As reported on TechCrunch. by JOHN BIGGS Access to information is addictive. The moment we have more of it – and more of it available at opportune times – the more we crave. I learned this first-hand when I began wearing a Pebblesmartwatch in earnest. While I’ve long rejected the idea that a smartwatch is a valuable addition to the infonaut’s arsenal, I now realize that being able to see, at a glance, who is calling,…
As seen on Wired. BY LYRA KILSTON Roma Hills homes and foreclosed Obsidian Mountain develpment, Ascaya lots beyond. Henderson, NV 2012. Empty lots in the Lake Las Vegas “guard-gated” community, Marseilles. Henderson, NV 2011. “Monaco” Lake Las Vegas homes on gated Grand Corniche Drive. Henderson, NV 2010. Barcelona homes and Lake Mead recreation area. Lake Las Vegas, Henderson, NV 2011. Barcelona homes and the edge of Lake Mead recreation area. Lake Las Vegas, Henderson, NV 2011.…
As reported on TechCrunch. by JON EVANS Don’t look now, but something remarkable is happening. Instagram had twelve employees when it was purchased for $700 million; all of its actual computing power was outsourced to Amazon Web Services. Mighty ARM has only 2300 employees, but there are more than 35 billion ARM-based chips out there. They do no manufacturing; instead they license their designs to companies like Apple, who in turn contract with companies like TSMC for the actual fabrication. Nest Labs and Ubiquiti are both 200-employee hardware companies…
As reported on Wired. BY ROBERT BECKHUSEN A Colombian soldier on security duty in La Macarena, Colombia on April 28, 2012. Photo: U.S. Special Operations Command South Want to understand why Mexican cartels are awash in cheap Colombian cocaine? The decline and fall of Colombia’s drug gangs, once the undisputed masters of the illicit drug trade, help explain it. According to a recent report from the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the Mexican cartels are…
As reported on TechCrunch. by COLLEEN TAYLOR On Friday, veteran journalist Bill Moyers did a segment on Silicon Valley that gives a very different perspective than we get from most mainstream media coverage of the world-renowned tech industry hub, and it’s been fueling some good conversations this weekend. Called “Homeless in High Tech’s Shadow,” it’s a very interesting look at the growing homeless problem in the South Bay of San Francisco that’s happening in stark contrast to the growing wealth in…
As reported on The Verge. By Jeff Blagdon Faced with a shortage of skilled job applicants, more than 100 of the biggest names in technology signed a letter urging the US Congress and White House to pass significant immigration reforms. Reported in The Hill, the letter (below) was signed by Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Eric Schmidt, Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer, and many others, and calls for lawmakers to pass bills currently introduced in the Senate like the Immigration Innovation Act…
As reported on Businessinsider.com by Alex Davies High speed rail is moving forward in California, but progress is pretty stagnant around the rest of the country. Still, there are a lot of proposals out there, and when placed on one map, they form an impressive rail network. This map was put together by California Rail Map, led by Alfred Twu, which combined existing proposals from high speed rail advocacy groups around the US. The US High…
As reported on LifeHacker. If you pay your bills on time and have been financially responsible, but have never had a credit card or taken out a loan, your credit history is a blank slate. Lenders use your credit report to make decisions about whether or not to give you a credit card, what that card’s limit should be, or to grant you a loan. But with no credit history, there’s no record of how…
As reported on Businessinsider.com by Mamta Badkar Improving Chinese economic data have many experts saying that the economy has bottomed out, and that the possibility of a hard economic landing is off the table. Societe Generale analysts expect Chinese GDP to increase 7.4 percent this year but think there still is a “non-negligible risk” of a hard landing in which GDP growth falls to less than six percent. Remember a hard landing refers to four consecutive…
As reported on Businessinsider.com by Mamta Badkar Dave Gates via Flickr The U.S. housing market turned the corner in 2012. The latest home price report from Trulia says home prices were up 5.1 percent year-over-year nationally. And the pace of increases has also picked up in the year. With home prices up 0.8 percent quarter-over-quarter in Q1, and up 2.3 percent in Q4. We drew on Trulia’s latest report to highlight the top ‘turnaround markets’ of 2012 i.e.…