Tech News – September 8th 2012
Tech news – September 8th 2012
- Know and show what you got – TwentyFeet – TwentyFeet Wiki –
TwentyFeet is an 'egotracking' service that will help you keep track of your own social media activities and monitor your results. We aggregate metrics from different services, thus giving you the full picture of what happens around you on the web – all in one place.
- Wikipedia told Philip Roth he’s not “credible source” on book he wrote | Ars Technica –
American novelist Philip Roth is so famous that there's a Wikipedia page about his life and numerous Wikipedia articles about individual books he's written. But by the sometimes strict editing process enforced at the collaboratively edited online encyclopedia, Roth himself was recently unable to fix what he calls a glaring error in the Wikipedia page about his novel The Human Stain.
Roth's complaint was detailed by Roth himself today in "An open letter to Wikipedia" published by The New Yorker … show all text - Twitter / tweetsoutloud: So amazing to see our baby … –
Instantly connect to what's most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.
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Homicide Watch, one of the most important experiments in improving journalism in the era of the internet, will die in a week, unless we save them. They need our help. Please donate $50 on Kickstarter to help them keep working. If you can’t do $50, do $25, or $5. (For the record, I’m in for $500.)
Please donate. Everything helps.
If you stop reading here and just give them a little money and a little public love, you’ll be making the country a better place. If you want more, read on.
Homicide Wa… show all text - Conventions 2012 – The Thing Nobody Talked About at the Conventions – Esquire –
Between the torrents of money and the voter suppression, writes Charles P. Pierce, this election is coming close to becoming a puppet show - Who leaves Comedy Central to work for the government? –
- Paul Graham’s ‘lowball’ accusation of Google Ventures may hide an ulterior motive | VentureBeat –
If Paul Graham likes your company enough to take you into Y Combinator, his prestigious startup incubator, your company might be worth as little as $200,000 on your first term sheet. Or it might be worth as much as $400,000 — and that’s if you’ve got a team of five and previous experience building a company.
Yet Graham this week called out other investors for “lowball” funding deals.
In a leaked memo, Graham cautioned Y Combinator companies not to accept deals from Google Ventures, calling that… show all text - http://d35lb3dl296zwu.cloudfront.net/uploads/photo/image/7905/am… –
- What Young People Think About Facebook And Instagram – Business Insider –
Ben Schachter at Macquarie has a fascinating research note out titled: Facebook's annoying features drive users to Instagram.
He held a panel of 6 people aged 17-28 to track their social media behavior.
What he found is a huge exodus of usage from Facebook to Instagram (which of course Facebook acquired).
Here are Schachter's key takeaways:
Obviously, this was only a small group and certainly not a statistically relevant survey, but still we thought there were some interesting takeaways, includ… show all text - Peter Kim Leaves Dachis Group To Join R/GA – Business Insider –
Peter Kim, the chief strategy officer at Dachis Group and onetime digital marketing chief at Puma, has jumped ship to become the managing director of business transformation at R/GA, Interpublic Group's big digital agency brand. Kim envisions the new role as an advisor to clients on digital business strategy, rather than plain-vanilla online campaign creation. "When we think about how to engage clients, it really is business strategy. How do I drive revenue, reduce costs and minimize risk?" he… show all text - Cory Doctorow’s craphound.com >> Blog Archive » Video from the Stross and Doctorow show at MakerBot in Brooklyn –
Joly McFie captured video of Charlie Stross's and my tour-stop at Brooklyn's MakerBot this week. We were there in support of our new novel Rapture of the Nerds, and did a talk, reading and Q&A that touched on the Singularity, its precedents, its discontents, and its inherent comedy — all while 3D printers chattered in the background. And afterwards everyone got 3D printed miniatures of our heads!
We're making our final stops of tour tomorrow — Sunday! Sunday! Sunday! — in Rochester, NY, at R… show all text - Sept. 7: Polls Find Hints of Obama Convention Bounce – NYTimes.com –
The three national tracking polls that were published on Friday all moved toward President Obama, probably reflecting momentum from the Democratic convention. - Amazon confirms there’s no way to opt out of Kindle Fire ads | The Verge –
Since Amazon announced its new line of Kindle Fire tablets, there's been confusion over whether the company would allow users to avoid seeing "Special Offer" promotions on their lock screens. According to CNET, an Amazon spokesperson has now confirmed that there is no system for disabling ads on new models of the Kindle Fire. That means that unlike the cheaper Kindle e-reader, users can't spend more up front for an ad-free version or pay to disable the ads after purchase. The statement also ref… show all text - Turning The Drama Down On Y Combinator V. Google Ventures « Uncrunched –
I have a few thoughts on this Y Combinator/Google Ventures mess.
