FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog

Archives › December 2007

December 28, 2007

Fast Company's Best of 2007: Innovators, Books, and Trends

Fast Company's Most Innovative Business People of 2007
From the pages of Fast Company and FastCompany.com, we examine the creativity and innovation of great minds elevating business, such as Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Timothy Ferris, author of the 4-Hour Work Week, and even Arnold Schwarzenegger. >>>

The Best Business Books of 2007
A roundup of Fast Company's picks for the best business books of 2007, including Made To Stick by Chip and Dan Heath, as well as Fugitive Denim by Rachel Louise Snyder, and The No Asshole Rule by Robert I. Sutton. >>>

Best of the FC Blogs: Business Trends of 2007
We review the technology, innovation, and business trends of 2007 with this roundup of blog entries written by Fast Company magazine editors, FastCompany.com staff, and members of our expert blog. We found out that Twitter could both ruin lives and save lives. There's also a look at branding yourself in the Web 2.0 era, design in dubai, and more. >>>

Posted by Lynne d Johnson at 6:36 PM | 7 Comments

December 26, 2007

Work/Life: The New Gift-Giving

Looking back at the last few days of holiday celebration and gift-giving, it hit me how much things have changed. For instance, my father sent me an e-mail with the code for an Amazon gift certificate. In years past he would mail me a Christmas card with a check inside. And when we were giving out gifts, after a huge holiday dinner on Christmas Eve, my sister-in-law Cindy told my wife and I our gift hadn't arrived yet from Buy.com.

Is the convenience of the Internet making gift-giving less personal? Or is it just stripping away the hollow pretense it had before? I think giving someone a gift card is the easy way out. And a thoughtful and unexpected gift is one of the best things in the world. Yet, this opinion doesn't make me a better giver: at the office party I gave away a gift card for iTunes -- a non-object you can trade for other non-objects.

In what way has modern technology and convenience changed your holiday experience? And is it for the better?

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 12:33 PM | 3 Comments

December 21, 2007

Social Responsibility: Activist Facebooking and Virtual Gifting

In my latest post on education, I discussed research at the Parsons School of Design on educational games that address social issues. Harnessing technology to promote social awareness is certainly not a new phenomenon. In fact, anyone with an e-mail account likely experiences it quite often, usually in the form of a petition in support or in opposition of some event or proposal.

The problem with this method of drawing attention to causes, however, is that it doesn't have legitimacy. Many such petitions are glorified chain letters with false claims. The urban legends reference site Snopes even has a section devoted to these petitions.

Continue reading "Social Responsibility: Activist Facebooking and Virtual Gifting"

Posted by April Joyner at 6:00 PM | 1 Comment

Simply the Best: Maeda’s the Man at RISD

John Maeda, MIT Media Lab guru, artist, designer, computer scientist, author – in short, a guy who comes about as close as it gets to being a Renaissance Man, circa 2007 --- was just named the new president of the Rhode Island School of Design, one of the most prestigious design schools in the world. It’s a great day for RISD – but also for the design world in general.

Continue reading "Simply the Best: Maeda’s the Man at RISD"

Posted by Linda Tischler at 1:18 PM | 2 Comments

Education: Goal-Oriented Gaming

I grew up with the belief firmly implanted in my head that video games were a bad influence that would distract me from more constructive pursuits, namely, reading. If the Internet had been as engrossing as it is now among kids, then that probably would have made the list, too. But technology isn't an absolute distraction, as I wrote before a few weeks back, nor it is an immediate boon to any educational pursuit. It depends on how it's utilized, even if it happens to be a video game.

PETLab, a research lab at the Parsons School of Design, seeks to find ways through which video games can further educational pursuits, particularly with regard to social causes. The article about the study, which can be found at eSchool News, mentions the example of military training, which has incorporated games that simulate possible situations that troops might face. Apparently, training games have also made their way into the classroom as tools for teachers and administrators.

