Monthly Archives: July 2012


My first photo that I know of that has made it into the New York Times is part of… 1

My first photo that I know of that has made it into the New York Times is part of Jim Montavalli's story on +Ford Motor Company's gasoline/CNG bi-fuel Super Duty pickups

A Monster Truck Cleans Up Its Act
The bi-fuel Ford F-250 Super Duty can run on gasoline or natural gas, which reduces emissions with no noticeable performance penalty.

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Please +Bill Nye bring back the Science Guy show! Today more than ever as half the…

Please +Bill Nye bring back the Science Guy show! Today more than ever as half the political spectrum utterly dismisses science, we need more science education that is approachable for both kids and adults.

Bill Nye teases the return of ‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’
In an “Ask Me Anything” session on Reddit, scientist and 90s television host Bill Nye hinted that a return of his popular PBS Kids show, Bill Nye the Science Guy, may be on the horizon. Nye says that….

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Over the years there have been numerous auto show presentations that fell decidedly…

Over the years there have been numerous auto show presentations that fell decidedly flat but the Chevy Volt press conference at the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show probably ranks with the 2008 Dodge Ram humping longhorns as one of the all-time worst.

I was at the show but thankfully I was busy working on some other stuff at the time and didn't attend that particularly presser. Not long after that show several people were quickly moved off the Volt program.

2010 Chevy Volt Dance: Hey GM, We Want Our Bailout Back, Now
We don’t use a lot of profanity here at the global GreenCarReports.com headquarters. But there were a whole bunch of horrified OMFGs floating around once we finally got to see the notorious Volt Dance…

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Republicans are finally openly acknowledging their efforts to suppress the vote of… 10

Republicans are finally openly acknowledging their efforts to suppress the vote of anyone that isn't likely to vote for them.

Reshared post from +Craig Newmark

"Fla. Republican: We wanted to suppress black votes"  (This reflects testimony in a deposition, that is, under oath.)

Voter Fraud

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Apple seems to have concluded that we're all a bunch of morons so in addition… 6

Apple seems to have concluded that we're all a bunch of morons so in addition to making "idiot-proof" phones and tablets, they will even be condescending to us in their ads.

Reshared post from +The Verge

Is this the new face of Apple?

Apple’s new Mac ads are embarrassing
Whether or not you like Apple products, it’s hard to dispute the power of the company’s iconic ad campaigns. From the famous “1984” ad for Macintosh, 1997’s “Think Different,” the 2006 John Hodgman /….

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I totally agree here 2

Piracy has existed on every platform including the "locked down" iOS.

Reshared post from +Koushik Dutta

My Response to Dead Trigger's statement on Android Piracy

via DeadTrigger:
"At first we intend to make this game available for as many people as possible — that's why it was for as little as buck," the developer explained on Facebook. "However, even for one buck, the piracy rate is soooo giant, that we finally decided to provide DEAD TRIGGER for free."

[How to download pirated apps?] Pretty easy. You search the internet for pirate copies of apps, then copy them onto your (regular, unrooted, non-“jailbroken”) device, and launch them. The system is designed for piracy from the ground up. The existence of piracy isn’t a surprise, but rather an inevitability.

Personally, I think these guys are giant idiots. Piracy is not something that is new or exclusive to Android. PC piracy is just as "rampant".

In the mobile space, piracy is even more seamless on iOS due to a third party app store dedicated to piracy (Installous). No "adb" sideload necessary.

Their crappy game failed to garner interest, so they saved their egos by blaming piracy. Sounds like something the MPAA would say to explain away Gigli: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/gigli/

Here's a tip:
1) Write a decent game
2) Use some server side DRM
3) Profit

Edit:
Furthermore, it seems like they realized that it is a better business model to upsell in app purchases, and have the game be a free loss leader to get downloads. This may just be a deceitful way to minimize the customer backlash by people that initially bought the game for a dollar.

Dead Trigger On Android Faces Rampant Piracy, Now Free – IGN
Many Android users opt to steal the 99-cent game.

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