Background:
The original post is at Business Insider and includes a leaked email from Y Combinator founder Paul Graham. The email:
If you’re talking to Google Ventures you may be part of a pattern. The pattern is: you’ve already raised some money at a cap of $x. Then GV says they’re interested and wants to invest at a cap of $x/2.
If this happens to you in isolation, you worry “Oh dear, maybe my cap is too high.” But in fact for s… show all text - Twitter / newmediajim: This is what the end of the … –
Instantly connect to what's most important to you. Follow your friends, experts, favorite celebrities, and breaking news.
- Twitter’s API Crackdown May Be Bad For Users, Even If They Never Notice | TechCrunch –
This week Twitter launched its new API. There are still lots of questions about what this means for developers, and what role developers have played in Twitter’s rise. But the general consensus seems to be that it doesn’t matter much for most users.
Apparently most users just use Twitter’s official clients and supposedly will never notice if Twitter bans most third party clients. Even if that’s true, I think it’s a real shame for the future of social media.
Twitter has turned TweetDeck into a T… show all text - Mars Science Laboratory: Images –
- See how they shine in the sunlight! #chicago #sunrise #lizharbor4 –
- An Interview With CODE2040, A Non-Profit Out To Diversify Silicon Valley | TechCrunch –
I had a chance to discuss an amazing new non-profit program called CODE2040 with one of its founders today, Laura Weidman Powers. The mission of this program is to bring diversity to Silicon Valley by bringing in talented minorities, who are in school for engineering, to Silicon Valley for the summer, mentoring them and finding them positions with companies.
The non-profit is the brain-child of Tristan Walker, current EIR at VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, and formerly of foursquare. The list of b… show all text - Judy Farah: Twitter Big Winner at Both RNC and DNC Conventions –
Forget the political pundits. Karl Rove and Chris Mathews don't count. Don't even think about the Pew or Zogby polls. The real winner in both the Republican and Democratic conventions the past two weeks has been Twitter. - Stand Up To Cancer – Donation Form –
Stand Up To Cancer raises funds to accelerate the pace of groundbreaking research that can get new therapies to patients quickly, facilitating collaboration among the best and brightest scientists and physicians. SU2C draws on the entertainment community to build public support for this effort. - Canada closes its embassy in Iran – Americas – Al Jazeera English –
Relations severed and Iranian diplomats ordered to leave after Tehran is accused of being a threat to world peace. - Uber Wants To Offer A Low Cost Option In All Of Its Markets | TechCrunch –
As we’ve chronicled, the folks behind Uber definitely have some balls. That’s why this standoff between the New York City Taxi and Limo Commission and the Bay Area-based startup is so fascinating. It reminds me of a very well-worn saying in startup land: “Ask for forgiveness, not permission.”
The NYC TLC has some sort of existing contract with Verifone and others for its current payments processing system, which precludes Uber Taxi from functioning as intended in its New York launch. Uber Taxi,… show all text - People on the Move in the Social Business Industry, Sept 8, 2012 | Web Strategy by Jeremiah Owyang | Social Media, Web Marketing –
- Sniffing open WiFi networks is not wiretapping, judge says | Ars Technica –
A federal judge in Illinois has ruled that intercepting traffic on unencrypted WiFi networks is not wiretapping. The decision runs counter to a 2011 decision that suggested Google may have violated the law when its Street View cars intercepted fragments of traffic from open WiFi networks around the country.
The ruling is a preliminary step in a larger patent trolling case. A company called Innovatio IP Ventures has accused various "hotels, coffee shops, restaurants, supermarkets," and other bus… show all text - Kickstarter Darling Pebble Leaves Backers Hanging | Inc.com –
The famed Kickstarter project has 85,000 smartwatch orders to fill … and won't commit to a ship date.
The most highly funded project in Kickstarter history is starting to feel some serious heat from backers.
Eric Migicovsky's smartwatch maker Pebble raised more than $10 million earlier this year by treating its investors like customers–if you supported the project, you'd get a watch.
