Linus explains the true meaning of Christmas. Charlie Brown: “Everything I do turns into a disaster. I guess I really don’t know what Christmas is all about. Isn’t there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?” Linus: “Sure Charlie Brown. I can tell you what Christmas is all about.” Lights please … And there… [Read more]
The majesty of thunderstorms
The gods were still asleep on Thursday, November 8, 2018 at 6:33 AM when a spark ignited an inferno that devoured the gentle towns of Concow and Paradise in Northern California. The totality of the destruction was unprecedented. Having lived near Paradise for almost 40 years, I’ve seen enough of fire and the charred remains… [Read more]
Navigating the future of technology
A funny thing’s happened in the last few years; most technology has gotten pretty good. Almost gone are the days of crummy smartphones with indecipherable interfaces and desktop operating systems overrun with crapware. So with most popular tech products at parity, how do you choose one over the other? Farhad Manjoo of The New York… [Read more]
How to control your browser
A terrific article appeared on Wired the other day about how to protect your computer from the prying eyes of the web. The story explores privacy and cookie settings for the following browsers: Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Microsoft Edge Apple Safari How to lock down what websites can access on your computer Written by David… [Read more]
The scariest movie ever made
Scene for scene, John Carpenter’s Halloween may reign as the greatest horror movie of all time. The simplicity, the suspense, the music, and the style have often been imitated, but never duplicated. Released in 1978 on a dinky $300,000 budget, the 30-year-old filmmaker terrified us by bringing an evil, relentless force to a place that could… [Read more]
The end of Google Plus
On October 8, Google announced that it was shutting down Google Plus for consumers, citing low user engagement, and a software error that potentially exposed the data of hundreds of thousands of users. Google indicated that Google Plus would operate until August 2019, allowing users to download and migrate their information. There’s a lot of… [Read more]
Facebook uses AI to decipher memes
Ever get the following nasty message when trying to post a seemingly harmless image to your Facebook timeline? We removed this post because it looks like spam and doesn’t follow our Community Standards. If your image contains text of any kind, it could be that Facebook dislikes the message. And chances are it wasn’t rejected… [Read more]
Google turns 20
In case you missed it, Google celebrated its 20th anniversary on September 4, 2018. To commemorate the occasion, The Verge took a trip down memory lane with the biggest moments, product launches, and acquisitions throughout Google’s two-decade history. Twenty years ago, Google started with an ambitious goal to organize the world’s information and make it… [Read more]
Facebook bungles single sign-on
By now you’ve most likely heard about the Facebook security breach that allowed hackers to not only take over the accounts of at least 50 million users, but also access third-party websites those users logged into with their Facebook credentials. The service that got compromised is an authentication process called “single sign-on” that allows a… [Read more]
The Benioffs buy Time magazine
I’m not sure how I feel about this. I used to read Time magazine regularly, often alternating subscriptions with Newsweek (what happened to them?). Of course that was back when the Time Person of the Year had real gravitas and a typical issue would run over a hundred pages. Now it’s more like a newsletter… [Read more]
