Category Archives: Mind Uploading

Carl Gorhams grieving memoir of his partners death is most effective when it focuses on their daughter, writes Molly McCloskey

Carl Gorham: Days. Weeks. Months. Faster and faster. We have no time to lose. Because life is uncertain. We dont wait. We do.

Book Title: The Owl at the Window: A Memoir of Loss and Hope

ISBN-13: 978-1473642324

Author: Carl Gorham

Publisher: Coronet

Guideline Price: 14.99

It may be middle age, but it seems to me that everyone is talking about death. On the one hand are the transhumanists, proponents of radical life extension, mind uploading, and cyrogenics the latter in the news recently when a terminally ill 14-year-old in the UK won the right to be cyrogenically preserved.

Then there are those who exhort us to live well and accept death. In this camp are the death doulas, the death positivity movement, and the Order of the Good Death (Accepting that death itself is natural, but the death anxiety of modern culture is not). Death cafes where strangers gather to discuss death are springing up around the world.

I cannot imagine these salons and I wouldnt want to try one, though as Raymond Tallis notes in The Black Mirror, a work in which he observes himself from the imagined vantage point of being dead, talking about death may be even more evasive than remaining silent: we cant but sound portentous or hollowly laconic.

While transhumanists want to live forever, or at least for a lot longer, many of us (and I include myself here; few things cause me greater anxiety than the thought of thawing out, defenceless, in an unimaginable future) want to fear death less and die feeling human. Atul Gawandes hugely successful Being Mortal is about improving the quality of end-of-life, as is the well-known work of BJ Miller, a triple amputee and hospice and palliative medicine physician.

Perhaps the increase in people narrating their own last days Christopher Hitchens, Jenny Diski, Oliver Sacks, Tom Lubbock, Paul Kalanithi is a reflection of the growing desire to claim ownership of this final process. Of course, it may also be the logical next step to our having narrated every other aspect of our existence.

What also proliferates are the memoirs of those left grieving. One of the latest is The Owl at the Window by Carl Gorham, the award-winning creator of the animated sitcom Stressed Eric and numerous other sitcoms and film scripts.

In 1997, Gorham and Vikki Sipek are two thirtysomethings living the dream she flying high in the fashion industry and he enjoying a US bidding war for his work, their lives a living, breathing Sunday supplement. Then Vikki finds a lump in her breast. So begins 10 years of operations, chemotherapy and scans, awaiting results, fearing the worst.

[W]ere in a different race now, Gorham writes. Were running, running, trying to stay ahead of it. And time feels different. It seems to race by. Days. Weeks. Months. Faster and faster. We have no time to lose. Because life is uncertain. We dont wait. We do.

They give birth to a daughter, Romy, who is three when her mothers cancer returns. On a family trip, passing through Hong Kong, Vikki lapses into a coma. While she lies in hospital, Gorham and his daughter wander, dazed, through the surreal landscape. A friend of a friend offers them a house. Imagining a luxurious refuge, they instead find themselves in a ramshackle cottage, its environs distressingly apposite: to get there they must walk through an unlit wood and across a graveyard where snakes and Komodo dragons lurk.

Vikki dies in Hong Kong, and Gorham embarks on the business of grieving and of single-parenting, the day-to-day of keeping Romy connected to her mother: too much talk of Vikki sounds false and hectoring, but too little and Romy may lose the sense of Vikki altogether.

Grief, like all abstract nouns, is difficult to narrate, and when such a narration has power it is because an intense particularity has been brought both to the day to day and to the person being mourned. Vikki, unfortunately, remains frustratingly distant. She is always quiet and unassuming but also bustling with brilliant energy, and she never quite assumes dimensions. Grief itself falls victim to too much telling and too little showing: I cant accept it. Not now. Not yet. I cant contemplate it. The thought of never seeing her again. Its too much. Too utterly terrifying.

It is Romy who animates the narrative, enacting her grief in a way that seems instinctive, primal and delicate. Nine months after her mothers death, Romy constructs a cardboard reproduction of Vikki, which she christens Cardboard Mummy. Cardboard Mummy is one of the family, watching TV, propped up at the dinner table, belted into the passenger seat on trips to the supermarket. Romy talks to Cardboard Mummy about all manner of things and solicits her advice.

