David Lidsky's Blog, page 3033
March 12, 2015
Alibaba Rumored To Invest $200 Million In Snapchat
The Chinese e-commerce giant is set to invest in the disappearing-photo startup, Bloomberg reports.
Chinese online megamarket Alibaba is in negotiations to invest $200 million in Snapchat, according to Bloomberg.
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This Little Handwriting Robot Helps Kids Learn By Letting Them Be Teachers
How to give a kid confidence in their abilities? Let them teach a bot that's worse than them.
Learning-by-teaching is a proven way for students to gain new skills. But does the technique work when kids teach robots and not other kids?
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The World's Most Overrated Graphic Design
Helvetica, hand-lettering, infographics, and more: which of these graphic designs gets way too much credit?
If Co.Design readers' eight picks for the world's most overrated graphic design were compiled into one, you'd have a letter-pressed, tonal, minimalist infographic poster in Helvetica about Nike's new artisanal branding campaign, with some hand-lettered details thrown in. Fortunately, these eight candidates haven't yet been hybridized. They're competing in the graphic design category for our upcoming March Madness bracket, in which you can vote for your (least) favorite.
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"Hurt Me Plenty," A Spanking Game Where Sex Can Hurt Someone
Most video games treat sex as a goal. Hurt Me Plenty treats it as a process with real consequences.
Contemporary games will make millions of dynamic calculations a second, with advanced artificial intelligence that can strategize an enemy's movements, adding an extra layer of real-world simulation to a player who might be firing a virtual gun built to a real factory spec in a virtual town rendered from real satellite imagery. The considerations for these games are extraordinary, but when they try to work in a romance plotline, it's all dumbed-down to a few properly chosen dialog options, leading to a cutscene of you and the computer hooking up.
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March 11, 2015
Snapchat Wants To Be Your New Favorite Sports Channel
The social messaging app is reportedly looking to secure the rights to feature NCAA basketball games, starting with the Final Four.
It's not just for sexting anymore. By now, Snapchat's reputation as a vessel for scandalous, disappearing selfies has given way to something of far grander ambition: It wants to become a full-blown media outlet, complete with its own web TV series.
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Is Google's Nest About To Take On Home Audio?
A job listing hints at the smart-thermostat pioneer's next venture: conquering home audio.
Google's Nest, whose learning thermostat was the first breakaway success of the smart-device world, has a mysterious new job listing for audio expertise that implies an exploration into music, says The Guardian.
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Watch Kanye Perform An Early Version of "Gold Digger" In Newly Surfaced Video, A Reese's T-shirt
This song has come a long, long way. So has Yeezus's fashion sense.
Think of this as Kanye: Unplugged.
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Feeling Your Privilege? Share The Wealth With The WellDeserved App
Comedy Hack Day debuts its first product promo video, an amazing takedown of self-satisfied startup culture.
Let's face it: Being too privileged is a heavy burden. You have so much and others, so very little. If only there was a way to help the have-nots have some (for a price!). Welcome to WellDeserved: "a marketplace for privilege."
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Will The Apple Watch Make Us More Productive, Or Less?
For developers designing productivity apps for the Apple Watch, the biggest challenge is keeping you out of the app.
When the Apple Watch ships on April 24, it will have its work cut out for it: taking your phone calls, tracking your morning run, sending your heartbeat to your bae. But some developers are hoping to carve out another niche for the smartwatch: keeping you productive.
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Neuromancer, Linux, or CompuServe: The Geek Debates Continue
Geek & Sundry's Felicia Day vs. GitHub CEO Chris Wanstrath vs. Nest's Mike Soucie.
Every day this week, as Fast Company readers vote to decide the single greatest geek moment in history, we'll also present a debate over geek moments that we hope will get the arguments flowing.
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