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Released in 1998 by Tiger Electronics, more than 40 million Furbies were sold in its first three years of life. What made this bizarre animatronic toy so damn popular? At IEEE Spectrum, Allison Marsh looks at the engineering behind this pioneering social robot:The Furby’s source code was written by David Hampton and Wayne Schulz to run on a variation of the 6502 microprocessor, the 8-bit chip that powered the Apple II, Commodore 64, and BBC Micro. The source code is well documented, making it easy to follow regardless of your knowledge of assembly. After a computer programmer posted the source code online last August, one commenter on Hacker News praised it for being “surprisingly sophisticated.”But reading lines of code doesn’t equal the lived experience. In Hampton and Schulz’s comments on how the Furby’s voice pitch was controlled, for instance, they noted that the maximum range was “very squeeeeeke....”Fresh out of the box, a Furby speaks its native tongue of Furbish, an invented language that incorporates aspects of Thai, Mandarin, and Hebrew. It might say “Dah-ay-loh u-tye,” when it wakes up, which literally translates as “big light up,” but it is simply saying good morning. The vocabulary of the early Furbys included 42 words. Over time, as children played with their toy, its language ability seemingly evolved. In time, the Furby might start speaking English or 23 other languages, but this function was preprogrammed."Coded for Cuteness: How the Furby Conquered Hearts and Minds"Photo: Mark Richards/Computer History Museum Read the rest

This is only missing Max, the Bionic dog. Read the rest

The Washington Post reports that without legislation to continue a pay-cap it appears senior Trump officials including Vice-President Pence will receive pay raises.The raises appear to be an intended consequence of the shutdown: When lawmakers failed to pass bills on Dec. 21 to fund multiple federal agencies, they allowed an existing pay freeze to lapse. Congress enacted a law capping pay for top federal executives in 2013 and renewed it each year. The raises will occur because that cap will expire without legislative action by Saturday, allowing raises that have accumulated over those years but never took effect to kick in, starting with paychecks that will be issued next week.Cabinet secretaries, for example, would be entitled to a jump in annual salary from $199,700 to $210,700. Deputy secretaries would be entitled to a raise from $179,700 to $189,600. Others affected are under secretaries, deputy directors and other top administrators.The pay of Pence is scheduled to rise from $230,700 to $243,500.There was no immediate comment Friday by the White House. A spokesperson for Pence also did not immediately provide comment. Read the rest

A gentleman in Charlotte, North Carolina tried to push a woman into his car, but she got away and ran into a nearby karate studio. The would-be kidnapper chased her inside the dojo, and that's where he met his match. Or, rather, got his ass kicked.The head sensei, Randall Ephraim, said he was cleaning up at 9pm Thursday night when a woman rushed in, begging for help.He told CNN: "There were still some kids in the dojo being picked up by parents and a couple of adult students cleaning up when a young lady came through our doors and stated that someone was trying to harm her. Shortly afterward, a big male entered the building. Not knowing what he wanted, I assumed he was inquiring about classes. I asked how I could assist him and he stated that he was there for the lady. She insisted that she did not know him and tried to kidnap her."That's when Sensei Ephraim asked the man to leave. When the man became more aggressive, Ephraim did what head senseis do best – he made some moves and got the guy outside. "Once outside he attempted to attack again and was dealt with accordingly," Ephraim told CNN.The man was arrested and taken away on a stretcher to a hospital for injuries. View this post on Instagram #bushikenwarriors #thanksgivingclapback 2018A post shared by Sensei (@ephraimdojo_charlottenc) on Nov 24, 2018 at 10:39am PST Image: by Jjskarate. - Own work; Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.., CC BY-SA 3.0, Link Read the rest

I bought a six=pack of Gildan crew T-shirts to replace my ratty old ones. They're very inexpensive and comfortable. They're on sale right now, so I bought another six-pack of whites and a six-pack of blacks. Read the rest

The unrepeatability of the Fleischmann–Pons experiment in the 1980s soured the world on cold fusion as a possible energy source for decades, but recent fusion reactor breakthroughs seem to indicate that the world will soon have an abundant supply of cheap, clean energy.From Brian Bergstein's article on Medium Science:An Italian oil company and private investors — including a firm funded by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos — put at least $75 million into the company, known as Commonwealth Fusion Systems [CFS]. The startup intends to demonstrate the workings of fusion power by 2025.Real, live, economically viable power plants could then follow in the 2030s. No joke. When I ask Whyte, who is 54, to compare his level of optimism now to any other point in his career, he says, simply: “It is at the maximum.”But it’s not just MIT. At least 10 other startups also are trying new approaches to fusion power. All of them contend that it’s no longer a tantalizingly tricky science experiment, and is becoming a matter of engineering. If even just one of these ventures can pull it off, the energy source of the future is closer than it seems.“It’s remarkable,” says David Kingham, executive vice chairman of Tokamak Energy, a British company whose goal is to put fusion power on the grid by 2030. “The world has been waiting for fusion for a long time.”Image: By Robert Mumgaard - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, Link Read the rest

