Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corporation, today issued a statement calling for Facebook and Google to subsidize the news traveling through their platforms. In the statement, Murdoch calls on Facebook to pay a carriage fee, as cable companies do with pay TV, to trusted publishers that are posting their content on the social media platform: I have yet to see a proposal that… Read More
GIMP’s photo editing capabilities make it the best free alternative to Photoshop. If you’re new to the app, it’s easy and intuitive to pick up; you can get excellent results in no time at all. If you’ve used Photoshop before, you’ll find GIMP familiar. There are some different features, and the tools often have different names, but the basic principles are the same. Before You Begin Before we look at how to use GIMP for photo editing, there are a few things you need to know: The default setup for the app is for every part of the interface —...
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The always outspoken Linus Torvalds, best known for his continuing work on the innermost code of Linux systems, has harsh words to say and accusations to level against Intel. His evaluation of Intel’s latest proposed fix for the Meltdown/Spectre issue: “the patches are COMPLETE AND UTTER GARBAGE.” Read More
We have written before about valid reasons to avoid Netflix, and many of them still hold true today — Netflix isn’t for everybody. But the Netflix of today isn’t the same Netflix of five years ago, in good ways and bad, so if you aren’t a current subscriber, it may be time to reconsider. At the risk of sounding like a shill, Netflix is the only bill I’m happy to pay. And no, before you ask in the comments, Netflix did not sponsor this article. I watch it for an hour or so every night and I still haven’t managed...
Read the full article: 7 Reasons to Subscribe to Netflix This Year
Brian McClendon, a notable engineering executive at startups and large tech companies including Google and Uber, has announced his candidacy to run for the open seat of Secretary of State of Kansas. He will compete in the Democratic primary scheduled for August 7th. McClendon has been a lifelong engineer, growing up in the state and receiving his undergraduate degree in electrical engineering… Read More
Ziro is a nifty programmable robotics kit for kids that had a successful Indiegogo campaign last year. And the company behind it, ZeroUI, is still adding new features. By default, Ziro kits come with a smart glove to control your robots. You can use the mobile app to configure gestures based on hand movements. For instance, if you tilt your hand forward, it can make a car go forward. Ziro now… Read More
How often do you stop and think about the apps you’re installing on your computer? We’re not talking about apps like Microsoft Word or Adobe Photoshop, which have millions of users and are perfectly safe to use. We mean other third-party apps that, on the face of it, perform useful tasks. For example, how confident are you that your Start Menu replacement software isn’t spying on you? Are you sure your registry cleaner isn’t causing more harm than good? And are you confident that your favorite free game isn’t loaded with malware? Of course, most Windows apps aren’t going to...
Read the full article: Do Not Install These Windows 10 Apps and Programs
Unbound is a self-described sextech webshop for rebellious women and its founder, Polly Rodriguez, is a unique and fascinating representative for the site. In this Technotopia podcast I talk to Rodriguez about the future of sex toys and why sex robots probably won’t win us over. It’s refreshing to hear someone like Rodriguez talk about the future of human-to-human content and what… Read More
Google CEO Sundar Pichai wrote a blog post about Google’s investments in France. There are three different pieces of news in this announcement. First, Google is going to expand its office in Paris. If you already know Google’s current office in Paris, that building is going to stick around. The company is going to acquire or rent other buildings around Google’s current office… Read More
Waymo continues to expand the pool of locations where it’s testing its autonomous vehicle tech, and the latest destination is metro Atlanta. The former Google self-driving car company revealed the news on Twitter, noting that it’s expanding considerably its geographic testing footprint now that it’s got fully driverless test vehicles on the road in Phoenix. Its test cars… Read More
Amazon has opened its first Amazon Go store in Seattle. Amazon Go is an attempt to take the friction out of shopping, making lines and checkouts a thing of the past. The store IS staffed, but the online shopping giant is relying on technology to keep everything running smoothly. Amazon dominates the online shopping space, with Amazon Prime, Amazon Fresh, and other efforts locking people into its ecosystem. And, having opened physical bookstores in various locations, Amazon is now muscling in on grocery stores and supermarkets. Amazon Go is here. Amazon Go Is Now Open to the Public The first...
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Whether you’re an IT analyst or a regular computer user, there are a lot of tasks you may need to do frequently on your PC. VB Scripts are scaled down Visual Basic programs that serve as Windows scripts that can do anything from pull up important information about your computer hardware, to stopping and starting services or resetting your network card. It’s possible to learn how to do all of those individual things the normal way, or do them using batch files. But VB scripts are better than batch scripts because they’re more flexible. If you store the following scripts...