Continue reading "Education: Goal-Oriented Gaming"

Posted by April Joyner at 1:08 PM | 4 Comments

December 20, 2007

Entrepreneurship: Britney's Sister Gets Pregnant

Britney Spears' 16 year old sister, a Nickelodeon actress named Jamie-Lynn, is pregnant. Here's why you should care: the sisters, and their mother (who was slated for a book deal) are a textbook case of How To Ruin Your Personal Brand, and watching their deconstruction has become a fascinating look at a case study in mismanagement.

Photo: Michael Buckner/Getty Images

The three Spears women are, doubtless, entrepreneurs of an unusual stripe; all entertainers are. But no matter the niche, startup owners have to be almost myopic about preserving the integrity and reliability of their brand. Lose the trust and regard of your customers, and any further efforts your business makes will be laughably disregarded. Here's how the Louisianan Ladies have royally screwed up a multi-million dollar franchise.

Continue reading "Entrepreneurship: Britney's Sister Gets Pregnant"

Posted by Chris Dannen at 11:46 AM | 3 Comments

December 18, 2007

Technology: The Skype Mobile Phone Will Blow Your Mind

If you are feeble of constitution, beware: the following review asks the reader to reconcile two drastically disparate technology abstracts -- mobile phones and Skype -- in a way that might cause temporary insanity. But I mean "insanity" in, like, a good way.

That's because the new 3 Skypephone, powered by a small software company called iSkoot (in partnership with British phonemaker 3), performs a remarkable little trick that could change the way cell phone service (and pricing) is understood amongst the next generation of mobile talkers.

Image courtesy of 3skypephone.com

Continue reading "Technology: The Skype Mobile Phone Will Blow Your Mind"

Posted by Chris Dannen at 2:55 PM | 4 Comments

ROI? Not With Those Ads You Won't...

I'm one of those people who don't appreciate commercials. They annoy me and, for the most part, I think they're a waste of money on the advertiser's part and definitely a waste of time for me. If there's a commercial on, I usually just change the channel. Print advertising can be slightly better, but that too I generally don't bother to even glance at.

I remember a statistic from a media class I took at the London School of Economics: only 2% of advertising has actually been found to have a demonstrable effect on consumer purchasing. Whether this statistic actually holds any weight or not, advertising can be damn expensive, and the returns often just aren't proportional.

What really flummoxes me is those advertisements that assume you know what they're for so that they offer you nothing but an ambiguous name attached to an esoteric image. Maybe they're banking on you to be curious enough to Google them as soon as you're near a computer. I for one always forget.

So, being the skeptic towards glib marketing efforts that I am, when there's a commercial or a campaign that I take notice of, it sticks with me. Quirky, powerful, containing an element of surprise or originality, and capable of eliciting emotion or a connection of sorts… That's what I think good advertising is.

Continue reading "ROI? Not With Those Ads You Won't..."

Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 1:09 PM | 8 Comments

Education: The Cream Is Rising

As concern that U.S. schools just don't have many good teachers continues to rise, it's encouraging that the education field has actually attracted more academically skilled workers in the past few years, as reported in The New York Times. From 2002 to 2005, according to the Educational Testing Service, which publishes the Praxis teacher licensing exams, the average SAT scores and GPAs of candidates have increased, and the percentage of candidates with GPAs below 3.0 has decreased.

Attracting candidates with higher academic qualifications has become a significant focus in the move to improve the quality of teachers. The Times article includes remarks from the president of the New Teacher Project, a non-profit organization which strives to help districts that have faced recruitment problems attract high-quality teachers. Teach for America, which continues to rack up accolades -- most recently, one of our 2008 Social Capitalist Awards -- also takes a page from this book: in the fall semester at many top-tier colleges, its recruiters are nearly as ubiquitous as those of investment banks.

