Nerd Stalker

Ikea buys TaskRabbit, the number-one provider of flatpack furniture assembly Ikea, a Swedish company famous for its flat-pack furniture and meatballs, has bought TaskRabbit, the Uber for getting people to do random chores for you. The wholly unexpected move pushes Ikea into a brand-new market and makes it a serious player in the Silicon Valley "gig economy.

AT&T asks U.S. Supreme Court to overturn net neutrality rules As the FCC prepares to roll back the controversial rules, AT&T and others appeal a lower court's ruling that upheld the rules to the Supreme Court.

Fidelity CEO Abigail Johnson says the company is mining cryptocurrencies Fidelity Investments, one of the world's largest investment firms with $2.3 trillion in managed assets, is taking a long look at cryptocurrencies. The firm has been experimenting internally with bitcoin, but is now bringing some of those features out to its broad customer base.

Alexa's 'Routines' will combine smart home control with other actions, like delivering your news and weather Along with yesterday's announcements of a half-dozen new gadgets, including new Echo devices, Amazon also detailed some of Alexa's new abilities, due to arrive in the near future. One of the more interesting additions, arriving this fall, is something called "Routines."

South Korea bans raising money through initial coin offerings This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:30 PM ET, September 28, 2017. The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated. Kurt Wagner / Recode: Lukas I.

Abby Curnow-Chavez Shares Her Insights on Fixing a Toxic Team By Abby Curnow-Chavez In the world of business it’s safe to say all work is done in teams. Ask anyone and they’ll tell you most of the teams they’ve been on are average or mediocre, or good but not great. And sadly, many can tell you in dreaded detail about the toxic teams they’ve been on where gossip, sabotage, and finger-pointing were the norm. Does this sound anything like the team you’re currently on? Are you the leader of one of these teams? If so, you know how these teams can suck the life out of you and it’s time to turn things around.   My partners and I wanted to understand what separates the best teams from the toxic ones so we studied thousands of teams, analyzed the data, and looked for patterns. We named the worst of the worst Saboteur Teams because, on them, someone is always working against at least one of their teammates.

Laurie Anderson's VR experience 'Chalkroom' allows you to fly through stories Artists are creating experiences in virtual reality, and it's especially exciting to hear that multimedia pioneer Laurie Anderson has entered this space. With Taiwanese new media artist Hsin-Chien Huang, she has created "Chalkroom" (aka "La Camera Insabbiata"), an immersive virtual reality experience that lets its viewers to fly through words and stories.

Three pro-human laws of robotics From the Vienna Bienalle: 1. Intelligent robots must serve the common good of humanity and help us humans to lead an ecologically, socially, culturally and economically sustainable life. 2. Intelligent robots may replace human labor only to the extent that this is compatible with humans leading a meaningful life of dignity, culture, and creative self-realization -- except where this rule conflicts with Rule 1.

Let Little Kids Spell Things Terribly Little kids spell the darnedest things, am I rit peepl? As a parent, you might have some concern or may even be tempted to get out the red teacher pen, but know that "invented spelling" is perfectly normal, and may even be the key to early reading success.

How to Shut Down a Condescending Coworker for Good You've got problems, I've got advice. This advice isn't sugar-coated-in fact, it's sugar-free, and may even be a little bitter. Welcome to Tough Love. You've got problems, I've got advice. This advice isn't sugar-coated-in fact, it's sugar-free, and... Read more This week we have someone who's struggling with a crappy coworker who seems to be holding all the cards.

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https://i-cdn.embed.ly/1/display/crop?height=300&key=fd92ebbc52fc43fb98f69e50e7893c13&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcmzone.vzbqbxhynotw9ion96xv.netdna-cdn.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F09%2FMcLaren-Civilian-Body-Armor.jpg&width=636 McLaren Built Civilian Body Armor McLaren Applied Technologies is the advanced technology, innovation and design arm of the McLaren Group (yes, that McLaren) that's responsible for making impossible things possible in the worlds of motorsports, health & wellness, energy and transportation, among others. Their latest creation, Project Invincible, is a piece of body armor designed

Microsoft and Facebook just laid a massive cable across the Atlantic Ocean to make your life better If you've ever felt the incredible frustration of wiring up a dozen gadgets in a home office, just imagine trying to connect a wire between two continents. That's exactly what a partnership between Microsoft, Facebook, and communications corp Telxius just finished doing with an incredibly powerful, 4,000-mile-long cable that is now laying some 17,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.