Read the full article: 5 Useful VB Windows Scripts to Automate Your Computer Use
There are some great deals available on Amazon, included the Fire HD 8 for the same price as Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Check them out! Fire HD 8 Tablet with Alexa Fire HD 8 Tablet with Alexa, 8" HD Display, 16 GB, Black - with Special Offers Fire HD 8 Tablet with Alexa, 8" HD Display, 16 GB, Black - with Special Offers The next generation of our best-reviewed Fire tablet, with up to 12 hours of battery life, a vibrant 8" HD display, a 1.3 GHz quad-core processor, 1.5 GB of RAM, and Dolby Audio. More durable than...
Read the full article: Here Are The Best Deals Available On Amazon Today
Pow! Crash! Destructive environments! Obligatory time travel! Yes, superhero games are awesome, bringing the worlds of super power-bearing heroes and villains from the pages of a comic book to your favorite gaming device. Some superhero video games are more popular than others, however. Over the years, we’ve seen countless titles featuring mutants and aliens with unusual abilities. Consequently, players have overlooked many of these in favor of big-hitting titles, often movie tie-ins. Today we want to bring justice to these unfairly maligned five great superhero games. 1. The Wonderful 101 (2013) Have you heard of The Wonderful 101? Because the...
Read the full article: 5 Action-Packed Superhero Games You’ve Never Played
Everyone wants to be the Craigslist killer. In November, Facebook expanded its Marketplace section to include partners’ housing rentals alongside secondhand merchandise, and today the number three shopping app letgo is doing the same. The company says that, starting today, its tens of millions of users can now quickly snap a few photos and add a description to list a housing rental or… Read More
One of my favorite cybersecurity terms is “botnet.” It conjures all sorts of imagery: interconnected robots, legions of networked workers simultaneously powering toward a single goal. Funnily enough, the image the word evokes is similar to what a botnet is — in roundabout terms, at least. Botnets account for a serious amount of computing power around the world. And that power is regularly (perhaps even consistently) the source of malware, ransomware, spam, and more. But how do botnets come into existence? Who controls them? And how can we stop them? What Is a Botnet? The SearchSecurity botnet definition states that...
Read the full article: What Is a Botnet and Is Your Computer Part of One?
Jealous of your iPhone-owning friends being able to FaceTime with each other? Wondering how you can put FaceTime on your Android phone? Want to find an Android equivalent of FaceTime? We’ll discuss all these topics and more in our guide to FaceTime for Android. What Is FaceTime? First, we should review what FaceTime is and how it works. FaceTime is Apple’s video and audio-calling service. It launched in 2010 for iOS, and 2011 for Mac. It’s a free service on all compatible Apple devices, including iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iPod touch. Anyone with these devices can call anyone else on...
Read the full article: Here’s Why You Won’t Get FaceTime for Android
Are you looking for a straightforward remote assistance app? When you want to control another PC over the internet, it’s important to find a program that’s both reliable and intuitive. That’s what CloudBerry Remote Assistant promises — even better, it’s completely free of charge. Let’s take a look at this Windows-only tool and what it can do for you. Install CloudBerry Remote Assistant Get started by visiting the CloudBerry Remote Assistant page. Click the green Download button, enter your email address, and run the installer once it finishes downloading. The installer doesn’t offer any complex options or extra junk, so...
Read the full article: CloudBerry Remote Assistant Can Remote Control Any Windows PC
Even though there are so many things available to us through just our fingertips these days, it’s only human nature for us to get bored. Fortunately, we have social network sites that allow us to broadcast our boredom to our friends and family, or even remedy the problem. But where do we even start? There are many popular social networking sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, and each one has their own set of things that you can do to entertain yourself or even become more productive. Thankfully, we’re here to help. Facebook When you think of social networking these...
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In a fascinating chapter on meta-learning (that is, learning about learning) in The Four-Hour Chef, Tim Ferriss talks about the deconstruction of skills that we’d love to master. This is “where we flip things upside down and look at what the outliers are doing differently (and what they’re not doing at all).” It’s through this kind of deconstruction that we can see what separates the successful from the rest of us. No, it’s not where we discover their innate greatness. It’s where we uncover the daily habits, rituals, routines, and processes that successful people adopt to bolster their overall productivity...
Read the full article: The Best Daily Rituals of Warren Buffet, Arianna Huffington, Elon Musk, and More
