Yelp can be hit or miss, but it comes in handy when you want to answer the age-old question: where should we eat? They’ve recently added an incentive: Yelp Cash Back. It’s your standard rewards program that lets you save up to ten percent at restaurants.
Recently I had the dubious honour of watching Late Shift, which bills itself as “the world’s first cinematic interactive movie.” As the movie unfolds, the cinema audience decides—using a smartphone app—how the protagonist responds to various situations, affecting how the story plays out on the big screen. There are about 180 different decision points that produce both big and small storyline branches, with seven different endings in total. The movie is being released at Vue cinemas in the UK in March 2017.
The actual running time of the movie is about 90 minutes, depending on the decisions you make, but the total amount of film, including all the endings and branches that you don’t get to see, is about four hours. When I watched Late Shift, the audience’s decisions led to an extremely quick and brutal ending; later, the UK distributor of the movie told me that, if we’d made another choice, the movie could’ve run for another 20 minutes.
Here’s how Late Shift works. Before the film starts, you download an app from the Android or iOS app store and connect to a special Wi-Fi network. Once the film begins, a decision appears at the bottom of the screen every minute or so; at the same time, the possible responses (usually two, sometimes three) appear on your smartphone. You have about three seconds to tap on your choice. On the other end of the Wi-Fi network is a computer running some bespoke software: it collects the audience’s responses and sends the next movie clip to the cinema’s projection system.
You have to keep your phone in your hand and unlocked the entire time; if you try putting your phone down, you won’t be able to pick it up and unlock it before the decision timer runs out. Fortunately the app is mostly black, so the glare wasn’t too bad. Battery consumption was okay, too; about five percent on my iPhone 6, with power saving mode enabled.
Choose your own adventure
Being able to choose the protagonist’s decisions is entirely novel, very fun, and quite thrilling. Some of the decisions are tough: do you use your words to persuade the old man to help out, or do you just hit him over the head with a golf club? Do you capitulate to the torture and give up your friend, or do you hold on to the very end? Other decisions are more mundane: do you crack open a fortune cookie in a Chinese restaurant, or do your religious and ideological beliefs forbade the dissemination of prophetic baked goods?
It is a rather odd experience, being in complete control of the protagonist. On the one hand, it’s just a movie, and so you feel empowered to make crazy decisions that you’d never make in real life. When I decided to beat up the security guard, rather than sneak by, I definitely felt a heady pang of escapism. On the other hand, though, when you’re the one calling the shots, you feel responsible for what happens. When I chose to coerce an older man (with a golf club!) into giving up some information, there was a fleeting feeling of complicity; an awkward, uncomfortable feeling that stuck around for a few seconds until the next decision came along.
To the film’s credit, almost every decision felt like a significant branch that will affect the story in a big way—though sometimes the decision points felt laboured or telegraphed, as if the film had been constructed in such a way as to give me as many decision points as possible.
Another interesting aspect of the experience was the emergence of cinema camaraderie. For the first 10 questions or so, our decisions were distinctly cautious. As the film progressed, though, our choices became steadily more reckless, and thus so did the protagonist. Even towards the end of the film, though, as we were mowing down whoever got in our way, there was a titter of nervous laughter every time we chose the less-socially-acceptable option.
Wisdom of crowds
There are some fundamental problems with Late Shift, though. It felt very jarring when my choice was in the minority, and thus the protagonist did the exact opposite of what I wanted. There were a few cases where I felt very strongly about one choice, such as not killing the old man, but the majority voted for the other. (Later, after the tech team had crunched some numbers, I was told that 91 percent of the audience had voted to kill the old man. I guess once you’re already beating the old man up with a golf club, it’s easier to get into a murderous mindset?)
Judging by the audience’s reactions and some data shared with me by the film’s tech team, most big decisions were passed by a sizeable majority—which leads to perhaps the main problem with the “choose your own adventure” cinema idea: the audience will generally choose the same path through the movie every time. There will be some variations from country to country and city to city, but surely each cinema, with a local catchment area and regular clientele, would pick similar decisions each time.
When I spoke to the UK distributor of Late Shift after the screening, one phrase kept popping up: “you’ll just have to come and watch the movie again to find out.” Clearly, that’s a big part of the allure for distributors and cinemas: a repeat audience that wants to explore the film’s branching storylines and different endings. The distributor even spoke about some kind of special pricing model—full price for the first viewing, but discounts if you come back. Personally, that sounds like hell—what if I end up watching almost exactly the same movie because the audience votes in the same way?
A better option, I think, would be giving you a free digital copy of the film that you can explore at your leisure (and indeed, there is already an iOS version of Late Shift that costs just £4/$5). I think it would also be nice to see the voting percentages on-screen after each decision, or perhaps to receive a breakdown of how everyone voted as you leave the cinema. The current setup is clearly quite nascent; the distributor said that they’re looking into a variety of different ticketing options and tech tweaks.