5 Myths Your Product Stakeholders Believe About UX Research, Part 1 Starting by choosing a research method even before you understand what questions your research needs to answer is crazy! ... As UX researchers, we need to reverse engineer their prescribed method into research goals and hypotheses.

SF Music Tech Summit Announces a Hackathon to Kickoff SF Music Tech Summit Prior to this year's SF MusicTech Summit on October 17, the SF MusicTech summit just announced a hackathon to kickoff the SF MusicTech Summit on October 14th and 15th at Upload SF . Participants will join forces to address a focus area in MusicTech ( Music , VR/AR/XR,  Music  AI,  music  blockchain and cryptocurrencies)  with the aim of developing an overnight unicorn and compete for prizes under the supervision of experts. It will be like the "24 hours of LeMans" with non-stop action as hackers, innovators,  tech- specialists, artists, makers and coders use and share their knowledge to develop the new, innovative solutions in the  MusicTech  industry. The SF MusicTech  Hackathon is being produced by Travis Laurendine of SXSW Hackathon / Outside Hacks, and Luann Williams of the SXSW Hackathon in partnership with International Music HackDay, the SF MusicTech Summit production team, and mo

Robot dentist is first to fit implants without a human touch A robot dentist has carried out the first successful autonomous implant surgery by fitting two new teeth into a woman's mouth, mainland media has reported....

Bob Roohparvar of Batteroo Shares the Story of Releasing a Complex Design Through Indiegogo Startups go through a lot of ups and downs. Add the complexity of product designs which influence manufacturability and it could cause a long fulfillment cycle for crowdfunders. Bob Roohparvar of Batteroo shares the their story of off-shore design which had to be translated to off-shore manufacturing in China. Some of the learnings caused manufacturing delays as well as common crowdfunding fulfillment challenges. Check out his story below.

Someone on the D&D 5th Edition Facebook group posted a link to these really lovely and very playable-looking 5e character sheets. The designer of the sheets, William Lu, posted them on ArtStation and writes: Custom, combat-oriented character sheets for the Dungeons and Dragons 5th ed. tabletop game.

T-Mobile ups prioritization limit to 50GB T-Mobile has announced that it has upped the limit for network prioritization to a whopping 50GB, up from the old 32GB limit that was still sitting above AT&T and Verizon's 22GB threshold. Prioritization is not quite like data caps. You don't hit 50GB and get throttled [...]

Gmail now converts addresses and phone numbers to links When sending emails, you often send important information like phone numbers and addresses. Yet despite such content being clickable on the internet, this was not entirely the case in Gmail. Google is fixing that by updating the mobile apps on Android and iOS as well as the website and Inbox for Gmail.

Tiffany Shlain's Premieres Short Film on How Humans Wrestled with the Question of How to Live Life with Meaning and Purpose A week ago, Tiffany Shlain and her Let it RiPPLE Film Studio launched a screening for their new short film on their fourth Character Day.  Character Day  is a global event for people to screen films on the topic of science as it relates to character development.  Their 11 minute short film   30,000 Days!  explores the 3,000 year history of humans wrestling with the question of how to live life with meaning and purpose. 30,000 days is the amount of days you will be on this earth.  Check it out!

Add Todoist tasks with Siri (plus an AirPods giveaway to celebrate iOS 11) It's that time of year again. Pumpkin spice lattes, not one but two brand-new iPhones, and the latest and greatest in the world of iOS. Of course, this means all-new powers for your mobile devices (whether you shell out for the new iPhone X or not).

