Watson Looks for Work

A team of IBM researchers spent four years building Watson, a computer system clever enough to beat the best Jeopardy players in the world. And although the three-day competition marked the end of Watson’s game-show career, it was just the beginning of Watson’s life in business.

One of the things that makes Watson unique is its ability to understand natural language—“getting at the meaning of words and understanding what humans meant, not just what they said or wrote,” says Katharine Frase, IBM’s vice president of research. OnJeopardy this means being able to pick through a riddle of a quiz-show clue; in the corporate world it could be used to decipher the needs of a customer. For example, callers to a help desk often “don’t describe the problem in a language that the person on the other end of the phone understands,” Frase says. A Watson-like system would act as a translation tool, turning English into engineerese.

Once Watson knows what is being asked, it must find the answer. The system that appeared on Jeopardy was preloaded with 200 million pages of encyclopedias, newspapers and works of literature. Any Jeopardy champion has absorbed a good deal of this material over the course of a curious life. But consider the medical literature, where “there’s so much information it seems almost inhuman to ask a doctor to be up to speed,” Frase says. This makes it perfect for the extremely inhuman Watson. One of IBM’s first projects will be to develop a system that would allow a small-town doctor to investigate a strange constellation of symptoms. From here it is easy to imagine a machine built for law or finance, one loaded with every legal decision handed down by the courts or the full text of every financial document published by every publicly traded entity in the world.

But one thing Watson can’t help with is deciding what projects to prioritize. “At this point the hardest problem is figuring out all the things we could do and what we should do,” Frase says. The company hopes to build prototype systems by the end of the year. After four years of education, Watson has passed its final exam; now it’s time to go find a job.

Awful Partying Scenes From Movies and Television

Before the days of Youtube and Jersey Shore… we depended on movies and television to interpret the craziness of debauched partying. Sometimes they made a perfect mirror to the world of those stricken with double vision and shaky sweatiness. Other times they failed horribly.

The filmmakers in charge of these party scenes were either completely disconnected Republicans or seriously abusing mind altering substances.

The Room

On this planet there exists many people who could be classified as genius. There are amazing musicians,  world changing scientific minds and bold groundbreaking filmmakers. None of which can describe Tommy Wisseau. This freak managed to somehow finance a movie that is described by some of the most back acne stricken nerds on the net as the worst movie ever made. Tommy’s take on drinking definitely transports you to another time and place… when you were uncomfortable.

Kickboxer

There was a time when Jean Claude Van Damme was really good at making the same movie over and over. It paid the bills and afforded him many a night with a fiery vixen. The man made the same movie like 8 times… but one of those movies stands out from the rest. That movie is Kickboxer. This movie contains one of the most awkward and bizarre drunken scenes complete with dancing AND a crazy drunken kickboxing master!

Kontroll

Hungary is a place that knows how to party. Understanding this corner of subculture has given them the ability to create the proper drunk wino chick for the big screen. In the Hungarian movie Kontroll, this woman demonstrates her ability to way overact being drunk on the largest escalator in the universe.

Dead Bang

The 1980′s to Don Johnson was a glorious decade where his name was actually relevant. It was so relevant that when he wasn’t totally lighting up the acting world in the smash hit series Miami Vice, he was able to land seriously huge movie roles in films that can only be described as classic. One such film was Dead Bang. Apart from it’s ability to have the word “bang” in the title and not be hardcore pornography, the film also features one of the cheesiest party scenes you will ever witness.

Nightclub

Mexican and other Spanish speaking television is always interesting no matter whether or not you fluently speak the language. They always are able to deliver a hearty laugh. The 1989 movie Night Club features an insane scene of drunkery that comes complete with a bizarre woman and a creepy guy grabbin’ on a boob!

Star Trek: First Contact

One of the major problems with drunk scenes is the trouble actors and actresses have NOT going completely insane while they act it out. Even the Star Trek universe wasn’t immune from the horrors that overacting can do to a film. This drunk scene from Star Trek: First Contact is a bit much, even for the most pristine virgin Trekkies.

Barfly

You would think a movie entitled Barfly would be counting on good drunk scenes for it’s success. It seems like there should’ve been a meeting during production about the threat of not acting drunk properly. This old guy went too far with the scene instead of his career.

Some Cool Ads

U.S. Smartphone Market: Who’s the Most Wanted?

U.S. is the biggest buyer of smartphones in the world.

According to The Nielsen Company’s monthly surveys of U.S. mobile consumers from July-September 2010, consumers planning on getting a new smartphone had a very clear preference: A third (33%) wanted an Apple iPhone. Slightly more than a quarter (26%) said they desired a device with the Google Android operating system (OS). And 13 percent said they wanted a RIM Blackberry.

