April 8th, 2013Top Story Five Best Document Scanners for Going Paperless By Alan Henry Not every scanner is a great one if you're thinking about going paperless. You need a good one that'll handle all the documents, receipts, and oddly-shaped papers you need to digitize, and preferably one with great software support to help you keep all that stuff organized. Here's a look at five of the best, based on your nominations. Earlier this week, we asked you which document scanners you thought were the best for the job. Not just any old scanner, or multi-function scanner/printer/copier—specifically which document scanners were best for helping you empty that filing cabinet and go paperless. We have a favorite of our own, but we've shown you how to go paperless with any scanner, and even cleared up some of your questions after the fact. After tallying up your nominations, here's a look at the top five. Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500/Fujitsu ScanSnap iX500 The ScanSnap S1500 is technically no longer available, having been replaced by the newer ScanSnap iX500, but those of you who own them and nominated them noted that both models are exceptional at quickly scanning documents of different sizes and shapes, and even converting some text documents into searchable PDFs. While the S1500 was Windows only, the iX500 extends support to Mac users who want to organize their lives too. The S1500 sported 20ppm scanning, and the iX500 brought that up to 25, and both models have a document feeder that makes scanning multi-page documents as easy as loading the tray—no feeding each page one after the other. The iX500 also supports scanning to iOS and Android devices, can make PDFs with one button, and more. It'll set you back $500 retail ($430 at Amazon). Doxie Go The Doxie Go is a great scanner—so much so that our own Adam Dachis used it to go paperless in two days, and showed you how you can do it too. It's a tiny thing, portable enough to fit into a bag and go with you almost anywhere, is powered via USB, and great for scanning everything from photographs to multi-page documents to tiny receipts on thermal paper. Best of all, the Doxie comes with software that makes the most of its features and helps you organize the documents you scan with it. If you scan text, the companion app does OCR so you can search the text in those documents, and if you prefer to use another platform like Dropbox or Evernote to organize your files, it syncs with those services as well. Even if you don't use another web service for your documents, the Doxie's software can sync with all of your (iOS) mobile devices and computers on its own. The Doxie Go will set you back $199 ($187 at Amazon), but the other Doxie models are a bit cheaper. Fujitsu ScanSnap S1300i If you're looking for a more affordable ScanSnap document scanner than the previously mentioned iX500, the S1300i brings a smaller, space-saving form factor to your desk without sacrificing much of the power that makes the ScanSnap line a great one for digitizing documents. It does away with the large body in exchange for a smaller, more streamlined model like the Doxie Go or the NeatReceipts, but still includes a fold-out document tray for multiple pages and papers of odd sizes. You can keep the tray closed and feed photos or other documents yourself though, and the fact that it's tiny and USB-powered makes it portable enough to take with you if you travel. It even supports multi-sided documents, and it comes with the ScanSnap software for Windows and OS X to make getting your documents in a format you can use easy. The ScanSnap software can also sync with and scan to other web services, including Evernote, Dropbox, and Google Drive, if you prefer to use one of those services to organize your newly digitized documents. The S1300i will set you back $300 retail ($260 at Amazon). Neat Scanner Despite its appearances on infomercials and late night television, the Neat Scanner is actually a capable document scanner, and those of you who nominated it praised it for being speedy, portable, and able to handle documents of all sizes easily, from business cards to full-sized sheets of paper. The Neat comes in two varieties, the NeatDesk (shown here) and the NeatReceipts, a smaller, USB-powered version similar in size and shape to the Doxie Go. Both models include supporting software to make scanning and organizing your documents easy, and that also sync with the Neat mobile app for iOS and Android. Neat's angle is to get you hooked with the device, and then sell you additional services, like its Neat Cloud service, which is essentially a Dropbox clone with a monthly fee, or its NeatVerify service that puts a human eye on every document you scan to make sure it's been processed correctly. On its own though, the Neat scanner and software package make a powerful enough combination to keep your paper clutter to a minimum. The NeatDesk will set you back $400 ($380 at Amazon), and the NeatReceipts $179 ($140 at Amazon). Both models come with the desktop software. Your Smartphone's Camera Several of you said that your smartphone's camera and an accompanying organizational app would work just fine for you. It's free, not including the cost of an app you may use, and it only requires the equipment you already own. This is true, but this is a perfect case of getting what you pay for: it may be free and easy, but it's slow, especially compared to the other contenders in the top five, and scanning large, multi-page documents you may want to digitize will undoubtedly be an agonizing process with a smartphone's