How do you review a film with multiple endings?
Finally, there’s one other important question: is Late Shift actually any good? If you don’t have high expectations, I think you’d enjoy watching Late Shift once, though mostly for the novelty factor of deciding how the story plays out. If you expect a high-budget action film with a witty script, flashy costumes and sets, and A-list actors, you’ll be disappointed.
Rather amusingly, because each viewing of the film will be slightly different, there might be versions of the film that feature better or worse dialogue, acting, emotional payoff, or even direction and editing. So, even though Late Shift wasn’t my cup of tea, it might be yours. You just won’t know until you’ve paid your £15, bough some overpriced popcorn, and sat in a dark room for 90 minutes.
One word of caution: at the end of the film, the distributor told us that we’d been watching a rough cut, and that some of the (frankly quite shoddy) editing and dubbing would be fixed before release. Apparently a car chase will be added as well—though, of course, depending on the choices you make, you might not get to watch it.
If you want to watch Late Shift, it will be be available at some Vue cinemas in the UK in March 2017. No other screenings or releases have been announced, though it looks like the film is working its way around a number of film festivals in Europe and North America.
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a climate science denier who once said that he wanted to shut down the U.S. Department of Energy, is expected to be President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run that very agency.
In Perry’s famous “oops!†moment in 2011 that helped derail his candidacy for president, he forgot the name of the Energy Department during a Republican debate when asked which federal agencies he would eliminate.
Perry is an ardent critic of Obama administration climate policies and denies that humans are causing climate change. He has falsely said that human-caused global warming is not “settled science by any sense of the imagination.â€
“Calling CO2 a pollutant is doing a disservice to the country, and I believe a disservice to the world,â€Â Perry told the Dallas Morning News in 2014. “I’m not a scientist, (but) short term, I’m substantially more concerned about Iran changing the temperature of New York.â€
If confirmed, Perry would succeed MIT nuclear physicist Ernest Moniz as Energy secretary.
Perry is a former U.S. Air Force captain with a bachelor’s degree in animal science from Texas A&M University. He served as Texas’ governor over a 14-year period during which the state became the nation’s top wind power producer and a leader in shale oil and gas development.
Texas also is the nation’s leader in carbon dioxide emissions from energy consumption, sending nearly twice the carbon pollution into the atmosphere as California and three times that of New York, DOE data show.
As secretary of energy, Perry would oversee an agency that has a wide-ranging impact on U.S. energy policy, renewable energy research and development, and record keeping on U.S. patterns of energy production and consumption.
The DOE is in charge of all of America’s national laboratories, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and others such as the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, which together form one of the world’s largest scientific research institutions.
Many of the national laboratories conduct research into the global impacts of climate change, sources of greenhouse gas emissions, and technologies that could be used to reduce carbon pollution. The DOE is also in charge of America’s nuclear energy research and helps fund climate-related scientific and energy research at universities nationwide.
Trump’s transition team appears to be scrutinizing the DOE’s climate-related research and work. It sent a questionnaire to DOE management last week asking for details about its climate and renewables-related activities and requesting the names of all the DOE’s employees involved in those projects.
The DOE announced Tuesday that it is declining to provide the names of any individual employees to the transition team.
“The fact that the Trump transition team appears to be targeting employees whose work relates in some way to climate change is only more worrisome given that Gov. Perry doesn’t believe in climate science,†said Robert Cowin, director of government affairs in the Union of Concerned Scientists’ Climate and Energy Program.
“Given his record as governor in Texas, it’s hard for me to see him going after clean energy with prejudice, but it indicates that they want to remove climate as a key aspect of DOE policy,†Cowin said. “Perhaps of greater concern is that it might be a preview of what’s to come from a science intimidation and scientific integrity standpoint in a Perry-run DOE.â€
Perry’s nomination is receiving mixed reviews from scientists and observers who champion the DOE’s climate and renewables work.
“We do know that Rick Perry had proposed that the department be abolished, although it is not clear that at the time he understood that the mission that consumes the largest share of the budget of the Energy Department is nuclear weapons and security,†said Jeremy Firestone, director of the Center for Carbon-Free Power Integration at the University of Delaware. “But it does provide a cautionary note for the important energy research that DOE supports and conducts.â€
Firestone said Perry has little experience in energy or nuclear security and does not have the technical expertise that Moniz has.
Cowin said Perry likely understands that clean energy is a pro-growth strategy, but only as part of an energy policy that includes fossil fuels and other non-renewable sources of power.
“But he certainly saw the business opportunity with wind energy, and helped turn Texas into a national leader,†Cowin said. “As governor, he supported a clean energy mandate, some clean energy innovation, and was a genuine champion for wind energy and expanding transmission across the state to bring wind to new markets.â€
Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University, said an early test of Perry’s priorities will be what he does with one of the DOE’s least-known but most important jobs—setting energy efficiency standards for appliances and industrial equipment.
