Category: Geek Culture

Our own local (Greensboro native) Orson Scott Card’s “Ender’s Game” movie is getting closer all the time! Here’s the first trailer for it!

Check it out!

This statistic was on Chris Prillo’s Google+ feed. I have always suspected as much! Yeeesh!

As Chris says, “Coincidence? I think not.”

Hey, at least usage and the murder rate is coming down! Cause for rejoicing on both counts!

Oh my goodness! This is the most amazing improvised, string of consciousness, weirdness of Geek Culture you have seen in a LONG time! Check it out! The idea is that he is filibustering a meeting in his local city’s board meeting. But this is actually the actor doing a real riff on Star Wars, Marvel comics and Geek Culture!

Wow! Watch and be amazed.

OK, these are odd. And the YouTube shutting down hits a bit close to home since they really DID pull the plug on Google Reader!

Google Nose

“The new scentsation in search

Coming to your senses: go beyond type, talk, and touch for a new notation of sensation.

Your internet sommelier: expertly curated Knowledge Graphs pair images, descriptions, and aromas.

Take a whiff: the Google Aromabase – 15M+ scentibytes.

Don’t ask, don’t smell: For when you’re wary of your query – SafeSearch included.”

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YouTube Shutting Down

TechCrunch: March 31, 2013

“Bad news, guys. YouTube is shutting down.

The platform launched eight years ago, and some of us have gotten so distracted by YouTube videos that we’ve forgotten that the whole thing is actually a competition. Or, YouTube never actually mentioned that it was a competition. Either way, that competition, called YouTube, is coming to a close.

To decide who has made the best YouTube video of all time, the company has put together an expert panel of judges, replete with film critics, prolific YouTube commenters, and YouTube celebrities including Charlie from ‘Charlie bit my Finger’ and Antoine Dodson of ‘Antoine Dodson News Blooper (Original).’

YouTube has over 30,000 technicians working tirelessly to narrow down all the YouTube submissions that have come in over the past eight years. The judges will then spend the next decade discussing which video should ultimately win.

Tomorrow, at midnight, the site will be shut down and all of its content will be permanently deleted. YouTube won’t be ressurected until 2023, at which point the only video on the site will be the winner of this competition. That said, the winner won’t be chosen for another decade, but you can watch the first 12 hours of judging live-streamed from YouTube’s L.A. offices tomorrow.

Talk about slow and steady, right? Will people in 2023 remember YouTube?

Luckily, of the 150,000 submissions viewed by the judges, none of them are judged by popularity. Gangnam Style has the same chance of winning as this.

The winner will get an MP3 player and a $500 creative stipend for their next creative project.

Reactions to this news should be interesting. YouTube is one of Google’s most successful and valuable properties, and it’s a global necessity in terms of easy, made-for-everyone video sharing online. However, Google has been spring cleaning lately, removing Reader and a handful of other products from its portfolio.

Perhaps this is yet another step in streamlining its offerings.

OR, April Fools apparently happens one day early in Mountain View.”

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Oh, and, lest we forget, they take a dig at Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 8 “Blue” Update with “Gmail Blue!” It’s Gmail, only bluer.

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Want even more April Fool’s Jokes? Techcrunch has a full list HERE!

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But, wait, there’s more! The Buzzfeed April Fool’s List

This Guy’s Music is Bananas! (And Carrots, and Beets, and…)

Some Geek Culture! This is quite odd. Electronic music from fruit and vegetables!

Music from Fruit and Vegetables

“Fresh produce has never been hipper.

Need proof? Check out this video of Brooklyn-based songwriter-producer-artist extraordinaire Jonathan Dagan, better known as J.Viewz, playing a beautiful — and just plain awesome — cover of Massive Attack’s 1998 hit “Teardrop” on a variety of fruits and vegetables.

J.Viewz is using a cool little circuit board called the MaKey MaKey (pronounced may-kee may-kee) that allows you to hook almost anything up to a keyboard.

The concept is simple. All you need to do is connect three things to the MaKey MaKey – a computer, a fun object, and yourself. By touching the object, you close the circuit, and a signal is sent to the MaKey MaKey. The circuit board then translates this electronic signal into a keyboard signal, which is sent to your computer.

