Divvyshot is a different way to share photos online. Photos on Divvyshot are grouped into collections called “events” — multiple people can contribute to one, eliminating the need to publish to separate albums. A trip to the beach. A hike in the woods. Your friend’s wedding. Divvyshot was designed to allow groups of people to share photos easily. Pictures your friends upload automatically appear in the events you’ve created or joined. You can store your entire photo collection on Divvyshot. Browse and share your photos using any modern web browser, or from the road or office with our iPhone application and upcoming Windows sync software. view more

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Divvyshot – A new way to share photos

The Ford Motor Company has opted for an interesting self-promotion tool: a series of Twitter-equipped Ford Fiestas which will make their way across the US to the Maker Faire, tweeting all the while. The project – described in full over on CrunchGear – is based around technology developed by the University of Michigan with one aim: to make a vehicle the platform for social networking.  Okay, two aims: to give Ford some cheap advertising for the 2011 range of Fiestas. The package responsible for the tweets, running on an in-car computer, is known as the “Auto”matic Blog.  Designed to hook in to the in-car ECU and read engine information – including, according to Ford engineers, “ engine rpm, speed, steering inputs, g-loads, that sort of thing ” – the software is designed to trigger an automatic tweet whenever anything interesting, such as sudden acceleration, deceleration, or swerving, happens during the car’s journey across the country.  A camera is also included, which takes regular snapshots of the – sometimes worried – expressions crossing its passengers’ faces. The “Auto”matic Blog isn’t the only software the cars will be running, either: a team of Ford engineers will be traveling in a car equipped with Virtual Road Rally, a package which tracks the car’s location via GPS and guides the user along waypoints and points of interest to a predermined ‘treasure trove’ location – a kind of car-based geocaching. A team of students from the University of Michigan will also be making the journey with an app of their own: Caravan Track.  Dispensing with the games and tweets of the previous apps, Caravan Track is a clever bit of kit that allows multiple vehicles traveling together to share information about road conditions and other experiences, with information gathered by the lead car being automatically transmitted to its followers. The cars can be tracked during their journey in a variety of ways.  The official website has a live gas mileage graph, while the most obvious method of seeing what the team is up to would be to follow the car itself on Twitter – user @AJtheFiesta .  For those using geolocated social network Foursquare, the team has even rigged the car to automatically check in when it nears a registered location. The American Journey 2.0 project is live now, and will continue as the teams travel across the US to California for the Maker Faire . Copyright

From a guitar shaped table to an iphone one, meet twelve craziest designs that are surely going to bring fun to your coffee time.

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12 Coolest Coffee Tables

Internet Security Company Trend Micro has issued a warning about a new scam on the go linked to the forthcoming world cup tournament which will take place in a couple of months. The new scam will arrive as an email in your inbox and will come with an attachment claiming that you have won a prize and in order to claim it, will have to send your personal details to the sender of the mail. “With the 2010 FIFA World Cup less than two months away, cybercriminals (as expected) are banking on this prestigious international football event to trick users” it says on the Trend Micro blog. “TrendLabsSM spotted the latest threat involving this, and it came in the form of an email message currently being spammed in the wild” the blog continues. The email attachment is a PDF file outlining details of the lottery that you have apparently won. “What was interesting about the purported sender of the email—one Mrs. Michelle Matins, Executive Vice President—was also the signatory for the 419 scam, aka the Nigeria scam” wrote Jovi Umawing of Trend Micros technical communications department. However, some of the emails retrieved by Trend Micro didn’t come with attachments and these were purportedly sent by a FIFA Vice President called Geoff Thompson. “Further investigation revealed that “he,” too, was related to an old scam” said Trend Micro. The first spam mail connected to the World Cup was identified by TrendLabs around a year and half ago, and that one was also about the recipient winning a lottery prize. Trend Micro offers products that will protect against this kind of threat by blocking spam before it finds its way into your inbox. Although this type of spam protection isn’t always 100 percent accurate at identifying spam, as non spam will sometimes be identified as spam too, it is better than nothing. “Users should be wary of more of these kinds of attacks or variants of these attacks as the sports event draws closer” wrote Umawing. “CNN says that the 2010 World Cup is the first of the “social media age” and thus the world may see record levels of global interactivity surrounding the event” warns the security company. So you have now been informed, no point in complaining after you’ve been ripped off so ignore these emails and any like them telling you have won a lottery prize. No decent organisation would be warning you of a big win by email anyway. Copyright