The question of whether high qualifications result in higher student performance remains unanswered, however. Despite, or perhaps because of, its success, Teach for America has its share of critics who believe that the organization's burnouts outnumber its superstars. Even professional-related qualifications have come under question. The Florida legislature seeks to review a bonus program that rewards teachers who earn national board certification (although this may be due in large part to finances -- payouts totaled $70.9 million in 2006).

Even if high academic marks or national certification doesn't completely equate with high student achievement, it's good that education is increasingly attracting the best students rather than acting as a dumping ground for the bottom third, as previous studies have suggested, according to the Times. The news that more of the best and brightest see education as a lucrative profession should boost morale in the field, which has taken more than enough hits!

Posted by April Joyner at 12:54 PM | 1 Comment

December 17, 2007

Technology: Are You A Loser?

Two new-but-different ways to aggregate your online life -- social networks, email, photos, blogs -- make it easier than ever to obsess over your relationship with your computer. One is a web browser called Flock. The other is a web service called Fuser. Does using one, the other (or both) make you a loser? Or, more accurately... a Fluser?

That depends on which one you're using.

Continue reading "Technology: Are You A Loser?"

Posted by Chris Dannen at 12:07 PM | 5 Comments

December 13, 2007

Technology: Ashlee Simpson And The Future Of Teleconferencing

I know, I know -- what part of the upward march of humanity doesn't depend on Ashlee Simpson? Well here's a bit of tech that owes her a particular nod. It's made by a new company called Vapps, and it's the first high-speed teleconferencing technology to hit the wires since Skype revolutionized the way human beings communicate long-distance.

(Photographer: Michael Caulfield/WireImage.com)

Ashley spent Wednesday, also the final day of Hanukkah, reading The Polar Express to a group of 100 hospitalized children, most of whom weren't even in the same state. The feat was a demonstration of Vapps' HighSpeed Conferencing, a broadband-based teleconferencing solution that uses Skype to deliver ultra high-quality voice conferencing to up to 500 participants. It does this, I should note, at a flat rate per month, eschewing the per-minute pricing structure of the telecom companies and saving companies bags of money in the process. Using the traditional Skype program, users are limited to group chats of 4 to 9 participants, so this is a big step up for big businesses.

Listening to Ashlee (or anyone, for that matter) over a HighSpeed teleconference connection, you begin to ask yourself one question. It's not: how did they do this? It's not: what does it mean to want to La-La**? The question is: how on earth are we still dealing with the awful sound quality of telephones, well into the age of ubiquitous internet, hybrid cars and Coke Zero?

**For the uninitiated:

Continue reading "Technology: Ashlee Simpson And The Future Of Teleconferencing"

Posted by Chris Dannen at 5:47 PM | 4 Comments

Sustainability: The Little Green Monster

If you use a desktop PC, chances are you've learned to deal with the obnoxious amount of space it takes up, the amount of power it consumes, and the fan noises that emanate from it at regular intervals. Yet, there is another alternative. The enano Computers line of compact PCs eliminates all those problems, and they're better for the environment.

Enano certainly isn't the first to come out with a small form factor computer (the Mac Mini claims that title), but the company is the first to place the primary focus on the environmental aspect. "We thought we were on to something good before green was taking on the crest of momentum that it has" says enano COO Bill Reh.

Continue reading "Sustainability: The Little Green Monster"

Posted by Liz Webber at 12:08 PM | Add Comment

December 12, 2007

Update: imeem's Final Label Match

I posted a few weeks back at length about imeem's success in securing the rights to stream from three of the four major labels' catalogs. (You can read the post here.) Earlier Monday, imeem announced that it had made a deal with the last, and biggest, label out, Universal Music Group. So, fans of Grammy darlings Amy Winehouse and Kanye West now have full access to their music on the social media network.

Interestingly, imeem's press release stresses this newest development as the formation of an additional revenue stream for record labels: advertising. With social media networks, subscription services, and good old-fashioned album and single purchases now as revenue sources, it almost sounds as if the music industry has copied print media's financial model. What does this mean?

