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Thursday, August 24th, 2017
| Time | Event |
| 12:02a | |
| 1:32a | Louise Linton's fashion tips for poors
Here's McSweeney's Ziyad Gower, cannily stealing the voice of Scottish actress Louise Linton, the wife of Trump treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and mocker of the poor. Greetings #peasants, its me, Louise Linton, in a beautiful #hermesscarf and #tomford sunnies. You may know my husband, Steve Mnuchin, Americas Secretary of Treasure. Or you may be familiar with my work as a film star, from my turn as Samantha in Crew 2 Crew to 2013s The Power of Few, where I played the role of Corys Mother #crew2crew #corysmom. I am also #rich, and probably paid more taxes on my #farragamo pants than you have in your entire worthless life. It's funny, but this scathing aristocratic exaggeration is only a short hop from the real Linton. Crazy times. |
| 1:55a | In swiftly-deleted posting, GOP links Legend of Zelda to progressive taxation
Sadly, the Republican Party has already deleted its article titled What Do The Legend of Zelda and the American Tax Code Have In Common? and any corresponding twetes. But it lives on at Google Cache, at least for now. Tragically, having equated the adventures of a mute yet heroic elf with the clawing economic deprivations of progressive taxation, the article barely touches upon why beyond simply noting a few coincidental dates. It's the very dumbest boilerplate. Sad!
https://twitter.com/Beschizza/status/900 |
| 10:41a | Review: Oree wooden keyboard and trackpad
Wood signifies tradition, solidity and natural beauty, but these qualities are comically absent from computer peripherals made of it. Oree, a company out of France, set out to do better and have partially succeeded with their handsome keyboard and touchpad set. Up close, the Oree gear looks much nicer than cheapo Amazon wooden keyboards. It's precisely cut, with seamless joins, Bluetooth, and none of the instant tattiness that afflicts bamboo once it gets knocked around. (There's also a matching dial peripheral, but I haven't tried it.)
The Oree keyboard comes in maple or walnut, with Windows and MacOS keycap options, and engravings for 22 different languages. Wireless pairing and battery life both met expectations; the keyboard charges via USB and the slab uses two AA batteries. The legends are lasered into the wood, so wont rub off with wear. How does it type? It's fine. It feels like standard rubber-dome switches under thick, distancing materials. For most people who type, it's probably better than the millimeter-travel chiclet keyboards in the newest MacBooks, but not quite as nice as say, a five-year-old MacBook Pro. It feels very similar to an old T- or P-series Lenovo keyboard. Soft and rubbery rather than hard and clicky. It's fine. Given the high price, though, I feel at liberty to complain about details. The keys' sharp (presumably laser-cut) edges mean that my fingers occasionally catch on them when brushing over the faces. It's not a big problem and will presumably go away as they're worn with use, but it's a slight discomfort I've not experienced on a keyboard before. Also, they used a serif typeface (Bodoni?) for the keycap legends. It reaches for class, but it's an inappropriate choice and looks like a mistake. Finally, the trackpad simply doesn't cut it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5R9pwzph It's as good as a cheapo Windows laptop trackpad, and larger, but if you've ever used an Apple one it'll be plainly impossible to go back to. Mine was uneven, as you can see in the video embedded above, necessitating the addition of rubber feet. It works fine in numpad mode, though, and the engraved hairline legends are very attractive — why wasn't the same style used for the keyboard? Conclusion: Oree's desktop peripherals are the best wooden computer peripherals I've seen, but you're paying a substantial premium to get it and they're otherwise no better than the basics. |
| 12:30p | AccuWeather app caught "red-handed" tracking location of users against their wishes
Popular weather app AccuWeather has been caught sending geolocation data to a third-party data monetization firm, even when the user has switched off location sharing. AccuWeather is one of the most popular weather apps in Apple's app store, with a near perfect four-star rating and millions of downloads to its name. But what the app doesn't say is that it sends sensitive data to a firm designed to monetize user locations without users' explicit permission. Security researcher Will Strafach intercepted the traffic from an iPhone running the latest version of AccuWeather and its servers and found that even when the app didn't have permission to access the device's precise location, the app would send the Wi-Fi router name and its unique MAC address to the servers of data monetization firm Reveal Mobile every few hours. That data can be correlated with public data to reveal an approximate location of a user's device.Worse, the company issued a bad press release described by John Gruber as "a veritable mountain of horseshit." If the infraction was inadvertent as they claim, they made themselves look guilty as all hell by denying things they weren't accused of and pretending the information they sold was meaningless. Despite stories to the contrary from sources not connected to the actual information, if a user opts out of location tracking on AccuWeather, no GPS coordinates are collected or passed without further opt-in permission from the user. That's the show, but the creepy lawyerspeak about "quickly evolving" privacy standards and becoming "fully compliant with appropriate requirements" is the tell. It's clear from this what the app is for: to get as much information about you as possible and sell it. Shocking. If you have AccuWeather installed on your phone, throw out that trash right now. It's all just aggregated from weather.gov/yourzipcodehere and the NOAA anyway! P.S. Carrot is the fun weather app. |
| 12:35p | Fast food furniture
European design firm Studio Job teamed up with Italian home goods and furniture house Seletti to create furniture fashioned after fast food. at maison et objet 2017 in paris, seletti and studio job are bringing fast food to the fair. a hot dog and hamburger archetypal images of american pop-culture are transformed into actual furnishings, giving rise to the UN_LIMITED EDITIONS collection. the debut of the series marks the italian brands introduction to the world of upholstered furniture, amalgamating studio jobs irreverent attitude and penchant for playfulness, with selettis accessible affordability. 
