By now, it’s no secret that Sony sucks at cybersecurity . The company’s movie business, Sony Pictures Entertainment, was recently hit with what may end up being the biggest corporate hack in history. It’s not the first time Sony has laid claim to that title. And if history is any guide, it likely won’t be the last.
Here’s the first trailer for The Walk, the 2015 film about Philippe Petit, the man who tight rope walked between the two World Trade Center towers in 1974. My stomach just dropped a little bit.
Here is a good idea: A coffee machine that roasts, grinds, and brews all in one go—raw, green beans to a hot cup of coffee on your countertop. Hell yeah. Freshness.
There’s no denying Wikipedia’s usefulness, but French computer science student Owen Cornec believes the website could stand to display entries “in a more engaging way.” Thus, he created WikiGalaxy: a special Wikipedia browser that visualizes the webs…
The remote has surpassed its once single-minded capabilities in recent years and Logitech’s Harmony series has been at the forefront, adding SmartThings and PEQ automation platforms to its 270,000-strong list of control devices. Adjust lighting with …
Online video streaming services are embracing content in Ultra HD. Even though 4K televisions aren’t as common right now it is about time that the ball started rolling on 4K streaming. Netflix already started streaming content in 4K earlier this year and now Amazon Instant Video joins the fray. Amazon today announced that its video streaming service will offer a limited selection of content in Ultra HD for streaming in the United States.
Amazon Instant Video happens to be the only other major online video streaming service, apart from Netflix, to offer 4K streaming. Subscribers will be able to take advantage of Ultra HD content through the Amazon Instant Video app on supported smart TVs.
The video streaming service currently offers a very limited selection of content for streaming in Ultra HD, which includes some blockbuster movies like American Hustle, Captain Phillips and Moneyball. Ultra HD versions of Amazon’s original content will be available for streaming as well, apart from content from certain provides, like Orphan Black from the BBC.
Netflix charges subscribers extra for streaming content in 4K but that’s not the case with Amazon Instant Video. Subscribers who want to purchase a movie in Ultra HD from Amazon Instant Video will have to pay upwards of $19.99.
Amazon Instant Video 4K Streaming Kicks Off
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YouTube has updated its experience on the Apple TV, bringing the full video catalog from the web to its software for the Apple media streamer. The app also now offers improved recommendations for signed in users, better search with predictive results, subscribe capabilities for channels and a new look that looks like a much better overall experience for discovery and navigation. The… Read More
LIVONIA, La. (AP) — A Louisiana teenager playing a game with friends on train tracks was killed this weekend when some equipment threw him under one of the cars.
Law enforcement officials tell The Advocate (http://bit.ly/1znB2g6 ) that 17-year-old Brandt Torres and three friends had been placing coins on train tracks to watch them be crushed early Sunday. Torres lay on the ground inches from the passing cars. A ladder hanging off one of the cars caught him, tossing him under the train. He was just south of a Union Pacific rail yard in Livonia, and he died about 1:30 a.m.
Authorities say Torres nearly died two years earlier in a hunting accident when he stood up in the path of a fellow duck hunter. A sheriff’s spokesman called his recovery “close to a miracle.”
Reports from the North Pole indicate that Santa Claus, his elves and his reindeer will begin to wear body cameras in the remaining days leading up to Christmas. “This is a very real attempt to address the increasing sense of distrust that exists between Mr. Claus, his staff, and the community surrounding his Secret Village,” says Lance Whitforde of the North Pole Holiday Public Safety Unit, Sugar Plum Division. “The cameras will be used in and around Mr. Claus’ workshop and during sleigh rides, home entries for toy delivery, mall appearances, and any reindeer games.”
