Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
The mobile app boom kicked off in July 2008, when Apple introduced the App Store. Now it is over. People are still making plenty of apps, of course. And many people are still downloading them. But the go-go growth days are gone. If you are an independent app developer or publisher, you have probably known…
Jetpack Open Graph Tags Someone stumbled upon a preference of Google’s not to offer “crimes” as a suggested search term following a person’s name. Unsurprisingly, the same sort of folks who think Obama has a secret birth certificate are sharing a conspiracy video. Vox explains why this is silly: Choose any famous American who has…
cache hit 224:single/related:95de6f0b396bd445f3bf6e3dc5d22cd4 empty Sunspring, a short science fiction movie written entirely by AI, debuts exclusively on Ars today. Ars is excited to be hosting this online debut of Sunspring, a short science fiction film that’s not entirely what it seems. It’s about three people living in a weird future, possibly on a space station, probably in a love…
Uncanny Silicon Valley The absolutely definitive, supremely authoritative, person-to-person mapping of “Silicon Valley” characters to real tech world personalities. When we say that a television show is “realistic,” what do we mean? Must the drug corners on The Wire resemble the streets of Baltimore? Do the mimetic set pieces on Mad Men engender more cinéma…
A new startup wants to take a “deep dive” into the private social media activity of prospective tenants—their chats, check-ins, how many times they’ve posted words like “pregnant” or “loan”—and score their “personality” for their potential landlord. Why would anyone let this happen? Because “people will give up their privacy to get something they want,”…
Not a thief, just a regular excited Apple store employee Earlier this year, three individuals stole a total of 67 iPhones from an Upper West Side Apple store. Last week, 19 more iPhones were snatched from a SoHo store. How could these criminals possibly infiltrate the impenetrable security of a retail store run by certifiable…
Elon Musk has never shied away from comparisons with superhero Tony Stark, but his most recent joke on the subject is pretty on the nose, even for him. Responding to a story from CNN that pondered why the SpaceX founder had met with Secretary of Defense Ash Carter earlier this week, Musk replied in a tweet: “Something…
Ad blockers are great—in consumers hands.SIphotography/Shutterstock I’m a big believer in blocking online ads and trackers. Needless to say, advertisers and media companies aren’t. Some try to make me feel guilty. Others block me or degrade the Web experience. Fair enough. But if your telecommunications company decides or offers to do block ads on…
coins metadata inserted by kblog-metadata Smart houses may usher in a leisurely world for some and more work for others AT the turn of the millennium, the Disney Channel released Smart House, the greatest installment in its made-for-TV “Original Movie” series. The titular house is smart because it comes equipped with cheerful, feminine, Personal…
TODO: defaulting to 2099 until we get the expiry date from toolbelt Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images Marissa Mayer, chief executive officer of Yahoo! Inc. This story is developing. Please check back for further updates. Yahoo has received multiple bids at or above $5 billion for its core business, CNBC has learned. Verizon…