"Success is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well."
Tomb Raider "Turning Point" Debut Trailer
Topic: Games
5:06 pm EDT, Jun 4, 2011
A lot of game previews and trailers are cropping up with the E3 2011 conference just around the corner. One of the much anticipated games is a reboot of the Tomb Raider franchise that features a re-imagined Lara Croft. The preview trailer will certainly ramp up excitement, but the game isn’t due until fall of 2012.
The companies behind the game, Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix, chose to reboot the series by going back to the roots. The story goes back to when Lara Croft was younger and portrays a much tougher and grittier image.
The trailer kicks off with Croft embarking on an adventure but then ending up shipwrecked on an island somewhere near Japan. When she washes ashore, she has to tend to her own wounds and is covered in blood.
However, the trailer is all about being cinematic and does not show any gameplay. Hopefully, there will be some demoes at the E3 conference next week. Let us know if you’re digging this reboot.
'White Ninja' Steals Car, Smashes Into Greensboro Apple Store
Topic: Current Events
4:49 pm EDT, Jun 4, 2011
MyFOX8.com reports that a man wearing what was referred to by witnesses as a "white ninja suit" crashed a car into Apple's Friendly Center retail store in Greensboro, North Carolina this morning. The incident appears to have been a robbery attempt, although the man reportedly fled the scene without stealing anything.
Police described the suspect as a white male wearing a white shirt and hooded mask. According to 107.5 KZL, a security guard said the suspect was wearing a white ninja suit.
We're fairly confident in saying, this is by far, the coolest set of Audi B-roll driving footage we've ever seen. And by cool, we mean full opposite lock Audi RS3 hoonage on a snowy track at last week's Fascination quattro event in Quebec, Canada. Following the driving scenes are exterior and interior glamour shots, along with some great exhaust revs showcasing the RS3's venerable five cylinder turbo growl.
Groupon filed for an IPO Thursday planning to raise $750 million reports The New York Times. The filing reveals very fast growth: Shortly after launching in 2008, Groupon notched revenue of $94 million. Two years later, it had swelled to $713 million. The company reported $644.7 million of revenue in the first quarter of 2011 alone, with 83 million subscribers across 43 countries, according to its filing.
A succesful IPO could boost prospects for the many private tech companies that are waiting to go public. But is Groupon a tech company?
LulzSecurity (LulzSec), a group of hackers that recently gained notoriety for hacking PBS.org’s home page with an image of NyanCat, announced Thursday that it has stolen data from Sony. It’s yet another in a seemingly endless string of embarrassing security incidents for the company, but what’s shocking is just how exposed the data was to begin with.
In a press release posted to their Web site, LulzSec claims to have broken into SonyPictures.com and “compromised over 1,000,000 users’ personal information, including passwords, email addresses, home addresses, dates of birth, and all Sony opt-in data associated with their accounts.”
The theft included 75,000 “music codes” and 3.5 million “music coupons,” according to the group. LulzSec has posted segments of data they claim to have taken from Sony’s server to serve as proof of their accomplishment.
The Super-Cycle Report projects that China is likely to overtake the US to become the world‟s biggest economy over the next decade, while India could become the world‟s third-largest economy by 2030. Moreover, India is likely to grow faster, on average, than China over the next two decades. We factor in a trend rate of growth of 6.9% for China, allowing for setbacks along the way, and of 9.3% for India, again taking into account the business cycle.
Indeed, India has many of the features that will enable it to emerge as a winner in the super-cycle. We believe the winners will be those countries which have cash, commodities, or creativity, or a combination of these factors. India does not have an abundance of cash or commodities, but it has creative potential.
Microsoft Previews Windows 8 with Cues from iPad and App Store
Topic: Computers
8:28 pm EDT, Jun 1, 2011
At AllThingsD, Microsoft previewed Windows 8 for the first time. The early look at the upcoming operating system shows some drastic changes. At the heart of the new interface is a new start screen that draws heavily on the tile-based interface that Microsoft has used with Windows Phone 7. All of a users programs can be viewed as tiles and clicked on with a touch of a finger.
The shown Windows 8 screenshot carries over the tile-based appearance of the Windows Mobile phone, but the new operating system is said to support two types of applications. One is the classic Windows application which will run in the familiar desktop interface, while the second type are HTML5/Javascript applications that look more like a full screen mobile application.
Microsoft details many of the changes they demoed: • Fast launching of apps from a tile-based Start screen, which replaces the Windows Start menu with a customizable, scalable full-screen view of apps. • Live tiles with notifications, showing always up-to-date information from your apps. • Fluid, natural switching between running apps. • Convenient ability to snap and resize an app to the side of the screen, so you can really multitask using the capabilities of Windows. • Web-connected and Web-powered apps built using HTML5 and JavaScript that have access to the full power of the PC. • Fully touch-optimized browsing, with all the power of hardware-accelerated Internet Explorer 10.
[Updated at 1:45 p.m. ET] Atlanta will be losing a National Hockey League team for the second time, and Winnipeg, Manitoba, will be gaining one for the second time.
The new owner of the franchise, True North Sports and Entertainment, announced Tuesday that it has acquired the team from its current owners, Atlanta Spirit.
The Thrashers will be the second NHL franchise Atlanta has lost to Canada. The Flames moved to Calgary, Alberta, in 1980. Winnipeg lost its previous NHL team, the Jets, to Phoenix in 1996. The team was renamed the Coyotes in Phoenix.
Weird Science enjoys a pint of Guinness more in Ireland
Topic: Health and Wellness
10:42 am EDT, May 31, 2011
Those pretentious beer snobs may be right: Ever get told that, to really appreciate a Guinness, you have to travel to Ireland? Four researchers took it upon themselves to travel the globe and find out, collecting "data on the enjoyment of Guinness and related factors." The enjoyment of the stout was tested in 71 pubs spread over 14 countries, and the conclusion is that it really is more enjoyable on its home turf, a finding that "remained statistically significant after adjusting for researcher, pub ambience, Guinness appearance, and the sensory measures mouthfeel, flavor, and aftertaste." However, the researchers admit that their study has some limitations, so they're hoping to expand on it a bit.
In "Secret History of the Credit Card," FRONTLINE® and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans fully understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt.
But other consumers, like actor and author Ben Stein, use plastic purely for convenience. While it would appear that Stein -- who says he charges a small fortune every month on his credit cards -- is the ideal customer, in reality, he is what some in the industry call a "deadbeat." That's because he pays his balance in full every month. The industry's most profitable customers, the ones being sought by creative marketing tactics, are the "revolvers:" the estimated 115 million Americans who carry monthly credit card debt.
Ed Yingling, incoming president of the American Bankers Association, tells FRONTLINE that revolvers are "the sweet spot" of the banking industry. This "sweet spot" continues to grow as the average credit card debt among American households has more than doubled over the past decade. Today, the average family owes roughly $8,000 on their credit cards. This debt has helped generate record profits for the credit card industry -- last year, more than $30 billion before taxes.
Some experts say the profitability of credit cards really began twenty-five years ago, when the banking industry successfully eliminated a critical restriction: the limit on the interest rate a lender can charge a borrower. Deregulation, coupled with a revolution in technology that enables the almost real-time tracking of personal financial information and the emergence of nationwide banking, has facilitated the widening availability of credit cards across the economic spectrum. But for some, the cost of credit is often far greater than it appears.
According to Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, the credit card companies are misleading consumers and making up their own rules. "These guys have figured out the best way to compete is to put a smiley face in your commercials, a low introductory rate, and hire a team of MBAs to lay traps in the fine print," Warren tells FRONTLINE.
