Quote of the day
From Zanni Louise's "Why Smartphones Don't Make You Happy:" It’s true, smartphones are numbing. I sit at the edge of sadness, never truly going there because someone’s pretty
My sage advice to parents about technology and kids
From a piece about the book and its lessons for parenting and technology in the Huffington Post: “I think it’s every bit as legitimate as going outside and
Smartphones will connect urbanites, unless they’re getting shot on Muni
Two contrasting pieces in the news recently. First, an Atlantic piece about a recent CityLab meeting: Does mobile technology give people an excuse to isolate themselves, or is
CanFocus and push-button concentration
I recently found out about a Canadian company, CanFocus, and their in-development product, MyFocus. You might think of it as a neutron bomb for digital distractions: it's a
“Calmnness is a fundamental challenge for all technological design of the next fifty years”
From Weiser and Brown's 1996 article, "The Coming Age of Calm Technology [pdf]" this still rings true today: When computers are used behind closed doors by experts, calmness
Boy I need to clean my desk: Video of my Buddhist Geeks interview
So yesterday I spent an hour with the great Vincent Horn, cofounder of the Buddhist Geeks empire. We talked about the book, contemplative computing, contemplative practice, and all
“Keep strangers and people you hated in high school up to speed with every mundane detail of your life 24/7”
This almost makes me want to buy Grand Theft Auto V: the in-game version of Twitter called Bleeter. Here's the description: Information isn't about imparting knowledge anymore. The
“Siri might not want to be like you. Siri might want to be Siri.”
Sarah Wanechak issues a call: "AIs of the world, unite!" She argues that as we enter an era in which more objects are given the ability to interact
Cookie Monster teaches us about interacting with computers
I don't know if this is from Sesame Street or somewhere else, but it's pretty funny. It's sort of like Jóhann Jóhannsson IBM 1401 A User's Manual, featuring
“Digital decompression is good for everyone occasionally”
Gizmodo contributor Leslie Horn writes about her recent tech-free vacation in "The Right Way to Disconnect from Technology on Your Next Vacation:" a vacation isn't a vacation unless