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Rent This Beautiful 'Smart Home' In Thailand For $630 A Night

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thailand smart home

Homes now have the potential to be smarter than ever before, but that doesn't mean they have to be any less beautiful. 

This three-bedroom house in Koh Samui, Thailand is not only gorgeous — it also has a high-tech home automation system in place. 

The house's lights, entertainment systems, thermostat, and storm blinds can all be controlled wirelessly by iPhone, iPad, or desktop. There's also a 3D TV, LaunchPort iPad charging system, and an Apple TV.

The house can be rented on HomeAway for $630 a night. 

The house sits on beachfront property at the northwestern corner of the island of Koh Samui, in Thailand.



Inside, comfortable couches are an ideal spot for watching movies on the 3D TV.



The kitchen has all of the latest in cooking technology.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

These Maps Show Which Cities Have The Most Diehard Music Fans

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Global news site Vocativ has discovered America's true musical preferences.

The team mined online data — including illegal song downloads, tweets, and BitTorrent traffic — to reveal the most popular genre of music in 100 U.S. cities.

“Our unique Deep Web methodology discovers unseen stories to reveal fascinating insights as to what’s really happening,” Founder of Vocativ Mati Kochavi said in a press release. "In this case, our data scientists were able to discern what music Americans across the country are truly passionate about.”

The index also uncovered the top cities where each of ten musical genres (including pop, country, rock, R&B/hip hop, dance/electronic, Latin, Christian/gospel, blues, jazz, and reggae) have the most die-hard fans.

Vocativ Cities that love Country music

  1. Evansville, IN
  2. Lexington, KY
  3. Billings, MT
  4. Green Bay, WI
  5. Fargo-Valley City, ND
  6. Nashville, TN
  7. Sioux Falls, ND
  8. Springfield, MO
  9. Knoxville, TN
  10. Boise, ID

Vocativ Cities that love Hip Hop music

  1. Montgomery, AL
  2. Jackson, MS
  3. Baltimore, MD
  4. Shreveport, LA
  5. Memphis, TN
  6. Naples, FL
  7. New Orleans, LA
  8. Lafayette, LA
  9. Little Rock, AR
  10. Baton Rouge, LA

Vocativ Cities that love Pop music

  1. Lansing, MI
  2. Honolulu, HI
  3. Santa Barbara, CA
  4. Salt Lake City, UT
  5. Anchorage, AK
  6. Bakersfield, CA
  7. Sacramento, CA
  8. El Paso, TX
  9. Sioux Falls, SD
  10. Pittsburgh, PA

Vocativ Cities that love Rock music

  1. Eugene, OR
  2. Honolulu, HI
  3. Santa Barbara, CA
  4. Salt Lake City, UT
  5. Anchorage, AK
  6. Bakersfield, CA
  7. Sacramento, CA
  8. El Paso, TX
  9. Sioux Falls, SD
  10. Pittsburgh, PA

Vocativ Cities that love Reggae music

  1. Honolulu, HI
  2. Santa Barbara, CA
  3. Boise, ID
  4. Eugene, OR
  5. San Diego, CA
  6. Reno, NV
  7. Salt Lake City, UT
  8. Denver, CO
  9. Hartford, CT
  10. Naples, FL

cities that love Christian Gospel music (edited)

  1. Knoxville, TN
  2. Ft. Wayne, IN
  3. Tulsa, OK
  4. Springfield, MO
  5. Chattanooga, TN
  6. Anchorage, AK
  7. Mobile, AL
  8. Oklahoma City, OK
  9. Lubbock, TX
  10. Wichita, KS

cities that love Dance Electronic music

  1. Reno, NV
  2. Santa Barbara, CA
  3. Spokane, WA
  4. Eugene, OR
  5. Seattle, WA
  6. San Diego, CA
  7. San Francisco, CA
  8. Lansing, MI
  9. Denver, CO
  10. Portland, OR

Vocativ Cities that love Jazz music

  1. Honolulu, HI
  2. Sacramento, CA
  3. Santa Barbara, CA
  4. Eugene, OR
  5. Naples, FL
  6. Boise, ID
  7. Reno, NV
  8. New Orleans, LA
  9. Spokane, WA
  10. San Francisco, CA

Vocativ Cities that love Latin music

  1. Laredo, TX
  2. Miami, FL
  3. El Paso, TX
  4. Naples, FL
  5. Reno, NV
  6. New York, NY
  7. Houston, TX
  8. Los Angeles, CA
  9. San Antonio, TX
  10. Santa Barbara, CA

Vocativ Cities that love Blues music

  1. Wichita, KS
  2. Austin, TX
  3. Peoria, IL
  4. Reno, NV
  5. Ft. Wayne, IN
  6. Hartford, CT
  7. Portland, OR
  8. Billings, MT
  9. Eugene, OR
  10. Springfield, MO

You can explore by city or by genre at Vocativ's website, and see what your city's favorite genre of music is here.