camera. If you want the document you photograph to be legible and useful, or even searchable once you save it and organize it, good luck. Still, enough of you nominated it that it's worth mentioning as an option. Photo by Mauricio Lima. Now that you've seen the top five, it's time to vote for the all-out Lifehacker community favorite. Click to view What's the Best Document Scanner for Going Paperless? No real honorable mentions this week, since most of the nominees were variants on the above, or other ScanSnap models from Fujitsu, which says you guys really like them. Still, we're willing to bet that there are other models not represented that some of you prefer. Don't just complain that we "missed" them, let us know what your preferences are and why in the discussions below! Have something to say about one of the contenders? Want to make the case for your personal favorite, even if it wasn't included in the list? Remember, the top five are based on your most popular nominations from the call for contenders thread from earlier in the week. Don't just complain about the top five, let us know what your preferred alternative is—and make your case for it—in the discussions below. The Hive Five is based on reader nominations. As with most Hive Five posts, if your favorite was left out, it's not because we hate it—it's because it didn't get the nominations required in the call for contenders post to make the top five. We understand it's a bit of a popularity contest, but if you have a favorite, we want to hear about it. Have a suggestion for the Hive Five? Send us an email at tips+hivefive@lifehacker.com! Title photo by yoppy. Click to viewClick to viewClick to viewClick to viewClick to view

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April 8th, 2013Top Story Redditor Confesses to Murder with Meme, Gets Doxed by Other Redditors, Deletes His Account and Disappears By Neetzan Zimmerman The image macro meme Confession Bear is mostly used to bare one's soul concerning trivial matters such as loving the smell of one's own balls. But one Redditor who goes by — or, rather, went by — "Naratto" appears to have broken the mold when he used the "advice animal" to confess a murder. "My sister had an abusive meth addict boyfriend," Naratto claimed in a Confession Bear posted Saturday night. "I killed him with his own drugs while he was unconscious and they ruled it as an overdose." The "confession" immediately rang familiar to many fans of the AMC show Breaking Bad, where the main character once dispatched of a drug-addicted secondary character in sort-of the same way. But the distinct possibility that Naratto wasn't kidding around left many in the hivemind — particularly those who've already witnessed disturbing crime confessions on the site — wary of dismissing the claim offhand. "He's probably just harvesting karma," wrote Redditor TotalBeefcake, referencing the site's mostly meaningless points system. "[B]ut the idea of someone getting away with murder and then having the nards to gloat about it on a popular website really boils my bottom." Others concurred, and soon enough — within moments, according to The Daily Dot — all of Naratto's personal deets were laid bare. "Everything from name, DOB, jobs, location, FB, Twitter, Myspace, the whole deal," per one Redditor who was around before the threads containing identifying data were ultimately deleted by the mods. But not before someone supposedly forwarded all the information onto the FBI. In a last-ditch effort to avoid getting "vanned," Naratto tried to put the memie back in the bottle by claiming the whole thing was a "joke." He did, however, admit that there was "some truth behind it," but refused to say "what was true and what wasn't." Realizing he was about to have "a bad time," Naratto deleted his account wholesale and returned to "the shadows of lurking." Joke or not, some Redditors still found humor in the whole thing. "The funny thing is that if he gets caught they'll use confession bear as evidence," wrote Redditor CaptainCheeseBurger. It was certainly a busy week on the social news site, where, over on the Casual AMA subreddit, one user who claimed he was "going to kill myself in a few hours" invited Redditors to ask him anything. [images via Quickmeme via Reddit]

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April 8th, 2013Top Story Life After Xbox By Daniel Cook Over the weekend, I donated my Xbox 360 Elite to Goodwill. It represented a time in my life as a developer that I'm not overly proud about living. I worked for a couple years designing games at Microsoft. It is honestly difficult to say the exact group I was in since the organization was hit regularly by massive reorgs and general management failure. This was the era right before Kinect and there was yet another effort underway to broaden the audience to extend beyond the 'big black boy box' brand that so defined the original Xbox. Ultimately, the anemic outcome of this great leap forward was a handful of resource starved trivia games and gameshows. But the dream of bringing socially positive games to more people really appealed to me. I was an outsider. Intentionally so. On the rare occasions I used a console, it was likely to be one built by Nintendo. Instead, my earliest influences stem from the Amiga and early PC titles, not the regurgitation of a roller coaster known as Halo. As such, my design direction tended towards non-violence and cuter, gender neutral designs. I still design original mechanics and will trade cutscenes for gameplay in a heartbeat. The capital of the console ecosystem