Saturday Round-Up

My Browser History this Week

Lots going on this week.  Let’s get right into it!

Why Did I Do it the Hard Way?
http://gizmodo.com/google-just-made-it-super-easy-to-build-a-website-with-1716102821?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews
Earlier this week, Google rolled out a new way to build a website using their Material Design Platform.  From Gizmodo:

In simple terms, it’s a library of components that will make it very easy to apply Material Design elements to standard old HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. The library includes all sorts of page elements: Cards! Click-sensitive menus! Gem-toned buttons! Lovely little physics-enhanced toggles! “If you just want to pick some colors, customize a template and ship a Material experience, we try to help make that process simpler,” the team explains.

I know at least one of you out there is using Medium as well, and I can only image how powerful Medium and Material Design must be when you put the two together.

“I Always Feel Like … Somebody’s Watching Me”
http://lifehacker.com/micro-snitch-monitors-your-macs-camera-and-microphone-a-1716580256
A company called Objective Development released an app this week that alerts users when their Mac’s microphone and/or camera might be in use without their authorization.  From Lifehacker:

Micro Snitch is made by the same developers as Little Snitch, which monitors your network for connection attempts. Micro Snitch does a similar thing, but instead tracks when an app attempts to use your microphone or camera. It’s probably not something most of us ever need, but it’s nice to know it’s there if you ever do. You can check out a free trial on the developer’s site if you want to test it out.

The full version of the app is $3.99 on the App Store.  It’s not clear if the developers are working on something similar for Windows or Linux (or any mobile / tablet versions), or if the app blocks intrusions from the NSA.  They probably couldn’t tell us if it did…

The Show Must Go On!
http://gizmodo.com/broadway-shows-suffer-total-phone-etiquette-meltdown-1717097057?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews
One unfortunate theatre-goer ended up the target of a significant amount of media spotlight (and Patti LuPone’s rage) when he attempted to charge his cell-phone using an on-stage prop outlet.  Star of the show Hand To God, Patti Lupone quickly absconded with the phone, presumably to Snapchat all of the young man’s friends.  From Gizmodo (again….gosh, they were busy this week!):

Nick Silvestri, 19, who was visiting the city from Long Island with family and friends. Concerned about his 5% iPhone 6 battery state, Silvestri hopped on stage before the start of the foul-mouthed puppet play Hand to God and attempted to plug his phone into an outlet on-set (the outlet, part of the set design, was non-functional). Playbill’s interview confirmed that his actions weren’t a stunt

It’s worth checking out the article linked above because they were able to capture screenshots of social media responses from Twitter and Facebook, including my personal favorite:

"Girls were calling all day. What would you do?” http://t.co/nWTklkPjxI

— Felix Salmon (@felixsalmon) July 10, 2015

If You See Something, Say Tweet Something?
http://www.engadget.com/2015/07/10/bangalore-periscope-police/

Police in India (heretofore referred to as “the mother land”) are asking citizens to use Twitter’s bourgeoning live-streaming app Periscope to broadcast criminal activity as it happens.  From Engadget:

Periscope is already great for showing strangers your lunch and pirating pay-per-view boxing matches, but Bangalore’s police force wants the city’s citizenry to use it for much more than that. If police commissioner MN Reddi gets his druthers, the people of India’s third largest city will soon use Twitter’s live-streaming app to capture footage of crimes in action so cops can find them and shut ’em down.

I don’t know about you, but that sounds an awful lot like the last episodes of Seinfeld to me, and we all saw how that ended up for them!

What about you, dear reader?  Did you come across anything interesting in the world of technology and information?  What do you think about Google’s new tools for customizing your blog?  Have you ever had an embarrassing moment with technology? Would you use an app to report crimes in progress?  Let me know in the comments below!