Thord D. Hedengren

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Month: October 2014

  • Jennifer Lawrence and revenge porn

    Columnist Violet Blue thinks Jennifer Lawrence is, or perhaps just should be, the new face of revenge porn. From a Playboy column:

    Lawrence can count her lucky stars that ‘the fappening’ went the way it did, compared to the typical victim of online sexual assault. Most women who come to the website Without My Consent, which supports victims of online harassment, don’t have the money or resources to fight their attackers in court, to get the images taken down, or to pay for reputation repair. They lose their jobs, sometimes even custody of their kids. They file complaints with Facebook, only to wait for months for the images to come down. They don’t get special treatment by Google. They’re not contacted by Vanity Fair and given “a chance to get the last word.” Meanwhile, mental health can collapse; more than one young woman has committed suicide after comparable assaults this past year.

    Unless you’ve had the uniquely gut-ravaging, anxiety-provoking experience of watching intimate photos of you passed around and commented on online without your consent, there’s no way to understand what this feels like. But Lawrence can relate to these women on an emotional level. I know a lot of revenge porn victims saw this happen to celebrities and thought, “Finally, it’s happened to someone who can do something about it. Maybe something will change.”

    I’m not sure the correlation of leaking nude photos of celebreties and revenge porn, as in blackmail and we might take down the photos that are ruining your life, really exists, but Violet Blue is no doubt more well versed in these things than my meagre research has made me. Either way, this photo hack is a nasty mess, and anything that can limit such invasion of privacy in the future should be done. Assuming it doesn’t involve limiting our freedom, of course. That might be what many’ll see as the only option, and those are muddy waters we should stay clear of.

  • Outlining methods

    Outlining methods

    I’ve written about outlining before, but I’ve left out how I do my outlining. While the basic premises are the same no matter what, and the whole there are no rules thing still stands, I do have some thoughts to share on the matter.

    For me, outlining is help along the way, something that keeps me focused on the task at hand. It’s the guiding light that makes sure I don’t delve into some dark cave where brain fungus live, forcing me to tell you about the time I found an enchanted ring of cheese, which of course was a metaphor for the Moon High And Bright, and… Yeah. Outlining’s a good idea no matter how you do it.

    (more…)

  • The Magazine shuts down with hardcover anthology

    The Magazine, originally created by Marco Arment but nowadays run by the excellent Glenn Fleishman, is shutting down. It’s no big surprise, iOS magazines are said to be struggling all the time (and I wonder how The Loop Magazine is doing), but a shame nonetheless. The final issue will be out on December 17 this year.

    Glenn explains:

    So we lasted as long as we could while turning a buck so that I could make an increasingly smaller portion of my living from it, while enjoying the heck out of working with so many great writers and publishing stories about so many people and things, historical and present, geeky and sweet, sad and hilarious. It’s been great.

    There’ll be a new hardcover anthology, raising money on Kickstarter, and Glenn says he “may produce some ebooks or special projects” after shutting down the actual magazine.

  • There'll be an Iron Man 4

    This is a pretty funny way to confirm Iron Man 4, don’t you think? Robert Downey Jr yapping about negotiations is an instant classic.

    Given that the movie isn’t on Marvels list of upcoming titles, I’d wager we’ll have to wait until after The Avengers 3 before this hits the theaters. Probably a good idea too, because although I’ve enjoyed all three Iron Man movies, I do think a break from things is a good idea.

    (more…)

  • Apple CarPlay tested

    9to5mac gives CarPlay a spin, through an update if a Pioneer aftermarket dashboard, and the iOS 8.1 beta. It’s not a review as such, but it gives you a nice insight into what to expect, along with some images. It’ll be interesting to see this in action sometime next year on actual embedded systems.

  • Plex released for Xbox One

    Plex is coming to Xbox One, and soon Xbox 360, natively. From the Plex announcement:

    Each of these apps has been crafted to feel right at home on the Xbox, complete with voice and gesture control, and you are going to love them. They’ll be available for free for Plex Pass members on Tuesday Oct 7th for the Xbox One, and shortly after that for the Xbox 360. […] If you don’t have a Plex Pass, you’ll be able to purchase the apps with a one-time fee after the Plex Pass preview period.

    This is great news for Microsoft, because Plex is a great media center alternative, definitely a better option than the built in Windows sharing alternatives. The initial release isn’t complete though, you’ll just get videos for now, but music and photos are around the corner.

    This is something of coming full circle. Plex is a fork of XBMC, another media center alternative, that in turn originally was for the first Xbox. It’s funny how these things go.

  • Benefits of the fitness band

    Benefits of the fitness band

    I’ve been wearing Jawbone’s fitness tracker UP24 for a couple of weeks now, and it’s been an enlightening experience. First of all, this thing is bulky compared to the rock n’ roll bracelets I wear from time to time, but that didn’t stop it from being completely forgotten after a few hours. It’s the design, which not only makes it blend in with whatever clothing you wear, or said bracelets for that matter. The only thing that’d look weird with this thing is a classy watch, but then again you’ve got two wrists, right?

