David Lidsky's Blog, page 4538

Shaq and Awe: The Big Shakespeare on Social Media and The Influence Project

Shaquille O'Neal is a basketball legend (four-time NBA champion and a 15 time All Star), a multi-media everyman (he raps, he acts, he writes books), and an inspired linguist (during an MTV Cribs episode he revealed a home name nearly as cool as Graceland: Shaqri-La). His creative use of language has earned him the nicknames The Big Aristotle and The Big Shakespeare. Combined with his fame and playful nature, it's no surprise he's found social media to be a natural communication outlet...

India's Capital City Using Facebook to Nab Reckless Drivers

In yet another example of how futuristic crime fighting tools are coming sooner than we could've imagined, police in India's capital city have started using Facebook and crowdsourcing to catch traffic violators.

New Delhi is the one of the world's largest and most dense metropolises, with traffic horrendous enough to make a Manhattan rush hour feel like a breezy countryside drive. Roads and highways are often clogged, according to the New York Times, and just 5,000 traffic cops patrol a...

Innovation In Large Organizations: How The UN's Richard Ragan Doesn't Get Stuck

Ragan has seen it all, from North Korea to Nepal, but even at the United Nations people can end up "just doing their job."

Richard Ragan has served as the United Nations World Food Program Country Representative in places as wild as North Korea, Zambia, and Nepal. Forget the touchy feely stuff about working for the United Nations; management in any large bureaucracy is tough. After four years in Nepal, Ragan is now on his way to his next post in Ethiopia and stops to talk to Fast Company...

Microsoft Office for Mac Sees Major Price Cuts: Fear of Google?

As is traditional, Microsoft's latest version of its hugely successful Office productivity suite hit the Mac platform a year after it hit Microsoft's own Windows. But Mac users get a bonus Windows users don't: a huge price cut.

Not all the versions get chopped as drastically; the Home and Student edition only went from $150 to $120, a noticeable but not particularly notable cut. But the Office for Home and Business edition went from a whopping $400 for the last version, Office 2008, to half...

Reason to Jailbreak Your iPhone: Use FaceTime Video Chat, Anywhere You Want

Jailbreaking is the term used specifically for Apple's iOS products (iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad) that's essentially a synonym for unlocking. Jailbreaking an iPhone isn't just a nerd trick; it allows you to do all kinds of stuff Apple doesn't like, including full multitasking, running unapproved third-party apps (including those porn apps Steve Jobs hates so much), and even tweaking key features of the iOS device to your liking.

Jailbreaking is also incredibly easy, much easier than...

Connecticut AG Investigating Anti-Competitive E-Book Pricing at Amazon, Apple

A short article published by the AP today notes that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal is investigating Amazon and Apple for possible anti-competitive measures taken to restrict the e-book market.

Blumenthal notes that Amazon and Apple have "most favored nation" (MFN) agreements with the five major publishers, which aim to deter those publishers from giving discounts to other retailers. Says Blumenthal in a letter to Apple:

"I fully understand that MFN's are not per se illegal...

Android Outsells iPhone for the First Time

As with all survey findings like this, my reporting will be in two parts: the findings themselves, and then the caveats. Those caveats are important and interesting, so don't skip them--they color, and sometimes negate, the findings.

Nielsen's second-quarter statistics for smartphones are out, and of course it involves the quickly evolving and often bloody fight between Apple's iPhone and the various phones using Google's Android. For the first time, more new purchasers (within the past six...

Ronald Reagan's Son Launches @Reagan Email Alternative to Lefty Gmail, AOL, Hotmail

"Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Ronald Reagan's famous challenge to the Russian leader became a rallying-cry to end the Cold War. Now, decades later, Reagan's son is taking up the torch, albeit for a more important cause: ending the left-wing's dominance of email service providers. Launched recently, Michael Reagan's new email service aims to whup the pants off providers such as Gmail, like the Gipper did Mondale.

"People who believe in true Reagan Conservative Values are unwittingly...

Spain's Famous Solar Subsidies Gored by Government

And so one of the most ambitious experiments in government-subsidized renewable energy comes to an end as Spain announces that it will slash subsidies for photovoltaic solar power plants by 45%, for big rooftop solar plants by 25%, and for small rooftop installations by 5%. The move comes jut a month after Spain announced similar cuts to its thermosolar and wind power subsidies.

We first reported on Spain's plan to cut PV solar subsidies last month, when Tomas
Diaz, director of external...

Tax Cheats Beware: The Government Will Find You

Those who owe back taxes better pay up, or Pennsylvania's department of revenue will hunt you down, Jack Bauer-style.

That's the scare tactic used in a recent series of Big Brother-like ads, which showed a satellite zeroing in on a tax cheat's home. "Your name is Tom," bleeps a robotic-voice, as the Google Earth-esque graphics zoom toward its target. "You live just off 5th Street. Nice car, Tom. Nice house. What's not so nice is you owe Pennsylvania $4,212 in back taxes."

"Find us...