The goofiest thing you’ll learn to do today – make a “Dollar Bill Shirt”

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When I was a kid, I had a fascination with origami but like so many things I’m fascinated by, I could never master it. But the instructions to make this “Dollar Bill Shirt” look easy enough that even I can do it. The site also has instructions on how to make a “Dollar Shirt (with cuffs) and Pants” and even a “Dollar Bill Digital Camera”!

iPhone: The bet Steve Jobs didn’t decline

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Counternotions:

Suppose you were the CEO of Apple in 2005 when a couple of intergalactic visitors with time-warping technology offered you this bet:Design and manufacture a small mobile device that seamlessly combines the functionalities of a cellular phone, a web surfer, an audio/video player and a small PC, and your company will double its market cap and establish a third mass-market computing platform after Windows and Macintosh.Would you take it?Before you say, “Are you nuts, why wouldn’t I?” ponder just a few of the issues involved.

Reading his analysis of the issues Apple faced back in 2005 makes it even more remarkable that Apple “bet the company” on the iPhone.

OnLive was days away from shutdown

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OnLive was days away from shutting down when it sold its assets to another company last week, reveals a financial services firm involved in the transaction.

Bait and switch: What’s behind AT&T’s stance on FaceTime

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GigaOM:

AT&T’s decision to block Apple’s video-calling program on its cellular network for certain customers has raised the ire of consumers and public-interest groups, and it may even draw the attention of the Federal Communications Commission. And after the wireless carrier posted its rationale on Wednesday on its decision to limit video over FaceTime to customers who have signed up for its Mobile Shared Data plan, I see two reasons the carrier has picked this fight.The first is to push more consumers over to the Mobile Shared Data plan, and the second is to establish a precedent that will put its Wi-Fi network on the same legal footing as its cellular one, especially when it comes to network neutrality.

Tom Reads His Spam

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Our LOLs of the day come from Tom Webster, creator of “Tom Reads His Spam.”

Apple ID security increased with 3 questions and rescue email address

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iPhone in Canada:

For those accessing iTunes today, you may have noticed Apple has added extra security to your iTunes Account by asking you to fill out three security questions and input an alternate recovery email address.With these additional security questions now being asked in the event of account recovery, and the additional rescue email option, it should increase Apple ID security. But of course, nothing can beat a strong password, which Apple ID accounts now require a capital letter and numbers.

I’ve checked with friends in Canada and some of the questions are really obvious – like, “What is the name of your lead dogsled dog?” and “How many relatives do you have in Toronto?”

Honda debuts Miimo robotic lawnmower

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Autoblog:

Miimo is an autonomous robotic mower that Honda will be selling in the European market only (for now) starting in 2013.Miimo runs on power supplied by its lithium-ion battery pack and, just like a Roomba robotic vacuum, will return to its charging station for a fresh batch of electrons when it runs out.The mower can operate in a random pattern, a directional mode where it mows back and forth in lines, or a combination of the two. As for safety, Miimo has bump sensors so it won’t break any potted plants, and if lifted off the ground, its blades will automatically stop and starting up again requires entering a unique PIN number.

As a kid, sweating behind an old fashioned push-blade mower (no – I’m not that old. My father was that cheap!), I would have saved my allowance and bought one of these!

Misleading, incomplete coverage of Apple’s record value

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Columbia Journalism Review:

The big market news today is about Apple’s gargantuan market capitalization reaching a new, stunning high. There’s a big problem with all of the headlines: They’re all false.Apple is not the biggest or most valuable company in history—not by a longshot. That’s because the press is overlooking reality for the apparently irresistible pull of a headline that includes “Apple” and “record” = pageview gold.Apple’s $622 billion market cap is a nominal record, which means “in name only,” or alternatively, not really. That’s because it’s a record only if you don’t adjust Microsoft’s 1999 market cap for inflation.

Keep this story in mind next time you read of something or other achieving “record” status. Always question the numbers and where they come from.

Apple to open its own stores in Russia

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The Moscow News:

Gadgets manufacturer and darling of the hipster set, Apple Computers plans to sell its products in Russia without the use of middlemen, bringing the price of its trendy equipment down.Apple has registered a company Apple Rus and assigned Vitaly Morozko, the corporation’s local legal advisor, as its director general, Kommersant reported.According to an unnamed manager of an Apple distributor, the company could start direct sales in Russia in 2013, but it is unclear when first Apple Stores will open.

“darling of the hipster set…”? Hipsters didn’t make Apple the most valuable public company in the world.

David Beckham looms large at the 5th Avenue Apple Store

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Adweek:

David Beckham is bigger than ever, in almost every way, now that Spellbound Media and Zenith Optimedia have unleashed giant silver statues of the footballer around three U.S. cities for H&M.Three statues have gone up outdoors in New York—one in front of the Apple Store at 58th Street and 5th Avenue; one near the Flatiron Building; and one at the South Street Seaport.The outdoor figures will remain up through Sunday.

