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30 Jan 2012 02:23

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Tech: Megaupload data could get deleted as soon as next week

  • 3 days until your family photos get deleted source
  • » But only if you used Megaupload to store them. Megaupload wasn’t just a place to share pirated movies; it also served as webspace for people to store their personal documents, pictures, hard drive backups, and the like. But Megaupload didn’t actually own the servers on which its data was stored–they outsourced that two other companies. Now that Megaupload’s been shut down, its assets have been frozen, and so it can’t keep paying the storage centers their fee. So, according to a letter from the US Attorney’s Office, the two data centers could start deleting the data as soon as this Thursday. That would be a shame for many, many people (although it should have been clear from the outset that Megaupload wasn’t the wisest place to back up one’s data). An attorney for Megaupload says he’s “cautiously optimistic” that they’ll be able to keep the data from being erased.

07 Nov 2011 23:22

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Music: Don’t wait to listen to “Camp”. You’ll be out of the cool loop.

  • Childish Gambino’s “Camp” is streaming already: You should have heard about “rap’s stepfather” by now. Childish Gambino, who you might know better as actor and writer Donald Glover, is releasing his latest album this month. Entitled “Camp,” it’s set to drop on November 15 … but if you’re cool, you can listen to it today. Thanks to NPR’s First Listen, you can listen to the entire album for free. It’s not safe for work due to explicit lyrics, but if we had our way, this would be mandatory listening material in every workplace. Take him seriously, though, as “few hip-hop artists have blurred the boundaries of rap and humor more subversively — or for a more serious end — than Childish Gambino.” source

23 Oct 2011 22:26

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Tech: Apple’s most iconic device celebrates a major milestone

  • Happy 10th Birthday, iPod: Apple has sold more than 300 million iPod devices since it was introduced on October 23, 2001. The first iPod had a five-gigabyte hard drive and could hold 1,000 songs. It sold for $399. Today, the iPod Classic can hold 30,000 songs on its 160-gigabyte hard drive at a cost of $249. source

12 Jul 2011 14:01

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Music, Tech: “New Pandora” does away with Flash and becomes more social

  • Pandora is getting rid of Flash. Their current site pretty much entirely runs on Flash, so a move to HTML5 is a big step for them, and as their site’s tech has gotten creaky over the years, a bit long-overdue. The moral of the story is that Pandora’s facelift looks really, really cool. Not to mention their renovations make the site more social, encouraging people to share music with their friends and making the entire process easier — it’s definitely something to look forward to, especially if you’re an avid desktop Pandora listener. source

11 Jul 2011 22:38

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Politics: Herman Cain: Presidential Candidate. Businessman. Gospel Singer.

  • “this does SEEM to be a gospel album recorded by the 2012 presidential candidate.” A fifteen-year-old record by pizza magnate and GOP presidential contender Herman Cain has just re-surfaced. This would make Cain the third declared candidate, after Jon Huntsman and Thaddeus McCotter, with a musical background; perhaps, if none of them receive the nomination, they can form a supergroup and perform at the convention? We haven’t had a chance to listen to the album yet, and the campaign isn’t offering it for sale, but thankfully, the entire thing is available for free here. We’ll report back as soon as we give it the time and attention it deserves. source

13 Jun 2011 13:31

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Music: Clarence Clemons hospitalized after massive stroke

  • The beloved saxophonist of the E Street Band has had two brain surgeries since the stroke, and initially suffered paralysis on his left side, but he’s able to move his left hand now and his condition is still improving. Over the past few years, Clemons hasn’t had the best health — he’s had surgery on his hips, knees and back. Despite that, he has yet to miss a concert because he’s so passionate about making people happy. Recently, Clemons guested on Lady Gaga’s new album “Born this Way.” Here’s hoping he gets better and gets back to what so many people love him for — making music. source

09 Jun 2011 16:49

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Music: Today would have been Les Paul’s 96th birthday

  • Happy electric guitar day, everyone! Les Paul, the musical legend centrally responsible for developing the electric guitar, as well as a range of musical innovations (he also pioneered multi-track recording), was born today in 1915. Paul led a long and industrious life; and still regularly performed into his 90s, ultimately passing away in 2009 from pneumonia complications. In honor of Paul’s birthday, Google has a pretty cool logo variant up that lets you strum some guitar chords, definitely worth a look if you have a few idle moments. A tidbit about the man’s commitment: he shattered his right arm in a car crash, and had the doctors pin his elbow at a 90-degree angle so he could continue to play, even though he’d lost all movement at his elbow. source
 

01 Jun 2011 14:50

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Music: Lady Gaga gets assist from Amazon in million-selling week

  • 1,108,000 number of copies of Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way” sold in its first week, the tenth-largest week of sales in SoundScan history
  • 1,140,000 number of copies 50 Cent’s “The Massacre” sold in its first week back in 2005; Gaga’s album is the largest sales week since then source
  • » Lady Gaga’s album set a record for digital sales, but Lady Gaga can’t get all the credit. Amazon was selling the album for 99 cents on its first day (even though it kind of backfired), contributing about 440,000 copies in the first week. Not surprisingly, Amazon’s deal upset some retail outlets, namely music stores who lost sales because of the insanely low price Amazon sold the album for. (Best Buy also had a similar deal, where they gave an album away with a cell phone. And it also sold at some kinda weird outlets, like CVS and Whole Foods.)

15 Nov 2010 11:16

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Tech: iTunes has major announcement in store. We can’t wait.

  • “We’re getting rid of this crappy iTunes Music store and replacing it with Lala.” We can dream, can’t we? That site was freaking awesome. source

08 Oct 2010 13:16

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Music: Fleet Foxes classic watered down for Spanish soccer commercial

  • That sounds familiar. We can’t quite place it. … it has that “one of the best indie-rock songs of the last decade” sound to it. Wait, did this company totally rip off Fleet Foxes and think that nobody would notice? Bastards. source