24 stories
·
0 followers

Netflix Is Ditching Five-Star Ratings in Favor of a Thumbs-Up

1 Comment

Lauren Goode, reporting for The Verge:

Netflix will soon be changing changing its ratings system for the first time in several years, switching from a traditional five-star rating to a thumbs-up / thumbs-down system, Netflix vice president of product Todd Yellin said in a press briefing today.

“Five stars feels very yesterday now,” Yellin said. “We’re spending many billions of dollars on the titles we’re producing and licensing, and with these big catalogs, that just adds a challenge.” He added that “bubbling up the stuff people actually want to watch is super important.”

I give this change a thumbs-up. Everyone knows what “like” and “dislike” mean. People have very different opinions on 1-5 star ratings.

(A “meh” — neither like nor dislike, would be good too.)

Read the whole story
ashtonbt1
2827 days ago
reply
A 'meh' would be nice, but then you'd probably want to add a 'two thumbs up' and 'two thumbs down' but... wait then you'd be at 5 stars again.
sirshannon
2826 days ago
Not rating = meh.
Share this story
Delete

Texas Grand Jury Clears Planned Parenthood, Indicts Pair Who Made Video

4 Comments and 5 Shares

Brian M. Rosenthal and Brian Rogers, reporting for the Houston Chronicle:

A Harris County grand jury investigating allegations that a Planned Parenthood clinic in Houston illegally sold the tissue of aborted fetuses has cleared the organization of wrongdoing and instead indicted two anti-abortion activists behind the undercover videos that sparked the probe.

Secret videographers David Daleiden and Sandra Merritt were both indicted on charges of tampering with a governmental record, a second degree felony that carries a punishment of up to 20 years in prison. Daleiden received an additional misdemeanor indictment under the law prohibiting the purchase and sale of human organs.

I’m celebrating this schadenfreude-tastic moment with a contribution to Planned Parenthood.

Read the whole story
ashtonbt1
3244 days ago
reply
And the conspiracy theorists everywhere say, "See? The gov'ment is protecting them!" But nice to see this result.
Share this story
Delete
3 public comments
skittone
3244 days ago
reply
Finally stepping up, Texas. Good.
wmorrell
3244 days ago
reply
Good job, Texas!
samfarmer
3244 days ago
reply
Wow.
Washington, DC

Team Effort

3 Comments and 9 Shares
Given the role they play in every process in my body, really, they deserve this award more than me. Just gotta figure out how to give it to them. Maybe I can cut it into pieces to make it easier to swallow ...
Read the whole story
ashtonbt1
3457 days ago
reply
Yessss, finally a celebrity who will give credit to the true heroes.
Share this story
Delete
2 public comments
WorldMaker
3448 days ago
reply
I'm fairly certain I've been in terrible a lifelong war with my gut flora, so I don't think I can give those jerks any credit until one or both of us gets our shit together. (Pun intended.)
Louisville, Kentucky
alt_text_bot
3458 days ago
reply
Given the role they play in every process in my body, really, they deserve this award more than me. Just gotta figure out how to give it to them. Maybe I can cut it into pieces to make it easier to swallow ...

60 Days

2 Comments

Cadie Thompson, writing for CNBC, “Time Is Ticking for Apple to Announce an iWatch, Say Analysts”

Apple needs an iWatch sooner rather than later, or the company will risk losing its innovative edge to rivals, analysts say.

“They only have 60 days left to either come up with something or they will disappear,” said Trip Chowdhry, managing director at Global Equities Research. “It will take years for Apple’s $130 billion in cash to vanish, but it will become an irrelevant company … it will become a zombie, if they don’t come up with an iWatch.”

I’m guessing the ellipsis denotes when he paused for another line of coke.

Read the whole story
ashtonbt1
3921 days ago
reply
Haha this is hilarious. 60 days, eh?
Share this story
Delete
1 public comment
jhamill
3921 days ago
reply
File Chip Chowdhry (a name not even douchey enough for the movies) under: Really?
California
jhamill
3921 days ago
Hey, Chip, how are those 3 Apple HDTV models from 2012 doing in sales? http://appleinsider.com/articles/11/07/31/apple_expected_to_launch_3_hdtv_models_by_march_2012_report
jtsnyc47
3921 days ago
FWIW, I go after Trip with nastier language. http://themacadvocate.com/2014/03/20/3961/
jhamill
3920 days ago
I guess it makes sense if you only care about the stock price of something which seems to be what the Wall Street game is all about but, good god saying Apple will be a zombie without a smartwatch, or TV or anything? C'mon. Think Chip. Think.
trekkie
3920 days ago
If Analyst phrase includes "Apple" > /dev/null
jhamill
3920 days ago
@trekkie well said.

