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Showing posts from January, 2020

A 60 GHz Phased Array

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Our friend [Hunter Scott] gave a talk at a past Supercon about created phased array antennas. He mentioned he was looking for collaborators to create an antenna with the SiBeam SB9210 chip. This is a specialized chip for WirelessHD, a more or less failed video streaming protocol, and it’s essentially an entire 60 GHz phased array on a chip with both transmit and receive capabilities. For $15, it seems like quite the bargain, and [Hunter] still wants to put the device to work . The downside is that Lattice bought SiBeam and killed this chip — not surprising considering WirelessHD never really took off. However, [Hunter] says the chip was in some old smart TVs and laptops. If you can find replacement boards for those devices on the surplus market, you can get the chip and the supporting circuitry for a song. The situation is a little sticky. [Hunter] has the datasheets for the parts, but is still bound by a nondisclosure agreement. He’s still working on getting that encumbrance removed

T-Mobile returns to Super Bowl with commercial starring Anthony Anderson

The self-styled 'un-carrier' looks to position itself against rivals in 5G race by giving away a free Samsung 5G phone for every five minutes of the Big Game. https://ift.tt/2RJDk9j

Fixing the Flicker Afflicting a Night Light

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It’s hard to part with some things, even if they’re broken and were worth next to nothing to begin with. But some things are just special, y’know? And we would say in this case, the thing was definitely worth saving. [Taste the Code]’s daughter’s beloved night light had a terrible flickering problem , and then stopped working altogether. Eager to make her happy, he cracked it open and found that one of the wires had disconnected from the outlet pin it was soldered to. That’s a simple enough fix, but trying to solder in tight quarters where the walls are soft plastic can be quite challenging. Once that was fixed, [Taste the Code] plugged it in to a test outlet. It’s back to working, but also back to flickering, because there is no capacitor to smooth out the signal going to the LEDs. [Taste the Code] measured the voltage drop across the output of the bridge rectifier and soldered in an electrolytic cap with more than double the necessary voltage rating, just to be safe. You can check

12 Best Men's Corduroy Pants in 2020

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If you’ve got legs and any semblance of style, here are a dozen men's corduroy pants to consider copping right away. https://ift.tt/3aXK5Ml

Mall Style: Everyone Looks Like They’re Hanging Out at the Mall Now

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Malls have largely disappeared, but mall style and culture have reemerged in our closets. https://ift.tt/2S8R2S6

Watch the newest commercials on TV from Rocket Mortgage, Tostitos, HBO and more

Snoop Dogg and Martha Stewart hype Tostitos Strips and Tostitos Avocado Salsa. https://ift.tt/31cXEmA

Facebook sets out a coronavirus misinformation battle plan

The spread of the virus leads to attempts at reining in false and dangerous claims. https://ift.tt/2RNr5c2

Toyota is the latest Super Bowl advertiser to edit its commercial in wake of Kobe Bryant’s death

The automaker is making changes to its 60-second spot ‘out of sensitivity to recent news events.’ https://ift.tt/2RNfslo

The world’s oldest opera gains a space-age stage intervention

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‘My first encounter with artist collective Studio Drift was In 20 Steps (2016) in Eindhoven, a work that to me, addresses life, death and nature,’ recalls opera stage director Monique Wagemakers. ‘I think that more than a set designer, an artist can give clearer pictures alongside the music so you can hear it through your eyes; you hear better, and in a different dimension.’ The idea of a Gesamtkunstwerk (an all-embracing form of art) emerged when she was commissioned to stage the opera, L’Orfeo , a year ago; this multidisciplinary performance is a collaborative creation with three fellow Dutch female creatives, choreographer Nanine Linning, costume designer Marlou Breuls and Lonneke Gordijn of Studio Drift. L’Orfeo , the world’s oldest-known opera, composed by Italian Claudio Monteverdi in 1607, is the story of the mythological Orfeo (Orpheus in English) – son of the Greek god Apollo and the chief among poets and musicians – and what he learns about life from his failed quest to bri