But consumer preferences can be fickle. Those same surveys for January 2011 – March 2011 show just how much things have changed: According to the latest figures, 31 percent of consumers who plan to get a new smartphone indicated Android was now their preferred OS. Apple’s iOS has slipped slightly in popularity to 30 percent and RIM Blackberry is down to 11 percent. Almost 20 percent of consumers are unsure of what to choose next.

Those dynamics are already translating into sales. Half of those surveyed in March 2011 who indicated they had purchased a smartphone in the past six months said they had chosen an Android device. A quarter of recent acquirers said they bought an iPhone and 15 percent said they had picked a Blackberry phone.

Which brings us to the installed base of smartphone consumers: As of March 2011, 37 percent of mobile consumers who owned a smartphone had a device with an Android OS. Apple’s iOS, claimed by 27 percent of consumers, is now outpacing Blackberry, which has 22 percent of the market.

Yawns Are Contagious When You're with Friends

Studies have linked contagious yawning in humans to our capacity for empathy. In fact, scientists have found that those who exhibit empathy easily and often also do more yawning because someone else yawned.

If contagious yawning is indeed a sign of empathy, then we should probably do it more with friends and acquaintances. Because we have an empathetic connection with them that we don’t have with strangers. An Emory University research team decided to test that idea—with chimpanzees, who also yawn contagiously.

Researchers Matthew Campbell and renowned primatologist Franz de Waal,  studied 23 chimpanzees who live in two separate groups. Each chimp watched 20 minutes of videos of others chimp either yawning or just resting. Chimps who saw yawning chimps from their own group yawned 50 percent more than when they watched yawning chimps from the stranger group. Theresearch is published in the journal "Public Library of Science One".

Interestingly, chimps paid more attention to the videos of unfamiliar chimps. Because unfamiliarity breeds concentration. Whereas familiarity apparently breeds [Yawn sound.]

Stress tests devised to reliably reveal personality in birds

Most dog and cat owners will happily describe their pet's disposition down to the smallest, human-like detail. But how much of that is over-reaching anthropomorphizing and how much is an individual animal's actual "personality"shining through?

Researchers in the U.K. devised a series of tests to see how individual animals respond—both behaviorally and biologically—to different situations, choosing as their subjects 22 captive greenfinches (Carduelis chloris).

Test 1: Who's scared of a cookie cutter?Each hungry greenfinch must face a small brightly colored cookie cutter in their food bowl. Some brave birds disregarded the novel intrusion and dived right into their feed within seconds. Other finches tarried for more than half an hour without working up the courage to eat from the adorned dish.

Test 2: What's so interesting about Q-tips? With no food or water in the cage to distract the birds, a bundle of white Q-tips, tied together with string, is placed near one of four perches. Most birds declined to touch the new object, but some curious birds did flit to the nearby perch for a closer look.

Test 3: How stressed are you, really? A behavioral reaction to a new situation only tells part of the story. To hunt for the physiologic response during these actions, the researchers screened the birds for their oxidative profiles, a blood-based measure of metabolites that can boost energy but can ultimately hamper cell repair.

The researchers found that fear of the cookie cutter and curiosity about the cotton swabs "were consistent within individuals across days, and thus constitute personality traits in the greenfinch." And "both traits were related to oxidative profile." The most cautious birds had the highest levels of oxidative stress, and those that were most curious had better protection from the metabolite damage. The team cautioned, however, that "not all personality traits may be linked to hormonal stress responsiveness."

Personality research in animals is not new. Certainly other apes show indications of having nuanced individual personalities, and some researchers have even proposed personalities for invertebrates such as octopuses.

Rather than trying to pigeonhole Polly as an introvert or extrovert, the researchers hope to use these findings to look for larger implications about how these individual variances might affect survival in the wild.

"Neophobic birds—those that are afraid of new things—may suffer high costs of oxidative stress and die early," Kathryn Arnold, of the Environment Department at the University of York and co-author of the new study, said in a prepared statement. Being chary, however, promises some immediate benefits, she noted. These birds "might also be less likely to be eaten by a predatory because they are more wary than bolder birds."

The results of the study appear in the May issue of The Journal of Experimental Biology.

The Great White iPhone: How Apple Spun A Tech Fail Into A PR Win

"Finally" is the headline on Apple's homepage announcing the arrival of the white iPhone. It's Apple poking fun at itself for a long drawn-out techno failure, and shows exactly how Apple's again sprinkled a potentially bad affair with unicorn dust, and spun it into incredibly positive PR.

"By poking fun at itself with the 'Finally' remark, Apple looks a world away from the defensive company it appeared to be in 2007, when a few rogue questions caused an Apple PR to step in and halt an interview with British TV’s Channel 4 News," Rich Leigh, a PR rep with 10 Yetis and a columnist for a top U.K. PR magazine, tells us.

