July 2010
1 post
8 tags
In Defense of My City
When I first moved to San Francisco I hated it and was surprised to hate it. I lived within walking distance from the western terminus of the Underground Railway, the former home of the Six Gallery and the legendary 60’s rock venue The Fillmore. I was so earnest and enthusiastic to meet new people, but at the time my excitement was turning people off.
The first party we went to was in...
June 2010
2 posts
7 tags
Two Words for Sucker? Art Collector.
A year ago when we visited Base Elements Gallery in Barcelona, the owner was hesitant to let me film some quick shots of Pez’s graffitied canvases. Now I understand why.
I just got out of Exit Through the Gift Shop - a Banksy film about Thierry Guetta’s rise from amateur filmmaker to Warhol-esque copycat art sensation. Essentially it’s the realization that if you’re even...
6 tags
How True Culture Happens Over Beer
Twelve years ago, under the shadow of a huge bodhisattva, a Taiwanese priest threw my i-ching and told me I’d have a good career but that I was a “horse in the gate”.
In Chinese astrology horses are strong, determined and animated, but a horse in the gate is one that is stubborn and impatient. This is the type of employee I am. When I’m given a problem and I’m given...
May 2010
1 post
7 tags
Gentrifying the Web
I recently came across an article written by former Knight News Challenge organizer Susan Mernit asking the question, “Can you Gentrify the Local Web?”
After creating the Oakland Local portal/aggregation site, Mernit’s group has quickly gained visibility and as a result has been accused of harming older area-specific sites including the more established Block Report Radio.
In...
April 2010
4 posts
6 tags
Hype Machine Rant
God I love me a good rant. It reminds me a little of Dave Olson’s Northern Voice 2008 presentation entitled, Fuck Stats, Make Art.
This presentation at the 140 conference by writer Chris Weingarten is pretty darn fascinating. It’s true that those listening to Hype Machine believe they’re getting an alternative rather than the aggregate of common blogger tastes and it’s...
5 tags
A Long Lunch
This past week has been amazingly different from my old days of blogging. I’ve started redirecting urgent pitches to tips[at]readwriteweb.com, I am no longer on the RWW payroll, and I no longer have the authority to publish at will. The reality is, I just write and they take it or leave it. I’ve written one guest post on Labor-as-a-Service being applied to Haitian disaster relief. No...
6 tags
The Humanity! The Privacy Breach!
I recently received an angry email explaining that UK Facebook profiles have been “hijacked” as a popup survey is asking users whether or not they’ve registered to vote. A “no” response sends them to the UK Electoral Commission’s page. The note reads, “Facebook should not be a political tool. It should NOT favor voting or not voting. It should be...
5 tags
Aww, That's Nice
Two years ago I sent myself a letter on FutureMe to be delivered on my birthday this year. I just read it and it makes me feel incredibly grateful as I’ve gotten to blog for others, my student loan is paid off, and the love of my life is now my fiancé. I distinctly remember wanting to send a FutureMe email to myself at 50-years-old, but with the way things were already going then, I doubted...
6 tags
On Quitting While You're Ahead
META-SPLOSION! Yesterday I saw a blog dedicated to a blog - and it was climbing up the Y Combinator front page. JWB’s blog will summarize Joel on Software’s many lessons down to one sentence per essay. While this may not sound like a useful exercise, it’s a great way to index the thousands of essays written by software guru Joel Spolsky. Spolsky recently wrote that he was hanging...
March 2010
6 posts
6 tags
Complaining about Noise is Noise
If one more coddled internet celebrity complains about “breaking through the social media noise”, I’m going to tip them out of their Aeron chair and dump 6 kinds of recycling and an Odwalla juice on them. Noise about noise is not only noise, but it’s noise that is 5-year-old rhetoric. Ummm, Kanye West called, he wants his attitude and noise back.
There’s tons of...
4 tags
Streets of Plenty
We just watched the movie Streets of Plenty - a documentary about a coddled College kid who attempts to live in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside for 30 days in order to experience homelessness. Given that I’d worked with a bunch of active intravenous drug users through a women’s services clinic in that same area, I was intrigued.
Once I realized the student was approaching...
