pamphlet on space exploration and b) the entire sentence is grammatically incorrect. Lets hear it for split infinitives!
- Rumors swirling that Apple might make their MobileMe service free for all.
This is an interesting rumor and would certainly make a lot of sense given that most, if not all, of the current functionality of MobileMe can be done elsewhere - for free. If this happened, I'd drop some of current Google services I currently use in less than a minute.
- Twitter glitch that allowed anyone to follow anybody quickly resolved. Phew.
For a brief couple of moments yesterday it was possible to have anyone follow you on the micro-blogging service. That wondrous feeling was countered by Twitter setting all accounts to zero followers - to which a collective gasp across the Interwebs could be heard miles around.
- The recently announced Nintendo 3DS will have a 2D switch, just in case.
Details about Nintendo's 3D handheld gaming device have been scarce since it was announced in late March. But the company's president says it will have a feature that lets gamers turn off 3D functionality and play in standard 2D.
- FYI, Windows 7 'compatibility checker' currently masquerading as trojan horse virus.
Once a victim has installed the software, criminals can pretty much do whatever they want on the PC, Cosoi said. That could mean installing a keylogger to steal banking credentials or even gaining full access to the hacked system.
Monday: May 10, 2010
- Borders joins the e-reader party, taking pre-orders for Kobu device.
Let's see - so now we have a Kindle, a Nook, an iPad, and a Kobu. I'll admit that I see many a Kindle on the morning commute into Manhattan and I've spotted the Nook on the subway just once in my travels. I'll also admit that the name Kobu sounds like something you'd eat for dinner.
- Ten cool gadgets you can't buy in the United States just yet.
This particular list is rife with iPad and iPhone alternatives (all of which seem to be running some flavor of Android). The two lone and notable exceptions in my opinion seem to be this tiny camera, pictured in thumbnail to the left, and the ever peculiar Ant Watch (fifth slide in).
- Five awesome indie games for the price of... whatever you want.
Well, this is pretty neat treat for a Monday; you can net yourself five great indie games at whatever price you want and proceeds go to charity (and the devs). I've been hearing great things about these games so this is pretty much a no-brainer for me. And yes, you should pay more than a penny for these. Thanks to Ant for the heads up.
- An interesting writeup on iPad usability from Jakob Nielsen.
This post contains most of my reasoning as to why I haven't purchased an iPad just yet. I can't seem to rationalize how the device fits into my overall usage scheme. The iPhone seems to do everything I would use an iPad for - and it does a heck of a good job at everything it already does.
- Scientist verifies that the human brain contains a master switch.
Shin believes his discovery may be useful in understanding brain malfunctions such as autism, epilepsy and others. While researching brain function, Shin has previously shown that taking statin drugs to lower cholesterol may actually inhibit some brain function.
- Ten sites that every developer should have in their bookmarks file.
No matter what kind of development you do, at least three of these sites will be helpful to you in some kind of programming endeavor. I've just recently discovered the browser sandbox over at Spoon.net (though I'm a still little partial to IETester).
- Apple files and receives trademark usage for iTunes Live.
No one is quite sure what this newly trademarked service will actually do. It may refer to iTunes in the cloud for purchasing music online without actually using the iTunes software or perhaps it could be a method for seeing (and purchasing) live concerts as they are performed. Either way, purchasing will probably involved.
- Everything you wanted to know about the Facebook privacy war.
Wired goes into detail about all the recent privacy changes that Facebook has recently undergone and what they mean to you and your data. Long story short, make sure your privacy settings are all up to snuff (or cancel your account).
- Cablevision decides not cripple their DVR service for their customer base.
Don't worry, you won't be losing the ability to fast forward through commercials for now. The article has some interesting tidbits about how your DVR habits are tracked and the legal purposes as to why their DVR system functions the way it does.
- Video of Conan O'Brien at Google for those who haven't seen it already.
...ribbing Google VP of Engineering Vic Gundotra about the company's infamous aloofness: 'You guys are so power mad here at Google, You're such entitled A-holes. Hey, Conan's in the area, make him come by... Do a dance.'
Tuesday: April 20, 2010
- Facebook now accounts for 41% of all social media traffic according to comScore stats.
As of March 2010, Facebook traffic made up 41% of all traffic on a list of popular social destinations. MySpace was in second place, capturing around 24% of traffic. Gmail had 15%, and Twitter had 8%.
- Seven things about JavaScript you wish you'd have known earlier in your career.
As usual, another quality post from the folks over at Smashing Magazine. I have to admit that I'm guilty of still not knowing some of the tidbits contained in this article despite (for all intensive purposes) this being my career for quite some time. How irresponsible is that?
Thursday: April 15, 2010
- Twenty-one awesome and unique playgrounds for your child-like enjoyment.
I'm not sure that I'd actually take let my kids run amok on some of these locales but speaking as an adult, I'd be all over these in a heartbeat. Unnecessary slides at ridiculous heights! Whee!