Google Chromecast
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Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/n3khuC1K2Cg/google-chromecast-continues-to-improve-piece-by-piece-1455870085Tags: CJ Spiller The Family Colin Kaepernick Lee Thompson Young The White Queen
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Google Chromecast continues to improve piece by piece; the streaming dongle added Pandora today to i
Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/n3khuC1K2Cg/google-chromecast-continues-to-improve-piece-by-piece-1455870085Tags: CJ Spiller The Family Colin Kaepernick Lee Thompson Young The White Queen
Spoiled for Choice
Still courtesy MTV
We live in a paranoid, anxious age. The government collects all our Gchats one week and then frustratingly sets its status to “away” the next; we are told that quinoa is the perfect protein and then that we consume perfection at the expense of South American farmers. But one threat looms above all these in this dark time—the fear of spoilers.
To even begin to reference, in perfectly well-meaning conversation, the most recent happenings on a popular television show is to risk someone slamming their hands to their ears amid convulsions and screaming “Noooooo!” while stumbling for the door. (This happened to a Scandal fan in a recent Slate editorial meeting—I am still shaken by that victim’s wailing.) Of course, many (if not most) people have long found much of the pleasure of narrative entertainments in the delight of surprise; the ending of a dramatic film or the twist of a good mystery novel are sacred objects, only to be revealed to seekers when they themselves are ready. But such purity of experience is difficult when the place of worship is overrun by live-bloggers and show-tweeters and Facebook updaters—the clamoring money changers of our modern media temple.
But should we, with messianic righteousness, rush to cast these alleged miscreants out onto the street? Or should we, perhaps, show some charity, attempt to understand the mitzvah that their “spoiling” might represent?
You see, my anxiety is of a different sort, but it happens to be one that the spoilers can assuage easily. As someone who aspires to be an active participant in the “cultural conversation,” there are just too many things “one should have watched” to do it all myself. (Note that I’m just sticking to TV here; movies, books, and the other arts make matters even worse.) It used to be that you could read a few Great Books in college, check out Johnny Carson, watch a quality drama here or a must-see comedy there, and be basically set for a life of cocktail partying. But now we all must be as conversant in myriad prestige cable offerings as we are in The Simpsons’ Halloween special. Oh, and did you see Syfy’s most recent predator/natural disaster mashup? Well of course you caught that limited-run reboot of Ab Fab. And what did you think of that Stephen King miniseries about the alien cake plate that everyone is talking about?
I thought nothing, because I didn’t have time to watch it, what with feeding and bathing and resting myself and trying to occasionally revisit what silence sounds like. If you’re honest with yourself, you almost certainly don’t have time to watch everything you’re “supposed to” either, which is why a skilled spoiler should be your favorite person in the world. They are providing you a beautiful service—the ability to “spoil-watch.”
Consider, as a case study, my friend Brandon. Brandon is an avid viewer of MTV’s Catfish, which is a show I find intellectually engaging and enjoyable, but can’t justify including in my media consumption schedule with any regularity. But luckily I don’t have to, because each week, Brandon takes to Facebook and provides a delightful play-by-play mixed with his own brand of sassy commentary. Because I know Brandon will do this, it is now my custom to check his feed sometime after the broadcast, not only to learn the gist of what happened in the episode, but also to derive even more pleasure than I would have from the show itself, thanks to Brandon’s incisive comments. I get all the joys of Nev and Max and Brandon—in a fraction of the time! Why are people afraid of this, again? In a perfect world, we would all be spoiling for each other, and everyone would be freer and happier.
But maybe you’re still scared of knowing. I’ll allow that part of spoiler-acceptance is a matter of constitution: I have never much cared about knowing the endings of movies before I see them or stories before I read them. In fact, if I can gain some assurance ahead of time from a trusted source that a story will pay off to some degree in the end, I am much more likely to fit it in. Obviously, flops can be avoided as well. But spoil-watching works best as a prophylactic against mediocrity in shows of middling appeal, like, say, Catfish or Once Upon a Time or late True Blood. There is nothing worse than sitting through a whole episode of something you could already take or leave only to find that it has taken your time and left you in the gutter of dissatisfaction. Far better to spoil-watch such a program through Twitter or Facebook with a few mouse scrolls and perhaps revisit it when better episodes come along.
