Woohoo! New Portlandia is on now!
Woohoo! New Portlandia is on now!
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With NAIAS (aka the Detroit Auto Show) just a couple of days away, I've been…
With NAIAS (aka the Detroit Auto Show) just a couple of days away, I've been toying with the idea of using an iPad in place of the trusty 15" Macbook Pro.
Alas, after spending some time trying to type extended pieces of text, I've come to the conclusion that a virtual keyboard on a touch screen is just not a viable way of writing more than a few words in a row. I've seen some people do it, but after more than two years of using touch screen phones and now this iPad I am not among them. That's why I continue to use a Droid 3 instead of a touch only phone. It's also why I will continue to use a laptop over a tablet for the foreseeable future.
I just wish I could afford an 11.6-inch Macbook Air.
#ipad #keyboard
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When you think of visual effects in film and TV, the first thing that comes to mind… 1
When you think of visual effects in film and TV, the first thing that comes to mind is science fiction and fantasy epics like Lord of the Rings, Avatar and Star Wars.
You don't typically think of a show like Boardwalk Empire on HBO, which is set in prohibition-era Atlantic City. The creators of the show have done a remarkable job of recreating an Atlantic City that hasn't existed for a long time and doesn't even remotely resemble the contemporary version of the city. Rather creating elaborate physical sets of AC, the show makes extensive use of computer generated graphics as I found out on the most recent edition of The Ihnatko Almanac http://5by5.tv/ia/14
If you've seen the show, you'll be aware that one of the more challenging visual elements of the show is the face of Richard, a World War I veteran who was severely injured. It would have been nearly impossible to create that look with makeup but through the magic of motion capture and CGI, half of Jack Huston's handsome face is transformed into a grotesque image of the horror of war. Check out the video to see how they transformed some of the locations, turning back the clock 90 years.
#boardwalkempire #cgi #vfx #mocap
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A very exciting project is really coming together nicely 1
Stay tuned!
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Red-tailed hawks are actually quite common around Michigan including this one that…
Red-tailed hawks are actually quite common around Michigan including this one that I found several years ago near Ann Arbor
In album Red-tailed hawk at HATCI (13 photos)
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An amazing tale of an injured red-tailed hawk rescued by a family in Detroit! 2
An amazing tale of an injured red-tailed hawk rescued by a family in Detroit!
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. . .And a red-tailed hawk in our Christmas tree | sweet juniper!
.And a red-tailed hawk in our Christmas tree. Posted by jdg | Tuesday, December 20, 2011. There's usually a point during our evening walk where I let my dog off his leash to run around an empty pa…
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As the biggest college football programs in the land take to the field this week…
As the biggest college football programs in the land take to the field this week in the big bowl games Joe Nocera takes on the cartel that is the NCAA.
The governing body of big time college sports has rarely shrunk from taking punitive action against "student" athletes when they fail to live by the no-pay rules but at the same time, the top 15 coaches collect combined annual salaries of $53.4 million.
In his extended piece in the Times magazine http://nyti.ms/tU6ZS6 Nocera makes the case for paying college football and basketball players. Unfortunately the money that comes along with big-time sports has a corrupting influence on what are supposed to be educational institutions.
Instead of paying the players, the NCAA should be euthanized and intercollegiate sports (along with athletic scholarships) should be abolished. There is nothing wrong with the NFL and NBA wanting a minor league system to help develop young players they way they do in baseball in hockey. Let these leagues set up their own minor leagues and pay the players out their own pockets. As players are ready to move up they can while those that have seen better days can continue to play in the minors for a time
Let's use our universities for teaching and keep professional sports separate.
#NCAA
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The College Sports Cartel
The N.C.A.A. is a walking, talking antitrust violation.
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For as long as I can remember the idea that creating great products that people want…
For as long as I can remember the idea that creating great products that people want to buy seemed like an intuitively obvious way for a business to be wildly successful. Along the way, companies also needed to employ people and pay them a wage that would enable them to buy those awesome products.
The short term, bottom line thinking of modern American business just seemed fundamentally flawed but I didn't have the knowledge of business law to provide an explanation of why business played along with it. Apparently the idea of maximizing shareholder value took root with a 1976 paper by Michael Jensen and William Meckling in the Journal of Financial Economics entitled “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs and Ownership Structure.”
Now a new book by Roger Martin explains how we managed to become the pawns of Wall St hedge fund managers and investment bankers.
If our political leaders really want to make a difference that improves our economy and our country as a whole, they will make the changes necessary to enable business to get back to the roots of what they should be doing and ignoring Wall St.
#business
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The Dumbest Idea In The World: Maximizing Shareholder Value – Forbes
There is only one valid definition of a business purpose: to create a customer. Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management “Imagine an NFL coach,” writes Roger Martin, Dean of the Rotman School of Mana…
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John P is giving away a fresh Kindle Fire
John P is giving away a fresh Kindle Fire
Reshared post from +John Pozadzides
Ok, I've got one extra Amazon Kindle FIRE left, and its too late to return it. So I'm giving it away!
How to win the brand new, unopened Amazon Kindle FIRE in only two steps:
Step 1) Do you have me in one of your circles? Great. Check that one off the list…
Step 2) Publicly SHARE this post.That's it! You're entered to win, and I'll ship it to you ANYWHERE.
Wait, you want more chances to win? Ok, I'll tell you what:
– One extra entry if you leave a comment telling me WHY you want it.
– One extra entry if you Subscribe to our Livid Lobster newsletter!You'll find the newsletter subscription form here: http://lividlobster.com/
I'll announce the winner on Geek Beat LIVE on Friday Jan 6 (basically in a week), and then here on Google+. Good luck to all!
PS – Damn, I love to give stuff away. Wait till you see what I'm planning in the new year… 😉
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If the US Patent and Trademark Office grants this patent to Apple (and based on past… 1
If the US Patent and Trademark Office grants this patent to Apple (and based on past experience, they almost certainly will) then we know the system is irretrievably broken and all software related patents should be utterly disregarded and related court cases should be dismissed.
#apple #patent #uspto #android #faceunlock
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Apple Applies For “Face Unlock” Patent – Sounds Awfully Familiar
I don’t want to anyone to dismiss this post as simple Apple bashing troll post but this is getting a bit ridiculous. Apple has recently applied to the USPTO for yet another patent on a technology not only currently in use today — but a main feature in Android 4.0; Face Unlock. Apple’s application describes the patent as a brand new technology that allows a user to unlock a device by using the features of their face. It’s not so much that I hate Apple and there’s no question Android is their s…
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