Blog de Prueba: 2014

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lunes, 3 de febrero de 2014

London Buses to Go Cashless This Summer

Londoners will need to protect their Oyster Cards with their lives come the summer, as all buses are to go cashless.

Transport for London bosses say the move to a cashless, Oyster-only fleet will save £130 million, with cash fares already expected to make up less than 1 per cent of journey payments this year. That’s down from 20 per cent 10 years ago.

The move was initially regarded with some skepticism, with vulnerable passengers and those in outer London (where Oyster credit top-up spots are less prevalent) expected to be affected detrimentally. However, following a public consultation of 37,000 respondents, TfL will be looking to add more ticket stops in suburban areas in time for the change. It will also introduce a “one more journey” allowance, allowing those that do not have enough money on their cards to pay for a journey still use a bus, putting them into negative credit and allowing them to pay for it once they reach a top-up station. [BBC]

Image Credit: New hybrid bus from Shutterstock.com

This GPS Lightning Adapter Makes Cheaper iPads Location-Aware

If you decided to save a few quid and opt for an iPad without cellular, it also means you bought yourself a tablet without GPS. Wi-Fi hotspot locations help guesstimate your locations, but if you want better results, you’ll have to try for Bad Elf’s tiny GPS module.

Ironically, £102–the price the device is being sold for on Amazon–is £2 more than the difference between a Wi-Fi iPad and a Wi-Fi + cellular model, so it might be easier just to give Apple your money to begin with. But for Wi-Fi iPad users with buyer’s remorse, this is an easy way to beef up your device.

This GPS Lightning Adapter Makes Cheap iPads Location-Aware

[Bad Elf via Uncrate]

This May be the Last Studio Portrait of Philip Seymour Hoffman

This tintype photo is probably the last ever studio portrait of Philip Seymour Hoffman. It was taken on January 19, 2014 at 08:59:11, at The Collective and Gibson Lounge, during the 2014 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Hoffman was found dead on Sunday in his Manhattan apartment. He was 46 years old.

This Beautiful Tintype Portrait Of Hoffman Will Haunt Us Forever

Photo credit: Victoria Will/Invision/AP

Apple is Probably Going to Run a Sequel to its “1984″ Ad During the Super Bowl

30 years ago, the Los Angeles Raiders were slaughtering the Washington Redskins at halftime in SuperBowl XVIII, when America was stopped in it’s tracks by a gal with an Brigitte Nielsen haircut and a hammer, running towards the screen.

Yes, indeed: The “1984? commercial that introduced the Macintosh aired 30 Super Bowls ago last week. And the general consensus is that Apple is going to run another one this year.

Why is this such a definite possibility? Well, for one, Lee Clow, the creative director at Chiat Day who created the original “1984? ad, tweeted this two weeks ago:

Gonna be a goodSuper Bowl.
Mac’s gonna be 30
— Lee Clow (@_clow) January 20, 2014

Even I don’t need a clear delineation between words to figure out what he’s trying to say here.

But it’s also because Apple has been making a really big deal about the 30th anniversary of the Mac. For good reason, of course—a recent earning report showed that Apple sold 20 percent more Macs in 2013 than they did in 2012. Mac is back! (And you can even get one that looks like a black bin now!) But there’s also a nice subtext here: The Mac was Steve Jobs’ baby, and it’s a nice way to keep honoring his legacy.

It was widely known that Jobs considered “1984? to be one of his crowning achievements. He even produced a remastered version of the ad for the Mac’s 20th anniversary, with the heroine wearing an iPod, of course.

But on this occasion, to truly honour Jobs and his work on the Mac, Apple should make a brand new ad that’s as ridiculously ambitious as he would have made.

Apple needs this. Their last big ad featuring the Sullen Male Youth was a huge dud. They just haven’t been able to produce the same quality of commercials post-Jobs. Remember the buzz that that original “1984? ad was bigger than the product itself? Apple’s got strong products now—that they need is a little ad magic to make everyone feel giddy and warm about Mac.