Just as the rumors had suggested, the Apple store went down for maintenance early this morning, and when it popped back up the white iPhone 4 was available to Apple buyers around the world. It's been a long wait, and the matter has been on many a mind for pretty much an entire year...because it's been almost that long since we were promised a white iPhone 4 by Steve Jobs himself.

It didn't arrive when the iPhone 4 went on sale in mid-2010 because Apple couldn't get its hardware working properly--the white coloring, combined with the iPhone 4's unusual glass frame meant the phone's proximity sensor and camera unit didn't function as they needed to. In other words, it was a big technological failure, from one of the world's biggest companies on one of its market-defining products.

Somehow, that's not the broader public perception, however. It's even thought that the much-delayed device, which mysteriously disappeared from Apple's website soon after it emerged it was failing in manufacture, could help boost iPhone sales through the summer and satisfy the consumer urge for Apple gadgets until a much later-than-expected launch of the next iPhone. The boost could be as much as 1.5 million extra sales per quarter.

Steve Jobs and Phil Schiller gave a rare interview yesterday to deflate the location tracking furor that's erupted recently, but they also were prepared to discuss the white iPhone. Schiller confirmed "it was challenging" to finally produce the device to satisfactory quality standards because "it's not as simple as making something white." Indeed, there's actually "a lot more that goes into both the material science of it--how it holds up over time...but also in how it all works with the sensors." This is a tacit confirmation that everything we'd heard about the technological difficulties was true, and that Apple and its manufacturing partners did make a big mistake--announcing a product that couldn't actually be produced in volume and go on sale.

Jobs, for his part, noted that Apple chose to pursue the white iPhone instead of simply dropping it from its plans (as perhaps other firms would've done, minimizing their loss) as part of an internal learning curve. Talking about the technological challenge of perfecting the white paint for the device and optimizing how the sensors work, Jobs said: "We obviously think about this in a generic way because you have a white iPad." Apple learned its lessons from making the white iPhone work and applied them to the newly refreshed iPad 2's front glass.

This kind of admission of failure from Schiller is almost chummy--it puts you, us, anyone who has tried and failed squarely on Apple's side. Jobs's assertion the company wanted to learn from its error is even more interesting--and could even be called admirable. Then there's that Apple.com homepage--"Finally." That's a trick to make the white iPhone affair funny, personal, with a self-deprecating "sorry, guys!" sense of humor you may use with friends.

It's Apple's sleek PR at work again--pulling off the same sort of maneuvers that ended the "antennagate" affair (do you even remember the details of that now? Bet you don't. And neither do millions of consumers who've bought the "flawed" iPhone 4 since).

Leigh reminds us that the trick isn't exactly new, "especially in the world of tech and video game PR." In fact, another recent example is that of the long-anticipated video game Duke Nukem Forever, which had been repeatedly delayed. Leigh reminds us "to appease fans, Gearbox Software's President Randy Pitchford put out a video entitled "A very special message from Gearbox Software," in which the company poked fun at yet another release date setback"--the video's been viewed half a million times, and rarely "disliked."

But in Apple's case, Leigh says, where "the white iPhone initially failed on the face of things, all it did is serve to whet the appetites of potential customers." Apple is "simply put, a PR monster," Leigh says, and its might and the "level of fanboyism surrounding the brand" definitely helps because "this sort of about-turn isn't easy to do."

Leigh also hints that Apple may be using the device to deflect attention away from the location fiasco, beating the "spying accusations in a straight reach-for-reach race" and this may be a deliberate ploy--although we're dubious on this suggestion, since Apple had to have the white iPhone engine engaged long before the location kerfuffle blew up.

In any case, the timing certainly didn't hurt Apple in its moment of good PR need--but the real power of its positive press comes from the company's willingness to look human in the face of failure.

Google's Click-To-Call

Google's mobile ads let consumers click a phone number and immediately call an advertiser. You'd be surprised who's using it.

A year ago, the Google ads team launched a new feature for mobile phones called Click-to-Call, which, as its name would suggest, lets advertisers include a phone number in their ad that users can click to place a call. 

That’s creating a paradigm shift in online advertising. For over a decade, when you, as a consumer, saw an ad online, it's pointed you to a website. Now, with the advent of advertising on mobile phones, there's no reason ads can’t patch you straight to the advertiser, instead of requiring you to fumble about their website trying to find what you want to know.

"We see a lot of mobile queries coming in on the evenings and weekends," Google Director of Mobile Ads in the Americas, Michael Slinger. "Our hypothesis is that these are coming in when people are not in front of their work computers."

Another paradigm shift also seems to be taking place--and it's one reflected inwhich industries are using Click-to-Call with great success. It turns out it’s not just the neighborhood pizza shop capitalizing on your late-night cravings. 

Many of the advertisers that are also seeing great response from Click-to-Call are those selling big-ticket items, like car insurance or cruises. 

