Are Holograms Finally Here? – The Underground Issue #9
Everything you need to know about in this weekly series: A fantastic app for Comcast, life pro tips, Game of Thrones in IMAX, TV hosts not knowing the most basic Astronomy, A fantastic travel book, and the future of hologram technology.
At Social Underground we go beyond the mainstream stuff and see what’s underneath the surface. What should we get into, listen to, read, eat or watch? If there is something in our culture that needs attention, dammit, we will bring it to your attention. With The Underground, we mean to do exactly that: Show you the underground things that you need to know about: Books, music, television, movies, comedians, art, and whatever else we can find to get you into something you never knew about.
Don’t you remember the time you heard that first song from your favorite band? You made the decision to jump head first into that first album and then delve deeper into them. Now, you don’t remember a time where you haven’t listened to that band. If you play guitar, you don’t remember the time where you didn’t know how to play. We want to bring you new stuff that you didn’t know you need in your life to the point where you can’t remember not knowing about it. That’s The Underground.
1. A cool app for Comcast’s Xfinity that you may not know about. I recently switched cable providers to save money for a year or 2. Although, I loathe Comcast, the service I had was complete garbage. Imagine watching a huge moment in sports when the picture suddenly glitches like a movie burned on a CD-R. Imagine an internet that claims they’re broadband is super fast when the speeds are closer to DSL.
I made the switch and the new software for the cable box is pretty fantastic looking. The modem/router is pretty nice (Although, I want to be able to name my router!), and it’s all around better. I was checking out the features on the box I got and saw the “Apps” feature. I looked at it only have 3 things, one of them Facebook. I figured that if it can support that over the internet, then it should be capable of much more. So I went searching on the internet for more apps and found one: Xfinity’s Send to TV BETA.
This app can have you stream whatever you’re watching on your phone/tablet/laptop to your TV. Just drag the link to your bookmark bar. From there, you go on YouTube or other streaming sites, click on the bookmark “Send to TV BETA” and it shows up on your TV.
The more you research the tech you have, the more you can get out of it.
2. The best of Life Pro Tips from Reddit’s /r/lifeprotips. I admit, I’m really good at a lot of things. It’s tough to admit, I admit, but, there are many things that I have yet to learn. The subreddit of /r/lifeprotips has some great… life pro tips for your life.
- Got a stainless steel pot or pan with scorched/burned food on the bottom? Put a half inch of water in it and freeze it to minimize harsh scrubbing and chipping away at the burned parts
- If your dog is in pain, rub their ears, it releases endorphins into their system
- Proofread your work by reading it out loud. (ED Note: DO THIS)
- When camping, strap a headlamp to a gallon jug of water to fill the entire tent with ambient light. (ED Note: Or when your power goes out)
- If you’re struggling with a concept and are looking for help or more information, Google the subject with “site:.edu” and “type:.ppt”. This will give you powerpoint lectures from universities. (ED Note: It’s what most college teacher rely on anyways)
- When signing up for the newsletter, instead of putting your name, put the website name. Then, when you get a million spam emails, you’ll source it to the website that shred your name and email.
- When streaming Netflix on a computer, if the stream quality is subpar, press control+alt(opt)+shift+s in order to change the buffering rates. Changing to 3000 forces HD video.
- If you get in a taxi cab and the manual door locks have been unscrewed, GET OUT!
- Watching a movie or TV show on your PC that’s out of sync? Use the keys “J” and “K” to adjust audio delay in VLC Player
- Everything you need to know about food and cooking is eloquently presented on “Good Eats” – Alton Brown is the Bill Nye of food. All episodes are available on YouTube for free.
These are some of the top pieces of advice on the subreddit, but I’m sure you can find some a well. Obviously, we’re not going to post a 15 paragraph “how to” pro tip. Check out the subreddit here.
3. The last 2 episodes of Game of Thrones season 4 will be played on IMAX. From January 29th – February 5th, IMAX will be showing these two episodes from the past season and an exclusive preview of the next season.
