Friday Fun Blog – Tech News of the Week

October 31, 2014: Evil Clown Edition

-In the mood for some scary stories? Of course you are, and that’s why Reddit’s /nosleep exists. There’s only one rule to this subreddit: everything you read is true. You’ll soon find out why they call it “No sleep”.

-Keeping with the Reddit theme, here’s /scaredshitless. Everything here is tagged as ‘NSFW’ just as a precaution, but you should get a clean pair of pants just to be safe. At work.

-Keeping with the scary stories theme (we’re really helping you out at your next campfire), here’s part one and part two of totally true scary stories from the commenters at Gawker Media, courtesy of Jezebel.

-Clown costumes have been banned in France because mobs of kids are running around dressed as clowns and terrorizing people with knives and other weapons. Ugh, evil clowns always have to ruin the fun!

-There’s a market in the African nation of Togo that deals solely in voodoo. The Akodessewa Fetish Market located in Lome, Togo has everything you’d need to cast a few spells, make a couple of dolls, and generally get in touch with the spirit world. Need some healing? I’m sure a shaman would love to grind up a cow skull and rub it on your skin.

-And finally, we always love a good prank, and there’s nothing more terrifying than a ghost coming out of your TV. The scariest part of this prank is that this ruined their relationship forever.

October 24, 2014: Better Brain Edition

-Did you know that Ebola is going to make us all bleed from our eyeballs any day now? Well, you would if you watched the news. An NYC doctor, who was working for Doctors Without Borders, has recently fallen ill with Ebola and it seems the most rational person throughout the whole Ebola outbreak has been his next door neighbor.

–The Queen of England has tweeted! The Queen of England has tweeted! Long live the Queen’s tweets! I bet her first tweet was, “What is this thing? OFF WITH ITS HEAD!”

-Obligatory Space Post of the Week: The distance between the Earth and the Moon is so great, that it can fit the rest of the planets (minus the Sun, obviously) in between it. And we also have to turn Saturn on its side. But other than that, all the planets in between the Earth and Moon. SPAAAAAAAAAAACE!

-Science is crazy—the biggest question right now is: Can we build a bigger brain? Honestly, go for it; go ahead and build the best brain you want. I just want to be able to storm into the lab at one point, look at the brain, then look at a scientist and go, “YOU CAN’T PLAY GOD!”

-The new Avengers trailer leaked earlier this week, and in case you haven’t seen it, here it is and like 7 other trailers you might be interested in. Not gonna lie–that Hulkbuster Iron Man suit looks a lot like Android’s mascot.

-Photoshop is a beautiful thing. People are getting so good at it, that photos look incredibly real. For instance, check out the Star Wars universe invading ours. Pretty cool. Here’s an idea: take stuff from our world and put it in the Star Wars universe. I demand a McDonald’s on Tatooine now, dammit!

And finally…

-Facebook is a big entity, and despite some protocols to ward off offensive or unwanted material such as photos, videos or offensive posts, some stuff slips through the cracks. That’s where a group of heroes steps up, flags and removes all the offensive and NSFW material that you don’t want clogging up your Newsfeed. These are the unsung heroes of dick pics, beheading videos, and other gross stuff. These are the Content Moderators. Just remember the next time you’re sitting at your desk, wondering what you’re doing with your life—at least you’re not looking at dicks and people’s heads getting cut off all day.

October 17, 2014: #RKO Edition

-Halloween is right around the corner, and did you know that there are legit haunted places in America? Here’s 10 of them. Don’t go to them, because you’ll definitely be possessed by spirits and then you’ll end up standing in the corner of a basement or staring at your significant other as they sleep. Being possessed by demons involves a lot of down time.

-If you’re not familiar with the world of professional wrestling, first–what are you doing with your life? Seriously, it’s the best form of unintentional comedy in the world (as well as some serious athleticism–and yes, I know it’s fake, I’m not 12). And second, WWE sports entertainer Randy Orton’s (pictured above) finishing move, the RKO, has been taking the Internet by storm, as people have been superimposing him into popular “FAIL” videos. VINTAGE ORTON! Honestly, this is the only video you need to watch on the Internet this week.

-There’s a new sheriff in Internet Town, y’all and his name’s Soft. Microsoft.

-DID YOU GUYS KNOW APPLE RELEASED A NEW IPAD? APPLE RELEASED A NEW IPAD. IT’S AN IPAD. AND IT’S BETTER THAN THE LAST IPAD THAT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE IT. PRAISE JOBS. Here’s 8 of the most important details about Apple’s new iPads. Seven of them involve “faster processors”.

-Do you love America? Sure you do, because it’s the greatest country on Earth and I will fistfight whoever says otherwise on the lawn of the Washington Monument. There’s nothing more American than our undying and kinda unsettling love of guns–that’s why this guy decided to mash the two up and use a gun and some metal dishes to play the United States’ national anthem.

-Obligatory Space Post of the Week: Astronauts aboard the ISS went on a spacewalk to do some repairs the other day, but we all know that it was just a clever excuse to take badass pictures of space. SPAAAAAAAAACE.

October 10, 2014: Paper Planes Edition

-Paper plane gun! Paper plane gun! This guy developed a gun that takes a simple piece of paper, and automatically folds it and launches it. Dude, the 3^rd grader inside me is giddy as all hell watching that video. I have visions of 3^rd-Grade Me running into my elementary school with this thing and shooting paper planes into teachers and assistant principals like a less threatening and more easily defeatable Rambo.

-Good news: President Barack Obama fully supports net neutrality and wants to shut down potential ‘Internet fast lanes’. Bad news: The FCC is an independent organization and doesn’t give an F about what Obama wants. Cash rules everything around the FCC, C.R.E.A.M, get the money, dolla’ dolla’ bills, y’all!

-So a horse walks into a police department, and the bartender is like, “What is this–a poorly written joke?”

-Researchers have studied cave art in Indonesia, and determined it to be nearly 40,000 years old—purported to be the oldest in history. What if they discovered a cave drawing and it was just a poorly recreated Banksy piece?

-The Empire is striking back in the Ukraine: for the upcoming Ukranian Parliamentary election, several Star Wars characters have found themselves on the ballot, including Darth Vader and Chewbacca. They are running under the banner of the Internet Party, and apparently there are like 4 Darth Vader’s on the ballot, a couple of Wolverine’s, a Spiderman, and a few Teletubbies or something. God, I love politics.

October 3, 2014: Tiny Horse Edition

-TINY HORSE ALERT. TINY HORSE ALERT. This article is about a tiny horse. That’s pretty much it. Come for the tiny horse, stay for the picture of a tiny horse with his dog best friend. I just came up with the best idea: Tiny Horse Rodeo with Little Person cowboys.