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We are so far away, now, from the original computer games, it doesn’t seem outrageous to claim that in a few years we might achieve complete virtual reality and, indeed, become a race unsure of what is real and what is unreal, as portrayed in films such as The Matrix. Most people have only experienced fully functioning 3D games with decent graphics, but games had beginnings routed in the very basics of electronics and computing. Here are 15 past advancements in video game technology that have made the industry what it is today: they gave birth to it, shaped it and are steering it towards a future. 15 Interactive Game 1947 When people talk about the humble beginnings of video games, the word ‘Pong’ gets thrown around far too much. Pong was an early arcade game that came about in 1972, and was commercially available for home use in 1975, but it certainly wasn’t the first. In actual fact, the first ever interactive electronic game was made 25 years earlier, in 1947. This was just two years after the end of World War II, and the missile displays that were used in the war inspired Thomas T. Goldsmith and Estle Ray Mann to create a missile simulator game on a cathode ray tube. The game used a completely analogue set up to control the CRT (Cathode Ray Tube) beam and to position a red dot on the screen overlay. 14 Influential Game 1961 In 1960, the Digital Equipment Corporation released the first in a line of computer hardware systems: the PDP-1 (Programmed Data Processor-1). One year later a group of MIT students programmed a game called Spacewar!, which was able to be played by two players at once, each controlling a space craft, firing missiles at each other. The game was also distributed through the Internet (as primitive as it was back then) and proved to be the basis for many other games to follow. 13 Publicly Released Game 1971 For years, games had only been able to be played where they were programmed, (generally just universities) but during the 50’s and 60’s many games were made by people at home as a hobby. Such games included the first electronic version of Tic-Tac-Toe. 1971 saw the creation of two hybrids of the earlier Spacewar!. In September, Galaxy Game, the first coin-operated games machine, was installed at Stanford University California, while 1500 units of Computer Space were manufactured in November and available for commercial sale. Computer Space was made by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney, the same two guys who went on to release Pong the following year and who eventually founded the Atari Company. 12 Home Console 1972 While similar to the first ever interactive electronic game, the home version of Pong (rather aptly called Home Pong) usually grabs the glory, but this wasn’t the case. Three years before Home Pong came the first cartridge console, called the ‘Magnavox Odyssey’, designed by Ralph Baer. Unfortunately, the console was a flop due to poor marketing and the apparent belief that you needed a Magnavox television to play the console on. Atari (then called ‘Nolan Bushnell’) capitalized on this by later stating on their Pong boxes, “Works on any television set, black and white or color.” After Pong was released and experienced huge success, Magnavox sued Nolan Bushnell for ripping off the ‘Tennis’ game, which had been featured on the Odyssey. They later also sued Coleco, Mattel, Seeburg and Activision. The Magnavox Odyssey also featured the first ever commercial “light gun” (although it didn’t work very well). In addition, a prototype for a golf peripheral, featuring a golf ball on a joystick that the player would hit with a golf club, was tested but never released. 11 Arcade Game to use a Microprocessor 1975 Gun Fight was an arcade game released in 1975 by Midway Games and was the first of its kind to use a microprocessor, rather than the traditional “Transistor- transistor logic” circuit boards that were in all games before Gun Fight. It used an Intel 8080 CPU, an 8-bit chip that was considered to be the first truly usable microprocessor. What did this do for games? In a nutshell, it allowed the graphics to be more continuous and fluid, being faster than the old circuit boards, and also more solid. 10 Handheld Game 1979 Microvision was the first hand-held LCD-based game console commercially released. It was distributed by Milton-Bradley and featured interchangeable game cartridges. One of these, (Cosmic Hunter – 1981) featured a 4-way movement capability, manipulated by the player’s thumb on the four buttons. This was an early inspiration for the D-Pad, which was used on many future console controllers, as well, of course, as the GameBoy. 