5 tags
Gyrobike & The Importance of Pain
I just read an article about the Gyrobike. It’s a $99 dollar bike wheel that provides stability at very slow speeds. In other words, it’s a really expensive training wheel to make sure your kid doesn’t get owwies. You’re going to think I’m a bitch for saying this, but what’s wrong with letting your kid wipe out?
If you’ve never experienced pain or...
9 tags
I'm Wearing Pants...and an Additional Hat
For the last week my usual blogger cave of pajamas and dirty cereal bowls has been dormant. Instead, I’ve been scheduling my ReadWriteWeb posts, showering and making my way to SOMA every morning before 10am. In other words, I am putting on pants. THE STORY In 1999, only 2 years after Larry and Sergey had renamed the BackRub search engine to the now search-giant Google, brothers Pirouz and Peyman...
7 tags
February 2010
7 posts
3 tags
WatchUsing a basic web cam on augmented reality markers, the varied space between the two markers prompts different sound and feedback with the idea that the entire process is creating a new type of musical instrument. I think this idea would be even cooler if it were recreated using 3 phones: 1 as the video camera and the other 2 as the markers. In this way you could come together with your friends...
2 tags
Intimacy and Search
When a woman is on the verge of tears and you’re having an argument, don’t stop to Google something. It will only make it worse. Don’t change your Facebook marital status to read “Married to Bitch” and don’t start a Twitter thread to rally your friends into the argument. Really intimate moments, especially fights, are best kept offline. Up until about 2003 or...
5 tags
Being Prepared...
Since Hurricane Katrina there has been a steady influx of disaster and zombie apocalypse movies. The fear that communities will be unprepared in a state of emergency has suddenly become a realization and that collective fear is manifesting itself in our pop culture.
I’ve never been the sort of person to subscribe to survivalist antics, but I happen to make San Francisco my home and if you...
8 tags
Why Popjam Misses the Point of Chatroulette
While panel talks on large social networks often turn to questions of privacy, safety and personal space, I cannot help thinking that there is an entire generation who is fearless in the face of an anonymous crowd. Yesterday at 11:00pm there were 20,000 people online at Chatroulette.
The premise of the service is that two anonymous strangers turn on their webcams to stare at each other through...
6 tags
Correcting Real Time Analysis
The other day I met Jeff Jonas for an hour long meeting at his PR agency’s office. Jonas is the chief scientist of the IBM Entity Analytics group, he built the system that foiled the MIT Blackjack Team in Vegas and he’s since gone on to do all sorts of interesting things like thwart criminals for the CIA and participate in several marathons. Essentially, Jonas is a finely tuned...
5 tags
Experience Points
Experience Points This week is Social Media Week and there’s a heavy focus on cause-related activism and social good. However, when we arrived yesterday at the San Francisco Food Bank, organizer Jeremy Toeman of Stage 2 Consulting pointed out, “They can get 250 people to a demo night, but we can only get 3 of 7 who committed to show up to volunteer for 3 hours.” Jeremy...
3 tags
The Situation
I don’t know why but today was just one of those days where I wanted to relate everything back to Jersey Shore. I was all like, “Damn. Why you creatures gotta keep hating on my situation. Why don’t you go creep up on Mashable’s boardwalk?” FML.
4 tags
On The iPad
Sooo, the iPad launched this week…
Apple’s new device does not support the “closed system” of Flash and many have taken this opportunity to praise HTML 5. I’ve already established myself as a bit of an HTML 5 fangirl, but when Flash offers the majority of video and gaming experiences on the web, you have to think this decision is simply removing functionality for...
January 2010
7 posts
2 tags
Bullshitting About Outer Space
I just saw this video from X Prize Foundation Chair Peter Diamandis in which he admits he did not have the initial $10M to award to the X Prize winner when the event was first launched.
9 tags
Wake Up America
This guy keeps sending me weird Barack Obama birther messages and YouTube videos and I can’t help reading and clicking on them. I’m just so fascinated by it. Like whoa, as a part time tech blogger I have a huge stake in clearing up whether or not Barack Obama is a Muslim Indonesian or not. I’m a Buddhist Asian Canadian. If Barack Obama were a Muslim Indonesian, I’d...
