Technology Category Archives
трофеи
23 July 2015 | Art, Technology | No Comments
How much information about ourselves do we leave behind in public, as we shed saliva, hair, and sweat throughout the day? It’s a question that drives the artwork of Heather Dewey-Hagborg, whose project Stranger Visions reconstructs the faces of the anonymous as 3-D printed sculptures, using genetic detritus found in chewing gum, cigarette butts, and wads of hair around New York City.
welcome, Neo, to the virtual world
12 July 2015 | Sex, Technology | No Comments
и не забудь свою Неомаху:
If you haven’t experienced virtual reality in any form — porn or otherwise — it’s a bit hard to grasp this, but VR is a legitimate breakthrough in entertainment and storytelling.
The difference between virtual reality and every storytelling medium that came before it is something called “presence.” For those unfamiliar with this term, presence is what happens when you are immersed in the virtual experience in front of you.
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As VirtualRealPorn co-founder Mike Kovalsky (fake name) said when I interviewed him, “When you watch standard porn, you have to see what the director decides to show you. But in VR, you have the actress in front of you, and you can choose to look into her eyes, watch her tits, or focus on her pussy.”
Even with a mid-range HTC phone and the barrel-scraping Google Cardboard strapped to my face, I found VirtualRealPorn’s videos to be a leap forward in erotic intensity.
And this is just the beginning.
о насыщении
12 July 2015 | Economics, Technology | No Comments
IHS estimates that by the end of this year every dollar spent in developing new shale oil wells in the U.S. will be 65% more productive in terms of additional oil extracted than in 2014. There may be a dip in output over the summer. But IHS expects that U.S. output will resume its growth later this year and into next.
пока горячо
7 July 2015 | Economics, Technology | 1 Comment
все, конечно, видели, но тем не менее:
US shale producers have brought down the breakeven cost from $35 to $20 per barrel,” ANZ bank said on Friday.
кого там волнует какая-то Греция…
поют и танцуют
7 May 2015 | Geography, Technology | No Comments
а вот путешествие в Индию, в Удайпур, размером в 16 гигапикселей.
наблюдения за наблюдающими
21 February 2015 | Sex, Technology | No Comments
наука умеет много гитик — да, дорогие, все ваши ходы у нас записаны:
Cinema has come to affect our lives and views in real and meaningful ways. For instance, after the release of the film Sideways, Merlot became more difficult to move off of shelves while Pinot Noir enjoyed a 16% spike in sales. Deer hunting decreased by nearly half for a few years after Bambi. In the same vein, the recent release of the film adaptation of 50 Shades of Grey has been shaking things up over here at Pornhub. Specifically, people are getting freakier in their pornographic preferences and we’ve got the data to prove it.
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[A]ction words like ‘submission,’ ‘dominate,’ and ‘spanking’ all skyrocketed by 150-220% by female Pornhub viewers. Suffice it to say, the desire for less vanilla type videos is strong among the ladies – the only thing we can’t say[1] <...> is which side of the paddle they’d prefer to be on.
но что еще будет, когда в моду снова вернутся детские сказки — уж там-то BDSM-практики и вовсе на каждом шагу. иными словами, приятно, не скрою, видеть, на сколько лет мы (ты, правда, не читаешь эти записки) и тогда уже опережали испуганный мэйнстрим.
фильм, впрочем, не видел, и книжку, разумеется не читал. но кажется, это замечательное порно, как в старом анекдоте, наконец-то закончившееся свадьбой[2]?
эхо
4 February 2015 | Technology | No Comments
сперва одно, затем и все остальное:
Quarterly earnings are a necessity for business reporting — and it can be both monotonous and stressful, demanding a combination of accuracy and speed. That’s one of the reasons why last summer the AP partnered with Automated Insights to begin automating quarterly earnings reports using their Wordsmith platform.