Those standards help reduce the sales of natural gas, electricity and other forms of energy, and Perry’s actions on those standards will show whether he will be pro-energy or pro-consumer, Gerrard said.
Jennifer Layke, director of the World Resource Institute’s Energy Program, said Perry comes from a state that has worked hard to boost renewables even as it remains a leader in fossil fuels production.
But Trump’s anti-renewables agenda threatens to reverse recent trends toward clean energy, Layke said.
“Recent signals about Trump administration’s energy agenda suggest a return to an earlier era and outdated energy model,†Layke said. “This would undermine hundreds of small businesses and thousands of workers who are working in the clean energy sector. It would stand in conflict with the country’s shift to a low-carbon, climate-resilient economy.
Robert Stavins, director of the Harvard University Environmental Economics Program, was blunt about Perry’s nomination.
“It is very disappointing yet not surprising that Mr. Trump would nominate to be secretary of energy an individual who just five years ago indicated that he wanted to eliminate the entire department but could not even remember its name,†Stavins said.
Microsoft has quietly fixed a software update it released last week, which effectively prevented Windows 10 users from connecting to the Internet or joining a local network.
It’s unclear exactly which automatic update caused the problem, or exactly when it was released—current (unconfirmed) signs point to KB3201845 released on December 9—but whatever it was appeared to break DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol), preventing Windows 10 from automatically acquiring an IP address from the network.
There’s also little detail on how many people were affected or why, but multiple cases have been confirmed across Europe by many ISPs. A Microsoft spokesperson has meanwhile confirmed that “some customers” had been experiencing “difficulties” getting online, but that’s about it for public statements at present.
However, a moderator on the company’s forums has said the fix was included in a patch released on Tuesday called KB3206632. The patch notes include the following line, which seem to indicate a fix:
Addressed a service crash in CDPSVC [Connected Devices Platform Service] that in some situations could lead to the machine not being able to acquire an IP address.
According to a statement from Virgin Media, the issue affects “anyone who wants to access the Internet from a computer with the downloaded Windows 10 software update, regardless of the ISP.”
In the time-honoured tradition of IT support, Microsoft’s advice begins by telling people to try turning their PCs on and off again:
To receive the update, customers may need to first restart their PCs by selecting Start on the taskbar, clicking the power button, and choosing “restart” (not “shut down”). Additional guidance can be found on our support forum here.”
Slightly more comprehensive advice with other possible fixes is also available here.
YouTube recently blocked the channel of North Korean state television, due to American sanctions on the country. The ban could be a big blow to the country’s propaganda efforts—as well as those researching them.
It’s already been three years since Amazon first revealed its somewhat audacious plan to make deliveries by drone. But the company is quite serious about this, and today it is announcing that it complete the first Amazon Prime Air drone-powered delivery. The company recently launched a trial in Cambridge, England — and on December 7th, Amazon completed its first drone-powered delivery. It took 13 minutes from order to delivery, with the drone departing a custom-built fulfillment center nearby.
Amazon’s video about the project says that it’s only servicing a few customers in the area right now, but will soon be open to dozens more who live within a few miles of the Cambridge fulfillment center. Naturally, this center is custom-built to handle these types of orders — once an order is placed and packaged up, the drone is loaded up and sent out from the facility on a motorized track. From takeoff, it flies at heights up to 400 feet to make the delivery and then return to the facility.
This Cambridge beta program has been in the works for a long time now; recently it was revealed that Amazon has been operating a secret lab in the area to get ready for the launch of Prime Air. Amazon’s page detailing this first delivery notes that the company also has Prime Air labs in the US, Austria and Israel as well as the United Kingdom, so we may hear news about test deliveries in those areas sooner or later as well.
Amazon’s FAQ page answers a few other questions about its drone delivery system. For starters, drones are only allowed to fly during daylight hours when its sunny — rain, snow or icy conditions will ground them. As for how Amazon’s drones will work in airspaces with other vehicles, the company says it believes drones should operate in a separate airspace where only small unmanned vehicles can operate. Amazon says airspace access should be "determined by capability" — the company envisions the low altitude space it is operating in should be reserved exclusively for drones similar to what it plans to deploy.
With only a couple customers able to receive drone deliveries, we’re still a long way out from this becoming a reality. But just a few years ago some thought CEO Jeff Bezos’ plan was just a joke — but it now appears to be a very real part of Amazon’s plans. The company says that "one day, seeing Prime Air vehicles will be as normal as seeing mail trucks on the road." It’s a big goal, but it’s going to be a lot harder to manage drone deliveries in London than it is in the peaceful pastures of Cambridge.