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Oops… I’ve Done Something Very Bad. Just Kidding, It Wasn’t Me!

Via Das Otterhaus

Filed under: Image, Indie, Culture

In something of a heartbreaking post, Jim Zubkavich -- writer of Image Comics' very well regarded but not hugely popular Skullkickers series -- breaks down the costs and rewards associated with creator-owned comics. The conclusions can only be ... Read more

 

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Sand castle artist Calvin Seibert manages to construct nearly impossible shapes from one of the world’s most delicate mediums. While Colossal has seen its fair share of art made with sand I’ve never seen anything so perfectly angular and geometric. See much more of his work over on Flickr. (via fasels suppe)

"Up with the sale of it, down with a pail of it, Glorious, glorious beer!" Labatt's Employee Drinking Songs Handbook.

Starting next week, the Beaverton library will begin loaning 18 e-readers, each pre-loaded with around 10 books.

Meritline offers Digital Blue's Star Wars Anakin Lightsaber LED Flashlight, model no. SW60000, for $14.99. Coupon code "MLCKR30YNL1" drops it to $11.99. With free shipping, that's the lowest total price we could find by $6. This is an elegant flashlight for a more civilized age, featuring sound effects and four blue LEDs. See the video demo.

We’re having a very busy, very mobile couple of days. We’ve been talking to Welsh teachers, spending time at the factory in Pencoed, doing EMC testing on the camera boards, picking up engineering samples of the Model A, visiting suppliers, and generally running up and down the south of England and Wales with our hair on fire. Sorry I wasn’t able to fit in a post here yesterday; I’ll make it up with an extra post over the weekend.

First up, here’s the very first (blurry, cameraphone) picture of a Model A board. I’ll take some more at the weekend with better detail when I’m near a proper camera.

Raspberry Pi Model A. Click to enlarge.

I posted this picture on Twitter when I opened the box, and had some questions from our followers which I suspect some of you guys might be thinking about too, so I’ll deal with them now:

How much RAM does it have?

The Model A has 256MB RAM.

Updated to add: What’s the power consumption like?

Significantly lower than the Model B’s requirement. For all the gory details and exhaustive figures from our tests, visit this thread in the forums.

Isn’t the Model A kind of obsolete now the Model B has twice the RAM? What could I use it for?

We’re anticipating that those of you who buy the Model A will be using it for different applications from Model B owners. Model A has no ethernet and only one USB slot – and importantly, it consumes much less power than a Model B because the ethernet chip’s missing. We’re seeing demand for the Model A from people making industrial control modules, from roboticists, from people doing automation, for a bunch of headless operations – and, significantly, for people who want to use the Pi as a very cheap media centre. The Model A will only cost $25 (plus tax and shipping).

Wouldn’t it be cheaper for you to use a custom PCB without the existing routing for the ethernet? 

Because of the volumes we’re producing, it’s actually less expensive for us to use the existing PCB we use for the Model B, and just not populate the ethernet part of the board, than to lay-out and separately manufacture a new PCB just for the Model A.

Where are you building the Model A?

We’re making the Model A at the Sony factory in Pencoed, Wales. For the foreseeable future, all Model As will be built there – whichever distributor they’re sold by.

__

We’re pretty excited. The Model A is something we wanted to produce months ago,  but the crazy demand for the Model B has meant that we’ve not been able to build them, because to do so would mean that we have to cannibalise Model B parts – and that would mean that people who are experiencing the backlog would have to wait even longer. We’re hoping to get them off the line and into the hands of our distributors early in the new year, which will put us in a position where that strap line at the top of the page is actually accurate: you’ll be able to buy a $25 computer, which is what we’ve wanted to give you all along.

Last week, IBM looked at the effect of social networks at online retailers on Black Friday and found … nothing.

Or next to nothing: IBM said social sites generated a mere .34 percent of all online sales. Referral traffic to retailers from social sites was also just about zero: IBM said Facebook only accounted for .68 percent of visits to retail sites, while Twitter had a giant goose egg.