9 3D Game for Home Use 1981 3D Monster Maze was the first ever game released on a commercial games machine that was in 3D. It was developed by Malcolm Evans in 1981 for the Sinclair ZX81 platform. The game awarded points for each step the player took without getting caught by the Tyrannosaurus Rex that hunted them in the 16 by 16 cell, randomly generated maze. 8 Online Game 1983 ‘SuperSet software’, a small company founded in 1981 in Utah, were responsible for the first ever game featuring networked game play. The text-based game, Snipes, was played between multiple people on multiple IBM personal computer systems in 1983. It was done to test and demonstrate the capabilities of the new IBM machine and the system, though crude, was the beginning of the online gaming we experience today. 7 8-Bit Game System 1985 The “bit” of a machine basically refers to the speed of the microprocessor inside it. An 8 bit processor can access 8 bits of data in a single operation, whilst a 16 bit processor can access 16 bits of data and so on. The advancement in “bits” of video game systems meant that graphics and game play quickly improved. Strictly speaking, the ‘Nintendo Entertainment System’ was the first successful 8 bit machine, selling nearly 62 million units to date and being Nintendo’s top selling system. However, some other machines surfaced at the same time as the NES, namely the ‘Atari ST’ and the ‘Commodore Amiga’. In this same year, these two machines marked the beginning of the 16 bit era of video gaming. 6 Game to Feature Blood and Gore 1986 We love violent games. Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Metal Gear Solid; all games that thrive on a sense of violence and disruption and, because of this, they are incredibly popular. Chiller was the first video game to ever feature blood or gore. Released in 1986 on arcade machines, it featured a light gun with the player taking control of a character and shooting everything on screen (including ghosts, zombies and humans). Some of the graphics represented flesh being ripped off in chunks as well as dismemberment. It was considered so bad, at the time, that it is the only game ever to be permanently banned in the UK. It seems funny now, when compared to the games of today, such as GTA, or Manhunt. 5 16-bit Game System 1987 The ‘TurboGrafx-16 Entertainment SuperSystem’ was released in Japan in 1978 under the “awesome” name ‘PC Engine’. It was made by NEC and was the first ever system to feature an optional CD module, or in short, play games from CDs. This meant more storage, cheaper costs and better sound for the TurboGrafx games. Also, interestingly, the console holds the Guinness world record for being the smallest games console ever made at just 14 cm x 14 cm x 3.8 cm. To date, 10 million units have been sold. 4 32-bit Game System 1993 Although the first 32-bit system was really the Amiga CD-32, released in September 1993, there were only 100,000 units sold worldwide. Similarly, the Atari Jaguar (released November 1993) only sold 500,000 units worldwide. In between these, however (in the USA), Panasonic’s first console, the ‘3DO Interactive Multiplayer’ was released and sold 2 million units. Because the 3DO was not released worldwide until 1994 and also came with a $700 dollar price tag, the actual first ‘successful’ 32-bit console is debatable. At the end of 1994, the Sega Saturn and Sony PlayStation were launched in Japan and were undeniably more successful than the other three. The PlayStation was the first games console ever to sell over 100 million units. 3 “true 3D” Game Console 1995 1995 saw the release, by Nintendo, of a console which promised to be “A 3D Game for a 3D world”. The Virtual Boy was a console on a thin stand, with an eyepiece on one side which, when looked through, would display red colors and blue colors in either eye. This made a deep 3D image, a more primitive version of today’s 3D cinema experiences. The console, however, was difficult to use and considered a risk to people’s eyes, not to mention that all the games (only 22 in total) were in red and red only. The console was, unfortunately, discontinued a year later but the concept was brilliant, and the first try at virtual reality. 2 64-bit and 128-bit Systems 1996 – 2002 The Nintendo 64, although grouped into the 32-bit era, was actually a 64-bit machine (hence the name), and just way ahead of its time. The 128-bit systems include the Dreamcast, Nintendo Gamecube, PlayStation 2 and the Xbox, with the Sega Dreamcast being released in 1998, two years before the PlayStation 2, which is the best selling console of all time. 1 Controlled without a Controller 2004 – present The EyeToy was the first peripheral that allowed a user to play a game with their body by using gesture recognition and computer vision. The cameras were used with a PlayStation 2 and the games were generally fun in nature, such as having to scrub a window clean with your hands. While the technology was good, the games were not varied and the EyeToy didn’t always recognize what you wanted it to. It did, however, mark the start of the next step in interactive entertainment. While not being a console, as such, Microsoft unveiled an incredible peripheral at E3 2009. Project Natal will mean a controller-free gaming experience on the Xbox 360, allowing users to control games with gestures, objects and even their voice. When I first saw it, I thought it was a hoax, but the astonishing video above shows it in action.

