Work & Life - The backlash to Google's social networking feature sheds light on the challenges alltechnologycompanies must face when it comes to thinking about privacy, says one researcher.
Work & Life - A interview with the Andrey Ternovskiy, the 17-year-old Russian founder of Chatroulette who has abandoned high school to travel the world and meet withtechnologyinvestors.
Work & Life - Our daily roundup of tech tidbits features a Flickr visualization of seasonal colors, Tim Cook's $5 million bonus, an upstart competitor to Twitter and Slacker Radio's upcoming music service.
Work & Life - People want to receive location-based cellphone coupons, but most have not, according to a Web analytics firm.
Work & Life - Bowing to privacy concerns, Netflix said it was shelving its plans for a sequel to a contest that awarded a $1 million prize.
Work & Life - Plastic Logic is delaying its $800 professional document- and book-reading device until this summer.
Work & Life - The Us Weekly readers who know freak-folk musician Devendra Banhart as the hippie-haired beardo on the arm of Natalie Portman probably won't recognize him now. The Portman thing ended a while ago, for one. Plus he's wearing glasses these days, prescribed to him when he started getting headaches from poring over his miniscule drawings for a recent art exhibition, he explains in a call from his home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles. Also, he'll begin a tour next week to support his lat album, What Will We Be, with a scandalously short-cropped do. "It's like a lesbian librarian," he jokes. Along with the new bookish look, he's coming out as an accomplished visual artist--his second career that technically came first. His first album The Charles C. Leary, came out in 2002; he's been quietly exhibiting paintings since 1998. He's designed the covers of all but one of his eight albums, too, but people still ask him who's the artist behind them. "I am very grateful that anyone other than my mom is taking an inter in what I do, but it's very funny that people don't even know," he says, joking that it must be because of his teensy signatures. "I do have very small handwriting." Banhart runs in a circle full of friends he met in the late '90s San
Work & Life - The Guggenheim is auctioning off the works displayed in its recent exhibition, Contemplating the Void. Recently, we brought you a slideshow preview of a lovely exhibition at the Guggenheim, Contemplating the Void, which runs through April 28. In it, the Guggenheim invited 200 artists and designers to imagine radical installations for the interior of the museum--fantastical ideas for turning the famous central atrium into something entirely new. Well, if you liked a piece from the show, you might also be able to own it: The Guggenheim is auctioning off 95% of the pieces. The list of works is basically a hit parade of architects and designers you're read about quite often on FastCompany.com--including (covered Snøhettahere); BIG (covered here); Toyo Ito (covered here); Joris Laarman (covered here and pictured below); Marti Guixe (covered here); and MVRDV, which was most recently one of our 50 Most Innovative Companies. Obviously, a few of the works, such as the one up top by artist Matthew Ritchie, are likely to go for several thousand dollars. But most of those by architects and designers will probably be had for a couple hundred bucks.
Work & Life - Finally! Our wild dreams for hobo-tech can now be had for $250. As a regular reader of FastCompany.com, you know that we keep sharp about developments in hobotech: From hobo-conventions for techies to rolling hobo shelters. So it's with great excitement that we bring you the JakPak, a jacket that converts into a tent. Previously, we'd only seen student concepts of this sort of idea. But the JakPak--pardon the egregious, vaguely pornographic name--will be available for $250 this spring. It's loaded with features, suited to three seasons of camping (spring, summer, and fall). The jacket itself is breathable and waterproof--it even has a routing system for iPod cords. Inside, extra fabric in the lining can be unfurled, to create a sleeping bag. There's then another large flap, integrated into the back, that converts the sleeping bag into a one-person tent. The jacket interior even contains a mosquito net. Granted, the confined space might take some getting used to, but this is pretty genius for overnight hikes where packing tent poles and the like seems excessive. Or for long sojourns across America, while you're riding the rails, eating beans from a can. [Via NotCot]
Work & Life - Using a video projection and text-message billing, a new project opens up hearts and wallets to problem of homelessness. A problem like homelessness hides in plain sight: It's easy not to give, because, as any city dweller knows, you simply don't notice the homeless after a time. And even if you intend to be charitable, you're probably loathe to give change--and neglectful in following up with the right charities. [youtube SWhdY-9DC0M] Those dilemmas are solved in a new installation created for the charity Pathways to Housing created by digitial agency Sarkissian Mason. First, there's a project of a shivering homeless person projected on the open street; viewers can then donate directly to the charity via SMS, via a number shown on the installation. By way of giving credit where due, the idea of projecting video of homeless people actually isn't new. But the combination with the txt-message giving is brilliant. Non-profits from the Red Cross to NPR have raised massive amounts of money via text message, simply because of how simple it is--when giving becomes as easy as texting, you can get people to open their wallets precisely at the moment you've reached them. There's no loss from the countless people who thought to give but failed to follow up.
Work & Life - NPR's Planet Money produces an astounding infographic that shows just how bad a bet the banks made when they went crazy for bundles of subprime mortgages. Toxic assets brought oureconomyto its knees. You remember those, right? They were bundles of sub-prime mortgages, which were sold to banks like bonds. As the bundled mortgages were paid off each month, they promised a steady portion of the cash. For the banks that bought these assets, the problems began when people couldn't pay the mortgages. NPR's Planet Money--which brought you the Giant Pool of Money story that explained the entire mess--wanted to get a more concrete picture of the foreclosure crisis gripping the country. So the bought a single toxic asset, formerly worth $75,000, for a mere $1,000. And they've tracked its progress in a superb infographic, detailing that assets performance from December 2006 to the present day. (Graphic above, explanatory video below.) The chart includes a map of where all the troubled mortgages in the asset are coming from, and a pie chart and bar chart showing the composition of the asset. So how's it faring? Not so well. When first bought, the asset was a bunch of good mortgages, which could potentially have paid off the invment quite handily: But