Retreat to Productora’s brutalist jungle hideaway

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Trekking into the thick jungle of Yucatan’s Sian Ka’an Biosphere Reserve, you might stumble across a blue concrete house embedded in the dunes overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Tucked away in a land that the Mayans called ‘Origin of the Sky’, Casa Bautista is a gatehouse to nowhere but nature, carrying both the whimsy of Edward James’ Las Pozas surrealist sculpture park, and the weight of a brutal fortress. Supported by triangular pilotis, the house appears to hover in the tree canopy. Already crawling with vines and creepers, it could be an undiscovered midcentury modernist ruin. Yet it was only six years ago that two friends were cutting through the lush vegetation with machetes, looking for a piece of land wild enough for their wildest architectural fantasy: a surrealist retreat for friends immersed in nature. The pair, Victor Jaime, architect and director of Productora, and Ezequiel Ayarza, founder of Oaxaca- based organic coffee estate Pueblo del Sol, met by chance 18 years ago in

This Week in Security: OpenSTMPD, Kali Release, Scareware, Intel, and Unintended Consequences

If you run an OpenBSD server, or have OpenSMTPD running on a server, go update it right now. Version 6.6.2, released January 28th, fixes an exploit that can be launched locally or remotely, simply by connecting to the SMTP service. This was found by Qualys, who waited till the update was released to publish their findings . It’s a simple logic flaw in the code that checks incoming messages. If an incoming message has either an invalid sender’s username, or invalid domain, the message is sent into error handling logic. That logic checks if the domain is an empty string, in which case, the mail is processed as a local message, sent to the localhost domain. Because the various parts of OpemSMTPD operate by executing commands, this logic flaw allows an attacker to inject unexpected symbols into those commands. The text of the email serves as the script to run, giving an attacker plenty of room to totally own a system as a result. Browser Locker “Your browser has been locked to prevent d

This Week in Security: OpenSTMPD, Kali Release, Scareware, Intel, and Unintended Consequences

If you run an OpenBSD server, or have OpenSMTPD running on a server, go update it right now. Version 6.6.2, released January 28th, fixes an exploit that can be launched locally or remotely, simply by connecting to the SMTP service. This was found by Qualys, who waited till the update was released to publish their findings . It’s a simple logic flaw in the code that checks incoming messages. If an incoming message has either an invalid sender’s username, or invalid domain, the message is sent into error handling logic. That logic checks if the domain is an empty string, in which case, the mail is processed as a local message, sent to the localhost domain. Because the various parts of OpemSMTPD operate by executing commands, this logic flaw allows an attacker to inject unexpected symbols into those commands. The text of the email serves as the script to run, giving an attacker plenty of room to totally own a system as a result. Browser Locker “Your browser has been locked to prevent d

ViacomCBS names George Cheeks as CBS president, replacing Joe Ianniello

As president and CEO of CBS Entertainment Group, he’ll oversee the broadcaster’s news, sports, syndication and studio businesses. https://ift.tt/2S7JGy9

Watch Quibi's first Super Bowl commercial

The 30-second ad from the streaming video service shows a bank heist gone wrong. https://ift.tt/37JmgG0

7 essential lessons to learn from Valentine's Day marketing efforts

Make sure you're showing your customers and your business some love this season. https://ift.tt/31h8QPk

Watch Coke’s Super Bowl ad starring Jonah Hill and Martin Scorsese

The actor and director plug Coke’s new energy drink. https://ift.tt/2S7EJp3

4 business values that appeal to the millennial market

Businesses need to recognize that millennials are a unique group with values that set them apart from other generations. https://ift.tt/38NLvXY

Why Can't America Follow Scotland to 100 Percent Renewable Energy?

