Early this morning Yahoo announced it would be acquiring Tumblr for $1.1 billion in cash – roughly a quarter of the purchase price Disney put up for Lucasfilm – and promised to “not screw it up.” Naturally, there were some long-time users who were skeptical of the deal and decided to express their feelings. On Tumblr.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, in an apropos move, announced the deal on her own Tumblr with a post titled “Tumblr. + Yahoo! = !!” and a GIF of the “keep calm and carry on” meme, which naturally was the Tumblr community’s cue to panic and freak out. No sooner had the deal been announced than users from the site’s 100-plus-million blogs began to chime in with their thoughts.

“Do not distroy the fandoms. Please,” implored one user. “So Yahoo bought Tumblr, which means it’s time to pack my bags and move on,” laments another. “It’s been real good knowing you, Tumblr.” Others, naturally, posted their own response GIFs, like the Simpsons logo mashup above which was posted with the caption “Enough said.” And in the grand re-blogging tradition, a separate Tumblr has been established called Meltdowns About Yahoo Buying Tumblr to catalog the reaction posts. (Meta enough for you yet?)

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(Source: Wired)

Just in case the Boston Marathon bombing case has yet to reach peak surreality: The FBI now believes that 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev effectively entangled his friends into destroying evidence by texting them “LOL.”

(Source: Wired)

Culminating a two-week trial in which no hacking in the traditional sense occurred, a California man was convicted Wednesday under the same hacking statute internet sensation Aaron Swartz was accused of before he committed suicide in January.

Defendant David Nosal was convicted by a San Francisco federal jury on all six charges ranging from theft of trade secrets to hacking, despite him never breaking into a computer. Nosal remains free pending sentencing later this year, when he faces a potential lengthy prison term.

Nosal, a middle-aged man wearing a dark suit, sat stone faced as a clerk read “guilty” on all counts. Jurors deliberated for little more than two days.

After U.S. District Judge Edward Chen dismissed the 12-member jury, Nosal’s defense team demanded a hearing to urge the judge to set aside the verdict. A hearing was set for later this year.

“We think, legally, these counts can’t stand,” Steven Gruel, a Nosal lawyer, said outside the courtroom. Prosecutors declined comment.

[MORE: Man Convicted of Hacking Despite Not Hacking]

Netflix is reaching out to all the “families” butting up against its current two-simultaneous-streams limit with a plan that shows the streaming service understands how viewers actually want to use it. It knows we want to share, and that in fact sharing can be good for Netflix too.

In today’s first-quarter earnings letter (.pdf), Netflix announced a $12-a-month plan that doubles the current limit of two simultaneous video streams to four simultaneous feeds plan. Netflix says that the plan best serves large families that have butted up against the two simultaneous-stream limit. It also says that it expects less than one-percent of members to take advantage of the plan.

“The core focus is on the immediate family. We don’t think there’s much going on with sharing password with a marginal acquaintance,” said David Wells, Netflix CFO during the earnings call.

[MORE]

(Source: Wired)

As a team of investigators led by the FBI begins deciphering the bombs that killed three people and wounded 150 more in Boston this week, a key clue is already in plain sight on countless videos taken during the blasts: the color of the smoke.

The color provides important insights into the type of explosive used in the blasts, which President Obama on Tuesday characterized as “an act of terrorism.” Michael Marks has been watching those plumes as he views the photos and videos of the Boston Marathon attack. Marks retired from the Naval Criminal Investigative Service in August after analyzing bombings across the Mideast, including the 2000 attack on the USS Cole. The smoke color isn’t clear, but the signals it sends are important.

Analyzing the color of the smoke can provide information about the explosive that powered the bombs, which in turn provides clues about its sophistication — and, possibly, that of the people who made it.

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It doesn’t look like much. The brick office building sits next to a strip mall in Cupertino, California, about an hour south of San Francisco, and if you walk inside, you’ll find a California state flag and a cardboard cutout of R2-D2 and plenty of Christmas decorations — even though we’re well into April.

But there are big plans for this building. It’s where Baidu — “the Google of China” — hopes to create the future.

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(Source: Wired)

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You Saw This Coming of the Day: An Anonymous Post on 4chan’s /b/ Possibly Linked to Virginia Mall Shooting

The main suspect behind today’s shooting at a shopping mall in Virginia appears to have revealed his plan in advance on 4chan’s /b/ board only minutes before carrying it out, according to Gawker. While the authenticity of the post has yet to be verified by the officials, details are still emerging about the suspect (who is now in police custody) and we’ll bring more updates as the story develops.

The link to the portfolio site on the document matches the name of the just-announced suspect, Neil Macinnis. His name was announced less than five minutes ago, by a local news outlet.

EDIT: Here’s a full story.

NOTE: We’ve got the full 4chan thread here.

Well played, HBO. Just as Jurassic Park 3D hits theaters, the premium cable channel announced a new movie titled Bone Wars, a period comedy based on the rivalry between two nineteenth-century paleontologists. If an HBO comedy about battlin’ dino-scientists isn’t enough to pique your interest, then just wait until you hear who’s playing the paleontologists: Steve Carell and James Gandolfini, who will also produce the film.

[MORE]

(Source: Wired)

“Apps aren’t the center of the world. People are.”

[More: Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook Home, Money, and the Future of Communication.]

(Source: Wired)

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More on Roger Ebert’s passing: Legendary film critic Roger Ebert has died at the age of 70 after a lengthy battle with cancer. Ebert’s career began with the Chicago Sun-Times back in 1967,  and many assumed it would be over after a June 2006 surgery cost Ebert his jaw and voice. However, the film critic persisted, reviewing more than 200 films a year for the Sun-Times, and more than 300 during 2012. Ebert became the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize back in 1975, and was added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2005. He is survived by his wife, step-daughter, and two step-grandchildren. (Photo via Chicago Magazine)

It’s a sad, sad day.