David Lidsky's Blog, page 4598

White House Backs FCC's Plan to Increase Available Wireless Spectrum

Wireless spectrum is sort of a tricky concept to wrap one's head around. Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan lays it out nicely in a highway metaphor:

To radically simplify it, an easy way to think about spectrum is kind of like a highway, divided into lanes. In the US, the FCC designates who and what's allowed to travel in each lane. (Check out the FCC's spectrum dashboard to see who owns what spectrum where.) The FCC typically divides the spectrum into "blocks" (stick with the mixed metaphor here) that ...

Google Toes Line in China: Tries to Stay Uncensored, Legal, and Available

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Google's presence in China is pretty small at the moment, since the company very loudly withdrew from the country amidst federal investigations into hacking that may or may not have originated somewhere in the Chinese government. So Google took down Google.cn, the company's Chinese site, as part of an anti-censorship protest, and instead have been redirecting searches to Google.hk, Google's Hong Kong site.

But now it appears even that is too much presence for the Chinese government to allow...

White House Pushes FCC's Plan to Increase Available Wireless Spectrum

Wireless spectrum is sort of a tricky concept to wrap one's head around. Gizmodo's Matt Buchanan lays it out nicely in a highway metaphor:

To radically simplify it, an easy way to think about spectrum is kind of like a highway, divided into lanes. In the US, the FCC designates who and what's allowed to travel in each lane. (Check out the FCC's spectrum dashboard to see who owns what spectrum where.) The FCC typically divides the spectrum into "blocks" (stick with the mixed metaphor here) that ...

Windows 8 Features Leaked: Instant On/Off, Syncing to the Cloud, and Tablets

Microsoft's current version of Windows, Windows 7, has been a critical and commercial success. But you always have to be working on the next version, and some leaked documents show what Windows 8 might look like.

The documents, published by MSFTKitchen, don't go into much nitty-gritty, but it mentions a few new features that pique our interest. Microsoft seems to be firmly laying out the three different form factors it wants to see in Windows 8: laptop, all-in-one desktop, and slate (or...

EA's Nick Earl on the Horror of "Dead Space 2," and How He's Changing Game Development

Nick Earl, the Senior VP and General Manager for Electronic Art's group that focuses on action games, tell us about "Dead Space 2," why he is happy about the elongated cycle for current game consoles, and how he is pioneering a new form of game development.

Kevin Ohannessian: I've seen Dead Space 2 at both EA's and Sony's events. E3 seems to be going well for your group.

Nick Earl: The thing is, 99% of the teams, are back working. They see this all online, read the blogs. It's such a shot...

Zero Carbon Elevator Lifts London Architecture Festival

The London Festival of Architecture is on in the British capital at the moment, and one of the smaller pieces of brilliance on show is architect Matthew Lloyd's . It's a clever little contraption that uses water and solar power to lift wheelchair users up the (for them) previously inaccessible Duke of York steps next to the Institute of Contemporary Arts.

The perspex and steel structure weighs three tons and was especially difficult owing to the steps' listed status...

X Prize Foundation Announces $10 Million Oil Disaster Cleanup Challenge

Have an innovative solution to clean up the BP oil disaster in the Gulf? Now's your chance to be heard--and make some money in the process. At the TEDxOilSpill conference this morning, Francis Beland, VP, Prize Development at the X Prize Foundation announced a sweet incentive for figuring out a way to mop up BP's mess: a $10 million X Prize.

The prize is a testament to the difficulty of stopping the oil spill--similarly large X Prizes have been offered for DNA sequencing technology...

Is Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg More Powerful Than the President?

Who is more powerful: 400-million-user strong Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, or the leader of the free world?

That was the question posed to Soraya Darabi, #53 on our Most Creative People in Business list, who explained that their power, at least in terms of reach of voice, is not so different.

Darabi broke down the access to communication tools that Obama and Zuckerberg hold, comparing the old-age methods of the president (network TV, radio, newspapers, etc.) to Facebook's reach...

Wanted: Jenny Holzer's "Protect Me From What I Want" Keds

The conceptual artist soups up the old teeny-bopper sneaker with her famous truisms.

Keds, for those of you who missed the early '90s, were once the hottest shoes around, worn by every YM-reading
girl in America who thought Zack Morris was just the dreamiest. Now,
the company's trying to grow up a little and, on top of some low-key self-promotion (forget Mischa Barton),
they've hired shoe designers straight from the halls of the
Whitney Museum. First up: the conceptual artist Jenny...

Denim and Music: An Enduring Love Story

Rock 'n' roll mouthwash aside, if ever a product was made for music, it is denim. The latest bunk-up between jeans and musicians is courtesy of Levi's, which has paired with a bunch of monster artists for its Levi's Pioneer Sessions. In return for an email address, you get to download a bunch of seminal tracks--as well as Technotronic's Pump Up The Jam, oddly enough--covered by musicians that include John Legend, Raphael Saadiq, Nas, Passion Pit, and Jason Mraz.

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If you go...