Gizmodo.com Updates

Here’s a little Veteran’s Day treat. Chrome Is...

Mon, 12 Nov 2012 17:32:00 -0500

Here’s a little Veteran’s Day treat. Chrome Is Making Bags for Veterans out of their military fatigues. They’re gorgeous, and as you’ll see in the video above, hugely meaningful to the people who get them. Thanks to all of our Veteran readers for your service! [Chrome]

How Realistic Are These Five NYC Apartments You’ve Seen on TV? By Harry Sawyers There’s...

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 16:40:00 -0500

How Realistic Are These Five NYC Apartments You’ve Seen on TV?

By Harry Sawyers

There’s always a slight hint of doubt when you see a TV character’s fictional apartment, even if the place is a borderline dump. If it’s on TV, it just doesn’t seem like it could possibly be true.

Padmapper took a look at five New York apartments—the places the characters live in Mad Men, Friends, Seinfeld, Sex and the City, and 30 Rock.

It’s not a big surprise to learn Monica probably couldn’t afford such a huge place working in a restaurant kitchen. Maybe TV writers and set designers have learned to just embrace realistic real estate—the older shows tend to stretch the limits of accuracy more than the programs on the air now.

Seeing the street-level view of some random New York building sort of dulls the allure of these characters’ lives, even if you find out that Don Draper and Liz Lemon really do live where the show says they do. But maybe I’m still smarting from a disappointing, disorienting breakfast at the diner from Seinfeld.

Photo: Padmapper.

Secrets, Schemes, and Lots of Guns: Inside John McAfee’s Heart...

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 12:49:47 -0500

Secrets, Schemes, and Lots of Guns: Inside John McAfee’s Heart of Darkness

This boy crazy.

Top 25 Nate Silver Facts

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 13:36:00 -0500

By Nick Stango

Wow, this Nate Silver guy sure is something. The whole Internet’s talking about how awesome he is. Check it out:

When Alexander Bell invented the telephone he had 3 missed calls from Nate Silver.

Nate Silver threw a grenade and killed 50 people, then it exploded.

Nate Silver can delete the Recycling Bin.

Nate Silver once got bit by a rattle snake. After three days of pain and agony… the rattle snake died.

Nate Silver doesn’t use pickup lines, he simply says, “Now.”

Nate Silver can suffocate a pillow with a man.

Nate Silver once had a heart attack; his heart lost.

Nate Silver doesn’t call the wrong number. You answer the wrong phone.

Nate Silver can speak French… In Russian.

When a zombie apocalypses starts, Nate Silver doesn’t try to survive. The zombies do.

Ghosts sit around campfires and tell Nate Silver stories.

Nate Silver lost his virginity before his dad did.

Nate Silver beat Halo 1, 2, and 3 on Legendary with a broken Guitar Hero controller.

Nate Silver can unscramble an egg.

Some magicans can walk on water, Nate Silver can swim through land.

Nate Silver can set ants on fire with a magnifying glass. At night.

There used to be a street named after Nate Silver, but it was changed because nobody crosses Nate Silver and lives.

Fear of spiders is aracnaphobia, fear of tight spaces is chlaustraphobia, fear of Nate Silver is called Logic

Nate Silver’s computer has no “backspace” button; Nate silver doesn’t make mistakes.

Nate Silver can build a snowman out of rain.

Nate Silver has already been to Mars; that’s why there’s no life there anymore.

Nate Silver can hear sign language.

Nate Silver can light a fire by rubbing two ice-cubes together.

When Nate Silver does a pushup, he isn’t lifting himself up, he’s pushing the Earth down.

Nate Silver beat the sun in a staring contest.

Nate Silver can slam a revolving door.

[Chuck Norris Facts, chucknorrisjokes]

Gizmodo Is Back on Gizmodo.com! By Harry Sawyers After spending the better part of last week...

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 10:13:00 -0500

Gizmodo Is Back on Gizmodo.com!

By Harry Sawyers

After spending the better part of last week rescuing our servers from the storm, Gawker Media’s tech team has restored gizmodo.com to its former glory. Thanks guys!

And thank all of you for reading our Tumblr over the past week. It’s been fun. The posts have migrated back to the main site, with the discussions open—so feel free to let loose with the witty, incisive reactions you’ve been holding back. We missed you.

Also, we’re keeping updates.gizmodo.com online—we love Tumblr, we appreciate the community, and we’re not going to stop posting on this site. We plan run some stories that feel a little different than your regularly scheduled gizmodo.com programming. So stick around!

