iPad Geeks

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Zuckerberg, Milner, Brin and Other Tech Titans Donate Millions to Science

Zuckerberg_millner

When you’re as rich as some of the Silicon Valley elite, most anything is at your fingertips. Jetpacks, yachts, skydiving while wearing augmented reality headgear. Oh, and there’s that whole philanthropy thing, too.

A few are opting for that last option with the launch of the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences Foundation on Wednesday, a non-profit organization drummed up by a handful of tech billionaires.

“I think that our society needs more heroes, more scientists, more researchers, more engineers,” said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, one of the sponsors of the foundation, at an event in San Francisco on Wednesday. “The things that we can do from the sidelines are build institutions that celebrate your work.”

The prize aims to spur innovation in the field of science research and is backed by tech luminaries including Russian entrepreneur and venture capitalist Yuri Milner, who reached out to Zuckerberg and Google co-founder Sergey Brin months ago to talk about launching the foundation. Art Levinson, Apple chairman and former CEO of Genentech, will act as the chairman of the board for the foundation.

The first round of prize recipients includes 11 scientists from a range of research disciplines, including studies in genetics, cancer research and neural behavior. Each of the 11 prize winners will receive a $3 million award for their work, and Brin, Zuckerberg, Milner and the rest of the sponsors have agreed to a five-year commitment to awarding prizes.

For now, the group’s board intends to remain small. Milner said the design of the five-person board — which also includes Zuckerberg’s wife Priscilla Chan and Brin’s wife Anne Wojcicki (a biology analyst and co-founder of 23 and Me) — is purposely small, targeting research on five specific diseases chosen by the board members. Wojcicki’s donation will go to supporting Parkinson’s research; the other sponsors haven’t named their chosen diseases yet.

At the same time, Zuckerberg said there’s room for expansion. “We specifically said we weren’t going to name the prize after a specific person,” he said, in order to potentially attract more sponsors in the tech industry.

U.S. Unveils New Strategy to Combat Hacking

The White House unveiled a new strategy to exert pressure on China and other countries that engage in corporate espionage against the U.S. as part of a new administration push to counter cyber attacks and commercial spying.

The strategy, released Wednesday in a report that was the subject of a White House meeting, raised the prospect of stepped-up U.S. trade restrictions on products and services derived from stolen trade secrets. Officials also outlined a series of diplomatic actions to reinforce the administration’s commitment to curbing such thefts.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Tuesday, May 7, 2013

The Pirate Bay’s advertising program actually works

Anodyne game

A little less than one year ago, The Pirate Bay announced a new campaign where the site’s iconic logo would be replaced by an ad for some form of media — usually music. Dubbed The Promo Bay, the promotional campaign aimed to help artists promote their work — no doubt an effort by The Pirate Bay to show that it isn’t just a platform for piracy. Those of you that have visited the site frequently enough may have wondered how well the promotion platform is working, and luckily for us, the developer of the indie game — Sean Hogan — Anodyne broke down just how much the promotion helped.

The Promo Bay isn’t simply a free promotion, as the catch is that the featured artist must provide a free torrent to the promoted work. Hogan said that the promotion was a success, and fueled sales to far exceed the projected numbers.

Over the three days that Anodyne was promoted on The Pirate Bay, Sean experienced traffic of over 240,000 unique visitors, with the largest referral being from The Pirate Bay. The total cost of the promotion was $7, but that was simply web-hosting costs. The release trailer of the game broke 100,000 views, and the Facebook page gained around 200 to 300 Likes.

To compare to how the game was doing before The Promo Bay, the developers only experienced traffic of around 40,000 unique visitors, which resulted in around 800 to 900 sales at an average of $8 a pop, which results in around $6,400 to $7,200. The sale resulted in around 6,700 purchases of the game, and though the average price paid was much lower than $8 — at around $1.50 to $2.76 depending on game-only or bundle purchases — the developers doubled their revenue from the sale, generating around $12,000.

So, at least for one developer, The Promo Bay actually worked, showing that more sales come with more exposure, even if the product is sitting right there available for free.

Ancient icosahedron: 3D printing ressurrects the world’s oldest die

D20 Die

While it’s unlikely that the ancient Egyptians had anything like Dungeons and Dragons (Sarcophagi and Serpents?), we’ve never been shy about misappropriating the discoveries of pre-Christian Pharaohs. Why start now? A few months ago the internet became aware of a 20-sided die carved in serpentine and dated to the first few centuries BC. Inlaid with ancient Greek symbols, it was almost certainly used for gambling and/or simple games of chance, but it was quickly heralded as the originator of the critical hit. Forget 20s — a true gamer rolls Kappas.