SEE ALSO: 25 Places To Party Before You Die

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Google, Facebook, And Other Major Tech Companies Pay This Startup To Get Their Employees Boozed Up And Running Around

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Box_Dashing Down Maiden Lane

Instead of doing boring team-building activities, Silicon Valley technology companies are doing scavenger hunts organized Joe Garvey, founder of a startup called CLASH.

"We take drinking, competition, and technology, and combine them to make awesome scavenger hunts for companies like Google, Facebook, and Salesforce," Garvey says. "We blow their minds."

CLASH evolved out of the California League Of Adult Scavenger Hunters, which Garvey organized to get people romping around different San Francisco neighborhoods doing goofy challenges.

After a few seasons of competition, a friend at Google hired him to do a hunt for its new interns. Then, Dreamworks called him up to set something up on the theme of the movie Shrek. That's when it clicked for Garvey: Scavenger hunts could become a business.

He and his four colleagues now travel all around the country setting up scavenger hunts, often for tech companies. CLASH has done ten hunts for Google, eight each for Facebook and Salesforce, half a dozen for Vox, and also counts Lyft, Eventbrite, Yelp, Pinterest, Fitbit, Cisco, Pandora, and Sony among its clients. 

Each event is a combination of checkpoints and challenges, and everything is documented with pictures taken through CLASH's app. A team might have to squish all its members into an elevator, fist-bump a Lyft driver, or cartwheel down the street. Once, a hunt included finding a clue hidden on the tower of a San Francisco hotel (planted there without permission). Unfortunately, on the day of the hunt, Hilary Clinton happened to be staying at the hotel, and Garvey said that a lot of his teams were escorted out by the Secret Service.

Typically, an event will start with drinking, as teams meet at a bar (or on a party bus) to get decked out in neon headbands and war-paint. As hype music blares in the background, Garvey will lead employees through power-lunges and other stretches. CLASH's motto is "Team building that doesn't suck," and its ethos clearly appeals to Silicon Valley tech companies who are looking for new ways to boost team spirit.

"Doing workshops about communication, or going bowling... it's lame," he says. "We're high octane."

The average cost is $100 a person, but a customized hunt can cost more (Google took its employees on a hunt through a winery that cost $200 per person). Each one can include up to 1,000 people, but the largest they've done so far has been 400. 

"We did 50 events in 2012, 130 in 2013, and if we don't do 400 events (or about $1 million in revenue) this year, I actually have to get my nipples pierced," Garvey says. "I tried to motivate my team with some drastic consequences, but I sort of regret doing that."

Employees from Box — the huge enterprise startup about to IPO — dance down the street.



Intuit players had to snap pics with strangers wearing Giants gear.



Employees from Gannet, a huge media company, had to kiss a bald man's head.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Big, Beautiful Photos Of HTC's Stunning New Android Phone

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htc one back

HTC just unveiled its follow-up to the best Android phone in the world: the new One.

HTC's second-generation flagship phone features a design that's similar to its predecessor, but with a better camera, faster processor, and slightly larger screen.

We had the chance to play with the new HTC One ahead of time and mess around with some of its features.

Check out the images in our gallery for a closer look at the 2014 HTC One. 

This is the new version of the HTC One. Like the previous version, it comes with a beautiful, unibody metal design. The pictured HTC One is gunmetal gray, but the phone will also be available in silver and gold.



The 2014 HTC One looks almost exactly like the previous version, but it has a slightly larger 5-inch screen. You can also wake up the screen by tapping on it when it's turned off.



The new HTC One comes with two camera lenses, which means you can add 3-D effects to your images and adjust the focus after you take a picture.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

23 Brilliant Proposals For Skyscrapers Of The Future

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16 mention

Architecture magazine eVolo takes readers into the future with its annual skyscraper competition, which rewards innovative ideas for vertical living.

For its ninth annual competition, the magazine received 525 projects from 43 countries on all continents. Three winners and 20 honorable mentions were selected by a jury of leaders in the fields of architecture and design.

The winners and honorees may not be the buildings of today, or even tomorrow, but they present new ideas for how we may construct and reside in skyscrapers in the future.

The first prize went to "Vernacular Versatility," a proposal that reinterprets traditional Korean architecture in a contemporary mixed-use high-rise.

First Place. Vernacular Versatility. Yong Ju Lee (United States)

 

 



This second-place project, "Car and Shell Skyscraper," proposes a city in the sky for Detroit comprised of homes, recreational areas, and commercial areas stacked in a large cube.

Second Place. Car And Shell Skyscraper: Or Marinetti’s Monster. Mark Talbot, Daniel Markiewicz (United States)

 

 



The environmentally friendly third-place winner, “Propagate Skyscraper,” aims to obtain and contain greenhouse gases in order to lessen their presence in the atmosphere.

