(via Tumblr Numbers: The Rapid Rise of Social Blogging [INFOGRAPHIC]) This is fascinating. I thought a while back that Tumblr had already got to or was nearing its peak popularity but apparently I was totally wrong. I guess it has been lucky in differentiating itself from similar products like Twitter and Wordpress etc. It is a short message service but not quite. It is a blogging platform, but not quite. The best way to describe it is as a sharing platform. Far more than Facebook and Twitter are because you’re free of the distractions on those sites. It’s pure content creation and curation in a simple and beautiful manner. A lot of the time, posts are just pictures, but not only that, they’re reblogged from other people, sometimes without even a comment from that blog’s author. Sometimes just a sentence. In the default state, you can’t even comment. You can only like or reblog. That’s Tumblr. Simple and beautiful sharing.
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(via Tumblr Numbers: The Rapid Rise of Social Blogging [INFOGRAPHIC])

This is fascinating. I thought a while back that Tumblr had already got to or was nearing its peak popularity but apparently I was totally wrong.

I guess it has been lucky in differentiating itself from similar products like Twitter and Wordpress etc. It is a short message service but not quite. It is a blogging platform, but not quite. The best way to describe it is as a sharing platform. Far more than Facebook and Twitter are because you’re free of the distractions on those sites. It’s pure content creation and curation in a simple and beautiful manner.

A lot of the time, posts are just pictures, but not only that, they’re reblogged from other people, sometimes without even a comment from that blog’s author. Sometimes just a sentence.

In the default state, you can’t even comment. You can only like or reblog. That’s Tumblr. Simple and beautiful sharing.

Source: Mashable

(via Microsoft bringing Windows ‘down to the phone’ with Windows 8 | The Verge) I’m not sure exactly what he means by this, but it certainly sounds like they would rather simplify a desktop OS than upscale a mobile OS like Apple does, or at least does in part by bringing innovations in mobile back to their desktop products. This is in my opinion the far better way. Windows phone is something fresh and new, and while it won’t be much of a threat to iOS and Android, it’s still a fresh new product. Desktop Windows seems to always be recycled code in a lot of areas and never truly starts fresh, so for them to be talking about porting this down to mobile is surely a disaster waiting to happen. It’s typical Microsoft and they need to go in a new direction if they’re to mount a serious challenge in the mobile OS space, not to mention keeping Apple and possibly even Google behind them in the desktop space in years to come.
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(via Microsoft bringing Windows ‘down to the phone’ with Windows 8 | The Verge)

I’m not sure exactly what he means by this, but it certainly sounds like they would rather simplify a desktop OS than upscale a mobile OS like Apple does, or at least does in part by bringing innovations in mobile back to their desktop products.

This is in my opinion the far better way. Windows phone is something fresh and new, and while it won’t be much of a threat to iOS and Android, it’s still a fresh new product. Desktop Windows seems to always be recycled code in a lot of areas and never truly starts fresh, so for them to be talking about porting this down to mobile is surely a disaster waiting to happen. It’s typical Microsoft and they need to go in a new direction if they’re to mount a serious challenge in the mobile OS space, not to mention keeping Apple and possibly even Google behind them in the desktop space in years to come.

Source: theverge.com

(via Residents Want Mountain Bike Course Open Post-Olympics | Cyclingnews.com) Great news. Glad that the vast majority of locals are in agreement about keeping the track open post games.
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(via Residents Want Mountain Bike Course Open Post-Olympics | Cyclingnews.com)

Great news. Glad that the vast majority of locals are in agreement about keeping the track open post games.

Source: cyclingnews.com

(via Adobe Explains: Apple Won, Flash on Mobile is Done) Too bad Steve didn’t get to see this but it’s another thing people will realise he and Apple were right in saying all along. It seemed to me like it was only ever going to cause battery life draining and software incompatibility problems. It’s good that all focus will be on HTML5 for mobile from all parties. With unity comes quicker progress which is great news for everyone.
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(via Adobe Explains: Apple Won, Flash on Mobile is Done)

Too bad Steve didn’t get to see this but it’s another thing people will realise he and Apple were right in saying all along. It seemed to me like it was only ever going to cause battery life draining and software incompatibility problems.