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15 Firsts In Video Game History

There is always someone looking for the easy way of obtaining more pleasure, wealth, or power. I always find it fascinating the lengths some will try just to achieve what they desire most. This list looks at 10 who are believed to have turned to the ultimate evil to obtain their desire. 10 Pope Sylvester II (born c. 945- died 5-12-1003) Pope Sylvester II was one of the most learned men of his time. Well versed in mathematics, astronomy, and mechanics; he is credited with inventing the hydraulic organ, pendulum clock, and introducing Arabic numerals to Western Europe. He also wrote books on mathematics, natural science, music, theology and philosophy. Pope Sylvester II was the first French Pope and certainly the most significant in the 10th century. Upon his death, rumors began to fly that his great intelligence and – consequently his inventive genius – was the result of a pact with the devil. This was most likely due to his regular contact with great scientific minds in the Arab world and his brave attempts to root out simony in the Church. 9 Nicolo Paganini (born 10-27-1782 – died 5-27-1840) Nicolo Paganini is one of the greatest violin virtuosos to have ever lived. He learned to play the mandolin at 5 and was composing by 7. He started playing publicly at 12 but by 16 he a breakdown and disappeared into alcoholism. He sobered up and by 22 was the first music superstar. Paganini was capable of playing three octaves across four strings in a hand span, a feat that is nearly impossible even by today’s standards. He composed 24 Caprices at 23 and for years no other violinist was capable of playing much of his music. His playing of tender passages is said to have brought audiences to tears. One of his famous pieces was called Le Streghe which translates to Witches’ Dance. Audiences believed Paganini made a pact with the devil to perform supernatural displays of technique. Some patrons even claimed to see the devil helping him during his performances. It is because he denied the Last Rites in the Church and his widely rumored association with the devil, that his body was denied a Catholic burial in Genoa. It took four years, and an appeal to the Pope, before the body was allowed to be transported to Genoa, but was still not buried. His remains were finally put to rest in 1876 in a cemetery in Parma. 8 Gilles de Rais (born 1404- died 1440) Gilles de Rais was considered intelligent, courageous, and very attractive with a bluish black beard. Born to one of the most distinguished families in Brittany, he came into his own when his father died in Gilles’ 20th year. He found himself with untold wealth and power which eventually led to his downfall. Gilles got an attack of “keeping up with the Joneses” which ultimately led to the loss of much of his wealth. In desperation he began to experiment with the occult under the direction of a man named Francesco Prelati, who promised that Gilles could help him regain his squandered fortune by sacrificing children to a demon called “Baron.” Over the course of his killing spree, Gilles raped, tortured, and murdered between 80 and 200 children. He was tried, found guilty, and executed by hanging and burning. 7 General Jonathan Moulton (born 7-21-1726- died 9-18-1787) Jonathan Moulton started as an apprentice to a cabinet maker but in 1745 he left and started his career in the New England Army. He fought in the King George War and the French and Indian War. He married in 1749 and sired 11 children. He became one of the wealthiest men in New Hampshire and this led to later tales of his deal with the devil. In 1769 the mansion he built in a poor Puritan town burned to the ground. Popular belief at the time was that Moulton had a pact with the devil wherein he would fill Moulton’s boots to the brim with gold once a month in return for his soul. It was said that Moulton thought up a clever ploy and placed his boots – with the soles cut off – over a large hole in the ground. The devil, wondering why it was taking so much gold to fill the boots discovered the trick and exacted revenge. It is believed that when Moulton died his body disappeared out of the coffin and was replaced by a box of coins stamped with an image of the devil. Moulton’s coffin was buried with no grave marker and its location is unknown. 6 Father Urbain Grandier (born c. 1590- died 8-16-1634) Father Urbain Granadier was a French Catholic priest who was burned at the stake after being convicted of witchcraft. He served as priest in the church of Sainte Croix in Loudun, in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Poitiers. Ignoring his vow of priestly celibacy, he is known to have had sexual relationships with a number of women and to have acquired a reputation as a philanderer. In 1632, a group of nuns from the local Ursuline convent accused him of having bewitched them, sending the demon Asmodai, among others, to commit evil and impudent acts with them. At his trial, the judges, after torturing the priest, introduced documents purportedly signed by Grandier and several demons as evidence that he had made a diabolical pact. They were written backwards in Latin and even included the signature of Satan himself. The text of the pact read as follows (the original can be seen above – click for a larger view): We, the influential Lucifer, the young Satan, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Elimi, and Astaroth, together with others, have today accepted the covenant pact of Urbain Grandier, who is ours. And him do we promise the love of women, the flower of virgins, the respect of monarchs, honors, lusts and powers. He will go whoring three days long; the carousal will be dear to him. He offers us once in the year a seal of blood, under the feet he will trample the holy things of the church and he will ask us many questions; with this pact he will live twenty years happy on the earth of men, and will later join us to sin against God. Bound in hell, in the council of demons. Lucifer Beelzebub Satan Astaroth Leviathan Elimi The seals placed the Devil, the master, and the demons, princes of the lord. Baalberith, writer. 