Third Place. Propagate Skyscraper: Carbon Dioxide Structure. YuHao Liu, Rui Wu (Canada)

 



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Jarring Photos Show The Homelessness Crisis That Silicon Valley Is Afraid To Confront

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Homeless Silicon Valley San Francisco

Not everyone is benefiting from Silicon Valley's latest tech boom.

As rents soar, nearly 55% of Silicon Valley workers do not make the $90,000 necessary to support a family of four in the region. The area has the fifth-largest homeless population in the country, and in the past three years the problem has gotten much worse, according to the latest Silicon Valley Index.

After reporting on the homelessness crisis last fall, we returned this month to find more people living on the street around San Francisco and a growing and deteriorating homeless camp in San Jose.

Silicon Valley is booming, with 92,000 new jobs and 46,000 new businesses created in 2012.

Source: AP, San Jose Mercury News



The housing market is booming too, with lots of luxury construction like the NEMA residential high-rise in San Francisco's once-crime-filled Tenderloin.



With shuttle service to suburban corporate campuses, tech stars can happily live in San Francisco and other desirable areas.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Meet Marrakesh's Badass Women Bikers [PHOTOS]

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HH_Rider

Morocco is not a country people in the Western World associate with female empowerment, but Moroccan photographer Hassan Hajjaj recently set out to change that perception.

Despite Morocco's reputation for being inhospitable to women, Hajjaj says Morocco has a vibrant culture of independent females.

"If you take a person who doesn't travel and who watches TV, they might view Morocco as another Syria or Iraq," Hajjaj told CNN in a recent interview. "But it's its own country with its own vibe."

To depict the “vibe” of Morocco, Hajjaj created portraits of women riding motorbikes, which are a central part of Moroccan culture. While these motorbike-riding women don’t constitute actual “gangs,” the women, many of whom have full-time careers and families, can be found riding their bikes all over Morocco and the city of Marrakesh.

Hajjaj shared some of the photos from the series, playfully called "‘Kesh Angels," and you can see the rest at the Taymour Grahne Gallery in New York. 

Morocco has "a mix of traditional and modern culture," Hajjaj told Business Insider.



This translates into women who lead independent careers, while also wearing the "djellabah" robe and observing many of the more traditional parts of Moroccan culture.



Because of the winding streets of Marrakesh's historic center, almost all Moroccans ride motorbikes to get around.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The Golf Courses Where Wall Streeters Love To Play

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The Bridge

The weather might feel miserable right now, but it's spring and that means the fairways will begin to turn green and golf season will be start.

Golf is one of the favorite hobbies of the Wall Street crowd, and when it comes to where they play, they'll accept only the best.

We have compiled a list of some of the courses where the biggest heavy-hitters on Wall Street like to play. 

 

Blind Brook (Purchase, New York)

Wall Streeters Who Have Played There: Lloyd Blankfein, James Gorman, Stanley Druckenmiller, Jimmy Lee and Jimmy Dunne III.

Location: Purchase, New York

About: It's a private, members-only golf club that was established in 1915. The course features 18 holes, 6,385 yards and a par of 72.

Course Designer(s): Charles Blair Macdonald and Seth Raynor

Source: GolfLink.com, Source: GHIN.com, Source: Golf Slope



Sebonack Golf Club (Southampton, New York)

Wall Streeters Who Have Played There: Lloyd Blankfein, Gary Cohn, Feroz Dewan (Tiger Global), Daniel Och, Henry Kravis, Jimmy Dunne III (Sandler O'Neill) and Bob Prince (Bridgewater Associates). 

Location: Southampton, New York

About: The gorgeous 300 acre course, which opened in 2006, is located right on the water in Southampton.  It's close to neighboring golf courses, Shinnecock Hills and National Links. According to a 2006 Bloomberg News article, membership just to golf at Sebonack costs $500,000. The course features holes, 7,286 yards and a par of 72.

Course Designer(s): Jack Nicklaus and Tom Doak

Source: GolfLink.comSource: GHIN



Shinnecock Hills Golf Course (Southampton, New York)

Wall Streeters Who Have Played There: George Herbert Walker IV (Neuberger Berman), Henry Kravis (KKR), Stan Druckenmiller (Duquesne), Eric Gleacher, Jimmy Dunne III and Chase Coleman. 

Location: Southampton, New York

About: The course features 18 holes, 6,996 yards and a par of 70. Shinnecock is scheduled to host the 2018 U.S. open.

Course Designer: William Flynn

Source: GHIN



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

15 Things You Never Knew About Kyle Larson, The 21-Year-Old Who's About To Take Over NASCAR

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Kyle Larson

Kyle Larson is not your typical NASCAR driver.

He is Japanese-American, does victory burnouts without a steering wheel, and has been compared to some of the best drivers in the sport.

