Tech Boys

Getting a new car is getting even easier these days. BMW, Lexus and Volvo have all started selling cars via subscription. The Care by Volvo program gives you an all-wheel-drive XC40, insurance, routine maintenance, roadside assistance and no money do... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2uAdAm9 via IFTTT

The Czech Republic has extradited Russian national Yevgeniy Nikulin to the United States, where he's accused of several hacking attempts dating back to 2012. A US federal grand jury had indicted him in 2016 for breaking into DropBox, Formspring and L... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2IjtO5j via IFTTT

The US Patent and Trademark Office has published an Apple patent application that details a pretty neat VR system. Spotted by Patently Apple, it's meant to be used in vehicles -- including self-driving vehicles -- and Apple pitches it as a way to mit... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2pSO0mV via IFTTT

Ascape Audio's home page proudly proclaims "Designed in Detroit," but at this point it's not helping business. "It hasn't made any goddamn impact," marketing director Dean Clancy said. "I want to put that in as many places as possible, because regar... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2GJwz2y via IFTTT

Lincoln announced this week that it's expanding the pilot of its subscription service. The company said late last year that it planned to launch such a service and while a small selection of 2015 models have since been available through Ford's Canvas... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2pQpvI2 via IFTTT

Music is a necessity while I'm working. If it's not tunes from Spotify, there's at least a podcast chattering on in my ear. Of course, if you don't want to bother those around you with what you're listening to, you need a good set of headphones. The... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2GmQHbH via IFTTT

One week ago, the worst possible legislation curtailing free speech online passed and sex censorship bill FOSTA-SESTA is on its way to be signed into law by Trump. Hours after the announcement, everything from the mere discussion of sex work to clie... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2pWQmRY via IFTTT

For all the recent talk of using Alexa to control DVRs, there's been a conspicuous inability to record to a DVR using the voice assistant. That won't be a problem for much longer: Amazon has bolstered Alexa's Voice Skill programming kit with recordin... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2Gq0ppx via IFTTT

China's Legal Daily reported today that officials in the country just shut down a major smartphone smuggling scheme. A total of 26 suspects were arrested in connection with the plot. The individuals allegedly used drones to string two cables between... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2GlASlp via IFTTT

Google has been working closely with the NCAA during this year's tournament, but now, during the Final Four, the company will be using predictive analytics to figure out who will win games. The wrinkle here is that the team will use data from the fir... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2J6pKq4 via IFTTT

2018 looked promising for Huawei's ambitions to start selling its smartphones in the US, but failed partnerships with AT&T, Verizon and Best Buy resulted in a shutout from the American market. And yet, the company will try to stick it out in the... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2uypA7L via IFTTT

A boy dangling from a tree in a barren desert. A forest filled with standing stones that have circular holes punched through them. Turtle-riding cats. Spooky caves. Curious elephants. These are just a few of the shots in the first trailer for Away. T... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2IhfbiP via IFTTT

Today, handset maker ZTE made the first Android Go phone available in the US. The Tempo Go retails for $80 and is available for purchase at the company's website. from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2pVBYci via IFTTT

By Lesley Stockton This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here. After pushing a... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2Ij1cct via IFTTT

As the first Snapdragon-powered PC available, the ASUS NovaGo has a lot riding on it. When Qualcomm and Microsoft teamed up to make connected PCs, they promised devices that would remain always on, always online and provide access to the apps you nee... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2pTmpCX via IFTTT

Open Bionics announced today that its 3D-printed Hero Arm prosthetic will be available for purchase in the UK next month. The company's founders started Open Bionics because they were interested in developing prosthetic limbs that were less expensive... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2pQRcQ0 via IFTTT

Twitter's sports offerings have grown quite a bit over the last couple of years. Between game coverage, 24/7 streams and analysis shows, Twitter keeps expanding its sports content, and this weekend, Variety reports, it's adding March Madness Watch Pa... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2Gk42Be via IFTTT