It’s good that all focus will be on HTML5 for mobile from all parties. With unity comes quicker progress which is great news for everyone.

Source: Mashable

McLaren boss Martin Whitmarsh says small teams vital to Formula 1

I disagree. The simple fact is that right now and for practically as long as the sport has existed, there have only been a select few cars that can win races. This year half of the teams or more are satisfied with just a point or two at the races and that shouldn’t be the case.

In an ideal world, I’d prefer there to be 2 car teams all with competitive equipment and strong drivers but unfortunately I don’t see that happening any time soon.

The only realistic way to achieve a more competitive, more exciting championship is to either allow the top teams to run 3 or 4 cars like they do in NASCAR or to bring back customer cars in a similar fashion to MotoGP where customer bikes are commonplace. They won’t be quite up to the standard of the factory machinery but they’ll be far better than what they currently get lapped 4 times per race in and they’ll probably end up saving money by not having to develop their own cars from scratch.

bike ♥ (by Rick Darge)

I love this. It encapsulates what it means to be a cyclist in the modern day. You want to ride your bike, often your pride and joy like a car is to motorists, but no matter what you do its security is never a guarantee.

It’s a risk you take for the love of riding. The risk and reward balance between riding a fun bike and risking theft is a tough one to gauge. It’s the reason why many like me now have a cheaper bike just for commuting so we can leave our main bikes to ride for fun.

It’s a shame it’s come to that but there really is no other way until society respects cyclists and their property far more than at present.

Source: vimeo.com

(via WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange to Be Extradited to Sweden) I actually forgot about this whole story until I saw it on the news today. It took them so long to come to this decision. I don’t understand why but in the end, if he’s innocent then he will be proven so in a fair court, which it will surely be. He has been far from convinced of that but hopefully it’s just a case of paranoia.
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(via WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange to Be Extradited to Sweden)

I actually forgot about this whole story until I saw it on the news today.

It took them so long to come to this decision. I don’t understand why but in the end, if he’s innocent then he will be proven so in a fair court, which it will surely be. He has been far from convinced of that but hopefully it’s just a case of paranoia.

Source: Mashable

(via UK to consider trial to put clocks forward | Reuters) I really think we should do this. Put us on the same time as the rest of mainland Europe all year round to simplify things considerably. We’d still have to change the clocks every 6 months but it would still be a positive change worth doing.
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(via UK to consider trial to put clocks forward | Reuters)

I really think we should do this. Put us on the same time as the rest of mainland Europe all year round to simplify things considerably. We’d still have to change the clocks every 6 months but it would still be a positive change worth doing.

Source: uk.reuters.com

(via Netflix Loses 800,000 Customers in Quarter) What were they thinking? I hope Lovefilm doesn’t try something rash like this. I suppose Netflix thought that their streaming catalogue was at a point now where people will be ok with making do with that on its own and forgo disc rentals. This hasn’t proven to be the case, and if there is a gap in the HD streaming for a significant portion of their catalogue, it’s another reason I would think people are cancelling their accounts. Lovefilm would be a bit foolish to try something like this now because their streaming service is a long way behind that of Netflix from what I can tell, as a big Lovefilm fan. I want to see the streaming part of their business grow massively in the next year or so. It’s the future of this type of business and in my opinion, the sooner discs are consigned to the history books the better. I’m just tired of having to send back faulty discs. What do people do with them when they rent them? I don’t get how they can get so bashed up and unplayable during the short journey from plastic sleeve to disc drive and back. Going back to the point, Netflix should have kept things as they were or at least just introduce a small increase in price on their existing plans to gauge resistance before completely turning their product line upside down and angering their (now formerly) loyal customers.
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(via Netflix Loses 800,000 Customers in Quarter)

What were they thinking? I hope Lovefilm doesn’t try something rash like this. I suppose Netflix thought that their streaming catalogue was at a point now where people will be ok with making do with that on its own and forgo disc rentals.

