David Lidsky's Blog, page 2987
May 14, 2015
In Ikea's Kitchen Of The Future, You Won't Have A Fridge, But You Will Have Drones
Get ready for a smart table that finds a recipe for you when you put your ingredients on it.
Kitchens haven't changed radically since the refrigerator took off in the 1940s. But in the next decade, as food prices go up, water and energy become more precious, and Internet-of-things tech proliferates, there might be another big shift in kitchen design. That's the prediction, at least, of Ikea, which worked with the design firm Ideo and a group of design students from Lund University and Eindhoven University of Technology to design a prototype kitchen for 2025.
May 13, 2015
The Golden Age Of Quantum Computing Is Upon Us (Once We Solve These Tiny Problems)
Literally tiny. As IBM announces a big advance, many challenges remain in building a computer that takes advantage of quantum weirdness.
Quantum computing is not easy. Researchers at IBM recently announced that they had taken a step toward solving one of its biggest challenges: developing a better way to detect and correct annoying errors. In a blog post, Mark Ritter, who oversees scientists and engineers at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Laboratory, says: "I believe we're entering what will come to be seen as the golden age of quantum computing research." His team, he wrote, is "on the forefront of efforts to create the first true quantum computer."
Austin City Employees Given Special Training To Deal With...Women?
Austin's city council is now majority women, and they're not happy with a recent effort to teach city employees how female minds work.
Change is difficult, and it's important that organizations give their employees resources and support during a leadership transition. Which is why the city of Austin, Texas invited experts from as far away as Florida to help city employees deal with women. Wait, what?
Today in Tabs: The Danger Of Exploding Bananas
Fade in: The Valley. Nigh.
[I'm still traveling, so today Tim Maly is filling in. Tim's hobbies include reading, macrame, and living in several conflicting timelines at once. –Rusty]
A Snapshot Of How Twitter Deals With Online Harassment
A nonprofit called WAM spent three weeks fielding harassment reports to Twitter. Here's what it learned.
Last year, a two-person-large nonprofit advocacy organization called Women, Action, & the Media (WAM!) announced it would collaborate with Twitter to address online harassment. You may have heard about this: By WAM's count, the announcement generated more than 204 stories in 21 countries.
NASA Wants Your Ideas For Managing Skies Filled With Drones
NASA will host a conference for industry professionals and the public to chat about drone privacy, security, and safety.
When a man can fly a drone onto the White House lawn, it is apparently time to discuss where you can (and cannot) fly drones—and, more importantly, how to track and enforce those boundaries. NASA and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International are hosting a conference at the end of July in Moffett Field, California to bring government authorities, industry professionals, and amateur enthusiasts together to chat about drones.
Could Slimmer Streets Help Solve San Francisco's Housing Crisis?
One writer's quest to narrow the streets and improve quality of life in a city where the median housing price has spiked to $1.1 million
San Francisco's housing crisis is legendary. The median housing price in San Francisco is now $1.1 million, more than the California and U.S. median by $700,000 and $900,000, respectively. The average rent in San Francisco is $3,586 a month. The bottom line is that middle class people can no longer afford to live in San Francisco.
Can The ACLU Fix Hollywood's Gender Problem?
The ACLU is investigating Hollywood's inequality problem, bringing a spotlight on why there are so few female directors.
The idea that Hollywood has an ingrained gender problem is nothing new: from Sony's leaked emails proving that female stars are paid less than their male counterparts, to the lack of parts of substance for women.
Shyp's Delivery Service Goes Live In Los Angeles, With A Few Tweaks
Good news: L.A. has lots of people who want to ship stuff. Bad news: The traffic there is even worse than you imagine.
The whole point of delivery startup Shyp is to replace the hassles of shipping—the rummaging around for packaging materials, the boxing items up, the driving, parking, and waiting in line—with a smartphone app. Snap a photo of the item you need to ship with your phone's camera, and the phone summons a Shyp "Hero" to take away your stuff. The company then packs it at one of its warehouses and gets it on its way via a carrier that can deliver it at a reasonable price.
A First Look At The All-New Reading Rainbow Site, Launching Today
LeVar Burton talks about adapting the TV series for a new generation of digital natives (and their nostalgic parents).
Reading Rainbow, the much-loved, long-running children's show that relaunched as an app in 2012, and set a Kickstarter record last year while raising funds to expand into a subscription website, is launching a new web platform today.
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