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Scotland will have 100 percent renewable energy by the end of this year, while the U.S. has barely started transitioning. https://ift.tt/36ILNOp

Sonic The Hedgehog Self-Balancing Robot Can Bend At The Knees

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Building your own self-balancing robot is a rite of passage for anyone getting into the field of robotics. Master of robots, [James Bruton] has been there, done that, and collected a few T-shirts. Now he’s building a large Sonic the Hedgehog self balancing robot that can bend at the knees and hip, allowing it to lean while turning and handle uneven terrain. Check out the first video embedded after the break. Standing about 1 m tall, the robot is inspired by Boston Dynamic’s box handling bot, Handle . It’s “skeleton” consists of 20×20 aluminium extrusions, bolted together using a bunch of 3D printed fittings in the signature blue and red of Sonic. The wheels and tyres are also 3D printed, and driven by brushless motor via a toothed belt. The knee/hip mechanism is actuated using a ball screw, also driven by a brushless motor. [James] intends to implement an active shock absorption system into the leg mechanism, using the same technique he tried on his OpenDog robot . It works by bolti

Bloomberg, Trump unveil Super Bowl spots and DDB splits with Capital One: Friday Wake-Up Call

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. If you're reading this online or in a forwarded email, here's  the link  to sign up for our Wake-Up Call newsletters. Bloomberg calls an audible Both Michael Bloomberg and President Donald Trump released Super Bowl commercials yesterday and Mayor Mike surprised ad and political watchers who expected him to go after the current commander in chief. The former New York mayor’s 60-second ad instead turns his time over to a woman whose young son’s life was ended by gunshot. In the spot, she says that Bloomberg “heard mothers crying” and with his candidacy they now have “a dog in the fight” against gun violence. Trump, on the other hand, goes full-on flag-waving with stats about how the economy has improved and employment for African-Americans and Hispanics risen since he took office. Maintaining that the country has grown “stronger, safer and more prosperous” under his tenure, t

This Crossbow Fires Cannonballs!

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The would-be invader of a mediaeval kingdom could expect to face some stern opposition from a variety of formidable weaponry. Making modern versions of these deadly curiosities seems to be a popular pursuit, and the bug has bitten [Turbo Conquering Mega Eagle], who’s created what he calls a “Stonebow”, a crossbow on steroids that fires stones or large ball bearings with considerable force . It uses a couple of leaves from automotive springs, mounted in a welded steel riser with two strings and a pouch for the projectile. The barrel is an oak fencing post, and at its other end is a cocking lever which also forms a stock, and a cleverly designed trigger mechanism. The projectile is loaded, the bow is cocked, and it is fired at a scrap Land Rover radiator in which it places a satisfying impact mark. Despite two successful firings it’s evident that so much force isn’t easy to contain. The crimps that secure the strings aren’t up to the job, and neither is the oak fence post, which has cr

Norwegian cabin concept frames views across the Hardangervidda National Park

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Typologically hovering between a folly, a house and a viewing platform, this new cabin in the barren, treeless moorlands of the Hardangervidda National Park in Norway seems to be many things rolled into one. Designed by Gartnerfuglen Arkitekter, a young Oslo-based architecture studio headed by Astrid Rohde Wang, Ole Larsen and Olav Lunde Arneberg, Thunder Top is the first cabin to complete by the dynamic trio. Created for a client with a growing extended family of children and grandchildren, the structure sits on the plot of an existing holiday cabin built in the 1980s in the traditional Telemark region vernacular style. Adapting the original building to accommodate the increasing numbers of its occupants, the architects designed a new structure within a simple triangular outline, featuring a stepped timber roof. Going up those thirty roof steps unveils a panoramic view of the nearby lake and plains. The facades are clad in ore-pine, (a type of cured pinewood) known for being one of t

