Chameleon changing colors
A chameleon changing colors by letting it touch different colored sunglasses. Looks really cool but I don’t know if it’s real or fake.
Source: chameleon
Amazing video from the folks at Snaproll Media. Shot with a Red One/Epic video camera attached to a remote controlled helicopter.
Source: vimeo.com
The Milky Way and Storms over Africa.
Very awesome time-lapse made by NASA showing lightning storms over Africa and the Milky Way rising in the background. Shot from the International Space Station.
Source: youtu.be
The iPhone Economy. Awesome video on how the outplacement of factory, and other, jobs effect the economy.
Via alexandernl and @wbroek.
Source: The New York Times
Why the Feds Smashed MegaUpload
From the article:
The indictment goes after six individuals, who between them owned 14 Mercedes-Benz automobiles with license plates such as “POLICE,” “MAFIA,” “V,” “STONED,” “CEO,” “HACKER,” GOOD,” “EVIL,” and—perhaps presciently—”GUILTY.” The group also had a 2010 Maserati, a 2008 Rolls-Royce, and a 1989 Lamborghini. They had not one but three Samsung 83” TVs, and two Sharp 108” TVs. Someone owned a “Predator statue.” Motor bikes, jet skis, artwork, and even 60 Dell servers could all be forfeit to the government if it can prove its case against the members of the “Mega Conspiracy.”
Damn. Didn’t know MegaUpload did such good business AND that they were aware of illegal content hosted through their site. Read it, pretty insightful.
Source: Ars Technica
This is the first video uploaded to YouTube in 2005 by one of the founders. I came across the description of this video in the article ‘Will Robert Kyncl and YouTube Revolutionize Television?’. I thought it was fun to google for it and it popped up as the first hit.
Source: youtube.com
Industrial Designer Prashant Chandra entered Fujitsu’s Lifebook competition in which he created what you see above. He reached the finals and is now awaiting results. It’s an interesting concept to say the least. Sign me up for one!
NOTE: You can scroll through the photos by clicking on the arrow on the left and right hand side.
Source: prashantchandra.com
Stop SOPA Protest Successful
Wednesday January 18th was a remarkable day for the internet. Though not everyone noticed it, there was a lot of good done. January 18 was the day of #StopSOPA. It was a worldwide day of protesting against SOPA/PIPA, the bills the US Congress wants to enact to battle piracy online. If you’re like “Woa hold up, what are you talking about?!” please make sure you click the highlighted words in this article to learn more ;).
A lot of big names were in on the protest. Google created a petition, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg let everyone know he was against it in a status update, Wikipedia blacked out their English site and had students going crazy not knowing what happened, Senate websites went offline because of the massive amounts of people trying to contact them and people even took to the streets. In a 24 hour period of time all of the protests accomplished to get a majority of US Congress members to vote against the SOPA and PIPA bills.
So to say it was successful is a big understatement. Now, this is not the end of it. The vote was just delayed for a month. Next month they will vote again and let’s hope the vast majority is still against it. Despite all these efforts the Department of Justice today took down filesharing website MegaUpload. This was done without SOPA and PIPA in effect. Imagine what they are able to do when these bills are effected.
What else can we do? Nothing we didn’t already do. Make sure to let people know about SOPA and PIPA. Point them towards their Wikipedia pages. Vote against political parties in your country that support these activities. The internet should remain uncensored. Also remember that piracy is not a good thing and it must be stopped too. But not this way. New business models need to arrive to counter piracy. There’s still a long way to go.
Each of us must experience one of two pains - the pain of discipline or the pain of regret. Which pain will you choose?
Safe the Free Internet
Today is the day the internet goes on strike. Well, not the entire internet but a lot of big websites are. SOPA/PIPA, two bills the US Congress wants to enact are threatening the way we consume information on the web. Wikipedia decided to blackout their English version of the website for the entirety of January 18 2012. A lot of other sites will follow suit. The funny Oatmeal decided to blackout his site too today in protest of SOPA/PIPA.
Over here in The Netherlands we just had our own little SOPA/PIPA-like situation. Brein, a company which says they are acting in the interest of creative professionals, was granted a motion by a Dutch judge in the court of The Hague to block The Pirate Bay by the internet providers Ziggo and XS4ALL. So if you are a customer of one of these providers you will soon not be able to use The Pirate Bay.
Though I don’t condone spreading illegal material like movies, music and other media which some people worked hard for to make I do think censorship is not the solution. Censorship is not the way to go when protecting Intellectual Property. By blocking one, another will spawn. The internet has been started as a free way to share information all over the globe. Don’t let them censor us. Don’t let them stop the free internet. Make sure your voice is heard every way you can. Use the free internet to do so!
Technology Entrepreneur.
