Browsed by
Category: Interesting or Cool

Go Back in time on the Blue Train Murder Mystery

Go Back in time on the Blue Train Murder Mystery

Comments 0 Comment

Ariodante of France has been offering a Murder Mystery train ride on the fabulous and famous Blue Train. While traveling from Paris to the French Riviera, you will try to solve a murder mystery – but do so while dressed in authentic period clothes and environment.

Unfortunately, by 2022, it looks like the train ride has been converted to into a cruise. Maybe it will come back as a train experience in 2023? Here was a 2019 review of the train version.

The entire experience for 2 comprises a 4-day trip to Paris to create your 1920s wardrobe and the entire 4-day cruise on the Mediterranean in a regular cabin. Included in your package: 6 nights in a luxury hotel (suite), your wardrobe for the game, as well as all your meals and bespoke cocktails during the cruise.

The murder mystery was written by an award-winning author and inspired by Agatha Christie. In this new murder mystery, you will never really know when the mystery starts, who is real, or how each of your fellow travelers is involved. All you’ll know is time is of the essence because anyone on board could be the next victim or … the murderer(s).

​The adventure begins months before the cruise starts when you will receive your invitation with the date and place of departure. Then, after an incredible 4-day-long Costumes Experience in Paris to create your whole 1920s wardrobe for the cruise, your adventure will start a few months later, in September or October 2023… or is it 1923?​

Travel back in time a hundred years back to enjoy an extraordinary private visit to one of Italy’s most famous ancient archaeological sites, taste the 1920s-inspired creations of 3 different famous 3 Michelin-starred chefs, dance during a Charleston party on board the steamship and so much more. But be aware that this idyllic and lavish cruise hides many untold secrets and covert riddles as nothing is what it seems.

The price tag? An eye watering £350,000 for 2.

If that’s a little steep, maybe try the Blue Train inspired rooftop restaurant at Bloomingdale’s in New York.

Instant followers for your social media – under $10

Instant followers for your social media – under $10

Comments 0 Comment

One of the critical arguments during the purchase of Twitter was how many accounts were bots. Bots are probably much more rampant in social media and games than people think – or would like to think. With things like ChatGPT, people are quickly realizing how easy it has been for bad actors to flood social media (from reddit to Facebook) to disrupt our elections and foment rebellions (and protests) in countries to destabilize governments (include in the US).

Smarter Every Day did an entire series on how easy it is to manipulate everything from Facebook to Youtube to Reddit. Reddit even has whole forums that are just bots talking to each other. Go read through it – it’ll shock you how easily bots create and control conversations on these platforms.

How easy is it to get followers and spread misinformation? What if I told you that you could get 1000 followers for $20? If you have a modest sized advertising budget (or part of a country’s defense/espionage budget), you could spend $5,000 and get 250,000 followers or only $20,000 and get a MILLION followers. This is true for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, and just about any other platform. Don’t believe me? Here’s just one example from BoosterGod:

So, maybe being an ‘influencer’ with a million subscribers isn’t quite as impressive as you’d think. That isn’t even a blip on most corporate advertising budgets – and nothing to a foreign power.

It might be worth an experiment if you have the cash. An influencer with 1 million subscribers can usually get advertising sponsorships and product advertising deals that far exceed $20,000 – so it might even pay for itself…

Using -53C outdoor temps to cool your PC

Using -53C outdoor temps to cool your PC

Comments 0 Comment

Overclockers go to extremes to cool their PC’s. China’s northern city of Mohe just experienced its coldest temperatures since 1969 by dropping to a freezing record low of -53C. Chinese content creator “苏打baka” decided to take her entire gaming PC loaded with an Intel Core i9-13900K CPU and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 outside to see what it feels like gaming in sub-zero ambient temperatures.

It was first run at moderate workloads and the CPU did initially thermal throttle as expected. After putting the AIO on, the temperatures outside got so cold that the pump eventually died when the liquid within the AIO froze.

The AIO was replaced with the Noctua NH-P1 passive heatsink and the CPU dropped to 10-15C while the GPU ran at an even lower -40C temperature (-18C Hotspot). The CPU had so much thermal headroom that it was easily overclocking up to 6.18 GHz. Even under heavy load, the GPU never went past 30C.

Read more about it here.

Apple Car – sometime between 2024-2028. Maybe.

Apple Car – sometime between 2024-2028. Maybe.