The Ohio Scientific 300 Trainer

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In the late 1970s there were a host of companies that dominated the computer market before the introduction of the IBM PC. One of these was Ohio Scientific or OSI. [BradH] has an OSI Model 300 trainer — their first major product — and gives us a peek at it along with some history of the company. Companies like OSI, Southwest Technical Products, Osborne, Northstar, and PolyMorphic were the second wave after the likes of MITS and IMSAI had opened the personal computer market. Only a few companies like Apple hung on and made it work over the long haul. If the history lesson isn’t for you, the technical talk starts at 4 minutes into the video below the break. This is a 6502 with 128 bytes of RAM. Not 128 megabytes or even kilobytes. 128 bytes. There’s a pretty traditional front panel with switches and LEDs. We were impressed the board is still working. The typewritten manual looks odd today, and the board reminded us of a precursor of machines such as the KIM-1 and even the old Apple c

RemoteXY Simplifies Arduino Control

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[Labpacks] wanted to build a robot car controlled by his phone. As a Hackaday reader, of course you probably can imagine building the car. Most could probably even write a phone application to do the control. But do you want to? In most cases, you are better off focusing on what you need to do and using something off the shelf for the parts that you can. In [Labpacks’] case, he used Visuino to avoid writing ordinary code and RemoteXY to handle the smartphone interface . RemoteXY is a website that allows you to easily build a phone interface that will talk to your hardware over Bluetooth LE, USB, or Ethernet (including WiFi). One thing of interest: even though the interface builder is Web-based, the service claims that the interface structure stays on the controller. There’s no interaction with the remote servers when operating the user interface so there is no need for an external Internet connection. The system supports Arduino and ESP controllers. On the phone side, you can use And

With Super Bowl on the line, Roku and Fox at an impasse over streaming rights

Network's apps are going dark on Roku players, opening new front in streaming wars. https://ift.tt/2uLeyN2

This Is It For The Particle Mesh Network

The long-held dream of wireless network hackers everywhere is to dispense with centralised network infrastructure, and instead rely on a distributed network in which the clients perform the role of distribution and routing of traffic. These so-called mesh networks promise scalability and simplicity on paper, but are in practice never as easy to implement as the theory might suggest. Much venture capital has been burned over the years by startups chasing that particular dream, yet most of our wireless connectivity still follows a hub topology. An exciting development in our sphere concerning mesh networking came in early 2018, when Particle, the purveyors of wireless-equipped dev boards, launched their third generation of products. These offered mesh networking alongside their other features, but this week they have announced that they’ll no longer be developing that particular side of their offering . The Wi-Fi-equipped Argon and Cellular-equipped Boron will remain on sale, but they w

Michael Bloomberg's Super Bowl ad spotlights a mother who lost her son to gun violence

Instead of taking aim at Trump, the media mogul and Democratic presidential candidate focuses on gun safety. https://ift.tt/2RHKDhY

Super Bowl advertisers edit commercials in wake of Kobe Bryant helicopter crash

General Motors keeps NBA star LeBron James out of Big Game teasers. ​ https://ift.tt/2RD4ZJ8

The Spitzer Space Telescope Ends its Incredible Journey

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Today, after 16 years of exemplary service, NASA will officially deactivate the Spitzer Space Telescope . Operating for over a decade beyond its designed service lifetime, the infrared observatory worked in tandem with the Hubble Space Telescope to reveal previously hidden details of known cosmic objects and helped expand our understanding of the universe. In later years, despite never being designed for the task, it became an invaluable tool in the study of planets outside our own solar system. While there’s been no cataclysmic failure aboard the spacecraft, currently more than 260 million kilometers away from Earth, the years have certainly taken their toll on Spitzer . The craft’s various technical issues, combined with its ever-increasing distance, has made its continued operation cumbersome. Rather than running it to the point of outright failure, ground controllers have decided to quit while they still have the option to command the vehicle to go into hibernation mode. At its di

P&G hopes Olay's Super Bowl space mission lands a high gender-equality rating

All-female cast promotes Twitter program to give money to Girls Who Code. https://ift.tt/37G0Ppr