Or perhaps, scared to the point of hysteria. As factually inaccurate as it ended up being, I’d personally like to see Apple produce something like the another famous Super Bowl ad they ran:

That ad haunted me all year long. I can’t say that about any other Super Bowl commercial.

Top image: YouTube

Derelict Factories Get the David Lynch Treatment in These Creepy Photos

David Lynch is a creative dude like no other. The brains behind Twin Peaks and Eraserhead is a proven master at moving pictures, but it turns out he’s also into moody still shots.

The Factory Photographs is a new exhibition and forthcoming book featuring 80 black-and-white images of derelict industrial sites; these pics are are unpopulated, but kind of begging to be featured as film sets somewhere along the line.

Derelict Factories Get The David Lynch Treatment In These Creepy Photos

The images are taken from the 80s to the 00s during Lynch’s travels around the US and Europe, and have a kind of ruin-porn, tech-decay appeal that’s creepy and fascinating at the same time.

Without a narrative assist, it’s up to the viewer to construct a backstory for each site—which, according to a statement, seems precisely the impact Lynch hopes to have.

“I just like going into strange worlds,” he explains. “A lot more happens when you open yourself up to the work and let yourself act and react to it. Every work ‘talks’ to you, and if you listen to it, it will take you places you never dreamed of.” [The Photographers' Gallery]

Listen to the Purring, Electromagnetic Weirdness of Mushrooms

I was blown away when I first heard about a project that tried to tap into the electromagnetic communication potential of mushrooms. Using wires, radio waves, and circuits—not psychedelics—the project’s off-kilter quest to find (and listen to) “electromagnetic fungi” was nonetheless more art than science. But who says mushrooms have the right to remain silent?

Listen to the Purring, Electromagnetic Weirdness of Mushrooms

The overall idea was that we could use technology to extract sounds embedded in the biological world—or compressed there, we might say, to use the language of MP3s—tapping into living systems that would not normally be thought of as sonic resources.

But—hey—it’s a fair question: why not tune into the sounds of mushrooms or listen to mould the way you might listen to a radio? It’s weird as hell but surely there’s only something to be gained.

Think of it as Fungal FM: a grotesque, scientifically unnecessary, but utterly mind-bending way to eavesdrop on nature’s silent signals, tunes sparking and firing through the organisms of the world around you.

A more recent project—by a group calling itself Mycophone—sought to tap into the sounds of mould spores and mushrooms in an equally artistic but somewhat more technically applied way.

Mycophone used an utterly nutso-looking custom music box, signal processors, and what appear to be contact microphones, all woven and wired up into a mixing board for sonic spores.

The result is what they describe as “a new kind of biotech organism,” a kind of acoustic creature “that makes sounds like many biological organisms do.” Except this one purrs.

That’s right: “If you pet it on its hairy mycelia fur,” they add, “its voice changes… it could be said that it starts to purr.”

So, sure, we’re basically talking about people—grown adults—standing around and touching mould, jacking headphones into myco-electrical mixing boards, and making music from the experience, grooving out as mushrooms purr into their headphones, turning living fungi into a personal hi-fi set.

But it’s delirious and awesome—a technological experience so eccentric it is indistinguishable from drugs—as if we’ve somehow now found a way to zoom down into the deep world of life only to find a humming soundtrack there, living and evolving amidst the splitting of cells and the roots of trees, a radio dreaming biological songs for those of us who know how to tune in.

First four images via Foam; ensuing images via Mycophone.

The Week’s Best Android, iPhone, iPad and Windows Phone Apps

So I decided to watch Movie 43 a few days ago. I would not recommend it to anybody: that film is absolutely abysmal. With that in mind, the highlight of my weekend has been researching apps, so you should all hopefully appreciate what I have to offer today.

