Category: Stream

Categories
Stream

The Fall of CNET

It’s hard to imagine a website that has endured as long as CNET. One of the big, early websites of the mid-90s internet is still around today. CNET has been in the game of tech news reporting since its inception and been a notable landing place for not only news but product reviews. But it’s been a company finding itself looking to make money and stand out. And part of that is doing the unthinkable: deleting articles. Benj Edwards at Ars Technica has more. The deletion process began with small batches of articles and dramatically increased in the second half…

Categories
Stream

Traditionally Beating It

If it’s one thing I can never get enough of, it’s incredible alternative covers of Michael Jackson’s Beat It. This time around we get a rendition using a traditional Chinese Guzheng. The sounds this instrument make is instantly recognizable not just for the similarities to traditional Chinese music we’ve heard over the years, but then how it morphs into a song that is legendary. The song is performed by 墨韵 Moyun Official and I am so, so impressed with how fantastic it sounds. If you’re a fan of the track, it’s well worth a watch.

Categories
Stream

Data Recovery Exonerates A Man

Every justice system has failures where innocent people are wrongly convicted. A recent story I saw on Mastodon recounts how the Bloop Museum, a technology archive project, was called upon to try to recover crucial data from old floppy disks. Why? Because court records were stored on them, and it was vital to retrieve that information in order to exonerate an innocent man. You can find more details on the museum’s Patreon page. Okay, it was just last year, and the museum received a visit from the Wicomico County Prosecution Integrity Unit. We weren’t in any trouble, but any time…

Categories
Stream

Atari Tries Again

When it comes to video games, there is always a sense of nostalgia. Nintendo had a hit on its hands when the NES Classic came out a few years ago. Sega had been doing the same for many years with subpar retro consoles, but then copied Nintendo to release a proper Genesis clone. Sony followed suit with a PS1 version, which reinforced the fact that games from the PS1 / Saturn era do not hold up well. Now Atari is back, again, with a console that will play all those pixel-perfect games, in an emulated fashion. Wes Davis at The…

Categories
Stream

ABC’s 1980’s All-In Promo

Television’s landscape 40 years was a big push for eyeballs. When only a few networks were in existence, each of the national broadcasters were in fierce competition for viewers. In 1980, it seems ABC decided to go all in. One single promo that lasts a whopping minute and forty seconds features every. single. actor. on its network. How ABC was able to get the talent for each program onto a set at a single time is beyond my comprehension but it’s a feat ABC achieved. Crazy to think that not only were these big A-List actors but they were all…

Categories
Stream

It’s-A Time To Retire

Since the first Mario game where the famed plumber needed a voice, one man has held the role: Charles Martinet. For over 25-years he has voiced Mario, Luigi, and a host of other characters in the bestselling franchise. Now, Martinet is stepping down in order to focus on being a “Mario Ambassador”, which is Nintendo-speak for ‘retire’. Ash Parrish at The Verge has more. Martinet has voiced the character since the ’90s, appearing in mainline Mario titles like Super Mario 64, Super Mario Odyssey, and Super Mario Galaxy as well as countless spinoffs. “Charles is now moving into the brand-new role of Mario Ambassador. With…

Categories
Stream

SegWhy

The Segway is two things: a thing mall cops ride and a thing you may ride on a tour. That’s it. And what a fall from grace it is for this weird device, because it’s an innovative piece of tech that never stood a chance. For the unfamiliar, the Segway was marketed as a revolutionary way to get around when you didn’t want to walk and distances were too short for a car. Dean Kamen invented it and tried to market it as “the “the next big thing.” We know that never panned out, but the “why” that defined its…

Categories
Stream

This Flying Car is Electrical

The year is 2023 and we still don’t have flying cars. We likely never will and based on how many people drive, I am not optimistic it’s really a good idea. Heck, we’ve been here before. But that won’t stop companies from trying. As Natalie Neysa Alund reports at USA Today, yet another aspiring company looks to make this a reality. This week, Alef Aeronautics revealed its flying car “Model A” was granted legal permission from the Federal Aviation Administration to test run the vehicle on the road and in the sky − a move needed before it can be released to…

