9 posts and columns on digerati

FaceTagram? InstaBook? Whatever You Call It, All Your Mobile Photo Are Belong to Facebook (for $1 Billion)!

in Media on April 9 at 12:20 pm PT

Actually, it’s pretty simple: Photos. Photos. And, oh yes, mobile photos — lots and lots and lots of them.
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Jon Stewart Explains WikiLeaks to the Rest of Us

in Media on December 1, 2010 at 5:47 am PT

Bonus explainer: What does “transparency” have to do with unzipped pants?

Hello, Goodbye! The Beatles Come to iTunes, and Now We Can All Move On

in Media on November 16, 2010 at 3:30 am PT

That’s right, jaded digerati–getting the Fab Four into the world’s biggest music store won’t change everything. But it’s a good thing! And it also means we can stop guessing about when it will happen. Win win!

Cablevision Complains (Very Quietly) About News Corp.'s Web Blackout

in Media on October 18, 2010 at 10:49 am PT

The move to shut down Fox.com and close off part of Hulu to the cable system’s customers was “unprecedented and anti-consumer.” So why not holler loudly?

Chinese Schools Tied to Attacks on Google? Where’d You Read That, Mad Magazine? [UPDATED]

in News on February 22, 2010 at 4:56 am PT

Claims that two schools in China were the source of cyberattacks against Google and other U.S. companies have become the butt of a state-run media joke in the country. First came vehement denials from Shanghai Jiaotong University and Lanxiang Vocational School, which dismissed the stories as unfounded. Now, Chinese “netizens” are reportedly mocking the claims.

Kara Visits TED (The Belated Video)

in News on February 11, 2009 at 8:30 am PT

Last week, BoomTown traveled to Long Beach, Calif., to attend the TED conference, a longtime gathering of digerati and others who have come to love its eclectic and outward-looking program. The four-day TED2009, titled “The Great Unveiling,” included Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates unleashing a small swarm of mosquitoes in the hall, a long list of varied speakers and a whole lot of schmoozing. Here is my belated video of the event, including my kids trying to steal a futuristic car.

A New Location for an Iconic Conference–and Here Come the TED Fellows

in News on February 2, 2009 at 6:00 am PT

The well-known Technology, Entertainment, Design conference–better known to its techie fans as TED–will make its move from Monterey to Long Beach starting tomorrow night and will be celebrating its 25th anniversary. TED2009 is called “The Great Unveiling,” with its eclectic speaker roster including: Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, neurological anthropologist Oliver Sacks, writer Elizabeth Gilbert, tree researcher Nalani Nadkarni and Web political phenom Nate Silver. But I am perhaps even more intrigued by the introduction this year of the TED Fellows program, whose participants have been picked because of the “world-changing potential of their work.”

Voices

Amazon's Unseen Bestseller Raises Questions

in News on August 12, 2008 at 12:00 am PT

There was a certain irony Monday when Citigroup analyst Mark Mahaney jacked up his sales forecast for the Kindle, the electronic book reader developed by Amazon.com Inc. Ironic because in Silicon Valley–the capital of early-technology adopters and the bleeding-edge users of all things geek–actual sightings of the device are quite rare.