Tech Culture- Page 13

How to learn the periodic table in 3 minutes

In high school science classes, students are encouraged to memorize the first 20 elements of the periodic table. There are other methods employed at the university level for all 118 -- many students swear by mnemonics.

When it comes to tremendously catchy fun, though, a new song by AsapScience has them all beat. Called simply "The New Periodic Table Song (In Order)," it's a chemical adventure that romps along to a section of "Infernal Galop" (otherwise known as the Can-Can music) from Jacques Offenbach's opera "Orpheus in the Underworld."

It goes, appropriately, at a fast gallop, but listen a few times, and you'll soon find yourself confidently singing along. … Read more

Microsoft reportedly to take cut on used Xbox One game sales

Microsoft's policy concerning used Xbox One games has proven a bit confusing, but a new report may have spilled more concrete details.

Citing information from "retail sources," gaming news site MCV claims that Microsoft and gaming publishers will take a bite out of the sale of each used Xbox One game. In the process of selling a used game, original owners would also see the game wiped from their online accounts so they no longer can play it.

Microsoft has already confirmed that Xbox One users who install a game on the console's hard drive will no longer need the disc … Read more

Flickr's revamped site hit by performance problems

Update at 8:35 a.m. PT: The site's functionality has been restored, according to a Flickr spokesperson.

Flickr is having performance issues just a few days after a major site revamp.

Some users have been unable to access the site at all, while others have run into delays logging in or launching certain pages. Certain tasks, such as logging into my Flickr account and accessing my Photostream page, each took several minutes to complete.

The photo-sharing site acknowledged the problem in a tweet early Friday, telling users: "Experiencing slowness or having trouble accessing the site? We're … Read more

Xbox One's unexpected pitch: It's the Dad Box

For years we've heard about the ever-widening appeal of video games and game-playing devices. Women gamers, senior gamers, casual gamers, and even the kind of social/mobile gamers who would never refer to themselves with the dreaded G word.

But, when it was time to reveal its first major gaming hardware of the post-iPhone era (the first-gen iPhone was released in 2007, the Xbox 360 in 2005), what did Microsoft do? It narrowcast the launch presentation of the Xbox One to a very targeted demographic group. And no, it wasn't the cliched teenage or twentysomething twitch gamer, it … Read more

Meet the 23-ton X-Wing, the world's largest Lego model

There's big, then there's really big, and then there's colossal, which might be a good word to use when describing a near 46,000-pound Lego X-Wing that made a triumphant debut Thursday in New York's Times Square.

The full-size replica, about 42 times the size of the Lego "Star Wars" X-Wing (#9493) set available on store shelves, celebrates the debut of Cartoon Network's "The Yoda Chronicles," which premieres on May 29 at 8 p.m. … Read more

Twitter amps up program to display videos in your timeline

Twitter users may see more videos start to pop up in their timelines.

The microblogging site has already worked with companies to display videos in their tweets. ESPN and Ford Fusion teamed up to show instant replays in tweets during college football games. Turner Sports, the NCAA, AT&T, and Coke Zero united to tweet real-time video highlights of basketball games.

But now this program has a name and a bunch of new partners.

Dubbed Twitter Amplify, the program will expand to show Twitter users more video clips, accompanied by short ads. The tweeted videos tie in with programs … Read more

Girl's winning Google Doodle shows her dad home from war

A picture depicting a girl's reunion with her father returning from war has won the top award in a Google Doodle contest.

On display Thursday at Google's home page, "Coming Home" is a simple but powerful piece of art that portrays a young girl holding an American flag and running to reunite with her father. The returning soldier appears. They exchange a glance. And finally they fall into a deep embrace as they treasure their moment together again.

Created by 12th grader Sabrina Brady of Sparta, Wisc., "Coming Home" faced great competition in being crowned the 2013 U.S. Doodle 4 Google national winner. Google received more than 130,000 submissions for the contest, which garnered millions of votes. But in the end, Sabrina's drawing clearly moved the voters.… Read more

Yahoo: We're listening to user feedback about Flickr revamp

Yahoo is clearly aware that many Flickr users are unhappy about the photo-sharing site's new look and layout.

On Monday, Yahoo revamped Flickr with a host of changes, including a larger photo layout, new home page and photo stream page, and 1TB of free storage space per person. But Flickr users quickly expressed their unhappiness over the changes. A slew of people chimed in on the site's help forum to give the new look a thumb's down and pleading for a return to the old style.

Users are always thrown by major changes to their favorite Web … Read more

Peek at the best-looking PlayStation 4 mockup yet

When Sony has a secret up its sleeve, the company loves to tease. If you missed last week's video enigma, Sony revealed very brief pictures of the mysterious PlayStation 4 hardware, leaving gamers in the dark about what the highly anticipated gaming console will look like.

Luckily, graphics guru Andy Gilleand has the imagination (and skills) to piece together Sony's puzzle, and created a general conceptual rendering of the PlayStation 4.

While Gilleand's interpretation will have most Sony purists crying foul, the render does align with the general shape and accents seen in the official teaser videos. It's widely expected that Sony will finally show off the PlayStation 4 during a company press event at E3 2013 on June 10.… Read more

Forget what you know, next-gen consoles change everything

For the better part of a decade the video game landscape remained mostly unchanged, complacent in a sea of sequels, motion controls, and downloadable content.

It's a generation that has lasted longer than any other before it, albeit for generally good reasons. And perhaps most impressive is that though their PC gaming counterparts have long since passed them by, these aging consoles are still able to render great-looking games.

So while the sun begins to set on what will go down as a pivotal generation for video games, we look ahead to see what owning a console will be … Read more