I’m looking at an image of Jessica Alba. In it, her face looks just like it does in every red carpet photo you’ve ever seen of her, but her body looks a little unfamiliar: The most striking differences is that it doesn’t have any clothes covering it, and that it’s having some anal sex with a guy in a gold silk shirt.
The Poignant Tale Of Two Fake Celebrity Porn Addicts
Saturday, May 10, 2014
The Poignant Tale Of Two Fake Celebrity Porn Addicts
Trey Songz Debuts 'SmartPhones' Music Video Via Intimate New App
Your phone may be smart, but you may not be if you're caught doing something on the temptation-filled gadget that could jeopardize a relationship
That's the theme in R&B singer Trey Songz's new track, "SmartPhones," in which he uses quite the self-loathing line: "Smartphones, dumb sh*t."
"These phones are so smart in all that they do, that it's like they're an extension of our brain, but what they can't do is always prevent human error and human nature," Trey Songz told Mashable. "The mistakes that we as humans make, the relationships that we make and we break, no amount of technology can save." Read more...
More about Music, Entertainment, Music Videos, App, and Mobile Web AppsTrey Songz Debuts 'SmartPhones' Music Video Via Intimate New App
Hunt for Missing South Korean Ferry Passengers on Hold Due to Bad Weather
The search for the missing passengers on the sunken South Korean ferry Sewol stalled Saturday due to bad weather and the degradation of the ship’s internal partitions, according to a report.
Divers are finding it difficult to enter different parts of the Sewol, as the partitions have become waterlogged, and started to bend, government task force spokesperson Ko Myung-Seok told the Associated Press. Bad weather also prevented divers from conducting underwater searches on Saturday, Ko said
As of Saturday, the death toll reached 275, the AP reported. Only 174 people have been rescued so far, including 22 of the 29 crew members, with 29 still missing. The final death toll is expected to be around 300. Of the 476 people on board, there were more than 330 students and teachers from Danwon High School in Ansan, a city near Seoul. The Sewol capsized off the southern coast of South Korea on April 16. Read more…
More about South Korea, Us World, World, and South Korean Ferry
Hunt for Missing South Korean Ferry Passengers on Hold Due to Bad Weather
100-Year-Old Moms Share Beautiful Stories of Motherhood
Motherhood, it seems, is timeless
In honor of the 100th anniversary of Mother’s Day, Mashable spoke with three centenarians — Rita Rosenthal, Sadie Adler and Connie Isaacs — about their experiences as mothers and heard their advice for moms of today’s generation
“Listen to your children and treat them as a grown-up,” Adler says
And while they echo the same sentiments of pride and joy that moms in 2014 feel, the 100-year-olds did have one particular hardship that stands out — they raised children during wartime
“When you see your kid go away, and you see the papers with casualties, it was shattering,” Adler says. “You think about all those thousands of boys who died there, for what?” Read more…
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100-Year-Old Moms Share Beautiful Stories of Motherhood
Review: Doxie Go battery-powered portable scanner is a workhorse
Many people love the idea of living a paperless life, but the reality of constantly scanning and tagging documents is usually grim. AppleInsider recently went hands-on with Doxie's battery-powered Doxie Go portable scanner, which promises to lighten up that dreary task.
Review: Doxie Go battery-powered portable scanner is a workhorse
4 Fashion Upgrades Every Man Should Try This Spring
A few simple clothing upgrades is all you need this spring, dudes. So if the very word “fashion” makes you break into a cold sweat, don’t worry.
Warmer weather means it’s time to ditch those heavy sweaters and jeans and break out the bright colors and cool fabrics. We’ve done thorough research to both keep you cool and make you look cool this season, picking out four of the easiest upgrades every guy — yes, even you — can make this spring
With a little help from men’s fashion subreddit, r/malefashionadvice, you can step up your shoe game, your shorts game and your shirt game with these spring-focused tips Read more…
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4 Fashion Upgrades Every Man Should Try This Spring
Why U.S. VC firms missed out on Alibaba — and most other big Chinese opportunities
Above: Alibaba CEO Jack Ma
Alibaba’s recently announced $16 billion IPO has VentureBeat reporters scratching our collective head: Why weren’t more U.S. growth funds involved in Alibaba’s rise to domination?