This hasn’t proven to be the case, and if there is a gap in the HD streaming for a significant portion of their catalogue, it’s another reason I would think people are cancelling their accounts.

Lovefilm would be a bit foolish to try something like this now because their streaming service is a long way behind that of Netflix from what I can tell, as a big Lovefilm fan. I want to see the streaming part of their business grow massively in the next year or so. It’s the future of this type of business and in my opinion, the sooner discs are consigned to the history books the better.

I’m just tired of having to send back faulty discs. What do people do with them when they rent them? I don’t get how they can get so bashed up and unplayable during the short journey from plastic sleeve to disc drive and back.

Going back to the point, Netflix should have kept things as they were or at least just introduce a small increase in price on their existing plans to gauge resistance before completely turning their product line upside down and angering their (now formerly) loyal customers.

Source: Mashable

(via Toyota announces 2012 Le Mans return with hybrid LMP1 car - Le Mans news - AUTOSPORT.com) This is pretty exciting news. Hopefully they can actually be competitive in Le Mans unlike almost all their years in F1.
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(via Toyota announces 2012 Le Mans return with hybrid LMP1 car - Le Mans news - AUTOSPORT.com)

This is pretty exciting news. Hopefully they can actually be competitive in Le Mans unlike almost all their years in F1.

Source: autosport.com

(via BBC Sport - Jenson Button commits to McLaren with ‘multi-year’ deal) After again watching the highlights video of his career that BBC put together, the only feeling you can have is that he totally deserves it, and he also totally deserved his 2009 title win especially when you consider miserable seasons like 2008. No other driver can match his combination of speed, intelligence, judgement and race-craft. There’s a reason why he’s always in the mix and often winning in strategy heavy races. He’s also getting better with age and because he came into the sport quite late compared to guys like Vettel I don’t see why he can’t keep going for many years to come and continue to be competitive.
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(via BBC Sport - Jenson Button commits to McLaren with ‘multi-year’ deal)

After again watching the highlights video of his career that BBC put together, the only feeling you can have is that he totally deserves it, and he also totally deserved his 2009 title win especially when you consider miserable seasons like 2008.

No other driver can match his combination of speed, intelligence, judgement and race-craft. There’s a reason why he’s always in the mix and often winning in strategy heavy races. He’s also getting better with age and because he came into the sport quite late compared to guys like Vettel I don’t see why he can’t keep going for many years to come and continue to be competitive.

Source: BBC

(via GT5 Spec 2.0 & DLC Details: Standard Car Interiors, Replay Controls, New Cars, New Tracks, & More) Gt5 is the game that keeps on giving, and they even mentioned DLC including new courses. That’s fantastic, even if it’s paid for content it’ll be worth it 100% for someone like me who still plays the game every week for the seasonal events.
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(via GT5 Spec 2.0 & DLC Details: Standard Car Interiors, Replay Controls, New Cars, New Tracks, & More)

Gt5 is the game that keeps on giving, and they even mentioned DLC including new courses. That’s fantastic, even if it’s paid for content it’ll be worth it 100% for someone like me who still plays the game every week for the seasonal events.

Source: gtplanet.net

Specialized First Gear - Songo (by specialized411)

Very inspiring. It’s just great to see how much these kids really love riding. Plus, they get to experience all different types of bikes and even have their own BMX track.

I hope they get to travel around and compete as a team

Source: youtube.com

(via BBC News - The Iranians risking all to party) It’s hard to believe that some places in the world are like this still. I mean haven’t the police got anything better to be doing?
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(via BBC News - The Iranians risking all to party)

It’s hard to believe that some places in the world are like this still. I mean haven’t the police got anything better to be doing?

Source: BBC

(via BBC Sport - The British Horseracing Authority changes whip rules) I was actually thinking about something like this recently, and it’s definitely a great idea to make sure horses are treated well and not hurt.
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(via BBC Sport - The British Horseracing Authority changes whip rules)

I was actually thinking about something like this recently, and it’s definitely a great idea to make sure horses are treated well and not hurt.

Source: BBC