In truth, if the spoiler does her job well, you will leave with an appreciation of the episode at least equal to, if not better than, those poor souls who gambled their lives watching the whole thing. Memory is organized in flashes, moments, and a few pithy, secondhand ones recounted on a newsfeed are, considering cost-benefit, preferable to recording some myself over a long hour. (And honestly, I find the practice so seamless that I often can’t remember whether I actually watched something or spoil-watched it.)
You could say that, in my support of spoil-watching, I’m arguing for a CliffsNotes approach to television—and why not? Every good student knows there are texts worth reading in full and texts for which it is perfectly appropriate, even necessary, to skim. As students of pop culture, we should jealously guard our time with the former and, each according to his taste and ability, help each other get on with the latter as quickly and efficiently as possible. Such a utopian arrangement won’t spoil anything, I promise.
Source: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/how_we_watch_tv/2013/10/spoil_watching_a_better_way_to_keep_up_with_catfish_true_blood_once_upon.html
Tags: fiona apple Dylan Penn world war z
The Nexus 5 Gets A New Color And A New Rumored Launch Date
There really isn’t much we don’t know about Google and LG’s new Nexus 5 at this point — a leaked service manual blew the door open on plenty of technical details, and Google even “accidentally” outed the device in the Google Play Store, giving us a $349 price tag for the base 16GB model.
Now, thanks to the one and only @evleaks, we’ve gotten yet another glimpse at the forthcoming phone in some decidedly different livery. Rather than the bog-standard matte black finish we’ve seen on and off for the past few months, this newly-leaked image shows off a white version of the device ahead of its official launch… whenever that may be.
In case you haven’t been keeping up with the Nexus 5′s long journey from rumor to actual product, the Android 4.4 KitKat device is said to sport a 4.95-inch display running at 1080p and a quad-core Snapdragon 800 chipset clocked at 2.3GHz. Oh, and let’s not forget 2GB of RAM, an active LTE radio, and a mildly improved 2300mAh battery — all told we’re looking at a pretty solid update.
Arguably more important than that new chromatic choice is the latest in a long line of purported release dates for the Nexus 5 — this time it looks like November 1 is the day to circle on your calendars. For a while there it looked like we would get our first official glimpse at the Nexus 5 on October 15, a day that came and went with nary a peep from Google. Then there came word of a small Google Play event slated for the evening of the 24th in New York City, which ultimately turned out to be little more than a meet-and-greet for certain members of the press.
Couple that with a separate report from the folks at MobileSyrup forecasting a launch on October 31 and it’s starting to seem very likely that the Nexus 5 will make its grand debut at the end of the month. Of course, that’s only a few days away and there’s still no smoking gun — Google hasn’t started distributing invitations — so we’ll see just how much longer this not-so-secret secret winds up staying under wraps. Curiously enough, the Nexus 5 may not be alone when it hits the Google Play Store for real. An LTE-enabled version of the Nexus 4 put in an appearance in the Bluetooth Special Interest Group’s device certification listings.
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Jake Gyllenhaal & Matthew McConaughey Talk Worst Auditions in The Hollywood Reporter
They are never ones to shy away from the spotlight, and now Jake Gyllenhaal, Forest Whitaker, Matthew McConaughey, Jared Leto, Josh Brolin and Michael B. Jordan front the The Hollywood Reporter's Actor's Roundtable Issue.
During their interview with the publication, the stars shared their experience in Hollywood and discussed their bad audition experiences.
Check out GossipCenter's recapof the gentleman's interview below. For more, be sure to visit The Hollywood Reporter!