Why those industries would love the feature is intuitive. They do most of their sales over the phone. Any system that can bring them a warm lead--for cheap--is a system they want to use.

"Within the cruise industry, about 80-85 percent of transactions take place over the phone," Willie Fernandez, director of marketing for World Travel Holdings, parent company of Cruises.com, tells Fast Company. "Clearly we want to drive as many calls as we can."

But what about consumers? Isn't car insurance or a cruise too big of a ticket item for someone to be inquiring about on a device as casual as a mobile phone?

It turns out consumers aren't making these calls as a result of scrolling through their devices while hanging out at the neighborhood bar, seeing an ad, and saying to themselves, "Gosh darn it, I think I would like to go on a cruise!"

Instead, it turns out, consumers are no longer just using their phones for making Foursquare check-ins or playing Angry Birds. People are actually increasingly using their phones for the kinds of productivity tasks they used to do exclusively on computers, like researching major purchases.

Tolitha Kornweibel, director of online marketing for Esurance, said the lightbulb went off when she saw a Yahoo Nielsen study showing people are using their mobile phones inside the home almost as much as they do outside.

"We realized that people were on their couches, watching television, becoming exposed to advertising, and then doing things on their phones like making calls," she says.

Esurance is using Click-to-Call in their ads so they can be front and center when one of those users starts looking for car insurance.

While Click-to-Call is available for both search and display ads, Fernandez and Kornweibel both tell us they use it in search ads only because they want to get in front of people who’ve already demonstrated that "purchase intent."

Kornweibel suggests that, though it may seem counter-intuitive that the feature would work with expensive items, it’s in fact because the items are major purchases that they generate the calls. Choosing a bouquet to send to your mother for her birthday is easy enough to do though a website or app. But for more complicated purchases, Kornweibel says, "When I’m ready to ask tough questions, I want to talk to a licensed insurance agent."

Google said "millions" of calls are made through the feature every month, though they declined to be more specific. So far about 500,000 advertisers are using the feature.

Technology or Privacy? Why You Can't Have Both!

All technologies that in one way or another invade your privacy rest on the premise that the benefits of such breaches outweigh the demerits.

Read that again. Then one more time.

Example: Airport Screening. While some may object to having their naughty bits lightly groped, it saves lives. Period. And if you're boarding a plane with me, I want to hear your answer to TSA's question..."Is that a stick of dynamite in your pants or are you just happy to see me?" If you're not ok with answering that question and following protocol, then I suggest you don't bother flying. The same could be said when it comes to technology. If you aren't ok with giving up a little bit of your privacy, then I suggest you return to prehistoric times. Because if you're shocked and enraged when companies like Facebook, Google and Apple are outed for privacy issues, then you and I need to have a little talk.

You see, people want everything! They want the best of both worlds. Connivence and safety. Connection and privacy. The problem is you can't have it all. You can't have one without giving up a little bit of the other.

I will never understand why people fail to educate themselves, then get upset with someone else because of it. Technology is here to make your life simpler, easier, faster! It's not technology's job to educate you on how to use it. That is YOUR job. It's up to you to learn the ins and outs of a product or service. They provide the interface. You provide the know-how. Or learn-how fast before you suffer the consequences, which would be nobody's fault but your own.

As you've probably heard, both the iPhone and Android have been receiving heat for tracking users whereabouts.

Q: How is this done?
A: Via GPS.

Q: What is GPS?
A: Global Positioning System.

Q: What does it do?
A: Tracks your whereabouts.

Q: How does this get turned on?
A: YOU TURNED IT ON!

Q: Were you notified beforehand that it would track you?
A: YES!

Q: Did you read that warning?
A: NO!

If you don't want people to know what you're doing or where you're at, stop broadcasting it. Stop using modern technology. Stop using GPS. Stop using smartphones. Stop using Twitter. Stop using Facebook. And yes, even stop using Google. When you Google something online your browser's cookies and cache settings act no different than what Apple is doing with their iPhone's GPS. Both keep a log of where you've been. Why? Mostly for your connivence, to speed up the amount of time it takes to retrieve similar information the next time you are looking for it. The only reason that should anger anyone is if they are up to shady things and don't want someone else to find out. Cheating on your spouse perhaps? Engaging in illegal activities?

A girlfriend once hired a Private Investigator because she thought I was cheating on her. Turns out, he found nothing. And as a result, I no longer wanted anything to do with her. The point is this - even though I felt my privacy was invaded and was left disgusted by the entire matter, it didn't keep me from ever wanting to date again. Does the "ick feeling" stick with me? Yes. Am I less trusting now because of it? Yes. Did I eventually get over it? Yes. What I'm trying to say is that while some iPhone users may be pissed at Apple, their anger is misplaced. They should really be angry at themselves. Technology isn't to blame here. The user is. I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of those that are angry are only angry because they were up to no good to begin with! And/or they simply don't understand technology vs privacy and how the two will forever struggle to co-exist together. But in time they too will get over it and move forward.

