dan tynan on Apr 24 2013 | Filed under: (anti) social media, 15 minutes, Da Web, ITworld, Privacy, Shameless self promotion, Things that don't suck
So this week I’m on the BBC blabbing about how Web tracking companies are out to get us. What did the Beeb want with me? Read on for the details. It started with this blog post I wrote a few weeks ago about how certain ads – one in particular for Jitterbug smartphones – were [...]
dan tynan on Apr 09 2013 | Filed under: Da Web, ITworld, Music
My son, who is 16, was humming a tune to himself the other day as he got ready for school. It took me a minute before I realized what it was: “Happiness is a Warm Gun” by the Beatles. Now I love the Beatles, but we don’t play a lot of it around the house [...]
dan tynan on Jan 03 2013 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Cringley, Da Web, Infoworld, Lists
Well, looks like we made it through the Mayan apocalypse after all. That means we’re faced with another year – and more predictions about what that year may hold in store. As faithful readers may recall, last year I successfully predicted the Facebook IPO (and subsequent face plant), that Windows Phone would become the third [...]
dan tynan on Sep 19 2012 | Filed under: Da Web, Future Tech, Identity Theft, PC World, Privacy
Last June, 6.5 million Linked-In passwords were stolen by hackers and posted online. eHarmony lost 1.5 million passwords; Yahoo Voice another 450,000. Among the most common passwords used: 123456, welcome, and the ever popular “password.” The problem isn’t that these sites should have done a better job protecting user data (though they should have). It’s [...]
dan tynan on Feb 09 2011 | Filed under: Cringley, Da Web
AOL’s purchase of Arianna’s International House of Huffcakes earlier this week is sticking in my gullet, and no amount of ratswill coffee will wash it down. I think it’s because this deal is emblematic of everything that has gone wrong with the Internet over the last three years. (Then again, maybe I’ve just turned into [...]
dan tynan on Jan 03 2011 | Filed under: Cringley, Da Web, Facebook
It seems Facebook, the social network personally endorsed by God, is now worth more than eBay, Yahoo, and Time Warner — all without selling a single share to Joe or Jane Public. The reason: Wall Street uber-bank Goldman Sachs, which just pumped another $450 million in venture capital into Facebook, leading to a valuation estimated [...]
dan tynan on Dec 22 2010 | Filed under: Apple, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Google, Infoworld, iPhone, Microsoft, National insecurity, yahoo
It’s been quite a year. And in what has become a tradition here in Cringeville, it’s time to honor the most malicious, obnoxious, offensive, or nonsensical behavior in technology. This year’s winners include captains of industry, titans of technology, sultans of sweat, and a number of other people desperately in need of a clue. Among [...]
dan tynan on Sep 27 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Da Web, Infoworld, politics, Privacy
Tap, tap, tap. I’m sorry, could you please speak up? the Federal employees playing monkey in the middle on our Skype call couldn’t quite make out what you were saying. In case you missed the headlines in the New York Times this morning, or all the me-too stories in the blogosphere cranked to varying degrees [...]
dan tynan on Sep 20 2010 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Gadgets, Google, Infoworld, iPhone
God I love the InterWebs. Years from now, scholars dissecting the complete disintegration of journalism in the 21st centure will look back at us and say, what the frak? The example du jour: The Facebook Phone rumors, which were sparked this past weekend by TechCrunch and continue to burn. If you believe what you read [...]
dan tynan on Sep 17 2010 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Cringley, Culture Crash, Da Web, Facebook, Faux News, Twit or Tweet
The problem with the Internet these days? In a word: socialism. No not that faux Obama socialism certain people like to rail against (because they’ve got to be PO’d about something). I’m talking about the real scourge of the net: social media. Now, I use social media and I (mostly) like social media. I use [...]
dan tynan on Sep 09 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Culture Crash, Da Web, Infoworld
Probably the last thing Craig Newmark ever imagined is that the little email list he started back in 1995 would one day be at the center of a controversy over prostitution, the First Amendment, and the future of the InterWebs. But now, 15 years later, Craigslist is in the thick of of a dispute over [...]
dan tynan on Apr 02 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Da Web, Faux News, Google, Infoworld
My head is throbbing, my skin feels like sandpaper, and my mouth tastes like the entire Russian army retreated through it on its way back to Moscow. No, it was not from those Jagermeister and NyQuil jello shots. That was last week. It’s a hangover from overindulging on April Fools’ Day pranks yesterday. It’s my [...]
dan tynan on Mar 19 2010 | Filed under: censorship, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Google, Infoworld, Microsoft, National insecurity, politics, Privacy, Web 2.0
Privacy is all over the news these days, including social networks, where it seems the Feds like to play.
dan tynan on Mar 16 2010 | Filed under: censorship, Crazyass cults, Cringley, Da Web, Infoworld, Julius Baer + Wikileaks, National insecurity, Privacy, Spy v spy
I just received an email from Wikileaks editor Julian Assange that’s pretty wild. It accuses the US government of deliberately trying to take the whistle-blower site down two years ago. As proof, Wikileaks has posted a 32-page classified document [PDF] from the Department of Defense Intelligence Analysis program, dated March 2008, which details "the counterintelligence [...]
dan tynan on Mar 01 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Da Web, Deadpool, Infoworld
It seems Conde Nast is embracing the Apple iPad as its one and true savior. Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, Glamour, and Wired are all getting gussied up for Apple’s WonderPad, according to the New York Times. Hey if you’re gonna do it, might as well start with the best. I say, more power [...]
dan tynan on Feb 11 2010 | Filed under: (anti) social media, Cringley, Da Web, Google, Infoworld, Privacy, Twit or Tweet, Web 2.0
I wake up each morning with the same mix of hope and dread. I hope Google will buy me for a princely sum and allow me to retire to some sandy beach where they serve mojitos 24/7. And I fear Google will simply invent a better version of me, forcing me to get a job [...]
dan tynan on Feb 11 2010 | Filed under: Cringley, Da Web, Infoworld
The big event has passed, now it’s time for Monday morning quarterbacking and second guessing key decisions. I’m not talking about last night’s Super Bowl; I’m talking about the advertisements. It’s an enduring testament to the cunning of Madison Avenue that the commercials interrupting the event are a much bigger story than the event itself. [...]
dan tynan on Feb 03 2010 | Filed under: censorship, Cringley, Da Web, Infoworld, Julius Baer + Wikileaks, politics, Privacy
We have interrupted our nonstop coverage of Apple iPad mania to bring you this important word about the freedom of information. And, more specifically, Wikileaks.org. I’ve written about Wikileaks several times over the last few years, in part because it’s a classic example of why the Internet is such an extraordinary telecommunications tool. Wikileaks is [...]
dan tynan on Jan 24 2010 | Filed under: censorship, Cringley, Da Web, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy
Yes, "information imperialists." That’s what the People’s Republic of China is calling us now, thanks to Google and the US State Department. Hey, it’s as good a description as any. The blowback against Google’s announcement that it was hacked by Chinese cyber agents– and in response would be lifting the restrictions that keep users of [...]
dan tynan on Jan 18 2010 | Filed under: (anti) social media, censorship, Cringley, Da Web, Facebook, Google, Infoworld, National insecurity, politics, Privacy
So far, 2010 has started off with a bang. Google decides to take on Apple in the ultra-smart phone market, while Apple appears on the verge of creating yet another new market for touchscreen tablet PCs. Google says "bite me" to China, after Chinese cyber-attackers target it and three dozen other tech firms. Yahoo chimes [...]