CARROT Fit: You know what you really need when you want to lose weight? A sadistic AI who will berate you along the way. Fear not though, it’s not especially harsh on you; some would even call it humorous. When it comes to something like weight loss, motivation is key–so give it a try and see if it helps. [£1.49]

POPSUGAR Award Season: It’s the new year, so we are now elbow deep in awards season for film, television, and music. If that is the kind of thing you enjoy keeping up-to-date with, then you’ll want this app. POPSUGAR Award Season keeps all the news in one handy place–alongside interviews, photo galleries, highlights, and even polls to judge everyone else’s predictions. [Free]

Telegraph Travel Guides: If you’re going on holiday, you definitely want to make the most of your time away. The Telegraph Travel Guides app will show the best of what’s on offer in Paris, Amsterdam, New York, Rome, and St Kitts (more locations to come). With reviews of restaurants, attractions, bars, and more. Each guide also has extensive details on how to use the information provided like how to book tables, beat queues, and save yourself some money along the way. [Free]

Hipster Smackdown: This is a game for those of you who get increasingly frustrated by the constant tides of hipsters present in modern society. The goal is simple, throw the hipster as far as you can across 48 different levels. Very satisfying. [Free -- with in-app purchases]

Rocket Robo: A visually impressive platform game that is reminiscent of Little Big Planet. You take control of a small robot who is on a quest to retrieve stolen stars and restore power to the lighthouse it calls home. The game includes a bundle of cool mechanics, including world rotation, gravity manipulation, and teleportation. Can you complete all 57 levels and find all the hidden treasure? [£0.69]

Lego Star Wars Microfighters: There are two kinds of people in the world: those who love Lego, and liars. Fly your way through 18 different levels as one of six different classic Star Wars ships and blast through 35 different enemies and eight bosses. Everyone loves Lego, and everyone loves Star Wars (well, except maybe Trekkies), so this one is definitely worth your time. [£0.69]

Pyro Jump: There aren’t many games where you play as a sentient ball of fire. Pyro Jump lets you do just that, across more than 100 different levels. The aim is to jump from level to level to catch up with Princess Paper, presumably so you can set her on fire. [Free]

Launch Centre Pro: This is pretty much speed dial for your device’s apps and functions. Got anything you use on a regular basis but you have to scroll through a bundle of menus to get to? Set it to Launch Centre and you get to save yourself a wee bit of time in getting there. Now with iPad compatibility, this new update brings this app away from being solely for the iPhone. [£1.99]

Marco Polo Ocean: A sandbox game, so kids can create their own ocean playbox and spark their interest in the sea; with a variety of ocean animals, plants, boats and fish. Not only that, the game features narration and animation to help reinforce vocabulary skills. A great way to get your kids started in the realms of science. [£1.99]

SwiftKey Note: A way to make your note taking that extra bit faster, SwiftKey is designed to learn from you and predict what you’re going to say from just a few keystrokes. Better still, you can sync up the app to Evernote, so even if the worst happens you’re not without a back up of your work. With this, theoretically, gone are the days of that terribly annoying autocorrect. [Free]

Stack Exchange: Stack Exchange is a question and answer community, focused on helping you find the information you need. Think Yahoo Answers, but without the population of idiots and trolls. As well as asking and answering questions posed by the community, the app lets you track all your interests in a single place, and includes instant notifications for those pressing questions that need a quick answer. [Free]

Olympic TV: Despite all the controversy, the Russian Winter Olympics start on Thursday. For those of you who enjoy watching the different ways people can slide on ice, otherwise known as winter sports, this is the app you need. In-app you’ll be able to watch all 98 events live and on-demand. [Free]

Auto Answer: A cool little widget that will make it slightly more fun answering the phone without using your hands. Auto Answer lets you answer an incoming phone call with a whistle, something that is particularly useful for driving. The included driving mode features a speed dialer that lets you access 18 contacts, and nine apps with a single click–making it safer (and cooler) to answer your phone while driving. [Free]

