Opinion
Stop limiting quantum computing to speed
If you’re thinking about speed alone, you’re missing a world of possibilities for quantum computing.
When surveillance meets incompetence
Last week brought an extraordinary demonstration of the dangers of operating a surveillance state — especially a shabby one, as China's apparently is. An unsecured database exposed millions of recor
Please stop marking yourself safe on Facebook
Let me begin by saying that Facebook’s Crisis Response pages do a lot of good. They are a locus for donations and offers of help. But that said, for the love of humanity, when something bad happ
Another fine mesh
Amazon’s acquisition of mesh router company Eero is a smart play that adds a number of cards to its hand in the rapidly evolving smart home market. Why shouldn’t every router be an Echo, a
Privacy is a commons
“The commons is the cultural and natural resources accessible to all members of a society,” quoth Wikipedia, “held in common, not owned privately.” We live in an era of surveil
Instagram thinks you want IGTV previews in your home feed
If you can’t beat or join them… force feed ’em? That appears to be Instagram’s latest strategy for IGTV, which is now being shoved right into Instagram’s main feed, the c
The infrastructural humiliation of America
I’m flying back to the USA today, and as an infrastructure aficionado, it’s nice to be going home, but I’m dreading the disappointment. I just spent two weeks in Singapore and Thaila
A simple data analysis disproves the argument for building a border wall
Sometimes the end justifies the means. Other times it clearly doesn’t. But in the new bizarro world that is the modern-day U.S. political climate, increasingly the means has become the new end itsel
The new Two Minutes Hate
You see it first on Facebook or Twitter. Something contemptible: an image, or a video, or a tweet. One accompanied by a furious, snarky caption, highlighting just how awful and unacceptable it is, a d
Has the fight over privacy changed at all in 2019?
Few issues divide the tech community quite like privacy. Much of Silicon Valley’s wealth has been built on data-driven advertising platforms, and yet, there remain constant concerns about the invasi
Theranos documentary review: The Inventor’s horrifying optimism
A blood-splattered Theranos machine nearly pricks an employee struggling to fix it. This gruesome graphical rendering is what you’ll walk away with from HBO’s “The Inventor.” It finally gives
Facebook launches petition feature, its next battlefield
Gather a mob and Facebook will now let you make political demands. Tomorrow Facebook will encounter a slew of fresh complexities with the launch of Community Actions, its News Feed petition feature. C
Technology’s dark forest
We used to be such optimists. Technology would bring us a world of wealth in harmony with the environment, and even bring us new worlds. The Internet would erase national boundaries, replace gatekeepe
In defense of screen time
Silicon Valley engineers who design our tech gadgets won't let their kids anywhere near those devices -- they're convinced too much time in front of smartphones and iPads is rotting kids' brains.
Our dystopian cyberpunk here and now
We in the West love our apocalyptic science fiction, in which cartoonishly evil authorities ruthlessly oppress all who so much as wonder about their absolute power, enforced via ubiquitous surveillanc
It’s the golden age of traditional retail, not its end days
A lot of people will say that traditional retail is dying. But the reality is that, thanks to technology, the future of traditional retail has never been brighter.
The YKarma experiment
Blockchains are boring now. It’s been ten years since Bitcoin launched, and cryptocurrencies have almost exclusively been used to recapitulate existing monetary systems in slightly new forms. Th
It’s the Jons 2018!
It was the best of years, it was the worst of years, it was the wokest of years, it was the most problematic of years, it was the year of AI, it was the year of scooters, it was the year of Big Tech t
What history could tell Mark Zuckerberg
Perhaps Mark Zuckerberg obsessed over the wrong bit of history. Or else didn’t study his preferred slice of classical antiquity carefully enough, faced, as he now is, with an existential crisis
My product launch wishlist for Instagram, Twitter, Uber and more
‘Twas the night before Xmas, and all through the house, not a feature was stirring from the designer’s mouse . . . Not Twitter! Not Uber, Not Apple or Pinterest! On Facebook! On Snapchat!