This week, I paid a small fortune to have the instrument cluster replaced on my car, and the mechanic, sympathizing as I wincingly wrote out the check, said, “The days of mechanical failures are over.” By this he was of course referring to the reality that everything we depend on is supported by integrated electronics and computers, the downside of ...
I was recently on the lot at Warner Brothers in Burbank, and the movie studio has indeed undergone some major changes in response to threats from the Internet industry. What used to be a marketing department has been transformed into a cubicle farm now known on the QT as the Department for Breaking the Internet. Similarly, the building where writers ...
If we’re not supposed to shoot the messenger for bad news, neither are we supposed to give him credit for the message when it’s good news. As the two-year anniversary of the defeat of SOPA approaches, the folks at Google not only want you to remember the date, but they want to double-down on their arrogance and take more than ...
Think back to January 18, 2012, the day Internet companies led a blackout (it was more gray really) of their websites in protest against the dreaded SOPA & PIPA bills. On that day, Google backed a petition with a slogan that sounded so reasonable. It said, End Piracy, Not Liberty. It was classically effective because they could count on anyone who ...
Ukranians faced off riot police yesterday in Independence Square, a tense scene that ended peacefully for now, with police forces withdrawing. The protests are sparked by anger over president Viktor Yanukovich’s apparent stonewalling on signing a trade deal with the EU that would further emancipate the fledgling democracy from its former Soviet occupiers. The pact would bring badly needed investment into ...
