Technology
They Laughed When I Sat Down to Tune
We’re going a little far afield from the usual fare this week, but there’s been a breakthrough in piano tuning you should know about. It’s called an algorithm. MORE...
Who’s Watching, Who’s Surfing, Who Cares?
Not a day goes by that we aren’t treated to an announcement of a new media platform in our lives. If it’s not a new video service on the Internet or an app for the iPhone, it’s a new way to bring the Internet to your traditional TV.
The abundance of offerings is splintering the television audience, and evidence of who is watching what remains pretty much anecdotal. Two recent studies, however, bring into focus the shifting media landscape. One by the Nielsen rating service measures television viewership on various media devices. The other by the Pew Research Center tracks how we get our news. And the good news is? American are watching more TV than ever––about 22 minutes more per month per person––and we don’t have a wit more of intelligence to show for it. MORE...
How Do I Unsubscribe?
It occurs to me that the worldwide web with all of its attractive entanglements, social networks, and log-on conveniences is designed myopically. It is a perfect place if you believe you live in a happy time in a world that goes on into infinity. But what if you want to get out, to cancel that cell phone data plan, to take back all that time spent teaching your thumbs to type on a postage stamp screen? What kind of termination fees are we talking about here? And if the cause of our withdrawal happens to be death, what kind of problems are we creating for the executors of our estate? MORE...
A Blu-Ray Christmas
June may seem a little early to be thinking of Christmas but there’s something going on in the stores now that merits our attention. While Apple’s iPad dominates the tech headlines and 3-D pops off the movie screens, the slow-motion tumble of high-definition television into our living rooms appears to be coming to an end – with a variety of affordable TV sets, DVD players and internet connections that are, indeed, very good. MORE...
Television Golf
I used to think you could never get enough golf. The slowest moving sport in America is relaxing to play, even more relaxing to watch on TV. I can’t count the number of Sundays I have fallen asleep watching it, confident that no matter what hole the players were on when I drifted off, they would still be playing when I woke up. MORE...
Data Mining the Government
The U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy announced the results of its first "Apps for America" contest this week and the winner is . . . less than overwhelming. MORE...
Google Voice: The Killer App
Leave it to Google to kill off the telephone. Herein and ever after, let’s call that device you hold in your hand a receptacle for voice communication. You may call it an iPhone, a Blackberry, a handset, or whatever you want. It’s toast. The era when that appliance was the gateway to America's vast network of telephone wires and wireless towers (and the power to charge for that access) is coming to an end. MORE...
Perspective Is Everything
At the Medill Street block party last month, one of the mothers innocently asked my wife why her husband was lying belly down in the middle of the street shooting the parade of children with his video camcorder. “Perspective is everything,” she replied.
It is, alas, oh so true -–– especially when it comes to the delicate art of making home movies. MORE...
Timewaster.com
The accelerating pace of the depression seems to have spurred an up-tick in our desire to share every detail of our experience in it. Now no less a personage than Bruce Sterling has called our bluff, deeming the explosion of Twitter tweets and Facebook posts examples of the poverty of our souls. MORE...
What Do You Do With 250 Useless TVs?
February 17 is D-day for TV, the day your signal goes dark if you haven't prepared for the new digital television era. Do you have that new widescreen TV? What did you do with your old one? MORE...
JK: I know what would make my sore back feel better….. A nice big bowl of Mac ‘N Cheese!
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