This past weekend in Fontana, Larson opened a lot of eyes with his first Nationwide Series victory and a strong finish in the Sprint Cup race.

He is NASCAR's next big superstar and may be the driver that can bring non-racing fans to the sport.

Larson's mother is Japanese-American and her parents spent time in an internment camp during World War II.

 

[Source: LATimes.com]



Larson entered his first race at the age of seven in a go-kart.

[Source: Fox News]



He nearly chose IndyCar's open-wheel racing over a career in NASCAR because the cars are 'really cool' and the better development system.

quote on photo?

[Source: SI.com]



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Take A Tour Of The New Luxury Hotel Inside London's Shard

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shangri la

A new luxury hotel, the Shangri-La at the Shard, is set to open inside The Shard, one of London's most talked-about buildings. 

The 5-star hotel will be home to two restaurants, an impressive collection of artwork, an indoor infinity pool, and London's highest bar, GŎNG, located on their 52nd floor. 

The Shangri-La at the Shard is currently accepting reservations, though it doesn't officially open until May 6th. Rates start around $740 per night, and go as high as $3,700 per night for a deluxe suite. 

The Shangri-La hotel will occupy the 34th to 52nd floors of Renzo Piano’s iconic building, making it the tallest hotel in Western Europe.



The hotel will have 202 rooms and 17 suites, which will include personal butler service.



Guests will take an elevator up to the 34th floor to enter the lobby.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

11 Things You Can Do With The New HTC One That You Can't Do With An iPhone

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new htc one

When the HTC One launched last year, it became the only Android phone fit to rival the iPhone in terms of design.

Now, HTC has launched its second-generation model, which features an equally elegant all-metal unibody form factor.

With an improved camera and a slightly tweaked design, HTC's new flagship is more prepared than ever to take on the iPhone. The new HTC One is available for $199.99 on a two-year contract with all four of the major U.S. carriers. 

The new HTC One’s Duo Camera allows for more advanced photo editing. For example, you can adjust the focus points of an image after you’ve already taken it.



You can also add 3D effects to an image. The closer you are to your subject, the more visible its 3D effect will be. The iPhone’s camera software doesn’t support this capability since it only uses one main camera.



You can wake up the phone by simply tapping on its screen, which means you won’t have to press any buttons to turn on the display. Before using an iPhone, you must wake it up by pressing a button first.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The 2 Basic Moves Every Guy Should Master To Look Cool On The Dance Floor

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arms dance gif

Researchers at Northumbria University recently released a study revealing what makes someone a good dancer.

It was a neat idea, but resulted in some pretty strange advice for guys on the dance floor, including elongating their necks, wiggling their right knees, and “us[ing] larger, more variable movements in bending/twisting.”

Not exactly the easiest advice to remember (or follow) up in the club.

So we reached out to Brooklyn-based dance instructor Ben Weston, who has his own dance tutorial called Dance Floor Arsenal that helps rhythmically challenged men find their groove.

“For most guys, they're completely nervous and in their head,” Weston told Business Insider. “Their arms are clenched to their sides, they're clutching onto their drink for dear life, and their whole body is stiff.”

If that sounds familiar, don't fear. Weston has two basic moves all men should master and rely on: the two-step and the bounce.

“I drill the guys in my classes 'Mr. Miagi' style,” Weston joked. “Over and over and over again so that if I woke them up in the middle of the night with a bucket of cold water, they could do these moves.” 

Here's a quick primer.

THE TWO-STEP

This is a simple move that will be your bread and butter when you’re not sure what to do on the dance floor. Simply step your right leg to the right and have your other leg step to meet it. Then step to the other side, and have your other leg comes to meet it. Pretty basic.

two step dance floor arsenalYou can switch this up with the triangle two-step, where instead of having your foot meet your other foot, it will step back to form a triangle:

two step triangle dance floor arsenalAnother variation is the heel two-step, where you reach the heel of your foot out to the front, leaning back slightly.

heel two step dance floor arsenalTHE BOUNCE

The bounce is even easier than the two-step, because you literally just bounce to the beat. “Most guys complain about rhythm, but the only rhythm you need is the base and snare, boom and clap,” Weston said. “Just bounce to it.”

dance floor arsenal bounceKeep your shoulders relaxed, groove with the beat, and let your arms sway. Don’t overthink it. “The goal is to find a simple groove that you you can always fall back on so you're not constantly wondering what to do next,” Weston explained. “Once you have the moves down, you can start adding style and flair by changing height, intensity, and swaying from side to side.”

WHAT ABOUT MY ARMS?