[Gizmodo]

Movie Night: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen By Brian Barrett One of the biggest commercial...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 19:30:51 -0500

Movie Night: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen

By Brian Barrett

One of the biggest commercial flops of the late 1980s also happens to be one of the most wonderfully imaginative, whimsical, and downright silly movies of the last several decades. Not that you’d expect any less from Terry Gilliam, especially when he was in his prime.

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen is a fable within a story, a twisted romp where Leviathon and Venus and the man in the moon coalesce around a civilized, pugnacious British Baron. Robin Williams shows up, hammily. Uma Thurman disrobes. And Eric Idle gets to enjoy what’s arguably his best non-Monty-Python role.

It would be impossible to describe the plot in less than an hour. And even then you wouldn’t have a good sense of the joy that drives it. But if you have two hours to carve out of your life tonight—and if you have an age-appropriate kid to share it with—go ahead and load it up. Even when it doesn’t make sense, it makes entertaining viewing. [Amazon Prime]

Soundtrack: Dinosaur Jr. - Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know I hadn’t thought much...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 18:30:55 -0500

Soundtrack: Dinosaur Jr. - Don’t Pretend You Didn’t Know

I hadn’t thought much about Dinosaur Jr. since the mid-90s. Why would I have? They broke up in 1997, and got back together without much fanfare in 2005. But the group’s latest album, and particularly this lead track, hits me with a jolt. It belongs in 2012, but feels like 1994. It’s a thread strung through a wormhole, a reminder that even as you get older (and older), you haven’t changed as dramatically as you might think. And neither has the world around you.

The Surest Way to a Viral Hit: Professional Clicking By Brian Barrett Need a viral smash? No point...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 17:30:50 -0500

The Surest Way to a Viral Hit: Professional Clicking

By Brian Barrett

Need a viral smash? No point leaving it to chance. Just get Buyral on case. Their team of expert clickers will get your views up in no time; whether or not anyone actually sees it is another matter altogether.

As Buzzfeed points out, it’s a great parody of the viral rat race that drives so much of the Professional Internet these days. And, like all good satire, perilously close to becoming a reality.

Maybe We Wouldn’t Pirate Music If There Were Anywhere Else to Hear It By Brian Barrett It may...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 16:30:52 -0500

Maybe We Wouldn’t Pirate Music If There Were Anywhere Else to Hear It

By Brian Barrett

It may not be totally fair to blame piracy’s ascension on MTV’s decline. But you know what? Neither was sending Snooki to the Vatican.

Look, I’ll be honest, all I want is 120 Minutes back. Wait, it is? Okay, then let’s just get Bill Bellamy’s career back on track and all will be forgiven. [The Doghouse Diaries]

Amazon Really Does Lose Money on Every Kindle Fire HD (But Microsoft, Not So Much) By Brian...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 15:30:00 -0500

Amazon Really Does Lose Money on Every Kindle Fire HD (But Microsoft, Not So Much)

By Brian Barrett

Fresh on the heels of an iPad mini teardown that revealed $188 worth of components, IHS has pegged the Kindle Fire HD bill of materials at $165. That means that only about 20 bucks’ worth of hardware separates devices with $130 price tag differential. Yeesh.

It was no surprise that the Kindle Fire HD was at best a break-even proposition for Bezos & Co., but that $200 price tag looks even more unhinged when you consider all the research and development and marketing costs that aren’t counted in that $165 figure. Consider that there’s a $141 gap between Apple’s iPad mini bill of materials and its sticker price. That distance, for Amazon, is just $34.

Microsoft, meanwhile, rings up a $271 components bill for every $500 32GB Microsoft Surface it pumps out. That gap makes sense especially given Microsoft’s lack of a wildly profitable content business, which is how Amazon justifies its kamikaze Kindle pricing. Microsoft’s advantage is even more pronounced when you factor in its Touch Cover, which retails for $120 when bought separately, and contains about $16 worth of parts. [AllThingsD]

Copyright-Infringing Tweets Will Now Be “Withdrawn” Instead of “Disappeared...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 14:31:07 -0500

Copyright-Infringing Tweets Will Now Be “Withdrawn” Instead of “Disappeared Forever”

By Brian Barrett

Twitter received 4,410 DMCA takedown notices last year alone. But while previously a successful claim would lead to a tweet being vanished under dark of night, from here on out it will be replaced by a notice that it’s being withheld.