-Have you ever wanted to know who the Top 10 Vine Stars of All Time are? Have you ever wondered why there is a list titled ‘Top 10 Vine Stars of All Time’? Have you ever wondered how someone can become a ‘Vine Star’, let alone be one of the top ten of all time? This list should be titled, “60 Seconds of Your Life You’ll Never Be Able to Get Back brought to you by the Top 10 Vine Stars of All Time”. Come for the intrigue, stay for the most upper-middle class White kid names of all time. Looking at you, Nash Grier. I bet he has a brother named Connor.

-Self-driving cars are about to become a thing. How soon, you ask? Try next year. Elon Musk, owner of Tesla, says that by next year his cars will be able to self-drive 90% of the time. The other 10% of the time is you screaming, “OH GOD OH GOD OH GOD!” while grabbing at the wheel of a car that’s hell bent on driving itself.

-Obligatory Space Post of the Week: They’re trying to make an elevator to SPAAAAAAAACE. Sure, it sounds like a sci-fi fantasy, and that’s because it is. A functional, efficient elevator to space has a lot of things working against it–namely, everything. Money, materials, and the fact that it’s an elevator to space are just a few of the things that might stop this fantasy from becoming a reality. If a “wayward flock of geese” is one of your top concerns, then you probably shouldn’t build a space elevator.

-And finally, we have this awesome visual of the game of ping-pong a server goes through when it receivers requests. On the left you have the IPs that are throwing requests (the different colored balls) to the URLs on the right, the balls bouncing back to the left side are requests they have returned, which is what happens when you successfully access a site. If something can’t be returned, it sneaks through on the right—you can see a few of those if you look closely.

September 26, 2014: LOL WTF?! Edition

-Having a tough time understanding half of the phrases on the Internet? You’re not alone. Mashable brings you this handy guide to Internet-speak, as well as giving you some background on the phrases and terms you might hear the most. I LITERALLY can’t even because ugh, it hits me in the feels. LOL K THX BAI.

-The Internet is great for things like taking clips from super serious shows and putting bad lip reading over the top. The Walking Dead is a super serious show about zombies, and here’s the Bad Lip Reading version of their latest season. Carl might have a career in hip-hop after that whole zombie apocalypse thing sorts itself out.

-Obligatory Space Post of the Week: Guys, here’s a few awesome photos of the atmosphere around Mars. The MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (really forcing that acronym, huh, NASA?)) spacecraft successfully got into Mars’ orbit earlier this week and now has produced the first set of ultraviolet images that show the different gases and elements that make up Mars’ atmosphere. They’re hoping to learn about the history of the atmosphere around the “Red Planet” and whether it could lead to liquid water on the planet.

-The FBI is NOT happy that Apple and Google use secure encryptions for the data stored on a users’ device. They should be allowed to read anything and everything they want about you at all times and you should like it! Someone call the waaaaaaaaaahh-mbulance. “Just let us spy on you without your knowledge! Gosh, this is no fun!” Maybe they should go join Comcast in the Whiny Corner.

-Forget the NSA, forget the FBI and CIA and any other security agency that is spying on us. The biggest threat to privacy and security is Martha Stewart and her drones. She went on Late Night with Seth Meyers and openly rambled about her drone army. Martha Stewart is spying on you to make sure you’re properly folding your napkins and that your FORKS ARE ON THE OUTSIDE, YOU DUMMY! Drinking glasses go on the top right—were you born in a barn?!

September 19, 2014: iPhones and Cults Edition

-IT’S AN IPHONE FRENZY! People are lining up around the block, small communities have propped up on sidewalks with their own economies and governments all because they’ve been waiting in line for an iPhone for so long. Apple marketing execs want to push this as a device that will change your life, and one guy is taking that notion a little too close to heart. He waited in line for a new iPhone hoping that it would help him re-win the love of his ex-wife, whom he divorced recently. While he won’t give the exact reasons for divorce, he claims that he “wasn’t the best husband or father”. I have a suggestion: maybe start by not waiting in line for two days for a cell phone.

-But for those first few people who actually purchase an iPhone on the first day, it can be a moment of joy. Being one of the first to hold and use a brand new device is a source of happiness and pride for many. Dropping that iPhone immediately after you open it? Not so much.

-Are you in a cult? You might need a webmaster. This is what the leaders of the infamous “Heaven’s Gate” UFO cult realized before they departed on their journey to heaven on the back of a UFO that was hidden in the tail of a comet (…yeah). The “Heaven’s Gate” website is still operational—even if it is a bit “Geocities”-looking—even going so far as an online store that is still functional and webmasters that answer e-mails even all these years after the cult has gone on to ride in a Heaven-bound UFO with Space Jesus.

–LAKE MONSTERS ARE REAL. NESSIE IS REAL. Nothing is safe, not even the docks!

-Aliens are taking over snails! Run (slowly) for the hills! For real though, these are parasites that take over a snails eyestalks and then CONTROL ITS MIND to take it out in the open to be eaten by a bird, where the parasite then lays its eggs in the birds poop, which is then discarded and eaten up by a snail, and the circle of craziness continues. It’s just like that Elton John song “Circle of Life” but really dark and kinda freaky.

-Denver Broncos star quarterback Peyton Manning owns a bunch of Papa John’s franchises in the Denver area. Colorado was one of the first states to legalize recreational marijuana. Business is good for Peyton Manning.

September 5, 2014: Asteroid Edition

-Guys, did you know that the Apple iPhone6 is coming out soon? AND IT’S GOING TO REVOLUTIONIZE THE WORLD AS YOU KNOW IT. Or at least that’s what Apple wants you to think, considering they’re just repurposing technology that has already been out there for a few years and putting an “i” in front of it. This guy thinks the iPhone is going to replace the credit card because…well, I literally don’t know why he’d think that, it’s absurd. Maybe because Apple is doing it? Did you know that Apple is making iPhones with bigger screens? IT’S LIKE NOBODY HAS EVER THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE.

-This one makes my heart swell: Lego has officially become the biggest toy maker in the world, knocking off toy giant Mattel for the top spot. Seriously, I could play with Lego’s all day. The best part, for me at least, is the freedom it allows. Yeah, those recreations of Star Wars spaceships are cool, but the real beauty of Lego comes from being able to make whatever you want. I’ll be over here staring wistfully out of this window.

-This is a video of a dude going into a volcano. Nothing more, nothing less.