Posted by April Joyner at 3:49 PM | 1 Comment

Watching What You Eat -- With Cameras

We're all familiar with market research strategies – companies are desperate to know what makes consumers tick; they'll data mine to any sanctioned lengths (and sometimes further) to find out.

Mindful that the promise of demonstrably effective market research can loosen corporate pocket strings, one restaurant is capitalizing on this hunger.

Based in Holland, The Restaurant of the Future keeps track of its customers' every move: what they choose, how much they eat, even what facial expressions they make during the meal.

Watch the Restaurant of the Future

Enjoying your salami sandwich more than your broccoli? They take note. Apparently the length of time for which you chew is indicative of your enjoyment of the food.

Does your heart beat increase when you take a spoonful of that chocolate mousse? They know if it does -- your chair measures this.

Grimace a bit as you shovel that squash into your mouth? Facial recognition technology tracks your expressions.

Like the candles or fresh flowers at your table? Your attention to the ambience is noted as they track your eyes.

Reportedly, the overall reaction from diners is positive. In spite of the fact that certain obtrusive mechanisms -- such as a weighing scale that customers are asked to step on in order to determine the co relation between weight and diners' eating habits -- are in place, most customers told ABC News that they did not feel like their privacy was being infringed upon.

My first reaction was surprise that anyone would voluntarily choose to go to a restaurant that in ABC's words is "one giant laboratory" and the diners "human lab rats." Why would you voluntarily pay to be a market research tool? (People sign a consent form agreeing to be watched.)

While this appears be met by little resistance in the land that spawned Big Brother, I'm curious as to whether such a concept would be passively accepted here in the US. It's an original concept, and could certainly provide valuable data, but I personally wouldn't want someone tracking my feeding patterns.

Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 2:21 PM | Add Comment

Entrepreneurship: The Fuel Of The Future Is Not Wood

Lest you be impressed with oil's potential energy, remember that it requires more and more coaxing to get it out of the ground and into power. Wood, on the other hand, is literally lying all over the place.

That's the economic conclusion arrived at by an Arizona entrepreneur whose new company is looking to use "green waste" like yard clippings and forest detritus to create energy for over a quarter of a million homes in the Southwest. If this could work, wouldn't someone have thought of it already? Is this man an idiot?

Continue reading "Entrepreneurship: The Fuel Of The Future Is Not Wood"

Posted by Chris Dannen at 1:30 PM | 3 Comments

December 11, 2007

Art Basel Miami: Has Art Basel Lost its Cool?

Staring at the big, sparkly Tom Friedman painting, "Glitterbattle," in the Gagosian booth, the woman in the red flowered house dress, yellow socks, and black sneakers, was inspired. So was her companion, dressed in khaki shorts, an Hawaiian shirt, and a baseball cap emblazoned with a butterfly.

Continue reading "Art Basel Miami: Has Art Basel Lost its Cool?"

Posted by Linda Tischler at 9:00 AM | Add Comment

December 10, 2007

Design Miami: Tattoos on the Wrong Side of the Tracks

Location, as any real estate broker worth her Blackberry will tell you, is everything. So, too, at Design Miami, where one of the show's most interesting exhibits languished for want of a better address.

Continue reading "Design Miami: Tattoos on the Wrong Side of the Tracks"

Posted by Linda Tischler at 3:00 PM | 1 Comment

Art Basel Miami: Gagosian to Fairgoers: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The Gagosian Gallery, the big Kahuna of the Art Basel Miami, has a new policy on labels identifying the work on view in its booth. There are none. "We don't like to label our artists," said one gallery staffer when asked about the missing ID tags.

