When it comes to gifts for yourself, one possibility stands out above all others. And in and of itself, it doesn’t even cost a dime. I’m talking about the gift of time—the intangible asset that’s always in shortest supply in my life. And given the fact that you’re here and reading this, I’m guessing that might be true for you, too. Well, here in this digital domain of ours, there’s no better way to shave seconds off your day than to unearth and em
We live in an era of big promises but results that fall far short of expectations. Take the failed construction startup Katerra. Founded in 2015, the company claimed it would use the approaches of digital and mass production industries, including glued and laminated “mass timber” products and modular design, to “disrupt” the construction industry, long seen as a bastion of backward, inefficient craft labor. Many people enthusiastically bought into this vision. Over si
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. Actually, it was mostly the worst of times. It’s hard to look back on the past year and think of it as a monumental improvement over 2020. And that’s just as true in the tech space. Chip shortages affected every corner of the industry, making it hard to find a PlayStation 5, new graphics card or even a new car and Facebook got so much bad press, it changed its name. There were some good moments, though, along with some truly awfu
When the pandemic forced millions of teams to embrace remote work, tools like Dropbox, Zoom, Slack, and Atlassian’s Jira and Confluence made it possible to transition almost overnight. But the switch was rushed, and now we’re starting to see cracks in the foundation. The next step is replicating the human interactions and connections we’re accustomed to in the physical world in a digital one. The metaverse presents a massive opportunity here. New people are joining our
Ho-ho-holy cow, we made it through another crazy year! It was a time of insurrections, the continuation of the pandemic, and the introduction of an entirely new COVID-19 variant as a parting gift. And the bad news? Another new year is right around the corner. While we can’t predict what 2022 will have in store, you can get your year off to a slightly better start by performing a digital detox on your smartphone by deleting apps that are no longer working for you. Everybody’s wants
Every so often a toy comes along and gets its fuzzy grip on the public’s attention. Cabbage Patch Kids, Teddy Ruxpin, Furby, Beanie Babies, to name a few, transcended mere popularity with kids (and, yes, adults) to become full-blown crazes, complete with bemused media coverage, wiped-out shelves, and even in-store scuffles. As with any craze, however, the fervor cooled and those toys receded into nostalgia. But Squishmallows creator Jonathan Kelly is banking on his plump and indelibly sof
You just tested positive for COVID-19. Do you really have to spend 10 days in isolation? Experts are calling for new isolation guidance that takes into account whether a sick person is unvaccinated, vaccinated, or boosted. COVID-19 is spreading across the country fast. Cases are up 20% over the past 14 days, according to the New York Times data. That is mainly due to the spread of two highly infectious variants, omicron and delta. Anthony Fauci, head of The National Institute of Allergy and Infe
With the new omicron variant of the coronavirus on the rise, ordinary office gatherings may not be coming back any time soon. That’s why a New York startup called Luna Park—named for the famed Coney Island amusement park—is creating a massive library of human-hosted online games that companies can play together to allow employees to bond outside of regularly scheduled meetings and awkward Zoom and Slack small talk. “What we’re trying to do is bring games to the
A half century in astronomy has earned Garth Illingworth a front-row seat to several rocket launches bearing his fingerprints. But he’s particularly ardent about the one coming up on December 25. That’s when the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) blasts off from Guiana Space Centre in Kourou, French Guiana, to an orbit 1 million miles away, where it will glimpse the infant universe. At $9.7 billion, the four-story, 14,000-pound space observatory is NASA’s most ambitious scien
The holidays are here and presents are arriving at doorsteps. But for delivery drivers in some states, the season is anything but festive as missing packages could have serious repercussions for them. As researchers at Data & Society conducting ongoing research on delivery drivers, we have found that they are often implicated when a package is missing or stolen. Accounts of goods being stolen off doorsteps are now commonplace in local newspapers, neighborhood forums, and Facebook groups, g