AltWeeklies Wire
Three Internet Myths That Won't Dienew
The internet is free, accessible, and dangerous? Hardly.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Annalee Newitz |
06-18-2008 |
Tech
Marc Brodzik on His Launch of Scrapple.TVnew

Scrapple.TV, an internet TV station, exists at the moment is a virtual pirate TV commune featuring every badass art bastard and stared-at-in-the-street crazy Philly street culture freak around.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Steven Wells |
06-16-2008 |
Tech
Has Social Networking Created a Monster?new

It's easy to let our Luddite tendencies overwhelm us and lead us to think those on the cutting edge of technology have got some sort of neurotic obsession that needs a cure. Facebook took a while to catch on; so did cell phones, so did email, so did laptops and software and floppy disks and modems and faxes and IBM Selectrics.
New York Press |
Bobby Julian |
06-12-2008 |
Tech
The Kindle and the iPhone Aren't Changing the Worldnew
They are just putting a new interface on yesterday's innovations. When you want to evaluate whether a piece of tech really is "revolutionary," just put it to the simple singularity acid test. Ask yourself if you could explain it in a few sentences to people living 100 years ago. So let's sit down with your typical resident of San Francisco in 1908, and explain Kindle and iPhone to her.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Annalee Newitz |
06-11-2008 |
Tech
Google's New Server Farm Comes to Oregonnew

A quiet Oregon town will host the servers crucial to Google's physical network.
Willamette Week |
Byron Beck |
06-04-2008 |
Tech
Confessions of an Internet TV Junkienew
Competitive reality shows, sitcoms, Wristcutters: A Love Story -- I need them all.
Philadelphia Weekly |
Caralyn Green |
06-03-2008 |
Commentary
Human-Animal Hybrids Could be Stem Cell Goldminesnew

Last week the British Parliament began the process of legalizing human-animal hybrid embryo cloning. While not explicitly illegal in the US, the process has been so criticized that most researchers have stayed away from it.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Annalee Newitz |
05-28-2008 |
Tech
Twitter Beat the U.S. Geological Survey to China Earthquake Infonew
Earthquakes are notoriously difficult to predict, but the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) does an admirable job of tracking tectonic activity across the world and providing early warnings for people in quake zones. The USGS was able to report on the Chinese event after only a few minutes. Still, it was no match for Twitter.
NOW Magazine |
Joseph Wilson |
05-27-2008 |
Tech
Paranoid Transit Agency Tries to Censor Bloggersnew
Southern California commuter-rail line Metrolink spends public money threatening critical websites.
L.A. Weekly |
Max Taves |
05-27-2008 |
Tech
Sports Blogs Fight for Respect ... and Accessnew

Over the past year, sports bloggers have been prying open the doors to press boxes, particularly within the NFL and the NBA. But amateur sportswriters have had little success winning over the gatekeepers of America's pastime -- at least here in the Bay Area.
Will Robots Take over the World and Eat Our Children?new
Our pitiful carbon bodies are evolving much more slowly than the silicon and steel gizmos we're inventing. And the guys in the lab coats and pocket protectors are starting to worry we've opened Pandora's hard drive.
Boston Phoenix |
Mike Miliard |
05-22-2008 |
Tech
Tags: robots, computers & technology
Inside the Internet Dystopianew
Increasing constraints on freedom to innovate with technology cloud the web's future, as Jonathan Zittrain points out his the new book The Future of the Internet and How to Stop It.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Annalee Newitz |
05-14-2008 |
Tech
It's Easy for Mobs to Crush Free Expression On the Webnew
Thanks to new, collaborative, social media networks, it's easier than ever for people to get together and destroy freedom of expression. They're going DIY from the bottom up -- instead of the way old-school censors used to do it, from the top down. Call it user-generated censorship.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Annalee Newitz |
04-30-2008 |
Tech
Internet Memez Taek Ovar Boston ... and This Headliennew

Cyberspace is all a-blog about ROFLCon, the two-day conference set for April 25th and 26th. Internet celebrities, academics and casual nerds will invade MIT for a group dissection of the internet, examining the history and future of online culture.
Dig Boston |
Nicole Jones |
04-24-2008 |
Tech
How the Web Has Changed Writingnew
Back in the 1990s, I taught writing using books and movies -- there was only one possible kind of output: linear narratives written on sheets of paper. When I recently returned to teaching writing, I couldn't imagine teaching writing using books and linear narratives. I taught writing by showing my students how different software applications could help them structure their writing.
San Francisco Bay Guardian |
Annalee Newitz |
04-23-2008 |
Tech