Can’t be, right? Those are huge platforms. Surely IBM got its numbers wrong, via some sort of technical or statistical oversight.

If so, you’d think that Facebook or Twitter might want to publicly dispute those stats, since they poke a hole in their “buy our ads, use our services, and sell more stuff” pitch.

But so far neither company has said anything in public about IBM’s Black Friday numbers. Just to be sure, I checked with PR reps for both companies this week: Nada.

Instead of debating the numbers themselves, people who are sympathetic to Twitter and Facebook are making a different point: IBM is measuring the wrong thing.

Here’s the latest version of that argument, via social media analytics start-up DataSift, which says that the IBM study is “wrong,” because Twitter and Facebook “rocked Black Friday.”

But DataSift’s post doesn’t actually argue with IBM’s numbers. It just presents other numbers that show lots of people talking about stores and shopping.

It really is hard to believe that all that chatter didn’t result in more people clicking through to the stores themselves. So, perhaps future studies will figure out a more refined way of tracking that traffic, and Facebook and Twitter will have more favorable statistics to work with. Meantime, the IBM numbers are an ugly bit of coal both companies would like to ignore.

Nest CEO Tony Fadell left Apple back in 2008, but after heading the iPod division he knows what it's like to work with recently-ousted iOS SVP Scott Forstall — and it doesn't sound like he had the best experience. Forstall was widely known to have been an abrasive presence in the workplace, and while Fadell didn't go into details in this BBC interview, he made it clear that he believes Forstall "got what he deserved." Apple never provided details on Forstall's departure, but Fadell's comments line up with what we've heard ourselves. Of course, the Nest founder has personal history with Forstall — it was the latter whose Mac OS-based vision for the iPhone was ultimately selected, and clashes between the two reportedly led to Fadell's...

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AlphaWolf_HK writes "Newzbin2, one of the most recognized index sites for usenet, has closed for good. A statement reads: 'It is with regret that we announce the closure of Newzbin2. A combination of several factors has made this the only option. For a long time we have struggled with poor indexing of Usenet, poor numbers of reports caused by the majority of our editors dropping out & no-one replacing them. Our servers have been unstable and crashing on a regular basis meaning the NZBs & NFOs are unavailable for long periods and we don't have the money to replace them. To make things worse all our payment providers dropped out or started running scared. The MPA sued Paypal and are going at our innocent payment provider Kthxbai Ltd in the UK. Our other payment provider has understandably lost their nerve. Result? We have no more payment providers to offer & no realistic means of taking money (no, Bitcoin isn't credible as it's just too hard for 90% of people).'"

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

The Earth is Peaceful by Brother Brain ★  
Bionic Commando (Game Boy) Capcom 1992.

As we know from our canonical List of New 2012 Holidays, November 30 is Beardsgiving: the holiday where you surprise your loved ones with luxurious new beards as they sleep. I hope it’s going well for you! Everybody loves awakening to a bushy new beard — and if they don’t, perhaps reconsider why you consider this person a loved one.

Here is something new for the beard-lover (or beard aspirant) in your life. The Beard Measuring Shirt:

Like all the best metrics, it is a threshold basis. Either your beard is long enough, or it’s not. If not, you know what to do. GET TO WORK.

Hey look, a hoodie! I BELIEVE IN PIRANHAMOOSE:

I’ve wanted to do a hoodie for a long time, but couldn’t land on a design I liked. But I love this one! On the front breast it says “i believe” in tiny letters. And the ink GLOWS

IN

THE

DARK

So if you’re ever lost in the woods, you’ll make an easily-spotted meal be able to signal rescuers!

Now for what’s possibly the most amazing thing ever. The Cooking Wizard Kit:

Based, of course, on this comic. You can get the apron alone, or the full kit which includes a WIZARD HAT and the “Magic Wand of Gastrostir” (which grants +5 Deliciousness).

Come on. WIZARD HAT.