The more connected we become, the more privacy we have to relinquish. It's just the nature of the beast. It's insane to think of abandoning the entire world of technology just to reclaim your privacy. We live in a world that is more connected than ever before and to disconnect yourself from it would be like...I don't know, turning Amish?

My Grandmother is 91-years-old. She has a cell phone, uses e-mail, subscribes to NetFlix and recently asked me if she should be on the "FacePage." She's learned to embrace technology instead of fight it. And she's currently working to understand both the benefits and repercussions from using it. Lack of knowledge breeds fear. So educate yourself if you're going to pick up a shiny new gadget and start flicking switches.

Why You Will Want Apple, Google To Track You???

Apple and Google have been summoned to a Senate hearing on privacy matters, partly in the light of revelations that both firms track historic user locations in their devices. Apple's facing an early, highly speculative federal lawsuit on the matter. And it all focuses on alleged violations of user privacy. But in the very near future, you'll probably actively prefer that Apple and Google track your location--albeit under tightly defined privacy protection rules.

Apple's current PR kerfuffle rests on a file called "consolidated.db" hidden deep within the code of iOS and which never gets sent anywhere. The file contains a time-coded list of the phone's approximate position based on previously geo-located cell phone masts and known Wi-Fi networks. It only became an issue when researchers revealed last month how it could be used to track a user's position, historically speaking, and the press went crazy about it. Steve Jobs has now, allegedly, weighed in on the matter saying Apple doesn't track user location, and he's right--because Apple doesn't get to see it and the file is for internal use in the iOS device. It's possibly even a bug left over from an earlier experiment at fast-acquisition of a previously known network or for swifter A-GPS location locks.

Google has a similar file buried in Android, and according to Steve Jobs and other commentators it most definitely does use it to work out where you've been, for its own mysterious purposes.

In fact, if you look at some recent and older patents from Apple, bearing in mind the current vogue for social sharing and the upcoming wave of NFC wireless credit card tech, you're going to prefer Apple and Google track your whereabouts all the time.

Apple filed a patent numbered 12/553,554 last month with the USPTO and sites like Gawker haveused it to argue Apple has plans to "spy" on its users, and even to hint the consolidated.db file is no accident--it's the first stage in Apple's plans. But glancing at the patent it's immediately obvious that the future "location history database" file it mentions has very useful, innocuous purposes. Apple suggests the file could be used to geo-tag photographs taken by the iPhone's camera, presumably long after you snapped the image and forgot where it was. This could help you use the images in systems like its own iPhotos app--which has a "places" feature--as well as other online photo databases.

Apple even mentions the history file could be useful for users to "augment a travel time-line with content," in some kind of post-vacation multimedia creation, or to form part of a "personal 'journal' which can be queried at a later time" (a Captain's Log app, anyone?). It's all about mapping and added value, suggests the text--and though it does talk about how third party apps could call the data through an API, these too are "location aware" apps like the one's we're all signing up to in droves. The specifics of the patent also highlight the location history is approximately defined based on triangulation from known positional data like cell masts and Wi-Fi grids, because using a GPS system for permanent geo-coding would consume too much battery life.

If we dig back in Apple's patent history, we find the firm has long pursued very complex plans for geo-located apps and facilities in iOS. Back in 2009, Apple filed a number of location-based patents relating to turn-by-turn navigation--some of which, by definition, rely on a location history file to work. These are tricks like "intelligent route guidance" and "adaptive route guidance based on preferences" which suggest different routes to a GPS nav destination based on how you navigate there habitually, and perhaps with knowledge about current road conditions thrown in. There's also a "route sharing and location" aspect to the patents, which lets you send historic navigation information to a friend via some social sharing tool so they can copy, for example, that handy route to work you know that avoids a traffic blackspot. One implementation of this tech is a live position-share that happens over the network, which could help you meet up with a pal in a new location. All of these seem useful, and all of them require some degree of location history file--Apple even mentions a facility for users to turn on a special accurate "recording" of location, to help with navigation or possibly sports.

Another patent imagines an iPhone docked to a smart car interface, sharing navigation information and even specific apps for your car--again a system that could be very useful, and which would also require a location history file (or two, or three).

Yet another Apple patent, this time from 2010 and ostensibly concerning an updated alerts system and dynamic app icon alerts and loading, actually is all about location-aware advertising and even automated location-sensitive app uploads. It envisages the kind of location-sensitive ads that would pop up as you strolled near a coffee shop or walked near a tourist location in a new city, ads that would detect where you are and perhaps even tempt you in with a coupon (Groupon-, or perhaps Facebook-style). These are the kind of dynamic location-based ads that would be useful and could work to boost business at ad partners ... and it's easy to imagine them having a historic component: "We've noticed you walked by our coffee shop a couple of times this week. If you were a member of our loyalty scheme, you'd've saved $2.50 by now!".