Neil Green made a useful chart of the 42 types of difficult people you are likely to encounter on a software development team. Each type is represented by an animal, and by clicking on the animal you can learn more about that type of person and how to deal with them. The Professor: A Designer so committed to the science and theory of user interface design, that they ignore the UI requirements coming from the stakeholders.The Hostage Taker: A Developer who has written a piece of mission-critical software, and refuses to let any other developer work on it so that they may remain indispensable.The Alarmist: A QA who has declared that the entire product is of an unacceptable level of quality based only on their first impressions.I think you can find many of these people on projects that don't involve software.[via Evil Mad Scientist] Read the rest

A graph from Credit Suisse/Forbes reveals that 0.7% of people on the planet own 46% of the world's wealth. That tiny percentage controls $128.7 trillion and they've done a good job convincing the 70% who own less than $10,000 that rich people deserve tax cuts.[via Visual Capitalist] Read the rest

Italian knife dealer Giacomo Giovannitti shows his skills using a Japanese chef's knife to cut transparent slices of tomatoes, potatoes, zucchini, cucumbers, apples, and radishes.Image: YouTube Read the rest

Forbes publishes 300 stories a day, and is developing AI software that writes first drafts of articles. From Digiday:With Bertie, a contributor who writes regularly about the automobile industry might open up the tool to find the makings of an article about Tesla, complete with links to relevant, related articles published both on Forbes and elsewhere. The tool will surface images that might improve the story as well....Bertie adds Forbes to the list of publishers using artificial intelligence products to help drive editorial output. The Washington Post’s Heliograf tool, which generates short stories based on structured data about things like election results or Olympics events, has generated thousands of stories since it was introduced two years ago; Reuters’ Lynx Insights tool has been helping the business publisher crank out stories since March 2018, and the Associated Press is years into using AI to write stories on topics including company earnings and minor league sports.Hopefully Forbes will also develop AI to read these stories and click on the tooth implant adverts that accompany them. Read the rest

St. Petersburg, Florida. Facebook user TJ Biandudi posted a video he says was filmed by his mother and sister when they patronized a McDonald’s in St. Petersburg, Fla., on Monday. The footage shows a white man, whom the St. Petersburg Police Department identified as 40-year-old Daniel Willis Taylor, allegedly upset because he wanted a straw, grabbing a young black woman named Yasmine James, yanking her over the counter that separated the two, according to the police report obtained by The Root.If you want an idea of how these men think, note that the attacker thinks that she is going to get arrested: “I couldn’t control you,” he says. He was charged on two counts of battery, having also lashed out at another worker while leaving the restaurant. Read the rest

The threats to established networks are coming from all directions these days, which means any big company that can't invest in security isn't going stay that way long. Know a thing or two about covert code? Looking to put those skills to good use - both ethically and financially? The 2019 Ethical Hacker Master Class Bundle is a comprehensive course in cybersecurity.With over 180 hours of instruction and resources, this is a training program geared to get you on the staff of any network's defensive team. You'll get all you need for certification in CompTIA's A+ and Network+ programs, but the bundle goes beyond those IT infrastructure basics. You'll learn to analyze security threats both long and short-term, and if hackers do get in, you'll have the cyber-sleuthing tools you need to determine the source of the threat. From the attack and defense possibilities of Python to carrying out "white hat" test hacks, you'll be armed for the front lines of cyber-warfare in no time.The 2019 Ethical Hacker Master Class Bundle is now available for $39, a deep discount off the cost of the individual courses. Read the rest

I regret to inform you that Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk is back on his inappropriate for a CEO tweets again.The two weird tweets were sandwiched between two other seemingly normal tweets about favorable coverage of Tesla, the electric car maker under earnings scrutiny in the new year.Why.Why, Elon.Here's what Elon's Thursday afternoon on Twitter looked like.• 2:31 PM - 3 Jan 2019: “Model 3 mid-range EPA rating is actually 264 miles, slightly higher than prior estimate of 260.”• 3:04 PM - 3 Jan 2019: “There are no coincidences.” Attached, a conspiracy meme about Neil Armstrong and aliens.• 3:06 PM - 3 Jan 2019: “Evian, the first bottled water, is naive spelled backwards.”• 3:23 PM - 3 Jan 2019: This day-old Forbes article, titled “Tesla Is Now America's Number One Premium Automotive Company, Outsells BMW, Lexus In Q4.”DO NOT BLAME WEED FOR ELON. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.— Xeni Jardin (@xeni) January 4, 2019 Read the rest