Android Device Manager: This one has been around for six months now, but for a lot of people–myself included–it simply hasn’t worked. New updates have changed all of that, so you can locate, lock, or erase your phone should it go walkabout. The app is useful if you’ve got more than one device and need to manage them on the go. [Free]

Foxtrot: This is a platform puzzle game where take control of a fox. The goal is to navigate 30 levels and collect eggs in order to feed your hungry cubs. Just keep an eye out for those blasted chickens, they aren’t too fond of egg snatching. [£1.49]

GTA San Andreas: It is about bloody time is all I have to say. The critically acclaimed game has made its way onto Windows Phone for those of you in dire need of some gaming nostalgia in the foothills of Los Santos. Need I remind you, you’ll be playing this game on a device smaller than the original disc. Isn’t that amazing? Be aware, this isn’t universally compatible so make sure to check before you buy. [£5.99]

UK Bus Checker: Finding public transport timetables is a bit of a pain. Different places have different websites, and even then it’s dependent on which company controls the local services. UK Bus Checker has a dedicated database of 35 different locations, with comprehensive details on thousands of routes. It also updates in real-time, so if you rely on buses this one is an essential app for your phone. [£2.49]

Momento: For the journaling enthusiasts out there, Momento is designed to make it easy for you to record your personal thoughts and ideas. Sorted in a month-by-month timeline, you can throw in photos, notes, and pretty much everything else you’d need from a journaling app. Best of all, you can back it up to your Skydrive account which will presumably continue after the upcoming re-brand to Onedrive. [Free]

500px: A social network designed for photographers to share their work, as well as to gain inspiration from others. 500px has the same basic functions as any social photo sharing network: browsing, interacting and sharing. Whether you’re an established photographer, or looking to pick up new ideas, this is one for you. [Free]

Monk: One for the musically inclined, Monk is a virtual keyboard. Whether you want to learn to play, or just want a way to practise when the real thing isn’t available–this is a cool little addition to your device. The new version now includes video tutorials for those of you who need them. [£1.49]

Outernet Satellite Network Promises “BitTorrent From Space” or Global Wi-Fi for Everyone

The Outernet concept promises to bring a one-way internet stream to the entire world, with a constellation of tiny cube satellites used to broadcast a handpicked collection of news, software and resources to anyone able to point their phones at the sky. It’s Pages from Ceefax for the next generation.

Users will suggest material to make up the Outernet broadcasts, with current ideas being that it’ll beam such nerd-friendly material as Bitcoin blockchains, Ubuntu builds, OpenStreetMap data, Wikipedia, educational material and the vague promise of “movies, music, games” via presumably legal methods to the world, with data streamed out on a continuous, non-interactive loop.

It would also work as an emergency communications system when cellular networks fail, plus the grand concept it its ability to bypass censorship in regimes where Wikipedia is considered dangerously empowering for the people. The idea, which uses UDP-based multicasting to stream, is to one day provide two-way connectivity, but that’s but an even more distant dream for now. [Outernet via The Register]

US Soldiers in Iraq Were Fed Ice From Unsanitised Morgue Containers

US soldiers have been on the receiving end of some pretty gruesome news over the past few days. As part of a US Justice Department suit against military contractor Kellogg, Brown and Root, it’s been revealed that soldiers serving in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 consumed ice from unsanitised containers that also served as makeshift morgues.

The revelation came as part of the Justice Department’s larger suit against several contractors accused of accepting kickbacks (one as high as £219,000) and making false claims. The suit states:

Sometime around July 2003, while [refrigerated trailer] R-89 was being used as a morgue, the refrigeration motor broke down, leading KBR to send it back to Kuwait for repair. In late August 2003, after R-89 was repaired, KBR used the reefer to transport potable ice for the troops at Camp Matilda in Kuwait. KBR did not properly sanitise R-89 before loading it with potable ice for use by the troops.

