Technology
The End of .Com Hegemony and the Coming URL Gold Rush
The Internet, as boundless as it seems, has at least one significant limit: Its inventory of addresses. There are only so many URLs out there—variants of just a few dozen well-known domain name extensions, from your plain-vanilla .com to the comparatively edgy .fm. The domains are administered by different entities, each with their own rules. READ MORE >>
Obama Doesn’t Need Tech Wizardry to Fix Voting
On Monday, while the world was ending on the East Coast, Apple announced some news of its own back in Cupertino: Two key executives had been booted and their duties re-allocated to others, in the company's biggest shakeup since 1997. READ MORE >>
John Cougar Mellencamp, country music crooner and defender of old media, has had it with all that music floating around for free on the internet these days. Last week, he took to the Huffington Post to air his disapproval, in a column that so perfectly encapsulates the enduring mentality of analog incumbent industries that we thought it worth closer read. READ MORE >>
Michael Saylor, The Id of Web 2.0
On a recent Friday morning, Michael Saylor appeared before a think-tank audience to cheerfully predict the end of the world. Newspapers and televisions? Obsolete in a smartphone-enhanced future. Banks and wallets? Ditto. Textbooks? About to “dematerialize.” Also doomed: Algebra teachers. READ MORE >>
Apple's latest earnings are in, and they're characteristically whopping: With a big bump from the iPhone 5, the world's most valuable company has brought in $156.5 billion this year. That's more than Facebook, Google, and Microsoft combined. READ MORE >>
The Most Important Tech Issue Nobody’s Talking About
Can You Really Watch a Debate and Tweet It at the Same Time?
On September 26, 1960, nearly 70 million people tuned in to the first televised presidential debate in the United States. The candidates were Richard Nixon and John F. Kennedy. The winner was the senator from Massachusetts. He was the winner, that is, according to those who watched the debate on television. The people who listened to the debate on the radio thought Nixon had won. READ MORE >>
Art.sy and the Myth of the Online Art Market
An App to Make Campaign Workers Act Normal
The grassroots component of a political campaign runs on a special kind of insanity. Sure, there’s a lot to do. Canvassing, house parties, data entry, phone banking, and planting yard signs pack the daylight hours, and prep for the next day can go late into the night. Food is whatever’s cheap and fast—usually pizza and donuts—and normal exercise routines go out the window. READ MORE >>