Vectrex emulator coming for iOS

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Rantmedia Games is preparing a Vectrex emulator for the iPad – one of the coolest video game consoles you’ve probably never played.

Dog shaming

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Dogshaming is a new Tumblr for dog owners frustrated by their canine companions’ occasionally inappropriate behavior.

The iPhone is now worth more than Microsoft

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Forbes:

One Apple product, something that didn’t exist five years ago, has higher sales than everything Microsoft has to offer. More than Windows, Office, Xbox, Bing, Windows Phone, and every other product that Microsoft has created since 1975. In the quarter ended March 31, 2012, iPhone had sales of $22.7 billion; Microsoft Corporation, $17.4 billion.Now when we say “worth” there’s a number of different things that we can mean.

Agreed. “Worth” may be a bit misleading but there’s no argument about the sales numbers.

9 sites to save big on college textbooks

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Mashable:

It’s that time of year again, when college students scramble for textbooks, in the hopes they’ll have money left over for food and fun during the school year.No longer does the campus bookstore have the monopoly on book sales. The key is to find the right edition of a textbook at the right price, and that can take some research.Fortunately, a few websites can help with that. Amazon has just hopped on the rental bandwagon, launching its own textbook rental service. Other sites offer books you can both rent and buy.

I was luck that, as a Political Science major, my “textbooks” were often mainstream but my CompSci buddies just got crushed by the cost of textbooks. Check out some of these sites to see if they can help save you some beer money.

Winnie Cooper wants you to know “Girls get Curves”

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Buzzfeed:

Danica McKellar, former Wonder Years star, is on a mission to make young women know they’re just as good at math as their male counterparts.She just released her fourth math book for girls, Girls Get Curves. It’s designed to teach girls math but also confidence so that they don’t shy away from pursuing it in college or their careers beyond. Playing off the geometry focus, the book also tries to teach young women how to have a positive body image in a world that tries to keep them from it. McKellar speaks to BuzzFeed Shift about why women are so underrepresented in mathematics, her own experiences in the field, and more.

Winnie has growed up real good and, after graduating summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in Mathematics, has made another career for herself as an award winning author and mathematician.

The absolute worst sentence of 2012

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Hypervocal:

Ladies and gents, we present to you the official Worst Sentence of 2012:“As he told her that he loved her she gazed into his eyes, wondering, as she noted the infestation of eyelash mites, the tiny deodicids burrowing into his follicles to eat the greasy sebum therein, each female laying up to 25 eggs in a single follicle, causing inflammation, whether the eyes are truly the windows of the soul; and, if so, his soul needed regrouting.”

I have been a fan of the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest for years but be careful – the web site can be a huge time suck!

IHave50Dollars is App.net for people with $50

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TechCrunch:

Do you have $50? Do you trust strangers with it? Do you like paying for evanescent access to a service you may never use? Then IHave50Dollars.com is the site for you. Not everyone has $50 they’re willing to push down a rat-hole in hopes of access to a social media service based on a promise by a man with a proven track record in being compellingly earnest on camera, but if you do, this may be your lucky day.IHave50Dollars is a parody site, obviously (there’s an Easter Egg at the end) but it does offer a fairly poignant criticism of the bandwagon mentality in the Valley.

Prankster plants garden cress in co-worker’s keyboard

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Hypervocal:

“My colleague has a dirty keyboard and has gone to vacation,” writes this Redditor. “I did the only logic[al] thing: I planted cress in his keyboard.”

The included GIF is a bit misleading. You have to go to the full album to see the prankster “cheated” a little bit – he put dirt in the keyboard and watered the garden cress seeds so of course it was going to sprout. Still – you’d like to see the look on the co-worker’s face when he comes back from vacation!

Apple retail leadership tells employees “We messed up”

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NASDAQ:

Apple Inc.’s retail boss told employees that the company made mistakes with its staffing levels, leading to news reports that the company was cutting employees, according to two people familiar with the matter.Apple acknowledged the retail staffing changes. “Making these changes was a mistake and the changes are being reversed,” said Kristin Huguet, an Apple spokeswoman. “Our employees are our most important asset and the ones who provide the world-class service our customers deserve.”

This comes on the heels of a detailed IFOAppleStore report about various changes Senior VP of Retail John Browett was making to the retail environment increase the the stores contribution to company profit.

Would you swim In the world’s scariest pool?

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. Gadling:

How far would you go to get a bird’s-eye city view while swimming? If you’re staying at the Holiday Inn Shanghai Pudong Kangqiao, you’ll get to take a dip in their glass-bottom pool, which appears to be suspended in mid-air as it partially hangs over a 24-story drop.

Easy answer to the headline question. HELL NO.