Finally, I’ve been told there are a final two sets of Wondermark Artist Edition 5-Packs left — I drew these extras just in case any of the prior orders got lost in transit, but it looks like the Postal Service’s lack of failure has become YOUR GAIN. UPDATE: These are gone!

These and many other fine things are available this very instant at my TopatoCo store.

IMPORTANT NOTE! TopatoCo has posted their list of Christmas shipping deadlines. It takes them time to pack and fill orders, so please carefully study this chart to see when you should place your order (and what speed of shipping you need to use) to guarantee a pre-Christmas delivery.

New Wondermark Holiday Cards

I’m also pleased to announce that my in-house store is all stocked up and ready to ship holiday cards! Here are two BRAND NEW designs for this year (click the images for a closer look):

“Mistletoe”:

And “Negotiator” (based on this comic):

All of my cards can be purchased in mix-n-match packs, with quantity discounts available. Here is the full list of cards! Order soon, so you receive them in time to send them back out. We’ll be packing and shipping here as quickly as we can. Thanks so much for all your support!

A re-construction of Charles Babbage's difference engine, an early mechanical computer, has been captured in precise detail using gigapixel imagery. Babbage, who essentially invented the mechanical computer in the nineteenth century, was unable to execute on his ideas during his lifetime, but scientists successfully reconstructed his second design for the difference engine in the late eighties. Work began to build Babbage's magnus opus, the highly-complex analytical engine, last year.

Today, two difference engines exist, one in Babbage's London and the other at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. It's difficult to grasp the scale of the giant machine through the images, so we've included a video of it in action...

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Oh man. This may be my favorite t-shirt design we've ever done. And I say that as a native born Texan.

I don’t want to suffer an’y more than I h’ave ‘to

QUIC’K, P’ULL’ TH’E TR”IGG’E'R””’

ALL OF THE SLUDS AND HOARS ON THIS TUMBLRS MAKING ME SAD FOR EMERICAS YOUTH.

WHY YOU SO SLUDDY AND HOARY?

PUT ON MORE CLOSE! STOP PLAYING WITH YOUR TIDDIES AND PENUSES BEFOAR YOU CATCH A DISESE.

WHAT WOULD PARENS THINK? TEARS! ALL OF TEARS!

FOR ANYTHING YOU DO THE NOOD FOTOS AND NO REASONS!

“I LIKE BAND ONE DIRECTION. LOOK AT MY BUBES.”

“I WATCH BEE BEE SEE MOVIE SHOW SHERLOCK. HEAR IS MY TESSACLES IN DIRTY BEDSROOM.”

GOD CAN SEE YOUR BUBES! HE IS MAD AT THEM! STOP BEING SO NAKID! PUT YOUR GIANT WEENERS AWAY FROM CAMERAS AND GO CHURCH!

"I think it's important to replace some of the joy and good will of the holidays and inject a bit of mortal terror to really make the season special for our children." FotA Phineas X. Jones has a fab Krampus poster for sale.

Lovely, Type(Chess)Set. Via The Awesomer.

PrivacyChoice

For most people, privacy policies are the boring fine print in a website you may visit. They're nearly always written in legalese, unintelligible to the average person, and on top of that many of them don't even say that much.

Overall, it's hard to imagine a group of documents that could be more sleep-inducing than online privacy policies. The rub is, they're actually important. In the absence of any federal online privacy laws, the policies are actually the only way for a user to find out what various services are doing with her information.

Privacy policies are also the only basis for enforcement from bodies like the Federal Trade Commission. Since the government can't actually sue a company for having sketchy privacy policies for adult users, it has to nab companies when they have violated their own stated privacy policies. That's what happened when the FTC managed to force both Facebook and Google into privacy-related settlements. The fact that privacy policies are key to enforcement actually creates a perverse incentive: the less a company says in its privacy policy, the better its protection from government scrutiny.

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Reporter 1: “I just called this company in Idaho and asked speak to the CEO and they said I’d have to write a letter.”

Reporter 2: “What year is it in Idaho?”

A character flaw both Creon and Hitler share is dictatorship.