LeBron James will star in GM’s ‘Quiet Revolution’ Super Bowl ad for its new electric Hummer

The ad from Leo Burnett will juxtapose ‘staggering’ performance with the quietness of an electric vehicle.   https://ift.tt/36Cjpx9

9 best practices for a successful video marketing campaign

In a new age of viral videos, make sure your company's voice can still be heard. https://ift.tt/2S12fUX

Taco Bell’s Nacho Fries are back, this time with a buddy action-thriller trailer

‘Supply and Demand’ shows guys going to great and risky lengths when they can't get the seasoned fries. https://ift.tt/2RDKtYE

Feminism, fantasy and furniture at Stockholm Design Week 2020

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Stockholm Design Week has long pioneered innovation and experimentation. This year’s edition is no different. Understanding the ongoing global problems with waste, Stockholm Furniture Fair’s guests of honour, design studio Doshi Levien, frame its processes with an installation that will live beyond the five days of the show. On the local scene, Form Us With Love launches a sustainable personal care brand, while a new all-female creative crewe shakes up Swedish design energy, and the Scandinavian creative essence gets injected with Portugese craft culture. Delve into the exhibitions we are excited for... Southern Lights by Origin When Gabriel Tan first visited Portugal back in 2014 as a tourist, he was fascinated by the craft of the country, and in turn wanted to bring this to the fore with new initiative Origin. This is the second collection for the brand, and this time he explores the connections between Scandinavia and Portugal. Nine projects from nine designers (six of which ar

Jordan Spieth: The Real-Life Diet of Pro Golf’s Biggest Guacamole Fan

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PGA star Jordan Spieth says he consumes almost as many daily calories as Michael Phelps in his prime. https://ift.tt/31d4it5

Pete Wentz Has Mastered the Coffee Run Fit

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A small tribute to a sweatpants king. https://ift.tt/2Ub1YkO

27 Foolproof Ways to Stunt at the Gym This Season

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New gear, new you. https://ift.tt/37F3rnz

Mies van der Rohe meets Mad Men at this London office

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In Canary Wharf at the iconic One Canada Square building, designed by César Pelli in 1991, London based dMFK Architects has taken over three floors with a refurbishment inspired by the American corporate interior design of Philip Johnson and Mies van der Rohe. The 80,000 sq ft office within the 50 storey building (London’s second tallest) was commissioned by The Office Group to fill a market gap for flexible work space in the traditional financial district – it can be adapted to fit businesses from four to 1000 people. Other assets for employees include dedicated recharge zones and informal break-out spaces, while the Peloton bike area in the fitness studio is another work perk. There’s a clear nostalgia for the mid-century era across the design. The architects combined Kvadrat fabrics with linoleum-faced joinery to bring tactility to the shared spaces. Inspired by the original building foyer, a grand coloured marble and polished steel affair, the architects’ selected rich fig

Elegantly bottled perfumes hitting the right notes

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Celine Celine creative director Hedi Slimane has launched the French maison’s rst unisex Haute Parfumerie collection. An ode to Parisian life, its 11 fragrances are presented in art deco-esque glass bottles with lacquered black tops, and include Nightclubbing, inspired by Slimane’s partying in Les Bains Douches, and Cologne Française, a perfect blend of the masculine and feminine. Nars The first perfume by Nars Cosmetics founder François Nars, Audacious was created with the help of independent French nose Olivia Giacobetti. Featuring contrasting notes of incense smoke and white frangipani, it is intended to be both mysterious and provocative – as is its innovative packaging, a luxuriously weighty black glass bottle that seems to ‘float’ over its clear base. Ormaie Conceived by Ormaie’s founder Baptiste Bouygues in collaboration with French designer Jade Lombard, each of the seven glass bottles in the brand’s debut collection is topped with a different, sculptural beechwood cap i