Alibaba has a hand in every game imaginable: Social networking, payments, travel, online commerce, and dozens more. Its own list of investments rivals that of any major VC firm.
But somehow, while one U.S. private equity firm (Silver Lake Partners) and Yahoo participated in the mega-giant’s funding, most American firms sat it out.
So, why? Why are U.S. investors squeamish on one of the most exciting investment opportunities on planet Earth right now?
For many of the folks we spoke to, it comes down to an acknowledged lack of understanding about the Chinese startup market. It’s booming, but it’s hard to know the entire competitive landscape. It’s hard to sniff out a good deal in a less regulated economy. Plus, China has a history of volatility, both socially and politically, that has put a bad taste in many investors’ mouths.
As Upfront Ventures partner Mark Suster told VentureBeat, “Of course, there are amazing opportunities for great investments in China. There are also great returns to be had in Brazil, Turkey, Nigeria, etc. But each market requires knowledge of local entrepreneurs, ethics, trading practices, legislation, governmental structures, exit markets, etc.
“It’s hard enough to be a great investor when you completely understand the landscape. Stray outside your boundaries with caution. The great investors build great local and international teams. We’re focused on what we’ve done well with for 17 years – U.S. and Europe.”
For others, the skittish attitude toward Asian investments is based on something between one-off personal experiences and passed-down horror stories.
One investor we spoke to told us he made a single investment in China; in order to get his money out of the deal, he had to engineer a reverse IPO for the startup. Another individual was convinced not to invest in China because of a tip that Chinese entrepreneurs in general were deceptive — advice that comes across as a mix of cautionary tale and casual racism.
Of course, this trend has notable exceptions. A handful of U.S. investments in Chinese startups have made our own headlines.
ByeCity, a Chinese outbound traveling service, announced in March that it has secured nearly $20 million in financing, in part from Jafco’s Asia arm. An unnamed American VC helped pump $25 million into pet-focused company Boqii, and social marketing service Kmsocial raised tens of millions in February, with participation from Fidelity Growth Partner’s Asia office. Also, mobile game portal Joyme took in a $21.5 million round led by BlueRun Ventures earlier this year.
And a handful of megafirms have their own operations in Asia and make frequent investments in China — Mayfield Fund, Khosla Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, and Sequoia Capital, to name a few.
Still, other firms tout the risks of investing in Asia, both in private and public companies. From Matthews Asia:
Investments in Asian securities may involve risks such as social and political instability, market illiquidity, exchange-rate fluctuations, a high level of volatility and limited regulation. Investing in emerging markets involves different and greater risks, as these countries are substantially smaller, less liquid and more volatile than securities markets in more developed markets.
But the sword doesn’t cut both ways apparently. Some harder-to-fund startups are finding gold in China’s hills. According to a report from research firm CB Insights, Chinese firms (and larger companies) are investing in U.S. startups at a record rate.
From the report:
Between 2007 and 2013 year-to date, China and Taiwan-based investors participated in over 150 deals totaling $2.6 billion. … Among the recent tech investments involving big money from China-based investors are Fab.com’s $150 million Series D in June (Tencent), Quixey’s $50 million Series C (Alibaba Group), and JustFab’s $40 million funding led by Hong Kong-based Shining Capital Management. With Alibaba forming a venture arm to exclusively invest in the U.S. market and Tencent already investing across the maturity spectrum from Fab’s round at a $1 billion valuation to seed deals, it appears that the rise of Chinese investors in U.S. startups is only getting going.
