David Lidsky's Blog, page 2867
October 19, 2015
A Look Inside Brooklyn's New, 7,300-Square-Foot Co-Living Space
Common, a startup that promises community-minded, flexible housing, opens the doors to its first house on Monday.
Common, a startup with ambitions to make co-living as big as coworking, opened the doors to its first space in Brooklyn on Monday.
How Snapchat Is Bringing Back The 1970s TV Experience
Snapchat Discover insists people want to return to a time when you had limited channels, and limited time to catch shows.
Snapchat Discover, launched in January, was a counterintuitive offering from the messaging app. The Discover tab features a selection of channels that are based around brands, including Comedy Central, Food Network, CNN, and BuzzFeed. Unlike Twitter, YouTube, or modern-day television, the content on Snapchat Discover is limited—there are only 15 channels—and completely refreshes each day; there's no way to go back and watch a video you might have missed.
Flipboard's Data-Driven Crack At Building the Magazine Ad Of The Future
Flipboard's new interest-graph ad targeting promises more relevant ads in a less annoying format than we're used to.
It's no secret to publishers (or readers) that placing ads around stuff people want to read is a deeply imperfect, still-evolving science. In the heyday of printed magazines, advertisers could make only broad assumptions about audiences. Who doesn't recall flipping past pages of irrelevant ads and choking on cologne samples along the way?
Your Tweets Tell Data Miners How Much Money You Have
You'd be surprised which things in your timeline are tipping them off: your anger level and linking habits.
Twitter is largely a public forum, and most users know this. If you tweet about something you want to keep private, you've failed. But what many people don't realize is that simply using Twitter at all can reveal a lot more than intended.
October 16, 2015
Ex-Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Has A 4% Stake In Twitter
Steve Ballmer is now one of Twitter's biggest shareholders, with a greater stake in the company than CEO Jack Dorsey.
Steve Ballmer just bet big on Twitter. The former Microsoft CEO and Los Angeles Clippers owner just went public about buying a 4% stake in Twitter on—where else?—Twitter.
Report: IBM Gave Chinese Goverment Access To Its Product Code
IBM reportedly gave Chinese authorities access to source code to some of its products.
In a rare move, IBM allowed the Chinese government to review source code to some of its products, the Wall Street Journal reports. Officials from China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology reportedly reviewed IBM's source code in a secure space where they couldn't remove the data; the decision was reportedly made to calm Chinese fears that IBM software would present a security risk.
Advertisers On The Rise Of Ad Blockers: "We Lost Track Of The User Experience"
The trade group Interactive Advertising Bureau introduces a a new set of standards for online advertisers.
Since Apple made its mobile operating system compatible with ad blockers, Internet publishers and other online content creators have fretted that their primary source of revenue could dry up. And last week, Google introduced Accelerated Mobile Pages, which will give publishers the ability to create web pages that load faster—but also means that bulky advertising may not run on the pages if they significantly slow down loading times.
How Well Do You Know The News? Take The Fast Company Quiz
What happened this week? Here's our quiz for October 16, 2015.
Did you follow the news this week? Research says that one of the best ways to solidify new information is to be tested on it. Here's a chance to bolster your knowledge of current events—and earn a special emoji badge. 
The Four Myths About Square's IPO Filing
Last year, I spent significant time inside Jack Dorsey's payments company. What I learned tells us how to read its IPO filing.
This week Square filed for its long-rumored and long-anticipated IPO, and the public finally got a look at how Square's business is actually performing. All the pundits, anonymous sources, and leaked documents could now be considered in light of the actual facts. Did Square's S-1 prove the press had served up some scolding cups of claim chowder? Not exactly. Square's story has always been a nuanced one that defied simplistic narratives, and its business can be looked at from a number of perspectives. The company reported revenue of $560 million for the first half of 2015, up 50% during the same period last year, but it also recorded a $78 million net loss, following losses of $154 million in 2014 and $104 million the year prior. It has built out a growing payments processing business but has made product stumbles along the way in trying to expand its portfolio of services and boost margins. Its high-profile deal with Starbucks proved to be expensive, but was it seriously costly? Like most IPO prospectuses, Square's S-1 presents a portrait of a promising future that could be derailed by significant risks.
MVRDV's Latest Building Is A Giant, Comfy Couch For Tennis Lovers
The Rotterdam-based architecture firm has turned the roof of a tennis club into spectator seating.
MVRDV, the Rotterdam-based architecture firm known for its bold, futuristic designs including everything from small town community centers to South Korean Skygardens to dazzling skyscrapers that look like Twizzlers, is now jumping into the sporting arena. Its latest design is just as much furniture as it architecture though: a comfy red tennis clubhouse that doubles as a seating area for over 200 spectators.
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