Sean “Diddy” Combs took to YouTube, Twitter and Facebook this week to announce the launch of REVOLT TV — a new socially connected music and news-driven cable channel coming to the Comcast-NBC network in 2013.
Combs, the founder and CEO of Bad Boy Worldwide Entertainment Group and hip-hop artist, says he wants to connect music makers to music lovers. It’s fitting that the TV network using social networks to reach viewers would turn to YouTube to broadcast initial plans.
The television channel will deliver music videos, live performances and music news. Social media will drive audience interaction with the network and featured artists.
“REVOLT is the first channel created entirely from the ground up in this new era of social media” Combs said in a statement. “We’re building this platform for artists to reach an extraordinary number of people in a completely different way.”
Combs has taken to Twitter in recent days to accept congratulations from fellow entertainers — and fellow Twitter heavy hitters — like Rihanna, Busta Rhymes, Ashton Kutcher and Ryan Seacrest.
Oh shit bro! You have your own channel??! #ILL #REVOLTNavy RT @iamdiddy: MUSIC IS MY LIFE #REVOLT-> Bit.ly/diddyrevolt
— Rihanna (@rihanna) February 22, 2012
@iamdiddy VERY PROUD OF U AND THE LAUNCH OF UR OWN CHANNEL BIG HOMIE!!! #REVOLT!!
— Busta Rhymes (@BusaBusss) February 22, 2012
congrats to my boy @iamdiddy on the new TV channel #Revolt!! bit.ly/diddyrevolt
— ashton kutcher (@aplusk) February 22, 2012
congrats @iamdiddy I love ur hustle
— Ryan Seacrest (@RyanSeacrest) February 21, 2012
He has also used the social network to clear things up about REVOLT. He stated it is “not a black network,” but rather all about music.
REVOLT TV will be one of the four new minority-owned independent networks to debut on Comcast between July 2012 and January 2014. Another big name joining Combs on television is NBA hall of famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson, whose channel Aspire will deliver programs geared toward African-American families.
In the YouTube video, Combs mentioned watching MTV, HBO and BET growing up, networks now considered competition in entertainment television. An invitation has been extended to other major cable networks including Time Warner, DirectTV and Cablevision to carry the new channel.
Tell us if you will tune into REVOLT TV. Do you think it’s a smart move to mix social media with TV?
Image courtesy from Sean “Diddy” Comb’s Twitter account.
More About: Business, Media, Social Media, social networking, Twitter, Video, YouTube For more Entertainment coverage: 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/22/diddys-social-media-tv-channel/?utm_source=fee...
Less than two weeks ago, Boston-based Memory on Hand launched their first Kickstarter, asking for $10,000. Well, they’ve already passed that goal and have set a new one: $20,000. With 24 days still on the clock, the team’s excited and optimistic, hoping they’ll exceed their doubled expectations.
Initially, the team was focusing on the production of their two and four gigabyte USB flash drive wristbands. If they reach their new $20,000 goal, however, founder Andrew Kitzenberg says they’ll produce eight gigabyte Memory on Hand bands in every color and style, allowing current backers to change their pledge to reflect the additional storage space.
This is quite the accomplishment for a product that began as a class project during Kitzenberg’s senior year at Babson College. Although attending trade shows and receiving positive feedback has helped Kitzenberg validate the product’s viability, seeing this Kickstarter take off so quickly has provided “constant fuel and momentum,” and he admits it’s incredible to have this encouragement, “especially being early in the business.”
Memory on Hand’s garnered 128 backers on Kickstarter, and people have already been commenting with congratulations, saying they “can’t wait to see the new wrist bands.” Currently, the team’s working on still getting the word out. While Kitzenberg thinks Kickstarter has been a great platform to support the project, he’s realized it takes a lot of effort to promote products still.
Last week, another local company hit their Kickstarter goal: Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries. In just 25 hours, they raised $18,000, proving that Kickstarter might be the way to go for companies looking to spend their time building and selling products as opposed to looking for investors, trying to raise capital.
Have a product you’re looking to get out there? It appears to be a lucky month on Kickstarter. Perhaps now is the time you should consider registering.
from BostInno http://bostinno.com/2012/02/21/memory-on-hand-surpasses-their-10k-kickstarter...
 Those of us who watch hours of the Food Network know that Umami is one of the five basic flavors. iPad users might be more familiar with the word from the Umami TV companion iPad app (free), which today received an update that adds social aspects for sharing your TV-watching experience. The two new features, which should come in handy this weekend while watching the Oscars, are FreezeFrame and Dishboard. FreezeFrame lets you easily take snapshots of the show you're watching, then share them on Twitter and Facebook. Dishboard (seen below) is described as a "social TV dashboard" that shows how many people are talking about the show you're watching, what shows are trending, and what other viewers are sharing while using Umami.  Version 1.2 of Umami is available immediately for download, and those who have used the app in the past will definitely want to update as soon as possible. While you're at it, try to make as many snarky comments about the questionable outfits on the Oscar red carpet as you can. We'll all appreciate your candor and humor. Umami TV companion app gets a big social update originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 24 Feb 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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from TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog http://www.tuaw.com/2012/02/24/umami-tv-companion-app-gets-a-big-social-update/
An anonymous reader writes "New research at the boundary of physics and computer science shows that determining the dynamical equations of a system from observations of its behavior is NP-hard. From the abstract: 'The behavior of any physical system is governed by its underlying dynamical equations. Much of physics is concerned with discovering these dynamical equations and understanding their consequences. In this work, we show that, remarkably, identifying the underlying dynamical equation from any amount of experimental data, however precise, is a provably computationally hard problem (it is NP-hard), both for classical and quantum mechanical systems.'" Read more of this story at Slashdot. 
from Slashdot http://science.slashdot.org/story/12/02/24/165212/physics-is-np-hard?utm_sour...

