When Seth Messer and Ajayci Cotton entered the Dunkin Donuts/Baskin Robbins off the Ky. 192 Bypass Tuesday afternoon, they had one thing in mind: Steal a cake and upload it to social media.

They didnt think about the consequences of their actions.

Messer, 19, of London and Cotton, 18, of Manchester, were arrested by Detective Jason Back of the Laurel County Sheriffs Office shortly after they pulled off their prank that eventually landed them in jail.

The incident occurred around 3:30 p.m. when the two entered the establishment and Messer stole the cake while Cotton filmed the incident to upload to a social media site. As employees confronted the pair, Messer reportedly said something to the effect of this is my cake now and used profanity, according to Deputy Gilbert Acciardo, public affairs deputy for the sheriffs office.

The two left the restaurant and employees were able to write down their license plate number. The car was later spotted and the two were arrested by Back at approximately 4:51 p.m. Acciardo said that Messer asked if were really going to jail for this? when he was arrested.

Yes, Acciardo said. You stole something that did not belong to you. Stealing is stealing. He added that the two said they did it as a prank.

The cake was valued at $25 to $30 and that could result in a misdemeanor theft charge. However, officers chose to charge the two with felony third-degree burglary because of the circumstances, including that the two went into a business and left despite being confronted by employees. The charge could be reduced during the court process.

The two were lodged in the Laurel County Detention Center. Assisting on the arrest were Lieut. Greg Poynter, Sgt. Robbie Grimes, Detective Kyle Gray and Detective Chris Edwards.

Original post:

That takes the cake: Duo arrested after stealing ice cream cake and uploading crime to social media - The Sentinel-Echo

At one point there were five AT&T trucks and technicians at my house installing fiber-optic broadband. It's been smooth sailing since then.

I just upgraded to gigabit broadband at home. But being able to download a 2GB episode of "Game of Thrones" in 16 seconds isn't what gets me excited.

It's the ability to upload data at 1 gigabit per second -- not just download it -- that helped me decide to cancel Comcast and sign up for AT&T Fiber. Downstream data rates are important, but fast upstream speed is what's going to power the next transformation of home broadband.

If you're shopping for broadband, the odds are good that internet service providers will rank their speed tiers by download speed. To make abstractions like 100 Mbps per second real, they'll tell you how long it'll take to download a movie in full HD resolution (hence my above example). What they won't tell you is how long it'll take to upload your video to YouTube or how good your Skype call with grandma will look.

It's no surprise they don't highlight these upload speeds, because they're not very flattering. Network operators have a finite amount of bits they can shuttle around every second, and downloading generally is more important and data-intensive than uploading. So they allocate more of their capacity to downstream data transfer to your home, not upstream data transfer from your home to the internet.

But upload speeds matter. Being able to send data fast is important to videoconferencing, uploading photos, online gaming, collaborating with coworkers and more. Eventually, it could transform the internet again, perhaps the same way it changed when high-speed download speeds helped YouTube trigger the video streaming revolution.

For an example of how fast upload speeds change broadband, look at online backup service Backblaze, which charges $5 per month to keep a copy of your PC's data. On Thursday, it announced a new version of its backup software that should triple or quadruple most customer's backup speeds. If you have a fast upstream connection, that means you can send files up to its servers at 100 Mbps. Backblaze's own chief technology officer has maxed out at 200 Mbps, though he's an exceptional case.

AT&T promises 940 megabits per second with its gigabit fiber-optic service. For the most part it delivers -- though Wi-Fi is slower than a cable connection.

I've been a Backblaze customer for years, and this kind of performance changes the game. For $60 a year they offer unlimited storage, but when I got started, with a slow upstream connection, it took months for all of my data to trickle its way to Backblaze. No way was I going to ditch the backup hard drive in my office.

But at 100 Mbps, you can pump 50 gigabytes per hour into the cloud. That means my current 2-terabyte backup would be finished in less than a day. It's much faster to update an existing backup, of course, because only new or changed data must be sent, but it's common for me to come back from a day trip with 10GB or 20GB of photos and video.

No, I'm not going to dump my physical backup drive, because I like to protect my data with multiple methods. But fast upstream data rates make online backup more feasible for people who otherwise wouldn't bother. Online backup is a lifesaver if you're the victim of flood, fire or burglary, plus the ability to access files if you're away from your home computer.

With AT&T Fiber, Backblaze backup speeds increased dramatically to 101 Mbps -- and that was before release of a new version of the software tuned better for high-speed links.

Lots of other services today benefit from good upstream speeds:

None of these are impossible with today's broadband, but all of them work better with gigabit speeds. Before moving to AT&T Fiber, I paid for a premium tier on Comcast's Xfinity service not because I needed the 200 Mbps download rates, but because I wanted the commensurate 20 Mbps upload rate.

