cancer

Yahoo’s Parting With Thompson Will Be for “Cause” (aka CSLie)

Kara Swisher in News on May 14 at 2:00 am PT

And not cancer, as unfortunate as the timing is for the ousted Yahoo CEO.

IBM Computer Watson Is Now a Big-Shot Doctor, and You Still Aren’t

Arik Hesseldahl in News on March 22 at 8:51 am PT

Well, it’s not really a doctor, but it has been to medical school.

Seven Questions With IBM’s Manoj Saxena About Watson and Cancer

Arik Hesseldahl in News on January 4 at 7:00 am PT

IBM’s game-show winning, human-humiliating supercomputer has a new gig: Helping doctors treat patients with cancer.

Now What?  The Post-Jobs Era in Tech.

Kara Swisher in News on October 6, 2011 at 6:17 am PT

Can anyone in Silicon Valley fill the outsized shoes of Steve Jobs? Not likely.

Microsoft and Some Big Thinking Heads at Farsight 2011: "Beyond the Search Box"

Kara Swisher in News on February 1, 2011 at 8:15 am PT

Oh dear, BoomTown is still jetlagged from a recent trip to China and now Microsoft Bing is offering up a head-requiring event later this morning in San Francisco to explore the future of search. There better be donuts. A lot and with sprinkles, since speakers include the lugubrious investor and hedge fund philosophizer Peter Thiel and skunk-at-a-Web-garden-party author Malcolm Gladwell.

Voices

Remembering Rajiv Dutta, Veteran of eBay and Elevation

Nick Wingfield, Reporter, The Wall Street Journal in News on January 31, 2011 at 8:11 pm PT

Rajiv Dutta, a veteran Silicon Valley executive and investor, died Monday morning after battling a recurrence of cancer.

Viral Video: "The Big C" Is Also a "Big D"–as in "Digital"

Kara Swisher in News on August 18, 2010 at 12:15 am PT

Showtime’s newest original series, “The Big C”–starring the superb Laura Linney, a tightly wound woman who reacts to a cancer diagnosis by living it up–premiered on the pay cable channel this week with almost 1.58 million viewers. That makes it a hit for a program on cable television, but what’s interesting to BoomTown is that the first episode’s online version, which has been available for weeks to gin up interest, has grabbed about that many views, too.

Kara Visits TEDMED (Featuring Synthetic Skin and Heart-Scanning iPhones!)

Kara Swisher in News on October 29, 2009 at 2:05 am PT

Can your cellphone check your blood sugar? What does a wireless BandAid do? Is my pill networked? Can a videogame cure cancer? Will a robot care for my mom? Can an iPhone save my life? And, of course, does synthetic skin feel gross? The answer to the last question is yes, but it is also pretty astonishing to touch, as noted in one of the many tech-heavy talks at TEDMED, the medical and health-care conference, which has returned after a five-year hiatus, to Hotel Coronado near San Diego.

Farrah Fawcett Also Remembered on the Web

Kara Swisher in News on June 26, 2009 at 1:22 am PT

While she had almost nothing to do with the Internet, the Web still has a lot to do with Farrah Fawcett, especially today after the iconic Hollywood actress and model died after a long and well-documented battle with cancer. Still, the massive online reaction to a more sudden and unexpected celebrity death yesterday–pop legend Michael Jackson, who was 50–pretty much drowned out Fawcett’s passing at 62 years old. That’s too bad, since she was a genuine cultural phenom–and here is an online video to remind us of that.

When Steve Jobs Said “Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish” — He Did Not Mean This Foolish

Kara Swisher in News on January 15, 2009 at 2:53 am PT

The restless frenzy is what is perhaps most disturbing of all about the never-ending obsessive death watch that has centered on Apple CEO Steve Jobs. What doesn’t make your skin crawl about it? That’s why BoomTown thinks it is time to listen to the wise words Jobs delivered at a now legendary Stanford Commencement address in 2005. The last words of the speech came from the back of “The Whole Earth Catalog”: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” I think right about now, that foolish part has gone way too far for Jobs and the rest of us.