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The Internet

Submission + - Reddit Founder Leads Charge for a "Bat Signal for the Internet" (internetdefenseleague.org)

Submitted by
TheGift73
TheGift73 writes: "Beyond the Blackout

The Internet Defense League takes the tactic that killed SOPA & PIPA and turns it into a permanent force for defending the internet, and making it better. Think of it like the internet's Emergency Broadcast System, or its bat signal!

The Plan

When the internet's in danger and we need millions of people to act, the League will ask its members to broadcast an action. (Say, a prominent message asking everyone to call their elected leaders.) With the combined reach of our websites and social networks, we can be massively more effective than any one organization."
Google

Submission + - Google Now Searches JavaScript (i-programmer.info)

Submitted by mikejuk
mikejuk writes: Google has been improving the way that its Googlebot searches dynamic web pages for some time — but it seems to be causing some added interest just at the moment. In the past Google has encouraged developers to avoid using JavaScript to deliver content or links to content because of the difficulty of indexing dynamic content. Over time, however, the Googlebot has incorporated ways of searching content that is provided via JavaScript.
Now it seems that it has got so good at the task Google is asking us to allow the Googlebot to scan the JavaScript used by our sites.
Working with JavaScript means that the Googlebot has to actually download and run the scripts and this is more complicated than you might think. This has led to speculation of whether or not it might be possible to include JavaScript on a site that could use the Google cloud to compute something. For example, imagine that you set up a JavaScript program to compute the n-digits of Pi, or a BitCoin miner, and had the result formed into a custom URL — which the Googlebot would then try to access as part of its crawl. By looking at, say, the query part of the URL in the log you might be able to get back a useful result.
Windows

Submission + - Aero Glass UI no more on Windows 8 (theverge.com)

Submitted by closer2it
closer2it writes: Microsoft has revealed that it has made some big changes to its desktop UI for Windows 8, which includes moving away from Aero Glass — the UI first introduced with Vista. According to the company, this means visual changes that include "flattening surfaces, removing reflections, and scaling back distracting gradients." Despite all of these changes with the interface, the company doesn't appear to be worried about the issue of "learnability." Instead, Microsoft believes that with a little help it won't take long for users to adapt to the new operating system.

Comment Re:Is it working for Google? (Score 1) 473

by closer2it (#38256150) Attached to: Half Life of a Tech Worker: 15 Years

Google's giant R&D operation is starting to look like a huge flop. Google has never originated a successful post-search product in-house. The ad system was acquired from DoubleClick. They had to acquire YouTube because Google Video was a flop. The hard part of Gmail, the smart filtering, came from Postini. The Android software was acquired from Android, Inc. PIcasa was acquired from Picasa, Inc. Google Earth was acquired from Keyhole, Inc. SketchUp was acquired from @Last Software. Google Voice was acquired from Grand Central.

In-house, they produced Google Answers, Base, Lively, Knol, Buzz, Wave, Gears, Page Creator, etc - a collection of cool hacks, all now discontinued.

You have a point, but to be nitpicker (if I recall correctly), Google Maps counts as in-house product. Page Creator is now Google Sites, Buzz functionality is on Google Plus, as well as most of Wave technology.

I don't see Google's giant R&D has a huge flop, but I guess is my personal opinion.
Science

Submission + - Global warming 'confirmed' by independent study 2

Submitted by chrb
chrb writes: The Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature Project — an independent study of Earth's historical temperature record partly funded by climate sceptics including the Koch brothers — has released preliminary results that show the same warming trend as previous research. Project leader and physics professor Richard Muller, of the University of California, has stated that he was "surprised" at the close agreement, and it "confirms that these studies were done carefully". The study also found that warming in the temperature record was not caused by poor quality weather monitoring stations — thus rejecting a frequent claim of sceptics. Climate sceptic Stephen McIntyre has previously said "anything that [Muller] does will be well done" So, does this finally settle the argument over whether global warming is real?

Comment I never relax... (Score 1) 239

by closer2it (#37753520) Attached to: "World's Most Relaxing Music" Composed
... with Coldplay. I'm always trying to find from who's song they ripped the new single this time. ;)

The music was found to cause brainwaves and heart rate to synchronize with the rhythm

It seems to me that the music's rhythm tries to stay in sync with the average heart beat rate and not the other way around.

Comment Re:U.S. is Barking up the Wrong Tree (Score 1) 385

by closer2it (#34455436) Attached to: WikiLeaks Took Advice From Media Outlets

The U.S. needs to realize that even if they successfully drive Wikileaks from the internet, it is an idea whose time has come and there will be other whistle blower web sites from here on out.

"Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof."
from V for Vendetta

Comment Re:Very interesting (Score 1) 150

by closer2it (#33127650) Attached to: Artist Photoshops Scenes From WWII Into Present Day

The difference between a master and an amateur is not the technical skill, but the emotional content of the works. People can study Vermeer's brushstrokes or Ansel Adams' exposure techniques all they want, but it won't make them into their role models.

Very true indeed. I as a musician have already experienced that.

On 2007 I recorded a improvisation on guitar and although the recording is IMHO emotionally strong, some "guitarists" told me that "has errors", "the notes are not very clear", etc.

I'm not saying that there isn't errors, but that's not the point.

I guess for some people a diamond is just a rock.

Comment Re:I've experienced this... very annoying. (Score 1) 446

by closer2it (#32808870) Attached to: Proximity Sensor Presents Latest iPhone 4 Issue

but I really don't see how Apple could possibly not have found this issue in their testing.

IMHO, Android (the new 2.2 version release) made Apple "rush" iPhone4 into the market. After all, it seems that iPhone4 owners seem to prefer to post on the Internet the issues instead of returning the defective product.
Idle

Submission + - Pricne says Internet is over (mirror.co.uk)

Submitted by the_arrow
the_arrow writes: According to the artist currently known as Prince, "The internet's completely over." At least that what he says in an interview with the British newspaper Mirror.
Quoting Prince: "The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."
Full interview found here.

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