Anime streaming network CrunchyRoll is making a video game based on the Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? series. The free-to-play Memoria Freese/Dan-Memo is available for both Android and iOS and will feature in-app purchases and an... from Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2E7sWhz via IFTTT

Following is a transcript of the video. The top 10 games coming out in 2018. Ben Gilbert:  Here are the best games coming out in the next nine months. Spider-Man is coming back to video game consoles this spring exclusively on the PlayStation 4. It's an open-world game, it looks gorgeous, and it puts Peter Parker in the modern world. Red Dead Redemption 2 is probably the biggest game coming out in 2018.  It's set to arrive in October and it's the long-awaited sequel to the first Red Dead Redemption. A large, open-world, third-person action game on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The new game is, of course, coming to the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. And it's also set in the Old West, it's also a big open-world and it's from the folks who brought you Grand Theft Auto, so it should be pretty excellent interesting, violent, lots of different adjectives. It's another year and therefore there is a new Call of Duty coming out. It is, of course, another first-

Georgia is a hub for cybersecurity research, with leading university computer science and security programs and a new $35m state cybersecurity research center underway; but the Georgia state legislature just passed SB315 , the most onerous prohibition on computer security research ever passed in the USA. (more…) from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2GKvsQt via IFTTT

Matt Burns at TechCrunch : "The additional horsepower isn’t needed for general use, but the added graphics cards supercharge Macs for VR rendering and gaming. Only a handful of eGPUs are compatible with macOS so choose carefully before adding one to your rig." The AMD Radeon RX 580 is the best card for games on the compatibility list, but most of the eGPU boxes are pretty bulky. Your best best is probably the Sonnet Box , which is the smallest and comes with an RX 570 built in (with a cheaper RX 560 option). The caveat is that it doesn't have USB-C output, so you can't put it between a Mac and the LG UltraFine monitors that Apple actually sells. Other eGPU boxes have this feature. This will probably go unheralded but I think it's a huge milestone in Mac history: serious game support! Finally! from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2H0nbFK via IFTTT

Reader recommended , and absolutely delightful, The Unbitten Elbow depicts the fervor and zelotry of the Soviet state as it rots from the brain to the heart. Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky is another fantastic Soviet era writer of dystopic fiction. Folks in Russia were already living in the worst dystopia most Westerners could imagine. In The Unbitten Elbow , we see an old Russian proverb, that the elbow is always near but impossible to bite, tested by the strength of an entire nation. Absurdity abounds in this 10-15 minute read. The Unbitten Elbow by Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky via Amazon from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2pQjT0q via IFTTT

The National Coffee Association failed to demonstrate that a known-carcinogen produced during the coffee brewing process is not harmful. A judge in the Bear Republic ruled coffee cups need to carry a warning. Via the NYT : The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed in 2010 by the Council for Education and Research on Toxics, a nonprofit group based in Long Beach. The group charged that Starbucks and other companies — a group that eventually included 91 defendants — did not warn consumers that ingesting coffee would expose them to acrylamide, a chemical formed when coffee beans are roasted. California keeps a list of chemicals it considers to cause cancer or reproductive harm, and acrylamide has been included since 1990. The state’s Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act, known as Proposition 65 after it was passed in 1986, requires businesses to provide warning labels when exposing consumers to any of the hundreds of chemicals listed. Judge Elihu M. Berle, in Los Angeles County

Today, the US State Department published a notice in the Federal Register seeking comment on a plan to require 15,000,000+ foreigners who get a US visitor visa to disclose all their social media identities as a condition of entry. (more…) from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2uAkhEP via IFTTT

What do you call someone who derives pleasure from the bread of affliction? A matzochist. ### Why do we have a Haggadah at Passover? So we can Seder right words. Share your own in the comments! Happy Passover! from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2pR69S8 via IFTTT