“Every guy asks what to do with his arms,” Weston said. “I tell them to have one arm up and one arm down and just switch them back and forth. Just remember to keep space between your arms and your body — that’s key.”

arms dance floor arsenalYou can also do a shoulder roll where you simply roll your shoulders with the beat. Keep your hands and fingers relaxed while you do this, not clenched.

shoulder roll dance floor arsenal

Weston said there are a ton of other variations (check out Dance Floor Arsenal for more advanced dance moves), but the key is to have confident body language with an expansive chest and broad shoulders while taking up space. “The body language of an alpha male or a confident person is expansive,” Weston explained. “Literally try to take up space and have a broad open chest while you’re dancing.

AND IF ALL ELSE FAILS... JUST SMILE

“Most straight guys on the dance floor are biting their lip, looking down, and seem nervous, scared, or embarrassed,” Weston said. “If you’re the guy there who just wants to have fun and enjoy the music, that makes you more attractive. I've had women push across the dance floor to dance with me just because I was the one dude smiling and having fun.”

SEE ALSO: 25 Places To Party Before You Die

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I Spent A Week With The Sporty New Lexus IS 350, And It Was Insanely Fun

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lexus is 350 awd f sport

Earlier this month, Lexus gave me the opportunity to borrow its sporty new IS 350 AWD for a week. 

I didn't know what to expect when I was offered the F-Sport package for the car. My only recent experience with a Lexus had been a relative's comfortable (though perhaps a little boring) RX 350 crossover.

I didn't know if Lexus had the capability to make a sedan that could maintain that level of comfort while simultaneously getting my blood pumping.

After driving through the hills of Berkeley, by the beaches of Santa Cruz, and past the boring flats of Silicon Valley, all I can say is that this ~$50,000 car is a great option for anyone who wants a vehicle that can get him to work comfortably every day, but also come to life when he puts his foot down.

From almost any angle, the new Lexus IS 350 is a beauty. I was a little worried that the "matador red" paint job would make me a ticket magnet.



The front seats have plenty of room. The dash is a bit intimidating at first — there seem to be buttons, knobs, and touchscreens on every surface.



There's an 8-speed automatic transmission, but it's tuned to be aggressive when you want that, and fuel-efficient when you're just puttering around town.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

How A 21-Year-Old College Dropout Built The Virtual Reality Company Facebook Just Bought For $2 Billion

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Palmer LuckeyFacebook is buying Oculus Rift, a startup that makes virtual reality headsets in a $2 billion deal.

Oculus doesn't make a consumer product yet, but its headset for video game developers has completely changed the way many feel about video games.

Last summer, we tried an early version the Rift out and were blown away, but with only a low-resolution developer kit available, legions of avid fans have been dying for details on the long-awaited HD consumer version, slated to arrive sometime in later this year

So we set up an interview with the inventor of the Oculus Rift, 21-year-old Palmer Luckey, to talk more about how he turned a device he invented in his garage into a startup worth over $18 million, Oculus VR.

This is how he told his story last July:

Business Insider: I know you worked as an engineer at the University of Southern California, but how did you first become interested in the hacker/maker scene?

Palmer Luckey:  So I had been in the hacker/maker scene for quite a few years before I worked there. I mean, most of my life. I was interested in virtual reality for several years even before working at USC, it wasn’t an interest that started there at all. In fact, when I started working at USC, I already had prototypes of the Rift that were very similar to the final design. 

BI:  You have said before that you have the largest private collection of virtual reality headsets, so were these "Frankenstein" Rifts? Did you combine parts from other head mounted displays, or did you buy parts separately? 

Luckey: A combination. I built a lot of different prototypes. Some of them were modified head-mounted displays from other people. Some of them were built from standard off-the-shelf components with some custom bits. 

BI: And how did you know how to do that?

Luckey: I’ve been a bit of an electronics enthusiast and maker for a long time. I actually started the forum called ModRetro. It’s an electronics enthusiast community that focuses on modifying vintage game consoles, and it’s actually one of the larger game console modification forums on the internet. I started that site when I was 15. ModRetro was actually founded by myself and one of the people that currently works as an engineer at Oculus. So we've stuck together.

BI: So were you in college when the Oculus Rift started making waves?

Luckey:  At the time I was still taking college courses. I started attending community college when I was 14 or 15, just doing general education stuff like history and mathematics. Then I went on to California State University Long Beach to pursue a degree in journalism. And then I ended up dropping out to found Oculus.

BI: Have you ever been involved in a startup before? It must have been intimidating to start a hardware and software business for the first time.

Luckey:  So there are two things. When I started the company it was just myself, and I did all the paperwork and all the fun stuff, got a tax ID and all that. That was just a pain, but you can do it with the help of the Internet. But then I had Brendan Iribe and Mike Antonov come on board — Mike is our chief software architect and Brendan is our CEO — they have a lot of experience with startups, so they were able to handle a lot of the business side of things, so that I could focus on the VR headset itself.

BI: The Oculus Rift Kickstarter raised close to $2.5 million, and you just recently received an additional $16 million in funding on top of that. What does this mean for Oculus?