In many ways, a gig at Microsoft was a career peak for many developers I worked with. Since childhood, they had played console games, worked at console companies and then finally _made it_ to the platform mothership from which all their life's work was originally born. The repeated mantra was "The things we do here will impact millions." The unsaid subtext was "gamers just like us." It was also a cultural hub. You worked there because you were a gamer. People boasted about epic Gamer Scores and joked about staying up multiple days straight in order to beat the latest release. The men were hardcore. The management was hardcore. The women were doubly hardcore. To succeed politically in a viciously political organization, you lived the brand. You got the sense the pre-Xbox, 'gamers as bros' was a smaller subculture within the nerdy, whimsical hobby of games. Over two console generations, a highly cynical marketing team spent billions with no hope of immediate payback to shift the market. In an act of brilliant jujitsu, Nintendo was slandered as a kids platform, their historical strength turned against them. Xbox put machismo, ultra-violence and boys with backwards caps in the paid spotlight. Wedge, wedge, wedge. Gamers were handed a pre-packaged group identity via the propaganda machine of a mega corporation. For those raised post-Xbox, Microsoft was an unquestioned Mecca of modern gaming culture. Dude. They made Halo. Cognitive dissonance I'm okay with not fitting in. Over the 17 years I've been part of the game industry, I've gotten comfortable being an alien floating in a sea of Others. There weren't a lot of computer-loving digital makers in rural Maine in the 80s. I spend most of my days dreaming of an intricate systemic future where things are better. It is a state of constantly being half a second out of phase with the rest of the world. Still it was a challenge being in an group that knew intellectually they had to reach out to new people while at the same time knowing in their heart-of-hearts that just adding more barrels to a shotgun was the fastest path to gamer glory. Talking with others in the larger organization would yield a sympathetic look. "Someone has to deal with those non-gamers. Sorry it has to be you. Bro." I am not actually a bro. Don't tell anyone. We made adorable hand-drawn prototypes and watched them climb through the ranks only to be shot dead by Elder Management that found cuteness instinctually revolting. Correct games There is a form to modern console games. If you've played the recent Bioshock Infinite, you can see the full glory of the vision. These are great games, especially if you know and appreciate the immense skill that goes into their creation. Each element serves a business purpose. First there is a world rendered in lush 3D. This justifies the hardware. Next are intermittent dollops of plot. These are voice acted because it is a quality signal. They feature intricately modeled characters on a virtual stage. This gives the arc narrative momentum and lets you know you've finished something meaningful. Filling out the gaps in the 7-12 hours ride are moments of rote game play with all possible feedback knobs tuned to 11. Blood, brains, impact. Innovation is located at 11.2. This makes you feel something visceral. Each element of this form is refined to a most perfect formula. There are crate-raised critics who make subtle distinctions between the 52 historical shades of grey. There are documents and research. If you are a creative working at or within a publisher, your higher purpose is to judge games based off their adherence to the form. The game is a product and consistency, much like that found in McDonalds fries, results in repeat purchases. As a publisher designer, you are someone with taste. You police the act of creation. It is a job. It is a set of orders that come from above. It is your childhood dream. Away, away I no longer work at Microsoft. Instead, I started up the independent studio Spry Fox and spend my dreamy days making odd little games. Easily the best career choice I have ever made. My current games barely have plots. They focus on player agency and more often than not sport cute 2D graphics. Very few can be won. None come in boxes. We don't need to spend billions, because people love playing them without the crutch of traditional marketing or press. (For those who wonder, articles like this drive almost zero traffic to our games) As part of my personal journey, I've found that I'm driven by ideals that fit poorly with a highly gated console monoculture: What if games can connect people? What if they can improve the world? What if they bring happiness and joy to our lives? Hardcore gamers, women, men, children, families, bros, feminists, and wonderful people that play no other games...they play these intimate, quirky games of ours. Yeah...if you count up the numbers, we impact tens of millions. Deep down, I'm not sure if any of them are people like me. My job as a game designer is to make beloved games, not fit some limited corporate definition of a gamer. So far, none of our games have been released on the Xbox. There's been little economic or cultural fit with the artificially propped up tribe residing in that cloistered warren. So goodbye, big black box. I never really liked what you stood for. Daniel Cook is the Chief Creative Officer at Spry Fox, makers of Triple Town, Highgrounds and Leap Day. He started making games professionally in the mid '90s and his most recent games are avidly played by millions of gamers. This post was republished with permission.

