https://www.engadget.com/oldest-computer-manual-zuse-z4-161214346.html It had been a themepark for a long time. Students came on fieldtrips and marvelled at the rows of desktop computers, giggled at the printers and looked puzzled at the meeting rooms. The guide was programmed as a Don Draper-style CD, from The Before. He talked about pitches and client meetings, and told tales … [Read more…]
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/09/traders-set-to-don-virtual-reality-headsets-in-their-home-offices/ He’d always been slightly envious of them, their corner of the office. It was just more… fun. They had paper, lots of it. Doodles and post-it notes with half-written jokes or quotes. Their screens always looked better too, their software exciting. And then there were the gadgets and games. They justified playing as work … [Read more…]
https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2020/09/22/amazon-launches-luxury-store-will-luxury-brands-buy-it We’ve spent a long time being exclusive. We’re careful not to say anything about ‘The Public’, but they know and we know, we’re different. Well we all knew. Now? It was bad enough when management embraced ‘social media’ – the very name! I bit my tongue. Then they ignored the real shows and spent … [Read more…]
https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/09/18/1008559/letter-writing-lockdown-loneliness-get-out-the-vote/ I imagine them opening it. You’ve seen feeds of them waiting by their new letterbox for my papergram to arrive: expectant, delighted. Sometimes they rip them open, sometimes they take endless time. I can almost feel it when I’m writing. Of course I’ve always had their profile to work with, but I think imagining … [Read more…]
https://adage.com/article/digital/heres-what-facebooks-new-future-facing-ar-glasses-look/2281271 She liked offending people. No, that’s wrong: she liked that she could offend people. No, that’s not fair either: she liked that she could inadvertently offend people. She liked accidents and mistakes, social failures. She liked clumsily saying the wrong thing or making some faux pas. It was part of her. As Oscar Wilde … [Read more…]
https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/15/researchers-ready-world-first-vision-restoration-device-for-human-clinical-trials/?guccounter=1 It was his birthday. They remembered the doctor, five years ago. He’d be able to see, she said. The operation was simple and free. The sponsored Glimpses (™) were not invasive, she told them. The Reith act meant they had to “educate, inform or entertain”. And, she said, she had good news. Previous patients … [Read more…]
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/09/facebook-leak-reveals-oculus-quest-2-as-a-4k-standalone-vr-headset/ Of course The Retros wanted them. They’d pay whatever to complete their collection, to have another thing to get working for their Boot-Up parties. But they didn’t need them. They had Visuals: invisible or stylised, designed to fit with their image. They could flip in and out with a thought. Visuals were great for … [Read more…]
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/09/ai-ruined-chess-now-its-making-the-game-beautiful-again/ They called me the “ugly duckling”. They were the ones people wanted to see. “It’s a revolution, a whole new world,” the press marvelled. There were documentaries and of course awards. I knew they were the next big thing when commentators used the word “dangerous”. They were perfection. And then there was me. I … [Read more…]
https://gizmodo.com/engineers-have-figured-out-how-to-make-interactive-pape-1844918464 He really liked her. He wanted to make the right impression. It was her birthday and he had to get the present just right. Every time he looked at her dataprint feed, it changed. Her preferences and interests seemed to him to shift from moment to moment. What if he got the gift wrong? … [Read more…]
https://www.engadget.com/nfl-microsoft-teams-covid-19-coronavirus-180945560.html Running a start-up has never been easy. Your team needs you as founder, your personality. And you need them; their energy. But as you try to build businesses in the New Normal dispersed across Office 2.0, there are no TGIFs, no chance for you to use their feelings towards you. But with Adore (™) … [Read more…]