David Lidsky's Blog, page 3308
March 18, 2014
Study Says Robots Can Pressure Humans To Do Things Against Their Will
It's a relatively small study, but it sheds an interesting and modern light on our willingness to obey authority.
Robot overlords don't rule humans yet, but researchers at the Human Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Manitoba in Canada found human subjects will follow a robot's orders to perform tasks, even when they don't want to do.
Lyft Introduces "Happy-Hour Pricing": Cheaper Fares During Low Demand
Because what goes up must come down. During slow periods, fares will decrease 10% to 50%.
While Uber is standing by its surge pricing, e-hailing app Lyft has introduced lower prices--as much as half the normal fare--during periods of slow demand. Lyft's so-called happy-hour pricing will be available to all riders beginning Tuesday.
This Has Got To Be The Weirdest Bike On Kickstarter
(Tricycle + bicycle + elliptical + skateboard) / 2 = Halfbike.
What has three wheels, one brake, no steering, and a Kickstarter page? (Ed. note: this is a terrible riddle.) The answer: the Halfbike!
Google Just Revealed The First Decent Smartwatch Interface
Google has revealed their interface for their upcoming Android Wear watches. And it's further proof that Google has figured out how to scale their experience.
This is Google's new interface for Android Wear--a platform the company announced unceremoniously on YouTube today--that connects an Android phone to a watch to bring Google to your wrist.
How David Rockwell Reinvented The Theater For The TED Era
Rockwell's bespoke pop-up theater, a timber structure with customized seating that fosters an intimate connection between audience and speaker, debuts at TED2014 in Vancouver.
Arguably, attending TED's annual conference is great for the mind, but hard on the butt. The annual conference devoted to "Ideas Worth Spreading"--features five days of 18-minute inspirational speeches from the likes of world thought leaders, philosophers, writers, artists, designers, and more. Which means, you do a lot of sitting. For TED2014, which launches this week in Vancouver, the 30-year-old organization tried something completely new: TED built its own theater, a temporary, 20,000-square-foot semi-circular space made of locally forested timber and outfitted with a rainbow of modified office furniture.
Stanford's News About The Big Bang Takes A Turn For The Warm And Fuzzy In This Video
"Maybe you top it with a flying car or something like that, but we don't normally get to just tag along and be there when someone tells a world-renowned physicist that the theories he's been sitting on for 30 years are most likely right."
As a companion to its announcement yesterday about new evidence supporting the Big Bang Theory, Stanford put out a YouTube video of the exact moment that physicist Andrei Linde, whose cosmic inflation theory essentially predicted the Big Bang, found out his amazing contributions to science were validated. In the video, fellow Stanford physicist Chao-Lin Kuo goes to Linde's home to drop the news. It's both touching and marketing genius, as you can see below.
Roman Mars's Secret To Irresistible Storytelling
The title of Roman Mars's popular podcast, 99% Invisible, actually reveals something crucial about telling compelling stories: helping people put their fingers on the (nearly) intangible.
Now in the fourth season of 99% Invisible, Roman Mars has mastered his medium of choice--the podcast--and is sharing his wisdom in a new video profile by This Is Radio. The secret, says Mars, whose show looks at the world through the lens of design, is actually right there in his program's name. "I think that the stories that work for me are the ones that are about the things you just kind of notice but don't really notice. They're just like, they're on the periphery and you bring them forward a little bit. They have resonance because you think: 'Oh yeah, I have seen that everywhere. But I never really put my finger on it.'"
Design Pirate Cody Foster Sues Urban Outfitters For Breach Of Contract
Cody Foster must be racking up the legal bills.
Cody Foster, the Valentine, Nebraska, tchotchke wholesaler that has been accused of stealing independent designers' work, is now suing a former retail partner that severed ties with the Nebraskan company after news emerged of its pirating ways.
PSA: Don't Click This Fake Grand Theft Auto V Email
A new phishing scheme invites recipients to become GTA V beta testers for the unannounced PC version. Don't be fooled.
If you happen to receive an email inviting you to beta test a yet-to-be announced version of Grand Theft Auto V for PC, a word of advice: Don't. Click. Anything.
March 17, 2014
The Secret To Airbnb's Freakishly Rapid Orgy Response: "Scenario Planning"
Airbnb uses strategic thinking to shield the company--and its renters--against scandals such as orgies, prostitution, and even suicides.
Airbnb host Ari Teman handed over the keys to his Manhattan apartment last Friday to a guest visiting New York ostensibly for a wedding. But when Teman returned to his apartment that evening, he was aghast to learn that the guest had rented his apartment so he could host an all-night orgy that was open to the public.
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