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"David After Dentist" Made $150k For Family 234

Posted by samzenpus from the is-this-real-life? dept.
It turns out recording your drugged child pays pretty well. 7-year-old David DeVore became an overnight sensation when his father posted a video of his ramblings after dental surgery. To date that video has made the DeVore family around $150,000. Most of the money came from YouTube, but the family has made $50k from licensing and merchandise. From the article: "The one seemingly minor decision to make the video available all over the Internet set off a whirlwind of changes for the DeVore family. Within just four days, 'David After Dentist' received 3 million views on YouTube and the younger David quickly became an Internet celebrity. His father quit his job in residential real estate (did we mention they live in Florida?), and the family started selling T-shirts featuring cartoon drawings of their son post-dental surgery."

Comment Re:Philosophy is fundamental (Score 1) 515

by mahmud (#31588864) Attached to: Of the options below, I'd most like to learn more ...
But you proved GP's point yourself, didn't you? A brain (neural net, probabilistic Markov chain transmogrifier/compressor, or any other term you prefer) used to process and compress "stupid" Markov chains doesn't qualify as a provably stupid entity no more. Ergo, philosophers are still asking wrong questions!
Linux

Submission + - Nokia and Intel merge high-end Linux software

Submitted by oxide7
oxide7 writes: Nokia, the world's biggest maker of mobile handsets, will merge its Linux Maemo software platform, used in its flagship N900 phone, with Intel's Moblin, which is also based on Linux open-sourced software. "This makes a good challenger to (Google's) Android (operating system), allowing the platform to go across devices and making it much more appealing for developers," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.
Linux

Submission + - Intel and Nokia launch MeeGo, a new Linux platform

Submitted by andylim
andylim writes: Today Nokia and Intel announced that they are combining Moblin and Maemo to create MeeGo, a new mobile platform. According to Nokia, MeeGo is a unified Linux-based platform that will run on multiple hardware platforms across a wide range of computing devices, including pocketable mobile computers, netbooks, tablets, phones, connected TVs and in-vehicle systems.
Linux

Submission + - Nokia N900 Will Show Debian Installer by Default

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: New N900 customers will now have an even easier time installing Debian software. Step 1: Buy phone. Step 2: Install Easy Debian from Main Menu/App. Manager. This is because the newest firmware (changelog) activates the Extras repository by default, and Easy Debian has been promoted from Testing. It will be interesting to see whether users consider this an important feature or simply find the screen size too limiting (pictures)
Linux

Submission + - Nokia to Make GPS Navigation Free on Smartphones (nokia.com)

Submitted by mliu
mliu writes: In what is sure to be a blow to the already beleaguered stand alone GPS market, Nokia, the global leader in smartphone market share, has released a fully offline-enabled free GPS navigation and mapping application for its Symbian smartphones. Furthermore, the application also includes Lonely Planet and Michelin guides. Unfortunately, the N900, which is beloved by geeks for its Maemo Linux-based operating system, has not seen any of the navigation love so far. With Google's release of Google Navigation for Android smartphones, and now Nokia doing one better and releasing an offline-enabled navigation application, hopefully this is the start of a trend where this becomes an expected component of any smartphone.
Science

Submission + - European company to harness orbital solar energy (bbc.co.uk)

Submitted by goldaryn
goldaryn writes: Word from the BBC today is that Europe's biggest space company is seeking partners to help get a satellite-based solar power trial into orbit.

EADS Astrium says the satellite system would collect the Sun's energy and transmit it to Earth via an infrared laser, to provide electricity. Space solar power has been talked about for more than 30 years as an attractive concept because it would be "clean, inexhaustible, and available 24 hours a day". However, there have always been question marks over its cost, efficiency and safety. But Astrium believes the technology is close to proving its maturity.

Comment Re:I sympathize, but to an extent... (Score 1) 176

by mahmud (#30101584) Attached to: Russian Whistleblower Cop On YouTube
Pragmatically speaking, even under arguably unjust government someone needs to take care of the public law and order. Wouldn't you prefer those people taking care of the safety of the streets to be of high moral stance and have some integrity, even if the state power itself is unjust? And no matter what some rosy-eyed idealists think, living under over-controlling government beats living in anarchy any day.

I will not even go into the whole topic of Russia some of the oppressive government policies may be mirroring the sentiments of the population at large, many of whom are nostalgic for Soviet past.

Anyway, these are real people living there, with real needs, and this cop addresses the issues that normal, middle class people care about and therefore deserves massive respect and kudos, both for speaking up, as well as jeopardizing his safety and career for doing so.

Comment Re:I sympathize, but to an extent... (Score 1) 176

by mahmud (#30101380) Attached to: Russian Whistleblower Cop On YouTube

It's hard to sympathize with someone when their job description includes conducting laws made by an oppressive government regime.

Are you in your right mind? The guy works in the narcotics squad, how the hell is that "conducting laws made by and oppressive government"? It's not like he is running around arresting journalists and dissidents!
Space

Submission + - Astronomers Search for the Calmest Place on Earth

Submitted by
The Narrative Fallacy
The Narrative Fallacy writes: "Live Science reports that astronomers in search of the perfect site to take pictures of the heavens have combined data from satellites, ground stations and climate models in a study to assess the many factors that affect astronomy — cloud cover, temperature, sky-brightness, water vapor, wind speeds and atmospheric turbulence. and have pinpointed the coldest, driest, calmest place on earth, known simply as Ridge A, 13,297 feet high up on the Antarctic Plateau on the continent at the bottom of the world. "It's so calm that there's almost no wind or weather there at all," says study leader Will Saunders, of the Anglo-Australian Observatory in Australia. "The astronomical images taken at Ridge A should be at least three times sharper than at the best sites currently used by astronomers." Located within the Australian Antarctic Territory, the site is 89 miles from the PLATO (PLATeau Observatory) international robotic observatory. The new site would be superior to the best existing observatories on high mountain tops in Hawaii and Chile, Saunders says. "Because the sky there is so much darker and drier, it means that a modestly-sized telescope there would be as powerful as the largest telescopes anywhere else on earth.""

Comment Re:Overage fees (Score 1) 621

by mahmud (#29151271) Attached to: Nokia Leaks Phone With Full GNU/Linux Distribution

Imagine the overage fees when you exceed the 5 GB per month cap that the network imposes on your server's Internet connection.

Imagine living in a country with competitive telecom market where most GSM/3G providers don't have network traffic cap and flat-rate data plans cost peanuts! (hint: these places actually exist, and I live in one of them)

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