Now, the inevitable: a 3D-printable model of the die makes it attainable by those of us without a professional art thief on retainer. Starting at $17 and ranging to over $300, depending entirely on the materials and finishing used, this die is sure to spice up any friendly dungeon-crawl.

It is also, unfortunately, likely to confuse any such gathering of the nerds, as it features the same Ptolemaic symbols as the original. Unless you’re willing to incorporate yet another chart into your role-playing sessions, this one will likely stay on the shelf as a display.

The confluence of nerd interests, increasingly medieval printing materials, and the simplicity of a die’s design has actually led to quite a number of stylistically ancient dice. It turns out that almost any primary sold can look ruggedly ancient when made out of pitted steel.

The thorn dice have attracted a fair amount of attention, as heavy metal steampunk or caltrops D4; the sheer variety of the die designs out there should threaten the dice-making industry.

Monday, May 6, 2013

How Pornography Addiction Works and Affects Your Life (Update: Or Not!)

For all the jokes, pornography addiction ~~is a real and actual addiction~~. Really. Stop laughing. I'm serious. No, it's— Look. Porn works like any other addictive substance: It re-wires your brain in ways that make you need it, and probably proves harmful to the rest of your life. (See update below)

Basically, the visual images of pornography associate themselves with the dopamine release you receive from pleasure. And in turn, you become less sensitive to sexual images, meaning it can become harder for you to be turned on by reality. You'll also be compelled to seek out porn more and more often, of course. Like any other addiction, you can shake porn addiction through prolonged avoidance of the material, but you're going to go through withdrawal symptoms along the way. It's a pretty har— Tough. It's a tough one to shake. [YouTube]

Update: Sex researcher and friend of Gizmodo Debby Herbenick writes in to tell us that all of this is simply not true, and that "many of the professional who think it can be treated are selling treatment programs for porn/sex addiction." She writes:

Most sex researchers don't recognize "porn addiction" as a true addiction (nor do most of us recognize "sex addiction" as a true addiction). This is a common topic of conversation among scientists in my field. The video is mostly speculation; empirical data to back up the statements in the video are enormously lacking.

If you'd like to discuss with anyone who studies this area, I'd be happy to refer you to colleagues who study related issues. I wouldn't have written if I didn't think it was important to set the record straight, but I've seen far too many people hurt personally or relationally by these unsupported claims.

You should take her opinion over most, for what it's worth.

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

We're big fans of ThinkGeek here at Gizmodo. They carry some really cool stuff that you can't get anywhere else, but like all superfluous-yet-undeniably-dope toys, the price has got to be right. You can't shout "shut up and take my money" if you've got to check your bank account first.

Right now, ThinkGeek's offering a rare coupon code that takes 20% off everything. Shipping's $6, ~~or free when you spend more than $75~~. The code's BLUERUPEE. Don't know what to use the code on? Well, the impossibly creepy USB tentacle ~~flash drive~~ pictured up at the top is a good start. [ThinkGeek]

Update 3:25: Unfortunately, it looks like free shipping doesn't stack with the 20% off code.

@kifleswing Holy deal explosion, Batman! Just a note on our 20% off coupon: free shipping at $75 doesn't stack. :\

— thinkgeek (@thinkgeek) February 20, 2013

Here are some more suggestions to get you started:

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

A Few Lego Pieces Transform This Studded Mug Into Whatever You Can Imagine

[$15 from Thinkgeek]

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

Fastest Bottle Opener in the Galaxy Opens Bottles in Less Than Twelve Parsecs

[$16 from Thinkgeek]

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

French Press Mug Brews a Perfect Single Serving of Coffee

[$20 from Thinkgeek]

A few notes: In Zelda, the blue rupee is worth 5 rupees. Shouldn't the coupon be something like "redrupee"? Also, if you want more shopping inspiration, here's the list of ThinkGeek products that Gizmodo's written about. And if you've had your eye on something for a while, let us know in the comments (after you cop one for yourself.)

The Internet was made for window shopping. Dealzmodo does it the best. Follow @dealzmodo

Top Deals

Eric Limer used Republic Wireless' unique $19-a-month smartphone plan for a whole year, all in the spirit of saving money. Here's what he learned.