Is 911 service down in your area? Got a complaint about your mobile provider? Just invented a new iphone-killer, and need safety approval before your product goes to market? Well, too bad, you'll have to wait. The Federal Communications Commission just went dark. All but the agency's most essential operations abruptly halted late Thursday because of Trump's government shutdown.Also today, Ajit Pai canceled his trip to CES, as Politico first reported. This will be the second year in a row FCC Chairman Pai hasn't appeared at the annual electronics event in Las Vegas.FCC posted advance warning about the pending closure. Most of the agency's activities will stop, and most staff furloughed, a notice on FCC.gov Wednesday explained.Also shut down for now: The FCC's review of that T-Mobile/Sprint merger, device testing (this affects startups and tech companies developing new tech gadgets), and FCC enforcement of consumer protection law. Consumer complaint/safety lines will also be down. From Wired's recap:The FCC will continue to auction off rights to use the wireless spectrum during the shutdown because those auctions are funded by the auctions themselves. That's good news for carriers eager to license new chunks of spectrum for 5G. But, depending on how long the shutdown lasts, mergers could be significantly delayed.A few extra days off won't meaningfully delay the agency's major decisions, says former FCC lawyer Gigi Sohn. But if the shutdown stretches into weeks, it will likely disrupt much of the agency’s work. FCC staff won't be allowed to read email or take meetings unless they're related to continuing activities like spectrum auctions, so staff will have a lot of catching up to do when they return to work. Read the rest

The censorship industry in China is big business.“My office is next to the big training room,” Mr. Yang said. “I often hear the surprised sounds of ‘Ah, ah, ah.’” China's censorship machine is so well oiled that young censors have to be taught what they were missing.This incredible New York Times feature by reporter Li Yuan offers an intimate peek inside a Chinese censorship factory, and shows how they train their young human censors -- and how technology supports their work.Snip:China has built the world’s most extensive and sophisticated online censorship system. It grew even stronger under President Xi Jinping, who wants the internet to play a greater role in strengthening the Communist Party’s hold on society. More content is considered sensitive. Punishments are getting more severe.Once circumspect about its controls, China now preaches a vision of a government-supervised internet that has surprising resonance in other countries. Even traditional bastions of free expression like Western Europe and the United States are considering their own digital limits. Platforms like Facebook and YouTube have said that they would hire thousands more people to better keep a handle on their content.Workers like Mr. Li show the extremes of that approach — one that controls what more than 800 million internet users in China see every day. Beyondsoft employs over 4,000 workers like Mr. Li at its content reviewing factories. That is up from about 200 in 2016. They review and censor content day and night.“We’re the Foxconn in the data industry,” said Mr. Read the rest

On Saturday night, Casper the Friendly Ghost attempted to rob a Ramada Inn in Wayne, New Jersey. According to police, the ghost jumped over the reception desk, pried open the cash drawer, and ran off with the dough. Eventually though, police determined that the ghost was not actually Casper, and not even a real specter, but rather a 59-year-old gentleman named Joseph Elder who was a guest staying at the hotel. ""... [Elder] attempted to conceal his identity with a Casper the ghost style bed sheet with holes cut out," the police said.(NBC New York) Read the rest

Directing airplanes to their gates could be a monotonous job, but not for this marshall at the Toronto Airport, who simultaneously motions to the taxiing plane while busting out the moves. Similar to sign spinners who have mastered their craft with elaborate spins and twirls, this marshall is definitely having fun with his job – as well as the giggling passengers who are watching the show. Read the rest

When on a picnic, I've been known to toss an apple core or banana peel into the woods. Turns out, even "organic litter" is a bad idea. From Mother Nature Network:...An apple core can take two months to decompose and a banana peel can take up to two years, by some reports. Although that's a mere blip compared to the estimated decomposition time for plastics — 20 years for a plastic bag, 200 years for a straw or 450 years for a plastic bottle — it's not like these food items will disintegrate quickly.After watching hikers toss a sandwich on a trail, Marjorie "Slim" Woodruff, who hikes and works in the Grand Canyon, set up a small experiment. She put an apple core, a banana peel, orange peels, chewing gum and tissue paper in a cage of chicken wire, wide enough to allow small animals to go in and out. After six months, the orange peels had dried out, the banana peel had turned black, the chewing gum was the same and the tissue had become a blob. Nothing had been eaten or had rotted.She buried the same items in sand and soil and six months later everything was still recognizable.Also, if animals do munch on your edible trash, that can interfere with their own natural foraging while also attracting them to potentially dangerous areas frequented by humans. Read the rest

Last week, private equity investor and adventurer Victor Vescovo became the first person to touch the deepest spot in the Atlantic Ocean, 27,480 feet down to the floor of the Puerto Rico Trench, in his custom $35 million Triton submersible, named the Limiting Factor. From Smithsonian:Vescovo has previously trekked to both the North and South Poles and climbed the highest mountain on each continent, including Mount Everest, a combo known as the “Explorer’s Grand Slam.” But that club is—relatively speaking—a little crowded, with more than 60 people having completed the feat. That’s one reason Vescovo decided to take to the water. The Puerto Rico Trench dive is the first leg of his latest challenge: to reach the lowest spot in each of the world's five oceans. He’s dubbed the feat, inaccessible to anyone without millions of dollars of resources, the “Five Deeps Expedition...."Through one lens, the trip can be seen as a vanity project for a rich explorer. However, as Ann Vanreusel, head of the research group Marine Biology of Ghent University, tells Erik Stokstad at Science, whatever the motive behind the expedition, it has true scientific value. “[T]here is not any funding agency that would be willing to spend so much money to visit all those areas,” she says.Indeed, Five Deeps is poised to produce some of the most accurate maps ever of the ocean’s deepest spots and unseen habitats and creatures, aided by the fact that Alan Jamieson, a marine ecologist at Newcastle University and one of the world’s leading experts on the ocean’s depths, is the science leader of the expedition. Read the rest

