Show Notes &#8211; May 18th, 2015

Minecraft Player Named ‘MojangSucksDick’ Gets Pranked By Mojang Making a username in a fit of rage can lead to some pretty silly situations. Just ask the Minecraft player who gave themselves the username ‘MojangSucksDick.’A few years ago, Reddit user jessemoforice had trouble logging into their Minecraft account. So instead of logging into their already existing account, they made a brand new one. ‘MojangSucksDick.’ It was a username made in anger, sure, but t

Anthony Bourdain’s Opening a Food Market Inspired by Blade Runner Would you eat at a market inspired by the 1982 dystopian classic Blade Runner? Anthony Bourdain is hoping you will. He’s currently negotiating to open a market in the renovated 100,000 square foot SuperPier in New York. The floor plan is said to evoke “the set decor of Blade Runner and the vibrant back alleys of Tokyo.”“It is meant to be crowded and chaotic because that’s what hawker centers shoul

FTC Recommends Conditions For Sale of RadioShack Customer Data itwbennett writes: The FTC has weighed in on the contentious issue of the proposed sale of consumer data by RadioShack, recommending that a settlement with failed online toy retailer Toysmart.com be adopted as a model for dealings going forward. Director of the FTC’s bureau of consumer protection Jessica L. Rich wrote in a letter to a court-appointed consumer privacy ombudsman that the agency’s co

TechSpot

Shutting down one of Europe’s largest video streaming sites had little impact on piracy One of the largest illegal movie streaming websites in Europe was shut down in 2011 following a massive police raid across France, Germany and Spain. At the time, Kino.to’s closure was viewed as a huge victory for those in support of the anti-piracy movement.

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Skype Translator Preview Is Now Available to Everyone Windows: Last year, Microsoft announced an app that would allow you to have real-time conversations with people who spoke different languages, built on Skype. While the service was only available to a small group of testers, it’s now open to everyone.The app currently supports translation between English, Spanish, Italian, and Mandarin. Simply initiate a voice or video chat with your partner and w

MakeUseOf.com

New to Linux? 5 Apps You Didn’t Know You Were Missing When you moved to Linux, you went straight for the obvious browsers, cloud clients, music players, email clients, and perhaps image editors, right? As a result, you’ve missed several vital, productive tools. Here’s a roundup of five umissable Linux apps that you really need to install. Synergy Synergy is a godsend if you use multiple desktops. It’s an open-source app that allows you to use a singl

TechSpot

AT&T to bring Hulu subscription service to its customers later this year AT&T on Wednesday said it has an agreement in place to bring Hulu’s subscription streaming service to its customers later this year. The deal builds on AT&T’s existing contract with Hulu for its free content.

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Soon, All Versions of Chrome Will Block Non-Web-Store Extensions Last year, Google began blocking the installation of Chrome extensions that weren’t from the Web Store. However, it didn’t affect Chrome’s dev channels. Starting today, that changes.Google claims that, since disabling non-Web Store extensions, they observed a 75% drop in requests for support uninstalling unwanted extensions. As a result, today they will begin blocking extension sideloading in the

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TunnelBear Adds Chrome Extension for Private Browsing on the Desktop Chrome: We’ve already talked about how great TunnelBear is on Android and iOS. You can use it to get around region blocks, avoid IP tracking, and maintain your privacy. Now, the discreet VPN is available to Chrome users with an extension.The service allows you up to 500MB per month of free browsing (though you can boost that to 1.5GB if you tweet about them). You can change which region you appear

MakeUseOf.com

That Awkward Moment When You… Complete Social Media Fail That feeling when you’ve said something stupid on Twitter and realize you’re going to get flamed. Been there? Well, be thankful that’s as bad as it gets for most people. And then there are the real screw-ups. This week has been full of social media blunders from the criminally stupid, the perpetually petrified and rude business-people in general. It’s amazing how big these people messed up. Read o

Microsoft has just announced all the different versions of Windows 10 that are coming, with Home and Microsoft has just announced all the different versions of Windows 10 that are coming, with Home and Pro being the primary consumer-focused editions. There are seven versions in all for certain niches, including Mobile, Enterprise, and Education. Read more on the Windows blog.