Luckey: We are going to be using these new resources to expand our team, hiring the best people in the industry. We made it a long way with our Kickstarter, but this investment is going to let us deliver a truly world class consumer product.

BI:  What is the average "Palmer Luckey" day like?

Luckey: The average Palmer Luckey day involves lots of working with all kinds of new components, and new hardware, building prototype head-mounted displays, combined with talking lots of developers, lots of the people who have headsets, and getting feedback from them, and obviously talking to people like you.

BI: Most of your team consists of software developers and programmers. You’ve mentioned that even your CEO can code. That’s a different approach than many other startups. Do you think that’s part of your success, having everyone involved in such a vital way?

Luckey: I think it’s a great idea to have a company that’s leaning heavily on the engineering side, rather than having a bunch of people whose job it is to just market the thing or hype it up. Mainly what we’re doing is just trying to make this headset. And I think the kind of jobs we have on the team reflect that.

BI: Online communities, such as the Oculus subreddit, are filled with fans creating and testing their own demos for the Rift. What are your thoughts on the Rift's popularity on online forums?

Luckey:  I’m a huge fan of online communities. I think that asynchronous internet-based communication forums such as Reddit and other discussion forums are one of the best things that could possibly have happened to collaborative invention. The Rift certainly would not exist without forums. It’s kind of fascinating how you can bring people together from all around the world with some tiny niche interest and all collaborate on something. But I feel like we’re all doing this together.

BI: I know the Oculus subreddit would kill me if I didn't ask you about the consumer model of the Rift. Your goal is to have higher resolution display without the "screen door effect," which shows the outlines of the display's pixels. At what point do you stop waiting for better or cheaper displays to come out and just pull the trigger?

Luckey: So it’s not necessarily a price thing. We’re out there trying to select the absolute best panel that we can. It's not that the difference between the most expensive panel on the market and the cheapest panel on the market is so huge that we should be making decisions based on that. And there are ways to remove the screen-door effect without necessarily just increasing the resolution. What you’re really trying to do is increase the fill ratio of the display, so that there’s more emissive area than non-emissive area. So it’s going to continue to get better. You could get rid of the screen door effect on a 720p display if it were properly designed.  I can’t share exactly what we’re doing, but we’re working on it.

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Big, Beautiful Photos Of The Virtual Reality Gadget Facebook Bought For $2 Billion

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Oculus Rift

Facebook announced it will pay $2 billion for the virtual reality company Oculus VR

The company creates the Oculus Rift headset, a gadget that lets user play a variety of video games.

Facebook said it will be using the hardware behind the company to create their own virtual reality platform. 

In the past, virtual reality headsets were hindered by their limited field of view, making it appear like you were sitting in a dark room facing a television that was several feet from you.

But the Oculus Rift puts you inside the screen, with an enormous field of view expanding so that it fills your vision. With stereoscopic 3D built in too, the level of immersion is unparalleled. 

Head-tracking technology allows the Rift to "keep up" as you turn your head to look around the virtual environment. The best way to describe it: You feel completely immersed in a virtual world. Your real-world surroundings disappear. It can even make you dizzy.

With the headset's enormous popularity, many non-developers have purchased developer kits without the intention of developing games. The company recently announced they would be expanding into movies.

Here's a taste of what you can do with the Oculus Rift developer kit right now. It will only get better especially after this recent acquisition.

The Rift Development Kit comes in this sturdy plastic box.



You wear the Rift just like a pair of ski goggles.



The Oculus Rift attaches to a relay box, which then hooks up to your computer. This allows the headset to be lighter. The relay box can be plugged in by either an HDMI or DVI cable.



See the rest of the story at Business Insider

Oculus Founder Palmer Luckey Dropped Out Of College — And So Did All These Other Tech Superstars

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Palmer Luckey

Statistically speaking, those who finish college make far more money in their lifetime than those who don't, and are far less likely to be unemployed.

But there are exceptions to that rule.

On Tuesday, 21-year-old Palmer Luckey became the latest person to join the tech industry college dropout hall of fame. Luckey is the creator of the Oculus Rift, a virtual reality headset that Facebook just bought for $2 billion.

He joins a long list of college dropout heroes includingSteve JobsBill Gates, Paul Allen,Michael Dell, Digg founder Kevin RoseNapster's Shawn Fanning, and former Twitter CEO Evan Williams.

With high-profile people like venture capitalist Peter Thiel starting programs to encourage talented young entrepreneurs to skip college and start businesses, the list of young new successful college dropouts seems to be expanding, including the guy who just bought Oculus who leads Facebook.

Palmer Luckey created Oculus VR, just acquired by Facebook for $2 billion.

This week, Palmer Luckey is the latest college dropout to strike it rich. He created a virtual reality headset called the Oculus Rift, which was a Kickstarter sensation, raising $2.5 million from the crowdfunding site in 2012.

