Month: September 2016

Sponsor: My Thanks to A Day to Remember and Epitaph

A Day to Remember
Sponsored Post

My sincere thanks to A Day to Remember and Epitaph Records for sponsoring the website this week. Watching just how big this band has gotten over the past few years has been nothing short of incredible. And watching them continue to put out music that pleases their die-hard fans on their own terms is even better. The band’s new album, Bad Vibrations, is in stores now, and you can grab that on iTunes or plenty of other digital platforms (physical bundles are also available).

A Day To Remember are currently on tour with Blink 182, all of the tour dates are below.

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Samsung Recalls Galaxy Note 7

Technology
Jason Tate

Ina Fried, writing for Recode, on Samsung’s recall of the Galaxy Note 7:

Samsung said Friday that it will replace all of the Galaxy Note 7 “phablets” it has sold amid reports that some batteries on the phones have exploded.

In what could be the biggest smartphone recall ever, Samsung said it will replace all devices in the coming weeks. The company said it has confirmed an issue with the battery cells used in the phone and has halted sales globally.

Ouch.

43 Million Passwords Hacked in Last.fm Breach

Jason Tate

John Mannes, writing at TechCrunch:

The number of passwords and the severity of the hack were not uncovered until today. The passwords were stored using unsalted MD5 hashing. Rather than storing passwords in plaintext, nearly every site that stores critical user information utilizes some form of hashing. Hashing is a method for encrypting data, but some methods are far superior to others.

These are some really bad password practices and if you have an account at Last.fm, you should go change your password. Also, LeakedSource is a good resource to see if your information has shown up in any of these information database dumps over the past few years. You can search by your email address.

How to Spot the Difference Between Arial and Helvetica

Jason Tate

Mark Simonson:

The “a” in Helvetica has a tail; Arial does not. Also, the bowl of the “a” flows into the stem like a backwards “s”; the bowl of Arial’s “a” simply intersects the stem with a slight curve. (Interestingly, the Grotesque “a” has a tail, just like Helvetica. The bolder weights of Helvetica have no tails, an inconsistency that bothers some people. Maybe it bothered Monotype, too.) Arial’s “a” has always seemed a little badly drawn to me, but maybe it’s just me.

Forgotten Free Time (Encore Episode 131)

Encore 131
Jason Tate

This week’s episode of Encore has us discussing what we think is the best way to “roll out” an album. What should bands do to maximize the hype and avoid being too overexposed? We also tackle the idea of “free time” and what it means to us as we get a little older. How do we decide what to do with those precious few hours and decide between playing video games, listening to podcasts, or reading a book? The answer is never easy. We also touch a little on Thomas seeing Blink-182 and The Menzingers’ live, new music from Jimmy Eat World, Every Time I Die, and American Football, and I guess college football is coming back and people are excited.

Also, we have released another bonus episode for supporters where we discuss our top three breakfast foods. Supporters can find that in the supporter forum.

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