'Ocarina' is one of those games that's not only legendary for the quality of gameplay, but for the depths players will go to exploit glitches. So if it looks like speedrunner Cosmo is playing strangely, there's a method to his madness.
This Is The New World Record Speedrun For 'Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time'
Saturday, April 26, 2014
This Is The New World Record Speedrun For 'Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time'
Who Killed Anna Mae?
Nearly 40 years ago, a Native American activist turned up dead, and still no one knows who was responsible. She had a lot of enemies, but her friends may have been more dangerous.
Who Killed Anna Mae?
We Hired A Male Escort And All We Got Was A Lousy Lecture On Dismantling Capitalism
Rent a Gent offers hot guys for hire, but no one seems to understand exactly what that means.
We Hired A Male Escort And All We Got Was A Lousy Lecture On Dismantling Capitalism
Knitted Food Photography Looks Good Enough to Eat
There's nothing more comforting than the feel of a soft, woolly sweater — except a delicious Thanksgiving dinner.
Art director and model maker Jessica Dance and photographer David Sykes bring a new meaning to the phrase "comfort food" with their delightfully fuzzy series of knitted food photography. "I thought It would be nice to create a series which encapsulates the mood of British cafes, fast food joints and burger vans, but with a woolly twist," Dance tells Mashable.
The pristine shots make each familiar dish almost look like real food at first glance. The fleecy creations are crafted by Dance herself, sculpting the foundations of each model by hand and then finishing them in lambswool using a vintage knitting machine. "Luckily we both have a meticulous attention to detail ... [our] collaborative projects are very much a meeting of minds," Dance explains. Read more...
More about Photography, Food Photography, Watercooler, Pics, and FoodKnitted Food Photography Looks Good Enough to Eat
Russia opening gov’t-backed startup accelerator in Crimea
Above: A view of Artillery Bay in Sevastopol, Crimea, dated May 5, 2013.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The Internet Initiatives Development Fund (IIDF, or FRII in Russian), a government-backed fund supporting startup development, will open a remote regional accelerator in Sevastopol, Crimea, as soon as this summer, the Russian business daily Kommersant reported last week.
The fund is expecting to support five to seven projects, which will be evaluated on the local and national levels. Funding will be received based on the results of three month’s work in the accelerator.
“There is no venture industry in Crimea in the usual sense, but several companies are engaged in outsourced software development,” Kommersant quoted the fund’s director Kirill Varlamov as saying. “Some of them, SoftServe, for example, intend to close their offices here because of the political situation, while local specialists — programmers, engineers — with recognized skills are left without work. The fund is a good alternative. With our help, the guys can start their own projects.”
The Russian government seems to be open to other suggestions to stimulate venture activity in the area, from tax breaks to relaxed customs procedures for engineering models.
Developing startups from scratch?
FRII will have to work hard to find good projects in the area. “Crimea has very weak and limited capacities in this field,” Yevgen Sysoyev of AVentures Capital, a major Kiev-based venture fund, told East-West Digital News. “Of the 1,200 applications which we received from Ukrainian start ups over the past two years, ten at most came from Crimea.”
In addition, “international investors are unlikely to support companies from this area as long as Russia will be occupying it,” Sysoyev believes.
An initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin, FRII was launched in 2013 with the ambition to “create a full-fledged, nationwide industry of new online projects” of “commercial or social value.”
The fund, which targets individual entrepreneurs at the seed stage, received no less than 6 billion rubles (approximately $170 million at today’s exchange rate) to be invested in 400 projects over three years.
FRII usually gives 800,000 rubles (approximately $23,000) as a capital injection and 600,000 rubles’ worth ($17,000) of acceleration services in exchange for a 7-percent share in the project.
However, projects will be able to participate in the Sebastopol accelerator for free.
The Sevastopol accelerator is following those opened by FRII in Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Krasnodar, Kazan, and St. Petersburg.
This article originally appeared in East-West Digital News, our partner in Russia.
Are you making or losing money with marketing automation? VB is working with marketing expert Ian Cleary to investigate marketing automation ROI. Help us out by answering a few questions, and we'll help you out with the data.
