Archive for the 'Culture Crash' Category
dan tynan on Mar 31 2009 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Computerworld, Culture Crash, Facebook, Foolishness, Twit or Tweet, Web 2.0
Like many people, Randy Hallet is fed up with the Facebooking of the planet. Unlike most, he’s decided to do something about it. The 30-something Webpreneur has created what he calls “the anti-social network.”
Hallet declined to speak by phone, though he did agree to an interview via Twitter. He tweeted:
“I’m fed up with Web 2.0. [...]
dan tynan on Mar 23 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Google
Behold the power and majesty of the almighty Google algorithm. See how it glows even in the brightest sunlight and disappears when you try to touch it. Just don’t ask how it works, cuz it’s a big secret.
Stop me if you’ve heard this one.
Big publishers are complaining that Google gives short shrift to the originators [...]
dan tynan on Mar 20 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Google
Google is touting the uber-grooviness of its technology by urging Javascript mavens to mash it up, and is showing off the results on its Chrome Experiments page. Some of them are pretty impressive.
A nifty app called Google Gravity takes the Google home page and causes the search window and all other page elements to cascade [...]
dan tynan on Mar 13 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Da Web, Facebook, Video, Web 2.0
Hulu, the joint video venture between NBC and Fox, turned one year old yesterday. And what a precocious rugrat it’s become.
To celebrate, Hulu announced it’s becoming more social, adding a feature called, appropriately enough, “Friends.” (No word whether Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Ross, et al will be making guest appearances, but don’t hold your breath.) This [...]
dan tynan on Mar 11 2009 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Computerworld, Culture Crash, Da Web, Facebook, Web 2.0
Would you prefer the chocolate cinnamon dogshit or the raspberry swirl? In the end, it’s still dogshit.
dan tynan on Mar 09 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Privacy, Video, Web 2.0
I admit, I was a bit harsh on ZillionTV in my previous post. I based my report on a limited amount of information – essentially, the press release and the Web site – both of which left a lot of room for interpretation.
Shortly after that item posted I heard from ZillionTV and had a nice [...]
dan tynan on Mar 09 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Privacy, Web 2.0
Hollywood has finally figured out how to merge the old media of TV and movies with the new media of the Internet. It’s called ZillionTV, and if you’re anything like me, you may want to run screaming as fast as possible in the other direction.
[Note: Updates to this item coming. Watch this space.]
Like Netflix [...]
dan tynan on Feb 27 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Da Web, Deadpool, Web 2.0
No matter how much they may pooh-pooh the mainstream media, the death of the daily newspaper is bad news for bloggers – and everyone else.
The news this week that the Hearst Corp. may shut down the San Francisco Chronicle if it can’t find a buyer was bittersweet at best. For 20 years I lived in [...]
dan tynan on Feb 23 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Gadgets
Samsung, LG, Motorola and others have come out with new eco-friendly handsets. But it’s going to take more than a few carbon-stingy phones to make a real difference.
Some of the biggest news coming out of this week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona is that cell phones are finally going green. Samsung, LG, and Motorola all [...]
dan tynan on Feb 09 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Da Web, Google, Privacy, Web 2.0
In what seems to be a weekly occurrence, Google has announced yet another new product seemingly designed to suck what little privacy you have left out of your life.
It’s called Latitude, and it uses your phone’s GPS chip and/or cell tower triangulation to locate you and your friends on a map. Sounds rather Big [...]
dan tynan on Feb 06 2009 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Computerworld, Culture Crash, Da Web, Spamarama
Last week I wrote about Linkstar, a UK-based company that offers to place text ads for its clients on small, low-traffic Web sites. (See"The curious case of Linkstar Media.") Though Linkstar is extremely close-lipped about who it is and what it does, I couldn’t see anything wrong with the ads they were placing (unless [...]
dan tynan on Feb 02 2009 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Computerworld, Culture Crash, Web 2.0
Some day I plan to run my own vast Web 2.0 empire, and the media world will tremble at the mere mention of my name.
For now, though, I operate a humble blog that, well, let’s just say it isn’t exactly burning up the ComScore charts as one of the 100 hottest Web properties. I have [...]
dan tynan on Jan 26 2009 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Computerworld, Culture Crash, Da Web, Facebook, Privacy, Web 2.0
Don’t look now, but you’re being watched. And now that I’ve signed up for Spokeo.com, I could be the one watching you.
Spokeo is a search engine that uses email addresses to find people across the social Web. Give the site your log-on info for Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, or AOL – or just [...]
dan tynan on Jan 18 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Web 2.0
I’ve written a lot about Twitter lately, including how it’s going to change all of our lives in ways we’ve only started to realize.
That doesn’t mean I’m a Twitter fanboy. There’s still too much navel gazing and self obessiveness, and it can get downright gross at times. The world doesn’t care about what you ate [...]
dan tynan on Jan 18 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Da Web, Shopping, not dropping, The scams what am
Did you flunk out of 8th grade? Do you have barely contained aggressive tendencies and no scruples? Then, my friend, you may have a career in the Brooklyn camera store industry. But hopefully not for long. The chickens are finally coming home to roost for one of the most notorious bait-and-switch scams on the Net.
If [...]
dan tynan on Jan 07 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Music
And so the madness begins.
I’m not going to CES (I may have mentioned that before), but I’ve gotten several pre-show briefings on interesting stuff. And though I’m sworn to secrecy on many of these products until they’re announced, two themes are clearly emerging: gadgets are going wireless in a big way, and everything is [...]
dan tynan on Jan 05 2009 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Computerworld, Culture Crash, Da Web, Web 2.0
No matter how nice your Net neighborhood is, eventually the scum of the earth will move in next door. And so it goes with Twitter.
The Twitteratti are all atwitter about a phishing scam that hit over the weekend. The phishing tweets came in the form of direct messages – essentially private texts only Twitter friends [...]
dan tynan on Jan 01 2009 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Geekishness, Shameless self promotion
Is technology different for women? Christina Tynan-Wood, author of the recently published How to Be a Geek Goddess from No Starch Press, says Hell Yes.
If anyone should know, it’s Tynan-Wood, who is the only woman to have written monthly columns for both PC World and PC Magazine. She’s currently a contributing editor for Family Circle, [...]
dan tynan on Dec 24 2008 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Santa, baby
Why should Santa have all the fun? I’ve also been making a list and checking it twice to figure out who deserves treats in their stockings and who’s getting a big honkin’ lump of coal.
Here in no particular order are my picks for the good/bad boys and girls of tech for 2008.
Naughty: Apple arbitrarily [...]
dan tynan on Dec 22 2008 | Filed under: Computerworld, Culture Crash, Lists
It’s that time of year again, when magazines and bloggers compose top 10 lists for just about everything. Here are my favorite top 10 (or 12, or 20) lists for 2008.
10. The 10 worst political ads of the season. Ads named by professional pols as the worst of the worst: from campaign jingles gone [...]