Yes, I would like fries (lamp? pillow? rug?) with that. images by Loek Blonk via designboom |
| 12:36p | Elon Musk posts image of working SpaceX spacesuit, teases more
SpaceX has been hard at work designing a stylish and comfortable working spacesuit. Following testing of the suit prototypes, Elon Musk has unveiled a first look. (more…) |
| 12:36p | YouTubers prevail in copyright lawsuit brought by "pickup artist" 
"Pickup artist" YouTube channel MattHossZone (previously) has lost his copyright case against a reaction video posted by YouTube channel h3h3Productions. The closely-watched case is a big victory for fair use commentary on video platforms. (more…) |
| 12:36p | Artist Brandon Bird talks about his Jerry Orbach tribute car 
Last year artist Brandon Bird crowdfunded the creation of the Jerry Orbach Memorial Art Car, bringing in over $23,000. In this Super Deluxe video, Bird shares why he was inspired to create this badass "rolling memorial" of the Law & Order actor. He says: "In a way I've been given this sort of gift of having an awesome Jerry Orbach car to drive around in but, in another way, it should be the world's gift. It's gotta go out there and do good, just as Jerry Orbach would." Rock on, Mr. Bird, rock on.
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| 12:45p | How many basic knots do you know? A helpful guide to 7 of them 
Maybe it's been awhile since that merit badge, or maybe you haven't been out on a boat of late. In any case, here's Andy Tran's great refresher course on 7 essential knots.
Square Knot (Reef Knot) If you are wondering, the difference between a square knot and a granny knot (or lubber's knot) is that in a square knot, both parts of the line go over or under their respective loop. Here's a comparison from the terrific site ShoeKnots.com
" 7 Essential Knots You Need To Know (YouTube / InnerBark Outdoors) |
| 4:50p | Jesus spotted in sonogram image along with baby
Alicia Zeek and Zac Smith of Franklin County, Pennsylvania were surprised and delighted to see Jesus looking at their baby girl in this sonogram image. From Fox43:
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| 4:56p | Review: Anker's PowerHouse is a beefy brickful of electrons
Anker's PowerHouse is the beefiest portable battery I've owned, with 120,000mAh coming though four USB ports, 110V AC and 12v DC. At $500 and weighing in at 9 pounds, though, it's also an big expensive box with a thin range of practical uses, aimed sharply at people willing to pay high premium for a user-friendly appliance that replaces buckets of lead and bagfuls of power bricks. Anker pitches it as a general-purpose multi-device charger, or for keeping a specific power-hungry appliance online for a day at a time. CPAP machines, PA systems and mini-fridges are among bullet-list examples. It can run a 15V lamp for almost a week, Anker claims, and reader-reviewers have found many interesting street uses. The downside is that it's way too heavy and bulky for any kind of casual portable use, and it's a gadget, not a tool. You won't be servicing it (as you might a similarly-priced generator), and the 18-month warranty is unnervingly suggestive of a lifespan under regular use. But the upside is that whatever needs you bring to it, it can likely handle them. For example, I found it useful as a tripod weight, keeping energy-hungry video cameras (such as the Blackmagic Cinema Camera) continuosly charged in the wilds of Pittsburgh. It also kept an all-in-one workstation on its feet during a blackout. These are great if you're working somewhere with intermittent power, where a noisy generator is out of the question. It took about 6-8 hours to charge from empty. It came with a five-inch power brick of its own, a 10m cord, and a USB cable. The battery display can be read a mile away and it worked without problem over a month of lightweight general use. The feature list poses a 120W maximum draw, the spec sheet 160W, but either means no heaters or AC, cooking appliances, serious gaming computers, big TVs, laser printers or heavy motorized tools. It can't jump a car, though you could use it to charge up something that can. It outputs 110V only; you can charge it in Europe, but don't expect to run local equipment with it. All in all, it's a blandly useful power appliance for those looking to avoid bigger, uglier worksite battery boxes like it. Anker found a sweet spot--the limit of what's reasonable to just leave lying around in an RV kitchen or stuff in a backpack--and stuck a just-works gadget in it. Anker PowerHouse [Amazon] |
