Internet

Google Reader has expired, but your data lives until July 15

By now you probably already know that Google Reader has crossed over into the digital netherworld, joining many of its ill-fated Mountain View kin who were doomed never to exit beta.

When these sad departures occur, the ritual of going through the deceased's basement begins, and in the case of Google Reader it turns out that the place was full of lots of digital detritus belonging to you and me, and hundreds of thousands (if not millions -- we never really found out how popular Google Reader was in definite terms) of users.… Read more

'Liking' this art project makes it disappear

Usually, "Liking" something gives it broader exposure -- and thus a better chance of propagating in the digital realm. A new online art project called "Like to Death" is the opposite. It disappears bit by bit as people "Like" it.

"Social media is the fifth dimension that fabricates our online existence," reads a screen that appears when visitors enter the flickering black and white site for Like to Death. "Imagine a life without it, if you can't you have been possessed. Break the curse, like it to death."

A collaboration for Adidas Originals by digital artist Geoffrey Lillemon and Stooki, an independent U.K. jewelry and apparel label that's also an art collective, Like to Death presents an ominous-looking seated robed figure of death wearing four heads like rings on its fingers. The artists describe these symbols as "demons," toying, they say, with the idea "that everyone possesses a social-media demon" -- be it an unhealthy addiction to social networks or the traces of ourselves we leave online that we might later wish we could make disappear. … Read more

Control how drunk the band is in awesome music vid

Member of the London band Moones embrace a rock 'n' roll lifestyle. And they don't just let fans share in it, they want them to be able to control just how rock 'n' roll they get in their latest music video.

The YouTube video for the band's song "Better Energy" takes advantage of YouTube annotations to allow viewers to determine how drunk the band is at any point in the performance. … Read more

#MashTag beer crafted from social-media input

Go ahead, pour yourself a cold frosty glass full of Twitter. Mmm, that's good stuff. Scottish craft brewery BrewDog turned over the reins of its latest creation to fans on Twitter and Facebook. The resulting brew, #MashTag, came about after several rounds of voting on the various elements that make it up, from the type of brew to the label design.

Over the course of several days, BrewDog offered up three options at a time to a vote. For example, the "#MashTag" name won out over its competition of "CrewDog" and "Crowd Control." Fans also chose to make it an American Brown Ale, rather than an Imperial or Session Brown Ale.… Read more

Intergalactic Exchange Bureau converts sci-fi currency

Few things are more embarrassing than landing your Millennium Falcon in Westeros, walking into an inn, and not having exact change for your flagon of wine. That's almost as bad as Harry Potter arriving at DS9 and trying to figure out how many galleons he owes to park his broom.

Sci-fi and fantasy characters no longer need to worry about making financial faux pas when crossing over from world to world. The Intergalactic Exchange Bureau is here to help convert a variety of fictional currencies into other fictional currencies, or into dollars, pounds, or euros.… Read more

Wendy Davis' filibuster shoes praised in Amazon reviews

While junior Texas state senator Wendy Davis got thrust into the national spotlight this week for her starring role in an anti-abortion-bill filibuster, her tennis shoes are enjoying their own run with fame on Amazon reviews.

"Best damn shoe for being on your feet for 13 hours. Also the best shoe to kick Governor Rick Perry's ass!" reads one of a growing number of Amazon reviews of the Mizuno's Wave Rider 16 running shoes the Democratic lawmaker made famous overnight.

Reads another: "I am so glad that I have a choice about what shoes to buy! Imagine if some legislator tried to tell me what type of shoes worked best for me or what type of shoes were available to me... that is so un-American!" … Read more

1,556 Instagram pics create stop-motion animation

If you have the time and patience, stop-motion animation can be oodles of fun to create, especially if you have a flair for wacky scenes.

Animation collective Friends in Faux has been producing some rather amazing stop-motion animated films since around 2006, when it released "Tony vs. Paul," an epic outdoor battle between two guys.

Their latest production is "Instagramimation," described as "a stop-motion adventure through the world of Instagram." … Read more

Placing Literature maps book scenes in the real world

One of the first things I did when I visited London a few years ago was to go on a Sherlock Holmes walking tour. I'm not the only avid reader compelled to seek out the real-life settings found in books. This desire is what has brought about Placing Literature, an interactive site dedicated to plotting scenes from books onto real-world maps. It's like a heady mixture of a database, Google Maps, and the efforts of a bunch of literature geeks.

Placing Literature started with a conversation between co-founders Andrew Bardin Williams (an author) and his sister-in-law Kathleen Colin Williams (a geographer). "I use a lot of real-world locations in my novels. We decided there was this great intersection between geography and literature that hadn't been explored before," says Andrew Bardin Williams.… Read more

Help! My town is trapped in the 1980s!

Call me inverse Marty McFly, for today I'm writing from the faraway world of the 1980s.

Or at least that's the the era that comes to mind in my home base of Taos, N.M., since about 7:30 Wednesday evening, when one of CenturyLink's fiber-optic lines east of town was severed, knocking out virtually all cell phone service and much of the Internet access in town.… Read more

John McAfee's (insane, NSFW) tips for uninstalling McAfee

In the past year, estranged antivirus kingpin John McAfee has been accused of being many things -- madman, drug addict, and murderer, just to name a few -- but as the video below proves, you certainly can't accuse him of taking himself too seriously.

In the very NSFW four-minute clip, McAfee slams the software he created (but has had not contact with for more than a decade, as he points out) for its tendency to update itself at the most inconvenient times and ultimately offers an, uh, unorthodox method for uninstalling it.… Read more