John "The Paper Airplane Guy" Collins shows us how to fold "Suzanne," the aircraft that set a 2012 world record for flying 69.14 meters. "I bring paper airplanes into classrooms and start talking about complicated ideas involved with fluid dynamics and using paper airplanes to explain it," Collins told Wired . "If you can have a group of middle schoolers and high schoolers that don't look at their phones for 45 minutes while you're doing a demonstration, you've hit success," he says. from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2uEe9vc via IFTTT

In 2007, the Guardian's Victor Keegan published "Will MySpace ever lose its monopoly?" in which he enumerated the unbridgeable moats and unscalable walls that "Rupert Murdoch's Myspace" had erected around itself, evaluating all the contenders to replace Myspace and finding them wanting. (more…) from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2IdNpDZ via IFTTT

The idea of representative democracy is that we pay lawmakers to give serious attention to the nuances of policy questions and cast votes on our behalf in accord with their understanding of our preferences, applied to those nuanced understandings. (more…) from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2E6qsA4 via IFTTT

Developed by Jussi Leinonen of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, this is a visualization of the first ever 3D model of a snowflake melting in the atmosphere. Eventually, a deep understanding of how snow actually melts could "help scientists recognize the signature in radar signals of heavier, wetter snow -- the kind that breaks power lines and tree limbs -- and could be a step toward improving predictions of this hazard." From JPL: Leinonen's model reproduces key features of melting snowflakes that have been observed in nature. First, meltwater gathers in any concave regions of the snowflake's surface. These liquid-water regions then merge to form a shell of liquid around an ice core, and finally develop into a water drop. The modeled snowflake shown in the video is less than half an inch (one centimeter) long and composed of many individual ice crystals whose arms became entangled when they collided in midair. " NASA Visualizes the Dance of a Melting Snowflake

Oklahoma teachers will walk out en masse this coming Monday, despite a historic agreement from the ailing state legislature to give them a long-overdue pay raise which will be paid for by increasing taxes on the state's previously untouchable oil and gas industry. (more…) from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2uvnplo via IFTTT

RSS was a revelation for blogging and online media; we got our first RSS feed in 2001 and I have relied heavily on RSS feeds to write this site (and stay informed) for nearly two decades now; in 2005, Google bet heavily on RSS with its Google Reader product, which quickly eclipsed every other reader, so that by the time they killed it in 2013 , there wasn't anything sophisticated, robust and well-maintained to switch to. (more…) from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2GYod4Y via IFTTT

Douglas Palmer got wind of a classified CIA program to create board games to train spies, so he used a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to get copies of two of these games: the first is called "Kingpin: The Hunt for El Chapo" and the second (which the CIA revealed to a SXSW audience in 2017 ) is called "Collection Deck." (more…) from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2Igt3di via IFTTT

Hailed for its versatility and user-friendly design, Python is one of the best first languages for aspiring programmers to learn. However, not all of us have a natural affinity for programming, but you can get the training you need without breaking the bank thanks to the  Pay What You Want: Absolute Python Bundle . Here's how the deal works: Simply pay what you want, and you'll unlock one of the collection's five courses. Beat the average price paid, and you'll get the remaining four at no extra charge. Plus, if you beat the top price, you'll be entered into a major giveaway and earn a spot on the leaderboard. Featuring nearly 60 hours of training, this collection will take you from beginner to expert in Python programming. You'll follow along with the collection's example-based curriculum, taking on core concepts, like input, functions, lists, and loops. Then, you'll dive into more advanced ideas, like automation framework design and creating deep le

The late-great comedienne Joan Rivers was a frequent guest on Martha Stewart's daytime show. One year for Passover, they built gingerbread-like houses with sheets of matzo and decorated them with other kosher foods including macaroons, chocolate, dried fruits, and nuts. Such a cute idea! Watch: https://youtu.be/V9rTS8yNziI Happy Pesach to those of you out there who celebrate! from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2E7yFDZ via IFTTT

