Om Malik:
Infact I get so much unwanted email from the service and from people I don’t know and don’t want to know. Today, I got so frustrated with the whole email thing, that I shut down the account. Done! I will give them full credit for making it much easier than say Facebook to delete my account.
I must say this is similar to my experience with LinkedIn. I did use it when I left Macworld to show recommendations, but that’s about it.
Nest, the thermostat maker founded by former Apple iPod head Tony Fadell, has hired another ex-Apple alum to spearhead its legal battle with Honeywell.
Sigh.
Forget new gear, weapons, or sophisticated targeting systems. The newest tool coming to combat troops is low-tech: beards. In a report released yesterday, research think-tank Xegis Solutions noted that beards have a direct correlation to combat effectiveness.
Damn right!
[Via Scott Johnson]
The Vancouver Sun:
The image of a dinosaur whose remains were discovered in Alberta’s Peace Country will be featured on our newest quarter — the first Canadian coin with a glow-in-the dark picture.The quarter, being released by the Royal Canadian Mint April 16, features Pachyrhinosaurus lakustai, a large herbivore whose bone fragments were discovered by Grande Prairie, Alta., science teacher Al Lakusta in 1974.
It’s a glow in the dark 25 cent piece that costs $30. Silly Canadians.
Simpsons creator Matt Groening revealed to Smithsonian magazine which Springfield the Simpsons’ Springfield is named after.
The Next Web:
In a move that should be a surprise to nobody, technology darling 500px is moving to take out Flickr with a new Plus plan. The company had previously held a high-level plan that was priced at $50 per year, but the Plus membership’s $20 per year pricing is aiming to hit Flickr where it hurts against its own pro-level plan at $25 per year.As for the features? Here’s what you’ll get – unlimited uploads and storage, access to files, unlimited number of collections, market functionality included, and advanced statistics on engagement.Another, smaller announcement is coming today as well. The site is introducing a desktop uploader app, for the Mac only. It’s doing so in response to the 30,000 photos per day that are uploaded to the service via the manual process, with 25% of its users on Mac machines.
I was a big fan and user of Flickr but it hasn’t really moved forward. Lots of photographers are checking out what 500px offers.
NASA: NASA’s 747 Shuttle Carrier Aircraft (SCA) with space shuttle Discovery mounted atop will fly approximately 1,500 feet above various parts of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area on Tuesday, April 17. The flight, in cooperation with the Federal Aviation Administration, … Continued
Anti-malware software publisher Kaspersky Lab has set up a site and free tool you can use to check your Mac and get rid of the Flashback malware, if necessary.
Dodge will introduce wireless device charging as an option when the 2013 Dart debuts.
The Atlantic: Don Johnson won nearly $6 million playing blackjack in one night, single-handedly decimating the monthly revenue of Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino. Not long before that, he’d taken the Borgata for $5 million and Caesars for $4 million. Here’s … Continued
The Marriott hotel chain says it’s ordered its ISP to stop using technology that allows it to hijack Web page loading with its own ads.
Jack Tramiel, the founder of once-influential computer maker Commodore International, died over the weekend. He was 83.
AT&T is now offering unlocking services for off-contract iPhones. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes rounds up some reader anecdotes about their experiences.
Sony is planning to cut 10,000 jobs as part of a company turnaround.
Facebook announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire Instagram, a fun, popular photo-sharing app for mobile devices.The total consideration for San Francisco-based Instagram is approximately $1 billion in a combination of cash and shares of Facebook. The transaction, which is subject to customary closing conditions, is expected to close later this quarter.
Gary Goddard:
My concept was to do something so large and so epic, it would fire the imaginations of people around the world. After looking at how difficult it would be to bring people to the downtown core (from the Strip), I knew we had to have something really exciting, dynamic, and without equal. We kicked around a few ideas, and then I came up with something really unique. I went to Chuck Canciller, my lead designer then – and a genius as well – and said, “What if we built the STARSHIP ENTERPRISE – FULL SCALE – on the land at the end of the street. Imagine that…”
That would have been amazing….
The wine, a Cabernet Sauvignon from California, is as uncomprimising and tough as the band.
The Big Picture:
The sinking of the RMS Titanic caused the deaths of 1,517 of its 2,229 passengers and crew (official numbers vary slightly) in one of the deadliest peacetime maritime disasters in history.The 1985 discovery of the Titanic wreck on the ocean floor marked a turning point for public awareness of the ocean and for the development of new areas of science and technology. April 15, 2012 will mark the 100th anniversary of the Titanic disaster.
The Big Picture, as always, has some amazing photos – including personal effects brought up from the site. Should those artifacts be left at what is, in effect, a burial site? Or is there more value to the living to actually see them?
5by5’s Dan Benjamin and I started our new show Amplified on Friday and we’re looking for your help. I wrote two theme songs for the show and we’d like you to vote for your favorite. You can listen to both songs and cast your vote for what will become the official Amplified theme.
Adrienne LaFrance:
Pew says around 150 U.S. dailies have digital subscription models, but AP reports 300 newspapers with paywalls.
I gladly pay for a number of blogs, but I don’t have a subscription to a single newspaper.
AP:
He designed Porsche’s classic 911 sports car – the sleek model that evokes power, wealth and envy among aficionados – cementing his grandfather’s name into the modern psycheFerdinand Alexander Porsche died Thursday in Salzburg, Austria at age 76, Porsche AG said. No cause was provided.
First Jim Marshall, now Porsche.
The Dropbox Blog:
For every friend you invite that installs Dropbox, you’ll both get 500 MB of free space. If you’ve got a free account, you can invite up to 32 people for a whopping total of 16 GB of extra space. Pro accounts now earn 1 GB per referral, for a total of 32 GB of extra space. Have you already invited a bunch of people? Don’t worry. Within a few days, you’ll get full credit for every referral that’s already been completed. Boom!
Nice little bonus for those of us who use Dropbox.
Dave Caolo:
I’ve noticed an interesting shift in blogging. In short, there’s a trend moving away from hyper-focused niche blogs, back to what I’d call “personality” blogs. It makes me think of when I started writing online in 2000, and I like it.
Dave’s article really took me back to when I began writing on the Internet.
For me, blogging in 2000 is what Twitter is today. People posted short items or a picture of what they were doing, but then it started to become a business. That’s not a bad thing at all, but it is nice to reminisce.
FileMaker Pro 12 is now available, and its iOS counterpart has been released for free.
Huffington Post: Interestingly enough, the study found that of women with minimal pop culture exposure, the majority surveyed find men to be less attractive when sporting a full face of hair. However, this same group of women also perceived bearded … Continued
A 93-year-old woman has racked up 576,000 miles on a 1964 Mercury.
Ashton Kutcher has been tapped to portray Steve Jobs in a new biopic unrelated to the Walter Isaacson book.
I really like the interface of this app.