Increasingly I think that “crypto” — meaning blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum , their imitators and would-be successors — is a transitional technology. I don’t think that blockchains of this styl
× Seth Wenig/AP Photo A sign marks a pick-up point for the Uber car service at LaGuardia Airport in New York. It's long been understood that ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft may pose a threat to pu
The views expressed here are solely those of the author and do not represent positions of IEEE Spectrum or the IEEE. I have been a pilot for 30 years, a software developer for more than 40. I have wri
Stuart Franklin/Magnum Photos Pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square, Beijing, 1989. China’s Communist authorities are wary about the approaching thirtieth anniversary on June 4 Beijing —Somethi
One spring afternoon, while visiting my parents in my hometown of State College, Pennsylvania, I was driving to the grocery store. As I usually do on the rare occasions I drive, I was listening to the
When I was fresh into my twenties, a pal of mine moved into a small, one-bedroom apartment with his girlfriend. Our friend group thought she was wonderful, but we still had our concerns, not all of th
The intense political battles over Facebook and the other giant social media companies mark the end of the empire-building phase of those companies’ history. Now they’re a mid-20th-century European po
He would call me late in the night from somewhere on the road, a ghosttown in Texas, a rest stop near Pittsburgh, or from Santa Fe, where hewas parked in the desert, listening to the coyotes howling.
For most of my adult life, I have been maniacally focused on my work. I would answer emails instantly during the day, and even get up twice each night to ensure that all the emails were answered. Yes,
9 min read · Jun 1, 2017 -- It is a wonderful accident of history that the internet and web were created as open platforms that anyone — users, developers, organizations — could access equally. Among
The cap does not look good on you, it's a duffer's cap, and when you come to the microphone, you look like the warm-up guy, the guy who announces the license number of the car left in the parking lot,
CAN entrepreneurs make up for a lack of roads? In Rwanda, where most of the population live in cut-off villages, the government wants to skip straight to drones. Encouraged by Paul Kagame, the preside
Cleveland They perched on bar stools, their bodies long and lean, like eels, the women in sleeveless dresses the color of flowers or fruit (marigold, tangerine), the men in fitted suits the color of e
H ell, yes, it was crazy. You rubbed your eyes at the sight of it, as in, “Did that really just happen?” It wasn’t what we expected. We thought Donald Trump ’s version of the Republican National Conve
Howling Laud Hope (taken from a screenshot of loonypart.com ). The Monster Raving Loony Party just joined the US ballot 5 min read · Jul 21, 2016 -- When I witnessed my first UK election, there was on
Thousands of teenage hands rocketed skywards as the Great Helmsman stepped down from the rostrum in Tiananmen Square to greet the shock troops of his revolution. It was the summer of 1966 and Mao’s Gr
At the dawn of the Nineties, Prince appeared to be entering not merely a new decade but a period of rejuvenation. He had completed his third dramatic film ( Graffiti Bridge ), had hired new managers,
I t’s entirely possible to be a massive Prince fan — to recognize him as the most influential musician since James Brown and the most dexterous since Stevie Wonder — and still admit that he never quit
Already missing our soon-to-be-former POTUS. Something is dawning on us—it's almost too soon for us to admit, but it's there, a half-considered thought only now blooming in our brains. Maybe we dismiss it with one of those quick cognitive…
Published 3 March 2016 comments Share page About sharing Image source, Thinkstock By Dave Lee North America technology reporter On an internet full of hurried, scruffy ballpoints, Medium is the web's
2 min read · Apr 13, 2015 -- I hope it is true that “ eventually the pendulum will swing back as the closed services atrophy and entrepreneurs & developers go elsewhere .” And I do think closed servic
6 min read · Feb 23, 2016 -- I wrote this in October 2015 . There was drinking with some late night coding prior. It does not reflect the views of my children, employer, or my own current views now th
Published in MIT MEDIA LAB · 5 min read · Feb 13, 2016 -- I never went looking for a mentor. In 1995, I was working as the lead tech guy for an internet startup, Tripod . I spent an inordinate amount
on Feb 14, 2016 at 10:07 am Share This post has been revised and superseded here . In thinking about how to respond to the vacancy on the Supreme Court, the administration has two priorities. First, f
Notebook Touring Can’t Save Musicians in the Age of Spotify Dave Grohl of the band Foo Fighters performing in Ansan, South Korea, in July after breaking his leg. Every couple of months, I see another
The blackly comic energy of Nathanael West’s Miss Lonelyhearts —its caustic ebullience, the strange buoyancy of its suffering—is a remarkably American achievement, a kind of death-dance capered on the
Economics Economics Indicators Central Banks Jobs Trade Tax & Spend Inflation & Prices Central Banks ECB Suspense Intensifies With Officials Split Over Rate Decision Trade WTO in Survival Mode Pushes
On the evening that news of my resignation from Bloomberg Politics broke this week, I kept an appointment with a Princeton University student who had wanted to interview me for her college thesis, abo
Stephen Le was finishing his Ph.D. at the University of California in Los Angeles when he got devastating news from home in Canada. His mother’s breast cancer, diagnosed years earlier—she had had mast