Russia opening gov’t-backed startup accelerator in Crimea
What Digital Marketing Branch Do You Belong To?
Today’s quiz is more on the fun side. Take the quiz below to see what branch of digital marketing you belong to. You’ll be surprised at how well it pegs you.
This quiz was created by Paxton Gray, Lead Digital Marketer at 97th Floor. 97th floor specializes in content marketing for firms like Salesforce, O.C. Tanner, and Pixar.
What Digital Marketing Branch Do You Belong To?
What Does The Star-Spangled Banner Sound Like In A Minor Key?
We’d probably be more somber as a nation.
What Does The Star-Spangled Banner Sound Like In A Minor Key?
The World's Boozing Habits Revealed
Does booze play a part in world events? Don’t tell your kids — or your parents — but probably yes.
The World's Boozing Habits Revealed
Is This The Future Of Male Masturbation?
There are a handful of possible reasons why men would be less likely to own a sex toy than women, from societal norms to the fact that it’s just plain easier for men to get themselves off, but Brian Sloan doesn’t buy any of these arguments.
Is This The Future Of Male Masturbation?
17 Things We Learned From Old Cartoon PSAs
Remember when you willingly got out of bed at 7 a.m. on Saturdays to watch cartoons?
Chances are those days are long over. Some of you probably wake up with a mind-numbing hangover, only getting out of bed because you've put off going to the bathroom for the past two hours, and can hold it no longer. But hey, who are we to judge?
If you take a trip down memory lane to those early Saturday mornings when G.I. Joe, Duck Tails and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ruled our lives, you may remember some invaluable life lessons brought to you in the form of cartoon PSAs. Read more...
More about Lists, Psa, Cartoons, Nostalgia, and Tv17 Things We Learned From Old Cartoon PSAs
Uncovering The Atari E.T. Games Buried In New Mexico
Today one of gaming's greatest mysteries will be solved: Were millions of unsold Atari cartridges and hardware, including the infamous flop, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, really buried in the Almagordo, New Mexico desert?
Uncovering The Atari E.T. Games Buried In New Mexico
The Birth Of Modern War
A new era in warfare was born on the battlefields of Flanders in 1915. German troops launched a chlorine gas attack in the first ever large-scale use of chemical weapons. It was but one of the technical innovations seen during World War I, and not all of them were as deadly.
The Birth Of Modern War
I Asked a Bunch of Porn Stars What They're Reading
Porn icon and former special education teacher Ron Jeremy says he reads a lot of magazines but loves reading books about World War II.
I Asked a Bunch of Porn Stars What They're Reading
Steering An Automated Ship: How to Avoid Bidding Pitfalls [Webinar Recording]
Back in February, Acquisio and Hanapin experts did a live webinar on Acquisio’s new Bid and Budget Management feature. As a follow-up, this webinar revisits the Bid and Management feature with insights on new case studies and the benefits of …
Read more at PPCHero.com
Steering An Automated Ship: How to Avoid Bidding Pitfalls [Webinar Recording]
Domain gold rush: Why your company needs to speak Chinese online
GUEST POST
By now, many savvy businesses and investors have heard about the expansion of the domain name system. New extensions (known as “top-level domains” or “TLDs”) are joining .com, .org, .net and the others we’ve grown accustomed to – extensions including generic names such as .bike, .camera and .club, as well as brand name extensions such as .Canon, .Deloitte and .Hitachi.
Lesser discussed in the U.S. are Internationalized Domain Names (IDNs). These are domain names written in multiple scripts and languages that allow users to navigate the Internet without using English. During the application period in 2012 when companies could apply to run their own domain extension, 116 IDNs were applied for, 73 of which were Chinese character TLDs.
Approximately half of these Chinese TLD applications came from groups in China, but a significant number were applied for by non-Chinese companies.
Now, as IDNs are beginning to come to market, we’re seeing the Chinese market continue to be particularly quick to embrace the new extensions. In fact, the Chinese central government has gone so far as to introduce a new national policy that mandates the use of Chinese character domain extensions for all Chinese government websites. Most popular are .在线 (“.online”) and .中文网 (.website).