Continue reading "Art Basel Miami: Gagosian to Fairgoers: Don't Ask, Don't Tell"

Posted by Linda Tischler at 2:04 PM | Add Comment

Design/Miami: A Musical Racket -- by Design

George Antheil, the self-proclaimed "bad boy of music," was likely rockin' in his grave last Friday night as partygoers wearing earplugs gathered at the Wolfsonian Museum in Miami to hear his crazy composition the way it was designed to be heard -- a mere 80 years after he first wrote it. The American composer’s 1924 work, the deafening cacophony known as The Ballet Mechanique -- a musical piece designed (in its shortened form) for four pianos, four xylophones, two electric bells, two propellers, timpani, glockenspiel, and other percussion -- was the main
musical attraction at the design museum's Art Basel-week party.

Originally, the piece was to have accompanied Fernand Leger’s Dadaist film of the same name, but at the time it was composed, the technology didn’t exist to synchronize so many player pianos (in its long form, it calls for 16 player pianos, playing four parts). It wasn’t until 1999 that engineers at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell , managed to make it work using MIDI-controlled Disklaviers. Although the piece was successful when it first debuted in Paris, it bombed in New York, and caused fist fights in various other places where it was performed. Antheil's career as a serious
composer never recovered from his Carnegie Hall flop --- until 60 years later. This week, the machines had center stage, proving robots can often outperform their human counterparts -- but aren't nearly as good at hoisting a martini.

Posted by Linda Tischler at 12:12 PM | Add Comment

December 7, 2007

Education: Much Ado About Golden Arches

The New York Times' article about McDonald's in Seminole County, Fla., rewarding local students with Happy Meals for academic achievement has certainly provoked much commentary. I wasn't sure if I would post on the topic, but after seeing that one of our own expert bloggers, Tom Stern, has already tackled the subject, I figured I might as well offer another point of view.

My first question: what's the fuss? The idea of local businesses offering products and services for students' academic achievement isn't new. The article states upfront that the Seminole County McDonald's program is replacing one sponsored by local Pizza Huts. And if you look through the article's comments, you'll read many accounts from readers with fond memories of similar programs in their school districts. The one legitimate complaint seems to be the report card jacket, which features photos of McDonald's menu items. While dressing up report cards as ads goes too far, it has nothing to do with the premise of rewards itself.

Continue reading "Education: Much Ado About Golden Arches"

Posted by April Joyner at 1:30 PM | 7 Comments

Design/Miami: Hipsters' Fave Art Party

Watch your back, Art Basel Miami. If last night's Vernissage (the fancy art show term for Opening Night Party) was any indication, the venerable art fair's little sister, Design/Miami, shows sign of upstaging her illustrious forbear.

The entire Design District, here in Miami, was a rollicking party -- with a distinctly younger, hipper demographic than was sipping champagne over at the Art Basel show at the Convention

Continue reading "Design/Miami: Hipsters' Fave Art Party"

Posted by Linda Tischler at 12:01 PM | Add Comment

After the Fallout, A Defense of Facebook Beacon

I haven't been hanging out on Facebook very long or often these days, so I didn't experience the "Big Brother"-ish alerts from Beacon that my colleague Jason Del Rey describes in his post. But, not living under a rock, I couldn't miss all the bad PR Facebook has encountered because of Beacon and its privacy intrusions.

Then today, as I was doing background research/casual Web surfing, I ran across a post, dated from a week ago, on the blog Sexy Widget regarding Beacon. My immediate reaction: "Ha! If only Facebook had positioned this better. The way it's described here, Beacon doesn't sound half bad." To read the post, click here; I definitely recommend it for a different perspective on the matter.

The most salient point that I took from the post was that Beacon doesn't necessarily have to be blatantly commercial. Beside privacy concerns, much of the grumbling about Beacon centered upon what people believed to be incessant shilling of products. But the notifications are useful for other activities on the Web besides e-commerce. Sure, it's about advertising, but so are those notices on the news feed that tell you when someone has added a new app. And I remember when the news feed first came out. Everyone hated it, including me -- I even notified Facebook personally on the matter. But now the news feed is one of Facebook's most acclaimed features, MySpace is copying it, and I have to admit it's pretty clever.