His device then went on to attract big names in the gaming industry, grew into a 50-person company and raised another $91 million in venture funds, including backing from Andreessen Horowitz. (Marc Andreessen is also on the board of Facebook.)

Luckey was a self described "electronics enthusiast and maker" since high school, but he never formally studied tech. He was home schooled as a child,  started taking college classes as a teen, and eventually enrolled in California State University Long Beach to pursue a degree in journalism, before dropping out to found Oculus.



Jan Koum co-founded WhatsApp bought by Facebook for $19 billion.

Jan Koum is a true rags to riches story. Days before his 38th birthday he and his co-founder, Brian Acton, sold their company, WhatsApp, to Facebook for $19 billion in cash and stock. He became a billionaire.

Koum came to the U.S. when he was just 16 years old from Kiev, Ukraine, and his family struggled, living on food stamps for a while.

Koum dropped out of San Jose State University, where he studied math and computer science, after landing a job at Yahoo, Forbes reports.

 



Eduardo Vivas sold two startups for $190 million by the time he turned 28.

In February, LinkedIn announced that it was acquiring a cool young startup called Bright.com for $120 million. That was a two-in-a-row hit for one of its co-founders, Eduardo Vivas.

His previous startup, Social Hour, was bought in 2012 for $51.5 million by mobile game network PlayPhone.

Vivas is only 28 years old and never finished high school.



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Photos Of Sochi Looking Like A Ghost City One Month After The Olympics

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sochi ghost town 34

The future of the Sochi Olympic venues is unclear.

Alexander Valov, a Russian reporter for BlogSochi, visited Sochi's "coastal cluster" — a site that includes six venues, the Olympic Village, and the Olympic Park, all built from scratch on an undeveloped plot of land — and he took some eerie photos this week.

He called the area around the Olympic Village "Dead City."

The photos are a reminder that much of what was built for the Olympics has no long-term use.

While a few arenas and other buildings have plans going forward — the media center is being turned into a mall! — the Russian government is still behind schedule on post-Olympics planning.

Valov's photos, which we're republishing with his permission, should serve as a warning for what could become of the "coastal cluster."

One of the main roads near the Olympic Village.



An unfinished construction site.



An empty road next to a hotel.



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19 Incredibly Impressive Students At Cornell

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Justine Lee, CornellWhile getting into Cornell alone is an impressive accomplishment, there are a number of students who stand out at this Ivy League institution.

These 19 students are building schools, companies, and new technologies that are shaping the future.

Whether it's in fashion, philanthropy, tech, or sports, students at "Big Red" are doing some really big things.

Adarsh Jayakumar is an internationally-ranked competitive chess player.

Class of 2017

Jayakumar had an untraditional gap year after high school, visiting 15 countries in pursuit of the International Chess Master title. Previously ranked No. 2 in the U.S. Juniors circuit, he solidified his status as a global threat when he defeated former World Championship candidate and Grand Master, Ivan Sokolov. 

Now ranked No. 5 in his age group, Jayakumar maintains a FIDE rating (the chess world’s mathematical system for ranking tournament players) of roughly 2300, only 100 points shy of gaining International Master status. Since entering Cornell, where he studies environmental engineering, he has put tournaments on hold.

His training never stops, although it has been refocused. While he still analyzes top games and researches new opening trends, Jayakumar primarily teaches the game to others in and outside the Cornell community — a strategy that has cemented his own knowledge of chess fundamentals.

This summer he plans to travel to South India to install solar panels on top of village roofs, and compete in chess tournaments to bring him closer to the coveted title. Jayakumar is pursuing a career in the design and implementation of clean energy systems.



Ahmed Elsamadisi develops algorithms to teach robots to navigate land and tell when someone's lying.

Class of 2014

Elsamadisi is a project leader at Cornell's Autonomous Systems Laboratory, working to make robots smarter.

In his second year, Elsamadisi created an algorithm to help a robot localize itself, essentially preventing it from bumping into things. Later, he applied it to the design of a robotic system that gives campus tours by using a rolling Segway that can read QR code-like tags around campus to navigate and play auditory recordings along the way. The system can also adjust its behavior depending on what it encounters, like a group of students walking by.

Now Elsamadisi is teaching robots to tell when someone is lying. The robot is tasked with finding a unique object on campus by playing "20 Questions" with humans. It sends a text message to the players, asking Yes/No questions about the object's location, and learns which humans are telling the truth and which aren't. The robot usually finds the item in its location in fewer than 10 questions.

Elsamadisi, a mechanical engineering major, wrote the data fusion algorithm, the controls, and the server that managed sending and receiving text messages.

After graduation he will work with WeWork, a co-working space for startups, on an "Internet of things" endeavor: to make smart buildings.



Ali Hamed went from sleeping in Starbucks to investing in more than a dozen new companies this year.