The tweet in question will still be gone and irretrievable, so this won’t lead to a DMCA revolution. But it’s nice that there’s a permanent record now of the time you were smote by the copyright zealots. Wear it as a badge of honor. Or at least, one of transparency. [GigaOm]

Here’s the Mother Lode of Windows 8 Nerdery By Brian Barrett Sure, you watched the Microsoft...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 13:30:50 -0500

Here’s the Mother Lode of Windows 8 Nerdery

By Brian Barrett

Sure, you watched the Microsoft Build conference keynote last week. Why not? It had a comprehensive Windows 8 overview, Ballmer being Ballmer, some jaunty pre-show music. You know, typical keynote stuff. But if that didn’t satisfy your Windows 8 itch, well, here’s your chance to scratch it raw.

Microsoft has posted full videos of session after session of Windows 8 nerdtime fun. We’re talking an hour of Workflow & Workflow Manager 1.0, a deep dive into bringing existing C++ code to Windows Store apps. And that’s just day one of the four-day, dev-heavy dalliance. There are 16 pages in all, which means you should be able to ride out the weekend—and well into next week—with more Windows 8 knowledge than you ever knew existed. [Microsoft via Engadget]

Hackers Replace NBC Sites With Smörgåsbord of Hacker Cliches (Updated) By Brian Barrett Those in...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 12:33:00 -0500

Hackers Replace NBC Sites With Smörgåsbord of Hacker Cliches (Updated)

By Brian Barrett

Those in search of SNL and 30 Rock clips over at NBC’s videos page have been met with something quite different: a hacked page of weirdness with a surprisingly catchy soundtrack. It’s most prominent website hack we’ve seen in a while, and also one of the least coherent.

Here’s the message as it reads in full:

Hacked by
               __          .__        
______ ___.__.|  | __ ____ |__| ____  
\____ <   |  ||  |/ //    \|  |/ ___\ 
|  |_> >___  ||    <|   |  \  \  \___ 
|   __// ____||__|_ \___|  /__|\___  >
|__|   \/          \/    \/        \/ 
REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT. I KNOW OF NO REASON WHY THE GUNPOWDER TREASON SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT. REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT. I KNOW OF NO REASON WHY THE GUNPOWDER TREASON SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT. REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT. I KNOW OF NO REASON WHY THE GUNPOWDER TREASON SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT. REMEMBER, REMEMBER THE FIFTH OF NOVEMBER, THE GUNPOWDER TREASON AND PLOT. I KNOW OF NO REASON WHY THE GUNPOWDER TREASON SHOULD EVER BE FORGOT.

GREETZ TO ODAY, BRUT4L & S4VAGE

FUCK THE FEDS, 419 IS JUST A GAME~~

USER INFO - EXPOSED

PASSWORDS - DUMPED

Got all that? Good! The beginning is clearly a reference to Guy Fawkes Day, which Anonymous has previously sworn to attack Facebook on, and whose anarchic trappings hackers have historically gravitated towards. And disliking the Feds is obviously a popular past time for Anon & Co. Meanwhile, “419 is just a game” is a reference to Nigerian spam email trickery. So if you were looking for a checklist of hacker dog whistles, this’ll serve as well as any.

What’s not clear whose user info is being threatened with exposure, or whose passwords are going to be dumped, or why NBC was the target of this particular attack. [NBC]

Update: Multiple, less-trafficked NBC sites (including Extras) appear to be affected as well.

The Onion’s TED Talk Parodies Keep Getting Better (And More Scathing) By Brian Barrett We...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 12:30:00 -0500

The Onion’s TED Talk Parodies Keep Getting Better (And More Scathing)

By Brian Barrett

We haven’t checked in on The Onion’s brutal TED Talk parody series, but now’s as good a time as any to get caught up. Above is the most recent, a breakdown of farm animal noises with rapidly escalating pretension. And below? Maybe the purest distillation of TED yet.

Ridiculous theme? Check. Absurd invention? Double check. An audience that feels equal parts captivated and captive? Yes, yes, and yes. Ladies and gentlemen, here’s Loudness Equals Power:

[The Onion]

Sandy-Soaked New Jerseyans Will Be Able to Vote by Email By Brian Barrett Rather than let a...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 11:30:45 -0500

Sandy-Soaked New Jerseyans Will Be Able to Vote by Email

By Brian Barrett

Rather than let a hurricane disenfranchise thousands of displaced New Jersey residents, Governor Chris Christie has given a green-light for voting by email or fax. Are the security concerns? Sure. But if you’re going to pilot a e-voting program, at least it’s in a situation that has no other choice, and that isn’t really in contention anyway.