I ponied up for AT&T's top-tier gigabit rate (actually 940 Mbps when you read the fine print), which costs $70 a month and goes to $80 after the first year. For 100 Mbps, it's $50, increasing to $70, but I wanted to see what the top-of-the-line speed would get me.

In my speed testing, AT&T delivers the goods. But it's not magic. Lots of things go faster, like YouTube uploads that take only a few seconds. The internet has abundant bottlenecks, though, so I still wait for data more often than I'd like. On top of that, Wi-Fi cuts down the maximum speed by two thirds, and websites require more and more time to execute complex programming instructions. Overall, though, I'm satisfied, and I expect things will improve as more online services adapt to ultra-high-speed connections.

I'm lucky to have gigabit speeds at home, but it's becoming more common. AT&T can reach 5.5 million homes and small businesses today with its fiber-optic service, but plans to expand to at least 12.5 million by mid-2019.

The bigger question is what changes will come in the long run as upload speeds improve. There is an unpredictable "build it and they will come" factor.

Google had the presence of mind to acquire YouTube in 2006 and stands to profit likewise from tomorrow's services. So it makes sense that the company would try to kick things into gear with its Google Fiber service, which promises gigabit upload and download speeds.

But the company is pretty vague about what it thinks will emerge when our upload speeds surge.

AT&T Fiber can boast of high upload speeds, but in this promotional mailing, it only mentions download speeds.

"We believe technology paves the way for innovation," Google said of its Google Fiber project, which arguably kicked off this gigabit broadband push. "We've seen businesses in many industries -- from architecture to medicine to film and music -- take advantage of faster upload speeds to work collaboratively and expand their reach. And of course, it's also great for less serious endeavors like gaming or keeping your YouTube channel up to date."

For me, it was the supposedly slow-moving incumbent, not the Silicon Valley disruptor, that delivered my gigabit speeds.

AT&T expects changes with better upstream speeds. "We are seeing people producing more content than ever and pushing that content to the cloud, over social networks, engaging in video conferencing, online gaming, and more," the company said in a statement.

It's possible more radical changes will come. Faster upload speeds make telecommuting more feasible. It's easier to access company data and chat with teleconferencing technology, so maybe more people will skip rush-hour commutes or cross-country flights.

The bigger difference will be that our digital selves will move to the cloud. Take a photo of your dog, and nearly instantly it'll be stored on Facebook, Google, Dropbox, iCloud or some other online service. Your phone becomes an extension of the internet.

Security and privacy concerns mean it's not always wise to send data over networks and store it in central servers. But the benefits of cloud computing are immense when it comes to protecting against theft, granting fast access to a massive video and music library, and synchronizing our phones, TVs, laptops, smart speakers, smartwatches and tablets.

It's the future, so you better get used to it.

Tech Culture: From film and television to social media and games, here's your place for the lighter side of tech.

Batteries Not Included: The CNET team shares experiences that remind us why tech stuff is cool.

Go here to see the original:

Gigabit broadband upload speeds revolutionizes the internet - CNET - CNET

Fantastic Contraptions developers are part of an exclusive group of VR creators who have successfully generated in excess of $1 million.

The creative puzzler is made by Canada-based game-making couple Sarah and Colin Northway teaming with Radial Games Andy Moore, Kimberly Voll and Lindsay Jorgensen with sound by Gord McGladdery.

It released with the launch of the HTC Vive in early 2016 and Facebooks Oculus Touch controllers for Rift late in the year. This summer, it launched on Sonys PlayStation VR. The game was bundled with Vive headsets for a period when it launched but generally sells individually for $30 on Rift and Vive and $20 on PSVR. According to the team, between the bundling deal and individual sales (of which platform owners like Sony, Facebook and Valve usually take nearly a third) the title has generated more than $1 million.

I appreciate the team sharing this information exclusively with me. Though they declined to be more specific, the figure paired with the size of the team establishes the title as one of VR developments success stories. It isnt possible with the available information to establish just how big a success it is, but the creators are comfortable saying theyve made enough to fund further efforts and continue exploring a new medium. Other teams in this group include Survios (which is funded by investors to the tune of $50 million) and Owlchemy Labs (acquired by Google). In the case of Fantastic Contraption, not only does the game itself push forward interaction design and mixed reality capture, its creators have bootstrapped their creativity enough to keep going into future projectsas independent creators.

I met with Moore and the Northways for a conversation recently in Colin Northways still-under-construction virtual art gallery. Sarah Northway is working on her own VR game shes not ready to talk about yet. Moores studio developed a series of VR experiments, one of which he hopes can get funded by a publisher into a full game. Colin Northways art gallery is still very early too, but hes already using cutting edge tools like Valves Steam Audio to bring life to the space for people gathering to check out creations from a wide range of artists. The sound technology combined with the movements of our hands and heads made our conversation, even between avatars represented as the simplest of shapes floating in space, feel remarkably like the real thing.