5 tags
A Mallard-y of Our Times
Every few months, when Pat Robertson decides to say something so offensive that I am reminded he exists, I reminisce on his argument against the hate crimes bill. Last year Robertson argued that protecting GLBT people from hate crimes would force us to have to protect “weird guys” who like to “have sex with ducks”, oh and also pedophiles. And then it hit me - ducks...
2 tags
WatchHere’s my LeWeb and Social Media Club House slideshow.
Tuxedo Cat Hat
I’m not sure what the deal is, but in the last 2 weeks in 2 different cities, I’ve seen men wearing live tuxedo cats on their heads. I don’t think this is an anime cosplay phenomenon, but it still has a decidedly Gothic Lolita effect. I wonder if the creatures are some sort of controlling parasite.
4 tags
All Your Spams are Poof
It’s New Year’s Day and a particularly aggressive set of spammers have decided to inundate ReadWriteWeb with their fake comments and irrelevant links. In the same way that military strikes like the Tet Offensive and Yom Kippur War of 1973 were launched on national holidays, so too was our latest spam comment attack. The belief is that holidays create vulnerability. However, this battle...
December 2009
7 posts
Christmas in Your Neighborhood
Merry Christmas! I know that’s not the politically correct thing to say when swaddled in organic cotton blankets and coiled into post-turkey fetal position in the warm hippie belly of Vancouver Island’s Prospect Lake community, but I don’t care. If being well fed and happy is wrong, then I don’t want to be right. It’s too bad mirth isn’t a sustainable energy...
5 tags
Avatar
Yesterday our friend Brian was kind enough to get us tickets to Avatar at the IMAX in 3D. The movie’s premise is that scientists and military personnel don native-esque bodies to better negotiate for precious resources with the blue First Nation’s people of Pandora. Due to a lack of truly shared qualia there’s a war, the myth of the noble nature savage is perpetuated and things...
5 tags
Why Yossi Vardi is my New Hero
In my haste, I totally forgot to write about the hilarity of legendary Israeli entrepreneur Yossi Vardi’s LeWeb presentation. Best known in the tech world as the first investor in ICQ and the creator of Kinnernet, Vardi has acted as an advisor to the World Bank and UN Development Program on energy and developing world policies.But honestly, the reason Yossi Vardi is my new hero is the fact...
7 tags
Self-Expression as Political
Photo Credit: Chris Heuer
On Thursday morning, Chris Heuer, Fabrice Epelboin and I sat down to interview Skyrock founder Pierre Bellanger. Born out of the free radio movement, Bellanger’s pirate radio station has become the 3rd largest European social networking site behind MySpace and Facebook.
Says Bellanger, “We were trying to create revolution. My political act is to create a...
1 tag
5 tags
Day One: InSeine in the Membrane
Oh Canada. Why is it that your lackluster public school system has allowed me to slip through the cracks with no knowledge of what is supposed to be your second language? I am trying my best to do you proud with my broken greetings and garbled French. InSeine in the membrane…I’m in Paris for the Le Web Conference with the Social Media Club House!
Flown in via 747 and delivered to...
My 1st Threatening Hate Comment
I got my first inappropriate hate comment! I must be a real writer now. Someone with the IP address: 88.114.251.23 first commented saying my article about MOG compared with Spotify was bullshit and then I assume that same person showed up on my personal blog calling me an “ugly dried out p@#y” and other nonsensical anti-feminist riffs. The IP links to Finnish telecommunications company...
November 2009
4 posts
7 tags
Case of the Stolen Songbird? Licensed or Lifted?
I recently received a pitch from Vancouver-based CEO of Justbought.it Adarsh Pallian. Pallian’s design company is working on a shopping application that allows users to create shopping lists and share their Black Friday purchases via Twitter and Flickr. Nevertheless, when I clicked through to check out the site I was met with something very familiar. Although the company had already...
The Worst Eulogy
I just wrote my grandfather’s eulogy and it was tough because he was often cruel and sexist. When he started to lose his ability to walk I kept thinking he was going to make amends with my aunts or start treating my mother better. Instead, he became more demanding. When he lost his speech it felt like all those apologies stayed trapped in there. When I die I don’t want my family to...