A Friendly Reminder Not To Trust List Prices

One hundred thirty thousand dollars off? What a steal! No, but seriously, this is a pretty cool deal: Gorilla Tape kicks ass, and usually a roll costs around $6. [Amazon]

Accessories

1.5 TB WD My Passport ($100) | Amazon via Storageaholic | Originally $130

Miscellaneous

Apple

Hey — this official Apple 30-pin-to-Lightning adapter is $20 instead of $30. Of course, it's refurbished. [All4Celluar]

Hey, so a refurb iPhone 5 is down to $100 with 2-yr AT&T contract fave.co/W3KJzo

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Audio

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

A year ago, Curtis Jackson promoted these headphones so hard that he spoke with Gizmodo's own Sam Biddle. Here's the video. Now, the blue model is on sale for $100, which is significantly less than the $250 MSRP. Is it because these are pretty hideous "fashion" headphones? It is because Fiddy isn't the marketing master that Dr. Dre is? Or is it because these are actually cheap, generic headphones with a whole bunch of expensive marketing, and now they're finally coming down to their true price? We don't know, but it is a bit sad. [Amazon]

Gaming

Dead Space 3 ($40) | Amazon via James Campbell | Originally $60
Assassin's Creed III ($40) | Amazon via Reddit | Originally $60

Huzzah! A new Humble Bundle is out, but for upcoming games humblebundle.com

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Physical Media

"Well, out here we call them pirates." Criterion Collection DVD for $7. amazon.com/dp/B0007UC8Y4/... | My favorite scene: youtube.com/watch?v=jhex7q...

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Warner Brothers Sale | Warner Bros via Hard Forum | Harry Potter, DC Comics, etc, plus free shipping
Patton on Blu-ray ($10) | Amazon via Logicbuy | Originally $18

Digital Media

Nah.

Clothing

Fjallraven Classic Backpack ($90) | Urban Outfitters via Reddit | Originally $140
Supergas Sale | Gilt via Put This On

Dumb TV Smart TV

Refurb Sony Blu-ray Player with WiFi ($60) | Best Buy via Reddit | Originally $90

Laptops

Desktops

Tablets

10.1" ASUS Transformer Pad Infinity ($430) | Amazon | Originally $500

Screens

Does This Verizon Galaxy S3 Deal Mean The GS4 Is Around the Corner?

A Rare Coupon Code to ThinkGeek Is Your Deal of the Day

For the past two weeks we've been seeing a lot of cheap Galaxy S3 handsets with Sprint contract. But this one is for Verizon service, and unlike the Sprint deals, current customers can take advantage of it. It's a $20 GS3 with two-year contract.

Of course, the Galaxy S4 could be just around the corner — there's starting to be a little bit of rumor chatter, and Mobile World Congress starts next week. Plus, it simply makes sense that the GS4 would come out a year after the GS3. So you've got to decide whether it's worth it to wait. [Newegg via Dealnews]

Portables

Hey, so a refurb iPhone 5 is down to $100 with 2-yr AT&T contract fave.co/W3KJzo

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Camera

Bare Drives

You guys see anything out there? Yesterday's sick OCZ Vertex 3 deal was spotted by a commenter.

Apps

Ed. Note: We post sale apps when we see them, and we don't repost links if the app stays on sale for a while. If you're on an app-buying kick, you should check out old Dealzmodo posts for more cheap apps.

iOS

Need For Speed Most Wanted ($0) | IGN via Reddit | Originally $5

Android

If you've already bought Swiftkey, you get a free upgrade to version 4. If you buy it today, it's half off. play.google.com/store/apps/det...

— dealzmodo (@dealzmodo) February 20, 2013

Hobomodo

No freebies for you.

A note on Dealzmodo: We're professional shoppers. We wade through virtual mall after cyber storefront to figure out what's actually a bargain. Yes, we make money if you end up buying. That's capitalism, but we're absolutely looking out for your best interest. Read this if you want to know more.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Nestlé finds horsemeat in pasta meals

World's biggest food company withdraws products in Italy, Spain and France, saying they contained more than 1% horse

Nestl , the world's biggest food company, has removed beef pasta products from sale in Italy, Spain and France after finding traces of horse DNA.

The Swiss-based company, which last week said its products were unaffected by the scandal, said its tests had found more than 1% horse DNA in two products.

"We have informed the authorities accordingly," Nestl said in a statement on Monday. "There is no food safety issue."

Nestl withdrew two chilled pasta products, Buitoni Beef Ravioli and Beef Tortellini, in Italy and Spain. Lasagnes la Bolognaise Gourmandes, a frozen product for catering businesses produced in France, will also be withdrawn.

Nestl was suspending deliveries of all products made using beef from a German subcontractor to one of its suppliers, the company said.

The discovery of horsemeat in products labelled as beef has spread from the UK across Europe since last month, prompting product withdrawals, consumer anger and government investigations into the continent's complex food-processing chains.

Governments across Europe have stressed that horsemeat poses little or no health risk, although some carcasses have been found to be tainted with a painkiller banned for human consumption.

But the scandal has damaged the confidence of consumers in supermarkets and fast food chains since horsemeat was first identified in Irish burgers.

The retailer Lidl said on Monday it had withdrawn products from its stores in Finland and Sweden after finding traces of the meat.