Your computer can’t tell the difference between a signal coming from the MaKey MaKey and a signal coming from an actual keyboard. So this little chip basically allows you to transform any object that conducts even just a tiny bit of electricity into a keyboard key.

And if you’ve got a virtual piano keyboard program like this one pulled up on your computer, then you’ve just created your own unique musical instrument.

All J.Viewz did was to take it one step further by rewiring the circuit board to connect with an electronic piano keyboard instead of a computer keyboard.

Cool stuff, right?

We certainly thought so, and plenty of other people seem to agree.

Since the MaKey MaKey was released last year, people have been posting videos of themselves playing sweet tunes on all sorts of edibles, including oranges, doughnuts and even seafood. But if you really want to impress your friends, we suggest you opt for a true classic: the banana piano.”

As the Computer Curmudgeon, I sometimes grump over the fact that I am not always appreciated, but this morning, intrepid PHP Guru, Henry Ratliff, sent me an email wishing me a Happy Curmudgeon’s Day! Cool, a day for me!

“An annual celebration of the crusty, yet insightful, wags who consistently apply the needle of truth to the balloons of hypocrisy and social norms. Always celebrated on Jan 29, the birthday of W.C. Fields, one of America’s most beloved curmudgeons.”

So, in the spirit of great curmudgeons like John C. Dvorak, sometime today, make it a point to say, “Humph!”

I knew it didn’t look right!

Customers say Subway footlong sub only 11 inches

“Eleven inches appears to be the size of Subway’s footlong sandwich, according to a stream of photos posted online by angry customers around the world.

The controversy began earlier this week when an Australian man posted a photo on the company’s Facebook page of his footlong sub alongside a measuring tape that read 11 inches, with the caption ‘subway pls respond.’ Later, the photo appeared to have been deleted. Since then, customers have posted photos and comments of their short subs.

Lori Olsen Arnholy, from Wooster, Ohio, said on Facebook her family regularly eats at Subway and decided to measure their sandwiches to see for themselves.

She said she bought six footlong subs Monday and four of them were just 11 inches long.

‘I always thought I was always getting 12′ subs … I do smell a lawsuit,’ she said.

Some customers vowed to never eat at the restaurant again.

‘I will NEVER buy anything from Subway now. Ever,’ posted Marius Andre Stensaker.

Danielle Neal said, ‘I feel like you’ve straight-out lied to costumers. I don’t care if it’s just an inch, it’s the moral of the matter that concerns me.’

Subway said in a statement Thursday the size of the bread can vary when it’s not baked to the company’s exact specifications.

‘We are reinforcing our policies and procedures in an effort to ensure our offerings are always consistent no matter which Subway restaurant you visit,’ the statement said.

Subway, the largest fast-food chain the world, has more than 38,000 restaurants in 100 countries.”

OK, this is carrying the Internet addiction TOO far! Yeesh!

Two teens spike parents’ milkshakes to use the Internet after-hours

“The modern teenager is surrounded by gadgets, most of which have Internet access. Not surprisingly, many parents elect to meter Internet usage to help facilitate a healthy degree of non-Internet activity. This was the case in the home of one California teenager, who, along with a friend, decided to drug her parents with spiked milkshakes to get around their 10pm Internet curfew.

The unnamed 16-year-old girl from Rocklin, California, went out with a 15-year-old friend to pick her parents up a round of milkshakes. Before bringing them home, the two teens are said to have spiked the drinks with sleeping pills. The teenager’s parents detected the off-flavor in the drinks and stopped drinking them, but had apparently consumed enough to zonk out for the night.

The parents are said to have awoken around 1AM feeling like they had a hangover, only to fall back asleep and wake up again in the morning with the same symptoms. Suspecting that something was up, they bought a drug testing kit and tested themselves, with the test showing positive results. Presumably they then questioned their daughter, since a few hours later, they showed up with her at the local police station.

The sleeping pills came from a different friend who has also remained unnamed. The Rocklin PD’s Lieutenant Lon Milka stated that the spiked situation is under investigation. For now, the two girls involved have been arrested and charged with conspiracy and mixing a pharmaceutical into food. Both of them have been booked at the Placer County juvenile hall.”

So, the guys at the Johnson Space Center have done it again! Now, they have a “Gangnam Style” parody video of Johnson Space Center coolness!

Check it out!