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smartphones. appphones. and now "superphones"? How about uberphones! :)
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05Jan
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05Jansmartphones. appphones. and now "superphones"? How about uberphones! :)
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05Jan
If you’re in trouble with the law, fleeing to Canada is making a pretty good go of it. But now one criminal has learned the hard way that if you’re going to leave your real world behind to escape prosecution, you’d better leave your virtual world behind, too.At the tail end of a two-year manhunt, an Indiana sheriff’s deputy started thinking outside the box, and managed to pinpoint the fugitive’s virtual whereabouts – inside World of Warcraft, which the man was still playing. The deputy sent a subpoena to Blizzard, who responded without hesitation – sending all of his account information, including his IP and billing address. Oh, and his character – a level 80 shaman, I guess in case the deputy wanted to try to take him out via PVP first.
Thanks to Google Earth, they were able to zero in on the IP address and take the fugitive into custody, which was apparently the first time the sheriff had ever tracked someone down in Canada. I’m guessing they don’t let you play WoW in jail.
Of course, the most amusing part of this story to me is that the only reason the deputy knew where to look for the man was that he played WoW himself and guessed it as the fugitive’s virtual vice from vague descriptions of an online game. I wonder if he’s a paladin?
[Via Sphere]
Related posts:
- Virtual World gets tough on law & order
- World of Warcraft: 1; Moderation: 0
- World of Warcraft hits 9M players
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05JanIf you’re in trouble with the law, fleeing to Canada is making a pretty good go of it. But now one criminal has learned the hard way that if you’re going to leave your real world behind to escape prosecution, you’d better leave your virtual world behind, too.
At the tail end of a two-year manhunt, an Indiana sheriff’s deputy started thinking outside the box, and managed to pinpoint the fugitive’s virtual whereabouts – inside World of Warcraft, which the man was still playing. The deputy sent a subpoena to Blizzard, who responded without hesitation – sending all of his account information, including his IP and billing address. Oh, and his character – a level 80 shaman, I guess in case the deputy wanted to try to take him out via PVP first.
Thanks to Google Earth, they were able to zero in on the IP address and take the fugitive into custody, which was apparently the first time the sheriff had ever tracked someone down in Canada. I’m guessing they don’t let you play WoW in jail.
Of course, the most amusing part of this story to me is that the only reason the deputy knew where to look for the man was that he played WoW himself and guessed it as the fugitive’s virtual vice from vague descriptions of an online game. I wonder if he’s a paladin?
[Via Sphere]
Related posts:
- Virtual World gets tough on law & order
- World of Warcraft: 1; Moderation: 0
- World of Warcraft hits 9M players
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05Jan
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05Jan
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05Jan
Upperx is a set of 100+ free grunge textures with a nice little story.
They are photographed from the old, oxidized, metallic & graffiti-painted doors at Barcelona's Poblenou, an old industrial neighborhood now in full transformation.
All images are in .JPG format, 850*637px size & 72 PPI resolution.
Special Downloads:
Ajaxed Add-To-Basket Scenarios With jQuery And PHP
Free Admin Template For Web Applications
jQuery Dynamic Drag’n Drop
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Tags: Graffiti, Grunge, JPG
SSLmatic – Cheap SSL Certificates (from $19.99/year)
Follow WebResourcesDepot At Twitter And Get More Resources!
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05Jan
This amazing video was first illustrated, frame by frame, with a technical pen, and then animated, flip-book style, by vimeo user Saggyarmpit. Check it out:
[Via CrunchGear]
Related posts:
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05Jan
With only two days down, it’s already been a great week to be a space geek. First up? Moon news. You might have missed over the weekend, but scientists have discovered a “lunar hole” that experts are saying may make an ideal home for future moon colonists. Yes, you read that right. According to researchers, the hole is approximately 213 feet wide and 260 feet deep, and is technically a lava tube which the article defines as “cylinder-shaped caverns… carved out by lava flows, volcanic eruptions, seismic activity or ground collapse resulting from meteoroid strikes”.
What’s particularly interesting about these lava tubes is that they’re covered by a thin layer of lava, which could help protect colonists and researchers inside from the harsh conditions on the moon. This is particularly good news for NASA who, according to CNN, plans to return to the moon in 2020 with its sights on establishing a moon colony in 2025. (Or… perhaps send Sam Rockwell up there.)
Additionally, the Kepler space telescope has also made some intriguing discoveries: namely five planets of varying size. Kepler’s range is about 3,000 light-years from earth, and these planets—most of which are larger than our Jupiter—are likely to be the first among many discovered by the telescope. Their temperatures might not be exactly comfortable, some higher than 2,240 degrees Farenheit. But in spite of the hostile environment, the Kepler team is optimistic about discovering planets in what’s called the “hospitable zone”—that is, planets capable of supporting life, like our Earth.