There is no better way to teach kids the improtance of saving than by having them stick fake $100 bills into a piggy bank. Read the rest

Wow, never saw that one coming. The print your own guns proponent is a creep.In Texas, '3D gun' guy Cody Wilson has been indicted on multiple counts of sexual assault against a minor.Wilson rose to national attention as a self-styled advocate of 3D-printed guns, with the entities "Ghost Gunner Inc" and "Defense Distributed." He faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, plus fines.The charges involve a female "child younger than 17 years of age" whom he is said to have solicited through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com.From reporting by Nathan Matisse at Ars Technica, who has been following the case in Austin, Texas:More than three months have passed since a warrant (PDF) initially went out for Defense Distributed founder Cody Wilson's arrest. That document detailed Wilson's alleged sexual assault against a female "child younger than 17 years of age" whom he reportedly solicited through the website SugarDaddyMeet.com. Last Friday, December 28, the State of Texas finally formally indicted (PDF) Wilson. The 3D printed gun advocate now faces multiple charges: four counts of sexual assault of a child, two charges of indecency with a child by contact, and two charges of indecency with a child by exposure.These charges are all second-degree felonies punishable by up to 20 years in prison and fines of up to $10,000.Wilson's two previously scheduled initial court appearances in November and December had each been pushed back, as often happens in cases still waiting on a formal indictment. This recent filing may make it more likely that the newest tentative date (scheduled for early February) will occur, meaning Wilson's team would need to finally appear at the Travis County Courthouse. Read the rest

The David Rumsey Map Collection shares an amazing collection of photographs and the history of this 42 by 38 foot WPA built wooden map of San Francisco. Visit their site for high quality images.I will be lost in these images for hours.Full collection here.For the first time since 1942, the entire immense 42 by 38 foot WPA built San Francisco Model can be seen assembled virtually. Digitally knitting together all 158 separate pieces with over 6,000 blocks gives the viewer a sense of the extraordinary accomplishment the model represents. Recently recovered after decades of dusty storage, the model has been cleaned and photographed by a dedicated team of individuals as part of the SFMOMA and San Francisco Public Library project called Public Knowledge: Take Part. The model pieces were expertly photographed by Beth LaBerge. David Rumsey created the large Composite image below of the 158 pieces, as well as the image and metadata database of all the images, which he hosts. Rumsey also georeferenced the large Composite image and placed it in Google Earth.Some details of the model's history: it is a 42 by 38 foot wooden replica of the city of San Francisco as it was in 1940 in 158 pieces at a scale of 1 inch to 100 feet. The pieces contain about 6,000 removable city blocks. The model was built by The Works Progress Administration in the late 1930's, under the New Deal. It was first displayed in sections in the Golden Gate International Exposition on Treasure Island in San Francisco Bay in 1939. Read the rest

Rostislav Blaha created gridzzly, a simple single-page website where you pick the type of grid you want (lines, square, triangle, hex, dotted), set the size of the grid units and the weight of the line, then hit print. Voila! Custom gridded paper. Here's what I got:Good enough for government work. Read the rest

For decades, the WELL has rung in the new year with a weeks-long public discussion led by Jon Lebkowsky and Bruce Sterling (2018, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2007, 2005, etc).This year's contributors include Tiffany Lee Brown and James "New Aesthetic" Bridle (previously).As you might expect from such an august panel, they're off to quite a start. Sterling has continued his tradition of declaring different countries to epitomize the year: this year, it's Ukraine, in "the EU-Russia shatterbelt where the elderly village grannies, the last ones too poor to flee, are harvesting their turnips while getting randomly pounded by mortar fire" ... it's "typical of our times. It's the patient zero for the actual trouble. The prospects for real peace there are very slim. The prospects of that kind of offshored Violence Lite appearing elsewhere, those are high."Bridle, meanwhile, thinks the boasts of an upcoming "dark enlightenment" (or any other kind of enlightenment) are overblown, briefing instead for an upcoming entanglement: "weird, niche communities - antisocial media, distributed and federated services, truly decentralised ones as well as real urban anarchists - and they feel like different places totalk about power and agency, and formulate strategy." I do have one self-set task for the SoTW this year. What isthe forthcoming shape of the 2020sMoore's Law is dead, there'sno Singularity, the fix is in tech oligarchs of (take a breath) Google Apple Facebook Amazon Microsoft Baidu Alibaba Tencent NetflixSamsung. Read the rest

