A Semitone Higher

Can Tumblr Make Yahoo Cool? Marissa Mayer's Bold, Billion-Dollar Bet

Mon, 20 May 2013 18:04:35 -0400

Can Tumblr Make Yahoo Cool? Marissa Mayer's Bold, Billion-Dollar Bet:

I’m not breaking out the old Yahoo email address yet, but this is a good move on Yahoo’s part.

So yeah, I won one of these tonight. No big whoop. #yesitis...

Thu, 16 May 2013 20:57:47 -0400

So yeah, I won one of these tonight. No big whoop. #yesitis #excelaward #pr

corbinsheart: I am. #CHD #advocate

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:40:50 -0400

corbinsheart:

I am. #CHD #advocate

Facebook Home dies before it gets a chance to live

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:35:30 -0400

bitshare:

HTC First, or as many know it as Facebook Home, is dying off before it really had a chance to live, on AT&T that is. Apparently the idea to have Facebook 24/7 on your phone, all in your business, wasn’t the greatest of ideas. Who knew, right?

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There are two billion people online . . .

Tue, 14 May 2013 11:27:00 -0400

… but how are they using the Internet?

The Internet has had the greatest impact on the globe’s social and economic fabric since the invention of the steam engine. It’s reach extends far beyond the developed world, as it is facilitating the spread of democracy and spurring economic growth to the developing world.

This podcast from Radio Canada International explores how people around the globe use the Internet, and what that means for governments, businesses and Internet users.

Would you support military invasion of a country where their people were denied access to the Internet?

Fri, 10 May 2013 10:52:20 -0400

Do you believe access to the Internet should be a human right?

If so, Would you support military invasion of a country where their people were denied access to the Internet?

On Tuesday May 7, 2013, Syria’s Internet went completely offline for one day. This means that no resident within the country had access to online content during the blackout. The Telegraph reports that the state news agencies blamed the blackout on faulty fibre optics, while rebel forces accused the state of publicly shutting off the Internet to disrupt communications between the rebel fighters.

In July of 2012 the United Nations’ Human Rights Council unanimously backed a resolution stating the access to the Internet is a human right. To put this resolution in perspective, other human rights held by the UN Human Rights Council include the right to education, the right to food and the right to clean water.

Naturally, this topic has engendered a lot of discussion, including at the CIF National Event in 2012. Given the events in Syria this past week, this topic comes right back to the foreground.

Should access to the Internet be considered a human right? Does it even belong aside the aforementioned human rights? Would you support external intervention in a civil crisis if citizens access to the Internet had been severed, in the same way that a foreign body such as NATO would consider intervening if a state’s citizens were denied access to food?

Should social media services restrict content on their networks?

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:32:00 -0400

A report by the Simon Wiesenthal Center states that Twitter helped spur a 30 per cent growth in online forums for hate and terror over the past year. As a result, some are calling on social media services to restrict content on their networks.

From a story in the Toronto Star: “Social-media services including Twitter, Facebook Inc. and Google Inc.’s YouTube video-sharing website should restrict the dissemination of hateful speech or content that aids terrorists, according to Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based human-rights advocacy group.”

Some networks already limit content – Facebook limits what images can be posted, Twitter has been known to restrict content in some countries – but generally there are very few restrictions.

Do you think social networks should restrict content on their networks more broadly?

Photo

Wed, 08 May 2013 15:28:41 -0400

‘Vigilante Copy Editor’

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:09:51 -0400

From the New York Times, this fun little documentary about the filmmaker’s search for a vandal who has been correcting typos on placards in a sculpture garden in Brooklyn is a must watch.

Descriptive, yet morbid, product name.

Wed, 08 May 2013 13:00:02 -0400

Descriptive, yet morbid, product name.

#2,374 in things I wish I thought of

Mon, 06 May 2013 10:41:22 -0400

This brilliant campaign by Taxi that uses lenticular printing to deliver a separate message to kids under 10 about child abuse.

It’s just so damn smart (and important).

I also love the word lenticular, though it makes me crave Cracker Jacks.

quirksintech: Own a Google Glass? Perhaps this is the shirt you...

Thu, 02 May 2013 15:10:45 -0400

quirksintech:

Own a Google Glass? Perhaps this is the shirt you should be wearing at all times.

The real competition in tech is for the worst product launch ever. I think Samsung is winning.

Wed, 01 May 2013 11:02:30 -0400

The real competition in tech is for the worst product launch ever.

I think Samsung is winning.

renee: Today’s word: cybrarian <3

Tue, 30 Apr 2013 09:31:52 -0400

renee:

Today’s word: cybrarian <3

You know when you’re a teenager and music is everything to...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 17:05:57 -0400

You know when you’re a teenager and music is everything to you? Then you go to a concert and it’s a life-changing event?

That happened to me in 1988 when SNFU came to Winnipeg. I was 17, and I haven’t been the same since (for the better).

Now someone’s posted a video of the concert to YouTube.

For 25 years, they’ve been my favorite band.

I may not be the same after watching it.

Who is accountable for the AP Twitter hack?

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:14:45 -0400

Earlier this week, the Associated Press’ Twitter account was hacked by a group called the Syrian Electronic Army and this tweet was posted:

“Breaking: Two Explosions in the White House and Barack Obama Injured.”

Stock markets reacted quickly and negatively. Within minutes, the more than $136 billion had moved on the NYSE as a result. The market quickly regained after the hoax was revealed.

Where does accountability lie when this happens?

Is Twitter to blame because they have yet to implement enhanced security measures like two-factor authentication? Or is it the Associated Press, because the tweet was sent from their account?

In this case, does the NYSE Euronext, the company behind the NYSE, share in the blame?Someone else (perhaps a regulator)?

What do you think? Why?

It isn’t new, but it’s bang on: “Technology is a big destroyer of emotion &...

Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:42:17 -0400

It isn’t new, but it’s bang on:

“Technology is a big destroyer of emotion & truth… opportunity doesn’t do anything for creativity. Yeah, it makes it easier and you can get home sooner. But it doesn’t make you a more creative person. That’s the disease you have to fight in any creative field… ease of use. “

Thank you, Jack White.

"Once, when I had been drunk for several days, [then-wife] Shirley decided she would make it..."

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:26:31 -0400

“

Once, when I had been drunk for several days, [then-wife] Shirley decided she would make it physically impossible for me to buy liquor. I lived about 8 miles from Beaumont and the nearest liquor store. She knew I wouldn’t walk that far to get booze, so she hid the keys to every car we owned and left. But she forgot about the lawn mower.

I can vaguely remember my anger at not being able to find keys to anything that moved and looking longingly out a window at a light that shone over our property. There, gleaming in the glow, was that 10-horsepower rotary engine under a seat. A key glistening in the ignition.

I imagine the top speed for that old mower was five miles per hour. It might have taken an hour and a half or more for me to get to the liquor store, but get there I did.

”

- George Jones (via thecountryfucker)

Rest in peace, George Jones. You played a surprisingly prominent...

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 10:42:00 -0400

Rest in peace, George Jones.

You played a surprisingly prominent role in my life ever since I was a kid.

“This time he’s over her for good.”

Was it the drinkin’, or her memory?

And the award for offensive ad of the week goes to...

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 11:44:45 -0400

And the award for offensive ad of the week goes to Hyundai.

Using suicide to sell cars? Not cool.

Who signs off on this crap?