-We’re always big fans of women in tech, and it pleases us to see President Obama name ex-Googler Megan Smith as the United States’ first woman CTO. Congratulations, Megan! (I said that like she actually reads this blog. I mean, if you know her maybe pass it along? I’m sure she’d like to see that volcano video).

-This whole Net Neutrality thing might actually turn out well for consumers! Ha, just kidding, it’ll probably still be terrible, but at least FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is giving us a glimmer of hope before he caves to Comcast and gives them everything they want, including naming rights to our firstborn for access to 1Mbps connections.

-SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE! This is a picture of where our galaxy resides in our observable universe. Just a reminder, you’re a tiny spot on our planet, which is a tiny spot in our solar system, which is a tiny spot in our galaxy, which is a tiny spot in our local group, which is a tiny spot in our Supercluster, which is a tiny spot in our observable universe. But yeah, that Barista at Starbucks messed up your latte and now it’s the WORST DAY EVER.

-Also, there’s an asteroid that’s going to pass incredibly close to Earth on Sunday. “Incredibly close” is scientist speak for “close enough for us to study, but not enough for us to hole up in a hollowed out mountain with President Morgan Freeman.” I mean, it won’t be like this asteroid from 2013.

August 29, 2014: Sleepy Wolf Edition

-Let’s get this out of the way now: Apple has an event on September 9^th, and it’ll probably be the new iPhone and iWatch that will be debuting. Let’s give a quick rundown of what the all the rumors are about the new iPhone: NFC capable, bigger screen, faster processors, IR blaster, the ability to alert you when someone is sneaking up behind you, curing world hunger, toilet paper dispenser, surface-to-air missiles, every purchase comes with a free puppy, 6-speed manual transmission, power steering, power windows….

-In other news, someone funded a study to find out if wolf yawns are contagious. Turns out, they are. It all ties into the “same cognitive mechanisms that underlie our ability to share the feelings of others”, which is just a giant string of big words put together that I’m not sure I understand. I guess what they’re saying is that when a wolf yawns, other wolves will yawn, because they want to feel the same way as the yawning wolf. Contagious Wolf Yawn is also a great name for a band.

-Burning Man—a festival held in a desert where a bunch of people dress up and take hallucinogens—was held this past weekend, and according to the founders of the festival, Burning Man has “jumped the shark” due to the invasion of rich a-holes and the expensive VIP camps they set up. Really though, it was just a guy on LSD who thought he was actually jumping a shark.

-Dude, this might be the best idea for 3D games ever. Someone decided to take an Oculus Rift, and design a game that is based around the track of an actual roller coaster. A WHOLE NEW WOOOOOOOOOORLD….

-Do you like Denny’s? Sure, you don’t! Well, one Denny’s in NYC got a makeover and now serves craft cocktails and upscale décor. Nothing goes with a Grand Slam Breakfast quite like an Old Fashioned, right? I guess Denny’s decided to cut out the middleman and just get you drunk AT Denny’s instead of getting drunk then going TO Denny’s.

Enjoy your Labor Day!

August 22, 2014: Call Your Mother Edition

-We’ve all seen them: they’re the biggest viral videos of all time. All of the classics are there– “Gangam Style”, Leroy Jenkins, Charlie and his finger-biting ways. Check them out and marvel at the “History of Dance” guy’s dad jeans.

-The odds that someone somewhere around the world is listening to the same song you are at this exact moment is very good. Kyle McDonald took Spotify’s API and developed a map that shows where the same songs are played within seconds of each other around the world. Now you can be assured that someone shares your same crappy taste in music.

-Hey, you know that app ‘Secret’ that allows you to send anonymous messages out into the ether. Yeah, it’s totally not secret.

-You know those body scanners at the airport? Well, they’re really good at showing your naughty bits to strangers, but are really bad at detecting the weapons they’re meant to stop. Everyone can now go back to trying to smuggle an AK-47 in your butt.

-Cell phones have made it easier to stay in contact with the ones you love, as they’re just a phone call away. Except when you don’t want to stay in contact with the ones you love even if they are just a phone call away. Well, one neglected mother got fed up of being the recipient of the “F You” button and developed an app to force her kids to call. ‘Ignore No More’ allows parents to remotely control their child’s phone, locking it from texting or doing anything else until they call mommy dearest to get the unlock code and to be repeatedly told to call your grandma because she doesn’t have a lot of time left on Earth.

-The World’s Greatest Future Super Villain is at it again, this time developing a suit that lets him stand in the middle of a fireworks show. Ok, it’s not quite on the same scale as the flamethrower or the Wolverine claws he came up with before, but whatever, they can’t all be hits. At least he has the best seat in the house next July 4^th.

August 1, 2014: Butts Edition

-Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy opens this weekend and from what I’ve heard, it’s a roller coaster of fun. Marvel is big into creating their very own superhero universe, so they’re loading their movies with fun Easter Eggs to get fans talking. Do you stay past the credits of all the Marvel movies? You should, because you probably heard that stuff happens after the credits and you don’t wanna be out of the loop around the water cooler. Well, in case you are, here’s a handy little video detailing all the Easter Eggs of the Marvel superhero movies.

-A few weeks ago, there was the call from a customer with a Comcast representative as he was trying to cancel his service, and things were not…good. I mean, we all get frustrated with customer service sometimes (read: all the time), but one Albuquerque, New Mexico customer took things to a bit of an extreme. When she was faced with installation fees for the service a technician was doing on her house, Gloria Baca-Lucero decided she didn’t feel like paying the fees, so she did what any rational, sane person would do and pulled a gun on the technician. Baca-Lucero was arrested and later released on $10,000 bond, blissfully unaware that you can call customer service and threaten to cancel your service to get fees taken off and bills lowered.

-We all know dogs sniff each other’s butts. We all know that they do it to identify each other, but instead of just being like, “Oh that’s Ralph”, dogs actually can smell the other dogs diet, their emotional state and a bunch of other things, just from a butthole. It’d be like if you walked up to someone and were like, “Hi, I’m Mike, I’m a male, I’m feeling kinda sad today and I had an egg salad sandwich for lunch.” SCIENCE! Dogs use a secondary olfactory system called the Jacobson’s organ to filter out the butt smell, because butts are gross and smelly.

-SPAAAAAAAAAACE! Space is great, and recently—and debatably—the Voyager 1 spacecraft left the heliosphere a.k.a. the space beyond our solar system. Here, CNN provides a little rundown of the Voyager 1 craft, and shows off some spectacular shots that the Voyager probe has captured, including the famous “Pale Blue Dot”. If you don’t know what the “Pale Blue Dot” is, watch this video that has made our editor tear up every time he sees it.

-And last, but not least (not at all), China tries to claim the crown of “Weirdest Country in the World” by offering peaches that look like butts with panties on them. For $80 USD—or about 498 yuan—you can be the proud owner of the creepiest gift of all time. I swear, if someone got this for me, I’d be sure I was about to be murdered. Nothing says “serial killer” quite like a box of peaches with tiny panties on them. China is making a strong case for the “Weirdest Country in the World”. Japan, the ball’s in your court.

July 25, 2014: Hacking in Movies, Russia’s Sex Lizards, and Comic-Con

-Russia is the Florida of the world. From dash-cams catching people jumping in front of cars, Putin wrestling bears shirtless, to not being all that friendly to gay people, Russia is where you go for crazy world news. And rightfully so, because the world champion of crazy just got crazier as a Russian scientists have lost contact with a satellite filled with geckos sent into space with one mission in mind: SEX. Yep, there’s a bunch of sex lizards tumbling through space right now. The mission was meant to be a study of the effects of space on sex and reproduction, and now that’s out the window because they lost contact with the ship the same day it launched [insert Nelson Muntz “Haha!” here]. So now we have a rogue satellite ripping through space containing the sexiest lizard orgy this side of the Andromeda. If we find intelligent lizards on Neptune years from now, we’ll know why.

-Do you love baseball but hate your team because they’re terrible but you still want to show your support in the least supportive way possible? One South Korean baseball team—the Hanwha Eagles—figured out a way to do that by having robots sit in the stands. Yeah, robots. The Eagles are so terrible that fans don’t want to show up and watch them, instead cheering them on through robots connected to social media accounts. The robots have LED faces and you can project your face onto a robots and then be all, “Go Eagles!” without leaving the comfort of your own home and without watching your team be terrible. Chicago Cubs fans, you might want to consider this.

-This week is Comic-Con in San Diego, the largest gathering of fans of pop culture and comics in the world. Comic-Con has grown exponentially over the years, each year giving fans sneak peeks of all kinds of stuff, and sometimes it’s too much to take in, so The Verge has put together a handy (and constantly updating) list of all the cool things you missed if you couldn’t make it. It gives you the feeling of being surrounded by people dressed up as their favorite comic book heroes without the stench of Doritos and Mountain Dew.

-It’s no secret that we love space here, and so this image of a fully mapped galaxy cluster is just amazing. The galaxy cluster–MCS J0416.1–2403—is about 4 billion light-years away, and is roughly 650,000 light-years across. By the way, 1 light-year is 5.88 trillion miles….so, yeah, you’re insignificant. *cue anxiety attack*

-Movies are cultural staples, depicting real life in moving art. But sometimes, Hollywood gets things totally wrong. Take for instance, the concept of hacking: you’d think with all the research that goes in to movies that someone would actually look up what it’s like to hack into something (hint: it doesn’t involve yelling about the “mainframe”). Nowadays, they might exaggerate the process for drama, but in the 80’s when computers weren’t as prevalent, hacking in movies was like the Wild West: anything goes. And it was HILARIOUS.

July 18, 2014: Digital Bombs & Giant Holes in Siberia

Kick back, relax and try not to get sucked into a giant hole in Siberia…

Wooooooo! It’s time! It’s time! It’s Friday Fun Link Roundup time! What do we have this week? A lot of stuff—holes in Siberia, Russian hackers, and a guy that might be the worst criminal ever.

Let’s. Get. Into. It.

-Soooooo, Russian hackers might have left a “digital bomb” in the Nasdaq computers…four years ago. This is according to Businessweek, who said that hackers got into the Nasdaq with some malware and set up a “bomb” that never detonated, apparently. Man, is EVERYTHING unsafe? Also, if there were to be a Hacker Draft, the #1 pick is definitely coming from Russia. Those dudes are the kings of hacking.

-We all know that science is awesome. Scientists also have a pretty good sense of humor too, considering the fact that a group of scientists just named a brand new species of water mite after pop singer Jennifer Lopez. This isn’t the first time a celebrity’s namesake has been used for a new insect species: there is a spider, trilobite and marine parasite named after Bono, Mick Jagger and Bob Marley respectively. Somewhere, there’s an undiscovered fat slug that causes hallucinations just waiting to be named after Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

-Man, celebrities get all kinds of cool stuff, like their own Facebook apps. Zuck and Co., released Facebook Mentions for iOS that is specifically designed for celebrities and those with verified accounts that basically gives them a streamlined, Twitter-like experience of all the mentions of their name. You know who doesn’t use this? Actually, big time celebrities. I doubt Brad Pitt even has a Facebook account. This app is definitely going to be used by reality TV “celebrities” a.k.a. people who think they’re more important than they are.

-Ok, for every scientist naming bugs after J.Lo, there is another scientist that has developed the ability to diagnose things about you based on your voice. Just by listening to a recording of your voice, computer scientist Guillermo Cecchi can tell what drugs you’ve done or are on, whether you’re too tired to drive, if you have ADHD and a bunch of other stuff about you. That’s the coolest thing ever.

-THERE’S A GIANT HOLE IN SIBERIATHAT JUST APPEARED. What the hell, Russia? No seriously, what is going on in your country. I feel like it’s a whole other world with its own rules and none of them apply to anyone residing in it. Have you seen the Russian dash cam videos? Russia is the new Wild West, but colder. By the way, this hole just came out of nowhere. Literally, nowhere; there was grass there one day, then BAM! giant hole the next.

-This Week in “You Can’t Escape the Internet”, we have a fugitive of 21 years, who was pretty much living free and easy, who got caught because he had a Facebook page. Francisco Legaspi was on the run for 21 years after fleeing the country after being charged with filing false tax returns in 1993. Dude, you were free! You fought the law and were winning, you don’t need to update your status! He was caught by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after the US Dept. of State’s Bureau of Diplomatic Security probably typed his name into Facebook to see if he’d be dumb enough to have a profile and sure enough, he did. God, I hoped they served him his warrant by posting it on his wall.

-ESPN is getting into the e-sports game, bringing us one step closer to making “ESPN 8: The Ocho” a reality by presenting different “sports” on their vast array of networks. Gotta fill those channels, folks.

If we learned anything from this week’s Link Roundup, it’s that you shouldn’t go to Russia because you will definitely be swallowed by a giant hole while a hacker steals your identity. Also, don’t have a Facebook page if you’re on the lam.

July 11, 2014: Drones, World Cup, and Incredibly Rude City Names

We didn’t have one last week because we were out being AMERICANS, and to be honest, unless you wanted to read 50 stories about LeBron James going back to Cleveland, there isn’t a lot going on this week either.

Let’s do this!

-Have you been watching the World Cup online? You might’ve noticed that the streams were a little behind the actual broadcasts. Why? Because the world is watching. Or because bandwidth is being overloaded. Well, at least it’s not crashing like Brazil’s defense against Germany. BOOM, in your face!

-So there’s a social network that you never heard, that has no users, no money, no assets, one employee and it’s worth $6 billion. Or at least it used to be. The social network, Cynk, owned by Cynk Technology Group, was originally called Introbiz. Well, this week, with Cynk’s stock climbing to over $6 billion, the SEC put the kibosh on trading the stock, suspending it during an investigation until July 24^th.

-Sure, Google Maps is great, but what we really needed was a map of all the vaguely rude city names in the world. Amerigo Vespucci would be proud—proud, I say!

-Buzz Aldrin—famous astronaut and the second man on the moon—held an AMA (Ask Me Anything) on Reddit the other day, and he revealed his experience seeing a UFO during the Apollo 11 moon mission. Not a “space alien” UFO, but literally something he couldn’t identify, but he thinks it was just panels that came off the rocket reflecting the sun. Ugh, sometimes headlines are so misleading because I really wished Buzz would descend into crazy UFO conspiracy theorist in his old(er) age.

-Remember those drones that Amazon wanted to use for deliveries earlier this year? Well, they were SUPER SERIOUS about it. Like, really serious. Amazon keeps pestering the FAA to allow them to fly their delivery drones like a kid on a road trip asking, “Are we there yet?” They sent in an application to the FAA to let them fly, citing that several government agencies and academic institutions are allowed to fly. So basically Amazon has turned into a 4 year old child that’s throwing a temper tantrum over drones. Seriously, read the application—it basically reads like something a kid would tell his parents when he wants to get a BB gun. “I promise I won’t do anything bad with them, or shoot them at someone, and I’ll do my homework every night for 3 months and cut the grass and do all my chores. Tommy and Mikey have one, why can’t I? YOU GUYS ARE SO UNFAIR!”

Enjoy your weekend!

June 27, 2014: Zombie Virus, Standards of Beauty, and NSA Blimps

It’s Friday, and you know what that means: time to drink your lunch Mad Men style Friday Fun link roundup! This week, we have absolutely none of the news you care about and all the links to stuff you never thought you’d actually want to read. You know, stuff the Internet was made for. Want to see weird depictions of beauty around the world? What about the quickness with which a zombie virus would infect the world? Well, we have all that AND MORE…

-A group of protesters paid for a blimp to be flown above the NSA’s data center in beautiful Utah. The side of the blimp reads “Illegal spying below” with an arrow pointing to the data center. HILARIOUS. Seriously, if there’s one thing I love in this world, it’s calling people out on their BS in ridiculous fashion, and also anything involving blimps. In your face, government spying program!

-Speaking of the NSA, they recently released their first full transparency report—on their Tumblr, of all places. Basically, they reiterated some really low numbers for the amount of stuff they did. I’m surprised there wasn’t just one page saying, “Nothing to see here.” There was one 702 order which reached almost 90,000 “targets” a.k.a you and me. Oh, and also “targets” isn’t a singular thing either. 1 target could be a whole organization of multiple people, country, or whatever else they want to call a target. For being a transparency report, they weren’t really all that transparent.

-A new app called “Moment” tells you how long you spent on your phone that day. You can set limits, and then the app will let you know when you’ve gone over or are near it. Nothing like being shamed by the machine you use to not interact with people, right? I’m sure this will either help or utterly destroy a lot of relationships. “Hey honey, there’s this app that tells you how long you’ve been looking at your phone instead of looking at the actual world around you…” is definitely a great way to bring it up.

-Most times, corporate Twitter accounts are god awful (unlike ours, @ColocationUSA), but there are some really good ones out there (just like ours, @ColocationUSA). I mean, if I was in charge of the Denny’s account, I’d be tweeting random stuff all day too, mainly because your target demographic (really, really old people) don’t have Twitter, so who’s gonna see it, you know? Might I add in the DiGiorno Pizza account only because it occasionally combines my two loves: pizza and pro wrestling.

-“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder” is a really famous quote that someone probably attributes to Marilyn Monroe on Facebook or something. But it really is, and different countries have different standards of beauty. That’s why radio journalist Esther Honig asked Photoshopper’s from around the world to take a untouched image of her, and Photoshop it to their country’s standard of beauty and holy crap is it weird. Seriously, what the hell, Philippines? You too, Argentina. Also, if I ever met the United States’ standard of beauty, I’d be incredibly weary that she might be a lady of the night. That hair, yo. But seriously, the untouched pic is way better than any of the others. Get it, girl.

-We’d be remiss if we didn’t bring up some data center news in our Friday Fun link roundup, right? Instagram just moved all 20 billion of pictures of food, sunsets and dogs to the Facebook servers. On to more important news…

-If you’ve ever wanted to hear about your quick and impending demise at the hands of a zombie swarm as narrated by Morgan Freeman, then this is the link for you! On Freeman’s show, Through the Wormhole, a mathematician calculated how long it would take for a zombie virus to overtake the whole world and in case you were wondering, you’d be the walking dead by the time you learned about it. I mean, you might hear about it on Twitter but by then, you’d be attacked while walking down the street looking at your phone and your last thought will be, “I should’ve downloaded that Moment app and I would’ve seen this coming!”

That’s it for this week, see you on Monday!

June 20, 2014: College Football’s Saddest Bowl Game

The whole planet has World Cup fever and nobody knows what the heck is going on in Iraq, but that’s of no concern to us because there’s a guy who is doing amazing things for science and LEGO is trying to ruin your free time as an adult and that’s all that matters this week.

-It was announced this week that the newest college bowl game is….*drum roll*…the BITCOIN BOWL. Hooray! As if finishing the season 7-7 in the American Conference wasn’t sad enough, now you get to compete for the trophy of a bowl game sponsored by a fake currency! This is what college football is all about. I’m sure all the players involved will definitely be fired up to receive their swag bag of Bitcoin-related memorabilia and Bitcoin gift cards that they can only use at like 3 places in the world.

-Our condolences go out to these here United States of America, who has recently dropped out of the 100 most peaceful countries in the world. A day like this will undoubtedly be celebrated with another school shooting. It really is sad when you’re not safer than a continent that was originally a giant land-jail for criminals (hi, Australia!).

-Scientists have stopped trying to figure out our how this great universe of ours came into existence and have put their collective knowledge to tackle real issues: like why people get more attractive when you’re drunk. FINALLY. Stop wasting billions in space when we have greater matters at hand here on Earth! Long story short, the drunker you get, the more your inhibitions get lowered while your libido rises.

-In other science news, this guy jumped into a vat of Diet Coke while being covered in Mentos and the results are spectacular. More dunk-tanks should be like this; I want to see one at every carnival by 2015. It’s from the minds of the guys behind Epic Meal Time as they work on their new show Epic Meal Empire that debuts in July on a channel I never heard of.

-They exploded the top of a mountain in Chile to install a gigantic telescope and if that sounds awesome, well, get ready to be underwhelmed. This is like fireworks: a bunch of buildup and then you’re like, “I waited four hours outside for THAT?” Fast forward to about 1:00:00 into the video for when the “action” starts (unless you really like hearing people talk).

-The next time your mom/wife/significant other screams at you for playing too many games, tell them you’re working on your résumé. This guy put his World of Warcraft achievements on his résumé and now he’s the COO of Symantec and formerly the CIO at Starbucks and an exec at CNet and Best Buy, so what are you doing with your life?

-Lastly, LEGO has been on a roll lately. Following the success of The LEGO Movie, LEGO is now debuting a new way to make LEGO even better: they’ve developed a game where you are tasked with constructing buildings as the mayor of a fictional town and you can take pics with an iPad or other device and upload it, share your creations, visit other towns and all kinds of cool stuff. It’s called LEGO Fusion and there are other iterations too: you can build cars and virtually race them, a tower-defense game, and a resort builder. Awesome.

June 13, 2014: President Settles Debate, Jellyfish, and Edible Mist

It’s Friday, yo and we’re all hyped up for the World Cup and we don’t feel like doing aaaaaaanything at all, so you know it’s time for a link roundup! This week, we got gigantic jellyfish, edible mists, and the President settles the Internet’s greatest debate.

-SPAAAAAAAAAACEEEEE. We love it, you love it, and now Google wants to love it too. This is why Google is in talks to buy stake in Virgin Galactic, the space tourism company owned by crazy billionaire Richard Branson. Google recently bought satellite company Skybox for a boatload of cash, and now they’re moving more into the final frontier by looking at Virgin Galactic. The whole plan is for Google to launch a gang of satellites that would provide Wi-Fi all over the world, so more power to ‘em.

-Love food but hate actual nutritional value? Then you’ll love this edible mist that has been developed by food inventor Charlie Harry Francis and his company Lick Me I’m Delicious. First off, I don’t trust anybody with a first name as a last name. Also, anybody with three names is automatically annoying (looking your way, Sarah Jessica Parker), so I’m not surprised this guy made something equally annoying like edible mist. I guess it’s just flavored vapors, so technically it’s edible and healthy but no nutritional value; you could probably get the same effect with an e-cig and flavored oils without spending a boatload of money on a glorified Pokémon ball that smells like bacon.

-This week in “Things That Lurk in the Ocean”–here’s an in-depth look at the Lion’s Mane Jellyfish which will make you not want to go into the ocean EVER AGAIN. And global warming isn’t slowing their proliferation (it’s actually helping), which means the chances you get stung by one of these 120 foot long, 8 foot wide behemoths rises by a gazillion percent. HAVE FUN AT THE BEACH THIS SUMMER.

-Do you want a cup that tells you the molecular biology of the drink you’re currently consuming? OF COURSE YOU DO. The Vessyl cup can by synced to your smartphone, and it will display all the things you want to know about your beverage: sugar, calories, protein, and—if you’re a boozehound—alcohol content! The cup also displays that information on the side of the glass as well. That way, while you’re sitting on your couch watching the World Cup and drinking your face off under the guise of national pride, you can know exactly how messed up you are. Technology is the best, right?

-Tesla—the car company, not the guy—has opened up their patents to the world, and has stated they won’t sue for patent infringement as long as the patents are used “in good faith”. The reason for the move is that Tesla saw that many car manufacturers aren’t looking towards electric power, so by opening up the patents, it will allow other car companies to use Tesla’s technology to develop electric vehicles of their own. Hopefully, car companies use the Tesla patents for the overall good of the planet and our carbon footprint so that we can stop the raging terror of the Lion’s Mane jellyfish.

-And finally, the greatest debate of our time has been settled by the President of the United States. Is GIF pronounced like “ghif” or “jif”? Well, Obama has finally settled the debate and… (drumroll) it’s the hard G, like “giggity”. The guy who created the GIF disagrees, as he pronounces it like “jif”, but he’s not the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, IS HE? Didn’t think so, bro.

June 6, 2014: Remembering D-Day (And Sharks)

This week we got a catfight between Verizon and Netflix, we go shark crazy, and remember the amazing sacrifices of soldiers on D-Day.

-Verizon and Netflix are engaged in a petty war-of-words. Netflix recently started putting up messages when video playback wasn’t optimal; things like “The Verizon Network is crowded now”, and whoo boy! they did not like it. Verizon sent a cease-and-desist letter to Netflix, despite the fact that Netflix is doing it for other providers as well. Comcast was too busy being evil to respond.

-Something ate a 9-foot Great White shark. Something that scientists have no clue about. Something, lurking deep, ready to strike. Have fun never going to the beach again!

-Speaking of sharks, everyone’s favorite weather/oceanic predator mashup is back! Sharknado 2: The Second One (Greatest title ever. They know you’re going to watch it, so they don’t care—they could’ve/should’ve named it Sharknado 2: The Sharkening) has released its first teaser trailer and MY GOD. Everything you liked about the first one is back: storms, sharks, Tara Reid, Not Jason Priestley, and chainsaws. Chainsaws, the sharks’ greatest natural enemy.

On June 6^th, 1944—70 years ago—Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy in Nazi-occupied France. To remember the sacrifice of the soldiers that participated in the invasion, here are some of our favorite links about the infamous day.

-A few Twitter accounts are doing a realtime recap of the invasion, complete with pictures and updates of the action as it happened.

-A photographer has taken photos of the D-Day invasion and overlayed them on the current landscape in France, for a chance to see what it looked like then and now.

-Here are a few D-Day myths that are debunked by well-known historian James Holland.

-And finally, here are some amazing photographs of the invasion on June 6, 1944.

May 23, 2014: Morgan Freeman, Tea, and Helping Families with Autism

Sit back, relax, and enjoy listening to Morgan Freeman on helium. Also, this whole blog is more or less an excuse to post a picture of Morgan Freeman.

-Remember last week’s Friday Fun Blog and the kid with the Wolverine claws? Well, that guys back and this time he developed shoes that allow him to walk on the ceiling. Is anyone else really afraid of this kid now? We need to find him and eradicate him before he becomes a supervillain, because that’s definitely the next logical step.

-Morgan Freeman has the smoothest voice in the world. He should narrate everything, even the most mundane things like making toast. We’d love to hear a clip of him being all, “The bread comes out of the bag and is placed into the toaster. Through the magic of heat convection, toast is made.” Here he is breathing in helium and talking about gravity.

-In places with high smog density—you know, the stuff that blocks out the sun—they have started using buildings coated with titanium dioxide to reduce smog pollution. The titanium dioxide reacts with natural light and neutralizes the effects of air pollution, enough to equal 1,000 cars per day. They’re also developing clothing that is also coated in titanium dioxide, but if it doesn’t turn us into Colossus from X-Men, we don’t want it.

-Dealing with a child with autism can be tough, especially when looking for child care and other services. That’s why behavioral psychologist Sara Gershfeld created Love My Provider—a directory of therapists and other professionals who deal with autistic children. Families are able to find services near them, review the services and develop a better network of services for their needs. It goes far beyond just therapists and medical professionals, all the way into hairdressers, babysitters, dentists, etc.

-California will begin issuing licenses for driverless cars in September. As current Los Angeles residents, let us be the first to say, “OH GOD NO, WHY?!” Have California officials been on LA roads lately? We already have driverless cars in the form of people NOT PAYING ATTENTION WHILE DRIVING A CAR. We’ve seen people doing literally everything but manning the wheel of the 2 ton death machine they’re in. Hopefully the driverless cars don’t act the same as the actual drivers and pull the, “I need to get into the far left passing lane so I can slow down and text on my phone” move. The car will probably text for you, in that case.

-Finally, if you’ve ever been super stressed and wanted to just have a nice cup of tea, well an advertising company in Malaysia has developed tea that transforms when you steep it. Made with tea ink, images are printed on the bags, but when they are submerged in water, the ink fades off revealing a new, more calming image. Thunderclouds turn into soft clouds, a falcon turns into a nice bird, an angry bear turns into a smiling bear—you get it.

Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend, and we’ll see you on Tuesday!

May 16, 2014: Fire Tornadoes, Wolverine Claws, and Doomsday Pinners

-If you weren’t aware, California has seen some pretty high temperatures this past week. How high? Enough to start a bazillion fires and even kick up some FIRE TORNADOES. Yeah, you heard that right. Fire. In tornado form. You’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto—you’re engulfed in flames inside of the hellscape known as a fire tornado. So much burning, so much swirling. But seriously, it’s really hot out and it needs to stop.

-Remember Oculus Rift? It’s the virtual reality machine that Facebook bought a few months back. Well a designer wants to create an Oculus Rift for chickens, giving them the sense that they’re on an open range while actually being trapped in tight cages and treated inhumanely. Naturally, it’s satire, but the designer wanted to raise the issue of how we know what is and isn’t humane and because putting simulators on a chicken’s head is pretty funny.

-Want to be Wolverine from the X-Men? Want to mortally wound yourself in your garage? If you said ‘sure’ to both of those, then check out this guy who went balls out and made fully-automatic, retractable Wolverine-inspired claws. Because nothing says ‘safety’ quite like building mechanical weapons in your garage. Got some spare knives and an “ok” grasp of compression engines? You can make your own! Do you think they’ll use “tragedy” in the headline of his soon-to-be-obituary? Odds are set at 5 to 1.

-Do you friends describe you as “lacking in the douchebag department”? Well, Adidas has the cure for that with their newest service—taking pictures from your Instagram and putting them on your shoes. Yeah, you can take a picture and put it right there on your shoes. Think of all the annoying possibilities—you could get really meta and have a picture of you taking a selfie on your high tops; pics of the grilled cheese you ate last week on your sneakers; that weird shot of only your knees/feet at the beach on your kicks. I have a feeling this will be a hit with girls and guys who wear boat shoes.

-People that use Pinterest can get a little “pin crazy” sometimes. But what happens when real world-crazy meets up with Pinterest-crazy? You get Doomsday preppers on Pinterest. Oh yeah, there’s a whole deep, dark underbelly of people on Pinterest who are just clamoring for the apocalypse and are sharing all the valuable things they’ll be using on their various boards. I bet your aunt subscribes to at least one of the prepper boards.

-Finally, Google has hired a fashion marketing executive to oversee Google Glass. Holy crap, just let this thing die already. Nobody wants to buy $1500 stupid glasses that do LITERALLY EVERYTHING the cellphone in your pocket does, or the tablet in your backpack, or the computer you use at work, or the stupid watch you have on your wrist that they made you believe you wanted. When is enough going to be enough for wearable devices? Let’s not talk about wearable devices until the Google Contact Lens comes out.

There you have it—enjoy your weekend and try not to get murdered by a guy with homemade claws inside of a fire tornado.

May 17, 2013: Geeks and Nerds at Their Best

Every Friday, the witty young staff of Colocation America will attempt to make you laugh.  Here’s the Fun Friday Blog…

Sweet Jesus it’s Friday! Time for yet another fine installment of tech shenanigans: This week, MIT creates a robotic bartender, Facebook and Yahoo bid for Tumbler and how iPhone 6 will make everyone feel like a professional photographer.

Robotic Bartender

A robotic Bartender; glad to see MIT is putting money to good use. I suppose it’s a good thing that technology is replacing that cheeky guy or gal who ignores you then expects a tip. Is this the beginning of the end for service industry folks? Perhaps. MIT says it got the idea from a production line robot, except that maybe, just maybe, it could be programmed to make cosmos and foo-foo drinks for party-goers.

According to CNN, MIT has successfully rigged up their mobile-phones to the robot allowing them to place a drink order without even walking up to the bar. MIT insists that its robotic bartender demonstrates the future possibilities of consumer manufacturing, in this case foo-foo drinks designed by drunk idiots. What a technological breakthrough! At least you won’t have to tip the bartender. For the record, always leave a tip, so long as the bartender is human. If not, they may just put finger nail clippings into your cosmo. Shirley Temple anyone?

Tumbler’s Suitors

Now that Facebook is finally becoming uncool to the 18-24 crowd, let us shift our attention to Tumbler, the popular social media site dedicated to photo-feeds and such; Facebook and Yahoo are interested in snatching up the company. Personally, I think Yahoo needs to die because no one really likes them anymore. Facebook is kinda like Apple now, what with its Monopoly -yacht rocking attitude and such.

