Monday, April 20, 2015
Iran and Australia make intelligence deal to fight Islamic State
Australia and Iran have made a deal to share intelligence surrounding Australian citizens fighting with Islamic State (ISIS) in Iraq.
Australia's Foreign Minister Julie Bishop met with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday in Iran to discuss the details of the deal, according to ABC News. She said the open flow of information will be beneficial in the joint fight against terrorist groups, particularly ISIS.
"It was an informal arrangement whereby we'd share intelligence that would give us information on the Australians who are taking part," she said on Sunday, according to ABC News. "I believe Iran has information that we would seek and they were very agreeable to share that information with us." Read more...
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Optus may charge Netflix and streaming services for video quality
The net neutrality debate may be coming to Australia sooner than expected.
In remarks made at the CommsDay Summit in Sydney on Monday, Optus CEO Allen Lew suggested streaming video services such as Netflix, Stan and Presto may soon have to pay for the delivery of premium service to their customers.
While Lew said Optus would continue to support net neutrality — the principle that all Internet traffic should be treated equally — in an apparent contradiction, he suggested the telco was considering asking what he called "OTT (over the top)" providers, such as Netflix, to cough up for higher streaming quality. Read more...
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Sunday, April 19, 2015
'Mad Men' Episode 10: Just 4 shows left, and we're looking at 'the forecast?'
“Four score and seven years ago... We know where we’ve been. We know where we are. Let’s assume it’s good. That it’s going to get better.
... It’s supposed to get better.”
SEE ALSO: 'Mad Men' Episode 9: The divorce may be settled, but it's never over
In “The Forecast,” Mad Men dips into meta commentary on the next chapter for its characters: Roger enlists Don to craft SCDP’s equivalent of a “Gettysburg Address” — a written statement about the future of the company, and where it will be next year. Roger doesn’t need “science fiction,” he says — just “reasonable hopes and dreams.”
Of course, there will be no "next year" for Mad Men in reality, as the series winds down its final run. So, in a way, notions of the future for Mad Men characters read like a musing on the afterlife. There are those that espouse a view that life after death has fixed things: saints, heaven, riches. But then there are those that doubt the existence of an after life altogether Read more...
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10 fascinating facts you probably don't know about Bradley Cooper
From being named People's "Sexiest Man Alive" to earning three consecutive Oscar nominations, Bradley Cooper has had quite an interesting career. His big blue eyes have always won over the hearts of swooning fans, but Cooper had to pay his dues for many years to lead up to the critical-acclaim he has earned today. With roles such as the distant war hero Chris Kyle in the controversial American Sniper to a struggling bipolar man just released from a psychiatric hospital in Silver Linings Playbook , Cooper has shown a range of acting skills in the last few years that arguably had not been expected in the past. Read more...
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Netflix traffic on iiNet explodes to 25%, but not without headaches
These days, according to iiNet's chief technology officer (CTO), Mark Dioguardi, one of the most common phrases being said in Australian households of an evening must be: "Shall we watch another episode?"
From his vantage point at iiNet, Australia's second biggest DSL internet service provider (ISP), Dioguardi has seen the country's appetite for streaming video begin to grow, and fast
In March 2015, after launching in Australia, Netflix made up 3% of iiNet's network traffic. Just under four weeks later it's at 25%, according to numbers Dioguardi shared at the CommsDay Summit in Sydney on Monday. Read more...
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Creative ways to mitigate the monotony of the job search
Searching for a new job is a grind. It’s a painful process combing through hundreds of boring job descriptions, spending hours crafting cover letters and spending days (or even weeks) waiting for a call
It is tedious and time-consuming — but it doesn’t have to be. With the right attitude, your job search can fun
Below are a few different ways to spice up the job hunting process.
Make the boring stuff easy
In general, searching for a job isn’t anyone’s idea of a good time. The repetitive tasks can make you go crazy. It's a seemingly never-ending process of finding new jobs to apply to, updating your resume for every application, tracking your progress for each position, attending networking events and sending follow-up notes. Read more...
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Video of tourists lighting Australian quokka on fire leads to court case
Australia's favourite random animal, the quokka, has been at the centre of a horrific court case.
On Friday, two French tourists were fined $4,000 for lighting one of the endangered marsupials on fire on Rottness Island, Western Australia, according to ABC News.
