The Washington Post is taking steps to isolate their sources from their normal means of data collection, protecting both the Post and the source from any audits that might pick up their IP address or other identifying information.
Nearly all digital communications can leave a trail. The Washington Post’s SecureDrop is designed to minimize these digital trails using best practices, such as…
[VIDEO] This is really well done.
[VIDEO] Vinod Khosla, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems, interviews Google founders Page and Brin for about forty minutes.
Some good stuff, some obvious stuff, but fascinating to watch them interact, hear them talk about their vision of the future.
BBC:
After widespread criticism, Google has begun reinstating some links it had earlier removed under the controversial “right to be forgotten” ruling.
Articles posted online by the Guardian newspaper were removed earlier this week, but have now returned fully to the search engine.
Google has defended its actions, saying that it was a “difficult” process.
This past Friday, this article appeared on AVClub.com and caused quite a stir.
My guess is, the folks at Facebook who authored this study were surprised by the outpouring of criticism. Yesterday, one of those people, Adam Kramer, posted his response to this criticism.
Note that if you follow the headline link to read Adam’s response in full, you’ll be taken to a Facebook page, with all that that entails.
[VIDEO] In the hands of a master, hand-drawn animation can bring complex emotions to life. The embedded video is stylish and elegant, drawn by one of the best, Glen Keane. Keane is the son of Family Circus creator Bill Keane and has created a number of classics for Disney, including The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, Tarzan, and Tangled. Not a bad resume.
In the linked article, Harry McCracken points out that the video below was created by Keane for Google’s “Spotlight Stories” project and that animation tools are no match for a master of the craft.
But the thing which makes it interesting and moving isn’t the technology: It’s the fact that it consists of a series of drawings by a human being who happens to be a master draftsman, rather than the digital stop-motion puppetry that is computer animation.
Keane may have used more modern tools than his counterparts at Disney did in the 1930s and 1940s, but the basics of his craft haven’t changed at all.
I agree that the human in the equation is, at least currently, irreplaceable. But I do think that automation tools make it possible to create incredibly sophisticated and complex animations that would not have been possible even 20 years ago. To me, the seminal year was 1995, the year Toy Story was released.
I think McCracken is right, the basics haven’t changed, but I think the tools have evolved beyond belief. I did enjoy Keane’s animation Duet, shown below, but my all-time favorite remains the first 7 minutes of Pixar’s Up. To me, that is emotional storytelling without peer.
[VIDEO] Apple rolled out the latest iPhone 5s ad yesterday. This one was called Parenthood. The ad was part of the With the power of iPhone 5s, you’re more powerful than you think series. It featured the song The Life of Dreams by Julie Doiron.
The video is from last year, but new to me. Sergiy Putyatov is one of the fastest guitarists in the world. His official Guinness Record is 27 notes per second. Astonishing.
[VIDEO] Nick Offerman can make anything funny. This short won the audience award for best film at the LA Film Festival. Love the concept, love the execution. Really well done.
I came across the linked article on commonly mispronounced words. Pretty good list. The first one really surprised me.
Children’s writer Theodor Seuss Geisel, more commonly known as Dr. Seuss, pronounced his middle name (and pen name) as soice, not soose.
Today, the Supreme Court ruled against Aereo. Looks like that’s the end of the line for this experiment.
[VIDEO] First things first, have you seen Apple’s “Strength” commercial? The catchy song is called “Chicken Fat”. The singer is Robert Preston, perhaps best known as the star of the movie The Music Man.
Turns out, the original Chicken Fat song was created as exercise background music for school kids. Go to the original post for Apple’s commercial and the original song.
Disney bought Marvel for $4 billion, turned it into a cash cow. Disney bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion a year later, looks to have the same plans in mind.
Traditional television is static. Here’s your list of channels, watch what you like. If you have a DVR, you can time shift your shows, record them to watch later. On-demand offers another level of time shifting and access to a library of content, some of which you have to pay for. DVR and On-demand extend the traditional TV model, making it a bit more dynamic.
Apple TV and its WatchESPN app take this one step further.
I found this profile frustrating, vexing. The tone is objective, but the prose manages to be damning at the same time, working in all the standard, shopworn stereotypes the Apple community has gotten used to having thrown their way.
Read the Only Apple piece by John Gruber instead. Spot on.
[VIDEO] Kyle Russell writes for Tech Crunch and covers Google Glass, among other things. Worlds collide as Kyle appears on a crushingly satirical Daily Show piece (embedded in the original post) on Glass.
The linked article gives an insider’s view on the making of the video.
Rather than respond to the show’s criticisms of Glass (because, let’s face it, they have a point), I thought it would be fun to shed light on what it’s actually like to film a segment on The Daily Show.
First off, we all knew exactly what we were getting into. I was contacted by a producer of the show who identified himself as such. There were no attempts made to trick any of us with claims that they were a news team from out of town.
An entertaining read. Watch the video first.
I’ve long been a fan of Miles O’Brien. He’s my kind of journalist, always curious and digging for understanding. Though he has covered a wide range of stories in his career, his focus has always been science and technology.
Then he lost his arm. Great read.
I just can’t see this succeeding in the mainstream consumer market. Sony’s brand just doesn’t have the same relevance, same strength as it used to have. I can see Sony getting some traction with console gamers, but they’ll still have to battle Apple, Google, and now Amazon for even that mindshare.
I’m a big De Niro fan so this is a must see for me. The documentary is called Remembering the Artist Robert De Niro, Sr. It’s running periodically on HBO, available on-demand, and on HBO Go.
[VIDEO] Fantastic! I’d love to see a “making of” video.
30 Rock made me appreciate Tracy Morgan as an actor. Heal quick, Tracy.
[VIDEO] Now that’s talent.
[VIDEO] Terrific. All the way through.
Washington Post on various aspects of life in the US for centenarians, a story told in 10 charts. Fascinating stuff.
You might have to stare at this one a bit to wrap your head around it, but it’s well worth it.
[VIDEO] Yesterday was a huge day for Apple, centered around the announcement that Apple was buying Beats.
As that announcement was making its way around the world, Apple Senior VP Eddie Cue and and newly minted Apple employee Jimmy Iovine spent the day at the Code conference, talking Beats, AppleTV, the Steve Jobs legacy, and lots more.
Go to the original post for comments, details, and an embedded video.
If there’s one thing I pulled from this map, it’s how incredibly expensive it is to live in California.
Halt and Catch Fire is a very loose adaptation of the founding of Compaq Computer, the first company to truly reverse engineer the IBM PC.
Follow the link and you can listen to the story, told by Brian McCullough on the excellent Internet History Podcast, or read through the narrative, if that’s more your thing. An exciting tale, well told.
What’s your verse? How do you use Apple devices to improve your life, tell your story?
In the latest update to this campaign, Apple adds two pages to their “your verse” site, one focused on classical composer Esa-Pekka Salonen and the second on traveling writer Chérie King.
Fascinating stories, beautifully told.
I find these hotels breathtaking. Most are embedded in some form of nature. There’s Switzerland’s Äscher Cliff hotel embedded in the side of a mountain, or the Hotel Kakslauttanen built under the ice in Finland.
Words don’t do these hotels justice. Fantastic pictures.
Have you ever visited any of these?