Comments 0 Comment

Over the last couple of years, there are different estimates of when the Apple Car (Project Titan) might finally make it to market. The estimates have ranged from 2024 to 2028. Now the latest report predicts a debut in 2026 with a custom Apple Silicon chip, no self-driving, and a price tag under $100,000 (after previously considering pricing it above $120,000).

Back in 2017 after several years of work, it appeared Apple had given up on producing a physical vehicle and was ready to focus on autonomous vehicle software.

However, at the end of 2020, Apple pivoted back to working on producing an actual car powered by its own software. You can read more about the current rumors here.

Links:

French Orient Express restarts in 2024

French Orient Express restarts in 2024

Comments 0 Comment

The Orient Express. The train that forever changed luxury travel almost 140 years ago (debuted October 4, 1883) is being brought back to life yet again – but this time by French hospitality group Accor, which uses the Orient Express name under license from SNCF, France’s national train service.

It’s not the first train service to do this. The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express by Belmond has been operating for years. I was lucky enough to take a day-long murder mystery ride on the train. David Suchet (the actor for Hercule Poirot) also took a trip on the train:

https://youtu.be/3NTaw6Wk3JI

Starting in 2024 this most recent rebirth of the railroad icon will gear up to resume service from the French capital to the rest of the continent, reviving the same lavish journeys of its heyday. While details and itineraries have yet to be confirmed, it’s likely that some of the routes will end in Istanbul, just as it was for the first Orient Express. 

What’s more amazing is that many of the original cars have been found and are being restored right now.

In total, seventeen cars—12 sleeping cars, one restaurant, three lounges, and one caboose—will form the ‘new’ convoy. All of them date back to the 1920s and ’30s and used to form what was known as the Nostalgie-Istanbul Orient-Express (the train took different names depending on its routes).

In 2015, industrial history researcher Arthur Mettetal embarked on a worldwide quest to inventory what was left of the Orient Express for SNCF. The luxury train company had shut down in 1977, but different iterations of the Orient Express had been briefly resurrected in the 1980s, only to disappear almost completely by the following decade (save for the Belmond’s Venice Simplon-Orient-Express rail service, part of a completely separate venture). In the intervening years, many of the trains had gone off the grid.

During the course of his survey, Mattatel came across an anonymously posted YouTube video. He analyzing the clip for clues and located it on the border between Belarus and Poland.

A few months later, Mettetal traveled to Warsaw with Saint Lager, as well as a translator and a photographer and found them. They had been there for about 10 years.

“We were expecting them to be in terrible condition, but inside they were surprisingly well-preserved,” recounts Saint Lager. “Some of them still had the original Lalique glass panels that were so emblematic of the Orient Express. We also found Morrison and Nelson marquetry,” which are intricate wood carvings with inlays of precious materials like gold or ebony. “The Art Deco details were just incredibly vibrant,” Saint Lager says. Following two years of negotiation between Accor and the owner of the Nostalgie-Istanbul, the train was eventually escorted back to France where they are being refurbished.

Tickets will go on sale in 2023—but if you can’t wait, there’s always the Orient Express La Dolce Vita (another project by Accor) slated to hit the tracks soon.

Adult Swim’s Yule Log

Adult Swim’s Yule Log

Comments 0 Comment

After starting out like any other Yule Log video with cheery music playing over a warmly lit fireplace for the first couple of minutes, the Adult Swim Yule Log special slowly devolves into the story of a young couple that fall prey to a series of disturbing and increasingly strange circumstances while spending the holidays in a remote cabin.

The special actually marks the feature-length debut of Casper Kelly, who has shown his mastery of subversively creepy comedy with the likes of a Blair Witch Project parody starring Mystery Inc., called The Scooby-Doo Project and, most famously, the hilarious and horrifying 2014 short film, Too Many Cooks.

The filmmaker has also written for cartoons like CatDog, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Squidbillies, as well as co-created the live-action Adult Swim series Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell. One of his first contributions to more earnest horror was in the 2018 movie Mandy where he crafted the bizarre in-universe commercial for a branch of mac-and-cheese called “Cheddar Goblin.”

You can watch the Adult Swim Yule Log (aka The Fireplace) on HBO Max or here:

https://www.adultswim.com/videos/specials/adult-swim-yule-log

Links:

Great Manager Tips

Great Manager Tips

Comments 0 Comment

Back in 2009, Google created Project Oxygen to study and then create better managers. What did they learn?

