NotesWhen I was financially and emotionally prepared for the responsibility, I decided to go out and get a dog. And that's when the Gods that govern dog laws decided 'Hey, not so fast. You still have to learn some terrible, terrible lessons first.'FeedUnfurl
NotesOne year ago, almost to the day, I quit smoking. Three months after that, I started back up. As I type these words, nine months after that, I'm trying again, wrapping up my first full day of quitting. And, like last time, it is all I can do to stop myself from punching everyone in their softest body parts.FeedUnfurl
NotesEveryone's favorite internet cat goes to the Academy Awards. Well, in poster form. You can't buy the posters, or the cat, but you can buy the book. More about the legend in this previous Boing Boing post.
(Cheezburger via Swintons via Bricorama via @antderosa)
Everyone's favorite internet cat goes to the Academy Awards. Well, in poster form. You can't buy the posters, or the cat, but you can buy the book. More about theâŠUnfurl
NotesCable companies know the threat that lies ahead of them. The percentage of consumers who "cut the cord" and cancel their cable subscriptions isn't a huge one, but it's growing. Meanwhile, a new generation of TV watchers is growing accustomed to watching shows online, even if it's the next day or they're catching up on a series months after the fact on Netflix. That contingent of "cord never getters" is what's really going to eat away at big cable's business model over time.
To preempt the threat, companies like Comcast have been moving aggressively in the digital space. From testing out streaming live TV on the Web to developing tablet apps that make a subscription more compelling, big cable is wasting no time repositioning itself for the future.
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The latest weapon in Comcast's arsenal is Streampix, a streaming service that digs deep into the archives of popular television shows and makes episodes available across multiple devices. It's being framed as the company's answer to Netflix and Hulu. At $4.99 a month, Streampix is priced competitively against Netflix and Hulu and it even narrowly beats the monthly cost of an Amazon Prime membership, which comes with a growing library of streaming video content.
The thing about Streampix, however, is that it's being bundled with Comcast's traditional cable subscription packages. So it's cheaper than the online-only streaming services only if one overlooks the ever-rising cost of a proper cable subscription, something consumers often cite as a reason they cut the cord.
Initiatives like StreamPix and Xfinity TV Everywhere may make cable packages more convenient and appealing to consumers, but they don't make them cheaper or eliminate the customer service gripes or all-or-nothing content selection that annoys some consumers.
Cable's disruption at the hands of Web-only streaming services is real, but it's moving very slowly. Not only are viewers turning more to the Web, but statistics show that they're going back to broadcast as well, buying up antennas to pull in HD terrestrial broadcast signals to supplement Web-based content.
At the end of the day, cable companies are trying to preserve their traditional business model while building up a new one. It's a cautious, sensible move for a company that makes so much money through a legacy model, but it's not always an approach that works flawlessly. Just ask newspapers.
That isn't to say that the Web and mobile streaming offerings offered by Comcast and their competitors couldn't one day be spun off into stand alone services and offered to consumers at a cheaper rate. But in the meantime, the risk of cannibalizing what brings in most of their revenue isn't one they're willing to take.
Discuss
Cable companies know the threat that lies ahead of them. The percentage of consumers who "cut the cord" and cancel their cable subscriptions isn't a huge one, but it's growing. Meanwhile, a new generation of TV watchers is growing accustomed to watching shows online, even if it's the next day or they're catching up on a series months after the factâŠUnfurl
NotesIf you couldn't afford to pay $6000 for the "art edition" of Mark Ryden's book Pinxit (it's sold out anyway), Taschen has thoughtfully introduced a popular-priced edition of the 366-page book, for $1000.
Many books have been published on Mark Ryden before, but none like this large-format monograph, released in a boxed Collectorâs Edition of 1,000 numbered copies, each signed by the artist; and also available in an Art Edition of only 50 copies, which come with an artwork. This sweeping retrospective brings together nearly two decadeâs worth of Mark Rydenâs paintings and works on paper, broadening the horizons of his uncanny universe and bringing it to the world, one big page at a time.
Collector's Edition â No. 51â1,050
Limited to 1,000 individually numbered copies, each signed by Mark Ryden
Printed on archival-quality paper
Quarter-bound book with leather spine
Front cover features gold-relief embossing crafted by the master printers at Pressure Printing
Comes in a clamshell box covered in cloth fabric
Also available in an Art Edition of 50 copies with a silk screen print
Pinxit
If you couldn't afford to pay $(removed) for the "art edition" of Mark Ryden's book Pinxit (it's sold out anyway), Taschen has thoughtfully introduced a popular-priced edition of the 366-pageâŠFeedUnfurl
NotesAdaFruit has released a set of plans for building your own Internet of Things Printer. It's a weekend project that ends up with a homebrew analog of BERG's Little Printer. They also have a kit for sale.
Build an "Internet of Things" connected mini printer that will do your bidding! This is a fun weekend project that comes with a beautiful laser cut case. Once assembled, the little printer connects to Ethernet to get Internet data for printing onto 2 1/4" wide receipt paper. The example sketch we've written will connect to Twitter's search API and retrieve and print tweets according to your requests: you can have it print out tweets from a person, a hashtag, mentioning a word, etc! Once you've gotten that working, you can of course easily adapt our sketch to customize the printer.
AdaFruit has released a set of plans for building your own Internet of Things Printer. It's a weekend project that ends up with a homebrew analog of BERG's Little Printer.âŠFeedUnfurl
NotesJust this morning, I was thinking that I needed an accordion file to slip into my laptop bag. The GAMAGO gods heard my prayers and responded this afternoon with a handsome Accordion File that certainly beats manila. It is $10. GAMAGO's Accordion File
Just this morning, I was thinking that I needed an accordion file to slip into my laptop bag. The GAMAGO gods heard my prayers and responded this afternoon with aâŠFeedUnfurl
NotesThe Beastie Boys' Michael "Mike D" Diamond is part of an AT&T investor group seeking to put a net neutrality question on the shareholder ballot: "The shareholder resolution would recommend each company 'publicly commit to operate its wireless broadband network consistent with network neutrality principles,' the letter said. The companies should not discriminate based on the âsource, ownership or destinationâ of data sent over their wireless infrastructure." (via Consumerist)
The Beastie Boys' Michael "Mike D" Diamond is part of an AT&T investor group seeking to put a net neutrality question on the shareholder ballot: "The shareholder resolution would recommendâŠFeedUnfurl
NotesOnce you start seeing these misguided boasts, you'll soon realize they're amongst the saddest written words on the Internet. Instead of a sign of how awesome the poster is, they are instead inevitably a marker of how clueless they are about how the Internet actually works.FeedUnfurl
NotesCall us old-fashioned, but if you're going to go through the trouble of spying on your enemy, you might as well do your homework. After all, it's a fine line between being a badass spy and being a wacky bumbling spy character played by Kevin James.FeedUnfurl
NotesAmazon Web Services, OpenStack, CloudStack, VMware... Developers have no shortage of IaaS offerings to support. And, lucky them, no shortage of different APIs to deal with, either. DeltaCloud, a top-level Apache project, is designed to help developers cut through the complexity and work with everything from EC2 to Red Hat EnterpriseâŠFeedUnfurl
NotesThe Boston Business Journal stopped using Pinterest one day after setting up its account after realizing it could be sued for images it uploaded to the site. Web editor Galen Moore started playing around with the rapidly-growing social network on Thursday as a possible way to share the visual images that the Boston Business Journal uses in itsâŠFeedUnfurl
NotesGoogle is trying to get developers interested in Dart with a technology preview of the Dart VM in Chromium, better known as Dartium. The plan isFeedUnfurl
NotesAlthough I consider myself a child of the 90s because that's when I went to college and ultimately became an adult, I still lived through the 80s. I remember Michael Jackson on the radio, Dynasty on TV, and Schwartzenegger in the theaters. Everyone had shoulder pads and neon purses. And questionable mothers let their sons go to elementary school grFeedUnfurl
NotesVerified accounts on Twitter and Google+ are supposed to build trust, and allay your fears that you may be following an impostor. Facebook only announFeedUnfurl
Noteshttp://vimeo.com/36133244 The Cryoscope is a touch feedback weather forecast device by designer Robb Godshow (video). To receive a forecast of tomorrow'sFeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesWhen I was in second grade, I got health insurance for the first time. I remember my parentsâwith looks on their faces somewhere between proud and relievedâtelling me that itâŠFeedUnfurl
NotesAfter over a year of work, [dmw] is nearly done with his Humble Hacker Keyboard. Itâs a keyboard that has been influenced by some pretty crazy looking designs, but meets all of [dmw]âs âŠFeedEmbedUnfurl
NotesI dug around and tried to find some e-book ramifications that would appeal to the type of people who spend more time preparing for a zombie apocalypse than like, unemployment, or retirement, or something. You know, realists.FeedUnfurl
NotesSci-fi author Kevin J. Anderson is a huge Rush fan and has drawn inspiration from Rush for a number of his writings. His 1988 Rush-inspired novel Ressurection, Inc. drew the attention of Neil Peart and the 2 have been friends ever since, even collaborating on the 1994 short story Drumbeats. Neil also wrote the introduction to Anderson's 2006 short story compilation Landscapes. Anderson just announced via his Facebook page the incredibly awesome news that he will be writing a novelization of Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels album!
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Author Kevin J. Anderson to write novelization of Rush's upcoming Clockwork Angels albumFeedUnfurl
NotesThese four books set out to create humor for nerds back when that word meant something. Instead, they spawned black holes of clumsy, punning anti-comedy.FeedUnfurl
NotesYour new mission in life (mine included) is to surpass this moment:
and if you already have, tell us all about it!
via Empire of Dust, actual source unknown (possibly taken at wat pha luang ta bua, in thailand).Unfurl
NotesThere are a few things in this world that we can always rely on as constants: The sun will always rise and time will inevitably march forward. Except that the sun doesn't rise and time ... well, time is tricky, too.FeedUnfurl