you

All six 'Star Wars' flicks in one window: The ultimate geek-out

For you, perhaps the geekiest diversion you can imagine is playing Pong on the side of this huge building. Or maybe it's this Harry Potter-themed marriage proposal, complete with Quidditch set. How about a beep-blooping R2-D2 bra? Yes, please.

All top contenders for the ultimate nerdgasm, but for my money, it doesn't get more deliciously dweebish than this epic YouTube video that jams all six "Star Wars" movies into one screen. Now when Jar Jar Binks comes on the screen, you don't have to fast-forward or leave the room -- just direct your attention to a different corner.… Read more

Did this geek spend 11 months filming a stop-motion arcade tribute?

It's good to have hobbies. Some people just have more unusual hobbies than others. Michael Birken says he spent 11 months playing with Post-it notes. He wasn't writing memos or reminders, he was sticking them on the wall to create an elaborate stop-motion video tribute to his favorite classic games. He calls it Post-it Note Arcade.

The video includes footage of both Ms. Pac-Man and Mario. Birken says he recorded actual gameplay footage and then printed the images out, one frame at a time, to replicate on the walls around his office. He spent holidays and weekends posting the little pieces of paper up and filming the results. It's probably just as well his co-workers didn't have to witness this madness.… Read more

Google's privacy czar, Alma Whitten, resigns

It's not uncommon for Google to be accused of violating user privacy. So, anyone in the seat of defending the Web giant's privacy policies has a hard job.

According to Forbes, Google's current privacy director Alma Whitten is stepping down in June after three years on the job. She will be replaced by Google engineering director Lawrence You, who will take the title, "director of privacy for product and engineering."

Whitten worked as a Google engineer for seven years and had a background in privacy and security when she was named privacy director for the … Read more

YouTube founder uses April Fools' prank to show off video service

YouTube co-founder Chad Hurley used a YouTube prank to promote a new video-sharing service today, sparking speculation over whether or not he's taking us all for fools.

"Since @YouTube is ending, we're launching a new video site... Welcome to http://MixBit.com! @MixBitApp This time it's not a contest!" he tweeted today.

Since @youtube is ending, we're launching a new video site... Welcome to MixBit.com! @mixbitapp This time it's not a contest!

— Chad Hurley (@Chad_Hurley) April 1, 2013

The tweet plays off YouTube's prank for April Fools' Day. The company declared … Read more

Google declares end of YouTube in April Fools' prank

The best April Fools' pranks are absurd but also have a kernel of believability at their core just big enough to reel people in.

While the notion that YouTube has been a 8-year-long contest and Google is finally choosing a winner and shutting the site down tonight is pretty hard to swallow on its face, Google did shock many people by announcing the shutdown of Google Reader recently. Perhaps Larry and Sergey are beginning to go all Howard Hughes on us?

That's how the below video just put out by YouTube operates. The basic premise is that YouTube has … Read more

YouTube expands live video streaming tools

SAN FRANCISCO--YouTube today added a way for developers to publish live videos from their mobile applications.

A new set of application programming interfaces, or APIs, introduced today by the company at the Game Developers Conference, lets developers push out a video stream of an app for live viewing.

In practice, this means game developers can add some code into their existing games, then publish gameplay live from a smartphone or tablet.

Such a system has been in place for a handful of desktop gaming titles, including Call of Duty: Black Ops II, and has resulted in hundreds of thousands of … Read more

Include 3D objects in your documents with ShapeOnYou for Mac

Communicating with the help of images is powerful, but it often requires additional work, and that can be discouraging. ShapeOnYou for Mac can fulfill your need to add simple 3D shapes as support materials for your work. It is designed to be quick and easy to use and won't require any modeling to achieve satisfying but simple results.

ShapeOnYou for Mac consists of a 3D vector shape library that allows easy export to images. Those images can then be used in your text document as illustrations. The program itself already contains basic shapes and other examples that are of … Read more

How to watch YouTube videos on Roku

Of the 750-plus channels Roku has to offer, there's one big guy missing from the pack: YouTube.

Considering its front-and-center presence on other platforms -- like Apple TV and Samsung Smart TVs -- its conspicuous absence might seem odd. But, Roku's CEO offers a logical explanation, noting that "YouTube insists on using HTML5 for its UI," and seemingly refuses to build a Roku-specific app.

YouTube's absence hurts so bad that even third-party developers have created channels almost exclusively designed to stream YouTube, only to be pulled days or weeks later.

As of this writing, there … Read more

Propose and cons: 'Will you marry me' meets social media

It used to be a new business pitch. Now, it's a Hollywood movie.

It used to be an intimate affair. Now, you're having to keep an eye and an ear on the fact that it'll be a visual and aural feeding of 5,000 supposed friends.

Now, it seems, if you're committed to going down on one knee, you have to be down with who is going to script the event and who is going to direct it. You might even need a few co-stars to make the production big enough.

Indeed, as the San Francisco Chronicle proposes it, … Read more