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An Open Letter to All Blerds

Dear Friend,

We first met in elementary school. I was always curious what you were talking about, laughing raucously with the older kids. You must have seen my interest when we made eye contact across the room because you smiled and waved a hand for me to come over. A polite invitation must not have been enough, so I felt nervous as you got up and walked across the cafeteria to ask if I watched Tommy become the White Ranger. Who hadn’t, I wondered.

We were steady for years until I started to figure out romantic relationships. It was hard to juggle you and them, and they didn’t understand you that well, but those are just excuses. I fell off before Wanda said “No more mutants” and to this day I try to make up the time we lost. Our relationship has been a Deborah Cox song; not “Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here,” but the duet with R.L. people forget existed. I’m an adult now, and I know the secret you never tried to keep: Nerds are the most awesome people you can keep in your life. And Blerds? If you recognized R.L. from Next and were flooded with nostalgia, and you remember the exact moment Tommy pulled out his dagger in the white costume, you understand how special we are in our tiny sliver of the Venn diagram.

Blerds have the best community on the Internet, hands down. You are to online communities what The Wire is to television: Something so amazing that you feel woefully ineffective to explain it. I haven’t dabbled in all online communities to compare – I missed the new parent community, the vegan community, the country music community, among others – but I am confident in saying geeky people of color are the most fun, supportive and socially conscious group I could ever have the pleasure of knowing. You bond over memories of Gargoyles, debate fan casting of Saga, and band together against the onslaught of aggressions constantly hurled against you. You face a constant barrage of racism, sexism and trolls, yet when the Titans attack you mount up a coalition who swarm Facebook threads and Twitter feeds and you take back Wall Maria.

I have always been years behind social media, and was especially hesitant to join anything like Twitter or Tumblr. I kept to my quiet world of Facebook in the comfort of 200 carefully selected friends. It wasn’t until 2014 that I reconnected with Whitney Syphax Walker, watched the launch of Black Nerd Problems, followed other sites in the blerdsphere, and was led to a Whole New World on an African-print magic flying carpet.

Read more from Jordan Calhoun at Blacknerdproblems.com

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5 Issues with the Latest Release of ‘The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies’

… and by extension, the whole series of movies.

Plenty of other people have done better, more detailed reviews of Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films. I’m not going to add to that list. Instead, I’m giving you a non-review in the form of a listicle. I’ll try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible.

This list is presented by Troy L. Wiggins from Afrofantasy.

Here are the five things that I disliked the most about the latest big-screen installment of The Hobbit:

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Not Enough Bilbo

I’m not too keen on Martin Freeman’s comedic stylings, but the man can play a darn good halfling. The film series is called The Hobbit for Ilúvatar’s sake, but we only see Bilbo show up in key plot moments, and even then only to do something entirely predictable for the sake of pushing the story along. Bilbo is the most well-rounded, most believable, most interesting character in the film (dare I say the whole film trilogy), but Jackson saw fit to give Thranduil more screen time – presumably to show us all what an awesome job the effects team did with Lee Pace’s makeup.

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Xbox Live, PlayStation Hackers Ruin Christmas For Many Gamers After Shutting Down Network

Sony hacked again

On Christmas morning excited gamers all across the country were unwrapping their new PlayStation 4s and Xboxes and getting ready to take their virtual adventures online.

Unfortunately, their excitement was quickly turned to disappointment when it was revealed that both the Xbox Live and PlayStation Network online services were experiencing outages at the hands of hackers.

PlayStation sent a tweet out to their disappointed followers explaining that they were aware of the outage and working quickly to resolve the issue.

“We’re aware that some users are having issues logging into PSN—engineers are investigating,” the tweet said.

Currently, Sony’s PlayStation Network is still offline but Microsoft’s Xbox Live has managed to recover.

To be clear, neither of the gaming giants have confirmed what caused the outages, but reports are pointing to a group of hackers identifying itself as Lizard Squad.

The group of self-proclaimed hackers did not actually manage to “hack” either of the gaming giants but instead have managed to launch a massive distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack.

This simply stops would-be online gamers from logging on the networks but does not pose a serious threat to gamers or the companies.