During a transitional time for the mixed reality industry when startups like Envelop, AltspaceVR, CastAR and Vrideo close down, I talked to them for more than an hour in VR trying to break down how they succeeded with Fantastic Contraption. Here is what I came away with from our talk:

Classic Flash-based Fantastic Contraption.

Many VR creators have a very clear memory of the time they became convinced the technology was ready for mass market appeal. Rifts first development kit wasnt compelling enough to Fantastic Contraptions creators.

The creators hail from the Vancouver area, just a three or four hour drive across the border from Seattle-based Valve, and when they took a trip down to Valves offices in the summer of 2015 they got a look at an early HTC Vive with controllers that brought hands into VR. They recall demos of Owlchemys Job Simulator, Googles Tilt Brush and Valves early robot demo, each of which made excellent use of those hand controls.

It was a moment that changed their lives. Colin Northway sat on a couch after his demo, his mind exploding with the creative possibilities ahead.

For me it was like Im not that into VR and then I was like alright this is my life now, he said.

It didnt take them long to decide their legacy project, a 2D puzzle game called Fantastic Contraption that relied on creative thinking to build machines, could be adapted to VR.

Isnt this the best medium for Contraption? Moore recalls thinking.

While inspired, the creators of Fantastic Contraption werent recipients of the very first developer kits Valve sent out secretly to a handful of developers like Owlchemy. But the creators were so inspired after their demo they started building Fantastic Contraption without any VR headset at all.

We decided it would work and it would be amazing, Moore recalls.

Some weeks later they held a game jam (an event where teams rapidly create games) and partnered with Valve which brought some early Vive kits for groups to test their projects. They showed the demo to someone at Valve and, after the event was over, were told they could keep the headsets.

There was some good stuff going on there, Moore said of the event. But we were using it as a sneaky way to show off the game to Valve.

We spent the jam on VR integration basically, Colin Northway said.

During this process of development the Northways learned Unity, a game creation toolset that alongside competitor Unreal Engine has been early to support VR. In 2007, the original Fantastic Contraption was built for traditional screens with Adobes Flash tools. Thats about the time Flash started its decline partially because Apples Steve Jobs refused to allow the technology on iPhone and iPad.

So while the Northways became experts in Flash to the extent that the original Fantastic Contraption made Colin Northway enough money that he could quit his day job Now I just have a hobby that pays better than my jobs ever did that toolset wasnt built for VR and they had to learn something new.

I had a lot of trouble transitioning to Unity and VR, and 3D art Id avoided for ages, Sarah Northway said. Its scary trying new stuff but you really need to in this industry, because things keep changing and moving forward so fast.

Theres so much to learn in VR, added Colin Northway. If youre working in VR you cant help but be pushing boundaries all the time and learning a huge amount.

The team went into the project with a four month plan to deliver the VR game by the end of 2015, which is when HTC originally said it would start shipping headsets in volume. At the start, Sarah Northway said, they became comfortable with the idea the project could make no money and it could be a total failure. They had enough coming in from previous projects to make a four-month timeline work.

Well spend four months on it, well finish it, even if nothing happens of it well knowsomething about VR, well be set up to do our next thing, itll be fun, shesaid. So we didnt come into it thinking were going to put all our eggs in this basket.

The scope of the project grew as several things happened. The Vives consumer launch was set in stone later than expected, for April 2016. In addition, people reacted positively to early versions of their project and they secured a bundle deal ensuring some income from the game.

The bundle deal paid for development, Colin Northway said.

As soon as we had the bundle deal we knew everything was gonna be just fine, Sarah Northway said. Being agile in your business plan was pretty key.

The story would have gone very differently if we never got the bundle deal or there werent so many sales at launch, Moore said. We took a risk the whole team was comfortable with which was four month dev and before that four months was up we secured larger deals.

The extra development time allowed the team to explore a more fully realized version of the game including the ability to push VR design ideas much further. For example, Fantastic Contraption includes a helmet which sits on the ground. When you pick up and place the helmet on your head it transports you to another world with tables to save your creation or access those made by other people. It is the VR equivalent of the kind of flat screen menu to save your work that youd access in a traditional game. Their extra runway freed them to explore these ideas.

They also developed a miniaturized version of the game that made it easy for people to play it in a seated or forward-facing position. This in turn allowed the game to more easily make the jump to additional platforms like Rift and PlayStation VR that were tuned better for those setups.

So with all these different pieces falling into place just right to expand both the scope and reach of the game, was it luck or smart decision-making that allowed Fantastic Contraption to find success?

It is definitely both, Colin Northway said. A big lesson to learn from indie development is that you have this one advantage and that is that you can do super weird stuff. Big companies cant do weird stuff because they are going to be risk averse.

On the other hand, independent developers might be gambling their own future rather than a companys. Moore and the Northways warned against people mortgaging their house or running up credit cards in order pursue an idea in VR. They all had previous projects that gave them the runway to start the VR version of Fantastic Contraption in a game jam. And before that they made the transition to indie developer by working on ideas on weekends and evenings. Thats why they were comfortable with the concept of failing.

For the Northways and Radial Games, however, moving into 2018 they are poised for even greater success when headsets ship in larger numbers.

I personally kind of feel like were in a time where you should be doing a lot of building of your own skills, a lot of your own experimenting so that in the bright commercial future, when it comes, youre set up to take advantage of it, Colin Northway said.

Tagged with: fantastic contraption

See the original post:

Exclusive: Here's How Fantastic Contraption VR Devs Generated More Than $1 Million - UploadVR

Instead of neglecting our workout (and the mood-boosting benefits that come from it), we schedule ourselves a little one-on-one workout time with YouTube. The workouts are time-flexible, accessible and expert-led. In other words, its basically a treasure trove of fitness.

A quick search unearths everything from yoga to Pilates to HIIT training routines; whatever type of sweat session you prefer, YouTube likely has it. Thats why we decided to put together a list of our favorite online fitness channels just to help you narrow your search a little bit.

YOGA WITH ADRIENE.Adriene Mishler is the light-hearted yogi behind this YouTube channel. Her yoga videos range from targeted practices for anxiety, depression, sleep and pain (like this one for neck and shoulder relief) to power flows for strengthening and lengthening. Her goofy yet calming presence is enough to make you change into comfortable clothes, drink a cup of tea and relax into a yoga routine.

CASSEY HO OF BLOGILATES.Cassey Ho has been a mainstay on the YouTube fitness scene since she started uploading Pilates videos in 2009. Her website, Blogilates, provides fitness and nutrition advice, along with body-positive inspiration and sporty merchandise.

She specializes in workouts that build and tone muscle using nothing else but your own body weight. The workouts are hard but fun. Her bubbly and outgoing personality almost makes you forget your arms are screaming in the middle of a 15-minute workout (almost). Stay dedicated to her videos, try your best, and youll see real change.

TARA STILES.Although she does have videos fit for beginners, chances are that youll love Tara Stiless yoga videos if youre an intermediate or advanced yoga devotee. Her no-frills approach is quieting, calming and strengthening for both the body and mind. (If youre not super into yoga, check her videos out anyway, because they might majorly inspire you; shes the most graceful human being weve ever seen).

JEANETTE JENKINS.Jeanette Jenkins is a celebrity personal trainer (responsible for training A-listers such as Kelly Rowland) who posts a variety of different workouts designed to increase strength. Many of her videos are extremely short think no longer than 30 seconds just so she can show a few reps of effective moves. Then, depending on how much time you have, you can make it an extended workout, or just do a few circuits. Take this Zumba video, for instance. Its solely concentrated on planks and high knees for an intense cardio sweat.

THE TONE IT UP GIRLS.Karena Dawn and Katrina Scott started their Tone It Up empire to share workout, nutrition, and even lifestyle advice. Many of their workouts take place in front of a beautiful backdrop of the Pacific ocean, so you can kind of feel like youre working out while on a SoCal vacation (better than working out at home, right?).

Theyre also regular Byrdie contributors. Check out all of their stories. (Personally, we love this piece on the 5 exercises you should do if you sit all day).

XHIT DAILY.XHIT Daily is a YouTube channel that regularly posts workout videos ranging from Crossfit to Pilates. The three hosts are incredibly knowledgeable, reminding their viewers how to correct their form and get the most from their workouts throughout.

THE RUN EXPERIENCE.Weve covered yoga, Pilates, and strength training workouts, but this one is for any runners out there. The Run Experience has almost 70,000 YouTube subscribers, to which it shares motivating running tips, tricks, and advice. They have videos on everything from hydration and nutrition to race-day prep. Regardless if youre a runner or not, they share super-effective targeted workouts that are great for doing on the go.

WHITNEY SIMMONS.Simmons posts regularly on YouTube, so youll never be without a new workout to try. The best part? You dont need a ton of equipment. Many of her videos use your body weight, and maybe a dumbbell or two to target specific muscle groups. Plus, she produces videos on healthy meal prep, to keep you going throughout a busy week.

Get the latest celebrity beauty news, runway trends, health and fitness tips, as well as product suggestions from the experts at Byrdie.com.

Read this article:

Fitness gurus to work out with for free on YouTube - Chicago Tribune