[Update: I should have know I was Onion-rolled. This New Yorker piece is fake. Still funny.]
Andy Borowitz, for The New Yorker:
A Microsoft spokesman said only that Mr. Gates’s first day in his new job had been “a learning experience” and that, for the immediate future, he would go back to running Windows 7.
Is this not a perfect metaphor for Microsoft?
via parislemon
Technology Review: What Noise Does the Electric Car Make?
Electric vehicles can be so quiet that they pose a new risk on the road. But what kind of artificial sound should be added?
Interesting problem indeed.
—from Season 1, Episode 1 of Sherlock
(Yes, I’m only 4 years late in getting into Sherlock. I like it. I’m also a few years late in taking advantage of Instant Video on my Amazon Prime subscription)
A 12-Year-Old Explains the Information Age’s Facts of Life to Her Mother:
Mom, it’s gonna be a long ride to Grandma’s, and while we have some time alone together, I think it’d be good for us to talk about some things. I’m getting older, and I’m not always gonna be around the house to explain stuff to you. I know you have a lot of questions, and I want us to be open with each other. So, I think it’s time you learned where blogs and tweets come from.
A bit dated in parts, but still funny.
Over at Grantland, Kate Baker on [just how bad it is in Sochi](Just How Bad Is the Scene in Sochi?):
I had yet to eat my breakfast this morning when someone regaled me with a story about a guy staying up in Sochi’s mountaintop media hotel cluster who turned on his faucet and watched as sewage spilled out. Last night, a colleague returned to her room after a long day of work to find the door swung open, a set of keys still dangling from the lock. Nothing was stolen, but a TV had finally been installed. It could have been worse: The door to one guy’s room was supposedly kicked down by workers trying to put in a cable box.
I can’t help but imagine if a young Hunter S. Thompson was alive today.
Imagine the stories he’d bring back.
Via SamMobile (the page has been removed, but still on Google Cache)
Today, we have screenshots of a newer version of S Voice, Samsung’s personal assistant app, which is expected to debut on future devices like the Galaxy S5. As with the S Health and WatchON apps, Samsung has made a few changes to the interface, though in case of S Voice, we can’t say those changes are for the better, as the app looks as unattractive as it does in its currently available avatar
Samsung makes unattractive software?
Definitely sounds like my experience.
I mean, look how dull and lifeless the design of Samsung’s S Voice app is:
Compared with what they copied, Apple’s Siri:
Samsung knows how to make money, but I find nothing admirable about their products.
That’s how you not-cover, cover a song.
h/t my brother
From The Verge:
Your work could be at the heart of one of the largest digital art exhibitions the world has ever seen, thanks to a collaboration between London’s Barbican Centre and Google.
The exhibition is called Digital Revolution, and from July 3rd to September 14th it will explore the impact of technology on art over the past 40 years. It will feature artists, designers, musicians, architects, and developers to reveal the artistry that’s all around us, from the films that we watch to the games that we play. DevArt, its final act, will showcase three large-scale, “magical” works of art from established artists, and one that’s yet to be announced. That’s where you come in.
This show looks interesting, but to be clear, art + code is nothing new.
When I started my career as a web designer, guys like Joshua Davis, James Paterson, Robert Hodgin and Erik Natzke were creating amazing interactive art with code (and still are).
Go back farther and you’ll find all the things John Maeda was experimenting with in the 90’s.
Groundhog Day show at Super Precious Art Gallery
via Quipsologies
From the gorgeous portfolio of Tony Rodriguez
Wow, North Korea, you’ve outdone yourselves with your new computer operating system.
Looks like something I’ve seen before, but I can’t put my finger on it…
Sorry, I just had to change my wallpaper real quick.
I’d like the millions of self-righteous Prius owners in the Bay Area to read this article about electric cars:
There are lots of good reasons for buying an electric car, from cutting your gas bill to feeling good for helping out with smog. But climate change? Not really.
Though Priuses and Leafs are associated with greener living, it turns out they do little planetary good, according to a new study. When you quantify the economy-wide impact of electric vehicles, measured in greenhouse gas pollutants, it’s basically a wash. From a climate perspective, you might as well keep your old sedan.
Haha. I’ve know this for a while. Not because I’m especially smart—you just need to know the source of the electricity that’s charging your fucking car (oil, gas and coal, yay!). Or understand the mining required to make batteries.
The combustion chamber lives to see another day.
Fortune Tech were lucky duckies and got to interview Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang.
When asked if his company can catch up to Apple or Samsung in smartphone sales, Yang replied:
Definitely, over time. Our mission is to surpass them.
Thanks, Yang. Noted.
Let’s check in each year for the next five years. See how that surpassing thing goes.
If you’ll indulge me for a moment, Mister Yang, sir: Now that you own Motorola, might I suggest going all future-retro with new models that look like the StarTAC and RAZR? Kids these days eat up olde timey technology gadgets.
You know, the smartphone market is still growing, but it’s also getting fairly mature. It might be wiser to use a blue ocean strategy and purse the next thing, versus swimming with the sharks in the smartphone red ocean.