Unique Clock Finally Unites Hackers and Sequins

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We’ve all seen the two-color sequin fabrics you can “draw” on by dragging your finger over so the pieces flip to the other color. It’s fun stuff to play with, and very popular with the kids right now, but if you asked us if the material had any practical application we’d have said no. But that was before we saw this clever clock created by [Ekaggrat Singh Kalsi] that he calls Sequino . Since a clock (at least one that only shows hours and minutes) doesn’t need to refresh very quickly, [Ekaggart] thought that the sequin material could work as a display. Of course the tricky part is figuring out how to actually draw on it reliably. It can’t be done from the back, and since the sequins are plastic, you can’t use a magnet. The only way to do it is with a robotic “finger” and some very slick kinematics. The most obvious feature of the Sequino is the belt drive that goes the length of its cylindrical shape. When the two motors connected to the belt are turning in the same direction, the po

Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein divulge the secrets of the Super Bowl

Jeff Goodby and Rich Silverstein join the Ad Lib podcast to talk all things Super Bowl. https://ift.tt/2Uf7YJz

Opinion: Take control of location data before it leaves you behind

Develop a plan to publish updated location information over a period of weeks, and even months. https://ift.tt/2GzdcaG

Marketers react to coronavirus and ad vets stump for Bloomberg: Thursday Wake-Up Call

Welcome to Ad Age’s Wake-Up Call, our daily roundup of advertising, marketing, media and digital news. If you're reading this online or in a forwarded email, here's  the link  to sign up for our Wake-Up Call newsletters. Businesses react to coronavirus As fears of coronavirus contagion spread, marketers that do business in China are taking extraordinary steps. A growing number of airlines, including American, United, British Airways, Air Asia, Cathay Pacific, Lufthansa and Finnair are curtailing flights to China, according to CNN , and Starbucks is closing half its stores in China, writes NPR.  McDonald’s and Yum Brands have also shuttered some stores as the virus spreads.  Vice, meanwhile, reports that “a disturbing number of people” seem to believe the virus is related to Corona beer. They like Mike Some big-name creatives are rallying around the Mike Bloomberg presidential campaign, writes Lindsay Rittenhouse, including Goodby Silverstein & Partners co-founder Jeff

SMA-Q2 Smart Watch Is Completely Hackable

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The search for the ultimate hacker’s smart watch probably won’t end any time soon. [ emeryth ] has nominated another possible candidate in the form of the SMA-Q2 , and has made a lot of progress in making it accessible. Also known as the SMA-TIME, the watch is based around the popular NRF52832 Bluetooth SoC, with a colour memory LCD, accelerometer, and a heart rate sensor on the back. The main feature that makes it so easy to hack is the stock bootloader on the NRF52832 that works with generic Nordic upload tool, making firmware upgrades a breeze via a smart phone. Unfortunately the bootloader itself is locked, so it must be completely wiped to gain debugging access. The hardware configuration has also been well reverse engineered with all the details available. Custom main board with a NRF52840 module [ emeryth ] has most of the basic features working with his custom firmware , although it’s still in the early stages. He designed a new watch face that includes weather updates and ba

Gaucho Charlotte Street

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A staple of the London restaurant scene for the better part of two decades, the Gaucho brand is emerging, butterfly-like from a top-to-toe rebrand, starting with its Charlotte Street location. Brighton-based DesignLSM has worked every trick in its bag, harmonising the restaurant’s two floors into a more refined version of its former self.  Taking its cues from Argentina’s vast, wondrous landscape of rolling grasslands, dramatic snow-capped peaks, rust-hued deserts and high-altitude vineyards, a base palette of ochre, grassy tones and deep inky-blue hues are layered with a gleeful mix of tactile textures and subtle notes that nod to the brand’s heritage. This begins with low-key rich velvets, gloss metal cladding, soft Kvadrat suedette, and supple leather upholstery - revealed through cosy banquettes and bespoke furnishings - and ends with standout features like the lasso-inspired lighting sculpture above the central staircase, a black marble bar, and a textured clay wall by Claywo