This sort of functionality may deliver a type of advertising many consumers could prefer--as it's sharply tailored to their needs, rather than irrelevant ads--and it too requires some sort of location history. And don't tell us Google, king of social graphing and placing consumer-tailored ads on everything, everywhere, doesn't plan exactly this sort of uses for its location data from Android smartphones or tablets.

With the imminent arrival of the NFC smartphone "wave and pay," location data and historic location data becomes even more important. Apple's also extensively patented this technology, and has imagined that location data could be used as part of a security check--detecting that, for example, your phone is actually at the NFC-enabled ATM it's data feed is suggesting it is, and that no one has spoofed your data. It's also possible that you'd want Apple to track your phone's location to work out if, while you've been hovering in the New York area all day, at 2 a.m. someone with faked NFC credit credentials that match yours tries to buy casino chips in Las Vegas. This sort of security protocol will become increasingly important as we trust our smartphones to be our wallets as well as our mobile communicators full of personal data and photographs, and it too relies on some form of location history being stored in your device or at Apple or Google's data centers.

And, incidentally, if you're the kinda down on Microsoft for not pulling the same kind of location-recording tricks as Apple and Google (perhaps a hint at exactly how far behind the smartphone curve MS has slipped) then it also looks like Windows Phone 7 frequently sends neat little data packets to MS HQ, each of which contains data on Wi-Fi networks encountered and GPS info...plus a unique phone ID.

Less annoying adverts, super-smart navigation, location-based and journey-habit-based special offers, enhanced wireless credit card security ... why wouldn't you let your phone (and, possibly, Apple and Google) record your approximate location? There'll be questions of trust, and hack-proof security, but pretty soon you're not even going to think twice about it.

PlayStation Network Remains Down Indefinitely After Hacker Attack

Six days after Sony first announced that its Playstation Network had been experiencing difficulties, the network remains down.

Sony shut down both its PSN and Qriocity services last Wednesday after an “external intrusion.” The company has not given any indication as to when the network, which connects more than 70 million users for multi-player games, might be running again.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have an update or timeframe to share at this point in time,” reads the latest update from spokesman Patrick Seybold on the Playstation Blog.

Last Thursday, the same blog had cautioned that “it may be a full day or two” before the network was restored.

Angry Playstation users vented their woes on Twitter and on Playstation’s Facebook page, where each of three posts about the outage has accumulated more than 20,000 comments. Many threatened to buy a Microsoft Xbox, mentioned how bored they were without PSN, asked Sony to be more transparent about its rebuilding process or expressed anger at the hackers who allegedly attacked the network.

Some suspected that Hactivist group Anonymous was responsible. The group had previously targeted Sonyafter the company filed a lawsuit against George Hotz, a 21-year-old hacker who unlocked the PlayStation 3′s operating system.

In order to ensure the network’s integrity, Sony wrote that it is rebuilding both services. Investigations into whether users’ personal information, including credit card numbers, were compromised in the attack are still ongoing, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Look Us Up - We're in the Book

On Thursday, April 14th, we seriously overdrew our account at the Bank of Fabulousness! (Jean says: I've personally exceeded my quota of style sightings for the next six months!) One of our favorite style blogs published its first book -- the eponymously titled "StyleLikeU" -- and invited us to the book launch party hosted by none other than Vanity Fair Magazine. The book launch and website relaunch celebration was held at The House of Bumble, a chic hair salon, in the heart of the tres chic Meatpacking District. As if that weren't wonderful enough, bloggers turned authors Elisa Goodkind and Lily Mandelbaum were sweet enough to select the Idiosyncratic Fashionistas for inclusion in their tome, published by powerHouse Books. Because the book features the creme de la creme of SLU's blog, we were truly honored. Needless to say, all of the guests who appear in the book rose to the occasion and dressed to kill. (See below kiddies, Auntie Jean isn't exaggerating.) While Valerie chose to riff on the milk maid theme (by way of Issey Miyake!), I went hard-core Goth, complete with black coq feather hat and platform boots.


















Here' a cover shot of the 222-page book, chock full of photographs of individuals and montages of accessories (shoes, bracelets, rings, baubles, necklaces, etc.). A shot of my hands with my black bakelite rings and red bracelets graces the upper left section of page 99.


















We're positively thrilled that our photographs appear on page 205. The quote ("There isn't a VOICE for women of a certain age in fashion. We are not invisible and we are not dead and we're still consumers") comes right from our SLU video and really sums up our point of view.


















