The Best, Nerdiest Map of the US Took 6,000 Hours to Complete [Maps]

Meed David Imus, the OCD cartographer behind one masterpiece of a map. It took him two years of daily labor to make his map of the USA, which has been officially named the greatest paper map of the year. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/2b-UmWt0xEY/the-best-nerdiest-map-of-the-us-took-6000-hours-to-complete

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Microsoft brings Kinect float to Rose Bowl Parade: a making-of video

Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade? Pish posh. As any red-blooded American will likely confess, it's the parade preceding the annual Rose Bowl that really gets one's attention, and this year's edition featured a float from none other than Microsoft itself. As Russell Wilson and co. were gearing up to take the field in Pasadena, a smattering of folks were strapping on their winter gear and heading atop an admittedly eye-catching Kinect float. No, there's no way to actually dictate the rest of bowl season through your motion-sensing peripheral, but there is a making-of video just after the break for the handicraft sect.

Continue reading Microsoft brings Kinect float to Rose Bowl Parade: a making-of video

Microsoft brings Kinect float to Rose Bowl Parade: a making-of video originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/02/microsoft-kinect-float-rose-bowl-parade-making-of-video/

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Android Resolutions: Resolve to leave better comments in the Android Market

Android Central New Year's Resolution

The New Year holiday traditionally is a time when people resolve to do things better.  Many of us will resolve to lose a bit of weight, or stop a bad habit, or any number of things we can think of that would make life, or the quality of it, better.  Some things we resolve to do are big and important, others are a bit more simple, but they all work towards the same goal -- improving ourselves.  We all have our personal New Year's resolutions (guess who started smoking again and is going to put a stop to it), but here at Android Central we'd like to extend some more community-based ways we all can improve, and we're calling them Android Resolutions.  We'll start small:

Resolve to leave better comments in the Android Market

If you've ever made something for use by others, you know how important feedback can be -- and, more important, the right kind of feedback.  Android's open spirit and nature means there's more possibility for things to go wrong, so communication is important when you're talking with a hard working application developer.  Consider this:

Dis app sucks yo. zero stars

That's a real comment left in the Market, by a user whose name I won't mention for an app I'll also not mention.  The comment is 100 percent worthless, both to the person reading it and trying to decide if they should spend 99 pennies, and to the developer who would like the app to work well for everyone.  We have no idea why the app "sucks," and it may as well have not even been posted.  In contrast, look at this one from the same app:

Everything seems good until a text comes in, then the app crashes. Have to force close it and reopen to get back.  3 stars for the effort (Optimus V-Froyo)

Same app, and very likely the same issue "Mr. app sucks yo" is having.  But this time around, the developer knows where to look for the problem, and you and I know that if we have an Optimus V (which is an amazingly popular Android phone) or if we're running Froyo we might experience issues.  This is helpful in every way. 

So I'm suggesting we all resolve to leave clear and concise comments in the Market for apps we try and use.  We all benefit, and it's really not a lot of effort.  (If you really want to go the extra mile, take 60 seconds and e-mail the developer. They'll likely thank you for it.)

Remember -- developers and the applications they create are a huge part of any smartphone platform, and we're lucky to have a ton of them.  Let's all do our part to help make them better.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/androidcentral/~3/KQyffBxAfyE/story01.htm

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Daily Desired: Audiophile Headphones You Can Actually Afford [Desired]

The new HiFiMan HE-400 headphones are equipped with some of the best sound technology out there, and this $350 pre-order makes them on of the sweetest deals in audio gear. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/4cpKEQUkcI0/daily-desired-audiophile-headphones-you-can-actually-afford

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Tasty Planet is a fun flash game where you eat everything in sight

tastyplanet
So this professor comes up with a new toilet cleaner that works by "eating" the dirt; or so he thinks. That's how the plot starts for Tasty Planet. You play the role of the toilet cleaner, but you're not really a toilet cleaner after all -- you're a blob of gray goo that can eat anything that's smaller than yourself.