    In all seriousness, I’m impressed by this thing. The UP24 really does blend in, and it’s not as annoying as a lot of jewelry can be. The wavy decoration on the UP24 makes it look a little more exciting, without being extravagant, assuming you didn’t go with one of the garish colors. Which look nice too, I’ll have to add, although I prefer the black one. I’m a bit surprised by the size of this thing though, as in girth, because I’m wearing the large one, and my wrists aren’t exactly thick as logs. My less than slender father tried it on while I visited, and it did fit, but it looked ridiculously strained, clearly not meant for such a wrist. Weird thing that, the sizing, but then again I guess it makes sense to not make fitness bands tailored to larger people as, I’m sure some marketer deduced, they’re less likely to buy a fitness band in the first place. Nevermind that they might be a great target audience for a product such as this.

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  • iOS 8 needs to pick up the pace

    The iOS 8 adoption rate is lagging behind iOS 7. From 9to5mac:

    iOS 8 gained only 1 point from 46% to 47% since September 21st which should have well exceeded 1% gain by the millions of new iPhone 6/Plus shipments alone – even if not one person had updated their iPhone 5/s/c. Even more confusing is that the “Earlier” category of iOS 6 and before devices actually grew in percentage from 5% to 6% over the previous two week period.

    I’m not sure if this is such a big deal just yet. There are a lot of 16 GB phones out there, and they tend to be pretty jampacked with apps, photos, and movies. That makes the iOS 8 update tough to install, since it’s requiring some 6 GB, at least in some cases. Still, if developer feels they can’t rely on iOS 8 growth similar to that of previous versions, then they won’t dare to rely on iOS 8 features exclusively. That’d be a shame, because iOS 8 is an under the hood release and it’s in all our best interest to see it widespread.

  • DRUNK HULK says goodbye, with a book

    The popular Twitter account @DRUNKHULK appears to be shutting down, with a series of less drunk tweets than usual. This one looks sort of definitive, doesn’t it? If you want to relive the phenomenon that is DRUNK HULK, check out Smashed: The Life and Tweets of Drunk Hulk by Christian A. Dumais. A book’s a pretty nice way to wrap up the saga of the intoxicated green giant, isn’t it?

  • Twin Peaks returns

    Twin Peaks’s coming back. I never watched it back in the day, but I guess I’ll have to now.

  • Game Boy Twitter

    I don’t understand much of this page, mostly the pictures really, but the important thing is that there’s a Twitter client for Game Boy Color. One of the better ways to start a new week, wouldn’t you agree? Too bad it turned out to be an April Fools hoax… Thanks @pontushellgren.

  • Shello searches Ello

    Trying to find the right people to follow on Ello, and you’re already following me? Don’t worry, Shello not only lets you search Ello, it also has a list of featured users.

    Now, if you really don’t want to use Shello, you can always search Ello in your favorite search engine, by typing site:ello.co your-search-query. It’s that simple.

  • Megadeth, Arizona

    From the story behind Megadeth, Arizona, pioneering promotional website some 20 years ago:

    So even though no one had a clue what I was talking about, I wrote a proposal to create a “virtual cybertown in cyberspace.” It would be called Megadeth, Arizona—based on where the band lived and recorded their album.

    My boss, Lou Mann, the Senior Vice President of the label, actually signed off on the proposal and gave me a whopping $30 grand.

    He had no idea what it was for, and I can guarantee you… neither did I.

    Great read.

  • Fitbit obsession

    David Sedaris, writing about Fitbit obsession and picking up litter, among other things, for the New Yorker:

    I was travelling myself when I got my Fitbit, and because the tingle feels so good, not just as a sensation but also as a mark of accomplishment, I began pacing the airport rather than doing what I normally do, which is sit in the waiting area, wondering which of the many people around me will die first, and of what. I also started taking the stairs instead of the escalator, and avoiding the moving sidewalk.

    I enjoyed this piece, partly because I’ve had an UP24 strapped to my wrist for a couple of weeks. While I’m not as enthralled in the step chasing game as mr. Sedaris, I’ve found other things to reflect over after these weeks. That’s for an essay to come though, for now, be sure to read Sedaris’s piece Stepping Out, it’s a good read.

  • The best startups are side projects

    Paul Graham writes about startups:

    This is not only possible, it’s how Apple, Yahoo, Google, and Facebook all got started. None of these companies were even meant to be companies at first. They were all just side projects. The best startups almost have to start as side projects, because great ideas tend to be such outliers that your conscious mind would reject them as ideas for companies.

    We embrace this at Odd Alice by rolling our own internal incubator-thingy, called satellite programs. I think it’s a good idea. The first graduate, Tech Troopers, is an anomaly though since there are outside founders, but BlankPage is built under these principles.