1 tag
Why I'm Not Funny
I am currently in a sketch comedy writing group and while my friends seem to find me amusing I am the least funny person in my class for several reasons:
1. I don’t own a television set and what I find hilarious is often viewed as horrifying. When it’s not horrifying, it’s puzzling and best accompanied by links for context.
2. I can’t do physical comedy and my acting...
3 tags
Pissed Off
In the last month I’ve had 3 friends ask me to hold back on writing on their companies only to have other outlets scoop me. While I respect that some companies need time to get their ducks in a row, there also needs to be the realization that:
1. You will NEVER feel ready and I’m more likely to be give a sensitive and thorough review; and, 2. I am also doing a job - a job I...
October 2009
6 posts
1 tag
Honolulu
When most people think about Hawaii, they think about luaus and sunset cruises. I spent most of the week inside a VERY roach-filled hotel room typing stories and visiting my gramps at the hospital. Still, I got to spend a few hours bonding with my cousins over some great food and 2 solid hours at the beach on Saturday. Also, Paul Graham called me on the telephone and didn’t call me a hack...
WatchRFID Reader Hack for Foursquare Check-in.
4 tags
Yahoo Hack Day vs. TC50 Burlesque
I understand that everyone is in an uproar over Yahoo Hack Day featuring scantily clad dancing girls; however, no one seemed too upset that TC50 held its official after party at DNA lounge this year complete with burlesque dancers. Are we assuming that the SF dancers are unionized and the Taiwanese women are here against their will? Because at least on the official level Taiwan has a legalized sex...
3 tags
imho txt msgs in car r bad
Somebody sent me a news tip about a petition to re-legalize text messaging while driving. Upon opening it, I found 9 signatures - one with the the comment, “ima let you finish but…” and another with the comment, “text messaging while driving is a human right.” As an occasional urban cyclist, I firmly support the ban on text messaging while driving. Nevertheless the...
2 tags
What in the What?
I just read a news article where a Louisiana justice of the peace in Tangipahoa Parish refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple out of concern for any children they might have. As a woman of color who is mildly repulsed by sticky-handed toddlers, I find this strange on a couple of counts.
Firstly, I’m surprised that someone would want to rise to the stature of justice of...
2 tags
Dude, You're So Random.
In data encryption, machines pull from an entropy pool or value randomizer. Generally these values are randomized via some sort of physical action. I’ve been thinking a lot about personal hardware infrastructure ie. the brain. I wonder whether life’s milestones have produced expected values or well-encrypted ones. Despite many of our shared developmental events like walking, talking...
September 2009
4 posts
2 tags
The Yes Men
With an overall theme of climate change, The Yes Men activist group created a fake version of today’s New York Post complete with “We’re Screwed” headline. The Yes Men, along with a number of organizations and environmentalists are looking to raise awareness during Climate Week NYC - a precursor to the December United Nation’s Climate Change Conference in...
2 tags
The morning after...
Yesterday I found myself reaching for a microbrew beer while munching on a piece of Jarlsberg and talking about urban composting. At some point between delicious sips of honey ale, I thought to myself, “When the fuck did I become a yuppie?” My teenage self would wait for my adult self to put down her purse and knick a couple twenties for spite. And my adult self wouldn’t even...
2 tags
Monetizing the Hate
Heather Armstrong must have the biggest shit eating grin on her face. In a recent blog post she launched Monetizing the Hate - a Dooce sub site where she publishes her extensive hate mail alongside sponsored banners. Armstrong first gained popularity after she lost her job for blogging about her workmates. Today, she’s well recognized as one of the most successful mommy bloggers on the...
August 2009
4 posts
3 tags
BPA Scandal and Chemical Policy
A few years ago when I was in environmental health, Bisphenol A became the new black, or rather, the new lead. Young mothers demanded that the endocrine disruptor be removed from baby bottles and water bottles. People stopped microwaving their tupperware. Metal bottle companies like Sigg made millions as cautious consumers believed their new purchases were BPA free. In a surprising company...