The rise of the web, short and long term memory and oh
Nicholas Carr’s essay about the deleterious effects of the web is going to be controversial and that controversy could be very productive. Some of the men...
Category: work
Accidents are a feature not a bug.
I turned on our computerized car the other day and got a pleasant surprise. My wife had set the radio to a local college station and the DJ was playing music I&...
A 21st century industry: meditation for mental health.
Drive through Beverly Hills and West Hollywood, walk around Soho and Chelsea, and you’ll see dozens of empty stores; commercial spaces for lease. In Los A...
How the race to build the best blogging tool was won?
Some of my fellow travelers in web development will remember a time when there was heated competition between major players to build the most popular blogging t...
We are a nation of risk takers. Let’s own that.
A Statue of Liberty and a roller coaster at the Paris, Las Vegas, Nevada. Why shouldn’t immigrants think they can take a risk and win big by coming to Ame...
Smartphones: the next TV remote control?
When will TV remote controls start coming with “like” and “favorite” buttons? (Let alone “Share on Facebook” or “Tweet...
The iPad app buying process.
My parents have graciously agreed to test the iPad. So far, they’ve had a terrific time. But when buying apps they hit a bump: the messaging, written and ...
Did Facebook beat SpamCop to the top?
We don’t talk enough about the impact that fraud has had in shaping the current commercial landscape of the Internet. If SPAM had not killed email, would ...
We’ll get right on that.
Is there a polyvore for furniture? There should be. Updated: It exists.
Get that glucose.
It’s not that people are inherently bad. It’s that ethical thinking is hard to do. We are simple to understand: we avoid unpleasant work and seek ou...
Albert Brooks’ Real Life; liking, favoriting, sharing, commenting.
Some online activities are already or could easily be made into formal games. Take, for example, the activity of using a news reader like Google Reader to ̶...
YouTube as feedback.
There is not an original thought in what follows. I often joke that YouTube is the real Pirate Bay, that only its size and Google’s stature keep it open f...
Warning, you’ve got mail.
My employer gave me a Blackberry a few years ago. It has a very bright light that flashes red whenever I receive an email. “Warning, you’ve got mail...
Remember what happened to the music labels?
Frederic Filloux on the next industry likely to be shaken up by the Internet: advertising.
Are more close-ups inevitable?
The other day someone asked me and some of my colleagues if the availability of shows on mobile devices is changing the way shows are shot. I answered not yet b...
Charles Bowden on “the largest human movement across a border.”
Charles Bowden: The migration of the Mexican poor is the largest human movement across a border on the planet. It was triggered by the destruction of peasant ag...
To Rep. Gutierrez (D-IL): you don’t get to skip hard decisions.
Update: And he won’t. He’s voting “yes.” U.S. Congressman Luis Gutierrez may think he’s doing the right thing by revoking his supp...
Creative collaborations between children and adults.
Cognitive psychologist Allison Gopnik suggests children see the world more clearly than adults, albeit without structure: This heightened state of absorption is...
Realizing what is more than pay and prestige, “wildly and unpredictably.”
A great quote from Charles Taylor in an so-so piece: The individual pursuit of happiness as defined by consumer culture still absorbs much of our time and energ...
Button joke.
Dan Moren on the text interface for the anticipated Apple tablet: Steve Jobs’s antipathy for buttons is well-documented. Why does he wear turtlenecks and sneake...