Bring the galaxy home on May the 4th.

Plus, get a first look at the game’s key art -- revealed in celebration of Star Wars Day!

We are saddened to report that former moderator and long-term friend of SETI@home Jim Scott passed away unexpectedly this morning. Angela has started a thread where people can post their memories of Jim and offer condolences.

As the coronavirus pandemic has forced us to break out of our normal sports and fitness routines, these innovators -- and professional athletes -- are making the most of their time at home with creative takes on the games and workouts we know and love.

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As John Constantine proves in the new "Apokalips war" animated movie

( Do I LOOK mad? )

Ugh, well, I still didn't finish the video I mentioned last post (it is just a video version of some of my chess papers from this last SIGBOVIK; don't get too excited), but I made a lot of progress on it this weekend. This one has a lot of custom software, some of which is hours of work for like 10 seconds on-screen. This approach is "fun" but not efficient. At least I have a good approach to the video so it's just a matter of turning the crank now.

I finished The Messenger. My verdict is that it is good. Some aspects of it are fantastic (8-bit graphics and writing) and most are very good, but the game was not very hard and the "metroidvania" aspects of it were mostly about retreading ground between distant teleports. I managed to get all the achievements, which I don't usually do, but there was just like one hard one left.

Speaking of hard ones, next up is/was Dead Cells, whose verdict is great. This is a grindy (lots of unlockables/upgrades) roguelike platformer with really excellent controls and "flow", almost feeling like a twitchy fighting game at times. It's no "Spelunky" or even "Crypt of the Necrodancer"; what set those apart for me is how the design of the random level generation really tended to create these interesting situations and puzzles. But this game has an impressive amount of content (the graphics and the sheer variety of weapons/powerups both stand out to me) and is just really fun to play, except when you die (which is always). Just now I finally beat the game on "Hard" (second boss cell) so it may be time to retire. I bought like 9 more games on the Steam summer sale, after all!

You’ve launched your product or service, and you’re excited and a little anxious to see how your target audience received it. Was it received with ...

The post 5 Simple Ways to Get Feedback from Your Customers appeared first on Saleschase Stories.

“We begin in infancy by establishing correspondence of eyes with eyes.” ~ Robert Frost     FRAGMENTARY BLUE by Robert Frost Why make so much of fragmentary blue In here and there a bird, or butterfly, Or flower, or wearing-stone, or open eye, When heaven presents in sheets the solid hue? Since earth is earth, … Continue reading baby’s got blue eyes (+ a giveaway)

Having a wireless connection can be a great thing to have: you have fewer wires spilling all over the place for you to trip over, or for your dog to chew on when you're not looking. And it allows you to set up your computer anywhere instead of having it fixed close your phone cable outlet

When it comes to ways you can increase traffic to your website there are dozens if not hundreds of ways to get more traffic. Depending on your website, the content or products you’re trying to get viewed, and the amount of time you can invest each day on your site, not all of those hundreds or ways are going to be as effective. You also want to avoid anything that could be considered “Black Hat SEO” as these types of tricks to increase your traffic may work in the short term, but get your website kicked out of search engine rankings.

If you’ve had a website or blog for some time you know that in order to rank well in search engines your site needs quality one way back links pointing to it. Most of us know about link exchanges, link farms, reciprocal links and so on. While some of these are good and others you should avoid (link farms for example) one you might not have heard of is 3 way linking.

Just because you created a page on Facebook doesn’t mean it’s going to start magically bringing people to your site. In order for it to be effective you have to promote your page like you would your website. Here is a list of a few things you can do to get your page noticed.

In my opinion Stumbleupon is one of the best ways to get more traffic to your to your site, especially if it’s brand new and your looking to get noticed quickly. If you’re not familiar with Stumbleupon it’s a web based service that allows you to discover websites, blogs, and videos without having to use traditional methods such as Google. Instead you can choose what topics you want to look for, click stumble and your randomly shown sites that meet your search criteria, if you like it you can give it a “thumbs up”. What makes this so appealing to site owners is that the more thumbs up your site gets the more times it’ll appear when that topic is searched.

Nobody likes a slow internet browser; frankly it’s a royal pain in the ass. We have better things to do then sitting around waiting for a page to load only to stair at a blank page. When it comes to slow internet browsers Internet Explorer has a history of being slow and clunky even with the best connection possible. Even their latest update Internet Explorer 9 is still much slower then browsers like Google Chrome or Firefox............

Making money online, it seems every day more people are looking ways to make money online either to boost their income as a secondary source of income, or as a full time job. But if you’re relatively new to this how do you make money online? I put together a list of 20 different ways you can make money on the internet. I’ve broken these down into two groups, ways you can make money without a website or blog, and ways you can with a website. These ideas aren’t listed in any order of importance as some of them will work better for you then others.

Having a slow internet connection is a pain in the ass. I hate waiting for pages that seem to take forever to load, videos that constantly buffer, and browsers that fail because it takes too long to open a web page. It’s frustrating and I have better things to do just like you, then sitting around losing my mind because my internet speed is slower then the second coming of Christ. So I put together a list of 10 things you can do to speed up your internet...............

The recent Google Panda update was like a slap in the face for many website owners. Many became complacent thanks in part to link farms, article spinning or other forms of mass publishing a truck load of content at once. Because the Panda update recognized a lot of these as spam or lower quality content many sites were hit hard. Some losing more then 50% of their traffic overnight regardless if the site was legit or not..................

If you use some type of analytics to monitor your websites performance you’ve probably seen its bounce rate. So what is bounce rate exactly? It can be defined in a couple of different ways; it can either be an indicator to the number of visitors who view only one page of your site and leave. Or the number of visitors who leave your site after a short amount of time (usually only a couple of seconds)............

Knowing how to start a fire without matches is an important skill you need to know. Personally I recommend you never venture into the woods be it a camping or hiking trip without a means to start a fire, such as a magnesium fire starter, or wind and waterproof matches. That being said, in a disaster or emergency situation you might not have access to those emergency supplies you have stored in your bug out bag or emergency survival kit.......................

So you have a website, or a blog that you want to rank well in search results. One place that you can easily get back links from, build your sites online presence, and get found in search results is Yahoo Answers. If you’re stuck with other SEO building strategies or looking to diversify your back links this is a good place to start..............

A trooper stopping a car with a suspected "impaired driver" on a U.S. highway on Monday was bemused to find a 5-year-old in the driver's seat, the Utah Highway Patrol tweeted.

A flight of fancy for a wayward hot air balloon
by Julia Tosti
Special to The Friday Flyer

It was a beautiful morning, one of those mornings where the fog had rolled in sometime prior and settled, nestled in the valley and hugging the lake, giving it a mystical feel.
My husband and I enjoy a beautiful view from Tuscany Hills. We moved here two years ago from Orange County and have never tired of the endless beauty that surrounds our home.
From the back of our home, we have views of Canyon Lake, Mount San Jacinto, Big Bear and, far to our left, Mount Baldy. We watch hawks soar high and ducks and white cranes take flight from Canyon Lake to Lake Elsinore. It seems every morning the view is visited by a new guest that perpetuates this never-ending cascade of attractions. Today was no different.
We sat sipping on our coffee chatting and discussing the day’s tasks. We conversed about the beauty of the mountains, the mystical feel to the lake and today’s surprise guest, a hot air balloon. Typically balloons float toward Menifee, hovering high above the valley east of Canyon Lake, but today’s visitor seemed to be moving in our direction, approaching the lake.
Our excitement heightened as we watched the balloon, seeing the colorful fabric come into clearer view. At this point I decided to document this visitor and ran to get our camera. As the balloon continued to move our way it seemed to be picking up momentum; all the while, I was clicking away with our camera.
The balloon sailed over the lake, coming closer and closer and losing altitude. Our chatter turned to silence as we watched, stunned by the sight. Slowly at first, but then more rapidly, the balloon started to descend until it looked as though it was sitting on the lake. We strained to see if it had actually landed on the lake, wondering out loud if we should call 9-1-1 or the lake “coast guard” or someone! Just as we were about to dial the phone, the balloon started to rise. Slowly at first, then faster and faster until it was high in the sky. Up, up and away it went over our house, continuing to float until it was out of our sight.
Wow! We love this area – what a great place to live! It seems we are always seeing something of beauty or excitement outside our back view – and this was the icing on the lake, I mean, cake!

Late last month, CBS News in New York reported that 911 dispatchers in that beleaguered hub have received, on several occasions, more emergency calls than they took on September 11, 2001. Call volume in the most populated city in the US typically ranges

There is much to fear, especially for minority and young voters, with a switch to all-mail voting — unless our system is fixed. Palast and Fox discuss the challenges our democracy faces during the coronavirus pandemic and what we need to do to

The post Palast on Staying Home with Josh Fox: Let voters choose the politicians not other way around appeared first on Greg Palast.

A panoramic view of the Milky Way galaxy's dusty core reveals several colorful deep-space nebulas.

It’s been nearly a month since the spreading coronavirus prompted Yosemite National Park’s closure on March 20, and resident black bears are making the most of it. Last year, 4.42 million people visited Yosemite. This year, it’s a bear’s world.[...]

Now that millions of Americans are isolated in their homes, everyone is using more energy during off-peak hours. Americans are getting more concerned with paying their growing electricity bills. Combined with the obvious environmental tolls of changing and increased at-home energy usage, paying a larger bill during times of economic uncertainty is enough to weigh on anyone’s heightened nerves. Inhabitat has rounded up some tips and tricks to help readers save energy (and money) at home during this time.[...]

April 22, 2020 is the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. While every day is the perfect day to honor Mother Earth, Earth Day is an opportunity to implement a new sustainable practice, create something beautiful or protect limited resources. So while you are hunkered down during COVID-19, here are some activities you can do to celebrate Earth Day at home.[...]

Tucked into the foothills of California's beloved Laurel Canyon, the Laurel Hills Residence by Assembledge+ is an exquisite example of modern, sustainable home design. Comprised of three cedar-clad volumes with massive glass panels, the house features interconnecting pavilions that are topped with a broad overhangs to shield the interior spaces from extensive sun exposure.[...]

With the majority of the country continuing to observe social distancing and shelter-in-place laws, families are beginning to face a new normal of interacting for the holidays. Mother’s Day is coming up on Sunday, and while most of us won’t be able to see our moms in person this year, there are still ways to celebrate! A silver-lining? Choosing to celebrate from home, social distance-style, can be a win for the environment, too.[...]

Designed by San Francisco- and Oslo-based firm Mork-Ulnes Architects, the Skigard Hytte Cabin in Norway features various openings on each side that allow the architects, who designed the cabin for themselves, to immerse themselves in the incredible, mountainous surroundings. The 1,500-square-foot cabin is resilient to the extreme weather and is elevated off the landscape to reduce its impact. To top it all off, the cabin is crowned with a lush green roof.[...]

Researchers have uncovered a potential means to profile and track online users using a novel approach that combines device identifiers with their biometric information. The details come from a newly published research titled "Nowhere to Hide: Cross-modal Identity Leakage between Biometrics and Devices" by a group of academics from the University of Liverpool, New York University, The Chinese

The post The Wayfinder: YA Fantasy appeared first on Fiction Notes.

READ A FREE HEARTLAND TALES SHORT STORY: CLICK HERE The Wayfinder was my first published novel, 2000 Greenwillow/Harpercollins. I remember where I was when I heard the news that someone wanted to publish this manuscript. I was with my oldest daughter, Sara, at a local mall. I had to use a pay phone to call Continue Reading

The post The Wayfinder: YA Fantasy appeared first on Fiction Notes.

By Dan Duddy  Published: May 07th, 2020 

By Maxwell Yezpitelok  Published: May 07th, 2020 

By JM McNab  Published: May 08th, 2020 

By Dan Duddy  Published: May 08th, 2020 

By Adam Wears  Published: May 09th, 2020