To add to the space exploration excitement is the fact that, in our nearby Milky Way, scientists believe that of the stars studied so far, only about a third are more active than our sun, releasing more solar blasts. Astronomer Caty Pilachowski says that that fact is “is good news for exobiology (alien life) and good news for planet detection. Kepler is going to find a lot of planets.”
Kepler has also discovered two well, somethings. According to the USA Today article:
Meanwhile, Kepler has also found two mystery objects that are too hot to be planets and too small to be stars.
Kepler discovered the two new heavenly bodies each circling its own star. Borucki says the objects are thousands of degrees hotter than the stars they circle. That means they probably are not planets. They are bigger and hotter than planets in our solar system, including dwarf planets.
Ah, just your average week in space gazing. Really gets the sci-fi geek in me all a thither!
Related posts:
- The Moon in the News: Surgery, Water, and Colonization
- Using your computer to process signals from outer-space
- We Choose the Moon
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05Jan
First, let’s get one thing out of the way. A blog alone, no matter how popular, isn’t enough to score you a book contract. It’s not quite that simple.
In other words, it doesn’t quite work the way it does on television.
“Did you hear that Random House gave me a million dollars for a book based on my blog?” chirps the hipster starlet as she emerges from a crowded Starbucks, caramel macchiato in hand. “And we’re working on the movie rights. Hey, let’s go for a ride in my Jag.”
But you already knew that real life is more complicated than a sit-com. So let’s talk about the critical role a blog does play in securing a book deal.
Here’s how it went down for me.
A book deal is made up of several moving parts
First, any successful book proposal needs a credible, straight-line, value-promising connection to a hungry target audience.
In other words, exactly the same kind of well-defined niche expertise that makes most blogs work.
Remember our sit-com blogger with the book deal? She got there because she’s oh-so-witty and wise. Think Carrie Bradshaw.
That’s not the real world. Unless your book is about collecting Manolo Blahniks, real-life book deals are about having something valuable to offer a reader, not how fabulous you are.
And because of that, you don’t need huge numbers to make it happen. What you do need is cachet within the niche you’ve defined.
Before my own deal, I’d assumed I would need a subscriber base big enough to fill the Rose Bowl. Why else would a publisher be interested?
And sure, a massive Feedburner number helps.
But in my case, my subscriber base today would fill the conference room at your average Marriott. Not that I’m complaining — after only six months it’s growing just fine, thanks.
But it does illuminate the point: Raw numbers aren’t as important as making a solid connection with a well-defined audience around a valuable niche topic.
My own blog-to-book deal
Before my site launched I was just a crusty old copywriter and a mid-list novelist who had almost, but not quite, hit it big. Not John Grisham big, more like Kyle Mills or Lisa Jackson kind of big.
There are lots of us in that category. Fiction has more near-misses than an American Idol audition.
Lucky for me, though, hardly any of those writers are blogging about it.
While teaching writing on the workshop circuit, I developed a proprietary story development model called The Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling.
My blog is about that well-defined niche, within the larger topic of writing. And without that angle, no matter how popular a blog I might build, there would be no book deal.
One quickly notices that my book deal isn’t about my brand as a fiction writer, which frankly has seen better days. It’s not even about my journey as a writing instructor.
It’s about my story development model. My niche expertise.
Neither my blog nor my forthcoming book are about me. Never have been. They’re about you, the writer with a dream.
In other words, people don’t come to my site (and they won’t read my book) because of my novels. They come because of their novels.
A platform is essential
Today, you need an “author platform” to successfully pitch a book to a publisher.
What’s an author platform? It’s how you’ll be doing the promotion for your book. Nine times out of ten, it means your blog.
No blog, no deal, unless you’ve got another great way to get the word out about your book. (For example, you’re a celebrity or a popular speaker.)
That wasn’t the case as little as two or three years ago.
These days, you don’t just pitch a detailed idea for a book. You also pitch the audience that’s going to buy that book. Not only does your platform provide a built-in group of buyers, it also shows the publisher that your ideas resonate with the audience you’ve defined.
The formula for a successful blog-to-book deal
Solid author platform plus unique value proposition equals marketable book. The formula is really that simple.
If both are in place, you don’t need to be a famous blogger with big numbers to score a book contract.
You just need to write a killer proposal, with a well-defined niche topic focusing on your audience, fortified by a successful author platform in the form of a growing blog.
This formula might not get a book publisher to throw sit-com dollars at you. But it gives you a much better chance than even the most fabulous designer wardrobe.
About the Author: Larry Brooks is the creator of Storyfix.com, an instructional resource for novelists and screenwriters. His book, The Six Core Competencies of Successful Storytelling, will be published by Writers Digest Books in early 2011.