Categories
Stream

Bike Brick

Yet again we find another glaring example of why you should never buy physical devices that depend on a cloud service or app or company remaining in business. This time around it’s VanMoof and its series of e-bikes. The Dutch company is now bankrupt leaving customers with bikes made with non-standard parts and features that won’t work without its app. Rob Schmitz at WGBH has more. VanMoof’s creators fancied their company to be like Apple — creating unique products that would spawn its own ecosystem — but Hartogs says the company ran out of money because, unlike Apple’s products, VanMoof’s…

Categories
Stream

4K Nirvana

One of the most influential bands of the 90s, Nirvana has endured through its short span of existence. The band had incredible hits and musicians. The unfortunate suicide of Kurt Cobain marked the end of the band, but their music lives on. I recently stumbled upon this 4K 60FPS video of Nirvana performing on Saturday Night Live in 1992. The video is clear, the sound is great, and it’s incredible to see Cobain in full high definition. You can even see how his hair is a different color. It’s nine minutes of pure nostalgia, but it opens with the legendary…

Categories
Stream

Gotta Catch ’em All

There’s a time when things that were popular as kids becomes popular again as an adult. In the 90s Pokemon was a craze. While it’s never faded away, and I was too old to get into it, it has ebbed and flowed in time. But now, we’re seeing something interesting: Pokemon infiltrating everyday life. In this case it’s a new community in Las Vegas where each street will be named after a Pokemon creature. Nicole Clark at Polygon has more. Construction has been booming in the Las Vegas valley, leading to the unique challenge of coming up with names for…

Categories
Stream

Surf Otter

If Wide World of Sports was still on the air today, this news out of California certainly would’ve made the cut. Surfers in Santa Cruz have to be on the lookout for aggressive… otters. That’s right. These cute, but not-quite-tame creatures are not only attacking surfers but also taking people’s surfboards. Dustin Jones at NPR has more. Steamer Lane is a legendary point break nestled along the rocky shores of Santa Cruz, home to swaths of experienced surfers, as well as a 5-year-old female sea otter with a growing reputation for repeatedly confronting surfers and kayakers. Videos across social media…

Categories
Stream

Eroding the iMessage Moat

RCS has long been the battle cry for Google and Android in the “messaging wars”. The better way to text has had an uphill battle, but Google has stuck with it and continues to push to make it a standard. Unsatisfied with carriers’ dragging its feet, Google made RCS the default way to message on Android and now has turned on end-to-end encryption by default. That is a big deal. Abner Li at 9to5Google has more on why. Google is making this big move to “ensure more people benefit from this added security.” E2E encryption for 1:1 conversations fully launched…

Categories
Stream

The Prop House where One Of a Kind Props Sit in Filing Cabinets

Every movie needs “stuff” to tell its story. Actors convey the lines and the crew films it, but the “stuff” is what everyone interacts with. Of course, we know them as props, and some are quite famous. Adam Savage, best known for Mythbusters, filmed a visit to The Earl Hayes Press, which is a shop that has been printing props for over a hundred years. Alone, that is a really cool place, but kicking things up a notch is his interview with Michael Corrie, who’s an archivist at the shop. Corrie details how some valuable and one-of-a-kind items were found…

Categories
Stream

McMerch

While the Summer of Grimace is fading away, there’s one thing McDonald’s is very good at: merchandising and creating products people want. Whether it’s food in the aforementioned Grimace Shake or a Happy Meal for adults, it’s a company that gets people in the door for a variety of reasons. But the little-known McD’s-run Smilemakers site lets you browse and purchase merch straight from the company itself. Smilemakers is generally geared toward restaurant operators and managers to provide shirts, pins, accessories, and awards for employees. But the site is open to the public. Right now, there is a Heritage Collection…

