eBay Just Bought Svpply
They're not saying how much, so I'll assume it was for an obscenely large amount. (Eleventy trillion?) On paper, Svpply is a fairly modest portal site, letting users build public collections of things (usually expensive clothes) and raking in affiliate money everytime someone actually buys one. But that system is exactly how people expect outlets like Pinterest to make money, so it gives the 17-year-old eBay a rare edge on its more social-friendly competitors. Also, everything on Svpply looks really good, which suggests their designers can teach eBay a thing or two.
How Romney Learned The Hard Truth About Promoted Hashtags
Tweeps are turning against the Romney campaign's #areyoubetteroff hashtag by a ratio of 5-to-1. That's harsh, even by historical Twitter standards.
How To Fix Gmail in Five Minutes
Noticed your Gmail getting sluggish lately? Jack Goetzinger of SeatGeek has come up with a smart fix: just empty it out. It turns out, Gmail works a lot faster when it's not dragging around 10 gigs of archived mail. Goetzinger's solution is a little unwieldy — setting up a fast-loading, archive-free account on top of the old sluggish one — but it works. Of course, one of the things that made Gmail so attractive was that you didn't have to worry about the hassle of Outlook-style archiving, but if it'll save us ten seconds of agonizing load time, we're willing to give it a shot.
The Game That Writes Itself
Mercury is a new kind of sandbox game that's completely controlled by the players. As you might expect, things are getting weird.
Anonymous Has Hacked 12 Million Apple Device IDs
All last week, the security community was making noise about a critical flaw in Java 7. Five days later, Oracle released an emergency patch — and just two days after that, the flaw produced its first headline-grabbing hack. An Anonymous group called Antisec used the flaw to break into an FBI laptop containing 12 million of the unique device IDs Apple uses to track users across hardware. That's mostly ID numbers and profile pics, but still a big black eye for Cupertino and the FBI. (Why the FBI had that data is still unexplained, but you can bet someone will be asking.) Time to either update your version of Java or disable it entirely. Especially if you work for the government.
Five Amazing Sound Effects Of Radio Theater
Ever wonder how they make all those wacky sounds on the radio? Here are the five best tricks of the trade.
23 Great Twitter Handles Going To Waste
@Sexhulk deserves better.
15 Reasons To Own A Radio
Wait, seriously? You don't have a radio yet?
Inside The Exploit Trading Business
Selling security flaws is a thriving business — and if you do it right, it's legal too. Here's what it looks like from the inside.
16 Kickstarter Projects That Could Destroy Civilization As We Know It
Sure, these projects seem quirky now, but that scrappy amateur fusion reactor might blow up the earth. Fund at your own risk.
How Valve Is Turning Gamers Into Filmmakers
With Source Filmmaker, Valve has created hundreds of shoestring animation studios — and given machinima a shot at respectability.
How To Say LOL In 14 Different Languages
If you see something hilarious on Russian Facebook, you'll know exactly what to do.
Jimmy Wales Wrote Six Paragraphs On Quora About Boats And Pasta
The question: "Are there more types of boats or types of pasta?" 349 upvotes and counting.
The Printers Are Becoming Self-Aware
This Sunday, printers spontaneously started printing mysterious symbols. Does that mean the printer uprising is upon us? It's entirely possible.
Scenes From The (Virtual) Zombie Apocalypse
Joss Widdowson is the first photojournalist of MMORPGs, telling tales from the front line of an endless online war.
Why You Won't See "The Hobbit" At 48 Frames Per Second
Peter Jackson shot the movie at twice the normal frame rate, but Warner Brothers is already backing away from promises to screen it that way. Why? Because it looks really weird! Here's a demonstration.
The Art Of The Passive-Aggressive Redesign
"Hey, nice website you've got there. I made a better version of it, just so you know what that would look like." The weird history of unsolicited redesigns.
Like Garth Brooks? Mitt Romney Wants Your Email.
Apparently not even your Pandora account is safe from this season's flood of campaign spending.
Am I About To Be Sued For Using Demonoid?
The popular file-sharing site was raided by the Ukranian government this afternoon. Does that mean users are about to find themselves in court?
See New York City From A Thousand Different Perspectives At Once
This Is Now is a live feed of every single Instagram shot in a given city. There are a lot of pictures of buildings, it turns out. And food. Also, some penises.