David Lidsky's Blog, page 4775

Facebook Could Be Back in Court for Patent Suit Over Site Design

The next high-profile firm to find itself in court looks to be Facebook. In the week that a pair of strapping rowers named Winkelvoss intimated that their battle with Mark Zuckerberg wasn't yet over, the social networking firm is at the center of a patent challenge by Cross Atlantic Capital Partners. In the court papers, XACP claims that it lodged a patent for an Internet-based "community for users with common interests to interact in," dating back to 2000.

The case between the two parties...

Uncommon Act of Design: The Gem Paperclip

Why the common paperclip is the perfect symbol of capitalism.

Your standard paperclip has a design so perfect and so simple that it seems inevitable--and obvious. It wasn't. The Gem paperclip is actually the last clip standing in a war over paper clip design that lasted decades.

Grids points to this lovely paper clip gallery created by the Office Museum showing just how many competing designs once existed. And it illustrates why all of those eventually died out.

The first paper clip was...

Cigarette Butt Rug Lets You Literally Kick the Habit

Sometimes it seems like the array of upcycled home furnishings coming down the pipeline is nearly endless. From LEGO tables to lamps made out of drinking straws, we thought we'd seen it all--until now. Designboom points us to Jesus Bubu Negron's cigarette butt rug, which features cigarettes collected by street cleaners transformed into a carpet. The Puerto Rican artist's design uses unrolled cigarettes layered on top of each other to create a woven textile-like feel. It's not all that...

The Memristor Revolution: Chips Can Work Like Brains Too

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Memristors: If you don't know about 'em, you certainly will over the next few years. We're probably not talking about the same kind of revolution as the transistor sparked off, but new research has shown they can mimic brain cells, so you never know...

The memristor is actually an amazing little beast, dubbed the electronic "missing link" between transistors (which act as electronic switches or valves) and resistors (which merely stifle the flow of electrical current through them.) The most...

Crib Sheet: Natalie Massenet, Founder of Net-a-Porter

When you can launch an online clothes store just before the first Internet bubble bursts and, a decade later, walk away with $76 million, a place on the board as executive chairman, your middle name has got to be Gumption. Former fashion journalist Natalie Massenet, who yesterday flogged Net-a-Porter to luxury goods group Richemont, the highest-profile e-tailer in the world, is far too chic for that, however. With the company now valued at $534 million the Boo.com founders must be looking...

Ye Olde Designers: A Mini-Documentary on Roman & Williams

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If you're a fan of taxidermy, filament lighting, pharmacist bottles, and plaid, you can thank Roman & Wiliams, a New York-based design duo who has brought whimsy, fantasy, and authenticity back into our sterile modern interiors. As one of the firms featured in last year's book Dark Nostalgia, we got to see several of their projects (like the Ace Hotel in New York, above), and now a sweet little documentary produced by The Scout gives us insight into their process.

[vimeo 10452010:]

Their...

Foursquare's Digital Graffiti, a Legally Nerve-Wracking Taste of the Future

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Foursquare is really on the ascendant as location-based gaming/social networking blossoms among smartphone users. But there's a novel side-effect happening...users are indulging in "virtual graffiti" on places and people, too. It's the future, arriving a little early.

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting on this effect, based on information gathered from U.S. university and college campuses. Most uses are benign and represent a clever way to use the location-based-powers inside...

Why You Shouldn't Buy an iPad (Yet)

Apple's iPad arrives in stores tomorrow and reviewers agree that it's a magic revolutionary new class of computer. But you shouldn't buy one. Not yet, anyway.

Let's break this down.

First-generation Apple products are for suckers. Only lemmings with no self-control and excessive disposable income buy first generation Apple products, especially in a new gadget category. When they do, they pay the double the price for immature hardware and software.

Remember the iPhone? It debuted...

April Fools! Google Jail Not Google's Prank. It's Ours

When I found myself calling Google corporate PR department at midnight on April Fools, it was pretty clear our little stunt had worked. They just wanted to make sure that we had not, in fact, been leaked fake screen shots by some nutball and that we didn't believe that Google Jail was real.

No. Google Jail was entirely our doing. It was an April Fools prank about an April Fools prank. We made up the concept then made up the fact that Google had planned to use it for its own April Fools...

Foursquare's Digital Graffiti, a Legally Nerve-Wracking Taste of The Future

[image error]

Foursquare is really on the ascendant as location-based gaming/social networking blossoms among smartphone users. But there's a novel side-effect happening...users are indulging in "virtual graffiti" on places and people, too. It's the future, arriving a little early.

The Chronicle of Higher Education is reporting on this effect, based on information gathered from U.S. university and college campuses. Most uses are benign and represent a clever way to use the location-based-powers inside...