May 2011
9 posts
2 tags
New Privacy Laws in India and China Could Make IT... →
Think privacy issues are a pain when they affect consumers? Get ready for the grandfather of all corporate computing headaches. Big privacy-law changes in India and China are about to turn data-processing outsourcing into a hurdle-leaping, paperwork-generating mess. This is dumb, which is why I think that these bills will never get passed. Both the Chinese and Indian economies rely on foreign...
May 16th
2 tags
PlayStation Network is FINALLY staggering back... →
Sony says it has begun restoring its PlayStation Network service in the United States and Europe, after a massive security breach shut it down for almost a month.  Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. spokesman Satoshi Fukuoka said the company also began phased restoration of its Qriocity movie and music services. Sony’s PlayStation Network had been offline since April 19.
May 15th
2 tags
The Ad-Supported Kindle Is Amazon's Best Seller →
This tells us: People don’t hate advertising as much as some Internet wonks think they do. The $25 savings from the ad-supported edition matters to people. Cheaper Kindles sell better than more expensive Kindles. The ad-supported Kindle is only a starting point. I wonder how Amazon could further develop this business model? Ad-supported Android devices? I wish!
May 15th
4 notes
2 tags
Announcing the NEW Beatport.com →
Previewing tracks takes on a whole new dimension with the addition of graphical waveforms; use keyboard shortcuts to navigate your playlist on the fly. And we’ve added BPM and key information for every track. (As you can guess, automated BPM/key detection isn’t perfect, so we’re keeping a channel open for the Beatport community to correct us when we’ve got it wrong. Crowdsourcing, baby!) ...
May 14th
2 tags
Groupon Now is live! Offers local deals at any... →
Groupon Now! is a spin on the traditional Groupon model of offering one deal a day in your local area. Instead of just one deal a day, it offers local deals at any moment of the day. If you’re walking down the street and are wondering what kinds of deals are near you, just pop open the Groupon NOW website or the mobile app and punch in your location. Imagine walking down the street wondering...
May 11th
2 tags
"Anonymous" Claims Responsibility for Attacks on... →
“If you say you are Anonymous, and do something as Anonymous, then Anonymous did it,” said the hacker, who uses the online nickname Kayla. “Just because the rest of Anonymous might not agree with it, doesn’t mean Anonymous didn’t do it.” Anonymous has claimed responsibility for last week’s cyber attacks which had been aimed at Sony. The attacks themselves came in response to...
May 9th
2 tags
Breaking Bin Laden: visualizing the power of a... →
On the evening of May 1st, people using Twitter figured out that Osama Bin-Laden had been killed over an hour before the formal White House announcement. More importantly, Twitter never went offline during the whole ordeal. Props to the Twitter team for improving their backend!
May 8th
386 notes
2 tags
New Microsoft and Sony gaming consoles may not... →
According to Kotaku, neither Microsoft nor Sony will launch new gaming consoles before 2014. “Both [Microsoft] and Sony are telegraphing to each other that they’re delaying, to milk the current [generation] and fill in previous craters better.” Collusion, or secret collaboration between businesses, is largely illegal in the United States, Canada and most of the EU. At first glance, Sony and...
May 8th
2 tags
Why The New Guy Can’t Code →
Joel Spolsky once correctly explained that you’re generally looking for two things in an employee: Smart and Gets Things Done. Academia is teeming with people who are the former but not the latter. Yes.
May 7th