Being a mom is no joke. It’s a tiring role, but with what’s expected of moms, they might as well call it a job. The hardest part is having to discipline the kids. It’s no fun, their hearts might break when they have to punish the kids, but it’s something that must be done all the same.
Mother’s Day may have come and gone, but one thing that was created because of it lives on: the Momtract.
It’s a tool that was created by Mother New York, which essentially creates binding contracts for “sons and daughters to contractually forsake control over one part of their lives.”
The contract goes on to make the following warning: “If you don’t meet the terms of the agreement, she can sue you.” The contract is legally binding for one year and “should there be a default on the contract, penalties include fines of up to $20,000 and a maximum number of 12 non-holiday visits from your wronged mother.”
Check it out here, and draw a Momtract up between you and your mom. Remember, it’s better late than never.
If there’s one thing you can be sure of it is that you can’t always trust the reviews you read on apps on the Google Play store. There a number of reasons why people would post inaccurate reviews from jealousy to downright stupidity. I’d wager that a lot of the negative reviews you see on some applications are people who simply don’t know how to use them. Google has announced via the Android Developers Blog that all Google Play developers can now reply to user reviews.
Clearly that means the flame wars are about to begin. You can bet that when a developer sees someone leaving a idiotic negative review about their application, they will reply. Now the trolls can be trolled. The ability to comment on user reviews for developers also opens the door for developers to respond to good reviews and feature suggestions.
I wonder if the fact that a developer can now reply to a negative review might prevent some people from posting negative reviews. One of the reasons so many trolls troll online is because there is typically no way for people to know who they are so the poster doesn’t have to face anything uncomfortable because of their review.
I think this is a good thing, developers should be able to respond to reviews good and bad. What do you think? Is this nothing but a loss of anonymity for users or a good way to help cut down on bogus reviews?
Many people associate BitTorrent with piracy, and with good reason. But the revolutionary protocol can also be used for legal purposes. For instance, it’s a cheap way to host and distribute large files. Now the company behind the protocol and the first ever torrent client is also pushing for BitTorrent to become a way for artists to hawk their products. It’s called BitTorrent Bundle, and it is weird.
The idea behind BitTorrent Bundle is for artists to release free content – say, songs, movie clips or chapters from a book – that we can download using a BitTorrent client. When you go to the download page, it will show you additional content that you have the option to “unlock” – either by paying or entering an email address. Sounds neat right? Here’s a promo video for BitTorrent Bundle:
You can check out the download page for Kaskade’s freebies right now. At first glance, it seems like a good idea – give people legitimate freebies and hope that they’ll like it enough to buy the rest of your work. However, I don’t think the protocol is uniquely equipped to fill this otherwise honest marketing tactic.
What I mean is, it doesn’t incentivize the act of either leeching or seeding – the two activities central to BitTorrent. Neither does it leverage the number of seeders and leechers as a way for torrent users to see which content is popular. If you go to a torrent site, you can infer what pirates like to download because they are the files with the most number of seeders or leechers, or both. But BitTorrent Bundle seems to have no such ranking or ladder for people to view.
I think that from an artist’s perspective, having a potential customer learn how to use a BitTorrent client is not worth it. It would be a different ball game if BitTorrent Bundle awarded points to devout seeders, which they can then use to unlock premium content from the store. What can BitTorrent Bundle do for musicians and consumers that existing services like Bandcamp can’t accomplish? If I’m a budding filmmaker and I’m giving away a video for free, why don’t I just post it on YouTube or Vimeo so people can watch it instantly – or whenever they want! – instead of making them fiddle with a torrent client?
I keep thinking I’m missing something here, but right now I just don’t see the killer application of BitTorrent Bundle. I guess at the very least it’s an attempt at erasing the stigma behind the protocol. You can also read a bit more about BitTorrent Bundle on TorrentFreak.
Google Drive may be playing catch-up to its competitors in some ways, but the cloud storage team in Mountain View is forging ahead in others. Today, Big G announced a ‘Save to Drive’ button that allow users to save content directly from websites to Google-fied cloud lockers. Adding the button’s easy, as it only requires a few lines of HTML, and a JavaScript API allows web admins to control their behavior. Folks looking to take advantage of the new button can learn more about it on the Google Developers portal, and as for the rest of us, we’ll just enjoy the fruits of your labor.
It can be pretty disheartening when you try to log in your dog’s account one day, only to be notified that you’ve violated Facebook’s policies and no longer have access to the plethora of videos and photos that you’ve posted of your beloved pet.
As the name of the site indicates, My Social Petwork is a social network for pets. It works a lot like Facebook, where users will be asked to set up profile pages for their pets, post pictures, and upload videos. The site’s administrators are hoping that aside from cat and dog profiles, owners of exotic pets will also sign up for an account to add a healthy mix to the site’s users.
My Social Petwork recently launched, and is accepting registrations from individuals, businesses, and charity organizations. Now all you need to do is teach Fido or Fifi how to use a mouse and keyboard.
Water bottles are basically banned in most exams I’ve taken, and it’s easy to see why. Students can get so creative at cheating that even a pen itself can be used for that purpose. Case in point? The White Weasel’s editable and printable Aquafina label that lets students create cheat sheets that look like water bottle labels.
The only challenge is finding a printer that can print this stuff on shiny plastic. It’ll look way suspicious if you showed up to the test with a water bottle wrapped in printed paper, don’t you think? Especially if you keep staring at it during the duration of the test. Now that’s a dead giveaway.
But all kidding aside, we don’t condone cheating in any way, so if you do have a test coming up, get off the Internet and crack those books open. Your future self will thank you for it.
You know that table top and dresser you’ve been meaning to throw out for the past couple of years now? Someone could actually use that. And those old clocks and broken chairs? Someone out there is willing to take them off your hands and fix it or salvage it for parts.
Helping you connect with that someone is Trashswag.
Trashswag is an web-based app that turns collecting and recycling trash into a social activity. The Toronto-based app lets users report stuff that they’re throwing out or have seen in the streets that have been thrown out by their neighbors. Users can snap pictures of the stuff they’ve seen so that others can gauge if they’re worth picking up or recycling.
There are also a bunch of categories on the app like like furniture, wood/lumber/timber, building materials, architectural salvage or garage/yard sale to make browsing easier.
There’s no word on if or when Trashswag will come to other cities, but if you’re looking for junk on the streets of Toronto, check it out here.
Law & Order has never been a paragon of TV realism—just take a look at the websites it makes up as plot devices. Poor Ice-T has to browse a web that’s nothing but rape sites and murder porn. More »
I’m pretty sure that many people have trouble understanding stellar distances. Even Mars, one of the closest planets, is really far away by Earthly measurement standards. Check out this great and simple web animation on how far away Mars actually is from Earth.
The Distance to Mars website was made by David Paliwoda and Jesse Williams, and it shows you just how far away Mars really is. Just click the down arrow on the website, and start your accelerated ride to the red planet, as measured in pixels.
There are plenty of different proposals for manned missions to Mars, but they face a lot of challenges, due to the vast distances involved. At the current level of technology, it would take astronauts about 150 days to travel to Mars one way. The date for a manned expedition hasn’t been confirmed, but there are a couple of windows when Mars would be at its closest to Earth. The nearest one is in the 2030s followed by one in the 2050s.
The Internet is great and all, but the fake Internet on TV is even better. This mashup from Slacktory takes you on a whirlwind tour of all the best (read: worst) sites that (probably) don’t and shouldn’t exist. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to kickin’ it on WinAtBingoAndRock.com. [Slacktory] More »
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.