This wasn’t the only refrigerated trailer to serve double duty, though. The suit also claims that other morgue reefers were used to transport both ice and food meant for human consumption without properly sanitising them first.

As far as damages go, that won’t be figured out until the actual trial—for which a date hasn’t been set yet. But if these disturbing allegations prove to be true, you can bet their day in court will come with some swift justice. [Military Times via Washington Times]

Image: Shutterstock/Yeko Photo Studio

Engineers are Tracking American Football Helmet Data to Study Head Injuries

The prevalence of head injuries is the dark side of American Football. Now a University of Michigan engineering lab is installing sensors inside helmets which can help measure impact and spot potential brain injuries that might go undetected.

Dropping a helmet-wearing crash test dummy onto another dummy from a height higher than ceiling height (the frightening equivalent of two linebackers ramming heads), the team is able to create metrics for how hard players are getting hit. This could save lives on the field because there’s often no way of exactly knowing how the head moved to cause a concussion or spinal cord injury. It could also help manufacturers design better helmets.

To measure impact, the team is combining two technologies to study how the head reacts to collisions: The helmet-installed Head Impact Telemetry System (HITS) by Riddell and X2 Biosystems’ newer X Patch, which is worn on the skin right on the skin behind the ear. The two sets of data work together to more accurately track how much the head moves during a hit. The team is studying ice hockey collisions as well, and they’re also using the setup to study something which hasn’t yet been explored: how and if neck strength can help protect the head from injury.

McVitie’s Ads Want to Examine the “Emotional Role” of the Biscuit in Today’s Society

United Biscuits, owner of the McVitie’s brand and all the magical sugary food it produces, is about to launch a £12m advertising campaign in the UK. It wants to make the eating of too many biscuits an emotional event. After all, who hasn’t cried themselves to sleep after eating an entire packet of Chocolate Digestives?

Sarah Heynen, the United Biscuits marketing director, said, in classic marketing terms: “We knew that our biscuits have a surprisingly important place in people’s lives – people relate to them in very emotional way. We wanted to bring this feeling to life, in a memorable, modern way.”

Which it will do via a series of TV adverts. The United Biscuits announcement describes the ads like this:

“The adverts, created by Grey London for bakers United Biscuits, were inspired by the insight that something as trivial as the humble biscuit is a powerful and deeply embedded ritual habit in our daily lives.”

Here are the emotions we associate with biscuits:

1. Oh god, there are only five Chocolate Hobnobs left, how am I going to make it through the evening?
2. Oh Jesus, no, something bad happened I can’t remember and now there are now only four Chocolate Hobnobs left. The shop will be closed. Why can’t I stop eating biscuits? I’m fat and am going to die of a stroke aged 52 unless I stop…
3. Somehow there are now only three Chocolate Hobnobs left. Not sure how that happened. Probably a burglar. Does anyone know the number for the National Biscuit Emergency Services, or it it something my GP could help me with?
4. I couldn’t control myself and now there is only one Chocolate Hobnob left.
5. This is the last Chocolate Hobnob. I’ll savour it by eating it slowly instead of stuffing it in in one go while snorting for breath through my nose. Then I’ll make myself puke and start eating the emergency pack that’s hidden in the toilet cistern.

The adverts will show during Coronation Street tonight for the first time, with three of them set to promote the joys of eating additional sugar via some sort of emotional trickery. [United Biscuits via Telegraph]

The Time the US Invaded a Japanese Submarine Base… in Alaska?

An absolutely fascinating but little-known story—described as a “forgotten theatre” by the US Navy itself—is the tale of Kiska and Attu, Alaska: two remote Aleutian islands where the Japanese military established a submarine base during World War II.

The islands—surprisingly close to the outer edge of the Japanese archipelago—were to serve as a landing point and restocking way-station for the Japanese on their way to a much larger invasion of the American mainland.