While some see the use of the camera technology as a way to provide more accountability, many experts are skeptical. “Is it legal to do this?” asks attorney Marsha Yanripple. “How much can the cameras show? And could this lead to bias in Santa’s deciding who has been naughty or nice?” Joel Fellafoul, spokesperson for the Elf Federation of Labor and Candycane International Organizers (EFL-CIO), says:
These cameras could be a serious distraction for elves trying to finish their toys before deadline. In a similar case, the Oompa-Loompas at Wonka Industries were given temporary body cameras to wear and became so self-conscious that they accidentally poured radium into the chocolate river. Children cried/As they died/In a world of pure contamination.
Others don’t see the cameras addressing the more fundamental issues involved. “What difference does any of this make?” asks Whoville resident Billy Prue Hugh Who, a father of three. “I mean, Santa sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. He randomly breaks into homes. It’s just too damned creepy.”
Ever since I quit my “real” job — the one that required me to put on a cute outfit and leave the house every morning — I’ve had a problem with the question “What do you do?” I tend to fumble around a response before slowly slinking off or feigning interest in a distant object. Without the benefit of a traditionally defined job, there is no quick response.
Even in seemingly innocuous situations, “What do you do?” bothers me. I live near the U.S. border, so the other day, a girlfriend and I took a quick cross-border shopping trip. As we pulled into the customs stop, I experienced the sense of worry and guilt which always accompanies the exchange with a customs officer. Even though I am not smuggling goods, or in possession of firearms, tobacco or fruit, I feel compelled to establish a rapport with this person.
I notice the officer’s last name, and comment that we may have a similar heritage. We engage in (what I feel to be) some witty banter, and then he carries on with his routine interrogation: “Where do you live?” “How long have you been out of the country?” At last, he gets to “What do you do?”
The officer is simply following procedure. Still, my friend and I both hesitate. “I work from home” provides no information. “Nothing,” while tempting, belies the truth. “I work for my husband,” makes me feel like I’ve set the feminist movement back 60 years and I’m riding shotgun with Betty Draper.
Finally, my friend answers. “We stay at home.”
The customs officer grins, then laughs, and in his Eastern European accent, says, “This is what we call a domestic engineer.” Hilarious.
The funny thing is, my friend is an actual engineer. She has a degree in mechanical engineering — from a respectable institution. Not that she practices. Who has time between schlepping the kids around and all these shopping trips?
We laugh along, mainly because we are balanced on a tenuous line which separates us from one country to another. Yet, we both know we are not happy with our answer, or his.
A number of friends who work at “real” jobs tell me they find themselves equally uneasy with the question, and their ability to answer it. Unless you have an unambiguous title — doctor, teacher, blacksmith — your response provides little explanation. Often, regardless of how fulfilling a job may be, it’s hard to distill the essence of what one does down to something a layperson will understand. And, as one friend pointed out, by that time, it sounds so banal and life-depleting it makes you want to quit on the spot. Moreover, you still haven’t divulged anything about who you really are. The truth is, even back when I had my “real” job with its pat answer, I often thought, Isn’t there a better question?
It’s a North American obsession, this tendency to ask after someone’s occupation. Rarely will you hear, “What do you do?” posed by a Brit. The British believe it impolite to ask, as it assumes one must do something — as opposed to being a wealthy land owner or member of the peerage. Imagine Lord Grantham or The Dowager Countess approaching a houseguest at the Abbey with this line. Say what you will about landed gentry, but when it came to common courtesy, they had it down.
In our culture, “What do you do?” or “What’s keeping you busy?” have become default salutations. With the exception of customs officials, I assume these questions are rhetorical. I mean, does anyone actually want to know what is keeping me busy? Some days I get down to business, but other days the minutia of my life makes me want to run around with my hands raised in horror like an Edvard Munch painting. Unless I have earth-shaking news to divulge, I don’t feel compelled to reply. And clearly, if I were doing something earthshaking, I wouldn’t have time to sit around and explain what’s keeping me busy.
More and more, when it comes to this matter, I tend to think less of the inquisitor, as if his asking stems from a lack of imagination. If you want to get to the heart of who I am and what I do, ask me what I’m reading, or where I’ve travelled to lately or what I bought the last time I cross-border shopped. Not only is the question more interesting, but so too is the answer.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
