Nerds is a stage musical chronicling Steve Jobs vs. Bill Gates

“Dotcomedy” to premier on Broadway in spring, complete with app.

A musical "dot comedy" (see what they did there?) about tech rivals Steve Jobs and Bill Gates will open on Broadway later this year. It will feature, amongst other things, on-stage holograms and projection mapping, and will actively encourage mobile phone use during the show with an app that lets audience members interact with each other and select the show's ending. No, I am not making this up.

The show, cringingly called "Nerds," will chronicle the rise of Jobs and Gates and the subsequent rivalry between their two companies. Jobs famously declared Microsoft had "no taste," of course, and that Gates was "basically unimaginative" and "shamelessly ripped off other people's ideas." So, lots of material to draw from then.

Nerds is penned by Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner, both of whom grew up in the tech hubs of Paolo Alto and San Francisco. Their writing credits include the hit Cartoon Network series Robot Chicken, as well as the 1999 play The Bomb-itty of Errors, a hip-hop adaptation of Shakespeare's The Comedy of Errors.

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Hitman won’t be the last game Square Enix makes episodic

Publisher’s last-minute switcheroo is the latest in a line of episodic gambles.

Earlier this week, the upcoming Hitman reboot was quietly removed from the PlayStation Store in Europe, with Square Enix cancelling pre-orders for the PlayStation 4 version. With the game scheduled for release in just a few months, fans were understandably concerned. Was the game being pushed back? Was it being cancelled entirely? The accompanying message, that the "configuration of the product... has changed significantly," didn't help matters.

It turns out that Hitman was pulled because the game will now be released episodically. When it launches on March 11, Hitman will include a prologue mission and just one location, Paris, for the cost of £12/$15. Its next location, Italy, will launch in April, with Morocco following in May. Each additional episode will cost £8/$10, or £37/$50 for a season pass. "Regular monthly content updates" that will include three additional locations—Thailand, the US, and Japan—will arrive later in the year.

Or, players can pay for the whole lot upfront for £45/$60. The complete season will also launch on disc at the end of the year.

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How Twitter quietly banned hate speech last year

Company now emphasizes safety and free expression rather than lack of censorship.

Seven years ago, Twitter began its rise to prominence by billing itself as a space where people could speak freely because nobody was censored. The company's rules enshrined this ideal, promising "we do not actively monitor and will not censor user content, except in limited circumstances." But in 2015 all of that changed.

There were changes in Twitter's rules here and there before 2015, usually to make it easier for the company to ban people engaging in spam and fraud. But as more high-profile Twitter users began to experience abuse and harassment firsthand, the company began to reverse its earlier policies.

Writing for Motherboard, legal analyst Sarah Jeong offers a short history of how Twitter's rules changed over the year. Without ever touching the language in its rules page, Twitter began to add links out to other documents that explained the "limited circumstances" that could lead to censorship.

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Hilfeseiten: Codebeiträge auf Stack Exchange werden MIT-lizenziert

Zusätzlich zu einer Creative-Commons-Lizenz soll Code, der auf Seiten von Stack Exchange eingestellt wird, künftig mit einer einfachen Namensnennung MIT-lizenziert werden. Der Open-Source-Code kann dann einfach selbst weitergenutzt werden. (Open Source, Creative Commons)

Zusätzlich zu einer Creative-Commons-Lizenz soll Code, der auf Seiten von Stack Exchange eingestellt wird, künftig mit einer einfachen Namensnennung MIT-lizenziert werden. Der Open-Source-Code kann dann einfach selbst weitergenutzt werden. (Open Source, Creative Commons)

The slowly fading art of flying—and maintaining—Cold War fighter jets

Privately owned warbirds still soar because of the efforts of a few dedicated folks.

Enlarge / Standing back as far as I can get in the hangar and I still can't quite get the whole thing in frame. Pilot Rick Sharpe at frame left. (credit: Lee Hutchinson)

HOUSTON—My first thought was that I should have rented a wider lens. Sitting in front of me was a vintage two-seat Douglas TA-4J Skyhawk, and this aircraft dominated the space. It loomed like a temporarily grounded raptor, simultaneously enormous and oddly toy-like. The Skyhawk sat poised on chocked gear with its nose cocked slightly upward, like it was ready to go, this very instant, decorate a jungle canopy with a long string of burning nape. A painted Playboy bunny perched impudently at the top of the empennage—the logo of Headquarters & Maintenance Squadron 11, based out of Danang, Vietnam.

No matter how far back I shuffled in the crowded hangar, I couldn’t quite fit the whole aircraft in frame. Let that be a lesson, would-be photographers: the Canon 24-70mm f/2.8L is a hell of a lens, but sometimes, 24mm just isn’t wide enough.

Four, on the floor

The Skyhawk—the first of four vintage jets I got to see this day—holds Bureau Number 153524 and first saw service in 1967 in "Fast FAC" missions over Vietnam (that is, "Forward Air Control" missions into "hot" areas). It is now the property of the Massachusetts-based Collings Foundation, an education nonprofit group that maintains a large number of historical aircraft from various eras. Several of the Foundation’s Vietnam-era aircraft are stabled in Ellington Field, southeast of Houston in Clear Lake and just a few miles away from the Johnson Space Center. The Foundation’s website features detailed write-ups on the provenance of each of its aircraft, including 153524, but my visit to the hangars in Ellington wasn’t an official Foundation activity—rather, it was the result of a personal request to professional pilot and family friend Rick Sharpe.

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Systemkamera: Fujifilm X-Pro2 soll Profiniveau erreichen

Fujifilm hat mit der X-Pro2 den Nachfolger der Systemkamera X-Pro1 vorgestellt, der mit einem erheblich schnelleren Autofokus glänzen soll. Ob allerdings die Akkulaufzeit Profis erfreut? (Fujifilm, Digitalkamera)

Fujifilm hat mit der X-Pro2 den Nachfolger der Systemkamera X-Pro1 vorgestellt, der mit einem erheblich schnelleren Autofokus glänzen soll. Ob allerdings die Akkulaufzeit Profis erfreut? (Fujifilm, Digitalkamera)

How to stop Microsoft from urging you to upgrade to Windows 10

How to stop Microsoft from urging you to upgrade to Windows 10

Microsoft has been pretty aggressive at trying to get PC users to upgrade to Windows 10. Through July, 2016, the company is giving away Windows 10 as a free update for anyone running Windows 7 or later. Users have probably noticed a new icon in their system tray urging them to update. And if you’re […]

How to stop Microsoft from urging you to upgrade to Windows 10 is a post from: Liliputing

How to stop Microsoft from urging you to upgrade to Windows 10

Microsoft has been pretty aggressive at trying to get PC users to upgrade to Windows 10. Through July, 2016, the company is giving away Windows 10 as a free update for anyone running Windows 7 or later. Users have probably noticed a new icon in their system tray urging them to update. And if you’re […]

How to stop Microsoft from urging you to upgrade to Windows 10 is a post from: Liliputing