Returning to Alibaba, Homebrew partner Hunter Walk said, “When there’s such tremendous value created, some investors might look backwards on missed opportunities (maybe the chance to have sold a company to them for stock, etc.), but [Chinese investment is] probably more a topic of discussion going forward for some of the larger global investors.”
In the meantime, Yahoo, which owns a 40 percent stake in the Chinese giant, will see a huge payday when the IPO happens — which will be as soon as possible, according to Alibaba’s S-1 filing.
Why U.S. VC firms missed out on Alibaba — and most other big Chinese opportunities
Before you quit your job to become a developer, go down this 6-point checklist
Image Credit: blend images / shutterstock
Last August, I left my job at YouTube to spend six days a week, 11+ hours a day, writing code. Since then, a lot of people thinking about making a career change have asked me about my experience, so here are my main pieces of advice.
Make sure you actually like programming
I feel like it’s easy to think that being a software engineer involves effortlessly banging out code for a few hours a day between lattes.
It might be like that for some really, really smart people; but for the rest of us, it’s more like feeling confident something works a certain way, then spending six hours slowly realizing that’s not the case.
Then you finally fix the bug you meant to fix, and it’s taken you eight hours to write 15 lines of code. Don’t get me wrong: Finally fixing a bug like that is one of the best feelings ever, but I think a lot of beginners are shocked by how frustrating programming can sometimes be.
If you think you’ll be happy with 30 seconds of euphoria after several hours of struggle, then engineering is probably for you.
Choose the right bootcamp
Look through engineering job postings, and try to figure out what languages/technologies you should be learning to get the type of job you want. Make sure that coincides with what a bootcamp says they’re teaching.
Look at job stats, and make sure graduates of the program are getting the types of jobs you’d want. Read posts on Quora; try to track down student’s blogs from their time at whatever bootcamp you’re looking at; and just generally, read all the content that you can find about any bootcamps you’re thinking about attending.
There was actually a lot less information about the various programs when I was starting out, so in the end, I decided Hack Reactor looked the best pretty much entirely because of the intense schedule. I figured that at three months, six days a week, 11+ hours a day, it’d be kind of hard to not learn something.
Consider self-study
Being able to learn complicated things through a lot of online reading and trial and error is a really important skill to have as an engineer.
There are lot of really good engineers who didn’t study CS or do a boot camp, so it’s clearly possible to be a successful self taught programmer.
However, if time is an important factor for you, I’d definitely recommend looking at bootcamps. I learned way more in the three months I spent at Hack Reactor than I did in the year and a half I spent learning to code in my free time while working full time.
Prep for your training
Getting ready to start a bootcamp and/or the admissions process can be different depending on which one you do.
I’m not too familiar with other bootcamps’ admissions and pre-work process, but Hack Reactor’s philosophy is that they want to spend time on the stuff that’s harder to learn on your own, so they expect you to be pretty good at the basics by the time you start.
Even if that’s not the case for your bootcamp of choice, it’s definitely a good idea to spend time coding before you start to make sure you actually like it.
Coderbyte is a good place to do practice problems, and Codecademy is pretty good for brand new programmers. For books, Eloquent JavaScript, JavaScript: The Good Parts, and Learn Python the Hard Way are all great.
Know your program
Hack Reactor was a pretty crazy experience. You’re learning completely new things all the time with no time (other than your Sunday!) to review anything. Almost all of the curriculum is hands-on, so you’re writing code 10+ hours a day and don’t have time to think about anything else.
The most similar learning experience I’ve had was when I spent two months in Ecuador doing an intensive language program. For the first two weeks, you feel like you have the vocabulary of a two year old. You can express fatigue and hunger, but talking about the meaning of life is out — and then, suddenly and unceremoniously, you’re dreaming in Spanish.
The three months went by so quickly that it’s honestly pretty difficult to explain what it was like. I spent a minimum of 10-12 hours a day in a single room with the same 25 people for three months.
