shared 14 May, 2013
Well, This Is Just Awful: ‘Renting’ Disabled People to Skip Lines at Disney World
The lines at Disney World are awful, we can all agree, but the lengths to which some people will go to bypass them are worse. Wealthy Manhattan parents are reportedly using a service that typically assists disabled children around the theme park to drive their non-disabled families around in a “handicapped” scooter, allowing them to skip lines by up to two hours.
It sounds like something out of a “Modern Seinfeld” episode. But in this case, the horrible people are real.
[read in full]shared 14 May, 2013
After $15B in payments, Square debuts Square Stand hardware to select US retailers for $299
Square announced today the launch of a new product it’s calling Square Stand, a new way to process point of sales transaction right from the iPad.
At a press conference held across the street from Square’s headquarters in San Francisco, CEO and co-founder Jack Dorsey shared the company’s new hardware designed to help local businesses with a brick and mortar location. The company claims that the new iPad tool will give merchants a “remarkable new way to manage and grow their business, all for the price of a cash register.”
iPad payments account for nearly 50 percent of total payments processed by Square so bringing this to brick and mortar stores to take on the physical cash register could make things more simplistic for merchants.
[read in full]shared 14 May, 2013
The billboard turning thin air into water
Residents in rural Peru have received 15,000 litres of clean drinking water this year, courtesy of a billboard that has been making it out of thin air.
Co-produced by outdoor advertising provider Clear Channel and Lima’s University of Engineering and Technology, the billboard cost around $32,000 to make. It works by condensing vapour in the air (humidity in the region is around 98 per cent) into water, before passing it through a series of filters and running it under UV lamps for further purification.
[read in full]14 May, 2013 – 2 comments
the google reader-pocalypse is coming
Google, in all of its lack of wisdom, is shutting down Google Reader on July 1st, obviously to pour its resources into the social blockbuster that is certainly not Google+.
That means if you’re reading this post right now in Google Reader, come July 1st you won’t be getting updates from WhatConsumesMe anymore. Epic sad face.
Here are some ways to get your WCM fix when Reader goes bye-bye:
shared 13 May, 2013
Click this button to gamble with your social media life
There's a new app that fulfills some of your darkest (or perhaps most liberating) social media fantasies. Social Roulette gambles with your Facebook life. Every time you play, there's a one in six chance your Facebook page gets nuked.
Well, not exactly.The site's creators—a trio of coders and artists—explain:
[read in full]While it's very difficulty to "permanently delete" a Facebook account, we can completely remove all your posts, friends, apps, likes, photos, and games before completely deactivating it.
