Best of the Web: October 22, 2010

Best of the Web: October 22, 2010

Twenty Technologies That Can Give You Super Powers; Facebook stops showing you photos of your ex, Inside the Abu Dhabi Film Fest VIP lounge.

October 22, 2010 11:17 by Rasha Reslan

Superman had tech support, anyway

One question that continues to stump us is one that everyone is asked at some point of their lives: If you could have one super power, what would it be? We don’t know about you, but we’ve never been able to answer that question without changing our minds every five seconds. How could one possibly be expected to choose between being able to read people’s mind, being able to fly or to be in seven different places at once? Well, why choose one, when you could possibly have twenty? This article is every schoolboy’s dream come true as it details the science between 20 gadgets that can give humans superpowers. Talk about awesome.

——————————————————————————

The young Steve Jobs

Hindsight is a fascinating thing. It can be enlightening, comforting or horrifying. But one thing is for certain: it is almost always insanely biased. This article dwells on the nostalgic retrospect of former Apple CEO John Sculley. Sculley, who was originally given the job right after Steve Jobs was denied it, worked with Jobs and has some insightful and interesting things to say about Jobs as a younger man. Sculley says the genius of Steve was his aesthetic for the minimal: ‘’I remember going into Steve’s house, and he had almost no furniture in it. He just had a picture of Einstein, whom he admired greatly, and he had a Tiffany lamp and a chair and a bed. He just didn’t believe in having lots of things around, but he was incredibly careful in what he selected.’’

——————————————————————————

Growing up rich

When you are as obscenely rich as Steve Jobs, (not that we know how it feels, but we imagine) one of your greatest fears must be raising a brood of spoilt brats. How do you keep your kids grounded, when they get everything in their life for free? The answer: Don’t give them anything for free. That is what Olympic gold medal winning cycling Chris Boardman says. Speaking to Telegraph, he says he makes his kids do everything by themselves: “One of my sons gets up every morning at 6.30am to make me a proper coffee. I give him £3 a day for that. I’d much rather be lining my kids’ pockets than a coffee shop’s. But my eldest son has learnt to live on almost nothing. He uses his ingenuity to find ways not to spend money in the first place.”

——————————————————————————

Facebook or magnifying glass?

Do you know how Facebook has a little section on the top right corner of the homepage that randomly shows you your friends’ old pictures, under the title Photo Memories? According to this article, it apparently showed many users photographs which contained images of their ex-girl/boyfriends and the pain their past flings caused them was far too much to bear so they decided to do something about it. They created a group on Facebook, which caught the eyes of the Facebook staff and now with the help of a relationship algorithm, the site knows better than to be the thorn in our romantic pasts.

——————————————————————————

Abu Dhabi Film Festival VIP Lounge

We don’t know if you decided to go to the Abu Dhabi Film Festival. If you did, chances are you didn’t get an opportunity to hang out at the VIP lounge (and if you did, we are super jealous!). But have a look at this video to get a glimpse of the diamonds, champagne and everything else nice that the superstars were treated to at the festival.