A video of the incident shows one man spraying an aerosol can and lighting it with a lighter, to burn the quokka. The other man filmed it and both men can be heard laughing in the background.
Thibaud Valette, 24, and Jean Batrikian, 18, were charged with animal cruelty over the April 3 incident. The pair could have been fined up to $50,000 and sentenced to five years in jail for the crime. Magistrate Elizabeth Langdon told Fremantle Magistrates Court she hoped the fines would act as a deterrent Read more...
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The pub argument of the decade: Do you skol or scull a beer?
Everyone needs to take a deep breath, have a drink and hug it out.
We are here to tell you that the scull/skol debate is over. The spelling battle heated up over the weekend after Prime Minister Tony Abbott downed a schooner of VB in record time at the local pub
Instead of focussing on the great Aussie achievement, Twitter users went down a rabbit hole debating the spelling of the verb, which means to drink an alcoholic beverage in one go.
Skol is technically correct by the way, but scull also acceptable if you are not a humourless pedant
— Dave Krantz (@weskrantz) April 19, 2015 Read more...
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This Star Wars super fan created his own working BB-8 droid
Can't get enough of BB-8, the new rolling ball-bot from Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens and potential candidate for droid that's cuter than R2-D2?
One diehard Star Wars fan decided to take his affection for the new 'bot to another level. Industrial designer Christian Poulsen challenged himself to build a miniature BB-8 that actually works — in one day
Poulsen's BB-8 is made from a modified Sphero robot ball. After cutting the toy up, painting it and adding an internal magnet to hold up BB-8's head, he had himself an adorable droid. His BB-8 is controlled via Bluetooth with the Sphero mobile app. Read more...
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A shocking moment on 'Once Upon a Time' will change everything on the show
The game of good vs. evil in Storybrooke may have had its match point tonight
Specifically, Emma Swan reached the end of her battle between the light and the darkness, and it wasn't the answer that anyone was hoping for
In "Sympathy For the De Vil," Emma had no sympathy for Cruella de Vil when the dog whisperer held Henry hostage, and after a standoff at the edge of the cliff, the villain met her maker at the hands of Emma. That's two down, one to go for the Queens of Darkness.
Dark Emma…. is legit everything on #OnceUponATime right now!!! http://ift.tt/1Q7MPqJ
— Monica (@OncersSource) April 20, 2015 Read more...
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6.4 earthquake strikes off the coast of Taiwan, tsunami alert for Japan cancelled
A 6.4 magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of Taiwan on Monday morning, local time, triggering a tsunami alert for Japan.
The quake was registered at 9:42 a.m. at 71km (44mi) SE of Su'ao, Taiwan, according to the United States Geological Survey. It was first reported to be a 6.8 magnitude quake, before it was downgraded to 6.4 magnitude.
The Japan Meteorological Agency issued and cancelled a tsunami warning for waves up to one metre in height in the southern Okinawa region of Japan. "Get out of the water and leave the coast immediately," the agency advised. "As the strong current will continue, do not get in the sea or approach coasts until the advisory is cleared." Read more...
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Hardware companies shine in Techstars' startup accelerator
IrisVR and Cartesian Co. are two of the 12 companies selected to participate in Techstars' Winter 2015 class in New York City. "If you're running a startup outside of Silicon Valley, you want to be at Techstars," said Ariel Briner, CEO of Cartesian Co. "They're one of the top two accelerators in the world."
Both companies rely on hardware as their primary technology — a rare breed in startup culture, where many companies are software-based, with apps and websites. Cartesian Co. built the world's first 3d printer for electronic circuit boards, while IrisVR takes virtual reality beyond gaming by creating a suite of products to help edit, share and visualize space. Read more...
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'Silicon Valley' Season 2, episode 2 recap: 'It's just business'
Pied Piper is in big trouble.
The upbeat mood of Silicon Valley's Season 2 premiere took a dive in episode 2, as Richard and the guys deal with the fallout of Hooli's lawsuit
CEO Gavin Belson's scare tactic has successfully spooked every venture capital firm that previously showed interest in funding Pied Piper. As a result, "Runaway Devaluation" often feels like the reverse of "Sand Hill Shuffle" — first with Raviga rescinding its offer, then during the montage of other VC rejections, which saw Erlich taking a much more deferential approach in meetings.
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