But now, it turns out, those backers expect to be treated like customers–and some are getting tired of waiti… show all text - “Twitter killed my business.” An inside look at the ecosystem crackdown — Tech News and Analysis –
There’s been a lot of debate lately about how Twitter is closing down access to the network by outside services, and the impact that has on the broader ecosystem — something former CEO Evan Williams talked about with me on Twitter yesterday — but there hasn’t been much written about how that affects individual startups and developers who have built large parts of their businesses and lives around the Twitter platform. In an attempt to get a better view of what it looks from the inside, I talked… show all text - Google Fiber Could Exacerbate Kansas City’s Digital Divide | Wired Business | Wired.com –
The Google Fiber project has stirred up long-simmering emotions in Kansas City, Missouri, where most of the neighborhoods that have pre-registered enough households to qualify for the service lie on the city’s more affluent west side. Screenshot taken around noon Friday. Image: Google
Two days before the deadline to get neighborhoods signed up, Google’s effort to bring ultra-high-speed internet to a major American city could end up reinforcing the digital divide.
When Google Fiber launched last… show all text - 5 Reasons Social Media Is Ruining Marketing –
Think social media is the perfect platform for marketers? Think again. Here are five reasons why there's a better answer.
More About: Marketing, contributor, features, online marketing, social media marketing, trending - “Twitter killed my business.” An inside look at the ecosystem crackdown — Tech News and Analysis –
There’s been a lot of debate lately about how Twitter is closing down access to the network by outside services, and the impact that has on the broader ecosystem — something former CEO Evan Williams talked about with me on Twitter yesterday — but there hasn’t been much written about how that affects individual startups and developers who have built large parts of their businesses and lives around the Twitter platform. In an attempt to get a better view of what it looks from the inside, I talked… show all text
- An Open Letter to Wikipedia About Anatole Broyard and "The Human Stain" : The New Yorker –
Dear Wikipedia,
I am Philip Roth. I had reason recently to read for the first time the Wikipedia entry discussing my novel “The Human Stain.” The entry contains a serious misstatement that I would like to ask to have removed. This item entered Wikipedia not from the world of truthfulness but from the babble of literary gossip—there is no truth in it at all.
Yet when, through an official interlocutor, I recently petitioned Wikipedia to delete this misstatement, along with two others, my interloc… show all text - Amazon confirms: All new Kindle Fires stuck with ads | Tablets – CNET Reviews –
All new Kindle Fire tablets have 'Special Offers' (ads), and — unlike past Kindles — you won't be able to opt out. Read this post by John P. Falcone on Tablets. - The Weatherman Is Not a Moron –
In the hocus-pocus realm of predicting the future, weather forecasting is an area of progress. Your own experience may differ. - Romney Defends Not Mentioning War, Troops In Convention Speech | TPM LiveWire –
Mitt Romney on Friday defended his speech at the Republican National Convention in Tampa last week, in which he made no mention of the war in Afghanistan or the people fighting in it. "When you give a speech you don’t go through a laundry list, you talk about the things that you think are important and I described in my speech… - "They Won’t Magically Turn You Into A Lustful Cockmonster": Chris Kluwe Explains Gay Marriage To The Politician Who Is Offended By An NFL Player Supporting It –
Baltimore Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo has spoken out in favor of a Maryland ballot initiative that would legalize gay marriage. Yahoo has published a letter that Maryland state delegate Emmett C. Burns Jr. wrote last week to Ravens owner Steve Bisciotti, urging him to "inhibit such expressions from your employee." This is Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe's response to Burns. More » - Network: Leno took 50% pay cut to reduce ‘Tonight Show’ layoffs – CNN.com –
Jay Leno took one for the team, in the form of a $15 million pay cut, to protect the staff of NBC's "The Tonight Show" from further cuts. - Forget a Stand-Alone Multi-Billion Company, Are Daily Deals Even a Good Feature? | PandoDaily –
Back in November 2010, Groupon was in the heady stage of the grow-and-dump Eric Lefkofsky playbook. It was growing faster than any company had before. It was turning down billions from Google. And it was juggling heady growth capital offers from Silicon Valley’s elite venture firms. I was having lunch with an investor, who didn’t want to be named, but was a rare bear on the trend. Or at least, he was what qualified for a bear in that moment of uber daily deals hype.