| 5:10p | Watch: KFC has a spooky VR escape room as part of their training program 
KFC is the coolest when it comes to their training program. New employees are given an Oculus Rift headset and asked to complete an eerie escape room, which is narrated by a sinister-sounding Colonel Sanders. The mission is to make the Original Recipe fried chicken from beginning (cutting open a bag of frozen chicken) to the end (picking up a pressure-fried drumstick), all in a futuristic kitchen that feels like the entrance room of Disneyland's Haunted House. "Only one step left. Will you escape or be trapped with me foreeeveeer," Sanders asks when the game is almost finished. According to Eater:
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| 5:14p | Art project: How to make instant photocopy transfers with a blender pen
Instant Photo Transfers With Blender Pens (BLDG25) Prismacolor Colorless Blender Marker 3533 ($6 on Amazon) (via MAKE:) |
| 5:29p | Martin Shkreli bought a domain with my name in it
You can find me at beschizza.com, but Martin Shkreli registered "robbeschizza.com" as part of what seems to be a quixotic effort to bother people who write about him. Cyrus Farivar reports that I'm in his Godaddy grab bag.
Robbeschizza.com was registered the same day I linked to a Business Insider story about his initial round of reporter-name domain registrations. Perhaps he just has a bad sense of humor! I wonder if he'll post anything silly there.
https://twitter.com/Beschizza/status/900 |
| 5:57p | Watch: 71-year-old drunk driver sideswipes cars, then crashes into truck
71-year-old Carol Rose thought it was a good idea to drink alcohol until she was twice the legal limit, and then get into her car. Oh, and according to the Daily Mail, she claimed she has problems with her sight. Her dash cam took this video of her side-smashing a bunch of cars, destroying parts of them along the way, and passing strolling kids and adults who were fortunate not to get in her way. For the grand finale, she crashes into what looks like a delivery truck, which causes her car to roll. The drunk driver, from Ainsdale, England, got eight months in prison and is banned from driving for three years. |
| 6:11p | Can you speak dog? Please tell us what this samoyed is trying to say
Coconut Rice Bear has an important message for the humans, but no one knows what it is. |
| 6:13p | A fantastic chair
Perhaps this is the chair Socrates was talking about.
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| 6:28p | Fifty years ago today Yippie activist Abbie Hoffman made it rain at the NY stock exchange
"How the New York Stock Exchange Gave Abbie Hoffman His Start in Guerrilla Theater" (Smithsonian) |
| 6:46p | Steven Mnuchin and Louise Linton may have used a government plane to watch the eclipse
The Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a Freedom of Information Act requesting "the justification for [Treasury] Secretary Mnuchin's use of a government plane, rather than a commercial flight, for a trip that seems to have been planned around the solar eclipse and to enable the secretary [and his white savior memoirist spouse Louise Linton] to secure a viewpoint in the path of the eclipse's totality." |
| 6:58p | Best deal yet on the AmazonBasics travel case: $7.10
I bought this small travel case in 2011 for $14 and use it whenever I travel. Here's an article I wrote for Cool Tools a few years ago about the stuff I carry in it. It's still in great condition. Amazon has it at an all-time low price of $7.10.
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| 7:17p | Mondo 2000, influential 90s cyberculture magazine, returns online
A few years ago, I started seeing evidence of the beginning swells of a nostalgia wave for the iconic 90s "cyberdelic" magazine Mondo 2000 and all things early 90s cyberpunk/cyberculture. One person on Facebook unearthed an old copy of Mondo, photographed it, and gushed all over it in a post. They asked (something like): "What could be cooler than a slick art magazine about virtual reality and cyberpunk, hacking, drugs and mind-alteration, weird art and high-weirdness?" I loved being able to respond: "Writing for it."
