Android vs. iPhone
I’m thinking of updating the Samsung S8. But I’m getting some pressure at work to wait for an iPhone 8. In general I’m skeptical of the whole Apple ecosystem, but it isn’t as if good Android phones are cheap. Any thoughts from readers who have switched back and forth?
The passing onto to better things…faster and faster
As many of you know, Apple is doing away with the iPod Shuffle. One curious thing is that I’ve noticed several people buying these devices in the last week through my Amazon referrals. At $50 the price point isn’t high, but it does seem a bit much for an obsolete technology. Which made me reflect […]
Our conversations don’t matter so much
From almost nobody to over 3 billion: Internet users by world region from 1995 to 2015 https://t.co/IkvOD2dRM2 — Max Roser (@MaxCRoser) April 3, 2017 One of the things about being on the internet is your local social and communication network looms really large. Controversies or concerns in your part of the pool seem to take […]
The Kindle price
I’ve had a Kindle for a few years now. I read a lot on it. And yet I observed something recently: I’ve stopped going to the library much. This is a big deal for me…probably since the age of 7 I’ve clocked in at least one visit to the public library per week in my […]
Twitter is not declining
The Decline and Fall of Twitter?:
Even Twitter? Can Twitter be declining? Over at the Atlantic‘s Technology Channel I note that my own Twitter conversations are not quite as dynamic as they once were, and speculate about why that might be. I didn’t…
Singularity Summit 2012: the lion doesn’t sleep tonight
Last weekend I was at the Singularity Summit for a few days. There were interesting speakers, but the reality is that quite often a talk given at a conference has been given elsewhere, and there isn’t going to be much “value-add” in t…
The end of Diaspora
I didn’t even notice, Founders of Diaspora, Intended as the Anti-Facebook, Move On. Though I was skeptical about the prospects after one of the co-founders committed suicide. One of the reasons I took an interest is that I gave $50 to the project…
Technology that brought down civilization
The IVF Panic: ‘All Hell Will Break Loose, Politically and Morally, All Over the World’:
For many, IVF smacked of a moral overstep — or at least of a potential one. In a 1974 article headlined “The Embryo Sweepstakes,” …
The Facebook search plateau
I check on this every 6 months or so. Here’s the search trend for Facebook:
Everyone basically knows about Facebook now. Contrast this with Twitter:
All that being said, Twitter has such a smaller footprint compared to Facebook that it seems o…
Handicap breeds excellence?
There’s a wide-ranging story in LA Weekly on the decline of 35mm film. It covers a lot of angles, but this one issue jumped out at me:
No wonder, then, that directors like Christopher Nolan worry that if 35mm film dies, so will the gold standard …
Handicap breeds excellence?
There’s a wide-ranging story in LA Weekly on the decline of 35mm film. It covers a lot of angles, but this one issue jumped out at me:
No wonder, then, that directors like Christopher Nolan worry that if 35mm film dies, so will the gold standard …
The culture that is Microsoft
Frustration, Disappointment And Apathy: My Years At Microsoft:
Large companies have overheads, a necessary evil, you say. Overheads need to be managed. And managed they are: Group Managers, Program managers, General managers, together with ‘Senior’…
The end of IE; the rise of Chrome
A comment below prompted me to recheck the browser stats on the web. People are now starting to give Google crap for not having really hit the jackpot on anything since Gmail, especially after the flubs with Google Wave and Buzz, and the mixed reviews …
The way we were
I found out today that a private equity firm has purchased the majority of the Yellow Pages from AT&T. Which prompts me to ask: when was the last time you used the yellow pages? A pay phone? In a similar vein, Google And The Death Of Getting Lost….
The way we were
I found out today that a private equity firm has purchased the majority of the Yellow Pages from AT&T. Which prompts me to ask: when was the last time you used the yellow pages? A pay phone? In a similar vein, Google And The Death Of Getting Lost….
Google+ bombs
Google+ Lags Far Behind Facebook, Twitter and MySpace in Latest Study: Google+ became the fastest growing social network within months of its debut last June, but a recent study casts doubt on whether most of its users are spending much time on the site. According to ComScore, users spent an average of just 3.3 minutes […]
Books Made From Electrons!
[Updated to provide a better link for DtU overlord Carl Zimmer.] The conventional presentation of a book — words and images printed on sheets, bound together in a folio — is a perfected technology. It hasn’t changed much in centuries, and likely will be with us for centuries to come. But that doesn’t mean that […]
The arcologies arise
How U.S. Lost Out on iPhone Work: Apple executives say that going overseas, at this point, is their only option. One former executive described how the company relied upon a Chinese factory to revamp iPhone manufacturing just weeks before the device was due on shelves. Apple had redesigned the iPhone’s screen at the last minute, […]
The future is here
Believe it or not I am probably mildly skeptical about the possibilities for the 21st century as a canvas for human flourishing. That is one reason I like to emphasize the positive, because it is important for me to not get caught up in my own bias. Over the last two human generations (50 years) […]
Kindle vs. non-kindle books
Out of curiosity, how many readers are switching mostly to Kindle books? I myself find myself doing this. Not for any ideological or conscious reason. Rather, cost and portability are both major upsides of the Kindle. I also find that “impulse buys” are easier for me on the Kindle (purchased The Great Sea and Civilization: […]