Back in 2010 when Tom Scott presented a nightmare version of a flash mob gone wrong, it was greeted with rueful awareness that events could coalesce to a dangerous point. The message, that oversharing through social media can have real life consequences, is still being shouted from websites. [yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyMdOT8YJgY’] In one of the more […]
Author Archive | Daniela Weiss-Bronstein
David Choe, Homeless Millionaire
David Choe is a homeless artist who chose stock options instead of $60,000 from Facebook and now has a payout of about $200 million coming his way. The sum makes Choe’s work the second most expensive piece of artwork in history, right after a Cezanne. The problem with this thrilling rags-to-riches story is that it […]
Cries For Help: Voice Recognition Analysis In Trayvon Martin Case
This past week has seen tragedies throughout the nation and the world. In Florida, George Zimmerman’s defense may rest on the faint cries for help caught on a 911 recording from a nearby home. Zimmerman claims that he was crying for help after being attacked by 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. Trayvon’s mother has heard the tapes […]
Zynga Keeps Drawing Them In
Zynga, Zynga, Zynga. How many hours of my life have I lost to you, Zynga? Zynga is one of those companies people love to hate. Some of their biggest games, measures in active players and revenue, were concepts copied from other companies. Farmville, released in June 2009, was the most popular game on Facebook for […]
PSA: Facebook Is A Public Space
Some people never learn, which is why I’m writing this PSA. You can consider it a freebie, this time. Here’s the deal: the internet is a very public place. Veeeerrrryyyyy public. It may even be the most public experience possible, because it’s not just people you know or even just people you want to know. […]
Techcitement Review: NeatDesk Desktop Scanner + Digital Filing System = Cleaner Home
I am constantly in the process of getting more organized. Piles of laundry, boxes of toys, and stacks of paper are always getting moved around and resorted. So, imagine my delight when I was sent a NeatDesk desktop scanner and digital filing system – those stacks of paper would not only get sorted, but they […]
Foodie.com Needs To Marinate
Are you a complete foodie? Are your friends complaining about your using terms like food porn? Are your three-times-a-day mobile uploads of your plate getting reported as spam by your nearest and dearest? If the answer to these questions is yes, you may enjoy a new social networking site that plugs into Twitter and Facebook, […]
How Cheap Are Your Ethics?
At what dollar amount would you sell your concern for others? As American consumers, we unknowingly do so every day, in myriad ways. While some shocking cases of sweatshops have come to light over the years, the average person doesn’t put much thought into who creates the products they use. Or, more importantly, how. In […]
When Did Geeks Get Cool?
I have this friend Erez. Erez is a fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows, Visiting Faculty at Google, and has presented his ngram reader for Google Books at TEDxBoston. Erez is a diverse sort — he’s also worked on genome sequencing, an insole to help seniors keep their balance, and published a ground-breaking paper […]
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer, Keynote Speaker For Day One Of CES 2012…With Ryan Seacrest
Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer acted as the keynote speaker for the first day of CES 2012, with Ryan Seacrest as his co-host/interviewer. What an awkward combination! Thankfully, what they discussed was more interesting than that bizarre pairing. The new phones look beautiful (HTC Titan II with no specific release date, Nokia 710 and 800 in Canada […]