What ensued, however, was a harrowing 13 month period of submarine and naval warfare, including the all-out shelling and aerial bombardment of an enemy encampment constructed on US territory—but not yet a US state, as Alaska would only become the 49th state of the Union in 1959.

Nonetheless, the fact that there is a ruined Japanese submarine base on US soil is extraordinary—and something only the most astute history buffs seem to know. How it got there, and how it was destroyed, is an incredible story in its own right.

The Time the U.S. Invaded a Japanese Submarine Base... in Alaska?

Supply headquarters in Gertrude Cove, Kiska Island, August 1943. Aerial view of landing craft pulled up to beach in cove; shoreline covered with supplies, provisions, and materials to support US troops on Kiska; image and caption Alaska State Library/Alaska’s Digital Archives.

While the island of Attu was subject to an actual ground attack, including U.S. soldiers dropped onto the island behind the Japanese forces in order to flank them and help push them into the sea, Kiska was successfully abandoned by the Japanese—who secretly escaped in the fog, leaving their abandoned base and many of their supplies behind them—before US troops could manage a landing.

As the US Navy describes the Japanese retreat:

With Attu retaken, attention shifted to Kiska, which was blockaded by a ring of destroyers and bombed regularly, weather permitting. A powerful surface bombardment force, including several old battleships, pounded the island on 22 July, and an invasion fleet was assembled for an assault in mid-August. Meanwhile, however, the Japanese had reluctantly decided to relinquish the island, and 13 large I-class transport submarines were assembled to evacuate the garrison. This plan was revealed to the US high command in a series of cryptologic intercepts, and after seven of the 13 I-boats were lost or crippled in evacuating only 820 men, that approach was abandoned. Instead, on 28 July, under a heavy fog, the Japanese managed to sneak in two light cruisers and six destroyers and spirit away the remaining 5,200 personnel without being detected by the waiting Americans. When the latter came ashore after heavy bombardment on 16 August, they found Kiska entirely abandoned. The Japanese had held the western Aleutians for only 13 months.

Despite the relatively short time of Japanese occupation, the troops—joined by Canadian soldiers—found ruined radar stations, submarine repair and assembly pits, ruined seaplane hangars, mud-choked roads, and even a network of deep defensive tunnels built into the island.

The surreality of what they found there is well-captured by these photos, a kind of military dreamworld embedded in the mud and tundra, surrounded by craters and often covered in places with graffiti left by the retreating Japanese.

Entrance to tunnel near Japanese sub base on Kiska, August 1943. Tunnels gave protection to the Japanese against bombs and provided sleeping quarters; image and caption Alaska State Library/Alaska’s Digital Archives.

As the US Navy adds, “It had to have been the worst duty in the world. The privation, hardship, and danger endured by the more than 1,000 US submariners who served in the Aleutians during 1942 and 1943—most of them in small, obsolete, and worn-out boats,” fighting with old equipment for “the frozen and desolate islands” in “those awful seas.”

The captured terrain was just a fog-enshrouded wasteland.

Army bulldozer works in mud on Kiska Island, August 1943. Large bulldozer in foreground; debris, supplies, and telegraph (or power) poles in background Note on verso: “Mud was very deep in low spots, but volcanic rock and sandstone more predominate in higher places;” image and caption Alaska State Library/Alaska’s Digital Archives

Those islands—parts of which are still off limits due to unexploded ordnance—are now the Kiska Battlefield cultural site, recognised by the US National Park Service.

“The site,” they explain, “which had never been fully surveyed, has hundreds of historic features including the remains of buildings, defensive positions, and roads.”

The photos seen here, courtesy of the Alaska State Library Historical Collections, show Kiska after its retaking by US forces. More pictures are available in the Digital Archives.

Construction battalion in Navy Town on Kiska, Aug-Sept 1943. Piles of pipe and other construction materials stacked on ground. The Time the U.S. Invaded a Japanese Submarine Base... in Alaska?