Category: Link Log

The VR voice you need to listen to

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You’re going to read a lot about Virtual Reality over the next few months and years. Today saw the Occulus Rift VR headset reach the public (although only those who pre-purchased, don’t go looking on a store shelf for it just yet). Lots of people are going to be exploring this space, many have changed careers to do so, but most people just want a voice that can cut through it all with enthusiasm and joie de vivre. Like this: One of the most common criticisms I see leveled against VR is that it’s only capable of delivering vertical slices of games, or gimmicky set

The BOFH who works at Hogwarts

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Ah yes, running IT Support at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where the pupils love their wands but still want their smartphones. Which means someone needs to run IT, and that someone has a Tumblr: When I was first starting out in this position I had easily become the target of many pranks from the students. Did you know there is a freaking spell that glues your feet to the ground? I know. It took all of 2 days for them to quickly realize I literally have a switch that shuts off all the wifi access to the entire school. I

Is it still a blog if the comments are off?

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Amber Bouman on Engadget’s one week trial of turning all comments off: But we’ve increasingly found ourselves turning off comments on stories that discuss topics of harassment, gender or race simply because so many of the replies are hateful, even threatening. Articles that mention Apple deteriorate into arguments of iOS vs Android, replete with grade-school name calling. Articles that don’t make mention of Samsung often include comments claiming that we are shills for Apple. Some commenters plain attack our writers or editors or other commenters. Some are outright threats. And that’s not even getting into the spam problem. The thing

When Lego Batman beats Superman V Batman

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Scott Mendelson reviews ‘Batman V Superman’ for Forbes: The best moments of Dawn of Justice resemble nothing less than a feature length adaptation of a series of Alex Ross paintings in all their naturalistic glory. But amid the visual treats is an utter mess of thinly sketched characters, haphazard plotting, surprisingly jumbled action, and “cut your nose to spite your face” world building. It’s not a success either as a stand-alone Man of Steel sequel or a would-be kick-off to the DC Extended Universe, and attempts to insert Batman and his Super Friends do real damage to the story and thus

Overcast improves my favourite podcast player

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Overcast has been updated to version 2.5. It’s my podcast player of choice and while I wasn’t screaming out for some of the optional extras only open to patrons (a dark theme and ability to upload your own single files) the changes to battery consumption and the sound output are very much welcome. It’s a free download, but you can make a small one-off payment as a thank you through an in-app payment. Grab it from overcast.fm.

Start-ups, Music, and Copyright Avoidance

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Bas Grasmeyer for Hypebot: What is needed is a Startup License that lets startups quickly and flexibly license music from the majors and largest indies for a set duration. After this duration, startups would still have to negotiate, but at least they’ve got their products figured out and investors will have a better understanding of what the business is potentially worth. The license should allow startups to opt in or out of territories. If you want to do UK-only, fine. If you want to pay more and do something global, it’s possible. A global startup music license would do tremendous