Don’t they deserve to rule the social media world forever and ever? The answer is yes, just let it happen. Then when Facebook finally falls from grace in 5-10 years perhaps this social media thing will go away for good. Then I could actually get back to getting work done around the house. I think there’s a tumbler out there that says “who cares.” On to the next thing…

iPhone 6 will make you feel like a professional photographer

Are you a self-proclaimed professional iPhone photographer? Lets be honest here, just because your smart-phone packs a serious punch in the camera department doesn’t mean you’re a real photographer.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t feel like a pro taking hipstamatic and Instagram shots with my iPhone, but apple promises its forthcoming iPhone 6 will pack the best camera punch yet. According to insiders, Apple has filed a patent for an illuminating device that will give users the ability to manipulate light just like professionals do.

The patent also promises to deliver other photo-enhancing tools such as: instructions on photo adjustment, how to properly take a test shot and adjust your position to capture that stellar food truck burrito you’re about to inhale. Can’t wait to hash-tag the heck out of that one. Until next week folks, hold on to your hats and try not to lose your sh&# if you happen to be a professional photographer who’s out of a job because of Apple. Ain’t technology grand!

February 15, 2013: When Taylor Swift Speaks Edition

In our latest installment of Fun Friday blogs the CLA editorial staff brings you our favorite happenings from around the web.

By golly it’s Friday peeps! And you know what that means? Time for yet another fine installment of CLA’s Fun Friday Blog. This week, when Taylor Swift speaks, gas pedals stick and corgis distract.

You Like Taylor Swift, Don’t You!

There’s always that closet Taylor Swift fan in the office. And that’s totally cool, unless of course one of your office mates used to work in the music industry.

This is what ensues when worlds collide; a rather heated discussion by the water cooler. I suppose that Taylor Swift fans, shall we call them “Swifties”, have a valid argument that not all music has to be made for musicians. Sometimes you just need a little pop music in your life, and not the good kind either.

Hey, she’s good looking and all but not everyone’s cup of tea. Does anyone really care how Taylor Swift’s Valentines day went? The “Swifties” sure do. I, not so much. On to the next one I say. So, uncle Jimmy, tell us, what happens when my gas pedal sticks on my crappy Renault? Do I just hang on for dear life and hope for the best? No my friends, there’s another way…let me tell you a lil story bout a Frenchmen I know.

Frenchman Escapes Death

Whatever week you’ve had probably doesn’t compare to what this gentlemen experienced when he discovered the gas pedal on his crappy Renault stuck. It’s too bad more peeps don’t buy American cars these days. The Tans Am’s a mighty fine car I do say.

I digress, what were we talking about again? Oh, right. The Frenchmen. Poor guy. Geez. So he’s just cruising along when the car just up and accelerates to 125mph. But there’s a twist (quite literally), the car maintains at triple digit speeds for over one hour, eventually running out of fuel and coasting into a ditch.

Remarkably, this man escaped death completely unscathed. Well, perhaps he had to change his pants. Moral of the story; French cars stink so buy America next time. Pal! Which brings me to my last time waster of a story completely unrelated to our industry; a cute pup named Corgnelius.

Corgnelius The Online Phenomenon

I’m not the biggest fan of Corgis, what with their big dog looks and short little paws and all, but looks they do deceive my friend. Despite his short legs and perhaps his ability to exhaust quite easily during long walks on the beach, Corgnelius just might be the CUTEST DOG IN THE WORLD!

Lets face it, if you’ve got a problem with folks dressing up their dogs in tiny bow ties and jackets, then you might just be normal. Not us, all of whom are completely enamored over Corgnelius’ new spring look book. Here, have a look for yourself. Closing remarks: if you drive a Renault, sell it! If you like Taylor Swift don’t tell your co-workers about it, they’ll get pissed. And of course, Corgi fans rejoice – Corgelius looks adversity in the face and says “shove it” because short legs and big ears are cool.

February 1, 2013: Death to the Mini Disc Player

What better way to end the week with a Friday fun blog.

Friday is finally here and after an eventful week chock- full of rather mundane tech blogs, what better way to end the week than with a light-hearted Fun Friday blog.

This week, Netflix challenges conventional TV for real, Sony announces discontinuation of the Mini-Disc player, Apple trumps all during Q4 of 2012 despite pending lawsuits with Samsung. Plus, the cutest animal pics trending on the internet.

NetFlix Challenges Conventional TV

Much like the music industry, technology continues to challenge conventional business models. The Netflix original mini-series, “House of Cards”, aims to become HBO before HBO can become Netflix (if that makes any sense to you) making the entire season available all at once. This approach is in stark contrast to traditional programming methods in which people are made to wait for each episode to unfold.

These days, it’s preferable to wait until your favorite TV show ends on regular programming only to take in the entire season at your own leisure. Netflix is investing millions into this business model and truth be told, the industry will forever be changed. ‘House of Cards’ is a take-off of an original British television series and packs an all-star cast to boot. Look out HuLu and HBO.

Sony Kills off The Mini-Disc Player

First off, did anyone even realize that Sony still made Mini-Disc players? Us neither. Fact is, Sony will be discontinuing all manufacturing of Mini-Disc players this March. What’s really sad is that the mini-disc player, which has been around since the early 90’s, never really took off to begin with. In reality, it really wasn’t bad technology.

Smaller than a bulky disc-man and cassette player, the mini-disc was marketed as a digital tape recorder/player of sorts and promised to be the next big thing in portable music technology. Problem was, Sony jacked up the price so high that young people couldn’t afford to buy one. Perhaps it was a victim of bad marketing. Sony didn’t invest too much in mini-disc back in 1992 and decided half-heartedly, to revive the brand again in 1998.

Unfortunately for Sony (and early adopters alike), it was too little too late. The iPod hadn’t yet happened but somehow the writing was on the wall  Hard to believe the min-disc has managed to hang on this long. R.I.P. min-disc player. You are loved but not forgotten.

Apple Trumps Q4 Smartphone Sales

In other news, Apple tops Samsung and Motorola during Q4 of 2012. Smartphone markets have been ultra-competitive and despite pending lawsuits with Samsung, Apple proves they have what it takes to outsell everyone.

Apple is following by Samsung and Motorola as the leading manufacturer, although all three suffered sluggish sales growth percentages throughout 2012. Lets see if Blackberry can make a triumphant comeback with its latest rendition of the smartphone. Best of luck to them as the competition is tough. Hopefully they don’t get sued by Apple or Samsung, who seem to have a penchant for aggressive marketing campaigns.

And Finally, Cute Animal Pics

No Friday Fun blog would be complete without the mention of cute animal pics currently trending on the internet. If you’re anything like us, you’re most easily distracted for 10-15 minutes if you are posting to buzzed day in and day out. Click here to see the 50 cutest Instagram accounts. From everyone here at Colocation America, Happy Friday! Have a great weekend and we’ll see you back here on Monday.