Connect NewsBlur to dozens of web services with IFTTT

23 Comments and 34 Shares

Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a way to automatically copy your saved stories over to Evernote or Twitter or Pinboard? What about an automatic way to keep track of your unread focus (trained) stories in Buffer or Delicious or Dropbox?

IFTTT (if this then that) is a free web service that automates the movement of data from NewsBlur to dozens of other web services. It also handles movement of data from dozens of other web services back into NewsBlur. Today IFTTT is launching a NewsBlur channel where you can take advantage of their incredible glue that binds dozens of web service like NewsBlur in unique and customizable ways.

Customizable IFTTT triggers

The best part about these IFTTT recipes is that the triggers can be customized to fit a specific saved story tag or blurblog or folder or feed. When you create a recipe using NewsBlur, you can choose which of your own feeds or tags you want to use.

You can also choose to only use unread focus (trained) stories. So you can filter out stories you don’t want to read and highlight the stories you do want to read using the Intelligence Trainer.

Create tasks and recipes with IFTTT

Here’s a sample of IFTTT recipes that you can use today for moving your data from NewsBlur out to other services:

IFTTT Recipe: When you save a story on NewsBlur, it will get saved for later on Instapaper. connects newsblur to instapaper

IFTTT Recipe: Saving a story on NewsBlur also saves it to Pocket connects newsblur to pocket

IFTTT Recipe: When you save a story on NewsBlur, it will create a new link note on Evernote. connects newsblur to evernote

IFTTT Recipe: When you save a story on NewsBlur, add a private bookmark to Pinboard. connects newsblur to pinboard

IFTTT Recipe: Save a story on NewsBlur → Add to Buffer connects newsblur to buffer

IFTTT Recipe: New saved story → tweet it connects newsblur to twitter

IFTTT Recipe: New saved story → post it on Facebook connects newsblur to facebook

You can also take data from other services and move it into NewsBlur:

IFTTT Recipe: If you post anything on your Tumblr blog, share it on your NewsBlur blurblog. connects tumblr to newsblur

IFTTT Recipe: New public photo in your 500px photo stream → share a link to it on your NewsBlur blurblog connects 500px to newsblur

Mix and match and create your own IFTTT recipes using the NewsBlur channel. And if you put together a good recipe, it’ll get featured both on IFTTT and on NewsBlur.

Read the whole story
ashtonbt1
3948 days ago
reply
Ah, this is such good news. I was just yesterday dreaming about how I used to have my recipes with Google Reader, and here I get to switch them over to Newsblur. Yesssss.
popular
3948 days ago
reply
Share this story
Delete
21 public comments
t6x6d00vrn
3932 days ago
reply
Awesome work!
thameera
3943 days ago
reply
We were waiting for this for a long time!
Sri Lanka
tedgould
3945 days ago
reply
Seems I need to create an IFTTT account now.
Texas, USA
claudinec
3946 days ago
reply
Two of my favourite services, IFTTT and Newsblur, now talk to each other.
Melbourne, Australia
ameel
3947 days ago
reply
Yay!
Melbourne, Australia
elty
3948 days ago
reply
Love it.
Vancouver
matsimpsk
3948 days ago
reply
Testing the new Newsblur IFTTT channel.
Norf East London, UK
amaiman
3948 days ago
reply
I was just thinking a few days ago, "Wouldn't it be nice if Newsblur worked with IFTTT" and now here it is :-) Thanks! Time to go set up some new recipes...
New Jersey
sredfern
3948 days ago
reply
OMG wow, I connected my wordpress and newsblur in under 60 seconds. Wow!
Sydney Australia
MacDiva
3948 days ago
reply
@Newsblur + @IFTTT = genius. Congrats, @samuelclay!
Worldwide | NYC
freeAgent
3948 days ago
reply
Woohoo, integration!
Los Angeles, CA
alexanglin
3948 days ago
reply
Great addition to an excellent product/service!
Ottawa, Ontario
adamcole
3948 days ago
reply
Awesome.
Philadelphia, PA, USA
jbloom
3948 days ago
reply
Finishes a hole with Newsblur!
Columbus, Ohio
nealkemp
3948 days ago
reply
Yay!
London
rosskarchner
3948 days ago
reply
this makes me happy
Ferret
3948 days ago
reply
Well, this finally got me to sign up to ITTT
rtreborb
3948 days ago
reply
Fantastic
San Antonio, TX
adamgurri
3948 days ago
reply
Excellent. This solves a lot of problems at once.
New York, NY
gazuga
3948 days ago
If you set it up right you could start using saved story tags as simple commands.
adamgurri
3948 days ago
Yup that's precisely what I've done :)
samuel
3948 days ago
Let me know if there's a way I can make that easier. I'd like to get a way to put focus inside the saved tags text box, but that'll require a keyboard shortcut. Which one?
gazuga
3948 days ago
I can't think of anything semantic that isn't taken. Semicolon?
gazuga
3948 days ago
Or shift-t as in tag. I'm on my phone and can't remember if that's taken.
adamgurri
3945 days ago
Is there no way to tag within the iOS app?
samuel
3945 days ago
Not yet. Upcoming update won't have it, but next one will.
adamgurri
3945 days ago
Got it. Thanks!
chrisrosa
3948 days ago
reply
holy s**t!!!! yay!!
San Francisco, CA
samuel
3949 days ago
reply
This closes a huge loop for me. Back in May 2012 I applied to work at IFTTT while waiting on my YC application. In the unlikely event that I got into YC with NewsBlur I would have greatly enjoyed working for IFTTT.