When Romy decides to bring Cardboard Mummy to school for show-and-tell, her father fears the worst bullies tearing Mummy to pieces, his daughter a laughingstock. But Romy manages the performance with exceptional poise, telling the class about her mummys illness and everything that happened in Hong Kong . . . and how Mummy is in the ground at the church now and how we are all so sad and how we will always be sad.

This turns out to have been an astonishingly intuitive act of catharsis, because after that, Cardboard Mummy begins to recede. She sits in the hall, and Romy doesnt pick her up as often, though shes happy Mummy is there. Mummy is now spoken of with fondness and nostalgia, like an old friend who has moved away to the other side of the world.

In exteriorising her mothers presence through a cardboard effigy, Romy seems to have marked for Vikki a territory in her own life and psyche. It is a reminder of how, with our sophistication and our lack of ritual, we have lost the hang of being with the dead.

It also reminds us of what we all vaguely know and which may give us solace or pause as we contemplate our own demise: that biological death is an endpoint to existence on one plane only. The impact we have on others doesnt cease when we do.

As philosopher Gabriel Rockhill noted in a recent New York Times column on discussing death with his son and how these psychosocial dimensions of ourselves persist: In living, we trace a wake in the world.

Molly McCloskeys new novel, When Light Is Like Water, will be published by Penguin Ireland in April.

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The Owl at the Window review: They the living - Irish Times

New York Times

Tax Software: The Basics Work, but Peace of Mind Costs Extra New York Times This year, Block sharpened its technology it even beat TurboTax on a critical task, uploading a prior year's return while TurboTax improved its telephone helpline. TaxAct kept doing things its own quirky way, as it long has, but it capably ... and more »

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Tax Software: The Basics Work, but Peace of Mind Costs Extra - New York Times

Yes, after pulling herself out of her 1950s rutas a swimsuit model to become everything from a doctor, lawyer, computer scientist, astronaut and even the president of the United States, Barbie has now become a 3D-animatedhologram that canserve up the weather on command.

As first reported in Wired, The Hello Barbie Hologram debuted at the New York Toy Fair this week. And like the original Hello Barbie doll, her laser-beamed character combines motion-capture animation with peppy, Amazon Echo-like answers to your childs questions.

Need an alarm? Hello Barbie. Want a nightlight? Hello Barbie. Want to remind your child to brush their teeth? Hello Barbie Hologram does that, too.Just turn her on with the wake phrase Hello Barbie to get her to do your bidding.

In other words, the supposed symbol for girls who can do anything really can become anything, including a personified bot.

Isnt that a bitsexist? Some may balk at the suggestion a holographic female doll botserving up answers is somehow creating a gender imbalance. After all, you may say, its just a doll combined with some cool technology. But, from what we know so far, theres no hologram Ken version and robots and artificial intelligence programs are often designated as female, particularly if they fulfill a subservient role. Helping you mind your schedule and answering questions about the weather fall neatly into that category.

It also undermines Barbie as a real person.Shes a hologram assistant.

Youd think Mattel would be mindful here of how the latest version of Barbie may come across to impressionable young girls, given its many other missteps including and especially in its foray into tech. Wevewritten before about Barbies foibles as a hilariously bad computer engineer who seemed to break everything she touched and didnt know how to code.

Barbie has also been criticized for maintaining unrealistic bodily proportions and putting a heavy emphasis on her appearance throughout the years. Some might say the Hello Barbie Hologram contributes in this regard, as well, by allowing anyone to change the look of the hologram by voice command.

Mattel has tried to counter some of its past criticisms with its Imagine the Possibilities advertising campaign last year, which shows a bunch of little girls doing grown ups jobs. The final caption of the advertisement reads,Whena girl plays with Barbie, she imagineseverything she can become.

Tough to say whata Barbie hologram would help a little girl imagine becoming, but hopefully it does not further engender the stereotype that women are meant to be assistants to everyone else. Mattel may want to consider adding a Ken doll hologram or letting little girls learn how to program skills into the hologram in the future.

Theres also the question of privacy and security. Amazon Echo is always listening and, as it says in its FAQ, recordsa fraction of a second before you say the wake word Alexa. Is Barbie now doing the same, right in your childs bedroom? Mattel insists that, unlike Amazon, Barbie is not recording and uploading conversations to its servers. It also says Hello Barbie is heavily encrypted, meeting the Federal Trade Commissions requirements as outlined in the Childrens Online Privacy Protection Rule.

Hello Barbie Hologram is just a prototype for now, and its not clear when it might be available for consumers. We also dont know the cost of the doll yet, but it will likely fall on the pricier end, as these newer tech-focused toys tend to do. But, according to Mattel, it will likely be less than $300 when the hologram makes her debut.

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Barbie becomes a hologram version of herself - TechCrunch

Screenshot jonrev/Youtube

For as long as humans have had a way of committing moving images to tape, pixelated frames have been used to document the sinister, the peculiar, and the downright unexplainable. YouTube has long been a repository for some of the creepiest mysteries of the modern age ever caught on camera, and the endlessly obsessive and curious internet hive mind has ferreted out the truths lurking behind many of these eyebrow-raising videos. But occasionally, that is not the case.

These are six of those stories.

One of the most notorious pirate broadcasts of all time, preserved well beyond its intended lifespan, occurred on November 22, 1987, during a Chicago station's nightly local news broadcast. After turning black for 15 seconds, the picture reappeared but now showed a person wearing a Max Headroom mask, situated in front of a rotating piece of corrugated metal and accompanied by a humming noise. Technicians at the station managed to halt the pirated broadcast by switching the microwave transmitter they were using to broadcast, suggesting a hack by a strong pirate microwave signal nearby.

That same night, PBS member station WTTW fell victim to the same hackers during a broadcast of the Doctor Who episode "Horror of Fang Rock." This time, the pirates were able to cut in for a full 90 seconds, and used the time to spout advertising slogans and seeming nonsense. The clip ended with the Max Headroom mask-wearer pulling down his pants, receiving a spanking from an unidentified person in a French maid outfit, and yelling "They're coming to get me!" The WTTW broadcast was being sent from the Sears Tower microwave dish and because there were no technicians on duty at the time, they were unable to trace the signal.

The identity of the hackers and what the videos mean beyond a simple joke remain a mystery to this day. Occasionally, the wide world of the internet will stumble across a character that seems like they could have pulled off the Max Headroom hack, only to dismiss the theory later. The most current thinking on the subject suggests it was someone within the Chicago Broadcasting Community because the technology required to pull off a huge microwave hack wasn't available to the average consumer in the late 1980s.

One of America's most well-known conspiracy theories -- that an alien ship crash-landed in Roswell, New Mexico, in the 1950s -- is still giving willing theorists thrills more than 50 years later. In 2011, a new YouTube user named "ivan0135" uploaded a series of four videos that claimed to have been culled from leaked classified material. The uploaded information and film footage introduces us to a purported test subject known as "Skinny Bob," who appears to be an eerily realistic alien life form.

Is it real? The videos claim the footage was collected between 1942 and 1969, but post-production techniques seem to have been applied. If you look at the bottom left of the Skinny Bob video, the timecode appears to be flashing at a different rate than the footage, suggesting a digital post-production trick.

Even if the ivan0135 tapes probably aren't actual aliens (just like Roswell was most certainly not an extraterrestrial craft), the computer animation skill on display is an impressive work of special effects that has still gone uncredited for five years.

In 2008, on a 4chan board for paranormal posts, a user put a link into the "unsecured webcams" thread that showed a live-stream of a woman who was unconscious -- possibly even dead -- in a contorted position. The stream was coming from Seoul, South Korea. The woman woke up 10 hours later, and revealed that she had merely been sleeping in an odd position, but the attention of the internet had been piqued.

The woman, dubbed Chip-chan, was constantly broadcasting on webcam and falling asleep at odd times and in odd positions. She kept a blog and a YouTube channel where she told her odd story. The woman apparently never left the apartment and started making signs that were translated into various paranoid accusations like: "Don't get tricked, don't get fooled. Early every morning. If someone comes that paralyzes the person. I can't be stopped."

Over years, internet detectives pieced together a dossier of information on Chip-chan, including her contact e-mail and exchanges with the woman herself. She claims that a Korean police officer she calls "P" implanted something called a "Verichip" in her that keeps her forcibly in her apartment and can cause her to fall asleep at will. After Chip-chan's apartment was found via Google Earth sleuthing, concerned parties contacted the police in Seoul who said they were aware of a mentally disturbed woman who kept to herself except for occasional appearances at anti-government protests where she would photograph police officers.

In March 2015, a YouTube user named "unfavorable semicircle" sprang into existence and began uploading videos a month later. Most of them were only seconds or minutes long. Some included distorted voices uttering a letter or number. But the most notable quirk of the account was the sheer number of videos it uploaded: tens of thousands, causing YouTube to shut it down for violating the spam-related portions of its terms of service. Since then, the unfavorable semicircle project has continued on Twitter and a new YouTube account that continues to release videos to this day.

Most speculation about what unfavorable semicircle is trying to accomplish is centered on finding a reliable way to decode the videos. A similar YouTube channel that had puzzled online sleuths in the past had specialized in uploading videos featuring colored geometric shapes and tones, and it was eventually revealed to be the still active Google test channel Webdriver Torso. Unfavorable semicircle's return after the first channel was blocked has led most theorists to suspect it is some sort of coded art project or even an electronic numbers station.

More than likely just an amateur film about two students' exploration of an abandoned asylum, the "Pennhurst Found Footage" has yet to be attributed to a filmmaker or individual. It also hasn't been reliably connected to a real-life crime, which casts doubt on its claim that the footage involves "missing" college students. Nonetheless, the film's two parts are prefaced by intentionally creepy text stating that the students seen in the video have never been found.

The mysterious part of the video is its ending, which cuts suddenly from a staircase inside the abandoned mental institution to a scene in the surrounding forest in daytime, even though the time code on the camera shows only 32 seconds elapsing (which wouldn't have been enough time to exit the facility from the stairwell where the students had been investigating).To date, no one has stepped forward to claim responsibility for this likely hoax, even as internet mystery-hunters are still trying to find answers.

An "ARG" is the abbreviation for an "Alternate Reality Game," or a fictional experience that extends its narrative into real life. There have been ARGs to promote products like movies and albums, and there have been ARGs that exist purely as an experience you have offline. Because of the nature of these types of games and experiences, sometimes it's hard to tell which parts of them are real and which aren't.

Such is the case with "deeper," a channel that uploaded cryptic videos with distorted audio and old camcorder footage in 2016. The hive mind of internet sleuths, particularly on 4chan, quickly set about trying to decode the mysterious videos by running the beeps that appeared at the end of certain clips through a spectrogram -- a process that revealed the names of actual cold cases from the state of Colorado in the 1980s. Different codes have continued to be hidden in the videos and their associated descriptions, but nothing has led to a big reveal, nor have any of the cold cases referenced been solved.

It's unlikely that this ARG was posted by a murderer who grew a conscience and decided to confess through YouTube ciphers that use old Daniel Johnston songs, but then again... The last video was uploaded two months ago.

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Dave Gonzales is a frequent contributor to Thrillist Entertainment and loves internet mysteries.

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Crazy Videos on YouTube That No One Can Explain - Thrillist

Heard of blogging, how about vlogging?

There are the obvious political reasons and some forward fake news videos to reinforce their own biases, but do you realize the money that is being made by these viral posts that get everyone in a frenzy? How? Why, glad you asked.

You did didn't you? 🙂

The first one to benefit is the outlet that enables the video maker to post their creation. They sell ads on those pages, improve their traffic reports and thereby enhance their ability to sell more adds. Some create their own site and put adds on their site as well as affiliate links. (Links that pay for the traffic they send to someone else.)

Then there are those who link the video or pass it along on their social networking site (think FaceBook). Some of those benefit directly but most probably only benefit by the increase in traffic to and from their sites or again, to reinforce their own beliefs.

But if you are not necessarily politically bent, why would you want to produce and post a video on YoutTube? Some might just enjoy making and producing help videos or travel videos but if you start putting a bunch out, you probably have something a bit more lucrative in mind..

When you get to a certain number of views, referrals, etc. YouTube will consider adding you to the contributors that THEY pay for uploading videos. There are MILLIONAIRES out there who have done just that. Sound easy? Doing them at your pace could be somewhat easy, but to make big money, you have to produce hundreds if not thousands AND you have to get views.

So why make outrageous, unsubstantiated, false news? Because there are millions of us out there who will believe it and pass it on. You can almost hear the coins dropping. Search for youtube millionaires 2016 for a current idea.

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Fake news, who benefits? - Shelbyville Times-Gazette (blog)

MEDIA RELEASE

Its time to get tech-savvy with The Mind Lab by Unitec!

Auckland, New Zealand 16 February 2017: Are you a parent or grandparent struggling to keep up with your kids when it comes to technology, or maybe an education professional looking to test out technologies set to transform the classroom?

If the answer is yes, then The Mind Lab by Unitecs new Tech Toolbox is for you.

The Mind Lab is expanding in 2017 by introducing a new Auckland-based programme designed with parents, grandparents, early childhood educators and friends of The Mind Lab in mind.

Tech Toolbox, which launches in Auckland on 22 February, is a 10-week course that has been specifically created to help adults who dont want to be left behind by technological advancements or their tech-savvy kids!

Fee McLeod, General Manager, The Mind Lab by Unitec says the programme is an exciting opportunity for adults from all walks of life to show millennials they can keep up with 21st century technologies.

The hands-on programme will immerse attendees in the digital and new creative technologies that are soon to shape our world, she says.

Each week provides the opportunity to master a different creative technology, including building a robot, website, electronic car, and creating, editing and uploading videos.

By the end of the programme, participants may even be able to teach millennials a thing or two!

No experience is necessary for the programme, and attendees are welcome to bring a friend, colleague, family member or teen over the age of 13 each week for free.

Tech Toolbox will join The Mind Lab by Unitecs other tech education programmes, including school visits, holiday programmes, and teacher professional development through a postgraduate programme.

By learning key skills such as problem solving and collaboration, and participating in the sharing of knowledge and experience, attendees will leave with a broad, practical knowledge of what the future holds, says Fee.

Damon Kahi, National Technologist at The Mind Lab by Unitec, says that technology is progressing at such a rapid rate that the saying blink and you miss it has never been more true.

Tech Toolbox is an amazing opportunity for those that have blinked and missed out on the tech evolution. The course gives them the chance to explore, discover, and learn about new technology that is becoming part of our everyday lives, he says.

The Mind Lab by Unitec has become the largest education facility in New Zealand in three years of operation. It has four multi-disciplinary, specialist labs in Auckland, Wellington, Gisborne and Christchurch. These labs offer integrated workshops across a broad spectrum of creative and scientific technologies including; coding, 3D modelling and printing, robotics, game development, electronics, film effects and animation.

Over the next five years The Mind Lab has the goal of teaching 10,000 teachers and over 180,000 school students.

The Mind Lab by Unitec's Tech Toolbox is a new 10-week programme designed with parents, grandparents, early childhood educators and friends of The Mind Lab by Unitec in mind. It offers a hands-on experience with the latest creative technologies to keep up with todays tech-savvy millennials. Attendees can bring a friend over the age of 13 each week for free. The cost of the programme is $850 + GST for 10 weeks. The first intake will be in February 2017, with subsequent intakes in May, July, and October.

To find out more visit http://www.themindlab.com/tech-toolbox or watch a video here

ENDS

Scoop Media

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It's time to get tech-savvy with The Mind Lab by Unitec! - Scoop.co.nz

As escape strategies go, few would have picked Tennyson as a vehicle to take siblings Luke and Tess Pretty out of Edmonton and around the world.

The duos most recent six-track outing, Like What, is the kind of record best filed under screamingly unique. Consider 7:00 AM, which starts with the sound of an alarm going off and then mixes easy-jazz synths and drunk-trumpet horns with what may or may not be toast being crunched, coffee running through a percolator, and orange juice being slurped. (If such a reading is entirely off base, dont blame Tennyson for the movies they get you creating in your mind.)

Elsewhere, Like What? starts with waves lapping a shoreline and postclassical string swells, and then veers off into electro-glitch territory, marked by screeching monkeys and panic-attack breathing.

Some have written Tennyson off as a too-clever-by-half gimmick, the Guardian noting Youll either find it infuriating or intoxicating. Others have deservedly praised Like What for stitching all manner of found sound into something thats as mesmerizing as it is out-there.

What everyone can agree on is that the Pretty siblings have become a thing. When the Georgia Straight reaches them via conference call, theyre hunkered down in a Los Angeles B&B, getting set for a swing up the West Coast. Last fall found them crisscrossing North America as the opening act for French electro-gaze giants M83. And in a couple of weeks Tennyson will head overseas to Asia for the first time, to tour the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia.

Right at the top of the list of people whove been surprised by all this are the Prettys themselves.

I was uploading music online for nobody pretty much for three years, Luke says. It took a long time to realize that I could make music with the goal of getting peoples attention. And after people started paying attention, I realized that I could kind of do my own thing. But even today, all this has been strangeits hard to look at our music from the outside.

Tennyson began as a bedroom project, with Luke meticulously cutting and pasting everything from car alarms to video-game beeps and boops and then weaving in jazz-king percussion and swooping synths. That he ended up reshaping the songs with Tess for live performances was perhaps inevitable, seeing as how the two were playing around Edmonton as a two-piece jazz unit back when most kids their age were glued to the Cartoon Network.

Still, when Tennyson began to take off, it took the siblings a while to realize that people were taking notice.

It was weird, because growing up I always expected that I would go to college, says Tess. It was only in my last two years of high school that I realized, Oh, that probably isnt going to happen. It was all really strange. I know a lot of kids in my school listened to Tennyson. We went to art school, so there were people in the dance program choreographing stuff to our songs. But it wasnt like I got a lot of attentionit was more that people stopped knowing who I was, because eventually I wasnt going to school anymore.

These days, Tennyson finds itself championed by the likes of Ryan Hemsworth and collaborating with Skrillex and White Sea. Edmonton may still be home, but the duo clearly has its sights set high even after escaping.

Im working on six songs for release really soon, Luke offers. And Im pretty stoked on them.

Tennyson plays Fortune Sound Club on Saturday (February 18).

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Tennyson soundtracks movies for your mind with Like What - Straight.com

HARWICH The New England Patriots historic win of Super Bowl LI happened more than a week ago, but for Eric Adler it feels like it was yesterday. It helps that hes been perusing more than 20,000 images captured during the big game and subsequent celebratory parade, and this die-hard fan, who now works for his favorite team, wouldnt have it any other way.

To some degree, Adlers tale is your classic small-town-journalist-makes-it-big adventure, which began during his nearly 14 years as the sportswriter for The Cape Cod Chronicle. Though the job was one he adored, he couldnt deny the pull he felt to try his hand with one of footballs greatest teams.

I loved working for The Chronicle, said Adler. It was one of the best jobs. But part of me was always like, Working for the Patriots would be a dream job.

A piece of advice from his brother-in-law Will Richardson prompted Adler to send samples of his work to Stacey James, vice president of Media Relations for the Patriots, requesting an informational interview. Adlers hope was, at the very least, to learn more about the inner workings of the organization.

That was 2014. When Adler didnt hear back, he dropped James a line to make sure hed gotten his information, and was told that while there werent any openings at the time, his resume would be kept on file.

I hung up feeling really good about the conversation, Adler said. Stacey was so nice, so gracious. He really gave me more than a few minutes of his time.

Adlers mindset following the call was at least I gave it a shot. Fast-forward to May 2015 when Adler received what proved to be a life-changing email from James. The organization was looking to create something of a new position, Media Relations Photo Coordinator, and felt that Adler would be a good fit.

They had someone doing social media and photo coordination who was moving on. They realized they really needed to split that job up, Adler said. They had someone doing social media, and I was lucky enough to get the photo job.

The list of tasks Adler has ascribed to him is extensive; it includes uploading, tagging and cataloging thousands of Patriots and Patriots-related photos to their Digital Asset Management system, as well as shooting various team events and serving as editor of Game Day magazine. To say that he loves his job is an understatement.