Lazydoro Mothers You Into Being Productive

The Pomodoro Technique has helped countless people ramp up their productivity since it was devised in the late 1980s. Breaking down tasks into 25 minute chunks can improve your focus tremendously, provided you show up, start the timer, and get to work. Lazydoro takes the psychology focus even further. In [romilly.cocking]’s interpretation, a time-of-flight (ToF) sensor is your productivity Santa Claus — it knows whether you’re doing your part by simply applying butt to chair, and your present is a productive 25 minutes where not a second is wasted futzing with timers and worrying about time lost to such administrative tasks. When Lazydoro senses that you have arrived, the Raspi Zero starts a 25-minute Pomodoro timer, and represents the time remaining across a Pimoroni BLINKT LED matrix. But hold on, you haven’t heard the best part yet. Lazydoro was designed with real life in mind, because [romilly] thought of everything. Whenever you leave your chair, a 5-minute timer starts, and th

Tensors Explained

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You can do a lot of electronics without ever touching a tensor, but there are some situations in which tensors are absolutely essential. The problem is that most math texts give you a very dry description that is difficult to internalize. That’s where [The Science Asylum] comes in . Their recent video (see below) starts with the dry definition and then shows you what it means and why. According to the video, the textbook definition is: A rank-n tensor in m-dimensions is a mathematical object that has n indices and m n components and obeys certain transformational rules. That sounds a lot like an array but we are not sure what “certain transformational rules” really means to anyone. Wikipedia does a little better: [A]n algebraic object that describes a linear mapping from one set of algebraic objects to another. These constructs are key to anything electromagnetic (including antennas) and show up a lot in stress calculations and quantum mechanics. Even Einstien’s theory of re

Zuckerberg warns of meme threat as Facebook reports fourth quarter results

Slowing growth prompts concerns the social network has peaked. https://ift.tt/36FAWoc

Wire Loop And Amplifier Solve Audio Problem For The Hearing Impaired

Imagine being asked to provide sound reinforcement for a meeting that occurs in a large room, where anyone can be the speaker, and in a situation where microphones would hinder the flow of the meeting. Throw in a couple of attendees who have hearing disabilities, and you’ve got quite a challenge to make sure everyone gets heard. Such a situation faced [David Schneider] at his Quaker meetinghouse, which he ended up solving with this home-brew audio induction loop system . The worship style of conservative sects of the Religious Society of Friends, as the Quakers are formally known, is “silent worship”, where congregants sit together in silence until someone feels moved to share something. Anyone can speak at any time from anywhere in the room, leading to the audio problem. Rooms mics and a low power FM transmitter didn’t work because those using radio as aids to hearing the service felt awkward, so [David] decided to take advantage of a feature in the hearing aids worn by some members

Bud Light Seltzer will ask social media to pick which Post Malone spot to air during the Super Bowl

The ads portray control room operators inside his head communicating with his taste buds, stomach, nose about the drink.   https://ift.tt/37C5kRD

First Date Tips: How to Quickly Figure Out If You and Your Date Actually Have Chemistry

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Introducing the First Date Power Move. https://ift.tt/318twce

Stylish Thermometer is DIY Hardware Perfection

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Over the last few years, we’ve seen a steady improvement in the sort of custom hardware a dedicated individual can produce. With affordable desktop 3D printers and PCB fabrication services, the line between store bought and home built can get very blurry. This slick MQTT-connected thermometer created by [Martin Cerny] is a perfect example. The case for the device, which [Martin] calls Temper, is printed in a stone-look PLA filament and has been carefully designed so that LEDs shining behind it illuminate perfect square “pixels” on the front. There’s a living hinge button on the left side, and on the right, an opening for the SHT30 temperature and humidity sensor. Some may say that the look of the sensor aperture could be improved with a printed grille, but there was likely a concern about reduced airflow. Inside the case is a 13×7 array of SMD LEDs, a few 74HC595 shift registers, a TP4054 charging chip to keep the internal 250 mAh battery topped off via USB, and some passives to ro