I'm an avid reader of Fred Wilson's email newsletter, A VC. Wilson is a VC who invested in Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, Zynga, and Kickstarter. In one of his recent issues Wilson predicted a very likely scenario -- Trump making a deal to resign in exchange for a friends and family pardon, and Pence will be president:I believe that we will have a different President of the United States by the end of 2019. The catalyst for this change will be a devastating report issued by Robert Mueller that outlines a history of illegal activities by our President going back decades, including in his campaign for President.The House will react to Mueller’s report by voting to impeach the President. Which will set up a trial in the Senate. That trial will go so badly for the President that he will, like Nixon before him, negotiate a resignation that will lead to him and those close to him being pardoned for all actions, and Mike Pence will become the President of the United States sometime in 2019.I believe this drama will play out through most of 2019. I expect the Mueller report to be issued sometime in the late winter/early spring and I expect an impeachment vote by the House before the summer, leading to a trial in the Senate in the second half of the year.The drama in Washington will have serious impacts to the economy in the United States starting with our capital markets.Image: Gage Skidmore Read the rest

Mookkie is a pet bowl with built-in AI and a fisheye lens that keeps a close watch on your pets' dietary habits, and will generate detailed reports on how much food they are eating. It will close up if pet is eating too much or if a wild animal tries to eat the food.Via VentureBeat:Mookkie connects to a local network over Wi-Fi, and communicates with a smartphone companion app to notify you (or send a short video) when doggo’s about to munch. And like so many other “smart” products on the market these days, the AI-driven pet bowl works with voice assistants like the Google Assistant and Alexa. A series of simple commands is all you need to control the feed bowl’s latch, get the skinny on served meals, and order food when it’s running low.CEO Silvio Revelli says that Volta is targeting a $189 price point, and expects the AI-powered pet bowl to go on sale by the end of 2019 on the official Mookkie website. The plan is to let owners customize the colors and engrave their pet’s name. Read the rest

Latif Nasser is Director of Research for WNYC's Radiolab. He wrote a piece for Transom about how he comes up with story ideas for the show. He has an interesting "bag of tricks" to find stories and have lots on hand so that he doesn't panic under a deadline. The tricks include setting up dozens of Google Alerts on the names of interesting people, "juicy phrases" (such as “the human equivalent of”), and topics he finds fascinating (such as the "alford plea"). He signs up for lots of newsletters -- "The more obscure the field the better." (He recommends creating a separate email account for newsletters). He searches for oral histories on ArchiveGrid. He also talks to strangers -- on planes, in lines, "even wrong numbers." The piece includes many other tricks I didn't include here. Highly recommended!Image: Transom.org Read the rest

New York Times columnist and all-around unclassifiably interesting person Rob Walker has a book coming out in May called The Art of Noticing: 131 Ways to Spark Creativity, Find Inspiration, and Discover Joy in the Everyday. Rob also has an excellent newsletter also called The Art of Noticing Newsletter, and in the latest edition he writes about The Urban Weed Awards:Celebrate the Tallest Weed. I’m a big fan of artist Michael Pederson, who does all sorts of super-clever street/public interventions in Australia, under the name Miguel Marquez Outside. I really dig the latest project he’s posted: The Urban Weed Awards.As you can see: Here is an award plaque/ribbon for the “tallest weed” in some particular local.There’s a bit in The Art of Noticing about “annotating the world,” and this is a really charming variation on that idea. Pick something that’s generally regarded as residing somewhere between “not exciting” and “a nuisance.” The weed is a perfect example, but maybe cracked sidewalks or potholes or power lines or whatever you can come up with. Now look for superlatives: The deepest pothole; the most picturesque sidewalk crack, the most rococo power line arrangement.Come up with variations for suburban drives, office environments, or anywhere else. Dream up the criteria that makes it fun to identify the most notable examples of ordinary things. Find the tallest weed.Image: Miguel Marquez Outside Read the rest

Brazil's new president Jair Bolsonaro rode to power on a platform of racist and gendered discrimination, genocide for indigenous people, homophobia, torture apology, and the abolition of human rights; he owes his victory to political spamming and conspiracy theories spread on Facebook at Whatsapp.When someone tells you who they are, believe them the first time. On Bolsonaro's first day in office he unveiled a suite of legal attacks against racial, gender and gender-identity minorities that threaten to roll back the country to the days of the brutal military junta he once served.In case you have any doubt about whether Bolsonaro really owes his election to Facebook and Whatsapp, allow his hardcore supporters to remove that doubt: at his inauguration, Brazil's bootlickers and useful idiots gathered to chant "Facebook!" and "Whatsapp!".Um canto inédito em qualquer #PossePresidencial no Brasil: "WhatsApp, WhatsApp! Facebook, Facebook!" pic.twitter.com/m0C2fOdEze— JOTA (@JotaInfo) January 1, 2019Bruce Sterling: "It's gray, it's becalmed. It's not a fatal gloom, but it is a kind of learned-helplessness, a malaise and bewilderment. It's very much the attitude of people who sign onto Facebook 'cause they can't yet figure out any other way to live. They do that, because they must conform to the apparent need, despite their vague oxlike awareness that they're being spied on, tricked, and defrauded." Read the rest