по-моему, достойная перспектива: одни роботы пишут интерпретации цифр для других роботов, которые, в свою очередь, на основе этого строят новые цифры — и моделируют buy и sell реквесты, например. или размышляют, как приготовить чай[1].
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если вы понимаете, о чем я:
“No,” he said, “look, it’s very, very simple … all I want … is a cup of tea. You are going to make one for me. Keep quiet and listen.”
And he sat. He told the Nutri-Matic about India, he told it about China, he told it about Ceylon. He told it about broad leaves drying in the sun. He told it about silver teapots. He told it about summer afternoons on the lawn. He told it about putting in the milk before the tea so it wouldn’t get scalded. He even told it (briefly) about the history of the East India Company.
“So that’s it, is it?” said the Nutri-Matic when he had finished.
“Yes,” said Arthur, “that is what I want.”
“You want the taste of dried leaves boiled in water?”
“Er, yes. With milk.”
“Squirted out of a cow?”
“Well, in a manner of speaking I suppose …”
“I’m going to need some help with this one,” said the machine tersely. All the cheerful burbling had dropped out of its voice and it now meant business.
“Well, anything I can do,” said Arthur.
“You’ve done quite enough,” the Nutri-Matic informed him.
It summoned up the ship’s computer.
“Hi there!” said the ship’s computer.
The Nutri-Matic explained about tea to the ship’s computer. The computer boggled, linked logic circuits with the Nutri-Matic and together they lapsed into a grim silence.
Arthur watched and waited for a while, but nothing further happened.
He thumped it, but still nothing happened.
наблюдать за наблюдателем
3 February 2015 | Art, Technology | No Comments
Бенджамин Грант и его googleearth-срезы.
кажется, вот еще другой Бен Грант, но совершенно превосходный, не могу не упомянуть.
the winter is coming
7 November 2014 | Politics, Technology | No Comments
о настроениях:
I live in a big city in central Europe. As most of you know from recent news, most of Europe’s (and quite a bit of China’s) gas supply comes from Russia and is very likely to be cut off several times during the next few winters (China’s time will come in later years). What many might not know is that not just our natural gas supply, but also our petrol (‘gas’ for the Americans in the audience) often comes partly from Russia and some of our electricity comes from gas powered stations. Most of our leaders, at least in Germany and Hungary, are in bed with the Russians and likely won’t do anything about fuel security. I live in an building with a south-facing roof and I own the roof space but I don’t have enough land here to put a wind turbine or something similar on. Can anyone make good suggestions for ways to cut down my dependence on unreliable power supplies? Extra points for environmentalism, but I am even willing to pay more to be sure the heating is there in winter and my server keeps running.
to give some perspective, this is a Slashdot discussion.
скопом
6 November 2014 | Apple, Microsoft, Technology | No Comments
несколько заголовков:
- Lenovo тоже копируют iPhone. говорит ли это, что они не в состоянии спроектировать аппарат сами? кто знает (в конце концов, Lenovo не Xiaomi — или уже да?). но вообще, если задуматься на минутку, то я бы не стал доверять компании, что продает ворованные идеи под собственной маркой. есть у них свои разработчики, или нет… это уже не столь важно — раз чужим представлениям там доверяют больше.
- Microsoft сделали мобильный Office бесплатным для iOS устройств, подписка больше не нужна. полагаю, вопрос уже не только в конкуренции, но еще и в самом подходе, а необходимы ли офисные продукты вообще[1]? видимо, они понимают что бороться им не только с Google, но и с нашим изменившимся образом действий — т.е., заново набирают пользовательскую базу.
- Кой Вин рассуждает о том, понимают ли сами Apple, что такое iPad? и если да, то почему мы не видим действтельно революционного программного обеспечения, что в принципе изменило наш подход к компьютерам? в чем-то он прав, да (и цифры не врут). но говорить, что “in many ways, the iPad has become exactly what many of its critics said it was in the beginning: just a big iPhone without its own phone number”? даже не смешно[2].