Technology

Gary Busey - the actor, the icon, the massive headcase - has a thing he does called "Buseyisms," where he'll draw a little picture, come up with an acronym that's usually amateur philosophy 101 (LOVE - Living On Victorious Energy) and sell it to you, with or without his autograph on it. I think he may be running out of ideas. Playing word games is supposed to head off senile dementia, but unfortunately for Gary, I don't think it cures any other kind. Or maybe that's fortunate - like The Iron Sheik, Busey is finding new career juice in being insane, and I'm pretty sure he knows it.

In what may be one of the most non-surprising “news” of the year, members of the Westboro Baptist Church, professional life trolls that they are, have blamed the Oklahoma tornado tragedy on Kevin Durant, among other things. Well, of course they did. I mean, why else would destructive weather carve up the Midwest of the United States, if not for Durant’s support of Jason Collins? Had the Oklahoma City Thunder’s star kept his mouth shut about “glorifying gays” or something, the tornado cells that plagued the middle of the country would not have even happened. At least, that’s the gospel according to Fred Phelps, Jr, son of Pastor Fred Phelps, as you can probably guess. I’ll let his Twitter post fill in whatever blanks you may have: OK Thunder’s Durant flips God by praising fag Collins.God smashes OK. You do the math.#GodH8sFags #FagsDoomNations #FearGod #GodH8sU — Fred Phelps, Jr. (@WBCFredJr) May 21, 2013 God’s wonderful wrath in Oklahoma reminds me:#GodCursesUForFagMarriage #GodIsYourTerrorist #GodWillRepay #GodAvengesHisPeople #GodH8sU — Fred Phelps, Jr. (@WBCFredJr) May 21, 2013 If these bastions of dignity decide to picket any of the upcoming memorial services related to the tornadoes, would anyone really be surprised? In other news, how insecure does one have to be to go to such extremes just to stay relevant? By now, it’s obvious this pleasant group does not care about perception. They only want the attention that follows their pathetic trolling attempts. Instead of getting upset by them, it’s also clear the best way to deal with such nonsense is to mercilessly mock it, much like the guy in the lead image is doing. If you’re a hacker, or know how to use hacker tools, I guess the Anonymous communication strategy, at least when it comes to entities they don’t like, is an option as well. Not that we would condone anything like that.

My #accessu2013 Mobile Accessibility slides: Thank you @knowbility for hosting me

Sprint-owed prepaid operator Boost Mobile on Tuesday unveiled a mobile financial services app called Mobile Wallet at CTIA Wireless in Las Vegas. This isn’t your typical near field communications (NFC) or QR code contactless payment setup though. Instead, Boost is combining its prepaid mobile services model with a prepaid cash account, providing a physical prepaid card that customers can use at the register. Mobile Wallet was developed by Wipit, a mobile payments provider for people without bank accounts and credit cards. Its platform therefore makes an ideal fit for many Boost customers who rely on cash to make pay for their wireless service. The approach seems to emulate the mobile payments revolution going on Africa and South Asia, where mobile operators are become bigger financial services providers than the traditional banks. Mobile Wallet allows you to pay bills and send money to family or friends in 135 countries through Ria’s cash transfer network. Soon Boost will also offer a digital check cashing service, which lets you scan in a physical check and deposit the funds in your wallet account. You can also transfer money between different accounts, and top off your Boost Mobile plan within the app. What you can’t do is use the Wallet App to make a payment at store. But Boost and WiPit have gotten around that problem by issuing a Visa prepaid card to any customer that signs up for a premium account. The card draws directly from the Wallet account and is accepted anywhere where Visa is. Google reportedly considered adopting the same approach for its digital wallet but dropped the idea. Of course, all of these services come with fees, many of which are rather steep. Paying bills costs anywhere from $2 to $5 per transaction, while Ria money transfer fees vary depending on amount and destination. Even loading money into the account costs $3, though once the money is there, you can spend it freely using the Visa card. Until the check cashing service goes, live customers can only load money into the account at authorized Boost dealer locations. The app is available to Boost’s Android customers and is downloadable in Google Play, but initially Boost is only enabling accounts for customers in Los Angles, San Diego and parts of New Jersey. The company is planning a nationwide rollout by the end of the year. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.The future of mobile: a segment analysis by GigaOM ProMobile payments: forecasts, technologies and opportunitiesThe fourth quarter of 2012 in mobile

It’s already a busy week in tech, as Yahoo acquired Tumblr for $1.1 billion on Monday. We have full coverage of the story and will be following the news throughout the week. In the meantime, be sure to check our our latest batch of job listings from tech companies across the country: Tango: Senior Software Engineer — Client (Palo Alto, Calif.) CrowdTwist: Data Scientist (New York) iSEC Partners: Experienced Security People (San Francisco) Publishers Clearing House: Front End/UI Developer (Port Washington, N.Y.) Akamai Technologies: Senior Product Architect — Media and CDN (San Mateo, Calif.) We also have listings from companies like Manilla, Raytheon and more. Click here to see what else is on our job board. Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.GigaOM Research highs and lows from CES 2013How HR can make the case for workforce analyticsThe 2013 task management tools market

Viralheat brings Social Media Management to Mobile

RT @Polygon: We have an Xbox One hub now, so if you want that all the time, bookmark this: And RSS here:

Nintendo And Sony Stock Prices Rise After Xbox One Announcement

Sony Corporation is reportedly mulling over a proposal from a major shareholder Third Point LLC to spin-off its movie and music businesses. Reported by the Japanese daily newspaper Nikkei (via Reuters), the hope is to separate two of successful business units and use the funds to aid Sony’s struggling electronics division. Third Point LLC investor Daniel Loeb last week stated last week that he hoped the money from the spin-off could be used to bolster Sony’s device-manufacturing unit. Loeb said that by allowing the company to fund improvements in its electronics operations, it would also provide its shareholders with an opportunity to be better connected with the profitable units by owning a piece of them directly. When presented with the idea, Sony initially rebuffed it, releasing a statement indicating that the entertainment business is not for sale and that it is “trying to strengthen both that division and its electronics operations.” The New York Times notes that shares in Sony have dropped nearly 85 percent over the last 13 years, leading many to believe that some form of a turnaround must happen if the company will remain competitive. It no longer is considered a company that produces “cool electronics”, having given that title to the likes of Apple and is suffering in other areas including televisions and phones. Sony is a struggling company and needs to make some changes for it to improve its standing in the eyes of investors. Surely, people will be watching to see how the upcoming Playstation 4 will perform, given that it hasn’t even revealed what it looks like or what it will cost, just that it’s coming. However, as Microsoft revealed earlier today its next-generation Xbox game console, Sony surely needs this newest Playstation to work. In its 2012 annual report, Sony said that it’s working to reinvent itself. Company President and CEO Kazuo Hirai said that “Sony will change.” He also revealed that only two of its three main business units, entertainment and financial services, are the most stable and “poised for future growth.” Its third area, electronics, isn’t as fortunate: “the operating environment remains harsh, with profits suffering from price competition resulting from product commoditization and the impact of persistently worsening foreign exchange rates.” Sony has made it a priority in the next year to rebuild its electronics business. To achieve this, Hirai says it will focus on five initiatives: strengthening its core businesses in digital imaging, games, and mobile, turning around its television operations, expanding to more emerging markets, create new business, and realigning its business portfolio and optimize the use of its resources. Whether Loeb’s proposal works remains to be seen, but it could also be a way for Sony to prevent the lackluster performance its electronics unit has from spreading to other divisions. In the end, money isn’t going to necessarily solve all of Sony’s problems — it needs to focus on innovating and producing products that its customers want to use. Anything short of that will just be Sony putting itself on life-support. Investors certainly think that Loeb’s proposal is a good one. After news leaked about his idea, shares in the company rose more than 9 percent on the New York Stock Exchange. Photo credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

We know that everyone loves LOL Cat photos, heck iCanHazCheezburger has made a multi-million dollar business out of the practice. Yet the teams at  Magisto.com and PlayScience have found that parents would much rather share videos, photos, and stories about their children. According to the study parents are three times more likely to share videos of their kids (27 percent) than a pet (9 percent). 60 percent of parents responded to the survey by acknowledging that they shoot at least three videos of their children per month. 44 percent of those parents said they share at least three videos per month.  The study also found that 53 percent of parents shoot videos of their kids just so they can share them while 88 percent of parents will share the videos either way. So dogs and cats doing silly and stupid things is popular, but not quite as popular as happy parents who want to show off their kids. Here’s the infographic: