The Dark Crystal has always been Jim Henson’s creepiest movie, but when it was finally released it was considerably toned down from his and Frank Oz’s original vision. YouTube user scoodidabop has spent years re-editing the film, using Henson’s original notes and various deleted scenes to create a far, far creepier movie than what you remember. Read more…
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This fan-edit of The Dark Crystal is creepier than you can imagine
While shopping online often means your whims are creepily tracked , at least there’s respite in brick-and-mortar retail, right? Actually, following tests at ten or so stores, Apple has just rolled out iBeacon technology that can track your every move in all 254 of its US stores — if you want it to. That’s the same system Macy’s and Major League Baseball are testing at select locations, which uses Bluetooth frequencies to precisely sense your location. When you stroll past the iPhone table, for instance, the app could detect your upgrade status and price out a newer model, or inform you if an order is ready to be picked up. Cupertino also foresees the use of iBeacon in other places like museums, for instance, where information about an artwork could pop-up when you’re in front of it. If all that makes your privacy antennae twitch, Apple said iBeacon won’t work without your say-so and has promised it won’t store any tracking information. So, if you’re over any trust issues with the company regarding such tech, hit the More Coverage link to grab the app. Filed under: GPS , Wireless , Internet , Apple Comments Source: Associated Press
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Apple Stores now using iBeacon tracking for app-enhanced personal shopping
Multiple Firefox processes. Gill Penney Internet Explorer and Chrome both use a multiprocess architecture to enhance stability and security. They separate the task of parsing and rendering Web pages from the job of drawing the browser on-screen, saving downloaded files, creating network connections, and so on. This allows them to run the dangerous parts—the parts exposed to malicious scripts and exploitative HTML—in a sandbox with reduced permissions, making it harder for browser flaws to be turned into system compromises. It also means that they’re much more tolerant of crash bugs; a bug will bring down an individual tab, but shouldn’t, in general, bring down the browser as a whole. In 2009, Mozilla announced the Electrolysis project , which was to bring this kind of multiprocess design to Firefox. Read 10 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Mozilla making progress with Firefox’s long journey to multiprocess
This brawny futuristic mini tank on two wheels is supposedly the world’s most powerful electric motorcycle. The battery-powered beast can re-charge its 12.8kWh juice pack in 30 minutes and has the power of a 1000cc motorcycle. Called the Voxan Wattman , the bike can hit 0-60mph in less than 3.4 seconds and reach a top speed of over 100mph. Vroom freaking vroom. Read more…
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World’s most powerful electric motorcycle looks like the future
Michael sez, “Apparently medieval Russian schoolroooms used birch bark for things like writing practice. Erik Kwakkel, medieval book historian at Leiden University, Netherlands, has some charming photos of stick-figure illustrations on bark by kids who, like kids everywhere, got a bit bored with the lesson and started doodling in the margins. There are links to more images (and an interesting scholarly article) at the bottom of the post .” The most special items, however, are the ones shown above, which are from a medieval classroom. In the 13th century, young schoolboys learning to write filled these scraps with alphabets and short texts. Bark was ideal material for writing down things with such a short half-life. Then the pupils got bored and started to doodle, as kids do: crude drawings of individuals with big hands, as well as a figure with a raised sword standing next to a defeated beast (lower image). The last one was drawn by Onfim, who put his name next to the victorious warrior. The snippets provide a delightful and most unusual peek into a 13th-century classroom, with kids learning to read – and getting bored in the process. Medieval kids’ doodles on birch bark [Erik Kwakkel] ( Thanks, Michael ! )
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Medieval kids’ birch-bark doodles
This isn’t anything new for most of us, but it is the first time that Facebook has openly admitted to it (that I’ve noticed anyway). According to a story by Ad Age , a leaked document which was basically a 3-page sales deck outlined that Facebook expects “organic distribution of an individual page’s posts to gradually decline over time” and marketers are told they should consider paid distribution “to maximize delivery of your message in news feed.” We here at Kosher Metal have noticed for a while now that our posts get seen by an average of about about 2% – 10% of our total number of fans/followers. It is highly frustrating to say the least. Needless to say, if you got here from a Facebook link then we highly recommend that you subscribe to the blog so you can stay updated on all the Metal news, videos, etc. that we post. If you are on Facebook and don’t like our page then do us a solid and do that here . We, the bands and pages who are on Facebook need to get more creative (in a non-spammy way) when it comes to utilizing Facebook as a guerrilla marketing and promotion tool. It’s not time to give up….just time to start thinking about how to be more engaging and stand out from the rest. You can read the full story on the “leaked document” here .
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Facebook Admits To Limiting ‘Organic Reach’ In Favor Of Paid Ads
An artificial heart that took 15 years to develop has been approved for human trials. The device, which was fashioned from biological tissue and parts of miniature satellite equipment, combines the latest advances in medicine, biology, electronics, and materials science. Read more…
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Space technology company builds a functioning artificial heart
JPMorgan Chase has warned 465,000 holders of prepaid cash cards that their personal information may have been obtained by hackers who breached the bank’s network security in July, according to a report published Thursday. JPMorgan issued the cards on behalf of corporations and government agencies, which in turn used them to pay employees and issue tax refunds, unemployment compensation, and other benefits, Reuters reported . In September, bank officials discovered an attack on Web servers used by its www.ucard.chase.com site and reported it to law enforcement authorities. In the months since, bank officials have investigated exactly which accounts were involved and what pieces of information were exposed. Wednesday’s warning came after investigators were unable to rule out the possibility that some card holders’ personal data may have been accessed. The bank usually keeps customers’ personal information encrypted, but during the course of the breach, data belonging to notified customers temporarily appeared in plaintext in log files, Reuters said. The notified card holders account for about two percent of the roughly 25 million UCard users. Read 1 remaining paragraphs | Comments
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Hack on JPMorgan website exposes data for 465,000 card holders
alphadogg writes “There are currently several million smartphones certified to run on a ‘HotSpot 2.0’ Wi-Fi network, which promises automatic Wi-Fi authentication and connection, and seamless roaming between different Wi-Fi hotspot brands, and eventually between Wi-Fi and cellular connections. In November, about 400 smartphone users finally got a chance to do so — in Beijing, China. The next big public demonstration of what’s confusingly referred to as both Hotspot 2.0 and Next Generation Hotspot will be in February: an estimated 75, 000 attendees at the next Mobile World Congress in Barcelona will be able to take part.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Barcelona Will Be a Big Test For HotSpot 2.0 Wi-Fi Connections
If you can’t bring yourself to shell out $10 a month for the privilege of enjoying your Spotify playlist on the go, we have good news for you: the company is apparently developing a free version of its streaming service for mobile devices. This report comes from the Wall Street Journal , which cites “people familiar with the matter.” The publication also shares that three major music companies have signed licensing deals for the new service. Further details, of course, are scant, but the free mobile streaming will almost certainly be ad-supported, echoing the format of Spotify’s unpaid desktop version. We’ll likely know more soon, as an event is scheduled for next week in New York. Filed under: Software , Mobile Comments Source: Wall Street Journal
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Spotify reportedly planning free, ad-supported mobile streaming