Now, much of this is moot, as Facebook has not only made Beacon opt-in but also enabled users to turn it off completely. But now that I've read some analysis of Beacon's potential, I hope that potential hasn't entirely been quashed by the public's disgust.

Posted by April Joyner at 12:56 AM | 2 Comments

December 6, 2007

Sustainability: Inconsistencies in the Green Market

In the never ending cycle of green paradoxes, many consumers say they would pay more for green technology, but the VCs have slowed their investments there. Granted consumers were talking about home electronics and the VCs referred to alternative energy, but it still shows how market forces aren't suddenly going to solve our climate problems.

A survey released this week by Forrester Research found that 12 percent of Americans would pay more for consumer electronics that use less energy or were made by a company with a positive environmental image. An additional 41 percent are concerned by the environment but not sure they would pay extra for a green computer. That still leaves 47 percent who don't really care. But it stands to reason that those who are willing to pay more for green products are probably the ones with the most buying power.

Continue reading "Sustainability: Inconsistencies in the Green Market"

Posted by Liz Webber at 11:52 AM | 2 Comments

December 5, 2007

Innovation Wednesday: On the Road with the Fast 50

Despite the amazing panoramic views in our new office, we still get the occasional case of skyscraper fever and have to hit the road. This year we took along winners of the Fast 50. The idea behind what we dubbed the Fast 50 Dialogues was to bring the conversation that we start in the pages of the magazine to life with you, our readers.

The theme of this year's Fast 50 was "Business can save the world," so we featured the people and businesses with the courage and creativity to tackle the world's most urgent problems. Not bad company to keep. In Philadelphia, SunEdison outlined how it developed lower-cost distributed solar power. In Boston, EcoFish told readers how it's identifying and promoting sustainable seafood sourcing. In Chicago, Southwest Michigan First described the venture fund it started to support life-science startups. In Silicon Valley, Phoenix Motorcars took readers behind the scenes of its growing feet of affordable electric trucks and SUVs.

The latest event was yesterday in Austin, Texas (one of our Fast Cities this year). Angela Nahikian (pictured here), the manager of global environmental strategy and programs at Steelcase, kicked off a lively discussion by telling how the world's largest office furniture company has come to focus on sustainability. In product development. Sourcing. Manufacturing. The supply chain. Although Steelcase is leading industry-wide change through its cradle-to-cradle approach, the work has just begun. Every change to a process or product line begets a new set of questions, a new set of problems. I like how Nahikian puts the effort in perspective: "This isn’t about making a green product. This is about changing the way you do business. If you think you’ve got it all figured out, you’re lying to yourself...This is an imperfect journey."

For more coverage of yesterday's event, check out this piece by Hoovers' Tim Walker, who was on hand.

Posted by Chuck Salter at 5:15 PM | 1 Comment

Entrepreneurship: Thank Your Attention-Starved Spouse With A New Kind Of Neglect

Let's say you run a web site, and it's so demanding that you run it at the cost of your marital well-being. Now you can say "thank you!" to your Main Squeeze for her patience by, you guessed it, fiddling with another web site.

This one is called Spouse 2.0, and it's a little one-pager set up by the co-founder of Particls, Ashley Angell (who, for your information, is a guy. If you don't believe men should be named "Ashley," consider the mighty Ashley river that traverses South Carolina, or eat some history.) Anyway, the ostensible purpose of Spouse 2.0 is to thank those tirelessly patient souls who are married to people married to web startups. The site advocates you do this (on "Spouse 2.0 day, which is December 7th -- mark your calendar) by following these four steps.

Continue reading "Entrepreneurship: Thank Your Attention-Starved Spouse With A New Kind Of Neglect"

Posted by Chris Dannen at 2:39 PM | Add Comment

Tax the Beautiful to Feed the Ugly?!