5 Guiseppe Tartini (born 4-8-1692- died 2-26-1770) Tartini was an Italian composer and violinist. He was one of the most instrumental musical composers having written over 400 works. Unlike most of his contemporaries he wrote no church music or operas, he focused most of his work on violin concerti and sonatas. His most infamous piece is called the Devil’s Trill Sonata. The story behind “Devil’s Trill” starts with a dream. Tartini allegedly told the French astronomer Jérôme Lalande that he dreamed that The Devil appeared to him and asked to be his servant. At the end of their lessons Tartini handed the devil his violin to test his skill—the devil immediately began to play with such virtuosity that Tartini felt his breath taken away. When the composer awoke he immediately jotted down the sonata, desperately trying to recapture what he had heard in the dream. Despite the sonata being successful with his audiences, Tartini lamented that the piece was still far from what he had heard in his dream. What he had written was, in his own words: “so inferior to what I had heard, that if I could have subsisted on other means, I would have broken my violin and abandoned music forever.” You can listen to part IV of the piece above – the most difficult section, played by Itzhak Perlman. If you prefer a more techno version of the piece, you can hear Vanessa Mae playing it here . 4 Cornelius Agrippa (born 9-14-1486- died 2-18-1535) Cornelius Agrippa was the most influential writer of renaissance esoterica. He studied law and medicine but never obtained a degree. He was considered a magician, occult writer, theologian, astrologer, and alchemist. He was a leader in feminist rights and often defended women accused of witchcraft. He wrote 3 books on the occult that are still in use today. In 1535 he was labeled a heretic and sentenced to death. He escaped and on his way home fell ill and died. After Agrippa’s death, rumors circulated about his having summoned demons. In the most famous of these, Agrippa, upon his deathbed, released a black dog which had been his familiar. This black dog resurfaced in various legends about Faustus, and in Goethe’s version became the “schwarze Pudel” Mephistopheles. 3 Robert Johnson (born 5-8-1911- died 9-16-1938) Robert Johnson was a great American Blues musician. Ranked 5th out of 100 on Rolling Stones list as the greatest guitarists of all time. The legend goes that he wanted to be great at guitar and was instructed to head to a crossroads. There he met the devil who tuned his guitar, giving him mastery over the instrument. Johnson did little to dispel the rumors, even encouraging them by alluding to the fact that he had, indeed, made a deal with the prince of darkness. He produced 6 records before his death at age 27. Johnson’s death is controversial as the most common claim is he was caught flirting with a married women and she offered him some whiskey which was believed to be poisoned by her husband. He was buried in an unmarked grave, the location of which is still under debate. 2 Johann Georg Faust (born c. 1480- died c. 1540) Dr. Johann Georg Faust was an itinerant alchemist, astrologer and magician of the German Renaissance. His life became the nucleus of the popular tale of Doctor Faust from ca. the 1580s, notably culminating in Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus (1604) and Goethe’s Faust (1808). Legend has it that Faust wanted a life of pleasure and having been involved with the occult learned how to summon the devil. Having done so he made a deal with him for his soul in return for 24 years of service from Satan. Unfortunately after 16 years he regretted his deal and wanted to withdraw it. The consequences of this attempt to withdraw the deal are well known to any who have read the various fictional tales of Faust’s life: the devil brutally murdered him. 1 St. Theophilus of Adana (died c. 538) Saint Theophilus the Penitent or Theophilus of Adana (died ca. 538) was a cleric in the sixth century Church who is said to have made a deal with the devil to gain an ecclesiastical position. His story is significant as it is the oldest story of a pact with the Devil. Theophilus was the archdeacon of Adana, Cilicia which is part of modern Turkey. He was unanimously elected to be a bishop, but turned the position down out of humility. Another man was elected in his stead. When the new bishop unjustly deprived Theophilus of his position as archdeacon, Theophilus regretted his humility and sought out a wizard to help him contact Satan. In exchange for his aid, Satan demanded that Theophilus renounce Christ and the Virgin Mary in a contract signed with his own blood. Theophilus complied, and the devil gave him the position as bishop. Years later, fearful for his soul, Theophilus repented and prayed to the Virgin for forgiveness. After forty days of fasting, the Virgin appeared to him and verbally chastised him. Theophilus begged forgiveness and Mary promised to intercede with God. He then fasted a further thirty days, at which time Mary appeared to him again, and granted him Absolution. However, Satan was unwilling to relinquish his hold over Theophilus, and it was a further three days before Theophilus awoke to find the damning contract on his chest. He then took the contract to the legitimate bishop and confessed all that he had done. The bishop burned the document, and Theophilus expired, out of sheer joy to be free from the burden of his contract. [ Source ]

