Vom Kindle hat man auch in Europa schon gehört, in ...

Vom Kindle hat man auch in Europa schon gehört, in den USA gibt es ein Konkurrenzprodukt namens "Nook" von Barnes & Noble, einer verbreiteten Buchhandelkette. Die Nook-Version von Tolstoys "Krieg und Frieden" hat statt "kindled" "Nookd" im Text. To kindle, falls das jemand nicht wusste, heißt ein Feuer anzünden (auch im übertragenen Sinn).

You’re Probably Not Qualified to Make Pizza For Apple

You’re Probably Not Qualified to Make Pizza For Apple:

Recently, we learned that it wasn’t unusual for a prospective Apple employee to endure a grueling nine-month long interview process. Even after hiring, new employees are frequently put on fake projects in order to test their loyalty. Now, it seems, that Apple’s exacting hiring standards extend to its kitchens, as demonstrated by a job posting for a Pizza Chef.


The posting from Apple’s jobs page describes the exact skills necessary to work as a pizza chef at the company. Interesting is not only the skills the job posting demands, but the specificity of the kind of pizza Apple expects.

The ideal candidate has extensive experience making pizza dough from scratch and is able to portion and toss the dough; possesses the ability to hand stretch the pizza (without using a rolling pin) and cook the pizza to order in a high temperature oven. The cook will also prep and maintain all food items necessary to make a variety of pizzas (toppings, sauces and related prep).
At least 2-4 years of experience working a high volume wood burning pizza oven featuring thin crust, Neapolitan style pizza.

God forbid if you’ve ever sullied your hands with a rolling pin, or perhaps prefer to craft Chicago style pizza (read: the best kind of pizza [editor's note: gross]). Then again, it’s only reasonable for Apple to say exactly what they’re looking for in a new employee. It also shows that Apple employees are probably eating a lot better than most folks.
No word yet if new pizza chefs are required to work on impossible, fake pizza projects until they’ve proven themselves.
(via Apple, image via Jeff Kubina)
Relevant to your interests

• A look at Apple’s exacting hiring practices
• At least they’re not asking for your Facebook password

Google Set to Acquire Top Level Domains “.youtube,” “.docs,” and “.lol”

In a blog post yesterday, Google announced that it was participating in the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers application process for new top-level domains. You know, the process that is going to make “.xxx” and “.geekosystem” into a reality. Though short on details, the post suggests that the company is aiming for some pretty interesting purchases.
The brief blogpost outlines four categories of domain purchases Google is planning to make, and an example of each. From Google:

• Our trademarks, like .google
• Domains related to our core business, like .docs
• Domains that will improve user experience, such as .youtube, which can increase the ease with which YouTube channels and genres can be identified
• Domains we think have interesting and creative potential, such as .lol

The first of these categories, defending trademarks, has been a problematic issue for the new expansion of top-level domains. Companies and other major organizations will now be forced to not only purchase relevant .com URLs, but novel top-level domains as well. In this example, Google is trying to purchase .google to prevent someone else from getting it first and running a website like CaliforniaWigSex.google. Remember how WhiteHouse.com used to be a pornsite? Same problem, just different domain.
The creation of these new top-level domains has been rather fraught since it was announced some months ago, and ICANN is now putting a freeze on the application process.
Though Google has remained tight-lipped about what it intends to do with these domains, or what other domains it will be purchasing, one thing is certain: If their applications are accepted, they’re going to spend a lot of money. Purchasing just a single new domain costs $185,000 up front and another $25,000 a year to keep the domain. Hopefully whatever “.lol” hilarity Google is planning will be worth it.
(Google Blog via Ad Age)
Relevant to your interests

• ICANN makes new top-level domains a thing
• Non-Latin URLs are finally a thing
• Certain celebrities protected from having a .XXX URL in their name

Thar She ISOs

(Video Game Store | USA)
Customer: “You guys buy games, right?”
Me: “That’s right.”
Customer: “Any games, right?”
Me: “Unless we have several of them in stock, or they’re in very poor condition, yes.”
Customer: “So, you’ll take any games as long as there’s no scratches and you don’t have a bunch of them, right?”
Me: “Correct.”
Customer: “Okay, good! I’ve got 20 games here that I wanna sell.”
(The man opens the shoebox he’s been carrying and starts to unload a number of discs onto the counter.)
Me: “Uh, sir…I can’t take these games.”
Customer: “Why not? You just said you could!”
Me: “Because they’re illegally copied games.”
Customer: “But you said you’d take them!”
Me: “Not if they’re DVD-Rs with the names written in Sharpie!”

Stay in school, kids.

Stay in school, kids.:

Stay in school, kids.

Final Exams

Final Exams:

I think some of you college students are familiar with these, so here’s a reminder on how much you really need to study.

Game of Thrones Featurettes of the Day

The Game of Thrones season 1 Blu-ray includes a series of excellent animated history lessons that fill viewers in on the backstory of the houses of Westeros, the Night’s Watch, Mad King Aerys and more.
Even better, they’re all online (for now, anyway) and an industrious YouTuber has put them all in a playlist for your perusal.
[io9.]

Amazing Spider-Man Trailer of the Day

Marvel Entertainment has released the most action-packed Amazing Spider-Man trailer yet, with less teenage spider-drama, more fight scenes, and more hints about the mystery of Peter Parker’s parents.
The Amazing Spider-Man, starring Andrew Garfield, Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans and Denis Leary, opens in 3D July 3.
[toplessrobot.]

Yeah…

Yeah…:

Yeah…

Agreement groups in the US Senate

PhD student Adrien Friggeri demonstrates a new clustering algorithm with a visualization of the agreement groups within the United States Senate over time.
As you might imagine, there are two obvious groupings, Republican and Democrat. It gets interesting though when you look at Democrats classified as Republicans and vice versa. For example, the 11 Republicans placed in the Democratic group of the 110th Congress:

Most of whom are either moderates or closer to the Democrats than to their own party. Charles Hagel was critic of the Bush Administration which he described as "the lowest in capacity, in capability, in policy, in consensus — almost every area" of any presidency in the last forty years. George Voinovich has been known to oppose lowering taxes and frequently joined the Democrats on tax issues. John Warner is a moderate Republican and has centrist stances on many issues, to the point that he once faced opposition of other members of his own party when he decided to run for re-election.

Be sure to click on the gray boxes to follow the trajectories of different cohorts.