David Lidsky's Blog, page 4796
March 24, 2010
Kenya's First Viral Music Video: An Auto-Tuned, Blaxploitation-Themed Epic
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Just a Band's music video (or, more accurately, short film set to music) is a pastiche of blaxploitation like Shaft, crime-centric American film ranging from Tarantino to the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage," and a dash of kung fu tropes, all tossed together and filtered through the lens of another country. It's funny, violent, at times confusing, low-budget, and undeniably fun--in other words, of course it's going viral.
The video, for the song "Ha-He," is the first such video to really take off in...
Year of the Tablet Update: The iPad Isn't the Only Tablet Coming to AT&T
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The OpenTablet 7, made by little-known company OpenPeak, is a 7-inch touchscreen tablet running on the Intel Atom processor about which not all that much is actually known. We know it's fairly thin, at 0.59-inches (Apple's iPad is 0.5-inches), we know it has a 7-inch capacitive multitouch screen, we know it has Wi-Fi, 3G, and Bluetooth connectivity (and it can make calls), and we know it has HDMI-out, USB, and a microSD slot. So the hardware is pretty well-known--but with a giant slab of...
Today in Most Innovative Companies
News of note from our Most Innovative Companies, including Hulu, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft.
Hulu: Researchers at comScore told audiences today that Hulu viewers would welcome extra advertisements interrupting their television shows. On average, Hulu displays four minutes of commercials per hour of video. ComScore discovered that users would actually tolerate two to three aditional minutes of advertisements. Thanks, comScore poll-takers.
Facebook: Sure, you thought you were safe poking...
How Adam Carolla Became a Podcast Superstar
Adam Carolla is a master builder who created this glass office. His next project? Building his podcast network to profitability. | Photographs by Jeff Minton
[image error]Carolla, midrant, at his warehouse/studio, in Glendale, California | Photographs by Jeff Minton
Radio-and-TV personality Adam Carolla stumbled into podcasting and immediately became its No. 1 star. Now he's launching his own broadcasting network. Inside the messy birth of a new medium.
[image error]Adam Carolla has done the math. The comedian, actor...
A is for App: How Smartphones, Handheld Computers Sparked an Educational Revolution
From Left: Angel Taylor, 6, Jose Becerra, 7, and Julissa Munoz, 6. | Photograph by Danielle Levitt
As smartphones and handheld computers move into classrooms worldwide, we may be witnessing the start of an educational revolution. How technology could unleash childhood creativity -- and transform the role of the teacher.
Gemma and Eliana Singer are big iPhone fans. They love to explore the latest games, flip through photos, and watch YouTube videos while waiting at a restaurant, having their...
Remember: When Bad Products Happen to Big Companies
Twenty-five years ago today, Coca-Cola execs tried to give their flagging brand a lift by replacing the original drink with New Coke. Turns out people preferred the old taste, and the reformulated soda quickly lost its fizz. Here's a look at other product launches that got lots of buzz -- and majorly flopped.
[image error]Apple Newton
(1993, Estimated development cost in 2010 dollars: $1.5 billion) It's no iPad. Apple's first handheld computer was announced two years before its launch date. The result: a...
Cat Stuck in Tree Covered Fairly, Journalistically by AOL's Hyper-Local Patch.org
Patch Media, AOL's local content and advertising platform, has just launched Patch.org, a charitable foundation that aims to cover hyper-local news in communities that are suffering from a dearth of media outlets, the ones the Internet rendered ... obsolete ... hey wait a minute!
Currently available in 41 communities spread over four states--California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New York, with another 15 sites opening in Connecticut starting at the end of the month--the service is so...
Coal Glo: GE Scientists Use Hair Product Ingredients to Capture Carbon
The next time you wash your hair, think about this: the same ingredients that make your hair super-shiny can also scrub carbon dioxide from the air. Scientists at GE Global Research have discovered that aminosilicones--active ingredients in hair conditioners, fabric softeners and flexible high-temperature plastics--can be used to capture CO2 from the flues of coal-powered plants.
There are already plenty of other CO2-capturing ingredients being used for carbon capture and storage tests (a
Fast Talk: MIT's Legatum Center Breeds Entrepreneurs
Photograph by Bob O'Connor
Nada Hashmi and Jean Pierre Nshimyimana
Fellows, MIT's Legatum Center for Development & Entrepreneurship
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Hashmi and Nshimyimana, 29, are fellows at MIT's Legatum Center, established by GrameenPhone founder Iqbal Z. Quadir to connect aspiring entrepreneurs with technology experts and potential investors.
Hashmi: "My company will bring mobile health-care vans to remote villages, first in Saudi Arabia at the end of 2011 or the beginning of...
Chuck Hoberman's Buildings Adapt to the Environment
Image Courtesy of Foster + Partners
[image error]Image Courtesy of Foster + Partners
Design guru Chuck Hoberman's latest venture: buildings that can adapt to the environment
[image error]You could reasonably argue that in Chuck Hoberman's book of virtues, flexibility would be number one. The latest mission for the transformable-design guru -- who has created everything from huge collapsible domes to a giant expandable video screen for U2 -- is the Adaptive Building Initiative (ABI), an effort to equip big buildings...
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