Recently, the first live auction of premium names from these two Chinese character domain extensions was held in Macau. The auction raised $182,000 from the sale of 33 domain name lots including “games.online” (游戏.在线) for $25,388, “casino.online” (赌场.在线) for $25,000, “realestate.online” (房地产.在线) for $16,000. In addition, buyers at the auction expressed interest in hundreds of additional premium domain names that weren’t listed on the auction block. Some in attendance even requested portfolios of hundreds of Chinese character domain names. These strong results further verify the strength of these new IDNs in Asia and indicate that the new Chinese character TLDs are experiencing a gold rush similar to the buying-up of dot com domain names in the 90s.
The opportunity for domain investors (particularly those that missed out on the dot com era of buying domains for a few dollars and flipping them for hundreds or even thousands) is clear. For U.S. companies, however, especially the roughly 1,500 doing business in China and others looking to do business overseas, this trend is of vital importance. The value that investors have placed on the Dot Chinese Online and Dot Chinese Website, combined with the endorsement of the Chinese central government, confirms that these IDNs are primed to be successful. It signifies a huge shift in the way the Asian market will navigate the Internet moving forward. Companies that want to garner attention in Asia need to think beyond their brand.com – and even beyond their company name in Chinese characters at a .cn address – and consider adding their Chinese character equivalent domain name under the new IDNs to their portfolio.
Dot Chinese Online and Dot Chinese Website concluded their 30-day Landrush period on April 24, 2014, during which time buyers were able to apply and pay a small premium for a chance to get the domain they really want to secure in advance of general availability to everyone. The TLDs enter the General Availability phase beginning April 28, at which time domain names in Dot Chinese Online and Dot Chinese Website registries will be unrestricted and available for purchase from a worldwide registrar network.
Kathy Nielsen is VP of Business Development, New gTLDs at Sedo. Previously at eToys.com she was Director of Sales and Business Development for their group of content websites. Currently, she works closely with domain registry and registrar clients on special auctions and sales projects, and she develops relationships with current and new strategic partners and domain solutions providers. She is a frequent speaker at advertising and search conferences and continually strives to educate end users and on the value of domain names.
Are you making or losing money with marketing automation? VB is working with marketing expert Ian Cleary to investigate marketing automation ROI. Help us out by answering a few questions, and we'll help you out with the data.
Domain gold rush: Why your company needs to speak Chinese online
Tech startup Operation Underground Railroad is saving kids from human traffickers
Above: Tim Ballard, Elizabeth Smart, and Sgt. Jimmy Duran.
Image Credit: Tim Ballard
Operation Underground Railroad chief executive and founder Tim Ballard walked into the Imperial County Sheriff’s office Thursday night with a young blond woman in tow.
In a meeting room, Ballard, 38, and the young woman sat down. The executive flipped open his laptop. Seated across from Ballard was Imperial County Sheriff’s Sgt. Jimmy Duran. They talked about a few things. About a suspect the sheriffs would arrest the following morning for distributing child pornography. And about the data mining software platform Ballard trained them to use that led to the suspect.
“He brought the technology here that allowed us to make the case. From what I’ve seen, this is a very effective tool for law enforcement. And as a result of using it, we made a good arrest,” Duran said.
As for the young woman who accompanied Ballard to the meeting? Elizabeth Smart, the Salt Lake City teen who was kidnapped from her home in 2002 when she was 14 and spent nine months of living hell as her captors drove her around the country. Smart, now a contributor for ABC news, works closely with the startup.
Ballard calls the software a child protection system (CPS). Incredibly, he and his team had trained the Imperial County Sheriff’s office how to use it the previous week. If they hadn’t, the suspect, who was busted early Friday and charged with possession and distribution of child pornography, would likely have escaped detection.
Ballard, a former CIA veteran and ranking Department of Homeland Security official who ran the agency’s crimes against children unit, is the chief executive for one of the most unusual tech startups you’ve never heard of. Along with social media director Jesse Stay, 28, and operations chief Todd Barlow, 42, he combs the world with a proprietary CPS data mining software, ferreting out the worst pedophiles and freeing children enslaved by human traffickers.