I think the most important thing to relay is that despite the long hours, occasional bouts of impostor syndrome, and sickening number of peanut butter sandwiches, it was one of the most fun experiences of my life.
Get a job
The most important advice I can give on getting a job is apply everywhere that seems remotely interesting.
It’s often hard to tell what will be the best place for you before actually talking to people who work there, but that’s only half of it.
Technical interviews can be really scary, even for really great engineers! They get a lot less scary when you have two a day for two or three weeks straight. You’ll get asked similar questions at different companies; and you’ll start to realize that at most places, they don’t expect you to get everything perfectly correct on the first try.
As far as preparing for interviews goes, Cracking the Coding Interview by Gayle Laakmann McDowell is a great source of practice problems. It’s also probably a good idea to have a general sense of how to evaluate the time complexity of your solutions.
Jess MacQueen is an engineer at Chartio, a cloud business intelligence solution. Before Chartio, she spent her days at YouTube as an analyst until she decided she wanted to be a full-time engineer. She went through Hack Reactor’s program and is now a full-time engineer at Chartio.
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Before you quit your job to become a developer, go down this 6-point checklist
Virgin Mobile getting Samsung’s Galaxy S 5 on May 19
Right on cue, the Samsung Galaxy S 5 will be landing on Virgin Mobile later this month. As of the time of this writing, there has been no pricing details announced. We only know that the GS5 will arrive on May 19 for Virgin Mobile customers.
In the meantime, read our review of the Galaxy S 5.
Source: Virgin Mobile
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Virgin Mobile getting Samsung’s Galaxy S 5 on May 19
That War You Were Expecting? Putin's Already Won It
People keep waiting for the “war” to begin in Ukraine. But a 21st century-style war has already begun here, and may be almost over — something that Vladimir Putin seems to understand even if the rest of us do not.
That War You Were Expecting? Putin's Already Won It
How NASA Photographs The Sun
The space agency stares right into the star, capturing these truly sublime images.
How NASA Photographs The Sun
Why Not Mobile? Best Practices for Smashing Mobile PPC Ads [Webinar Recording]
There’s no denying that mobile devices are a mainstay in today’s society and becoming more popular every year. But capturing the most value out of mobile advertising can be a challenge. Some still question it – why should I advertise …
Read more at PPCHero.com
Why Not Mobile? Best Practices for Smashing Mobile PPC Ads [Webinar Recording]
23 Kids Reveal Their Secrets to Mom
There will always be a few secrets that you just can't tell mom.
Whether it's the beer you stole from the garage back when you were broke after college, or the real reason you totaled the car in high school, some things are better kept undercover.
The anonymous posting app Secret offers a platform on which frustrated offspring can secretly unload their weighty confessions
Moms of the world, consider yourself warned
Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments. Read more...
More about Apps, Pics, Secret, Secrets, and Watercooler23 Kids Reveal Their Secrets to Mom
The Wayback Machine Passes 400 Billion Indexed Webpages
The Internet Archive today announced a massive milestone for its Wayback Machine: 400 billion indexed webpages. The data encompasses the Web as it looked anytime from late 1996 up until a few hours ago.
The Wayback Machine Passes 400 Billion Indexed Webpages
All The Drug References In Hip-Hop, Visualized
This right here is the best data journalism we've ever seen.
All The Drug References In Hip-Hop, Visualized
Addict. Informant. Mother
Caught between the dealers and the cops is a woman with a bad habit.
Addict. Informant. Mother
10 million Samsung Galaxy S 5 units shipped in less than 30 days
We all know it doesn’t take long for Samsung to hit a milestone with a new device. The Galaxy S 5, which we just reviewed, has already had 10 million units shipped in 25 days. This is the quickest of all-time for Samsung. Each year, the company has been able to break its own record with a new flagship. The Galaxy S, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S III, and Galaxy S 4 took 7 months, 5 months, 50 days, and 27 days to hit this number, respectively.