Let's face it: everyone, deep down in their coal-black hearts, is a furry. Except -- EXCEPT -- for me an all the normal f***ing people who are actually scalies/featheries. CAW, CAW! This is a pair of homemade animatronic cat ears similar to the Neurowear ones except these ones aren't mind controlled, you have to push buttons. The poor man's animatronic cat ears, if you will. "I won't." Neither will I. How about you and I go knock back some beers at the bar and reminisce about the good ol' days before animatronic cat ears? "So like, last week?" Last week is a little hazy to me, it's gonna have to be more recent than that. "Yesterday?" Still nothing -- how about this morning? I think I had a cup of coffee. "You don't remember anything before lunch, do you?" It's after lunch?!
Hit the jump for a VERY emotive girl giving the ears a run through their paces, and a link to the Instructable to build your own.
from Geekologie - Gadgets, Gizmos, and Awesome http://www.geekologie.com/2012/02/how-to-build-your-own-animatronic-furry.php
Two rulings this week helped to clarify the circumstances under which a defendant can be compelled to reveal the contents of an encrypted hard drive. On Wednesday, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals let stand a judge's ruling in a Colorado case that the defendant in a mortgage fraud case could be compelled to produce the contents of her encrypted laptop. But on Thursday, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a Florida contempt of court charge against a suspect in a child pornography case who refused to decrypt the encrypted contents of several hard drives.
While the two rulings reach opposite results, they don't necessarily contradict each other. The results turned on how much the government knew about the contents of the encrypted drives. In previous cases, the courts have held that when the government already knows of the existence of specific incriminating files, compelling a suspect to produce them does not violate the Fifth Amendment's rule against self-incrimination. On the other hand, if the government merely suspects that an encrypted hard drive contains some incriminating documents, but lacks independent evidence for the existence of specific documents, then the owner of the hard drive is entitled to invoke the Fifth Amendment.

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from Ars Technica http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/02/appeals-court-fifth-amendment...
Fancy yourself a world traveler but steadfastly refuse to pay a premium for an unlocked variant of Apple's 4S? Or perhaps it's just not up for grabs on that beloved carrier of yours. Well, a solution to all of your iPhone's freedom problems may be on the way -- and no, it doesn't involve jailbreaking. That is, if you're on iOS 5.0 or 5.0.1 and your Baseband digits are within the 1.0.11, 1.0.13, 1.0.14 boundaries. Unfortunately, those of you lingering on 04.11.08 are out of luck for now. The Gevey Ultra S, as it's so cleverly dubbed, is set to start shipping on March 3rd for $55. We've yet to come across anyone we know who's put it to the test, thus you'll be taking the dive at your own risk. Meanwhile, you can jump past the break to catch the Ultra S in some self-promoting action. Continue reading Gevey Ultra S SIM brings freedom to iPhone 4S, unlockers rejoice (video) Gevey Ultra S SIM brings freedom to iPhone 4S, unlockers rejoice (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 23 Feb 2012 13:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | applenberry | Email this | Comments
from Engadget http://www.engadget.com/2012/02/23/gevey-ultra-s-sim-iphone-4s-unlock/
The four remaining Republican presidential hopefuls went toe-to-toe in Arizona during Wednesday night’s CNN debate, dishing out terms like “romneycare” and “bridge to nowhere.” But which was the expression that sparked the curiosity of debate watchers and Internet searchers across the nation? “Earmark.”
Google’s Politics and Elections team monitored the search engine during the two-hour Republican debate. During that time, searches for “earmark” skyrocketed by 2,300% above the normal rate for the term.
In Congress, an earmark is a guarantee of federal funding for a certain project, sometimes hidden away in bills intended for a different purpose altogether. Because earmarks can be tucked inside unrelated bills and sometimes benefit voters from a politician’s home turf, they’re often the target of those who argue against excessive government spending. And during Wednesday night’s debate, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum got into a spat about that very issue.
Romney has been tagging Santorum as an “earmarker” in recent campaign ads. During Wednesday’s debate, Rick Santorum defended his earmarks by explaining that there are “good” and “bad” earmarks, using the example of salvaging a military aircraft project as a “good” earmark.
Santorum went on to attack Romney for taking advantage of earmarks for the Salt Lake City Olympics, for which Romney was CEO. Romney returned fire by criticizing the earmark process in general.
“While I was fighting to save the Olympics, you were fighting to save the bridge to nowhere,” he said to Santorum.
“You’re misrepresenting the facts,” responded Santorum. “You don’t know what you’re taking about.”
Finally, the two found common ground on the line-item veto, which allows the president to veto small provisions of a bill without touching the rest of it.
But the back-and-forth between the candidates was enough to pique the interest of millions of Americans, who turned to Google’s search engine to learn more about earmarks and the “bridge to nowhere” metaphor, which was second on Google’s list of debate-related searches. “Bridge to nowhere” is a reference to earmark spending on projects that benefit a politician’s supporters.
Google also found that searches for former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich spiked during the debate in Arizona and nationally. Meanwhile, Rick Santorum enjoyed the highest number of absolute searches across the nation.


Do you think Google trends are an effective way of seeing what parts of a debate resonate with an audience? Sound off in the comments below.
Thumbnail image courtesy of iStockphoto, manley099
More About: GOP primary, Politics 
from Mashable! http://mashable.com/2012/02/23/earmark-search-gop-debate/?utm_source=feedburn...
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