So far, the team has rescued 35 children and uncovered child trafficking networks in the U.S., Haiti, and Nicaragua. Dozens of child sex offenders have been locked up.
The startup was launched last year with $1 million after Ballard left his job with the federal government, seriously turned off by the beauracratic infighting and frequent refusals of his superiors to let him pursue the most heinous of child trafficking cases, many of them abroad but with roots in North America.
“I was being told, many times, ‘no, it is not in the interest of the United States.’ In 95 percent of the cases I was investigating, they said no because the cases couldn’t be tried in U.S. courts. So I left,” Ballard told VentureBeat.
At the heart of OUR is the startup’s data mining platform. The technology acts as a sniffer, which they deploy against networks that child traffickers and pedophiles use to communicate with each other. CPS can monitor communications through ISPs. And through its data mining protocols, Ballard and his team can isolate, and monitor, the most egregious offenders. CPS is open source.
“It’s an extremely important software platform,” Barlow said. “Using it, we’re able to see patterns, find out who the worst offenders are. Once that’s done, we’re able to prioritize who to go after.”
Both Ballard and Barlow declined to be more specific when describing the software platform’s attributes.
If you call OUR a small group of virtual vigilantes, you’d only be half right. The team has trained dozens of police agencies in the U.S. and abroad on how to use the software. When the team virtually locates offenders, they begin their investigation. After making sure the individual or group is their intended target, they head to the airport and fly to that city or country and contact authorities there. They then train them on the use.
“It’s a way to multiply ourselves in other countries so good work can be done,” Barlow said.
When the team, based in Salt Lake City, heads to foreign destinations, they can count on backup and muscle from a number of sources Ballard is friendly with from his days as a spy or his stint at DHS: former special forces operators: SEALS and Green Berets, retired FBI agents, and cops.
“They do it for free. They want to help,” Ballard said.
The team firmly believes in the power of disruptive technology. And they are adapting more of it. Social media director Stay told VentureBeat that they have begun beta testing Google Glass to film raids and takedowns in realtime and simultaneously feed the video, audio, and images to Instagram and other social media platforms. Stay obtained his glass from the Google Glass Explorer program recently.
Stay has his work cut out for him. The group’s Facebook page only has 820 “likes,” too small a number for a group devoted to saving children. Indeed, the startups motto is “We Rescue Children From Sex Slavery. Help Us!”
“We will begin using Google Glass to start recording from a first person point of view and then feed the information to social media audiences,” Stay said.
While the OUR team raised a $1 million for the startup, they rely on donations to keep the company going. Details on how to help are listed on their website.
Dangerous pedophiles and those who traffic in children are a serious global problem. The team recently discovered, during an investigation in Haiti, that members of a church group in that impoverished country were selling children for $15,000 a piece and then shipping them by boat to customers in Miami.
Those engaged in the odious behavior now have another reason to look over their shoulders, thanks to OUR.
And they are watching.
“Once you share a file, I know who you are because this is your ISP,” Barlow said.
Back in Imperial County, east of San Diego, the hit on the suspected pedophile’s house went down Friday morning like clockwork. Sheriff’s deputies kicked in the door and a few minutes later marched the suspect out in handcuffs. He was placed into a car and taken to the nearby jail, where he was booked on multiple child pornography counts. The suspect was still being processed late Friday.
For Imperial County Sheriff Sgt. Jimmy Duran, the software was the key factor in the investigation and subsequent arrest. Police had no idea the man even existed because he had a clean record.
“It wasn’t until they brought us the technology that we had a case. And when we did,” Duran said, “we started to work it.”
Are you making or losing money with marketing automation? VB is working with marketing expert Ian Cleary to investigate marketing automation ROI. Help us out by answering a few questions, and we’ll help you out with the data.
Tech startup Operation Underground Railroad is saving kids from human traffickers
Sex Work and the Web: Digital's Role in the Industry
Sex is no stranger to the Internet, and yet sex workers — including porn actors, escorts and webcam models — continue to face unique hostility in the digital age.