How to Get Birth Control Without Your Insurance Illegally Charging You Under the Affordable Care Act, you should be able to get any approved type of birth control without a co-pay. But many insurers are charging anyway—sometimes because of loopholes, and sometimes they’re just plain breaking the law. Here’s what you can do.Casey Gueren at BuzzFeed explains how to find out if your plan is either “grandfathered” or is exempt for religious reasons. If they aren’t, they

TechSpot

Making Sense of the ‘Internet of Things’: Connectivity doesn’t inherently make something better Trying to think about one of the hottest trends sweeping the tech industry—IOT, or the Internet of Things—has me a bit befuddled, to be honest. On the one hand, I understand the conceptual potential of a world where everything is connected, and where we’re able to glean a wealth of…

Conspire Tracks and Analyzes Your Email Habits Email can be frustratingly time consuming. You certainly don’t want to ignore your inbox, but you don’t want to spend all day reading and replying, either. To better manage your email habits, Conspire tracks your usage data, then analyzes it, and sends you weekly report cards.To start, all you need to do is sign up, which is as simple as linking your email account. You can connect multiple email a

Gothamist

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Fleet Of 500 Eco-Friendly Food Carts Coming To NYC The vehicles dispensing dirty water dogs and charred street meat are getting an eco-friendly makeover thanks to a fleet of 500 new food carts set to debut in the coming months. This morning, the City Council announced a partnership with MOVE Systems, which will supply the new carts gratis to vendors throughout the city. [ more › ]

Google News

Senate under pressure after House votes to end NSA program – Fox News NBCNews.comSenate under pressure after House votes to end NSA programFox NewsAfter the House’s lopsided bipartisan vote to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ phone records, the Senate is under considerable pressure to pass a similar measure. If it doesn’t, lawmakers risk letting the authority to collect the …The House refutes a key defense of the NSAWashington Post

Apartment Therapy Main

Amazon Drops Gendered Toy Categories — Design News Pin it Amazon has removed gender from its taxonomy of toys and games. Though gendered landing pages still exist (and you can still search by gender, of course), removing them from the list of categories is a good first step. READ MORE »

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Obama’s New Tech Advisor Proved How Easy It Is To Hack Voting Machines The White House just named Ed Felten as its newest advisor in the Office of Science and Technology Policy. Felten is a professor at Princeton, but you might remember him from a 2006 video where he shows how to hack a voting machine and potentially steal an election. (Conspiracy theorists, start your engines!)“Our study shows that a criminal who can inject malicious software into this voting machin

World Health Organization Has New Rules For Avoiding Offensive Names sciencehabit writes: Last week The World Health Organization (WHO) decided to address not only the physical toll of disease but the stigma inflicted by diseases named for people, places, and animals as well. Among the existing names that its new guidelines “for the Naming of New Human Infectious Diseases” would discourage: Ebola, swine flu, Rift valley Fever, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a

Engadget

Two more AT&T prepaid plans will offer data rollover Looks like AT&T is the latest carrier to hop onto the “data rollover” bandwagon. The company recently announced that customers subscribing to its prepaid GoPhone $45 and $60 plans will be able to apply their unused data allowance — 1.5 GB and 4 GB, …

Gothamist

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New Law Would Let Multiracial New Yorkers Check More Than One “Race” Box On Government Forms A new law sponsored by City Councilmember Margaret Chin would allow New Yorkers to identify as more than one raceand check more than one boxon city agency documents. [ more › ]

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The US Is Finally Getting Access to a Promising Cancer Drug From Cuba Tourism isn’t the only industry eager to benefit from the relaxing of the decades-long trade embargo against Cuba. Medical researchers on both of sides of the Straits of Florida now have the chance to collaborate with previously off-limits colleagues. Of particular interest to the U.S. is a Cuban lung cancer drug that took 25 years to develop.The U.S.-based Roswell Park Cancer Institute and the Cu

Phone Scoop – Latest News

White House Names Ed Felten As Deputy U.S. Chief Technology Officer New submitter bird writes: Ed Felton, Director of Princeton University’s Center for Information Technology Policy (CITP) and well-known and outspoken consumer advocate, has been appointed deputy US chief technology officer. His is a voice of reason that needs to be heard when tech policy is made. The press release says: “We are excited to announce that Dr. Ed Felten is joining the White House

Motorola Says Original Moto X to See Lollipop ‘In A Few Weeks’ Motorola’s Senior Director of Software Product Management, David Schuster, today said owners of the original Moto X should see Lollipop hit their devices in the next few weeks. Schuster said Motorola has faced challenges with its partners in getting the OS builds approved, but the company expects to start deploying in the U.S. and Latin America soon. Motorola earlier indicated the Moto X would jum

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Woman Says She Got Fired for Deleting a 24/7 Tracking App Off Her Phone And now in a delightful new installment of a series I just made up right now—Why Isn’t This Illegal?—we have an employer allegedly firing a woman for not wanting to be tracked after-hours on her work phone. A California woman is suing her former employer for invasion of privacy, labor infractions, and wrongful termination after she was fired, allegedly for uninstalling a GPS-enabled app called Xor