Satya Nadella Rewrites Microsoft's Code Satya Nadella's corner office, on the fifth floor of Building 34 at Microsoft's Redmond, Washington, headquarters, features a can't-miss 84-inch Surface touch-screen computer that dominates one wall. But what demands even more attention are the vast quantities of books in the room.

Amazon Web Services just made its biggest pricing change in years Source: Amazon Web Services Public cloud market leader Amazon Web Services on Monday said that on October 2 it will start charging its customers by the second for use of its popular EC2 virtual slices of servers in its data centers. The move is historically significant.

Fedcoin? Central banks may need 'digital alternative to cash,' global financial watchdog says Bradley Boner | Bloomberg | Getty Images Central banks may one day need to issue their own cryptocurrencies, the Bank for International Settlements, or BIS, said in its latest quarterly review. "Whether or not a central bank should provide a digital alternative to cash is most pressing in countries, such as Sweden, where cash usage is rapidly declining," the Sunday report said.

What are the Most Female and Male Occupations? Picture, in your mind, a homicide detective. Now picture a kindergarten teacher. I'm guessing you imagined the first person as male, and the second as female. Based on direct experience or what we've seen on TV, we all have certain stereotypes about which genders work in which occupations. But what

Honda is Latest Car Company to Join the Retro-Electric Movement Looks like we officially have a trend on our hands: Retro-Electric? We saw both Volkswagen and Jaguar reinvigorating classic automotive designs with electric powerplants, and now Honda's dipping their foot in the pool as well. Their compact Urban EV, unveiled at the Frankfurt Motor Show, bears a striking resemblance to

Cord-cutting is happening faster than anyone predicted Cable companies are terrified by the onset of "cord-cutting," the term that analysts have attached to the trend of young people not wanting to fork over $120 a month for a mostly-useless cable TV package.

Equifax announces "retirement" of the IT execs who presided over the mass-doxing of America One week after announcing the worst breach in American history, and days after it was revealed that the breach had been caused by simple negligence, Equifax has announced the "retirement" of its Chief Information Officer, David Webb, and Chief Security Officer, Susan Mauldin, though "the company's review of the facts is still ongoing."

Design Terminology: What's the Difference Between a Bevel and a Bezel? - Core77 We designers often take for granted the terminology we use to describe parts of objects. But after seeing laypeople interchangeably use the words "bevel" and "bezel" in an online discussion about the forthcoming iPhone X, it's become clear that not everyone has our command of design and manufacturing vocabulary. Well,

AR "Browsers" On The Phone - AVC We think this is a big deal because for the first time AR developers will have standard environments to build to that are already in the hands of 1bn people.

Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast: How #NoEstimates can make teams more predictable | Mattia Battiston Mattia joined a team that was estimating their work. Invariably the estimates were off. Way off. So Mattia, being a self-proclaimed data geek, started looking at the data. The next project came, and the team estimated the project, while Mattia looked at the data they already had. Guess what was the result?

What does the iPhone X's AR engine mean for UX Designers? | Designlab blog Learn UI/UX design through hands-on projects and 1-on-1 mentorship from expert designers. Add design to your resume and level up your career.

EarthCam Oculus Construction Time-Lapse Honored with Telly Award Photo Courtesy of EarchCam Check this out! Witness the rebirth of downtown Manhattan with EarthCam’s construction  time-lapse movie  for The Oculus at the World Trade Center.  The Santiago Calatrava-designed World Trade Center transportation hub, known as The Oculus, is located in the heart of downtown New York City between 3 World Trade Center and the site of what will be 2 World Trade Center. EarthCam released this time-lapse movie showcasing The Oculus construction from July 2011 to May 2016 in honor of the ribbon cutting ceremony on May 26, 2016. The video is framed by more than one million high-resolution photographs and panoramas mixed into a wonderful cinematic time-lapse movie, showcasing the nearly 5-year project from start to finish in less than 2 minutes.