I read a BBC article yesterday on how 'Ugly people in Argentina are striking back.' A man named Gonzalo Otalora has been "ugly" all his life and he's taken it upon himself to bridge the gap between the beautiful and the ugly so to speak. He sees beauty as a "natural advantage," and is determined that beautiful people be taxed in order to offset the inherent advantages they have over ugly people such as himself.

My first thought upon reading this? Wow. That's some strong feeling. The guy candidly admits to the BBC that all his life he has been a victim of his looks. "I was a child with thick glasses, spots and braces," he said. "The kids made fun of me at school… Later the girls rejected me in the discos. And then when I was looking for work, I felt so ugly and insecure that I was rejected again and left without a job."

The article really got me thinking. Are these advantages that beautiful people have really so very advantageous? Are they particularly pronounced in the workplace or at least in the often tumultuous and competitive road to getting a job? Does a finely chiseled face command more authority than an awkward, saggy one? Does a strapping, barrel chested man come upon better business opportunities than his skinnier colleagues? And if so, are the decisions to bestow such advantages conscious?

In a paper entitled Beauty and the Labor Market, University of Texas Professor Daniel S. Hamermesh and Michigan State University Professor Jeff Biddle argue that:

"Holding constant demographic and labor-market characteristics, plain people earn less than people of average looks, who earn less than the good-looking. The penalty for plainness is 5 to 10 percent, slightly larger than the premium for beauty. The effects are slightly larger for men than women; but unattractive women are less likely than others to participate in the labor force and are more likely to be married to men with unexpectedly low human capital."

In another report entitled "Beauty, Productivity and Discrimination: Lawyers', Looks and Lucre," the two professors present evidence showing that how handsome a male attorney is has a directly bearing on how likely he is to attain early partnership directly correlates with how handsome he is. They could not clearly deduce whether the effect was because clients discriminate or because better-looking lawyers were able to obtain greater pecuniary gains for their clients.

In 2000, a London Guildhall University study revealed that men considered to be unattractive earn 15% less, equal to £3,000 on a salary of £20,000. It showed that "unattractive" secretaries earn some 15% less than prettier colleagues, and plain women on average, earn 11% less than men.

Continue reading "Tax the Beautiful to Feed the Ugly?!"

Posted by Saabira Chaudhuri at 2:11 PM | 9 Comments

December 4, 2007

Technology: No More Vista "Kill Switch"

Microsoft announced today that it will stop remotely disabling versions of Vista that its registration servers deem pirated. If you're not privy to this feature of Vista, here's the lowdown: when your register your shiny new copy of Vista, Microsoft's servers decide whether or not you are in fact registering a "genuine" copy, or a copy that has been hacked or modded for the purposes of illegal distribution. If it decides the latter, it limits some features of your machine quite severely, letting you login for only an hour at a time, disabling the OS's eye-candy skin, called Aero, and giving you periodic (and vaguely ominous) error messages. Neither the initial feature nor its repeal are surprising, coming from the piracy McCarthyists in Redmond. What is interesting, however, is the bizarre language the MS brass use to discuss the feature and its (dis)abilities.

Continue reading "Technology: No More Vista "Kill Switch""

Posted by Chris Dannen at 4:26 PM | 4 Comments

Facebook: Social Networking Site or Big Brother?

The first time I took note of Beacon, I wasn't exactly sure what it was. It was about one week ago, and I had returned home a few hours earlier from watching some football games at a friend's apartment. I logged into Facebook, and observed a news feed telling me that my friend had just purchased tickets to see the movie "Michael Clayton." I was puzzled.

Was there a new feature embedded in Facebook that allowed users to purchase movie tickets? Not that I knew of. Had my friend included this info in his status? I doubted it.

Continue reading "Facebook: Social Networking Site or Big Brother?"

Posted by Jason Del Rey at 3:14 PM | 3 Comments