There's still plenty of life left in my 2015 MacBook Pro. But sooner or later, I'll ditch my computer in favor something new. The nerd in me is wicked excited with the notion of using an ultra light laptop with an external graphics processor, for several reasons. I've always wanted to own a gaming laptop, but I could never justify the price, or the weight of one in my bag. Going with a computer that can connect to an external GPU means that I could invest in the laptop first, and then the GPU when I could afford it. And since the GPU for the rig is external, I wouldn't be forced to carry around a heavy bastard of a computer with me every time I needed to take off on assignment. That said, I was hesitant to buy one without seeing how it'd perform, first and foremost, as a work machine. I really like the look of the Razer Blade Stealth : the laptop's industrial design is what Apple might have come up with if their design department had a shred of edge or attitud

Today on "WTH is Walmart trying to sell my friend Terry through a Facebook ad"**: Earthworm Jerky . (Last time it was funeral potatoes .) At first, I thought he was pulling my leg. But he's not one to joke about stuff like this: Reviews are poor for these "100% edible dehydrated large earthworms" in a "spicy marinade," so I don't recommend buying them: **I have to think that the-store-that-no-longer-shall-be-named is advertising weird items to draw some attention (after all, negative attention is still attention). Good job, it worked. I feel right into their trap. I'm sending all their "earthworm jerky" traffic to Amazon though. from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2pQEdOW via IFTTT

Not everyone around the world agrees that cats say "meow" and that dogs "woof." Watch in this Conde Nast Traveler video as 70 people from 70 countries share their interpretation of how pets sound. I feel like all these sounds should be incorporated into a song or something. ( Blame it on the Voices ) from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2GWuGNN via IFTTT

In 2015, Patti Smith went on tour with her band to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her debut album, Horses . Now it's been announced that a new documentary titled Horses: Patti Smith and her Band has been made using footage of the tour's final gig at Los Angeles' Wiltern Theater. In an interview with Rolling Stone in 2014, the then 67-year-old said, "I think we continue to deliver all of these songs sometimes stronger than when I was young... So I'm going to be happy to celebrate it, to perform the album with happiness, not with any kind of cynicism or a cashing-in thing. It will be a true, proud celebration, so the answer is yes." I attended one of the three sold-out shows at The Fillmore in San Francisco in early 2015 and can attest that it was a strong performance. The 1975 album was performed in its entirety, in sequence, and Patti rocked the whole show hard. The new film was directed by Steven Sebring and executive produced by record producer Ji

Sophia is an advanced social robot in her second year of development by Hanson Robotics . In this video, she's on a date in the Cayman Islands with actor Will Smith. He turns on the charm, goes in for a kiss but is immediately, awkwardly friendzoned by her. Last year Sophia was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon with her creator, former Imagineer Dr. David Hanson. On it, she tells Jimmy a joke and then plays Rock, Paper, Scissors with him: https://youtu.be/Bg_tJvCA8zw?t=2m20s P.S. You can follow Sophia on Instagram ! I just did. https://ift.tt/2pRKzgs from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2J5zuRD via IFTTT

A lot of Star Wars fans were butt hurt over the Last Jedi's treatment of iconic Star Wars characters. Others, not so much--I'm one of those. I think it was a fun film that pushed the franchise forward in a new and interesting direction. No matter which camp you fall into, there's one thing that we can all agree on: Watching Carrie Fisher slap the silly shit out of Oscar Isaac over and over will always be entertaining. While I'm not crazy about sharing anything from Entertainment Tonight, damn this is fun. from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2J5Cygz via IFTTT

For more than a century, the Canadian government was responsible for perpetuating horrendous abuses against native peoples who were unfortunate enough to be living in an area where a imperial colonialist power decided to set up shop. It was government policy for Indigenous children to be separated from their families, the without the permission of their parents or tribal elders, and them into what were known as residential schools : institutions predominantly run by the Catholic Church, along with a small handful of schools that were handled by Anglican, Presbyterian and United Church interests. Once the kids were secured into these boarding schools, they were taught the 'right' way to live--right being in accordance to western culture. Were the incarcerated children to dare to speak their own language or act according to cultural norms outside of what their white caretakers felt was 'civilized,' they were met with severe corporal punishment. Mortality rates at the sc