In 2015, Mozilla announced that it would turn Thunderbird -- one of the last freestanding, cross-platform email clients -- into a freestanding, independent project, and in 2017, Thunderbird became a community-overseen project with institutional backing from Moz.It was an odd move at the time: the Snowden revelations and the news that Yahoo had provided the NSA with free access to user emails, along with the sputtering out of promising alternatives like Mailpile meant that there was huge, unmet demand for the stable, high-powered email clients that disappeared when Gmail and other webmails started to kill off the Eudoras of the world.Since then, the Thunderbird team has made real, if incremental progress in stabilizing the old Thunderbird code. I'm a hardcore, daily Thunderbird user, someone who lives in email (if you're thinking of sending me an IM of any kind in the hopes that I'll respond to it, think again: send me an email instead -- realtime communications are productivity killers for me), and I've been very glad of this progress (I just donated another $100 to the project).Now, Thunderbird has laid out its 2019 roadmap, and they're promising more of the same, and better, which is exactly what I was hoping for: more changes to increase the responsiveness of the UI (which has made real progress but has a lot of room for improvement), a UI/UX overhaul, and guidelines to make it easier for lots of people to contribute -- Thunderbird's eight full-time, paid contributors will grow to 14 in 2019, with volunteers and other free/open source contributions coming from the wider world. Read the rest

Get ghosted by Santa this year? Here's a tip: Once Christmas is over, it's ok to do a little materialistic self-care. To that end, here's one last sleigh ride through Boing Boing's best deals of 2018. We've got everything from pipes to tech to learning bundles, all at an extra discount for the new year. Just enter the code NEWYEAR2019 for an additional 19% off the final price for all this gear, sitewide.uTalk Language Education: Lifetime Subscription"Learn a new language" isn't as popular a new year's resolution as it should be. If only people knew it was this easy: uTalk boasts feedback from native-speaking voice artists and an interface that game-ifies the learning process with challenges and a progress tracker. A lifetime subscription to uTalk is on sale for $29.99 and lets you choose any six from over 130 languages on the app.UltraBright 500-Lumen Tactical Military Flashlight: 2-PackA true lifesaving piece of tech, these sturdy but lightweight torches illuminate out to 800 meters. With an adjustable zoom and three modes including an "SOS" flash setting, they're perfect for roadside emergencies or long outdoor treks. With storage case included, the UltraBright 500-Lumen Tactical Military Flashlight: 2-Pack comes in at $19.99 - an 80% discount.Ultimate Cisco Certification Super BundleConsidering a new career for the new year? This online bundle paves the way to certification in Cisco's networking systems, providing a firm foundation as part of any IT team. You'll learn to do much more than troubleshoot the big stacks - you'll be able to set up, maintain and handle security for the infrastructure that major companies depend on. Read the rest

This 8 year old is a lot more patient and creative than most adults I know. What a cool little kid-made short film.“My 8 year old daughter made a Stop-motion Lego movie hoping to post it on Legolife, but they don't post videos yet,” said IMGURian @dadwithtowel, who posted it on IMGUR with her enthusiastic permission instead. The entire short is below.My 8 year old daughter played with her lego Read the rest

Adam Savage keeps mining deeper and deeper strata of nerdly obsessions, with recent Tested projects including collaborating with other prop makers to create a spot-on ACES NASA astronaut suit for cosplay, building a 3D-printed hand cannon from Mortal Engines, and another pilgrimage to Middle Earth, aka Weta Workshop in New Zealand. And then there's this model-making masterpiece Adam has just revealed, a 1/2-scale build of the prop blimp used in Ridley Scott's 1982 flim, Blade Runner. Built by model maker Kayte Sabicer and Adam Savage (but mainly Kayte), the project took months to complete and an ungodly amount of fiddly labor. The results could not be more impressive. Read the rest

Welcome back to The Bureau. It’s the tenth installment, with two remaining installments until your day is complete. You've found your way to a bar, and it's a comfortable view of the train. You may have just died.

If you make your own espresso and want to pull shots that are always the same strength, this set of 2 shot glasses with markings for ounces, milliliters, teaspoons, and tablespoons might be what you're looking for. You can also use them to dose medication or mix cocktails. Read the rest

It isn't a dog movie! 1974's Benji is still a tear jerker.The theme song, "I Feel Love" was nominated for an Academy Award.The whole movie is on YouTube here. Read the rest