GQ Best Stuff Box Spring 2020: The Latest Box Comes With GQ Editors' Favorite Workout Shorts

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The Spring 2020 GQ Best Stuff Box comes with over $200 worth of GQ-approved gear, but costs just $49. https://ift.tt/2U6kM4T

Ripped From the Tabloids: The Best of Celebrities Working Out

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We dug through 40-plus years of celebrity workout photos to find the 10 most awesomely stylish moments, from John-John to Jonah Hill https://ift.tt/2RF1xhb

NBA Sharpshooter JJ Redick on Keeping Your Cool Under Pressure

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JJ Redick reflects on a career of taking big shots, sharing how he rediscovered joy and found his confidence (and kept it through slumps) after almost quitting basketball in college. https://ift.tt/37CStim

Grafton’s Town House is a celebration of openness and community

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‘What is architecture?’ asks Grafton Architects’ Yvonne Farrell, as she walks through the brightly lit halls of the studio’s newly completed building at Kingston University. ‘It is a place for social interaction,’ she replies a moment later. Community was a key factor in the design decisions of RIBA Gold Medal-winning Grafton, who won the commission to create a structure to – rather unusually – combine a library and dance studios under a single roof. Welcome to Town House – the newest addition (named after an existing building on site) to the world-class academic institution in London’s southwest.  It was in fact this combination – the need for vibrant dance spaces next to discreet reading rooms – that attracted the Dublin based architects, who were selected from a five-strong shortlist following a competition in 2013. ‘It was the juxtaposition of these two extremes that we found extraordinarily interesting,’ explains Farrell, who heads the practice together with Shelley McNamara. Th

Heinz's Super Bowl commercial features four story lines at once to encourage rewatching

Heinz ketchup is the star of all four scenes but other products and details are hidden in plain sight. https://ift.tt/36y8VyV

Audi channels 'Frozen' in defiant Super Bowl ad touting environmentalism

‘Game of Thrones’ actress Maisie Williams remakes the Disney song in a spot that plugs electric cars while denouncing gas-guzzlers. https://ift.tt/37CtWKh

A giant Snickers ‘Fixes the World’ in the candy bar’s latest Super Bowl spot

A longer online version of the Big Game ad was released Wednesday. https://ift.tt/312bvfs

TurboTax, in Super Bowl ad, finds something everyone has in common

Hint: It's one of the three certainties in life.  https://ift.tt/2U8hjCz

Why Racism Is on the Rise in Soccer Again

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With Brexit and a global resurgence of fascism, soccer fans in Serie A, the Premier League, La Liga, and more are displaying outrageous behavior. https://ift.tt/2tQgKD2

Is the Super Bowl over yet? Wednesday Wake-Up Call

Fiat Chrysler is back, WeatherTech brings new meaning to 'Scout's honor' and Google will make you ugly cry. https://ift.tt/313DdIC

Opinion: Millennial and Gen Z consumers might just save our favorite luxury brands

Millennials, famously (if incorrectly) labeled as the brokest generation, have been blamed for the death of everything from the Big Mac to home ownership. So it might come as a surprise to learn that these same millennials are responsible for saving our favorite luxury brands. As boomers settle into fixed-income years, modern luxury brands are forced to explore new ways to build their customer pipeline. Key to this strategy are millennial and Gen Z audiences that, by and large, do not yet have the ability to actually purchase (or in some cases, even legally use) their products. Nevertheless, the focus on engaging millennial and Gen Z audiences in the near term to secure a loyal, long-term customer base is a shift luxury brands must make to ensure their ongoing relevance. Some brands are already making that shift. Look no further than Louis Vuitton’s partnership with Riot Games to tap into the esports space, rapper Gucci Mane’s presence in Gucci’s new campaign (which seemed inevitable