Class of 2014

Hamed co-founded CoVenture, a firm that builds software for early-stage startups in exchange for equity. After sealing $500,000 of its own funding in a jaw-dropping six weeks, CoVenture plans to partner with and invest in 15 companies this year.

CoVenture worked with six startups in 2013, all of which managed to raise additional capital. They also collectively gained revenues of around $10 million after working with Hamed and his team. 

Hamed employs about 40 developers and designers (all of whom are full-time professionals, not students) to create solutions for companies with non-technical founders and big ideas.

For Hamed, who originally went to Cornell to play baseball, it was a bumpy ride to success. After an injury forced him to quit sports, he taught himself to code. He moved nearly full-time to New York City to launch CoVenture, and for seven months was basically homeless as he alternated between couch-surfing with friends and living and sleeping in Starbucks or Union Square Park.

Now in his last semester at Cornell, Hamed spends half the week in Ithaca and half the week at his New York City office. (Thankfully, he's made enough from CoVenture to now afford an apartment.) He plans to focus on running his business after graduation.



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9 UNESCO World Heritage Sites Everyone Should Visit

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Canal Ring AmsterdamWe have seen some beautiful sites during our travels around the world. But don’t take our word for it (although you should; we are experts).

Many of our favorite places are UNESCO World Heritage Sites, which means they are “places on Earth that are of outstanding universal value to humanity and as such, have been inscribed on the World Heritage List to be protected for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.”

Spots that make this list are absolutely stunning. To date, there are 911 sites on the list and we have seen a ton of them. But to make things a tad more manageable, we’ve parred it down to 9 sites that you’ve just got to see. And if you can make it to all 911, then by all means go for it!

Statue of Liberty in New York City

We’re starting local — for us, at least. A beacon of hope for travelers to New York City since it was dedicated in 1886, the Statue of the Liberty is one of the most-recognized and beloved National Monuments in the United States.

Visitors can walk to the top for sweeping views of the Manhattan skyline from the statue’s crown, and many visit Ellis Island at the same time to round out their historical and cultural trip.

Where to Stay: The Ritz-Carlton New York Battery Park

As expected of the luxury brand, this Ritz property boasts gorgeous rooms, top-notch service, and a long list of amenities. Some rooms feature views of the Statue of Liberty.



Canal Ring in Amsterdam

It may have celebrated its 400th birthday last year, but Amsterdam’s gorgeous Canal Ring has only been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2010. 

Creating a semi-circle around Old Center, the Canal Ring is a series of man-made waterways lined by beautiful historic mansions. Though it has expanded over the years, the Canal Ring was first made in the 17th century in order to provide a means of movement for shipping within the city center.

Where to Stay: Hotel Pulitzer, a Luxury Collection

The Hotel Pulitzer is a charming luxury property in the Canal Loop of Amsterdam. The hotel is made up of a block of 25 restored 17th and 18th century canal houses and is full of historic details.



Area de Conservacion Guanacaste in Costa Rica

Covering a massive expanse of land in the northwest region of Costa Rica, the Area de Conservacion Guanacaste has been a natural UNESCO World Heritage Site for 15 years.

With both land and sea, it is home to beautiful rain forests and beaches where a plethora of protected wildlife live; think jaguars, hummingbirds, bats, and sea turtles, just to name a few.

Where to Stay: Reserva Conchal 

Located in Guanacaste, Reserva Conchal is comprised of four individual condo villages, each with several buildings clustered around a communal pool.



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25 Architecturally Stunning Homes You Can Buy Right Now

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burlingame aveThe experts at the real estate listing site Estately helped us find the 25 most architecturally stunning homes on the market right now.

These one-of-a-kind residences are industry-renowned for their unconventional shapes, integration of the outdoors, diverse construction materials, whimsy, and aesthetic.

From a celebrity-owned home that resembles the Flinstones' Bedrock property to a modern estate with its own moat, any one of these private mansions could be yours.

Have $39 million to spare?

The one-of-a-kind dome on this Frank Gehry beachfront home looks like a thatched roof.

Address:31250 Broad Beach Road, Malibu, CA

Price: $57.5 million

An 11,000-square-foot oceanfront masterpiece features 160 feet of beach, a full-sized lighted tennis court, and a lap pool.

31250 Broad Beach Malibu

Source: Estately



This Florida home has its own moat.

Address:1236 Biscaya Dr., Surfside, FL

Price: $6.8 million

The modern beachfront home has wide bay windows, a water moat surrounding the courtyard, and a dock on Normandy Beach.

biscaya drive surfside florida

Source: Estately



Inspired by Gaudí, locals call this home "The Rockhouse."

Address:31107 Coast Highway, Laguna Beach, CA

Price: $15 million

Embedded within Aliso Rock, this South Laguna home has a genuine stone facade and resembles a pearl embedded within a life-size abalone shell.

rockhouse

Source: Estately



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