Tag: facebook

Why the User Interface in Hackers Hasn’t Aged That Badly

A lot of the stuff about the movie Hackers looks really dated now, especially some of the fashions and the way it depicts hacking. But the user interface still looks pretty good, compared to a lot of other stuff from the era. Paul Franklin, the Academy Award-winning special effects designer who’s worked on all Christopher Nolan’s recent movies, also worked on Hackers and holds it up as an example of a weird choice that panned out: More »

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Why the User Interface in Hackers Hasn’t Aged That Badly

BitTorrent Launches Dropbox Alternative

redletterdave writes “On Friday morning, BitTorrent launched the alpha test of a new, free public service called BitTorrent Sync, which allows users to securely back up and sync files over the Web using BitTorrent’s platform. Unlike competing services such as Box or Dropbox, BitTorrent Sync doesn’t store files on remote servers (which means that no third party has access to one’s files), and also has no storage limits other than what your devices can hold.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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BitTorrent Launches Dropbox Alternative

You Can Run Android 4.0 in Its Entirety Right on Your PC

Running certain Android apps on your desktop is nothing new with Bluestacks , but now you can get the whole dang OS running on your PC as a native application thanks to a little program called WindowsAndroid . More »

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You Can Run Android 4.0 in Its Entirety Right on Your PC

German Federal Court Rules That Internet Connection Is Crucial To Everyday Life

Qedward writes “Internet access is as crucial to everyday life as having a phone connection and the loss of connectivity is deserving of financial compensation, the German Federal Court of Justice has ruled. Because having an internet connection is so significant for a large part of the German population, a customer whose service provider failed to provide connectivity between December 2008 and February 2009 is entitled to compensation, the court ruled today. ‘It is the first time the court ruled that an internet connection is as important a commodity as having a phone,’ said court spokeswoman Dietlind Weinland. The court, however, denied the plaintiff’s request of €50 a day for his fax machine not working.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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German Federal Court Rules That Internet Connection Is Crucial To Everyday Life

California’s Surreal Retroactive Tax On Tech Startup Investors

waderoush writes “Engineers and hackers don’t think much about tax policy, but there’s a bizarre development in California that they should know about, since it could reduce the pool of angel-investment money available for tech startups. Under a tax break available since the 1990s, startup founders and other investors in California were allowed to exclude or defer their gains when they sold stock in California-based small businesses. Last year, a California appeals court ruled that the tax break was unconstitutional, since it discriminated against investors in out-of-state companies. Now the Franchise Tax Board, California’s version of the IRS, has issued a notice saying how it intends to implement the ruling — and it’s a doozie. Not only is the tax break gone, but anyone who claimed an exclusion or deferral on the sale of small-business stock since 2008 is about to get a big retroactive tax bill. Investors, entrepreneurs, and even the plaintiffs in the original lawsuit are up in arms about the FTB’s notice, saying that it goes beyond the court’s intent and that it will drive investors out of the state. This Xconomy article takes an in-depth look at the history of the court case, the FTB’s ruling, and the reaction in the technology and investing communities.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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California’s Surreal Retroactive Tax On Tech Startup Investors

Wolfram Alpha expands Facebook analytics, takes a closer look at your social relationships

Have you ever wanted to know if you’re the most popular amongst your group of friends? Or which of your pals lives the furthest from you? These are questions that can’t be answered by Facebook’s latest Graph Search , but they’re perfect for the stats geeks over at Wolfram Alpha . The group started mining Facebook for data last year , but have recently expanded its analytics to include a closer look at your social relationships. Namely, they’ve identified five “network roles:” social insiders, outsiders, neighbors, gateways and connectors. Insiders share the same friends while outsiders don’t, neighbors don’t have a lot of buddies outside of your network while gateways do, and connectors are those that bridge two networks together, like a college buddy who went to the same high school. Combined with location, age and other info, this data unlocks an array of potential visualizations color-coded by different categories, letting you see patterns you might not have noticed before. If you think the analysis ends there, think again; by enabling a “Historical Analytics” feature, you’ll be allowing Wolfram Alpha to continually collect your info so you can see how your Facebook profile changes over time. If you’re not creeped out by that notion, jump on over to the rightmost source link and fill in the appropriate details to see just how well you know your “friends.” Note: It seems that Facebook has limited Wolfram’s API calls, so you might get an error when accessing the tool for now. Filed under: Internet Comments Source: Wolfram Alpha Blog , Wolfram Alpha

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Wolfram Alpha expands Facebook analytics, takes a closer look at your social relationships

Fire and Ice: Firefighter’s Water Froze on a Blazing Building

Photo: John J. Kim/Chicago Tribune How cold was it in Chicago? Let’s put it this way: it was so cold that when firefighters fought the fire in a blazing abandoned warehouse, the water froze while the building was still on fire! The Chicago Tribune has the photo gallery that you simply must see: Link – via Metafilter

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Fire and Ice: Firefighter’s Water Froze on a Blazing Building

Multi-State AT&T U-Verse Outage Enters Third Day

SonicSpike writes “AT&T U-verse customers are reporting this morning that an outage that began Monday and is affecting at least 15 states is still not resolved. Some customers were told this morning that the problem will not be fixed for at least 24 hours.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Multi-State AT&T U-Verse Outage Enters Third Day