New Technology : The Pomoduino: Make an Arduino-Powered Pomodoro Timer

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The pomodoro technique is a popular time management system that involves breaking work into 25 minute chunks with a 5 minute rest. Various software exists to help with this, but what if you want to use the pomodoro system while you’re working away from your computer, or while you’re at your workbench? Making an Arduino-powered pomodoro timer is a great introductory project to help you learn your way around an Arduino, and will actually result in something useful. The Goal In case you’d like to try to figure out how to set this up before looking ahead, here’s what we’re trying...

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New Technology : Yahoo Streams NFL Game Online, Skype Update Fixes Bug, & More… [Tech News Digest]

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Yahoo streams the NFL, Skype fixes character bug, Bethesda trails Fallout 4, Apple recalls Beats, Hound battles Siri and Cortana, and Geralt of Rivia steals The Witcher 3. The NFL Experiments With Free Game Yahoo has won the rights to stream an NFL football game online later this year, when the Jacksonville Jaguars and Buffalo Bills meet on October 25. The game will be broadcast on the Web for free to viewers around the world, although it’s expected to be mostly American viewers watching. Because this isn’t real football. Yahoo is believed to have paid $20 million for the rights...

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New Technology : The Unsung Pattern Behind Superhero Color Palettes

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In the world of superheroes, there’s usually a very defined line between good and evil. Spiderman, Superman, Iron Man, and others are always the good guys. Doctor Doom, The Joker, Lex Luthor, and plenty of others are always bad. It’s the actions that define whether a character is good or evil, but there’s more to it than that. The infographic below takes a look at how the color palettes actually quickly let us know who is good and who is bad. As it turns out, there are very clear patterns present throughout most comics as far the colors of characters...

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New Technology : What’s Your Favorite YouTube Video Of All Time? [We Ask You]

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Believe it or not, YouTube has been with us for over 10 years now, with the first video uploaded to the site on April 23, 2005. In the decade that has followed, millions of videos have joined that underwhelming clip of YouTube co-founder Jawed Karim visiting the zoo. But which video, out of the vast collection of videos uploaded to YouTube since then, is your personal favorite? We want to create a list of the best YouTube videos of all time, and we need your help to do so. If you can spare five minutes and a few brain cells,...

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New Technology : Productivity Hack: The Surprising Benefits of Using Your Apps on Separate Devices

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We often praise apps for being cross-platform, since that makes it easy to use them no matter what device you are on. However, there’s a down-side to it. If your app is everywhere, then your notifications are everywhere. To be productive, you might want to try accessing certain apps on certain devices only. Sure, distractions can be productive too. But for a lot of people, a smooth work flow is the better way to achieve maximum efficiency. The Experiment This is not a new idea. The basis of it is that all communication is not equal and you need to...

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New Technology : How to Install Steam and Start Gaming on Linux

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Gaming on Linux has always been a bit tough, limiting gamers to open source games, emulation, virtual machines and the unreliable Wine not-really-an-emulator. The release of a Steam client for Linux, and the slow increase in compatibility from developers has changed this, however. Now you can quit Windows and switch to Linux (specifically Ubuntu) in the knowledge that some of your favorite games will still be available to play. Indeed, if you’ve employed the Steam cloud for storing your save game files, you’ll be able to effortlessly pick up where you left off. Installing Steam on Linux computers is straightforward,...

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New Technology : Going Grocery Shopping? Top 5 Android Shopping List Apps

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Just because a billion humans do something every day, that doesn’t mean it’s easy. There are grocery stores across the globe packed with shoppers. Many of them are struggling. They’re forgetting things they made a note of that morning, walking down the same aisle they’ve browsed three times already, and making many impulse buys. There’s time, money, and gas down the drain, and they still don’t have all the food they intended to buy. This whole seat of the pants thing isn’t working. It’s time to think of a plan of action. You don’t have to use your smartphone to help you remember things, but, you know,...

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New Technology : Calm Down, Cord Cutters: Those Ads on Netflix Are Just Trailers

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Netflix has always been completely free of ads, and proudly so. In fact, during its China launch in April, CEO Reed Hastings said, “Our focus and our expertise is really in commercial free.” A month later, users in the United States started seeing ads before and after watching a video. Was Hastings lying? Is Netflix going to become just like any other TV network, where you have to sit through commercials while watching a television show or movie? Let’s sort the fact from fiction. What Actually Happened Over the past few days, some people have been reporting how Netflix has...

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New Technology : How to Install Skype on a Chromebook: The Ultimate Guide

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Thanks to multiple on-going disputes between Google and Microsoft, along with the former’s desire to push their own Hangouts app, there has never been a way to natively install Skype on a Chromebook. Previously, if you really wanted Skype on your machine, your only option was to install Linux as a second operating system on your machine, then use the Linux version of the software. The lack of Skype is regularly cited as one of Chromebook owners’ biggest gripes, and is also frequently mentioned by would-be buyers as a major factor in their decision not to make the purchase. All...

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New Technology : Can an Instagram Screenshot Be Art? [Internet Fight Club]

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Artist and photographer Richard Prince kicked off controversy with his New Portraits series. After news broke that Prince was seemingly printing off other people’s Instagram photos and selling them for $90,000, the Internet reacted in the only way it knows how: with emotion. While it at first appears to be a clear case of copyright infringement, the situation is a lot more complex. Prince’s argument is that his use of the images falls under fair use. It’s a difficult line to draw at the best of times, let alone in a case as controversial as this. Let’s take a look...

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