I feel very, very fortunate to be where Im at, Adler said. One of the reasons I really love working here is that I work with a lot of people who are very hard working and passionate, and we all have one goal in mind: to make the Patriots great. Everyones pushing themselves and doing everything they can, and luckily for us the payoff was incredible.

The payoff Adler is referring to, of course, is Super Bowl LI. Though Adler typically leaves game-day shooting to David Silverman and Keith Nordstrom, the teams official photographers, on Super Bowl Sunday, Adler was on the field at NRG Stadium in Houston, cameras ready.

Super Bowl Sunday, I got to the stadium early, he said. I wanted to make sure everything was running smoothly, but it was also a time to take stock and reflect and mentally thank all the people who helped me get there.

Less than two years prior the only Super Bowls hed had the opportunity to shoot were at the high school level. Now he found himself on the sidelines of the biggest game of the season, not knowing it would become perhaps the biggest in NFL history.

But before that came a game that was nothing short of agonizing for Pats fans, including Adler, who was also tasked with maintaining his professionalism while watching his team crumble.

I thought it was over. It was really depressing. I was so upset, he said. 28-3 and I figured, Well, Im just here to photograph the rest of the game. I never thought wed come back.

But come back the Pats did, and how.

For the most part Pats fans didnt have anything to cheer about, but my God once we started to come back that place just erupted, Adler said. That was as loud as Ive ever heard anything in football in my entire life. It was every bit as loud as Gillette gets, if not louder.

Adler kept shooting after that incredible final touchdown as fans screamed and confetti fell. But there came a time when the photographer-fan had to take a moment for himself.

I had to just drop my camera and put my arms in the air, with all the confetti coming down, he said. It was the experience of a lifetime. I never, ever, ever thought Id be able to go to a Super Bowl, especially one with the Pats, who I love so much. It was the most amazing experience. If you try to write a script like this it would probably be rejected by Hollywood. It all just really is a miracle.

Since then, his life has been a whirlwind of celebration, from the Duck Boat Parade in Boston, which saw him stationed on board Tom Bradys boat, to taking center ice at a Bruins game where the Patriots were feted on Feb. 11.

Turns out Adler had his own following of fans excited to see him pass by the Boston news cameras during the parade, many watching from his former office.

They gave me my start. I certainly learned a hell of a lot from Tim, Bill, Alan and Hank about how to be a professional person, he said. Being at The Chronicle, you have to balance a lot of things at once: writing, reporting, editing, mining for stories. Its really a juggling act. Youre always working on a deadline, even at a weekly paper. All those things really helped me because there are times when Ive got 10-15 things due in a day.

He is especially grateful for the support of the local community.

I would not be where I am if it werent for the people back home, he said. I dont think any one person does anything by themselves. You need help along the way and I certainly got a ton of it.

That support also includes Adlers girlfriend Kaiti Titherington, his sister Liz and her husband Will, and his mother, Diane Sernatinger, of Florida.

I dont know a bigger football fan than her, he said of his mom. Shes really a die-hard. Shes my rock. Shes supported me the whole way. I probably owe at least part of the Super Bowl win to her because she was praying hard that wed come back.

When Adler recalls the past two years, including the Patriots previous Super Bowl win, followed by Deflategate, up to their stunning victory on Feb. 5, his head does spin a little.

Two years ago when they won the Super Bowl I lost my mind, he said. For me it was just such a cathartic moment. It was so fulfilling and so rewarding for me. At the time I didnt think I could feel any happier as a Patriots fan. I guess I was wrong. I still feel like Im dreaming. I dont really want to wake up either.

See the article here:

Eric Adler Is Living The Dream With The New England Patriots - Cape Cod Chronicle

An easy to use, drag-and-drop Mac utility that cuts JPEG, PNG, and GIF files down to size with no noticeable loss of quality while saving valuable storage space.

Macworld | Feb 15, 2017 4:53 AM PT

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When it comes to the web, smaller is always better. If an image-heavy site takes too long to load, visitors will just click over to something else. While there are plenty of software tools for optimizing image files on the Mac, few do it with the simplicity and speed of Squash.

Over a year ago, I reviewed a useful Mac utility called JPEGmini, which reduces image files with no discernable loss in image quality. Although limited to JPEG, the software was easy to use and produced impressive results, but at $99, its clearly not aimed at casual users.

