Screentendo Turns Screenshots Into a Playable Super Mario Level

When you’re bored at work, pulling out your Game Boy to pass the time isn’t exactly inconspicuous. But this simple app called Screentendo is. It snaps a screenshot of whatever you’re working on and then turns it into a simple Super Mario level with clouds and breakable blocks. Spreadsheets have never been more entertaining. Read more…

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Screentendo Turns Screenshots Into a Playable Super Mario Level

Here’s What a Supertall New York Skyline Will Look Like In 2030

It has been a month of supertall news to top them all, with the World Trade Center’s record-breaking 1, 776-foot height possibly getting scooped by a surprise spire in Midtown Manhattan. Now a new rendering from Visualhouse posted at New York Yimby gives an idea of how dramatically the New York City skyline will change just 15 years from now. Read more…

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Here’s What a Supertall New York Skyline Will Look Like In 2030

Firefox’s Optional Tracking Protection Reduces Load Time For News Sites By 44%

An anonymous reader writes: Former Mozilla software engineer Monica Chew and Computer Science researcher Georgios Kontaxis recently released a paper (PDF) that examines Firefox’s optional Tracking Protection feature. The duo found that with Tracking Protection enabled, the Alexa top 200 news sites saw a 67.5 percent reduction in the number of HTTP cookies set. Furthermore, performance benefits included a 44 percent median reduction in page load time and 39 percent reduction in data usage. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Firefox’s Optional Tracking Protection Reduces Load Time For News Sites By 44%

Five Best 3D Printing Services

Getting something 3D printed is easier now than it’s ever been , and there are plenty of reasons why you might want to. From just making something special and unique to replacing broken parts, 3D printing services make it easy. This week we’re looking at five of the best, based on your nominations. Read more…

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Five Best 3D Printing Services

Ads Based On Browsing History Are Coming To All Firefox Users

An anonymous reader writes: Mozilla has announced plans to launch a feature called “Suggested Tiles, ” which will provide sponsored recommendations to visit certain websites when other websites show up in the user’s new tab page. The tiles will begin to show up for beta channel users next week, and the company is asking for feedback. For testing purposes, users will only see Suggested Tiles “promoting Firefox for Android, Firefox Marketplace, and other Mozilla causes.” It’s not yet known what websites will show up on the tiles when the feature launches later this summer. The company says, “With Suggested Tiles, we want to show the world that it is possible to do relevant advertising and content recommendations while still respecting users’ privacy and giving them control over their data.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Ads Based On Browsing History Are Coming To All Firefox Users

Watch the furthest flight ever flown on a real life hoverboard

The Guinness World Records says that Catalina Alexandru Duru just pulled off the farthest flight ever traveled on a real life hoverboard: 905 feet and 2 inches. You can see him rise up 16 feet in the air on the hoverboard and then start cruising through the air over a lake with nothing but invisible underneath him in the video below. Read more…

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Watch the furthest flight ever flown on a real life hoverboard

Factory Reset On Millions of Android Devices Doesn’t Wipe Storage

Bismillah writes: Ross Anderson and Laurent Simon of Cambridge University studied a range of Android devices and found that even though a “factory reset” is supposed to fully wipe storage, it often doesn’t. Interestingly enough, full-device encryption could be compromised by the incomplete wiping too. ITnews reports: “The researchers estimated that 500 million Android devices may not fully wipe device disk partitions. As many as 630 million phones may not wipe internal SD cards. Five ‘critical failures’ were outlined in the researchers’ Security Analysis of Android Factory Resets paper. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Factory Reset On Millions of Android Devices Doesn’t Wipe Storage

Los Angeles Raises Minimum Wage To $15 an Hour

HughPickens.com writes: Jennifer Medina reports at the NY Times that the council of the nation’s second-largest city voted by a 14-1 margin to increase its minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2020. Los Angeles and its almost 4 million residents represent one of the biggest victories yet for those pushing wage increases across the country. Proponents hope it will start to reverse the earning gap in the city, where the top 7% of households earn more than the bottom 67%. Detractors point out the direct cost increase to businesses, which could total as much as a billion dollars per year. If a business can’t handle the increased cost, the employees this measure was designed to help will lose their jobs when it folds. An editorial from the LA Times says it’s vital for other cities nearby to increase their minimum wage, too, else businesses will gradually migrate to cheaper locations. They add, “While the minimum wage hike will certainly help the lowest-wage workers in the city, it should not be seen as the centerpiece of a meaningful jobs creation strategy. The fact is that far too many jobs in the city are low-wage jobs — some 37% of workers currently earn less than $13.25 an hour, according to the mayor’s estimates — and even after the proposed increase, they would still be living on the edge of poverty.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Los Angeles Raises Minimum Wage To $15 an Hour