Here we are celebrating with our hosts. Elisa Goodkind appears dead center in the middle with Ramona Canino on the far left and Lily Mandelbaum on the far right. Did I mention that the bubbly was flowing all evening, that the appetizers were divine, and that they were topped off at the end of the evening by tiny (warm) greeen tea jelly donuts? Divine. Might I take this occasion to note a recent shift in Valerie's style of dress, away from colors to graphic black and white? Perhaps my influence is beginning to seep over into her subconscious? Stay tuned, and you be the judge... Valerie says: I scoff at this. Can you hear me scoffing? Here: Scoff, scoff. Anyone would think Jean invented black the ways she carries on. Scoff, scoff, scoff.













The Dutch burghers were wearing it hundreds of years before Jean was a so much as a glimmer in her father's eye, and the Beatles wore it before Jean had bought her first black ANYthing (I'm guessing).

















You don't hear any of them saying that Jean got the idea to wear black from them, do you? The problem is that a LOT of my polychrome clothes no longer fit me ('specially around the waist), and searching for replacements is a task, not a joy. When I was a size 8, I could sometimes wear a 6, or go one size up to a 10. Now that I'm a 12, the world thinks I shouldn't be wearing color at all, and doesn't make much of it in my size. And as for going one size up to a 14 - all you 14s out there: how often do you find anything you like in your size and preferred color? Not to mention that here in New York, it's easier to find black clothing than it is to find a good cup of coffee. (That coffee chain you're going to counter with does NOT make good coffee. Sorry.)

AND, continues Valerie, in high dudgeon, only a few hours before we wrote this blog entry, I told Jean I had found a vintage blue Norma Kamali dress IN MY SIZE (OMG!), and her eyes got as big as saucers when I told her about the one I'd found a year ago at a local thrift shop and had to let go because it was a size small. (Jean can wear a small. SIGH.) Shall I keep my eyes out for you if another one pops up, I asked, surprised that she would want something blue. And Jean said I should. So I ask you. Not quite sure what I ask you, but you can fill it in for yourself.





Valerie says: this lady was the 'bouncer' at the velvet cord when I arrived, and escorted me and an elevator full of others up to the party. Not too many people could have worn what I called her 'naked dress'. Jean says: Her illusion top was just that. Strategically places swirls of lace fabric covered (just barely) her magnificent decolletage. The dress was a show-stopper. (Click on photos to enlarge.) She looked fab coming AND going. More about her kohl-eyed companion later.




Because we were in the belly of the beast, so to speak, I guess it shouldn't have surprised me that several guests took advantage of the fact that the party was in a gorgeously appointed salon. This woman seized the moment and had her hair cut. The House of Bumble staff were extremely attractive and, from what we saw, equally talented. (Valerie says: it was the oddest thing to see. All of us swanning about, music thumping, and these few people doing about their business as if the party weren't happening. Sort of like two movie sets colliding.)

The gentleman on the right reminded both of us of Billy Idol, although he probably wasn't born yet when "White Wedding" hit the charts. But the hair, the jacket, the oversize sunglasses, the attitude. It was like we were transported back to the '80s.

Valerie says: Jean's camera is on the fritz, so I was left to do all the photographing myself. On a night when Jean takes 100 photos, I'll take maybe 20, so on this evening I photographed not just my favorites, but tried to imagine the people Jean would want to photograph. Periodically she would grab me and hiss in my ear "you have to get that one with the great shoes", or somesuch, and generally I was able to respond that I already had. In this particular crowd, we weren't likely to run into anyone camera-shy, thank goodness, so I was able to unburden myself of my usual hesitancy, and just snap away. Oh, and I say Jean hissed because it was so loud in there I probably wouldn't have heard her otherwise. Who invented the equation VERY LOUD MUSIC = fun? Isn't that an old theory which has since been disproved? Like the one about the earth being flat?

In her modeling heyday, Jenny Shimizu rocked the fashion scene with her exotic looks and aggressive style. She was one of the first models to sport prominent tattoos on the runway. Her androgynous look is quite striking. (Valerie says: there should be a book on models who give up the business, what their thoughts are on leaving the limelight, and what they're doing now.) The dancing redhead behind her is the fabulous Ilona -- she of the 2-inch long red lashes who often appears in Advanced Style.


When I cast my non-animated version of Jessica Rabbit, I want Domonique to play Jessica. She is gorgeous, voluptuous and amazingly sweet. And talented -- she designed and created her entire outfit, including the impossibly sexy transparent red fish-tailed vamp dress, hat and purse. I look like a shrimp on the side of a cocktail glass and she's the spicy horseradish and catsup sauce!







Our friend Tziporah Salamon appears in the book and appeared at the party, escorted by her friend David. As always, she dressed to the nines and did not disappoint.












Imagine my surprise to run into our friend Brandon -- and discover that he was wearing the exact same tiger-printed pleated Issey Miyake pants that I'd just scored at the last sample sale. (I said that silent prayer of thanks to Mary Magdalen, the unofficial patron saint of fashion, that I had chosen NOT to wear my pair that evening!)