As you chomp away, you grow -- and as you grow, you can eat bigger and bigger stuff. The first level pits you against microscopic particles; by the time I stopped playing, I got all the way to eating cats and dogs. I know that sounds disturbing, but it's a really cute game, and there's no gore or anything like that.

Supposedly you keep growing and growing until you're able to eat whole planets (hence the name). The challenge factor comes when you realize you can't touch any critter larger than yourself - you'll get "bitten" and become smaller. In the beginning you're so small, that a single touch can kill you. Later on, you're big enough that touching larger animals doesn't kill you on the spot, but it does reduce your size. Each level is timed, so if you're not large enough by the time your clock runs out, you need to start again. As long as you don't touch the larger animals, you should be fine.

All in all, a fun, addictive little game. It's available for iOS, too.

Tasty Planet is a fun flash game where you eat everything in sight originally appeared on Download Squad on Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/08/tasty-planet-is-a-fun-flash-game-where-you-eat-everything-in-sight/

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This Mindblowing Photo of a World Map In a Water Drop Is Real [Image Cache]

Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system

libra
I'm getting fat; that's what you see on the screenshot to the right -- my gradual move from chubby to portly. But never mind the numbers, look at the pretty graph!

If you've ever read The Hacker's Diet, this graph should be instantly recognizable. Each point shows the weight for a given day, while the trend line lets you see if you're gaining or losing weight.

When I use my "main" PC, I have a homebrew solution for creating and maintaining this graph. But I've had to find a temporary solution for Android, and Libra is it.

It's a beautifully simple app, very true to the spirit of The Hacker's Diet. You can create a shortcut on your homescreen that brings you right into the data entry screen, so you just tap the shortcut every morning, feed in your weight for the day and hit OK, and then you get to see your progress (or lack thereof) on the graph.

The app remembers the previous day's weigh-in, which makes it easy to enter today's weight (as they're usually not too different). The graph is zoomable and scrollable, and most importantly, you can export the data to CSV so you're not locked into the app.

If you ever need to track your weight using an Android device for any period of time, Libra is one excellent solution.

Libra for Android helps you track your weight using The Hacker's Diet system originally appeared on Download Squad on Thu, 31 Mar 2011 12:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/31/libra-for-android-helps-you-track-your-weight-using-the-hackers/

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How Secure is My Password lets you know just that

howsecureismypassword
We've all heard it before; you need to select a lengthy password, one that's hard to guess. Not a dictionary word. And it has to have some capital letters in it too, and some digits, and a symbol or two won't hurt either.

That's a handy set of rules to keep in mind, but How Secure is My Password helps us understand why they're important.

It's basically like a full-screen version of one of those password-strength meters websites sometimes use. But instead of showing you a bar going from "weak" to "strong", it shows you an estimation of how long your password would take to crack. That's a much more visceral way to understand why your password is strong.

For example, when I entered "rabbit", it came back with "your password is one of the 500 most common passwords. It could be cracked almost instantly". "rabbit5" would take two hours, "$rabbit5" would take 38 days, and "$rabbitZ5" would take 237 years. It's quite enlightening to see what a difference three simple characters can make.

How Secure is My Password lets you know just that originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 05 Mar 2011 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/05/how-secure-is-my-password-lets-you-know-just-that/

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Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app

google talk guru answersBots -- like the kind which automate IRC rooms and Google Wave -- are a good thing to know about. There are plenty of useful bots worth knowing about, too, including the Google Talk Guru.

Just add guru@googlelabs.com to your GTalk buddies, and you can start firing off questions. Lifehacker suggests that the same types of queries supported by Google SMS will work, though we didn't have any luck getting a response out of the Guru with phrases like "score detroit red wings" or "sushi R3N 1Y1."

Still, Guru does answer a good variety of questions and it works right within your favorite IM app. It's well worth adding to your friend list, especially for getting answers on the go on your mobile device of choice.

Google Talk Guru answers questions via your IM app originally appeared on Download Squad on Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/03/30/google-talk-guru-answers-questions-via-your-im-app/

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