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10 People Who Sold Their Soul To The Devil

There have been some recent changes so I felt a brief update was due. This update also includes a request so please be sure to read all the items below. I am sure that most people will be happy with item 3. 1 Site Redesign I have previously mentioned that I am considering a site redesign. I have now decided to definitely go ahead with this. Rather than run a competition I would like to receive submissions from our readers and their friends. You need to send me an email (to jamie at frater dot com) with a link to your design portfolio. If I like what I see I will send you the specs for what needs doing and ask for a price quote. I am also asking people on design websites so while I would like to offer the job to a listverser, I will go with the designer that seems most to suit our needs. 2 Categories I have gone through the site categories and organized them for the first time since the site was launched three years ago. Some categories have been combined and we have a new one. These are the categories as they stand today: 1. Art & Literature: this combines the two categories of art and literature into one larger category 2. Bizarre: this remains unchanged 3. Crime & Mystery: this combines the two categories of crime and mystery 4. Entertainment: this remains the same but may eventually include parts or all of movies and music 5. Fact & Fiction: this is a new category; it includes all lists on myths, misconceptions, facts, and factlets 6. Food & Health: this combines the two categories of the same names 7. History: this remains the same 8. Leisure & Travel: this category combines sport, travel, and some leisure related lists which were previously included in “miscellaneous” 9. Listverse Admin: this was previously known as “Administration” and contains admin notes like this one 10. Listverse Extras: this includes archived “Your View” and “Videocast” lists 11. Miscellaneous: as before but I am slowly going through the contents to find more suitable categories 12. Movies: as before 13. Music: as before 14. People & Politics: this combines the two categories of the same name 15. Religion: unchanged 16. Science & Nature: this combines the two categories of the same name What I would like to do is work out a way to combine the appropriate lists in entertainment, music, and movies. I don’t want to turn it into one giant 300 list long category so suggestions for how I might best sort it out would be appreciated. 3 Cursor Ads Due to the response from the recent trial of cursor ads, they have been dropped from the site completely. They will not return. While they would have been a good income boost for us, it is more important that people enjoy their time on the site – otherwise what is the point?

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Site Update: May 2010