On the other hand, should people who still use fax machines really be allowed to vote? [NJ.com via TechCrunch]

Image credit: Shutterstock/VectorPic

South Ferry Station: Before and After By Jesús Díaz The MTA...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 10:28:22 -0500

South Ferry Station: Before and After

By Jesús Díaz

The MTA reports that “the South Ferry station, which had been a large fish tank, has now been pumped dry.” Click here to see the complete story of Sandy so far, updated live.

Yep, Your Political Tweets and Facebook Posts Are at Least This Bad By Brian Barrett The first...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 10:23:00 -0500

Yep, Your Political Tweets and Facebook Posts Are at Least This Bad

By Brian Barrett

The first argument you hear against posting political views on social media is that you’ll only end up alienating your [OTHER PARTY] friends, or crowding the echo chamber your [SAME PARTY] friends have been smugly simmering in for months. But there’s something else you should seriously consider: you don’t have any idea what you’re talking about.

Saturday Night Live took social media political messaging to task last night, and as head-shakingly familiar—and awful—as its examples may be, it’s no worse than spending five minutes in your feeds will be over the next three days.

After that, though, maybe we can get back to talking about lunch? [Hulu]

The iPad Mini Costs $141 More Than Its Components Add Up To By Brian Barrett According to a...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 09:31:00 -0500

The iPad Mini Costs $141 More Than Its Components Add Up To

By Brian Barrett

According to a teardown by IHS, renowned estimator of how much companies actually pay for components, Apple’s iPad Mini carries a $188 cost of materials. You know how Google and Amazon are just barely breaking even on their tiny tablets? This is the opposite of that.

For some perspective, the 16GB Nexus 7 carries a $159.25 material cost and a $200 price tag. And Amazon has been very candid that it loses money on every Kindle Fire HD it sells. By contrast, there’s a $141 gap between the 16GB iPad mini’s asking price and its component value. Ka-ching!

It’s always been clear that Apple’s playing a different game from its tiny tablet competition; Google’s just desperately angling for a hardware foothold, while Amazon relies on content sales after the fact to make its initial losses worth it. Apple, meanwhile, wants to make money on hardware and software. Imagine! There’s nothing wrong with that of course, but reports like this only reinforce the notion that the iPad mini is heftily overpriced given its competitors.

There are also, of course, other factors that go into a device’s cost. Research and development, packaging, etc. But it’s not like Google and Amazon aren’t throwing great gobs of money in those directions either. And whether you love the iPad mini or hate it, at least now it’s clear that there are better bargains to be had elsewhere. [AllThingsD]

Apple Hides Its Latest Samsung Apology With Some Clever Code By Brian Barrett The saga of...

Sun, 04 Nov 2012 09:02:00 -0500

Apple Hides Its Latest Samsung Apology With Some Clever Code

By Brian Barrett

The saga of Apple’s court-enforced public apology to Samsung continues. The first, newspaper-printed mea culpa read as too tongue-in-cheek for the judge’s liking. Now it turns out that the follow-up, a condensed contrition on the Apple Store’s UK home page, has come with a few caveats as well. Namely, that you have to go hunting for it.

As TNW reports, Apple has infused its page with Javascript that ensures that no matter what display you’re viewing it from, you’ll have to scroll down past a barrage of Apple product ads before the apology can be seen.

That’s obviously still well within the letter of the ruling, even if it spits in the face of the spirit. And it’s not, ultimately, a huge deal; if you were forced to run a public apology you didn’t agree with to one of your fiercest competitors, you’d probably try to keep it hidden too. But it’s a reminder that these endless patent wars and their repercussions aren’t always the result of companies acting in their best interests. Just like the rest of us, sometimes they’re just pouty little snots. [Apple Store UK via TNW]

Don’t Forget To Set Back That One Non-Internet Clock You Inevitably Still Have Hanging...

Sat, 03 Nov 2012 22:00:53 -0400

Don’t Forget To Set Back That One Non-Internet Clock You Inevitably Still Have Hanging Around

By Eric Limer

Tonight’s the night we do that Daylight Savings Time thing again, so here’s a reminder to find that one dumb-clock you still have in your house and set it back an hour. Unlike almost everything else you look at the time on, remember that the good old-fashioned analogue clock above your stove or the one in the bathroom, or the digital one on your microwave is not smart enough to adjust on its own. Yes, you still have to do some things yourself around here.