Drag and drop one or more image files onto the Squash window, and within seconds youll have optimized versions a fraction of their original size.

Enter Squash ($20, available on the App Store), which offers the same quality and simplicity for less, and does it faster. The premise is the same: Drag and drop one or more images onto the application window, and within seconds youll have optimized versions a fraction of the size that look identical to the naked eye.

The more versatile Squash works with PNG and GIF files as well as JPEG, and can also be used to create JPEGs from TIFF or PSD files; theres currently no PDF support, however. While Photoshop users can perform such conversions, Squash launches in the blink of an eye and is nimbler at quick conversions you may want for sending client approval emails or uploading images to the web.

After each task is finished, Squash shows how much space has been saved and allows users to drag and drop converted files anywhere theyd like.

Squash displays the cutesy animation of a vice squeezing a photo into a gift-wrapped present as it works. Its mildly entertaining the first few times but gets old after a while, especially accompanied by raucous sound effects. Thankfully, you can disable them entirely in settings. Theres no way to cancel the process once its started, short of quitting the application, but everything happens quite fast.

Squash reduced an 852.5MB folder containing 230 JPEG files to 258.2MB in just under 40 seconds, a savings of 594.3MB with no visible differences in image detail. By comparison, JPEGmini took three times as long but only saved 581MB, gobbling up significantly more CPU time in the process. JPEGmini displays animated thumbnails as images are optimized and an option to resize images, which Squash does not.

Both are minimalists when it comes to settings. By default, Squash users must choose where to save converted files, but this can be changed to a specific location or replace original files instead. (Originals are never actually replaced, only moved to Trash in case you change your mind.) You can also drag-and-drop optimized images from the save button to any desired destination, a convenient hidden shortcut.

There are only a few settings in Squash, but youll want to disable the often-overbearing sound effects after the first few conversions.

Step aside, JPEGmini. Squash for Mac is now the fastest, cheapest, and most versatile image optimization utility in town.

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Squash review: Drop and compress your way to smaller image files in a flash - Macworld

OLLY Murs pulled out all the stops to when he sang Happy Birthday to his pal Robbie Williams with the help of a full backing band.

The X Factor star has been good pals with the Candy singer since he sang with him on the ITV talent show and he made sure to mark his pals 43rd birthday.

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In the sweet clip, Olly says: Hi Rob, Olly here, I just wanted to wish you a Happy Birthday mate.

Im in tour rehearsals right now so I wanted to sing you a little song.

The 32-year-old then smiles happily for the camera as he sings along with the help ofhis full tour band including drums, numerous brass instruments, piano and guitar.

He finished it off saying: Happy Birthday mate! Love ya!

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Meanwhile, Robbies wife Ayda Field gave her other half the ultimate gift of total boy heaven to mark him getting a year older.

Sharing a picture of a sweet card she gave him, it read: On this special day, I want to give you the gift of the things you love the most (beside us of course).

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Please spend your day watching and playing as much football as you like, eating as much chocolate as your heart desires, with all the time in the world you want.

Scratch you b*lls, trump to your merry delight and be in total boy heaven.

This is your day, Happy Birthday to the love of my life, your proud wifey.

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Uploading a photo of the card to Instagram, she added: Happy Birthday to my beautiful hubby @robbiewilliams!! May you have the best day today and may this year be the best year yet!! I love you boozy!!

The occasional Loose Women star later shared a photo of some expletive slogan balloons that said old git, Happy f***ing birthday, and old as f**k.

Robs birthday celebrations come just days after he confessed to smoking marijuana in Buckingham Palace during the 2012 Queens Diamond Jubilee Concert.

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Robbie said: Threw up in Buckingham Palace? No, before adding: I smoked a spliff in Buckingham Palace.

Robbie, who has daughter Teddy, four, and son Charlie, two, with wife Ayda, has been open about his use of the class B substance.

In 2013 he said he still uses the drug recreationally, despite two trips to rehab.

He said at the time: The last time I got high was two days ago. No big drug sessions, mind, just a small amount, purely to relax.

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Olly Murs sings Happy Birthday to Robbie Williams with full backing band in sweet video - The Sun