Gatsby anticipation is in the house. We’ve got a ticket for this evening’s 7 pm screening and great are the expectations. Meanwhile, the spin-off industry rumbles on and no (precious) stone is left unturned as it seeks to cash in on the film of the book. F. Scott Fitzgerald was a customer of Tiffany, the [...]
M83: Reunion
French electronic group M83 released Reunion in February this year as a single from their latest album, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. The video continues a story that began with Midnight City about a group of psychic children as they are pursued by their handlers in an attempt to recover them. Trivia: Midnight City is the [...]
Shipments of Samsung phones from Vietnam surge
The visitor to Vietnam is confronted by so many contrasts that it’s difficult to make sense of the picture. A buffalo stubbornly pulls a traditional wooden plough through rice fields as a sleek Toyota Lexus whizzes by on dangerously pot-holed roads. Tired workers gulp down rice noodles at ad-hoc sidewalk restaurants while svelte communists shop [...]
Python for the people
As the global media machine cranked out reports and analysis from Washington D.C. yesterday, the Palo Alto-based startup LearnStreet quietly launched into public beta, making barely a ripple upon the surface of the news industry. Backed with $1 million in seed funding from Khosla Ventures, the site is dedicated to helping beginners master the basics [...]
The people have spoken
And half of US voters have rewarded Barack Obama with a second term. The challenges facing the United States in the coming four years of his presidency are daunting. Nearly a third of Americans now depend on food stamps, welfare, disability payments or some other form of government support. Even greater dependency is just around [...]
Democracy vs. Autocracy: USA vs. China
Today, millions of people of the USA will elect a swathe of public representatives, from sheriff to president, in an open process that, despite its imperfections, is without equal in the world. On Thursday, China opens its 18th party congress, designed to usher in the next generation of Communist party officials who will govern the [...]
Awful German word of the day: Leistungsschutzrecht
It could be translated as “right to protection of achievement”, but that wouldn’t make much sense as the word is almost exclusively used in the context of the publishing industry. There, Leistungsschutzrecht has a translatable meaning akin to “ancillary copyright”, but if we cut to the chase it means “the right of the German media [...]
Duomo di Milano detail
Il Duomo di Milano is the cathedral church of Milan. Dedicated to Santa Maria Nascente (Saint Mary Nascent), it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Cardinal Angelo Scola. The Gothic cathedral, which took nearly six centuries to complete, is the fourth largest cathedral in the world. Send to Kindle
Maybe You say Saint Lou Lou
Sisters Elektra and Miranda Kilbey are Saint Lou Lou. Brought up in Australia and Sweden and blessed with natural beauty, the twins have all that’s needed for for a perfect pop career. But they’re more than just pretty faces and there’s musical substance behind the fashionista style. “The saga begins”, they say beguilingly. More, please. [...]
The ageing, tiring Li-on in the machine
Apple’s iPad Mini goes on sale today and lots of early-bird geeks are busily tearing down the device in one of those weird rituals that has become associated with product launches. Regardless of the hype about how magical these products are, however, all portable electronic devices have a battery and batteries do wear out over [...]
The Man-Computer Symbiosis of J.C.R. Licklider proceeds apace
The news that Microsoft sold four million Windows 8 updates since the new operating system went on sale last Friday was put in context nicely by MG Siegler in a post titled “4 million in 3 days” when he noted, “Apple sold 5 million iPhones 5s in the first 3 days. Yes, Apple sold more [...]
The journey from DOS to Windows 8
For the first time since 2001, personal computer sales are projected to fall this year. This means that all eyes are now on Windows 8 with its emphasis on touchscreen input and a grid of dynamically updating tiles that represent apps. Can it produce the kind of bounce that the ailing PC business needs coming [...]
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