Thord D. Hedengren

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Month: October 2015

  • Disney prosthetics

    Disney is backing a startup that offers 3D printed prosthetic for children at the very reasonable price of $500. Iron Man, Elsa from Frozen, and a Star Wars themed one is up for grabs. Engadget writes:

    Open Bionics is part of the 2015 Disney Accelerator programme, which explains its choice of characters. Still, the ‘House of Mouse’ has been gracious enough to provide royalty free licenses, as well as time and input from its creative teams. The three versions are fitted with LED lights and, in the case of the Iron Man model, a vibration motor for when the user wants to fire a “rocket.”

    Sure, the startup is part of a Disney project, but it’s still pretty darn great for kids. Prosthetic limbs are usually very expensive.

  • Medium opening up custom domains for all

    More Medium, this time concerning the custom domains:

    Starting today, we are fast-forwarding this migration by opening up custom domains to everyone and making it quick and painless to transfer.

    Custom domains are for publications on Medium, not user profiles. This is a bit like Tumblr, and it’s a lot better than using your publication’s Medium URL. I still recommend hosting your own content, but – again, much like Tumblr, and WordPress.com – this is the second best thing.

  • Medium introduce Publishing API

    Medium’s Katie Zhu:

    With our Publishing API, you can now share your story on Medium from anywhere. It’s easier than ever to plug into our network and build your audience here. There are so many amazing stories, ideas, and perspectives shared here every day, and we want to make reading on Medium even better, with more avenues for content creators of all shapes and sizes.

    I still think you should own your primary publishing space, but I must admit it’s heartening to see that Medium themselves built a WordPress plugin for cross-posting. Not that I believe that’s a great idea to begin with, but it might have its place somewhere.

  • October is Outline Month

    October is Outline Month

    How time flies, it’s already a week into October. Where did summer go? Who stole the warm evening sun? Why is the lake freezing cold? And who is that naked man-beast screaming obscenities in my garden?

    Chances are he’s an aspiring writer, freaking out over November. Yes, that’s right, he’s chill about October, but November, that badass month of every bloody thing you have to get done before December rolls in, fat and giddy – yes, November, it scares the living shits out of him.

    (more…)

  • Klickmonster satsar på engelska

    Klickmonster blir Smashdig och publicerar härmed på både svenska och engelska. Utannonseringsposten är full av PR-snack, vilket inte behöver betyda att satsningen är fel.

    – Genom att skriva på såväl svenska som engelska hamnar vi i en unik position då vi som första svenska branschsajt ger svenska mediesatsningar en internationell publik, säger Adam Jönsson, redaktör på Smashdig.com.

    Och:

    – Vi lever i en gränslös medievärld och Smashdig ska vara en dörröppnare för en internationell publik att på nära håll ta del av den kunskap, människor och innovationskraft som utvecklar den svenska mediebranschen, säger Daniel Bacelj, grundare och ansvarig utgivare av Smashdig.

    Jag förhåller mig skeptisk. Klickmonster var (är?) en frisk fläkt, det behövs något annat än Dagens Media och Resumé, men om Smashdig och engelska är lösningen återstår att se. Med det sagt, satsningar är alltid kul, så lycka till på resan!

  • Android Auto wants too much for Porsche

    Porsche picks Apple CarPlay over Google’s Android alternative, for not so surprising reasons. The Verge:

    The publication says that Android Auto tracks variables including vehicle speed, throttle position, fluid temperatures, and engine revs, information that is collated and then sent back to Google. Apple’s CarPlay, on the other hand, only checks with the car’s powertrain control module to ensure that the vehicle is moving. Porsche was apparently unwilling to enter a deal that would send reams of information back to Google — partly, Motor Trend says, because the manufacturer thinks those details make its high-end autos special, and partly because Google itself is in the midst of building its own car.

  • Hollywood Vampires

    Alice Cooper’s latest project is a cover supergroup featuring Joe Perry, Johnny Depp, Duff McKagan, Matt Sorum, and more. They call themselves Hollywood Vampires and if you like rock you should listen to their self-titled album. Anyway, there are obviously a lot of stories, mostly focusing on Cooper’s past with the original Vampires, but this one from Rolling Stone feels more sincere.

    Depp and Cooper met on the set of Depp’s 2012 film Dark Shadows. Hollywood Vampires started with the idea of recording a covers album, giving them an excuse to fool around in the actor’s well-appointed studio (“He has the best guitar collection I’ve seen,” says Perry). The band took its name from a 1970s L.A. drinking collective that included Cooper, Keith Moon, Harry Nilsson and guest stars like John Lennon and Ringo Starr. Eventually, the new Hollywood Vampires cut an album, with a number of tracks paying tribute to rock greats who drank or drugged themselves to death — Moon, John Bonham, Jim Morrison — some of whom were friends of Cooper. (Cooper himself quit drinking in the 1980s after his doctor told him he could either stop or join his friends in the hereafter.)

  • Patreon security breach

    Patreon has had unwanted visitors:

    There was unauthorized access to registered names, email addresses, posts, and some shipping addresses. Additionally, some billing addresses that were added prior to 2014 were also accessed. We do not store full credit card numbers on our servers and no credit card numbers were compromised. Although accessed, all passwords, social security numbers and tax form information remain safely encrypted with a 2048-bit RSA key. No specific action is required of our users, but as a precaution I recommend that all users update their passwords on Patreon.

    Update your password if you use Patreon.