This App Lets Nonverbal Kids Communicate Exactly What They Want Royden James has had the thought before. He's sure other parents in his situation have, too. "I wish you could just fucking tell me what you want." James' son is 6, and has autism. He is nonverbal, so it's a struggle to know what he wants, needs, and thinks about all day.

iPhone 8 specs just leaked hours before Apple's big event Now that Apple's iPhone lineup for 2017 has been thoroughly spoiled by leaks, one of the few mysteries that remains is how the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus will stack up against the iPhone X.

Lyft self-driving vehicles coming to the streets of San Francisco Lyft is busy forging partnerships with companies big and small in pursuit of its ride-sharing future, the latest of which is Drive.ai, a self-driving technology firm spun out of Stanford University. The two are now preparing to kick off trials of self-driving cars in and around San Francisco.

Dead Coins A Curated list of cryptocurrencies forgotten by this world.

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For the love of God, please tell me what your company does Meltwater is a company with a simple product: A database of media contacts. These contacts are otherwise hard to find, as most reporters don't want every "disruptive" startup out there calling them to beg for a story.

J-Pop Summit Tech to Check Out This Weekend J-POP SUMMIT 2017 , one of the world’s biggest Japanese pop culture events will once again celebrate the latest in Japanese tech-innovations through their Interactive Summit on Saturday and Sunday, September 9th and 10th from 12pm - 5pm at Fort Mason Center, located at 2 Marina Blvd, San Francisco, CA 94123. The annual event bridges the informational gap between Japan and the U.S. to explore the Japanese tech scene and what Silicon Valley is currently missing. 

Robert Glazer Reflects on How Summer Vacation Improved His Leadership Perspective By Robert Glazer,  Excerpt from  Friday  Forward , " RV REFLECTIONS – PART DEUX (#87) , RV ReFLECTIONS - PART ONE(#86) " I just returned from ten days traveling aboard an RV through Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons with my family. It was an off-the-grid trip that recharged my batteries and gave me enjoyable, quality time with my wife and kids. This time off also lead to several breakthrough business ideas and lessons that I thought I would share with you:

Rajarshi Choudhuri talks about what Startup Bootstrapping!  Photo courtesy of Startup.co By Rajarshi Choudhuri   on May 30, 2017. Originally published on   Startups.co - the world's largest startup platform, helping over 1 million startup companies. More from Startups. What exactly does bootstrapping your startup mean? For the uninitiated, a bootstrap startup basically means that you self-fund your business, i.e. using the existing resources and internal revenue to drive your business, instead of raising any external funds. Given the wide scale availability of angel investors and venture capitalists, it’s hard to resist the chance to build a steady business without accepting external funds. In fact most startups today forget the importance and the advantages of starting out on a shoestring budget. At this point, I can almost feel the startup founders scoffing at the idea of starting out with a minimal budget, but hear me out. Granted, bootstrapping your sta

Small Businesses use Collaboration Tools to Grow Faster and Turn Higher Profits  Want to know collaboration tools we use? This post is prompted by the inforgraphic below from  SCORE , the nation’s largest network of volunteer, expert business mentors. Score has published an infographic showing how small businesses that use online collaboration tools see 26% faster growth and 21% higher profits. Among businesses with fewer than 100 employees, 12% currently use online collaboration tools, while 17% plan to use these tools in the next 12 months. Businesses with 100-1000 employees are using collaboration tools at an even higher rate, with 28% currently using them, and 35% planning to use them in the next 12 months. 

NHK & J-Pop Summit Ponders the Future of TV What is a 'Directhon'? A Directhon is NHK's (the BBS of Japan) vision of an ideathon focused at the future of TV. The organizer said "TV is in crisis." The nerds at Nerd Stalker were grateful to attend a collaborative event put on by NHK and J-pop Summit . An 'Ideathon' is a twist on a hackathon where teams of people come together to brainstorm in a quick session on the future and present a concept. The future can be five, 10 or 15 years away. In this case, NHK wanted the near-term vision of 2022 and the ideathon participants to be the TV director. The 'crisis' of TV is well-documented but the solutions are varied if not out maybe somewhat out there. NHK asked all of our teams to consider what either a platform or channel will look like in 2022.