Plus life as a Glasshole, Facebook's Pages problem, getting started slowly on Windows, and more
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| A Bangkok traffic jam: the next big sales point for mobile OSs? Photograph: Getty Images/Flickr RF |
The Console Living Room >> Internet Archive
The home console market is credited with slowly shifting attention from the arcade craze of the early 1980s and causing arcades to shrink in popularity, leaving a small percentage of what once were many.Free games. Don't say we don't do anything for you. Choose from the Atari 2600, 7800, ColecoVision, Magnavox Odyssey, or Astrocade.
Through use of the JSMESS emulator system, which allows direct access to these programs in your browser with no additional plugins or settings, these games can be enjoyed again. Simply click on the screenshot or "Emulate This" button for each individual cartridge, and on modern browsers the games will just start to run. As nostalgia, a teaching tool, or just plain fun, you'll find hundreds of the games that started a billion-dollar industry.
These games are best enjoyed in an up to date version of a modern browser. Currently, there is no sound in the games, although that feature will be added soon. Please read carefully regarding key mappings of the games and programs, to use them in your browser.
Google, Apple forge auto ties >> WSJ.com
Apple and Google already compete fiercely in an array of digital businesses, ranging from smartphones and tablet computers to mobile apps and Web browsers. With 80 million new cars and light trucks sold each year, automobiles represent a significant new opportunity for Internet-based software and services.
"The car is becoming the ultimate mobile device," said Thilo Koslowski, an analyst at the research firm Gartner who specializes in advanced in-car electronics. "Apple and Google see that and are trying to line up allies to bring their technology into the vehicle."
The annual event known as CES has in recent years become an important showcase for advances in automotive electronics, including the kind of autonomous driving technologies that Google has helped pioneer.
Scholarship, Integrity and Going Viral >> UCL Social Networking Sites & Social Science Research Project UCL UCL Social Networking Sites & Social Science Research Project
Daniel Miller (who carried out the "teens not using Facebook so much" study):Was this big news?
Well not really, the very reputable Pew Research Centre in the US had published a report called 'Teens Haven't Abandoned Facebook (Yet)' on 15/08/2013. So I was not the first to note these trends. However, while Pew found that in the US Facebook still takes the bulk of teens' attention, I observed that in The Glades it was now relegated behind its rivals and used for family much more than for peer communication. That is why I could say with confidence that with respect to coolness Facebook is 'dead and buried' for these teens. But then their survey ended in Sept 2012. By 5/11/13 Pew had published '5 sites teens flock to instead of Facebook'.
I don't think anyone reading my original blog post would be misinformed. I don't ever suggest that Facebook is doomed. I state clearly that Facebook is expanding in other field-sites and age groups and that these same teens retain Facebook for family purposes. My data overwhelmingly made the case for this loss of cool.
Schemer to be discontinued >> Google Operating System
According to an internal version of the site, Schemer will be discontinued. "Schemer is being shut down soon. Sign in to get your data before it's gone," mentions the site. "We had launched over a year ago to help people to do more awesome stuff, and it has been quite an adventure for us as well! However, we have come to the difficult decision to shut down Schemer." It's not clear when it will be discontinued.Launched around 760 days ago. As a reminder, typically Google services that are killed off survive about 1770 days. Those which are killed survive 1452 days (on average; SD = 766).
I, Glasshole: my year with Google Glass >> Wired.com
Mat Honan wore an Explorer set in all sorts of situations, for months, and concludes:Glass, and the other things like it, won't always be ugly and awkward. At some point, it's going to be invisibly indistinguishable from a pair of glasses or sunglasses. Meanwhile, Google is going to continue getting better and better at figuring out what to send you, based on where you are and when you're there, and what you've done in the past. Third-party developers will create amazing new apps, things we haven't thought of. Its form will encourage new functions, new ideas, new realities.
And here's the thing I am utterly convinced of: Google Glass and its ilk are coming. They are racing toward us, ready to change society, again. You can make fun of Glass, and the assholes (like me) who wear it. But here's what I know: The future is on its way, and it is going to be on your face. We need to think about it and be ready for it in a way we weren't with smartphones.
Facebook Pages: No one is talking about you! >> being practical
"PJ":So why is [Facebook Pages] a dead product? If a Facebook page (as a product) that has over a million users connected to it, but generates only 2% engagement and possibly even less viral factor is as good as dead. As a transaction product (like ecommerce) the conversions from Facebook Page will be further down since your posts reach a smaller percentage of 'your Facebook audience'.Problem for Facebook and its users.. such as...
Going forward if the audience that you are building through Facebook Page is never going to engage with your posts, it might be a better option for advertisers to consider simply running CPC advertisements to target the necessary demographic, take users to their website and engage them there (back to pre-social media days of Facebook).
The woes of Facebook - where else to follow me >> The Culinary Life
Stephanie Stiavetti:I have 8,000 followers [of her page on Facebook]. Over the past few months my engagement has slowed to less than a trickle – a tiny fraction of what it was at the beginning of the year. Now, when I post to my Facebook page for The Culinary Life, only 100 people see those posts (on average). That is about .01% of my followers. Facebook then tries to charge me $20 so that you can see my content. Given that I don't make any money from the stories and photos I post – please note there are not any ads on my site – paying hundreds of dollars a month to access you, the fans who willingly liked my page, is just not possible.
Something Microsoft has never fixed: why Windows is slow to start up >> Gadget Writing
Tim Anderson:You can speed up Windows startup by going through case by case and disabling startup items that you do not need. Here is a useful guide. It is an unsatisfactory business though. Users have no easy way to judge whether or not a specific app is doing an important or useful task. You might break something. When you next update the application, the startup app may reappear. It is a mess.Ironically, many of the problems are fixed in Windows RT - the one with the Damoclean sword hanging over it.
Microsoft should have addressed this problem aggressively, years ago. It did put great effort into making Windows boot faster, but never focussed on the harder task of bringing third-parties into line.
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