David Lidsky's Blog, page 4589

Google to Increase Pay to Gay Employees to Cover Same-Sex Benefits

[image error]We've all heard the stories of Google's extraordinary treatment of its employees--amazing food, tons of time off, great child care--and now you can add one more to the list: equalizing a tax break denied to same-sex couples.

Essentially, under federal law, company-provided health benefits that extend to a domestic partner count as taxable income, whereas if that domestic partner is a legally married spouse, it does not count as taxable income. Same-sex couples end up paying, on average...

Google Acquires Airline Data Company ITA: Get Ready for Google Flight Planner

Google announced today that they've purchased ITA, a Boston-based company speciailzing in airline data, for $700 million, as rumored a few months back. ITA had been the subject of a hot little bidding war, with Microsoft, Expedia, and Kayak all rumored to be fighting for the company. But Google snagged it. So what does this mean?

In short, it means Google Flight Planner. I don't know if that'll be the actual title, but it's safe to say Google will announce some variation on it in the coming...

Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, LinkedIn: Multiple e-dentity Disorder

How many times have you heard a horror story of how debaucherous Facebook photos have ended the chances of a job candidate?

Most of us have numerous online personalities, from multiple email usernames and messenger logins, to private Twitter feeds and social network profiles. It seems every online tool calls for different behavior. Speaking recently at our Most Creative People in Business event, Soraya Darabi, product lead at Drop.io and #53 on our list, called this syndrome "multiple...

Intel's Mind-Interface "Reads" 1,000 Words

We've moved a long way from the keyboard-and-mouse only computer interface. Touchscreens, speech, and even typing systems that track eye and muscle movements all aid in interaction. But what if we could literally transmit our thoughts to computer interfaces--without any sort of implanted computer chip? Intel's Human Brain project, a collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh, is attempting to do just that.

The ambitious project (see our report from last...

Sidekicked: T-Mobile Discontinues the Sidekick Line

Ah, the Sidekick. Grandaddy of messaging phones, a predecessor to the smartphone. It's the neanderthal to the smartphone's homo sapiens of the phone world--bigger and tougher than the newer smartphones, but dumber, and eventually doomed.

The Sidekick line has been immensely popular for T-Mobile, with its big, roomy keyboard, comparatively big screen, and abilities like email and Web browsing that were way ahead of its time. But to keep the price down, the Sidekick never evolved into much...

Pepsi Refresh Project Launches $1.3 Million "Do Good for the Gulf" Initiative

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There is no shortage of crowdsourced ideas to clean up the Gulf oil disaster, but Pepsi is the first to step in with crowdsourced solutions to help the Gulf communities affected by BP's monumental blunder. The Do Good for the Gulf Initiative--an extension of Pepsi's Refresh Project campaign--will award $1.3 million in grants to projects that help Gulf residents.

Pepsi will accept submissions starting on July 12 for the initiative, which is offering multiple $5,000, $25,000, $50,000, and...

Wesabe Personal Finance Site Goes Broke; HelloWallet Fills Its Coffers

Wesabe, a personal finance competitor to Mint.com
that emphasized its community features, ran out of money. CEO Mark Hedlund wrote in his farewell message that the site had been operating on starvation rations recently, which is "unacceptable" considering the security demands of hosting users' personal account information. Only the bulletin boards will remain operational after the end of the month. The site launched in 2005.

This could just be a case of a company failing to distinguish...

IBM, Roche to Make DNA Sequencing Cheap, Fast, and World-Changing

Tech giant IBM and pharmceutical powerhouse, Roche have announced a parntership to advance something truly remarkable: Nanopore DNA sequencing. It's no exaggeration to say that this technology could radically influence security, criminal processing, healthcare, even dating.

DNA decoding currently involves expensive, slow, painstaking use of breaking apart and labeling amino acids with marker chemcials, then applying complex sofware to solve the code. Nanopore DNA coding is markedly...

Steve Jobs on the iPhone 4 Antenna Woes: "Relax ... It Is Just a Phone"

Apple's woes over what may be an issue with the design of the iPhone 4's antennas continue:But Steve Jobs is maintaining calm, and is emailing troubled customers on the matter. 

The to-and-fro conversation between Apple CEO Jobs and a reader over at BoyGeniusReport is definitely worth perusing in its entirety--assuming it's real, rarely does one see such a free, frank and extended discussion between a billion-dollar company CEO and a client (AT&T even turns the law on you if you try it). BGR...

India's ¢u££€₦¢¥ Gets Its Own $¥mbol ₮oda¥

While the almighty dollar sign is universally known (and the oft counterfeited bills undergo frequent upgrades), India's currency, the rupee, has been strangely bereft of an official symbol to use when denoting it in text. Today it'll choose one, from a short list of five similar designs and join the ranks of its international cousins.

Googling for "rupee symbol" returns a barrage of different results, revealing the typographic disarray India's government finds itself in concerning its...