October 2008
22 posts
Fearing the Obama Effect | Print Article |... →
The Internet may be transforming political campaigns in other countries, as candidates use it to mobilize supporters and harvest donations. In the United States, Barack Obama has proved a master of the new art and has raised record sums on the Web. Yet campaigning on the Internet still proves virtually impossible in Japan, because the country’s political establishment fears the...
Prototype - If No One Sees It, Is It an Invention?... →
Thirty years ago, pioneers of the personal computer industry swapped ideas and tried to outdo one another at meetings of the Homebrew Computer Club in an auditorium at Stanford. Today, these “meetings” happen virtually and globally, with people modifying, improving and otherwise riffing on one another’s ideas — then posting the results in video form. This wide-scale collaboration, Mr. Lee says,...
Rep. says 'Liberals hate real Americans' - Ryan... →
The quickness with which the controversy over the accuracy of the remarks was settled is an example of the changing nature of political campaign coverage. One source that Politico was able to use to confirm the comment came from a Twitter post stamped 10:41 a.m. Saturday by a reporter from The Daily Tar Heel. Another Politico reader said he heard the comment at about 10:30 a.m., independently...
All the Celebrities You Want, on Your Cellphone -... →
the cellphone has become the latest medium to feed the appetite for up-to-the-second celebrity gossip
Ping - Yahoo Changing Its Home Page, Gradually -... →
Testing of each feature is proceeding in stages. Each group of users, typically less than 1 percent of Yahoo’s audience, is selected for one design change. Other groups of users are picked for other changes. When the new features have been tested and fine-tuned, they are combined into a new page, which becomes the “baseline design” and may be introduced to another, larger group. Then the process...
Andy Ihnatko's Celestial Waste of Bandwidth (BETA)... →
The power of the clickyinterface, like the true face of God, reveals itself to you in tantalizing sections, and at its own frustratingly-slow pace. You will need to read the manual, and even then you will fail to remember what many of these shortcuts are. Especially when you’re trying to convince an iPhone user that your spiffy new Google Phone is way faster than his.
Surfing the Internet Boosts Aging Brains - Well... →
Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have shown that searching the Internet triggers key centers in the brain that control decision-making and complex reasoning. The findings, to be published in the upcoming issue of The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, suggest that searching the Web helps to stimulate and may even improve brain function.
Baylor Rewards Freshmen Who Retake SAT -... →
Baylor’s decision to offer freshmen incentives for retaking the test was driven primarily by the university’s desire to award additional merit aid. He said the new students had not had enough chances to qualify for the aid.
Advertising - Newspapers’ Web Revenue Is Stalling... →
Weather.com limits its ad spaces so it can sell out each day, and it does not use ad networks, Mr. Iaffaldano said. Prices there have increased 10 to 15 percent over last year, he said.
Too Much News? - NYTimes.com →
In times when people think their fate is tied to enormous events that are out of their hands, stockpiling information can give some people a sense of control, social scientists said.
Putting Technology in Its Place - Lesson Plans... →
they know that the distractions that attract 13-year-olds and confound young teachers are only themselves distractions from the real benefits of technology. First is the communication. I rarely grade alone. The students rarely do their homework in isolation. The same chatting software that, when mismanaged, give us fits in our classrooms, enables us to collaborate in dynamic ways. Students now...
LookSmart Thought Leadership Series: Algorithms... →
There’s a critical difference between curation based on algorithm (Google News) and curation based on human insight (Digg or Wikipedia) - and that difference can be summed up in one word: Voice. In short, sites that allow people to be part of the curation process have voice, and sites that are driven by algorithm, don’t.
Amid the Gloom, an E-Commerce War - NYTimes.com →
Fearful that sending visitors to other pages would cut into their sales, retailing executives at Amazon took to removing them from the page at every opportunity, according to one senior Amazon executive who was there at the time. SEVERAL years ago, the company introduced Amazon Marketplace, laying the groundwork for its current path by listing new and used items from third-party sellers alongside...
Florida Primary Recount Reveals Grave Voting... →
the month-long saga has left voters and state officials exasperated and distrustful of the ability of county officials to run a competent general election in November. More important, it’s also uncovered perplexing problems in some of the county’s high-speed optical-scan tabulation machines, made by Sequoia Voting Systems. The machines flunked reliability tests prompted by the recount...
Financial Crisis Illustrates Influence of... →
“If it weren’t for psychological issues, even with all of that in place we wouldn’t have the fiasco that we have now.”
Software Randomizes Airport Patrols | Security... →
A new software program called Assistant for Randomized Monitoring over Routes (ARMOR) … has a decision-making algorithm that allows the program to create truly random routes for guard patrols while still achieving the desired coverage.
Global Fears of a Recession Grow Stronger -... →
“The globalization of the crisis means we need a globalization of responses,” said C. Fred Bergsten, the director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “But most of the responses will be national. For all the institutions we have, we don’t have the right institutions to do this.”
Ad wrapped MTA NYC Transit subway car →
Metropolitan Transportation Authority Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer Elliot G. Sander today announced a series of innovative advertising strategies to increase revenue generated by ads in the MTA’s transit system. Sander was joined by History’s™ Senior Vice President, Marketing, Chris Moseley, in unveiling the centerpiece of the initiative, the first fully-wrapped MTA...
Economic Scene - Lesson From a Crisis - When Trust... →
For now, the crisis has had little effect on most Americans, beyond their 401(k) statements. So to them, the specter of a depression can sound alarmist, and the $700 billion bill that Congress voted down this week can seem like a bailout for rich scoundrels. Mr. Bernanke and his fellow worriers need to connect the dots. They need to use their bully pulpits to teach a little lesson on the economics...
NPR boosts online offerings, seeks larger audience →
Yet NPR faces a challenge in finding common ground with the stations, which rely on traditional, local radio offerings to draw contributions. The national organization, acknowledging that its early Internet initiatives at times collided with its member stations, insists many of the new offerings have been developed with the stations’ needs and concerns in mind. “We definitely see...
Palin: McCain campaign's end-run around media →
“I don’t think the campaign is doing her any favors by not letting her answer any questions,” said PBS political editor Judy Woodruff, who has covered politics for 30 years for CNN and PBS. “If she’s elected vice president of the United States and were she to succeed to the presidency, she needs that interchange with journalists. The American people have a right to...
In a Historic Year, Ifill Has One Thing to Do: Her... →
One thing Ifill is determined to avoid, in the public broadcasting tradition, is showboating at the debate. “My job is to police it for the sake of clarity and the people at home, not for my own ego. The more I am speechifying or asking lofty questions or hogging the stage, the less people are apt to learn. I’m not running for anything.”