Jake
On his worst audition:
"I remember auditioning for 'The Lord of the Rings' [the role of Frodo] and going in and not being told that I needed a British accent. I really do remember Peter Jackson saying to me, 'You know that you have to do this in a British accent?' We heard back it was literally one of the worst auditions."
Jared
On saying no to a role:
"I've talked myself out of auditions a hundred times. I auditioned for [Robert] De Niro seven times, years and years ago. I remember auditioning for Terrence Malick, and the casting director upended a couch, and we were supposed to hide behind it and shoot imaginary guns! In that audition, I literally stood up, took a few imaginary bullets and shoved [the casting director]. I said, 'I can't do this. This is like bad high school play,' and I walked out. And then Terrance called me - you guys I'm sure have met him; he's the most gentle and amazing guy in the world - and he's like, 'Uh Jared? I'd love you to be in my film."
Matthew
On his career:
"You mentioned two types of fear, and the one that's good is when you're scared. You don't know what's on the other side, but you're like, 'I'm gonna dive in. I know there's something out there; I don't know how to define it yet. I don't know the equation, but I'm gonna come up and I'll understand it.' It takes you to the cliff and you should be scared because the clip drops, and you don't have a net."
Forest
On his biggest mistake:
"I was playing a schizophrenic [in 'The Last King of Scotland'], and every night I kept working really hard, pushing my head to the point where I started to seethe things that I was imagining. I realized there is a way to screw with your brain. It took me a really long time to get myself back to thinking the way I wanted to - it almost took a year."
Josh
On his children:
"I wasn't working a lot when my kids were growing up,so I got to spend a lot of time at home. And my kids are 20 and 25 now, so I get to work and don't have to worry about them."
Michael
On the person he leans on for career advice:
"Honestly, I haven't had too many people. You're surprised when you see the older generation be very precious with information. [But] as an upcoming actor, I was lucky enough to have Forest and Pete Berg and David Simon. But for the most part, it's been trial and error."
Source: http://celebrity-gossip.net/jake-gyllenhaal/jake-gyllenhaal-matthew-mcconaughey-talk-worst-auditions-hollywood-reporters-actor-r
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JK Shin: 5 million Galaxy Note 3s shipped in first month
Note 3 reaches 5 million milestone in half the time of its predecessor
A few days ago news broke of the Galaxy S4 sales passing the 40 million mark, and now we're seeing the first indication of how quickly Samsung is getting Galaxy Note 3 devices out into stores. According to reports from Korean outlet Hanooki, Samsung CEO JK Shin revealed at a recent media event that his company had shipped 5 million Galaxy Note 3s during the device's first month of availability.
To put that in perspective, the company moved 3 million Galaxy Note 2s in that device's first month, a number which had jumped to 5 million by the end of the second month. This time around the Note 3 saw a smoother global rollout than its predecessor, with the crucial U.S. market being among the first to launch the oversized handset. This, together with Samsung's ramped-up marketing of the device, likely contributed to the Note 3 reaching its five-millionth shipment so quickly.
For more on the Galaxy Note 3, check out our full review.
Source: Hanooki (Korean); via: SamMobile
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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/1U4BfjQz9_I/story01.htmTags: vikings Henry Bromell djokovic Romain Dauriac Rafael Caro Quintero
Feds proving Internet-adept and inept at same time
WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to computers, the Obama administration appears simultaneously to be a bungling amateur and a stealthy wizard. The same government that reportedly intercepted the communications of America's leading consumer technology firms, Google and Yahoo, without leaving a trace is scorned because it can't build a working federal website for health insurance.
In a single day in the nation's capital, extremes of the impressive successes and stunning failures of the Internet age were on full display.
Computer professionals said the government can be both adept and inept at the same time because the tasks are so different and for reasons involving who is doing it, for how much money, how long it takes and how publicly it is done.
Under a classified project called MUSCULAR, the National Security Agency has secretly broken into the main communications links that connect Google and Yahoo data centers around the world, The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing documents obtained from former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden. In the past 30 days, the NSA swept up and processed more than 180 million new records, including metadata indicating who sent and received emails and when it happened, the Post reported.
