David Lidsky's Blog, page 4759

Twitter Feed Torpedos First U.K. Political Candidate

Twitter's booming international growth is not without its pitfalls. If you haven't noticed, there's a General Election going on in the U.K. And, rather like its American counterpart, 18 months back, British politicians have embraced social media as a way of reaching out to the country's voters. In the 2008 campaign for the White House, candidates, for the most part, demonstrated mastery of the social media. The political bods of this tiny, scepter'd isle, however, may want to stick to using...

DOE Offers $100M for Smart Grid Job Training

Considering a new career? The smart grid sector might be a good place to start now that the U.S. Department of Energy has doled out $100 million for smart grid job training in a move that will help 30,000 people prepare for work.

As part of the smart grid job training program, the DOE will give out 54 awards ranging from $82,000 to $5 million across a number of states: Among the big winners: $4.4 million for a Pepco engineering and service center in Maryland, $5 million for Penn State's...

Netflix's Mobile Invasion Continues: Android, You're Next

Netflix is officially on a mobile rampage. First it was that amazing-looking Microsoft Windows Phone 7 app--the first we'd seen of its kind. Then it debuted alongside Apple's iPad, possibly snagging the title of most essential app, especially for video lovers, in the first week. Then Netflix confirmed that they'd be bringing Instant Watch to the iPhone. Now, Netflix put out an ad looking for a Google Android engineer, and the ad leaves no doubt as to the purpose.

From the ad: "Netflix is...

Best Digital Tools for the Paperless Tax Return

You've got less than a week to turn that pile of odd-sized W-2's, 1099's, and paper receipts into an income tax return that won't break the bank or get you audited. This April there are more free, cheap, online tools that can help you digitize your tax return and your financial records all year long.

Your Tax Records in the Cloud

You (or your accountant) has been e-filing your tax return for years, but this year the options for doing your tax return from start to finish electronically...

Tokujin Yoshioka Unveils Chairs Made of Foil, Chandelier of Living Crystal [UPDATED]

A poet of materials previews the products he'll debut in Milan.

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[UPDATE: Yoshioka's studio has sent us more images and information about the chair above; scroll to the bottom for the news]

The year's biggest design event, the Milan Furniture Fair, is still two weeks away, but the previews are already trickling out. And we bet this ends up being best in show: Japanese design master Tokujin Yoshioka has sent us images of Memory, a new chair for Moroso made from a "special fabric with recycled...

Apple Patent: Near-Field Comms iPhones to Revolutionize Cash Registers

We'd spotted Apple's interest in having near-field communications (NFC) in future iPhones, back in February. But two new patents from the company suggest it's really very interested in NFC for iPhone cash registers and in-home remote controls.

The earlier patent was an extension of how NFC works as you may have encountered it in your daily life--those short-range, radio frequency contactless subway tickets for example. But the new patents show that Apple's engineers haven't been content with...

What Does Coal Mining Have To Do With Geoengineering?

This post was written by Jeff Goodell for Grist.org.

The other day, an MSNBC producer asked me, "What is the
connection between this coal-mine disaster in West Virginia and geoengineering the
planet?"

The question is not as strange as it sounds.

A few years ago, I wrote a book called Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future. Among other things, I spent a lot of time
underground with coal miners and learned a lot about the dangers and problems
of mining coal. I also learned...

NYC Designer Brings Bits of Brooklyn to Milan

Next week's Milan Furniture Fair is probably the biggest design event in the world--but Americans are almost completely shut out of it. One exception: Alissia Melka-Teichroew, a young New Yorker and Dutch immigrant. Unlike most young designers, she has struck off on her own: From a kitschy set of rings that went on to monster success, she built a full-on brand, distributing her own work over the web, via her design label, Regretsy. Melka-Teichroew sent Fast Company a preview of the works...

Twitter Feed Torpedos First UK Political Candidate

Twitter's booming international growth is not without its pitfalls. If you haven't noticed, there's a General Election going on in the UK. And, rather like its American counterpart, eighteen months back, British politicians have embraced social media as a way of reaching out to the country's voters. In the 2008 campaign for the White House, candidates, for the most part, demonstrated mastery of the social media. The political bods of this tiny, scepter'd isle, however, may want to stick to...

Infographic of the Day: How the Health Care Bill Almost Awarded Tiger Woods for "Grace and Dignity"

A web app that lets you browse the content of the bills put before Congress--and it isn't pretty.

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The IBM Research Lab has released its latest project: Many Bills, a web app that visualizes the content of bills put before Congress.

The app was created by legendary data viz researcher Martin Wattenberg and his longtime
collaborator Fernanda Viégas. They're probably best known for creating Many Eyes, another web app that provides a place to upload and share data, and then visualize it.

Many...