Shuva was one of my favorite characters of the evening. He's a punk musician who eschews all corporate trappings such as business cards and email and chooses to combine his wild mohawk with dreadlocks and black-rimmed eyes with Ninja-style pants and shoes. He was a terrific sport and indulged our comments and banter with enormous good humor. Here he is with Julius, wearing the spiked jacket.




















Here's a close-up of Shuva's cloven Ninja shoes. If they had been my size, I'd have created a diversion and ripped them right off his feet.

Ilona and her dance partner again. Jean says: Earlier in the evening, when I was walking to the party, I ran into Ari Seth Cohen and Lina who had just accompanied Ilona to an event at DeBeers (yes, THAT DeBeers). Patrick Orcutt from SLU showed up at the same time and he and I volunteered to escort Ilona the rest of the way to the party. She is a tiny bundle of energy. At 91, she puts the rest of us to shame. As you can see from the photo, she was thoroughly enjoying the DJ's selections.

Here are Ilona and Zelda Kaplan. Zelda designs much of her own clothing, which she has made from fabrics she buys on trips to Africa. If Zelda isn't yet a nonagenarian, she's within touching distance of it, and, like Ilona, sets a heck of a standard for the rest of us to live up to. Raise your hand if you saw Zelda on David Letterman several years ago, where she was interviewed just for being who she is.


We spotted Karen Ko and her spiked ankle cuffs and just HAD to photograph them.









Beatrix Ost made the most glamourous entrance wearing the most wonderful jacket, colorful long draped skirt and topped it all of with a gorgeous turban. (She had generously agreed to appear on the gala committee's invitation to Stephen Petronio Company's recent New York City premier of Underland at the Joyce Theater.) She's one of my favorite style icons, so the opportunity to hang out with her was tremendous fun. Valerie nods: her colors and style look like they're right out of Gustav Klimt! She has a wonderful ethereal look about her. Beatrix also recently published a memoir, entitled My Father's House: A Childhood in Wartime Bavaria.

On the left is Malcolm Harris, who appeared with us in Time Out New York's spread on trendy New Yorkers.




















Designer Jeffrey B. Williams wowed the crowd with his floor length fur-collared caftan. It is always so much fun to run into Jeffrey because he always has all the best scoops and dish. Nobody does drama like Jeffrey!

Valerie says: I fell in love with this woman's plastic (vinyl?) dress. So much so that I tried multiple times to photograph it, from different angles. TOUGH dress to wear, but she carries it off beautifully.































We loved how understated these two were, while still looking great. LOTS of people wore lots of glitz, but these guys were wonderful just being themselves.





























Valerie says: We THINK this is Fay Leshner, who graces the cover of the book. Great dress, and great make up. Check out the shoes that go with the dress. Not only are they fab, they seem to have two different heels - clear and opaque. That's not just the light, is it???


At one point, there were three women in turbans mixing it up on the dance floor. With my poor little digital camera, it was impossible to photograph them all facing me at the same time, but as Jean and I are both turban fans, it was great to see three women doing free advertising for millinery. This was one of the three women.









Valerie says: I was tickled to see this woman in a long Norma Kamali jacket. The print is a westernized version of the mud cloth indigenous to Mali, called bogolanfini. In the same material I have the Norma version of a shalwar kameez - the long tunic and pants often seen in Pakistan. This design dates back to somewhere around 1990, or earlier.
























Valerie says: here's the smoking room, on the sidewalk. Jean says: The icing on the cake was the goodie bag! We all got our own copies of the book, along with generously sized bottles of Bumble and bumble products. Heavenly! When we were leaving the party, we ran into this stylish lineup outside. They were probably all heading to the after-party. (Valerie says: we didn't go - we have to get our beauty sleep.)















When we finally trundled off to the subway to wend our way home, several of the other riders asked if we'd been out to an event. (What gave it away??) Then they whipped out their iPhones and asked if they could take pictures of us. We've learned now to say yes, if they'll return the favor a take a picture of us with our camera (seen here). That way we don't each have to take a shot of the other. We had a blast.

When we got off the train, there were two buskers playing wonderful music on their guitars. It sounded like mandolin music - gentle, sweet, tender, romantic - and so delicately played. Lovely way to end an evening.








And so to bed...

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Valerie is wearing: splint, bustier by H&M, metal and polyester shibori scarf by Junichi Arai, skirt by Issey Miyake, high heeled sneakers by Chinese Laundry.

Jean is wearing: vintage coq feather hat; Kyodan jacket; Lili wide-legged linen pants tied at the ankles; Lux de Ville handbag with "diamond" watch from Canal Street attached to the strap; self-customized Dansko clogs; vintage Revue frames; brass bird and black coral earrings by Kirsten Hawthorne; vintage bakelite rings.