Categories
Stream

Intentionally-Stupid Games

In the past decade video games have become an accepted form of art. Millions go into producing Triple A titles in order to give gamers amazing experiences. Bad games are certainly not a thing of the past and James Rolfe continues to be the Angry Video Game Nerd reviewing those bad games. But we also have something interesting that’s come along: a contest to make the stupidest game possible on the ZX Spectrum. Rich Kelly at The Guardian has more. The Comp.Sys.Sinclair Crap Games Contest (CGC for short) has run almost every year since 1996. The idea is to write the crappest…

Categories
Stream

What’s Mine is Mine and What’s Yours is Mine

We’re hot in the AI movement right now, regardless if most of the generative stuff out there is a giant BS machine. It hasn’t stopped the likes of Microsoft adding ChatGPT to Bing and Google rolling out Bard. But all that AI needs to be trained on real data and so Google is doing what they always do: taking the entire internet for themselves. Because they can. Thomas Germain at Gizmodo has more. Google updated its privacy policy over the weekend, explicitly saying the company reserves the right to scrape just about everything you post online to build its AI…

Categories
Stream

Grimace’s Return… To The Game Boy

The current craze with McDonald’s Grimace, the longtime purple blob mascot, is a cultural moment here in 2023. Deciding to roll out a purple shake, the fast food chain is putting Grimace front and center in its marketing. Weirdly, the Grimace shake has become a TikTok trend wherein Gen Z is drinking it and making short horror skits out of what happens next. It’s weird, and obscure, but also very creative. Now, Grimace is pulling another out-of-nowhere stunt: appearing on the Game Boy Color. Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica has more. Grimace’s Birthday was developed by Krool Toys, a Brooklyn-based…

Categories
Stream

12 Voices, 60 Seconds

James Arnold Taylor is an incredibly talented voice actor. He may be best known for voicing Obi Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars animated series. However, he has voiced so many characters on so many shows, it is almost impossible to think so many ‘people’ live inside one mouth. To see how talented Taylor is, enjoy this 60-second video of him pointing to various animated characters in a collage and dropping into their voices as seamlessly as can be. You can watch it by clicking here. Witnessing James Arnold Taylor’s transformative abilities as a voice actor is a captivating experience.…

Categories
Stream

Too Good to Go

Just when you think a brand is done for, they sometimes get a last-minute reprieve. Recently on TimeMachiner, I’ve written about some companies going belly-up: mainly Brydge and DPReview. But in true Monty Python fashion, they’re not dead yet. Incredibly those two plus Bed Bath and Beyond, a third well-known company name, aren’t going anywhere. Firstly we get Brydge, the iPad and tablet keyboard company. I have a Brydge I bought many years ago, my second, after getting one from their initial Kickstarter. Back in May Chance Miller at 9to5Mac reported its sudden disintegration. Creditors were left unpaid and customers…

Categories
Stream

We Didn’t Start the Fire: Updated

The iconic Billy Joel song We Didn’t Start the Fire was a major hit in 1989. In only four and a half minutes, Joel took us through important and notable events covering most of the 20th century. It was catchy, educational, and one of the last hits Joel had before moving to classical compositions. 34 years later we now have a cover of ‘Fire’ from Fall Out Boy. The song looks to cover the gap from then until now. I gave it a listen and while it sounds similar to the original I feel it’s not that great. Personally, some…

Categories
Stream

IRS’s Impending Software

For way too long the IRS has been at the mercy of an agreement they made with Intuit and others when it comes to tax filing software in the US. The deal it struck was to allow companies to develop their own software but also prevent the IRS from doing the same. We all know how that turned out. Now, the IRS will roll out its own homegrown system beginning in January. This may finally bring an end to the complicated (and annoying) process of filing taxes. Jacob Bogage at the Washington Post has more. The system will be available…

Categories
Stream

Wendy’s AI

While I don’t think ChatGPT is taking over the world any time soon, one technology that has come far in the last decade is voice recognition. In the early days of Siri and Google Assistant, they were wrong a lot. Now, those and other assistants capture our speech with extremely high accuracy. Using this, Wendy’s is piloting a program to let their Drive-Thrus be staffed by Google’s AI. Michael Crider at PC World has more. The system has been trained to tune out extraneous noises, like the sound of a passing conversation or kids fighting in the backseat, and can…