He argued that, while compel… show all text - BBC News – Tu and Twitter: Is it the end for ‘vous’ in French? –
The informal version of "you" in the French language – "tu" – seems to be taking over on social media, at the expense of the formal "vous". - Andrey Petrov – Google+ – Twitter is the Benjamin Button of startups.Born out of… –
Twitter is the Benjamin Button of startups.Born out of wisdom and insight in our daily social behaviour, completely changing the way we communicate.…
- Underdog No More: How Romney’s Digital Director, Zac Moffatt, Got Silicon Valley To Power The Campaign | TechCrunch –
- Google –
- The FBI Launches $1 Billion Facial Recognition Project –
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has a $1 billion budget for its latest venture: using facial recognition technology to fight crime. Dubbed the Next Generation Identification (NGI) project, it has already been approved in some states (the pilot programme started in February), and is expected to go nationwide by 2014, according to NewScientist.
NGI improvements and new capabilities are slated to be introduced in a phased rollout across many years. The system will offer “state-of-the-art… show all text - Gillmor Gang 09.07.12 (TCTV) | TechCrunch –
Gillmor Gang – Danny Sullivan, Robert Scoble, Kevin Marks, John Taschek, and Steve Gillmor. Recording has concluded. - Exclusive photos: We put Nokia’s controversial Lumia 920 PureView camera to the test | The Verge –
This week, Nokia grandly unveiled its latest Windows Phone 8 flagship, the Lumia 920. It was an effort to reintroduce Nokia once again to the smartphone buying public and make the case that its technological prowess was second to none. The most important part of that argument is undoubtedly the Lumia 920's "PureView" camera. That case was utterly undermined by Nokia itself six hours after the unveiling, when we discovered that the promotional video that appeared to feature the new camera techno… show all text - At the National Conventions, the Words They Used –
A comparison of how often speakers at the two presidential nominating conventions used different words and phrases, based on an analysis of transcripts from the Federal News Service.
- FBI launches $1 billion face recognition project – tech – 07 September 2012 – New Scientist –
The Next Generation Identification programme will include a nationwide database of criminal faces and other biometrics
- Google Acquires Online Virus, Malware and URL Scanner VirusTotal | TechCrunch –
VirusTotal, an online malware and virus scanner, was just acquired by Google. The company already had a partnership with Google. VirusTotal will continue to operate independently and maintain its existing partnerships with other antivirus companies and security experts. The two companies did not disclose the details of the announcement. It is worth noting, however, that VirusTotal describes itself as a - Google Doodle Boldly Goes Where No Doodle Has Gone Before –
Google has doodled seemingly every topic and anniversary under the sun, yet, it’s never done a Star Trek Doodle – until today.
The whimsical Google Doodle, which marks the iconic science fiction series' 46th anniversary (actually a day ahead of the exact air date anniversary of the first episode “The Man Trap”), is chock-full of Star Trek-esque interaction.
Google’s letters have been remade into Star Trek crew members and there’s a storyline inside the doodle, with many references to the episode show all text - U.S. adds 415,000 one-person businesses in past year – The Business Journals –
The nation has 22.11 million of these tiny firms, officially known as nonemployer businesses, based on newly released U.S. Census Bureau data for 2010. That represents an increase of 415,000 — or 1.9 percent — from the previous year's total of 21.70 million. - Edd Dumbill – Google+ – Twitter is old mediaWhen I referenced Twitter switching… –
Twitter is old mediaWhen I referenced Twitter switching off RSS access in a post the other day, I was probably a little kind to them, observing instead…
- Brian Boyer: Welcome to Hacker Journalism 101, take your seats » Nieman Journalism Lab –
Editor’s Note: It’s the start of the school year, which means students are returning to journalism programs around the country. As the media industry continues to evolve, how well is new talent being trained, and how well are schools preparing them for the real world?
We asked an array of people — hiring editors, recent graduates, professors, technologists, deans — to evaluate the job j-schools are doing and to offer ideas for how they might improve. Over the coming days, we’ll be sharing their… show all text - Dijit Goes After Personalized TV Discovery With The Launch Of NextGuide iPad App | TechCrunch –
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- The Carmel Pine Cone’s first story of the week –
- GIllmor Gang, recording live today 1pm PT… – RealTime Network – FriendFeed –
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- Asperger’s study asks: Are hackers cognitively different? | Security & Privacy – CNET News –
Hackers are frequently assumed to have Asperger's syndrome. Psychologists set out to see if this assumption might be true and studied HOPE and Defcon attendees over 10 years. Read this blog post by Violet Blue on Security & Privacy.
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