In addition to stigma, negativity and “rescue" efforts, many sex workers face discrimination from online services that most of us use without thinking twice. For example, Amazon has allegedly deleted sex workers’ Wish Lists, while Chase Bank recently began canceling non-criminal sex workers’ accounts.
“Our speech is often what they come for first,” said journalist and former sex worker Melissa Gira Grant at the Theorizing the Web conference on Friday night. “So, if you want a preview of what will happen to everyone else on the Internet, this is a really remarkable opportunity.” Read more...
More about Sex, Social Good, Activism, Lifestyle, and Work PlaySex Work and the Web: Digital's Role in the Industry
11 Adorable Animals With Uncontrollable Hiccups
The hiccups are easily the most annoying involuntary bodily function
Forget eye twitches, farts and burps — hiccups take the cake, and always seem to hit at the most inconvenient moments.
Humans aren't the only ones who have to endure the annoyance of diaphragm spasms. Many animals also get the hiccups, and unfortunately for them, they're unable to cure them by drinking water upside down or through a straw like us.
Despite how aggravating hiccups may be, it's absolutely adorable when animals have them. Read more...
More about Lists, Animals, Cute, Cute Animals, and Gifs
11 Adorable Animals With Uncontrollable Hiccups
20 Twitter Short Stories Written by Mashable Readers
If Twitter has taught us anything, it's that a lot can be said in just 140 characters. Jokes? Check. Breaking news? Check. What you ate for lunch today? Check.
But can you write the next great piece of literary fiction on Twitter?
See also: 25 Twitter Accounts to Make You Laugh
We were wondering that very question after reading this month's MashableReads book, B.J. Novak's story collection One More Thing: Stories and Other Stories. Throughout the collection, Novak explores the funny side of life in stories that are sometimes as short as the length of a tweet
Inspired by Novak's pithiness, we asked readers to write a short story in a single tweet for this month's MashableReads challenge. Submissions ranged from quippy tales of millennial misadventures to poetic musings on love and death. Our favorite submissions won signed copies of One More Thing or the chance to participate in our MashableReads Google Hangout with B.J. Novak. Check out the winning submissions and some of our favorite runners-up, below: Read more...
More about Books, Twitter, Social Media, Fiction, and Work Play20 Twitter Short Stories Written by Mashable Readers
It Looks Like US Weekly Photoshopped Prince George
As you can see in the picture, his skin looks tanner (with rosier cheeks), his eyes seem enhanced and his hair color darker. All unnecessary changes in our opinion. He’s pretty darn cute as is.
It Looks Like US Weekly Photoshopped Prince George
Why Coffee Shops Love Your Iced Coffee Habit
It mostly boils down to "we're too lazy to make our own because we always do it wrong."
Why Coffee Shops Love Your Iced Coffee Habit
Chipotle's Calorie Labels Are A Lie
For anyone counting calories, the Chipotle menu may be among the world's least helpful documents.
Chipotle's Calorie Labels Are A Lie
Apple admits iPhone 5 manufacturing flaw, launches sleep button replacement program
Image Credit: Apple
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iPhone 5 owners experiencing issues with their device’s sleep button can now get a free replacement from Apple.
Apple yesterday launched the iPhone 5 sleep/wake button replacement program. The Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant admitted that a “small percentage” of iPhone 5 models have faulty sleep buttons — an issue folks have complained about on Apple’s support forum and elsewhere since the iPhone 5′s launch in late 2012 — so the company has decided to replace the troubled component for free, even if your iPhone 5 is out of warranty.
“Apple has determined that the sleep/wake button mechanism on a small percentage of iPhone 5 models may stop working or work intermittently,” reads the Apple replacement program webpage.
“Apple will replace the sleep/wake button mechanism, free of charge, on iPhone 5 models that exhibit this issue and have a qualifying serial number.”
iPhone 5 devices manufactured through March 2013 may be affected by this issue, said Apple. Typically, the button still clicks, but the device no longer registers the input.
To participate in the replacement program, either bring your iPhone 5 to an Apple store or mail it in to a repair center. If you bring it into a store, Apple is giving out 16 GB iPhone 5 loaners, but that’s not an option if you mail it in. Either way, be sure to back up your data and wipe your phone before handing it over to Apple, which will upgrade it to the latest version of iOS 7.
