The Mini Jambox from Jawbone—An Affluent American Lifestyle Gadget Review™ I’ve been skeptical of bluetooth speakers—not for any audiophile reasons, but just because I couldn’t ever think of a situation where I’d need one. I spent a bunch of time and effort wiring my home for sound, including the back deck, and I can control […]
Tech
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Hotel Fines Guests $500 for Every Negative Review Posted Online—You’ll Never Guess What Happened Next
Jordan Crook at Ars Technica reported on this no-negative-review policy from Union Street Guest House, a hotel in New York: If you have booked the Inn for a wedding or other type of event anywhere in the region and given us a deposit of any kind for guests to stay at USGH there will be […]
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ReaganBook Is Dead
On Tuesday, I told you about ReaganBook, the new social network for conservatives. ReaganBook’s biggest selling point was that it could be a home for conservatives who have been flagged for hate speech after posting anti-gay tirades on Facebook. “They kick people off for having an unpopular belief like being in favor of [straight] marriage,” […]
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One Laptop Per Child Is Not a Solution for Education Woes
For years now, politicians as diverse as Newt Gingrich and Angus King have proposed giving laptops to every single public school student. At WNYC, Jill Barshay reports on a free laptop program at Hoboken Junior Senior High School. Spoiler alert: Five years later, the program is ending. By the time Jerry Crocamo, a computer network […]
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I Joined ReaganBook, a Facebook for Bigots
Get a load of these white-hairs laughing at Facebook marching in a Pride parade at the ReaganBook announcement: ReaganBook is “a Facebook for patriots,” but it really ought to be called “a Facebook for bigots,” since one of the main selling points for ReaganBook is that it will allow you to spread hate speech. (They […]
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Facebook COO Apologizes for Experimenting on Users Poorly Communicating the Existence of User Experiments
Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg issued a deft non-apology for Facebook’s user experiments: COO Sheryl Sandberg called the experiment “poorly timed” and went on to apologize, reports The Wall Street Journal. “This was part of ongoing research companies do to test different products, and that was what it was; it was poorly communicated,” said […]
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New Masturbation Device/Motion-Sickness Inducer Hits the Market
Kinda NSFW: I’m hoping this is a hoax. Says hot tipper Matt Hickey… I’ve never been of either the “masturbate to your significant other” or “use a Fleshlight” type, but I can’t help but wonder if the lady in the video knows what he is doing. Does he need consent? Should he inform her? Is […]
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Are Newsletters the New Blogs?
Everyone knows that blogs are dead. (Uh, except for this blog, obviously.) And I’ve been noticing a lot of newsletters popping up lately. I’ve subscribed to a couple newsletters in the last few months—I enjoy Warren Ellis’s newsletter, Orbital Operations, which includes a little bit of self-promotion but also contains a lot of interesting thinking […]
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After the Standing Desk: A Look at the Next Big Office Trend…
“A new trend in offices across the country: More and more people are switching to fetal position desks so that hey can curl up in a ball while they work!” More Office Workers Switching To Fetal Position Desks TECH TRENDS!
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Amazon Announced the Fire Phone Today: What Do You Think?
Courtesy: BGR Here’s the announcement: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos showed off the Fire Phone, the first smartphone produced by Amazon. Andrew Cunningham at Ars Technica writes: The phone has a 4.7-inch IPS display with 590 nits maximum brightness and an “HD” resolution, which usually means 720p. This isn’t the biggest or highest-resolution phone there is, […]
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Today The Daily Show Eviscerates: Google Glass Wearers
People! It is NOT COOL to make fun of people wearing Google Glass! However, when The Daily Show‘s Jason Jones meticulously eviscerates a group of “glassholes,” the feeling I get is… oh, what is it… ah. Wonder and a strange sense of relief. (If you have stock in Google Glass you may want to unload […]
Posted inBooks
Sherman Alexie and Colbert on Amazon vs. Hachette: “You Root for the Authors.”
The battle between Amazon and Hachette heated up even more yesterday, when two great things happened: Paul Constant published a strong piece in our sister paper The Stranger, “It’s Time to Turn Your Back on Amazon,” that not only summed up the Amazon/Hachette fight but laid out, in pretty fucking stark terms, “why the online […]