While shipping units does not mean they are sold, it is an impressive milestone regardless. The Galaxy S 5 did launch simultaneously in more than 125 countries across the globe. Samsung has nailed it on distribution.
Source: Hankyung
Via: SamMobile
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10 million Samsung Galaxy S 5 units shipped in less than 30 days
CNN brings iReport to Google Glass, allows you to be a ‘citizen journalist’
For the past few years, CNN has allowed regular people to become ‘citizen journalists’ thanks to iReport. Part of the official CNN app, iReport gives users a platform to share photos and videos that can be deemed helpful for their breaking news coverage. In fact, you could be the one breaking news. Today, CNN is expanding upon iReport by bringing it to Google Glass.
CNN is doing magnificent things by adding iReport to Google Glass. Rather than having to take out your smartphone and head over to the application, this would allow everything to be done right from your Glass. CNN says that all you need to do is authorize it to send notifications and then link an iReport profile.
Source: CNN
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CNN brings iReport to Google Glass, allows you to be a ‘citizen journalist’
Swarm, Foursquare’s spinoff coming next week, is watering down the mayorship feature
Mayorships, the feature that added some challenging fun to Foursquare, is leaving. Don’t worry, it’ll be heading to their new Swarm service! On Friday, Foursquare froze each and every current mayor in place for an unspecified amount of time. But when the feature does move over to Swarm, it will not be the same.
The mayorship feature on Swarm will only be amongst friends. This means that if your group of friends frequently goes to the local bar, not everyone else there is jockeying to be mayor. Instead, only you and your friends are in competition with one another. The windows remains at 60 days, though.
Swarm will be launching next week and Foursquare hints that there are some hidden goodies inside that users must find.
Source: The Foursquare Blog
Via: Engadget
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Swarm, Foursquare’s spinoff coming next week, is watering down the mayorship feature
Facebook app update allows you to compose posts offline
It has happened to just about everyone. You go to compose a post on a social network and your connection just fails to deliver. So you either are stuck with discarding the draft and trying again later or giving up all together. Facebook is getting proactive with its latest app update.
Whether you are struggling to find a signal or utilizing airplane mode, Facebook will let you compose a post. Once composed, it will wait until a data connection returns and publish whatever photograph, video, or text blabber you had queued. Really handy if you are in the middle of nowhere and just had to post a photo.
Hit the break for download links.
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Facebook app update allows you to compose posts offline
Press render of the Moto E in turquoise, lemon, and black leak
Yesterday, the Moto E decided to show off some of its colors. The image above shows the little handset in turquoise and in lemon. Like the Moto X and Moto G, the Moto E looks like it will feature the dimpled Motorola logo in the center of the rear panel.
Hit the break to see the alleged black Moto E.
Motorola Moto E in Turquoise and Lemon. pic.twitter.com/SsnKcqVm31
— @evleaks (@evleaks) May 10, 2014
@evleaks this is Moto E black version.. leaked in Brazil pic.twitter.com/ubdOqUn5zO
— Hudson martins (@WalterWhitedad) May 10, 2014
Source: @evleaks
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Press render of the Moto E in turquoise, lemon, and black leak
inContact's $48 Million Buy Targets Mid-Sized Contact Centers
Data’s good for customer experience. Data’s bad for customer experience.
This pie is sliced in many ways. This week, cloud-based contact center solutions and optimization provider inContact spent $48 million to ensure its clients have the right tools to optimize data and provide a solid customer experience.
The Salt Lake City-based company acquired Uptivity (formerly CallCopy), a Columbus, Ohio-based workforce optimization (WFO) provider. The deal is expected to make it easier for inContact to provide mid-sized contact centers with tools like speech and desktop analytics, agent coaching, call and desktop recording.
Read full story...
inContact's $48 Million Buy Targets Mid-Sized Contact Centers
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