If you already paid to have your iPhone 5 sleep button replaced, you should contact Apple to request a refund.
Apple designs and markets consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers. The company's best-known hardware products include the Macintosh line of computers, the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad. Apple software includes t... read more »
Apple admits iPhone 5 manufacturing flaw, launches sleep button replacement program
A Brief History Of Twitter’s Many Redesigns
You may think you know Twitter, but have you been around long enough to sigh nostalgically and ask your coworkers, “do you remember when Twitter used to look like ____?”
Twitter has had many facelifts – both major and minor – in its eight years, and as the company moves towards what many are calling a Facebook-a-like redesign, we thought it would be a good time for a Twitter redesign retrospective.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
A Brief History Of Twitter’s Many Redesigns
This Week, Pinterest Improved Search and Social Mascot Advice
Another busy work week is behind us. But before you start on your weekend plans let’s take a quick look at some of the news you might have missed while hard at work.
In the stories below, you’ll find more information about how Facebook Paper plays into your content strategy and exactly what Pinterest Guided Search means for your Pin descriptions. You’ll also get a better idea of what mascots can do for your social media presence and just how important social logins can be to your customer support team. Finally, we’ve included great advice from Sprout’s Andrew Caravella on social audiences, and some fresh examples of non-fashion industries using Pinterest.
Who’s Your Social Audience? Sprout’s Andrew Caravella Shares Some Insights
The key to social success is building a strategy tailored to your target audience, but if you’re not sure exactly who your audience is, it can be difficult to develop a solid social plan. Before you can come up with a workable social strategy, you need to figure out just who you’re going to be talking to. [Read More...]
Why You Should Get Serious About Content With Facebook Paper
It’s undeniable that content plays a huge role across the social media space right now. As a result, many of the recent updates made by social networks were done with your content strategy in mind. Facebook specifically has undergone a series of content-focused updates, from its algorithm and News Feed redesign to the launch of Paper, its standalone news reader app. [Read More...]
4 Industries That Prove Pinterest Does More Than Just Fashion
A few years back, Pinterest exploded onto the social media scene and was an immediate hit in the industries of fashion, food, and design. The fledgling network attracted an audience that now numbers in the millions. Those millions of people not only had the opportunity to create wish lists, but also to make purchases. [Read More...]
Reach the Right Audiences With LinkedIn Showcase Pages, Here’s How
There are several different social networks on which your brand should be present, but only a handful help to shape your company’s story online. With more than 300 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is now the largest and most influential professional network around. [Read More...]
Why You Should Make Social Logins Part of Your Support Strategy
Customer service should be a priority around the clock, and not just when an issue arises. For online businesses, this means providing consumers with a stress-free shopping experience from the second they arrive on your website to when they checkout. But did you know that not offering shoppers the option to login with their social credentials could be viewed as poor customer service? [Read More...]
When Mascots Have Social Media Profiles, Great Things Happen
Mascots can work marketing magic. They can give a face and even a personality to a brand, creating a figure that’s more relatable for customers than a bunch of business buzzwords. While your audience is used to seeing mascots talking to them from their televisions, social media offers a chance to connect on computer and mobile screens. [Read More...]
Discover How 3 Brands Found Success With YouTube Advertising
Video is one of the most shareable types of content online, which is why it has become an integral part of brands’ marketing and advertising strategies. YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google, and with more than 1 billion unique visitors each month, it’s a platform that should be on every advertiser’s radar. [Read More...]
Why Pinterest Guided Search Makes Your Pin Description More Important
Pinterest is currently home to more than 750 million boards with 30 billion Pins hand-picked by travelers, foodies, DIYers, and even other brands. Ensuring that your content stands out can sometimes be a challenge, but a newly introduced feature can help improve your discoverability. [Read More...]
The post This Week, Pinterest Improved Search and Social Mascot Advice appeared first on Sprout Social.
This Week, Pinterest Improved Search and Social Mascot Advice
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