David Lidsky's Blog, page 3241
June 11, 2014
This Robot Will Shame Your Instagram Friends For Their Lame Selfies
A Philadelphia agency built a smartphone-wielding robot that acts on anonymous haters' requests, eschewing Instagram's draconian API terms in the process.
This story contains interviews with Allen & Gerritsen senior vice president of Innovation George Ward.
A Startup "Factory" That Straddles The Berlin Wall Is Twitter's New Home In Germany
Zendesk, SoundCloud, and Mozilla are among the first tenants of a massive building that includes funding from Google for Entrepreneurs.
"I want robots, I wants drones flying around," says Simon Schaefer, bounding into a meeting room on the top floor of the main Factory building, waving an espresso. As this extraordinary 170,000 square-foot campus--Berlin's first major startup hub--finally opens after a 30-month gestation, its 37-year-old founder is entitled to think big.
Paper Cut Razor Makes Me Cringe Just Thinking About It
Turning the cursed paper cut into an elaborate papercraft pun.
Ah, the cursed paper cut. Scourge of office workers, old-timey readers, and packers of boxes. What possible good could a paper cut do in this world, you might ask. Designer Nadeem Haidary answered that question with a proposition: how about using paper cuts to cut something we actually want to cut?
"Made In Europe" Doesn't Mean "Made Ethically"
Fashion houses, such as Hugo Boss, H&M, and Zara, are profiting off of poverty in Eastern Europe.
Since over 1,100 garment workers died in the collapse of a Bangladesh factory last April, fashionistas have turned a wary eye to clothes made in Asia. A new report suggests they should be equally suspicious of clothes made for labels like Hugo Boss, H&M, and Zara in Eastern Europe, where low wages and unfair labor practices prevail.
Not Drunk? Must Be Tuesday. Here's When We Drink Alcohol, According To BACTrack
A big data look at when and where we imbibe.
Pocketable breathalyzers are making it easier than ever for drinkers to be responsible with their alcohol intake. And BACtrack's mobile breathalyzer, which can analyze a user's blood alcohol content (BAC) on the fly, makes it easy for anyone with a smartphone to quantify all of that imbibing data and hold a mirror up to their drinking habits.
A Sneak Peek Of "Inside Out," Pixar's Next Great Film
After a brief first look, Pixar's next animated film is being compared to Dante's Divine Comedy. No pressure or anything.
Pixar President Ed Catmull thinks the studio's next film, Inside Out, has the potential to be the next Up, "among our most original and affecting," he wrote in his book Creativity Inc. Although the animation hub has produced some of the most memorable movies of the last decade--with 14 consecutive No. 1 box office hits and $7 billion in worldwide ticket sales--some of its more recent films (see: the entire Cars franchise) have paled in comparison to monster hits like Frozen coming from Disney. But the project formerly known as The Untitled Pixar Movie That Takes You Inside the Mind sounded promising.
Need A Dog Walker? Amazon Might Be Launching a Local Services Marketplace Later This Year
Reuters reports that Amazon might be looking to take aim at Angie's List, Yelp, and Home Depot with a new service later this year.
The next time you need a last-minute babysitter, you might not have to browse listings on Angie's List, or worse, trawl through sketchy posts on Craigslist. You might be able to go through the same familiar service from which you order 24-packs of paper towels: Amazon.com.
June 10, 2014
Tumblr Goes To The White House
The social media-savvy president invited Tumblr's CEO and some lucky Tumblr users to the White House to talk about education and college affordability.
President Obama took to Tumblr for the first time and answered users' questions -- posed by Tumblr CEO David Karp -- about college affordability and student loans at a live-streamed White House event Tuesday afternoon. A few lucky Tumblr users were invited to attend.
Google Acquires Satellite Company Skybox To Ramp Up Google Maps
The search giant also plans to use Skybox's infrastructure to improve Internet access and disaster relief.
Google has acquired satellite imaging startup Skybox Imaging for $500 million in cash.
Breaking Down Every Moment of California Chrome's Letdown, Digitally
"It's Viagra for horse racing," says Pat Cummings, a director at Trakus, the company in charge of the technology. Here's how it works.
This article contains interviews with Trakus CEO Bob McCarthy and Trakus director of racing information Pat Cummings.
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