Categories
Stream

Fearless Rollerbladers

While some of the most 90s things ever are cheesy commercials about the fledgling internet and Microsoft trying to be cool, there’s another thing that was everywhere back then: Rollerblading. If you’ve ever seen the movie Hackers you know the crew always traveled by in-line skates. Our trip down memory lane features Ryan Jacklone, one of the pioneer aggressive roller skaters. Jacklone loves skating all over NYC, in and out of traffic, and basically doing what most 90s kids did: scoff at any limits placed on skating. Jackone’s style is what eventually became X-Games and the alternative competitive style of…

Categories
Stream

Rivian Joins the Plug Club

Last week I wondered how other EV manufacturers would fare in the sudden rapid adoption of Tesla’s “NACS” charger plug: “Only time will tell but the dominoes are falling.” https://timemachiner.io/2023/06/13/teslas-supercharger-superpowers/ Now today Rivian has announced they’ll switch from CCS to NACS beginning next year. This adds a third non-Tesla manufacturer to the list of companies outright changing the types of plugs on their cars. Jonathan M. Gitlin at Ars Technica has more. [T]oday Rivian revealed that it, too, is switching from CCS to NACS, Tesla’s competing standard, in 2024. Unlike the two automakers that preceded it, Rivian did not have…

Categories
Stream

Maryland Learns the Hard Way Not to Let Its URLs Expire

One rule of the internet is if you buy a website address (known as a URL or Domain Name) you better hold onto it forever. Because once it expires someone can, and will, scoop it up in an instant. Maryland printed a URL on their license plates for four years beginning in 2012 and now in 2023, it’s a casino website. Jason Koebler at Vice has more. In 2012, to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812, Maryland redesigned its standard license plate to read “MARYLAND WAR OF 1812.” The license plates, which were the default between 2012 and…

Categories
Stream

Sega’s 3D Tech

There was a lot of hard work being done by video game companies in the 80s. The American market was in shambles and nobody knew how to break into a new era for entertainment. Sega released their 8-bit Master System in 1986 and with it the ability to play some games in 3D. But this wasn’t the Red / Blue 3D you’d see on the NES with Rad Racer. No, Sega created an Active Shutter system that made truly impressive 3D. Nicole Branagan does a deep dive on this early technology to see how it worked and let me tell…

Categories
Stream

Free Lighthouse; Just Ask.

Lighthouses are cool looking, practical, interesting to learn about, and a key piece of culture and history. Technology butts up against that with advances rendering older items obsolete. GPS in this instance means there’s a bunch of lighthouses that are no longer necessary. But what to do with these coastal towers of light? The US Government’s answer is simple: give them away. The Guardian has more. Ten lighthouses that for generations have stood like sentinels along America’s shorelines protecting mariners from peril and guiding them to safety are being given away at no cost or sold at auction by the…

Categories
Stream

Tesla’s Supercharger Superpowers

For all the ways in which Tesla’s CEO is a buffoon, there’s a prior stroke of genius reverberating today. In its attempts to be competitive in the EV space, Tesla built out its supercharger network and has used its ease as a major selling point. It has worked. For years, it’s been Tesla’s charging port (NACS) vs CCS plugs. Now though Tesla is about to become the de facto standard for all public charging in the US. Aarian Marshall at Wired has more Yesterday, it was General Motors CEO Mary Barra’s turn to make a Twitter Spaces appearance. (Barra had…

Categories
Stream

AI Objection

We know that for all the hype surrounding ChatGPT and these “AI” models, they’re actually big liars. I showed personal examples of this in March. Now a lawyer is also learning the hard way that if ChatGPT doesn’t know something, it confidently lies about it. Wes Davis at The Verge has more. After opposing counsel pointed out the nonexistent cases, US District Judge Kevin Castel confirmed, “Six of the submitted cases appear to be bogus judicial decisions with bogus quotes and bogus internal citations,” and set up a hearing as he considers sanctions for the plaintiff’s lawyers. Lawyer Steven A.…