As listeners of the Serial podcast know, Adnan Syed was a Baltimore, Maryland high school student sentenced to life in prison for the 1999 murder of his ex-girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. Now, he's getting a new trial. From Rolling Stone : Syed's conviction was overturned in June 2016 by retired Circuit Court judge Martin Welch, but the Attorney General's Office quickly appealed the ruling. Today's decision affirms Syed's right to a new trial, but based on an issue that the Circuit Court had considered and ultimately rejected – that Syed's trial attorney had demonstrated "deficient performance" and "prejudiced Syed's defense" by failing to pursue alibi witness Asia McClain... (The Maryland Court of Special Appeals') decision comes down to this: "Syed's murder conviction must be vacated, and because Syed's convictions for kidnapping, robbery, and false imprisonment are predicated on his commission of Hae's murder, these

"A cheetah decided to explore our vehicle on a safari I was leading for Grand Ruaha Safaris (in the Serengeti National Park," wrote wildlife photographer Peter Heistein on Instagram . "Another one jumped up on the hood and was staring at us through the windshield. They were just curious, we kept calm and let them go about their business. Quite a thrill to be this close! "Our guide Alex Mnyangabe... helped us through the encounter with instructions on how to treat the animal 'with respect.'" from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2uz8c2Z via IFTTT

https://ift.tt/2Ieb9I2 Calyx is an amazing nonprofit, privacy-oriented activist ISP (they were the first ISP to successfully resist a secret Patriot Act warrant ); they are notable for offering an unlimited, unfiltered, unthrottled 4G/wifi hotspot for a tax-deductible $400 year (mine has repeatedly saved my bacon ). (more…) from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2pOHH4A via IFTTT

An absurd and wonderful example of semantic satiation , starring the "Komputer Tutor" Kim Komando , best known for her bestselling 1990s instructional videos sold via infomericial. And in case you were wondering, Kim Komando is still at it ! from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2pOg0Zz via IFTTT

As advanced atom smashers like the Large Hadron Collider come online, older ones are sometimes abandoned or, better, used for unexpected science experiments. Examples range from recording high-speed X-rays of the biological "motor" that flaps a fly's wings to finding an easter egg in a Degas painting. In the video above, Science Hack Day "global instigator" Ariel Waldman reveals how researchers hack particle accelerators for new uses. from Boing Boing https://ift.tt/2uvq5PX via IFTTT

Britain's most senior police officer says social media "revs people up" and leads to stabbings and murders. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2pTTde8 via Technology

A state department proposal could require visa applicants to detail all their social media handles. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2pRZZRG via Technology

The firm denies it believes that growth at all costs is "good" even if it leads to deaths. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2IfBLZc via Technology

The actress fails to convince judges that a character in Grand Theft Auto V was based on her. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2E77Wrg via Technology

Shares in Baidu's iQiyi streaming platform fell below their opening price on Wall Street's Nasdaq. from BBC News - Technology https://ift.tt/2GqGXJq via Technology

City of London Police Commissioner Ian Dyson said Brexit could diminish UK policing capabilities. He warned that taking a more distant role in Europol would affect intelligence sharing. He said the agency has helped London's police combat terrorism, fraud, and money laundering. The head of the City of London's police force has warned that Britain's departure from the EU will leave it "on the back seats" on intelligence-sharing arrangements. Ian Dyson, the Commissioner of City of London Police, said the UK's impending exit from the Europol joint policing agency could affect his ability to apprehend criminals overseas. The warning is especially acute for policing London's Square Mile financial district, which is a target for large-scale economic crimes by organisations with an international presence. In response to a question from Business Insider at a media briefing this week, Dyson described how an exit from Europol would detract from the "