The first and last Nintendo Power covers, the latter issue coming out next month. Perfect homage.

Buy: Nintendo 3DS and 3DS XL consoles
See also: More Nintendo Power posts
[Via @Mudron]

Yeah, send me one of these and I will love you long time.

Over the past couple days, a certain hashtag’s been dominating the gaming industry’s sector of Twitter, and with good reason. #1ReasonWhy has given people a place to voice – often using their personal experiences as a megaphone – reasons why there aren’t more women in the gaming industry. Naturally, it’s sparked all kinds of debate, but as always, the point is clear: sexism in the gaming industry is a serious problem, and we need to clean up our act. Perhaps just as damaging as detractors, though, are those who’ve resigned themselves to inaction. For whatever reason, they’ve simply opted to not do anything – even though they know there’s a problem. And so that brings us to a couple days ago, when I encountered a real life example of this little number: “Seriously, though, I’m a guy. It’s not like I can do anything about it.”

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An anonymous reader writes "Mcor and Staples announced today a deal in which Mcor will supply their paper-based 3D printers to Staples Copy Centers worldwide. Staples customers will be able to upload their 3D model and pick up the printed object at their local copy center. The rollout starts in The Netherlands and Belgium in 1Q 2013 and then opens up in other countries."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

H.264 Big Buck Bunny in Firefox on Android 4.2.1.

The Firefox browser is now shipping with support for HTML5 videos compressed with the H.264 codec to users of Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) and Samsung phones with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich).

This is the first time the open source browser has supported the widely used video codec. Firefox's developer, Mozilla, was reluctant to support H.264 because the open standard was not available on a royalty free basis; implementers of decoders have to pay for a license to use the various patents that cover H.264. Instead, the group hoped the Google-owned VP8 codec would suffice; a hope buoyed by Google's announcement that Chrome would drop its support for H.264 and concentrate on VP8.

Google never did remove H.264 from Chrome—the browser supports it to this day—and a substantial fraction, possibly 80 percent or more, of HTML5 video on the Web uses the H.264 codec. The growth of mobile platforms made the demand for H.264 support even more acute: hardware acceleration of H.264 decompression is all but universal on mobile devices and taking advantage of this hardware support is essential for providing acceptable battery life.

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“MEAT the newborn King !!! … Nativity becomes MEATivity…”

Pop culture humorist Charles Phoenix has really outdone himself with his new test kitchen Meativity creation, “a jaw-dropping edible holy holiday appetizer platter of delicious deli meats – hot dogs, ham, bacon, ground sirloin, sausage and salami” which he says should baked and served warm with mustard, toasted buns and lots of beer. We wrote about Phoenix’s holiday food project last year when he concocted Frosty the Cheeseball Man, a melting fondue snowman made of cheese. Phoenix will soon start his Retro Holiday Show tour, which starts on December 6, 2012 in Dayton, Ohio.

image via Charles Phoenix

Travelers of The Solar System is a wonderful out of this world chart designed by Pittsburgh animator and illustrator Scott Benson that features a collection of historical astronomers, comets, mythological figures and spacecrafts. Commonwealth Press hand-printed glow in the dark screen prints of Benson’s design, which are available to purchase on Etsy. Here’s Scott Benson’s description of his illustration:

This illustrated chart was designed by me and hand-printed by my dear friends at Commonwealth Press. It features 8 planets, 4 astronomers, 4 cosmonauts, 3 astronauts, 3 comets, 3 spacecraft and 1 ill-fated hound, along with helpful annotations. In the dark it features 15 mythological figures of the heavens. It is printed on sturdy black paper with white, blue and glow in the dark ink which appears as faded grey in sunlight.

images via Scott Benson on Etsy

submitted by Scott Benson

The Blaze | Al Jazeera
United Nations Information Officer Nancy Groves accidentally substituted the number 1 for the number 2 in a tweet about the Palestinian bid for a homeland in the Middle East:

Ban Ki-moon is the Secretary-General of

… Read more