  1. Being good coaches – Organize your team so that each person is working in their sweet spot (where they can use their strengths and are highly motivated to contribute) – then challenge them to perform their best by continually engaging with them to help solve their problems.
  2. Not micromanaging – Managers need to trust their employees and not get involved in every little detail. Needing to be informed and involved in every decision is a roadmap to demoralizing a team.
  3. Show interest in employees’ wellbeing – Gallup poles indicate employee wellbeing has six dimensions: emotional, career, social, financial, physical, and community. Leaders should be aware of how each employee feels about each of these elements of their wellbeing before they become an issue of burnout.
  4. Listening to the team – Strong active listening skills are the foundation for good communication. Managers that have good active listening skills are able to hear problems earlier, develop trust, and win the hearts and minds of those they manage.
  5. Help with career development – Managers who believe in their team members maintain a high view of them by showing interest in the work they do, the career aspirations, and creating learning and development opportunities for their people.

Links:

Backrooms and the Horror of Liminal Spaces

Backrooms and the Horror of Liminal Spaces

Comments 1 comment

“If you’re not careful and you noclip out of reality in the wrong areas, you’ll end up in the Backrooms, where it’s nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in.

God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby because it sure as hell has heard you”

The Backrooms is an urban legend and June 10, 2019 creepypasta which originated in a 4chan thread about unsettling images. It’s one of the first examples of liminal spaces — an aesthetic that creates unique feelings of eeriness, nostalgia, and apprehension when presented with such places outside of their designed context. They often involve pictures of familiar places that usually are busy – but are empty in the photo.

Super Eyepatch Wolf does a great little documentary on the phenomenon

The tread became hot, and in 2019 someone created a free indie game on Steam that let you wander the Backrooms. You wandered the generated space with nothing but the sound of humming lights and fighting for your sanity. Cue countless spinoffs and alternate takes – none of which were as good as the original.

Fast forward again to Jan 2022, and Kane Pixels created some amazing found-footage style re-creations that are some of the best entries since the original. Give it a watch to get that creepy feel of wandering alone in an empty mall or parking lot at night while getting the creeping feeling someone, or something, is following you…

Update 07/29/2023

Someone has created a free Steam game that lets you play this VHS style walking experience. The Complex: Found Footage

Tech severance packages

Tech severance packages

Comments 0 Comment

Layoff numbers

It’s all over the news that tech layoffs are everywhere. It appears that layoffs in tech are already well above the pace of the Great Recession of 2008. The treading for 2023 is looking to be even worse. Some say that the fundamentals of this tech crash are much better than the 2001 dot-com crash, but we’re clearly on a very bad, and accelerating, job loss trajectory.

Dot-Com crash of 2001300,000 tech jobs lost, with around one million jobs lost total in following years.
Great Recession60,000 jobs lost in 2008 and 60,000 in 2009
2022-2023 Tech layoffs90,000-150,000 jobs lost in 2022, 68,000 in January of 2023

Many people have pointed out that these layoffs might have been completely inevitable due to the unbridled hiring during Covid. In some ways, painful as it is, this is now a return to pre-Covid tech employment levels as the jobs lost in 2022-2023 still only represent about 50% of those hired during Covid. For many young people who started in the last 10 years, this is their first experience of a crash. For vets, this is the 3rd.

Packages

So, what are the packages that many of these laid off employees are receiving?

Alphabet: 16-week base severance package with an additional two weeks for every year of employment at Google, Pichai said in a memo to employees. Laid-off employees will also have “at least” 16 weeks of share vesting accelerated and receive 6 months of health-care coverage.

Microsoft: Benefit-eligible U.S. employees are to receive severance, six months of health care and stock vesting, and 60 days of notice.

Amazon: Amazon is offering full pay and benefits over a 60-day period, when Amazon will keep them on the payroll but they won’t be expected to keep working. After that period, Amazon will offer laid-off employees several weeks of severance depending on their length of time with the company, a separation payment, transitional health benefits and job placement. It’s unclear if Amazon’s severance package includes any provisions that would allow employees to accelerate the vesting of stock compensation.

Salesforce: Laid-off employees would receive a minimum of “nearly” five months of pay. Benioff’s letter to employees also said that laid-off employees would receive health insurance benefits and career resources. Severance packages would include six months of health-care coverage and a “minimum of two months outplacement support.”

Meta: Zuckerberg promised “every” laid-off employee 16 weeks of severance, plus two weeks for every year of service, as well as vesting of restricted share units and health insurance coverage for a predetermined amount of time.

Twitter: Musk had previously said that laid-off employees would receive three months of severance pay. But some Twitter employees said that when they got their severance letters, they were offered only one month of severance in return for a non-disparagement agreement and a waiver of their right to sue the company.

Links: