Archive for July, 2012

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NextDoor.com – Finally a Way to Meet Those Strange People on the Other Side of the Driveway

[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 11, 2012 by admin in Lifestyle & Culture

Wednesday, July 11th, 2012

Through the magic of the internet, you can finally meet those people who live all around you, without ever actually having to TALK to them.


Sadly, these seniors don’t use the internet,
so will never meet and get to know each other

You know those strange people living in that building next to yours? And those nameless children riding bikes up and down your street each day, the ones who sometimes arrive or depart on a bright yellow bus? You’ve probably wondered: who ARE these people? Do they speak English? Are they paid extras in a big movie you’re in, like Jim Carrey in The Truman Show? And the kids, are they taking field trips in your area each day? Or do they actually live here? Well finally, there’s a way to find out. Thanks to the marvels of the internet and this innovative human relationship building tool called “social networking”, those people surrounding you on all sides no longer need to be a mystery. If you thought Facebook was cool, with its amazing tools for connecting you with people you already know so you can tell them all about what you ate for lunch today, you’ll LOVE NextDoor.com, where you can get to know the people next door, without ever having to go through the drudgery of actually TALKING to them. Probably one of the most amazing things about NextDoor.com – aside from the fact that it’s real, and not an Onion.com parody – is the fact that is its existence probably IS in fact the only way some people will ever meet those possible hostiles next door. I’m sometimes perceived as a bit of a sociopath, because I say “hi” to strangers and make a point of meeting the neighbor, but the last time I recall people actually talking to neighbors on a large scale was during the Northeast Blackout of 2003. Don’t be surprised if NextDoor.com takes Groupon’s title as the next multibillion-dollar overvalueddotcom within the year. The idea is just ironic enough to work, in the same way Instagram lets you take perfectly good digital photos and make them look crappy, like you shot them twenty years ago on a Kodak Brownie.  Learn more in the introductory video below. Read the rest of this entry »

Your Robot Sucks Less Than Ever

[ Comments Off ]Posted on July 10, 2012 by admin in Technology

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

But now it is going to kill you.


Don’t be fooled by the cuteness. Glowing
red eyes are one of the first signs that
the uprising has begun. See videos below.

Personally, I don’t understand the liberal peaceniks’ big fuss about the Obama administration’s unbridled abuse of drones around the world. What we REALLY should be worried about are our house pets and Skynet, now that Google has created a cat-aware artificial intelligence, and on top of freaky military robots like Big Dog, Pet Man, and Cheetah, we have weird. eleven-pound robots that hop like fleas , maple-seed inspired spybots that can be thrown like boomerangs, and miniature quadrotors that can play the James Bond Theme. Not to mention the squirmy softbots that will be oozing under a door near you soon. Yes, we’ve bemoaned the tragic state of robotics on a couple of occasions previously, first explaining why your robot sucks and later, why it sucks slightly less. We’ve also belittled the progress being made in the field of artificial stupidity. But robots are finally coming into their own. Maybe a little TOO MUCH into their own. Try to imagine thousands of mechanically whining and whirring robot dogs approaching on the horizon, the ground being darkened by millions of buzzing quadrotor drones above them, while in their midst bipedal metal men hurl single-bladed mini-copters at you, and you either have the makings of a great new near-future sci-fi thriller, or an accurate vision of our impending doom. If Google’s computers can learn to recognize human faces that is. Until then, hide your cat. Below are some videos of the latest preparations for the robopocalypse. Read the rest of this entry »

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