Many people are also questioning the validity of the claims by Lizard Squad that they are truly the ones behind the outages.

The group has been adamant about getting recognition and even asked for gifts cards from Kim Dotcom, the founder of Megaupload.

It has not been confirmed if Dotcom complied with their wishes but the group did recently send out a tweet supporting Megaupload and Dotcom’s latest business ventures.

During an interview with WinBeta through an encrypted connection, Lizard Squad claimed that they started hacking the systems simply “for the laughs” but eventually realized they had a major opportunity on their hands.

Despite asking for gift cards from Dotcom, the group claimed the real purpose of the widespread outages was to force “these companies to upgrade the security on their networks,” Business Insider reported.

The group also claimed they had the ability to “take down NASDAQ if they wanted to damage the economy,” but said they simply weren’t interested in doing so.

While the outages came as an unfortunate surprise to many gamers, people who follow the group on social media weren’t so surprised.

Lizard Squad warned that they would take down the online networks over the holidays and they clearly followed through with the promise.

The group announced that they halted the cyber attacks, but as Sony struggles to get their services back up and running many believe it could simply be complications from the sheer amount of new users over the holiday season.

Either way, it’s a rough end of the year for Sony which was recently hacked as it prepared to release The Interview to theaters across the country.

The new comedy about a plot to take out North Korea’s Kim Jong Un sparked threats of violent attacks and led to many emails from Sony executives being released to the public. 

It was never confirmed if North Korea was truly behind the massive hack but the very idea of it encouraged movie goers to rush to independent theaters to see the film—not only for entertainment, but as a proclaimed stance against terrorism.

 

 

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10 Most Anticipated Sci-Fi Books of 2015 You Should Consider Reading

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1. Doors of Stone
The final chapter in the Kingkiller Chronicle trilogy, the 170-page novel by Patrick Rothfuss provides the much awaited ending to the series. The plot is divided into two realities: the present, where main character Kvothe tells the story of his life to Devan Lochees, and Kvothe’s past, which is the majority of the books. One of the most compelling portions of the story is the metafictional stories-within-stories from varying perspectives.

 

 

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2.The Winds of Winter

The sixth installment of the “A Song of Fire and Ice” series by George R.R. Martin is set to be published in 2015.

The previous installment, “A Dance with Dragons,” covered less of the story than the author intended. Martin has said that he intends to resolve the cliffhangers of the last novel early on in this installment.

“I’m going to open with the two big battles that I was building up to, the battle in the ice and the battle at Meereen—the battle of Slaver’s Bay. And then take it from there,” he said in a statement.

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Handy Guide to Apple’s CarPlay In-Dash Experience

Apple continues to be the forerunner of technological innovation. For those of you dreaming of having your own on-board computer in your car, Apple’s CarPlay is the closest thing to turning your car into a starship from Star Trek.

“CarPlay features Siri voice control and is specially designed for driving scenarios. It also works with your car’s controls — knobs, buttons or touchscreen. And the apps you want to use in the car have been reimagined, so you can use them while your eyes and hands stay where they belong,” according to Apple. 

This system is available in only one make and model — the very expensive Ferrari FF. This is the first and only commercially available vehicle in the world with Apple CarPlay right now. 

Earlier this year, Mercedes and Volvo were ready to deliver the same iPhone-compatible experience, but they were delayed into 2015.

Next year, the Volvo XC90 SUV and Mercedes-Benz C-Class will join Honda, Hyundai and Jaguar as models that will feature CarPlay.

More car manufacturers like BMW, Chevrolet, Ford, KIA, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Opel, Peugeot-Citroen, Subaru, Suzuki and Toyota will work on adding CarPlay.

Features

CarPlay allows you to use all your iPhone’s capabilities and features without touching it. Your music, navigation to your favorite stores, taking phone calls, reading and texting messages can be controlled without holding your phone.

You can even play your iTunes music, navigate Apple Maps and watch videos from your dash. In the future, Apple plans to allow third parties to build CarPlay compatibility into their own apps, making them available through the CarPlay system.

Ways to Use

One option you can use is the  touchscreen display.