And now nearly two years later I get to work *with* IFTTT.
Cambridge, Massachusetts
austinstorm
3948 days ago
This is great! Have you considered Zapier integration? It's similar to IFTTT
Ferret
3948 days ago
Sam, is the feed from newsblur to ITTT putting in bit.ly links, or is that something ITTT is doing? EDIT: It's a preference in ITTT, which I've disabled and everything looks kosher now. SWEET!
samuel
3948 days ago
Zapier was actually in my YC batch. I'm planning it for next month.
austinstorm
3948 days ago
Wild - kudos
Andi_Mohr
3948 days ago
Nice one - about 18 months ago (ish?) I used my blurblog RSS feed to pump data into IFTTT but wasn't happy with the results - will give this a whirl and see if it does what I'm looking for now. Love a bit of automation. Good work!
digdoug
3948 days ago
Congrats! I remember asking about integration when I signed up. Glad to see it arrive.
samuel
3948 days ago
Andi, I expect that the output won't change much, since you can setup an IFTTT recipe using your blurblog just the same. The difference is that there is no comment header on the top of IFTTT's copy of your shared story like there is on RSS.
Andi_Mohr
3948 days ago
OK cheers Samuel - will give it a try anyway!
Dadster
3941 days ago
SO GLAD you worked Newsblur Samuel - and that IFTTT made it without you. Selfish, I know. I love both these apps.

Lessons I Have Learned From My Parents’ Kitchen

1 Comment and 5 Shares

ortbergs1. One bottle of red wine can last two adults a week and a half. Somewhere around day seven, the cork will disappear; a mashed-up ball of foil jammed into the bottle neck will work just as well.

2. There is no amount of leftovers too small not to bring home in a doggie bag and prepare for lunch the next day. Two bites of salmon can be turned into nearly four tablespoons’ worth of salmon paté.

3. Yogurt never goes bad. Leave it in the fridge forever.

4. Have one favorite mug and one favorite miniature wineglass, but keep them a secret and change which one it is every three years. Gasp in horror if any of your children have mistakenly used them — “I was saving that for my cup of tea in the morning tomorrow!” even though it is four in the afternoon and there is plenty of time to wash it — but never tell them which one it is, so that they could avoid using it.

5. Hide a single bag of candy in your nightstand drawer and a large paper bag full of the best flavor of protein bars in your closet. Never notice how many pieces go missing until you run out, then wander into the kitchen and ask, “Have any of you been eating my [treat I value so highly I won't leave it in the kitchen, where food is]?” Believe them when they lie.

6. The best thing to do with the single potato in your pantry that has sprouted Viking horns and gently waving legs is to let it stay there. Potatoes rot cyclically, so the sprouts will eventually retract and the potato will become safe to eat.

7. Never keep olive oil, root vegetables, tomatoes, eggs, pasta, or any other meal staples in your house, but do make sure to have exactly two Skinny Cow caramel cones and an exploded frozen bottle of root beer in your freezer at all times.

8. Could you own more never-opened jams? You could own more never-opened jams.

9. Always keep two separate boxes of chocolate-covered almonds; one for the house and one specifically for you, and know the exact level of chocolate-covered almonds inside both boxes to within a micron.

10. Remember: it doesn’t matter how empty the fridge itself is, as long as the shelves on both doors are absolutely crammed with mayonnaise bottles, ketchup bottles, four different variations on honey mustard, horseradish you only use for the horseradish sauce you make on Christmas Eve, aloe vera gel for sunburns, and half-drunk bottles of sparkling water you’re going to finish someday after you get them nice and flat.

11. Mallory, close the door, you’re letting all the cold air out. Why do you come over here and poke through the fridge and criticize everything and throw things away? Why don’t you go home? You have your own kitchen there.

Read more Lessons I Have Learned From My Parents’ Kitchen at The Toast.

Read the whole story
ashtonbt1
3964 days ago
reply
Share this story
Delete
1 public comment
Courtney
3965 days ago
reply
NUMBER TEN, WHY MOM WHY
Portland, OR
Next Page of Stories