Across town, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius was apologizing to Congress over the bungled healthcare.gov website. New documents obtained by The Associated Press showed that officials had worried that a lack of website testing posed a potentially high security risk. In yet another conflict-riddled Capitol Hill hearing, a congressman told Sebelius that she had put Americans' personal financial information at risk.
The difference? National priorities, including big differences in how much the government spends, plus the talent and expertise of the people the government hires.
The NSA's annual budget was just over $7 billion in fiscal 2013, according to budget documents leaked by Snowden. The budget for the entire Health and Human Services Department was less than $1 trillion, and it spent $118 million on the website plus about $56 million on other IT to support the website, Sebelius said Wednesday.
The NSA is famous for employing small focused teams of highly talented, highly recruited experts with special skills, said Chris Wysopal, a former hacker who is chief technology officer for Veracode in Burlington, Mass. But the Health and Human Services Department's website designers? "They are sort of your average developers," he said.
Ex-hacker Marc Maiffret, who once wore his hair green in spikes and is the chief technology officer at BeyondTrust of San Diego, said Beltway contractors who work on civilian technology projects usually are over-budget and under-performing. Teams putting together large IT systems are complex and must coordinate across different government agencies, insurance companies, states and contractors.
"They may have underestimated the complexity when they started on it, which is again not surprising," said Purdue University computer science professor Gene Spafford.
Motivation is important too. Patriotic hacking on behalf of the NSA is exciting, especially among the mostly young and mostly male demographic.
"Breaking in, it feels like special ops," Wysopal said. "Building something feels probably like you're in the Corps of Engineers. You're just moving a lot of dirt around."
It's also widely understood to be easier to break something down than to build it. Siphoning the Google and Yahoo data is simpler to do than building a secure website for millions of people to get health care, Wysopal and Maiffret said.
Besides, if the NSA had failed to collect all the data it wanted during a classified mission, few people would learn about it — unlike what happened almost immediately when the health care website was launched and immediately experienced problems, said Matt Green, a computer science professor at Johns Hopkins University.
"If the NSA doesn't do something, you and I don't hear about it," Green said.
The government generally spends more money researching how to attack, not defend, computers, said Spafford, director of the Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security at Purdue.
The apparent contradiction between health care and the NSA, Spafford said, "is what makes computers magical."
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Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security: http://www.cerias.purdue.edu/site/about
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Follow Seth Borenstein on Twitter at http://twitter.com/borenbears
- Politics & Government
- Kathleen Sebelius
- National Security Agency
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Pakistan Says Drones Killed Far Fewer Civilians Than Thought
A U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
A U.S. Predator drone flies over Kandahar Air Field, southern Afghanistan.
Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP
While human rights groups and other watchdogs have put the civilian death toll in the hundreds, Pakistan's Ministry of Defense announced Wednesday that just 3 percent of the deaths from U.S. drone strikes since 2008 were noncombatants.
The ministry says 317 drone strikes have killed 2,160 Islamic militants and 67 civilians in the last five years.
According to Pakistan's Dawn newspaper, the ministry also says there hasn't been a single civilian death from a U.S. drone since January 2012 — a time period that saw 300 such strikes carried out in Pakistani territory.
Dawn says:
"[This] year has witnessed the lowest number of drone strikes which are 14 as compared to 2010 when the US hit Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas 115 times through drone attacks."
Even so, the strikes have been publicly condemned by Islamabad and were reportedly the subject of discussions last week between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and President Obama during the Pakistani leader's visit to Washington.
The Pakistan Defense Ministry's conclusion is similar to one reached by the U.S. Army War College in a report that we wrote about last month. The War College report said 26 militants were killed for every confirmed civilian death, a ratio that comes out to just under 4 percent.
A United Nations expert said earlier this month, however, that at least 400 civilians had been killed since 2004, or about 18 percent of the total 2,200 drone strike deaths.
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