The Five Most Endangered Words on the Internet
The five most endangered words of the realtime internet era are: Let me think about that. Shirley Sherrod, the former rural development director for the Agriculture Department in Georgia found that out the hard way when she was fired by the Obama administration for her delivery of a supposedly racist speech. The speech was creatively…
Olivia Munn Battles the Green Robots
Television personality and newly minted Daily Show correspondent Oliva Munn’s new book, Suck It, Wonder Woman! is full of practical advice for the modern dork. Like how to survive a robot uprising. (Hint: Robots hate kittens.) Sometimes I like to joke about the fact that pretty soon the planet Earth will be invaded by a…
Scenes from a Chinese Factory
My parents sent me to China with two goals: to improve my Chinese before shipping off to college in the fall; to learn about Chinese culture and how China works from an inside perspective. So I visited a Chinese factory. If you have been paying attention to technology news as of late, you may have…
In Defense of Audiophilia
It rarely occurs to me to defend my interest in recreating the sound of live music. I do it because I love to listen to beautiful sound. Is wanting great audio crazy? A series of events—and evangelists—led me from a casual like of the pop songs I heard on my tiny transistor radio to an…
“Tickling Miss Silvia”: Mark Frauenfelder Hacks Coffee’s God-Shot
Most companies aren’t interested in creating maker-friendly products, but sometimes, apparently by accident, a product comes off the assembly line that way. The Rancilio Silvia is just such a machine. It was introduced in 1997, not as a commercial product but as a thank-you gift to importers and vendors of Rancilio’s expensive restaurant-grade espresso machines.…
What To Do When Technology Passes You By
There was a time when I was the family “tech guy.” Assembling sounds systems and debugging computers was my household contribution. These days, however, I’m not sure I could pick an HDMI cable out of a box of snakes. When did I get so old? For years, parents have relied on their younger, more digitally…
No Sleep ‘Til Fusion
With every thing Mark Suppes fixes, another thing breaks. We’re in his workshop, and he’s hunched over, tightening the bolts on a squat tubular machine. This is the fusion reactor Suppes built, and it’s not working. Suppes never slows down, moving from one problem to the next with an irrepressible smile. The workshop is a…
Serafinowicz: Five Reasons I Love Apple and Five Reasons I Hate Apple
Guest editor Peter Serafinowicz is back to talk about his storied relationship with Apple—one that leaves him frustratingly polarized. (We asked illustrator Wendy MacNaughton to help convey the madness.) Peter Serafinowicz, a celebrated British writer/producer/director/actor/musician/comedian/voice model, is joining us for a few weeks to talk about the tech issues that delight, frustrate and motivate him…