[caption id="attachment_542988" align="alignright" width="750"] I also noticed, in 2014, when I published my writing collection, Borg Like Me, a lot of the focus in reviews was on the pieces reprinted from that era, from Mondo, bOING bOING (print), and my own zine, Going Gaga. People waxed nostalgic about that birth-of-cyberculture era, the creativity and promise that infused it, and the revolutionary dreams it inspired. Several reviews said: We need to bring some of this back. Stat! It is perhaps that rising sentiment that has prompted Mondo's equally iconoclastic creator, RU Sirius, to resurface Mondo 2000 as an online blogazine. RU tells Boing Boing about the launch: It seemed like time. What the world needs now is MONDO sweet Mondo. I mean, its the only thing that theres just too little of&. aside from wealth distribution, attention spans, and lots of other stuff.So far, I've found what RU has posted a surprisingly satisfying mix of reprints of old magazine content, summaries/commentaries on the print magazine (and its predecessors, High Frontiers and Reality Hacker), and new content, including new music from RU Sirius and friends. I'm really interested to see where he takes it. He's not able to pay for contributions at this time, but so far, the response of interest to get involved, to write for it, seems high.</p> Some of the new content includes "cyberpunk patient zero" (as William Gibson once called him) John Shirley, on how we may have to figure out a way to regulate the web after all, an appreciation for Tina Fey's controversial post-Charlottesville sheet cake bit on SNL, and a conversation between Doug Rushkoff and RU Sirius on the early potential and promises of the network revolution and how the bad guys figured out how to hack reality first. The online premier of Mondo featured a pretty funny annotated editorial from the first issue of the magazine:
MONDO 2000 is here to cover the leading edge in hyperculture. Well bring you the latest in human/technological interactive mutational forms as they happen. (COULD PROBABLY RERUN SOME TECH ARTICLES FROM MONDO 2000 MAGAZINE HERE SINCE MOST OF THE THINGS THAT WERE GONNA HAPPEN IN FIVE YEARS ARE STILL GONNA HAPPEN& IN 5 YEARS) Sci-fi author and mathnaut Rudy Rucker has contributed a new cyberpunk short story, Fat Stream. It's always a trip and a treat to mainline Rudy Rucker's imagination for a while:
Its three am, and Zik is vamping a torch song, winding things down. The kazoo raver morphs his razz into big-band swing. The surfer is sculpting cold-light waves. Szex in the boots and gown is doing tai-chi moves. Fine, phine, phyne, vyne. But then Jumpy points his finger at me and oopsy daisy Im screaming. Im not in control. Ive been pwned. My voice has rhythms like sentences but none of the words sounds familiar. My visual field is sweeping in a circle. I see an old-world city. Im hearing bells.
[caption id="attachment_542987" align="aligncenter" width="800"] For you devout post-literate types, you can hear Rudy reading "Fat Stream" on his blog here. The snark, the high-weirdness, the viewing of things from oddly askew angles, it's all here. I'm sure the singular yippie showmanship of RU Sirius will fully reveal itself too as the new publication accelerates to speed.
I asked RU what sorts of things he has in store for the future of this new incarnation of his beloved brand:
Id like to do some rematches. People doing the same conversations with the same people these many years later. J.P. Barlow and Jaron Lanier? Ill see if I can make some of thes happen. Maybe you could re-interview Trent! [I interviewed Trent Reznor from the first Lollapalooza for Mondo No. 5] I honestly have to say, when I first saw the launch, I thought it might be a simple exercise in nostalgia (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). But this looks far more promising than that. I love hearing these old voices from the magazine again, filtered through Sirius's unique editorial eye. So far, it's been a fun "Where are they now?" (or more accurately, "What are they thinking now?"). I do hope that the contributor's roster expands to include younger, more contemporary voices. It's a fun exercise to think what a publication with the "pirate mind station" mentality of 90s Mondo would look like today. Hopefully, we're about to find out.
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| 8:34p | KFC's phenomenally creepy Bio-Shock-esque VR training video 
This is insane. RELEASE THE BIRDS! KFC has given us a lot of really odd advertising, but this really something. |
| 9:23p | Kellyanne Conway says media arent 'afraid enough'
Interviewed by Fox and Friends, Trump surrogate Kellyanne Conway had thoughts on the general response to his rally rage meltdown in Arizona. The media, she says, aren't "afraid enough here." |
| 10:34p | Hurricane Harvey could be strongest storm to hit U.S. in over a decade, and a first for Trump's FEMA 
#HurricaneHarvey could hit landfall late Friday night along the Texas coast as a Category 3 hurricane. |
| 10:54p | Ex-CIA Dir. Brennan: I briefed Congress on Russian election interference, they didn't get 'importanc
Former CIA Director John Brennan sent an internal memo to CIA employees last December in which he said some of the members of Congress he'd briefed on the CIA's conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 elections did not understand and appreciate the importance and gravity of the issue. |
The knots covered in this video are:
Shkreli has been offering to sell at least one of the domain names back to the reporters for thousands of dollars. In a public Facebook post, Shrkreli has offered to sell Emily Saul of the New York Post her domain for $12,000. She declined to comment further on the incident.
Original Mondo 2000 t-shirt design.[/caption]
Picture of Rudy Rucker from "Fat Stream," Mondo 2000.[/caption]
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