In the next year, some CarPlay cars will come with touchscreen displays made into the dashboard. Users can use this display to open and close apps using a very simple home screen. This is the most straightforward method of using CarPlay.

Another option you can use is iPhone’s Siri.

By using Siri, you can talk to your vehicle and tell it what to do. That does not mean autopilot. That includes selecting music from your library or requesting a playlist. You can also have your messages read out to you before you reply.

The third option is using your physical buttons, knobs and controls. The volume controls, track skip and other features are all integrated and will work.

As 2015 approaches, keep an eye out for this new feature from Apple.

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Internet Privacy May Be Hard to Find in 2025, Many Experts Say

With increased government surveillance, the iCloud and the Sony hacking scandals and hacktivist groups on the rise, Internet security and privacy may be a thing of the past.

According to a Pew Research Center report released Dec. 18, 2,511 experts are on opposite sides of the issue on whether privacy is a feasible thing to achieve by the year 2025.

“This report is a look into the future of privacy in light of the technological changes, ever-growing monetization of digital encounters and shifting relationship of citizens and their governments that is likely to extend through the next decade,” according to researchers and writers Lee Raine and Janna Anderson of Pewinternet.org.

The report looked at a range of criteria and asked questions involving the issue.

Pew asked experts to think about “if policy makers and technology innovators could create a secure, popularly accepted, and trusted privacy-rights infrastructure by 2025 that allows for business innovation and monetization…”

The political issues around privacy on the Internet may create unwanted gridlock for an issue that needs fixing immediately.

“I do not think 10 years is long enough for policy makers to change the way they make policy to keep up with the rate of technological progress. We have never had ubiquitous surveillance before, much less a form of ubiquitous surveillance that emerges primarily from voluntary (if market-obscured) choices. Predicting how it shakes out is just fantasy,” wrote John Wilbanks, chief commons officer for Sage Bionetworks. 

Out of the experts polled, 55 percent believed that privacy was unable to be a reality in today’s technological landscape. The remaining 45 percent seem to be more optimistic about it. All of the experts believed that the Internet is inherently public entity. 

This issue will continue to be debated for the next decade and beyond as long as the Internet remains a vital part of modern life.

 

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LG Unveils Sleek Text-Message-Controlled Speakers That Eliminate Wireless Connectivity Hassles

LG Electronics is ready to revolutionize our music experience with speakers that can be controlled through text messages.

At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2015 in January, the tech giant plans to showcase the Music Flow speaker system.

The line of new speakers will be able to accept text message commands through a service called Line.

These days most popular tech gadgets can be controlled by using our smart phones as remotes, but LG wants to take the smart phone capabilities a step further.

In addition to using a text message to pause, play and skip songs, the texting commands will also be able to tell the speakers what kind of music you’re in the mood for.

A message that reads something along the lines of “play music for party” will have the system switch over to your party playlist.

If you won’t be in the mood to jam for too long you can also text the speaker and tell it to “turn off music after one hour.”

LG also hopes to do away with the pesky connecting process that people currently deal with through Bluetooth technologies.

Going through the trouble of pairing devices and searching for the right one only to somehow end up connected to your neighbor’s printer is a funny but slightly irritating story that most people have heard once or twice—or at least some variation of it.

LG’s new speakers, however, will be able to detect when a smartphone or tablet gets about a foot away and will automatically connect to it and play any music that is playing on the phone.

“So you could be listening to music on your headphones on the subway ride home but the music will begin playing automatically from your living room Wi-Fi Sound Bar when you enter your living room,” LG said in a press release.

Of course, the usual means of connectivity will still be available such as Bluetooth and a home Wi-Fi network integration.

The Music Flow line is also stylishly designed to fit the taste of the average modern consumer who appreciates chic simplicity and clean lines.

The complete line of the new speakers includes “the company’s first battery-powered Wi-Fi Speaker (Model H4 Portable), advanced Wi-Fi Sound Bars (Models HS7 and HS9) and the Streaming 3D Blu-ray Player (Model BP550),” according to the press release, and all items are designed to be compatible with Android and iOS devices.