R U A CYBERPUNK? [Picture]

No but seriously, R U? :)

A page from an edition of Mondo 2000, a cyberculture magazine that was published in California during the mid 1990s.

[Via IHC]



Click “Like” If You Can See This Post: Facebook’s New Sponsored Stories Feature

Have you seen your favorite geek t-shirt artist posting designs lately, or wondering when that witty web-show host will release her next video – and did your favorite Korean taco joint close down? There hasn’t been a daily special in days!

It’s nothing new, but it is probably something the average user hasn’t been aware of. Now page owners can have the option of paying to get their content out to more of their fans.

The company began rolling out it’s latest feature, “Sponsored Stories” this week (though it has been in Beta testing for a few months now). It allows Page Administrators the option of paying a sliding scale fee to get their post featured on the pages of people who like their business. The costs range between $15 and $300, depending on how many “likes” your page has and how prominent you want your post. There is still no guarantee that it will be seen by everyone who likes your page.

This is what Facebook has to say: “When you promote a post, it will be shown in the news feeds of more of the people who like your Page than you would reach normally. Friends of the people who have interacted with your post will also be more likely to see the story in their news feeds for up to 3 days from when the post was first created.”

Additionally, a “sponsored” tag will appear next this post, to ensure users know this is something to pay attention to.

This is a great feature if you’re a large company, but could seriously impact the small businesses and other people who use Facebook Pages as a marketing and information sharing tool. There are a lot of mom and pop businesses that I follow around my town, and enjoy seeing their events and deals. Remembering to check their page every day is an unrealistic option, no matter how dedicated a customer you are. This is just one of the many changes you can expect now that Facebook has gone public on the trading circuit.

There is already a backlash from some businesses and individuals about this new feature. It seems many people were unaware how their EdgeRank corresponded with how many people see their Page updates.

If you’re a Page Administrator, you are aware of the Insights feature, it tells you how many people your posts are reaching, and gives an idea of how many are “talking about” your Page based on comments, likes, and shares. All of this goes into determining your EdgeRank.

According to an article on Inside Facebook, “EdgeRank is the algorithm that determines what items populate your News Feed. With all the friends people have and pages they like, most users would be overwhelmed to see all of the activity generated by these connections. Facebook, therefore, assigns a value to every possible story that could end up in the feed. This value is based on affinity, weight and time.”

Web Pro News has a break down on how the new Promote feature works and what audience you can expect to reach for each price.

What do you think about this new feature from Facebook? Tell us in the comments!

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Super Street Fighter II with a Portal Gun [Video]

Chun-Li and Friends are testing out the new Portal Gun…

[Source: thepixelkingdom | Via The Awesomer]

Students Creates BSG Viper Flight Simulator [Video]

Oh my this is awesome. A few months ago, a group of high school students who dreamt about creating a viper flight simulator launched a kickstarter campaign in hope that they would amass enough money to build the thing… and they did! The now completed project was on display at Maker Faire last weekend, and I wish I could have been there to hop on board and fly around (virtually) for at least a few minutes.

[Via NA]

Presenting the Unprinter


Researchers at the University of Cambridge in the UK have developed a method for removing laser-printed text from paper. It could mean devices used for security, recycling or both.

A team lead by Dr Julian Allwood (pictured) explored practical applications that as lasers are used to attach ink to paper, they can also be used to remove it. They discovered that while a variety of wavelengths of light from ultraviolet to infrared worked, the most effective was a visible green light.

The technique worked by using the laser beam to apply the right level of heat for a mere four billionths of a second. It isn’t a case of the words dropping off the page: the heat vaporized the toner, with the resulting gas being captured in a filter. Allwood says the technique worked on a range of toners and does not damage the paper or leave it unable to “receive” toner in the future.

The new research follows a 2009 study by Allwood to see whether a variety of solvents could remove toner while leaving paper ready to be reused. That study concluded that it was technically possible but that it might only work on particular combinations of paper and toner type, that results could vary depending on ambient temperature, and that the most effective method would not be viable in office use because it involved chloroform.

According to the team, building a single prototype of a device using the laser technology would cost around £19,000 (approx US$30,000) but commercial production could reduce that to £16,000 ($25,000.) They believe that for larger companies, particularly those with busy offices, the devices could pay for themselves by cutting the amount of paper they needed to buy. It could also be an alternative to shredding or burning sensitive documents.

Management at Dunder Mifflin were unavailable for comment.

The work is detailed in Proceedings A, a publication of the Royal Society. That’s the same title that first published research including Crick and Watson’s description of DNA’s structure and Maxwell’s electromagnetic theory.

Allwood previously made the headlines when he came up with a creative way of visualizing the amount of resources the human population consumes each year. He expressed the consumption in terms of the number of people-sized statues you could sculpt from each material, calculating that the average UK citizen consumes 12 “coal adults”, four “paper adults” and even an “aluminum baby.”

Funny Tee: Support Cloning: It could be awesome! [Pic]

Well, if you could clone yourself, imagine all the fun you could have. But until science catches up to science fiction, you wear this awesome T-shirt to let the world know that you support cloning. Go Science!

Available in many colors, sizes, and fits!

[Support Cloning: It could be awesome! – $14.95]

Commodore 64 Bass Guitar/Keytar

Jeri Ellsworth, who currently works for Valve, helping them start their hardware R&D department, made this totally awesome Commodore 64 bass guitar/keytar for last weekend’s maker faire, and even though she seems to think the thing doesn’t sound all that great, I tend to disagree with her! Check it out! (Skip to 0:45)

[Via LS]