Check out the trailer below and see where my money will be going on opening day:
http://youtu.be/X5IbPIiml3I
4. These QVC hosts have no idea what the Moon is. Knowing about the Moon is something a toddler addicted to NyQuil is educated on. If you can’t differentiate a natural satellite and a star, I’m thinking you weren’t burdened with an overabundance of schooling (Shout out to Firefly for that burn).
It’s not that they don’t even know what the Moon is, but they don’t even know what a star is, either. How is that possible? Read the exchange below.
It almost kinda looks like what the earth looks like when you’re a bazillion miles away from the planet moon.
Isn’t the moon a star?
The moon is a planet, honey.
We don’t know what the sun is.
(*after somebody Googles the moon for them*)
The moon is a natural satellite? What’s that mean? Is that what Google said? No, I don’t like that at all. I don’t even know what that means.
It’s easy. A natural satellite is a smaller celestial body that orbits a bigger celestial body. A star is a luminous sphere of plasma held together by its own gravity.
The Moon is a natural satellite. The Sun is a star. When you look up to the night sky and see those tiny lights? Stars. That’s information you get on day 1 of learning about Space in class.
If you can stomach it, fast forward to 7:20 in the video to watch the horror.
5. 100 Countries, 5,000 Ideas: Where to Go, When to Go, What to See, What to Do is a book that you need to read before you go traveling around the World. Even the most seasoned of travelers don’t have all the knowledge that this book contains.
What’s this book all about?
National Geographic bring you 100 Countries, 5000 Ideas, a large-format, lavishly illustrated, softcover travel planner. This essential travel companion to one hundred of the world’s most fascinating countries is packed with more than 250 big, colorful images, 110 original, detailed maps, and evocative text to inspire your next great trip.
Divided into two sections, this book helps you choose destination that suits your interests, how to get there, and what to do. The first part presents a series of charts that helps you pick the best places to visit according to your needs and desires, including the best seasons to go to each country—whether you’re interested in a three-week vacation or a long weekend or something in between—as well as a chapter including which destinations are best for children, adventure seekers, history lovers, and the like. In addition to vacation ideas, you’ll be given specific airfare costs, approximate cost of a trip, health precautions, and other important tips.
The book’s second section surveys the one hundred countries—from Argentina to Zimbabwe, and everything in between—describing each one’s unique highlights and ideas on what to do while visiting, as well as offering a wealth of practical information to help plan a memorable trip. A special sidebar outlines the pros and cons of each destination. 100 Countries, 5000 Ideas is an irresistible blend of practical travel information and inspiring ideas—adorned with stunning imagery—to help fuel your wanderlust, and make your dream trip possible.
Whenever anyone gets the idea to travel overseas, they usually wonder about precautions, laws and prices. This book details all of it to you in the most helpful way possible. It will help you setup your trip and let you know what to do and where to go once you get to your location. It’s the only book a traveler will need to navigate the world.
Purchase it on Amazon right now for under $20 to get started on your adventure.
6 . Microsoft’s HoloLens could revolutionize hologram technology. In pretty much every recent sci-fi movie, there has been a presentation using holograms. The tech is all over television, too, but it really isn’t possible to create huge holograms that you can see and manipulate, is it?
For the first time ever, Microsoft HoloLens seamlessly blends high-definition holograms with your real world. Holograms will improve the way you do things every day, and enable you to do things you’ve never done before. (Via Microsoft’s YouTube)
As you’ve seen in the video, it looks really great. The way you can transform your entire room into something else, use it for work and design, and to use it to have fun makes Microsoft’s HoloLens build up a lot of hype for the hologram/virtual reality business. If they can deliver on what they promise in this video, I’ll be the first one to buy one.
Sometimes the video doesn’t show you the bad things that can happen. Google Glass had an introduction video that made it look like some of the best tech ever… but then someone would wear it in public, others would think you’re recording them, and you end up with a black eye outside of a bar with a broken Google Glass. That’s probably why Google is taking it off the market.
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Jeff Sorensen is an author, writer and occasional comedian living in Detroit, Michigan. You can look for more of his work on The Huffington Post, UPROXX, BGR and by just looking up his name.