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Reactions to Thatcher's death; Pernetti's golden parachute; WikiLeaks's latest "leak" and more from The Slatest.

	Trouble viewing this email? View these recent stories in your browser.     Monday, April 08, 2013 Stories from Slate and The Slatest, your daily news companion with @JoshVoorhees. Doublex | Lionel Shriver Muscular Feminism Monday, April 08, 2013, at 10:09 AM EDT Margaret Thatcher didn't just talk. She did things.   Blog | David Weigel Margaret Thatcher vs. Pop Culture Monday, April 08, 2013, at 9:56 AM EDT   Blog | Emily Yoffe What I Learned About Power From Visiting Margaret Thatcher's Archives Monday, April 08, 2013, at 2:44 PM EDT   Future Tense | Will Oremus An Inconvenient Truth About Margaret Thatcher: She Was a Climate Hawk Monday, April 08, 2013, at 3:28 PM EDT   Blog | Abby Ohlheiser Margaret Thatcher Dead at 87 Monday, April 08, 2013, at 12:12 PM EDT   Foreigners | June Thomas Why I Hated Maggie Monday, April 08, 2013, at 1:16 PM EDT I was a card-carrying member of a Thatcher-hating society—and I still have the card.   Blog | Abby Ohlheiser Thatcher Authorized a Posthumous Biography Monday, April 08, 2013, at 4:49 PM EDT   Blog | Abby Ohlheiser Just Three Senate Dems Oppose Gay Marriage Monday, April 08, 2013, at 2:11 PM EDT   Human Nature | William Saletan A War Without Innocence Monday, April 08, 2013, at 7:49 AM EDT Ugly revelations about the drone campaign in Pakistan don't discredit the weapons or the war.   Blog | Abby Ohlheiser Wikileaks' Latest Release Is a Public Record Archive Monday, April 08, 2013, at 3:17 PM EDT   Sports Nut | David Plotz I Loved My Abusive Basketball Coach Monday, April 08, 2013, at 11:50 AM EDT He berated me and threw things at me. He also made me a better player and a better man.   Blog | Abby Ohlheiser Tim Pernetti Gets $1.2 Million in Rutgers Settlement Monday, April 08, 2013, at 11:54 AM EDT   Blog | David Weigel "The Professional Right Bled Mitt Romney Dry" Monday, April 08, 2013, at 12:50 PM EDT   Blog | David Weigel "You Would Rather Have the Poor, Poorer!" Monday, April 08, 2013, at 10:59 AM EDT   Blog | Justin Peters What Do You Do With Five Metric Tons of Stolen Nutella? Monday, April 08, 2013, at 4:34 PM EDT   Blog | Amanda Hess When the Media Compliments a Female Politician's Looks, She Loses the Election Monday, April 08, 2013, at 11:24 AM EDT   Blog | Abby Ohlheiser Margaret Thatcher Will Have A Ceremonial Funeral. But Some Want It Privatized. Monday, April 08, 2013, at 11:08 AM EDT   Blog | Matthew Yglesias It's Not 1979 Anymore Monday, April 08, 2013, at 10:06 AM EDT   Blog | Emma Roller Officials Say North Korea Preparing for Nuclear Test, May Launch Missile Wednesday Sunday, April 07, 2013, at 10:49 PM EDT   Blog | Chris Wade and Slate V Staff Mutant Crabs Devastating Chesapeake Bay Oysters (VIDEO) Monday, April 08, 2013, at 4:26 PM EDT   BEST FEATURED STORIES John Hughes' Son on Roger Ebert's Love of Chicago—and Hatred of Home Alone 2 Game of Thrones: Why Is Joffrey Such a Rotten Little Creep? The Mad Men Premiere's Dark Vietnam Subtext I Was a Card-Carrying Thatcher Hater. Want to See My Card?   Copyright 2013 The Slate Group | Privacy Policy The Slate Group | c/o E-mail Customer Care | 1350 Connecticut Avenue NW Suite 410 | Washington, D.C. 20036 Unsubscribe | Forward to a Friend