Over at EDGE.org, the must-read hub of intellectual inquiry and head-spinning science, Boing Boing pal and legendary book agent John Brockman is launching a new series of essays "from important third culture thinkers to address the empirically-driven and science related hot-button cultural issues of our time." First up is author George Dyson's "Childhood's End," a provocative riff on how the digital revolution has stripped much of our individual agency and that "to those seeking true intelligence, autonomy, and control among machines, the domain of analog computing, not digital computing, is the place to look." From EDGE:The spectacular success of digital computers in modeling real-world phenomena, encoded as algorithms with the results used as output to control something in the real world, has outshadowed very different ways that digital computers, and networks of digital computers, can be used. Algorithms and digital simulations have become so embedded in our culture and world view that we find it almost impossible to recognize that other forms of computation, without algorithms or digital models, effectively control much of the world.We assume that a search engine company builds a model of human knowledge and allows us to query that model, or that some other company (or maybe it’s the same company) builds a model of road traffic and allows us to access that model, or that yet another company builds a model of the social graph and allows us to join that model — for a price we are not quite told. Read the rest

In southern Italy today, a brazen highway robbery in which thieves used bulldozers to pry open an armored van on the road. Police say the thieves blocked the money-mobile off with two big vehicles on both sides, then ripped the doors off with the machine's giant digging jaws, then made off with at least 2 million euros, or $2.3 million in US dollars, in cash.Ammonta a più di due milioni il bottino di una #rapina a un #portavalori a #Bari ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/d42YaAUBc5— Sky tg24 (@SkyTG24) January 2, 2019From Reuters:The blue security van had left the city of Bari and was carrying pensions to be distributed in post offices in nearby Matera when it was blocked on the road by two lorries.Two diggers then tore open the vehicle, using their mechanical arms like can openers to gain access to the cash.The lorries were then set ablaze as the hooded thieves escaped with their loot in a waiting car. The three guards in the van were unharmed.Images and video below.Very well-planned armored car to heist. Armored cars can be a tough nut to crack -- unless you have a big enough hammer.https://t.co/lL3Hi6eb4L— Scott Stewart (@stick631) January 2, 2019Bari, assaltato con le ruspe: portavalori aperto come una scatoletta di tonno https://t.co/iYxDo8OKz6— Gazzetta di Modena (@gazzettamodena) January 2, 2019#Bari, spettacolare rapina ad un furgone portavalori sulla statale 96 barese. La banda ha bloccato la strada con 2 camion dati alle fiamme e poi ha sventrato il mezzo con una ruspa. Read the rest

A gentleman stylishly dressed from head to toe in identity-concealing attire found a bicycle parked at a police station. The bicycle did not belong to him, and it was locked, but the man wished to take the bike for himself so he went to work on the lock with a bolt cutter. A few seconds later, a police officer emerged from the station and arrested the chagrined lad. Read the rest

Reminiscent of Trump's infamous remark that undocumented Mexicans coming into the United States were rapists and criminals, conservative writer Star Parker told hosts on Fox and Friends that people needing government assistance are watching porn. “These guys are not working, they’re watching. They’re watching porn, they’re watching TV, they’re watching women, they’re watching everything.”And it's because these people are "watchers," as she refers to them, that she agrees with Trump's plan on stricter "SNAP" rules, which would make it more difficult for struggling Americans to receive food stamps.Fox host Ainsley Earhardt understands completely. “It’s not to hurt them. It’s to actually make them self-sufficient, so they can contribute to society and actually help themselves,” she says, as if talking about a child or dog that needs training. “As we make benefits available to those who truly need them, we must also encourage participants to take proactive steps toward self-sufficiency. Moving people to work is common-sense policy, particularly at a time when the unemployment rate is at a generational low.” Read the rest

According to its infernal creator, HATETRIS "is bad Tetris. It's hateful Tetris. It's Tetris according to the evil AI from 'I Have No Mouth And I Must Scream.'"Background, hints, and links to others' prior work here.(via Kottke) Read the rest

It's easy enough to pick this Caterpillar padlock with a lockpicking rake, but if that seems too difficult, just buy another Caterpillar padlock of the same model. They all use the same key. Read the rest

'Super Dave Osborne' and 'Marty Funkhouser' have left us. Curb Your Enthusiasm fans will best remember actor Bob Einstein from his impact on Larry David's long-running HBO comedy series.Einstein was 76.From DEADLINE:Bob Einstein, a two-time Emmy winner who has recurred on HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm since its launch and created the wacky Super Dave Osborne character, died today in Indian Wells, CA. He was 76 and recently had been diagnosed with cancer.Bob Einstein's career in weirdo comedy did not begin with 'Curb.'In this clip, none other than country music star Glen Campbell, wearing his Wichita Lineman album cover outfit, interviews Barry The Mechanic (played by Bob Einstein) in a "rip-off mechanic" skit.Watch and learn.Boing Boing BBS member Professer59 points us to Jerry Seinfeld's series 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee,' on which Bob Einstein guested. This 2017 episode with Seinfeld and Einstein together is wonderful. In it, Bob talks about his career and about the death of his father, comedian and broadcaster Harry Einstein.Einstein was the first comedian to appear twice on 'Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee.'Below, some memorable moments from 'Curb,' and interviews Bob Einstein did about his work on this show and others.[PHOTO: 'Curb Your Enthusiasm,' Courtesy HBO] Read the rest

Core77 published its annual collection of "the best mind-melting manufacturing videos," including furniture made from chocolate, a chicken-wire wrapper, a thermoformed case, a cookie-cutter former, and more. My favorite is this blobby ceramic bowl stamper: View this post on Instagram Had no idea this is how you mass manufacture printed ceramics 😂 (via @world_of_engineering) #processpornA post shared by Core77 (@core77) on Aug 24, 2018 at 5:04am PDT Read the rest

Is that a threat?During today's back-from-the-holidays meetings, Donald Trump said the United States “Government could be shut down for a long time...as long as it takes.”Hang on now.As long as it takes for what?Trump says government could be shut down for a “long time”— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) January 2, 2019#GovernmentShutdown could last "a long time," @POTUS tells reporters.— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) January 2, 2019#BREAKING Trump warns government shutdown could last "a long time" pic.twitter.com/2EDle5NqMB— AFP news agency (@AFP) January 2, 2019BREAKING: @realDonaldTrump just said "Government could be shut down for a long time...as long as it takes." The Dow was up around 60 pts when he said it, now up 32. 3pET he will be starting a meeting w/ Congressional leaders, we're LIVE at the WH— Liz Claman (@LizClaman) January 2, 2019Trump at cabinet mtg on partial gov't shutdown: It could be a long time..it could end quickly— Chad Pergram (@ChadPergram) January 2, 2019 Read the rest

This rat has two green LED lights implanted near its bladder to help the animal regain control of its urination. According to Washington University researcher Robert Gereau, the technology -- which involves a metal ring around the bladder to sense its fullness and a wirelessly rechargeable battery -- could eventually help humans with incontinence. Here's how it works, from New Scientist:When the device was implanted in rats with bladder dysfunction, the metal ring measured changes in bladder size. When it detected that a rat was urinating more than two times an hour, the LED lights switched on.These rats had previously received gene therapy, enabling their nerve cells involved in bladder-brain signaling to make a light-sensitive protein. When the LEDs were switched on, their light activated this protein, which in turn blocked urination signals from the bladder from reaching the brain. Read the rest

YouTuber Toni Patanen "Pupsi" likes to make musical instruments – ocarinas in particular – with vegetables. Here he cuts up some sweet potatoes and a squash, and then (at 1:39) plays a mystical version of Toto's Africa. Via Mashable Read the rest

“Sanctions are Coming - November 4.” For today's Cabinet meeting at the White House, there was a weird Trump Game of Thrones political meme poster, wall sized, displaying Trump's face and those words, placed right on the middle of the table as some kind of weird creepy internet fascist prop.Previously, Trump tweeted this meme in the context of Iran. Buzzfeed reported about it at the time.“How do you say trademark misuse in Dothraki?,” HBO previously tweeted in response, exactly two months ago. Wonder how they'll respond to this incident, given that it is likely to go viral, and arguably cause confusion about the show. My guess?LAWYERS ARE COMING😎Trump has the "sanctions are coming" poster of himself in this Cabinet meeting. This pic from @kevincorke: pic.twitter.com/ir62Nryd5W— Kathryn Watson (@kathrynw5) January 2, 2019pic.twitter.com/nk2vKvHuaL— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 2, 2018Wall poster of Trump with the words “Sanctions are Coming - November 4” in the middle of the table for today’s Cabinet meeting. pic.twitter.com/wJ9XpcQxKA— Michael C. Bender (@MichaelCBender) January 2, 2019I heard that there was a Game of Thrones parody poster on the desk during Trump's meeting, so I assumed it was about the wall that occupies like 1/3 of the plot of that book/show, and... no, it's about sanctions!— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) January 2, 2019never forget ---> The Sanctions That Trump’s “Game Of Thrones” Tweet Warned About Have Arrived https://t.co/VbQ2wx06qK via @emilyctamkin— Hayes Brown (@HayesBrown) January 2, 2019Pres has his "Sanctions are Coming" poster on the Cabinet Room conference table. Read the rest

The Alpaca graphic design cooperative created this terrific "illustrated and interactive Dante's Inferno, an alternative learning tool for the Divine Comedy first Cantica, made for aiding visual memory." From the project page:The work is based on the anthology "Testi e scenari" - Volume 1 (Panebianco, Pisoni, Reggiani, Malpensa), published by Zanichelli in 2009, and it has been developed by Alpaca together with the Molotro design studio...The translation to the English language is based on the one provided by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The whole text is available on Wikisource and it's in the public domain.We chose the Longfellow translation not only because it's open source, but also for its closeness to the language of Dante. The syntax, the rhythm, the lexicon used by Longfellow may feel odd for native english speakers, but they render the original language with great accuracy."Infernal Topography" (Alpaca via MetaFilter) Read the rest

In 1987, Max Headroom appeared on Sesame Street where he recited the alphabet. Catch the wave.And if you're not hip to Max's cyberpunk stylings, the 1985 UK TV movie is where it all started: Read the rest