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Submission + - The Imitation Game Fails Test of Inspiring the Next Turings (thedailybeast.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: In ‘The Imitation Game’: Can This Big Fat Cliche Win Best Picture?, reviewer Monica Guzman blasts the film for distorting history and missing the opportunity to inspire today's tech savvy, highly surveilled generation to follow in Turing's path: Instead of an inventor, it shows a stereotype. Instead of inspiring us to follow in the footsteps of a person who shaped technology, the film inspires us only to get out of the way of the next genius who can. The Imitation Game changed aspects of the real Alan Turing’s personality to conform more closely to our idea of the solitary nerd. It falls in line with the tired idea that only outcasts could love computers...As for explaining the science behind Turing’s code-breaking machine, the movie doesn’t bother. if invention doesn’t deserve top billing in this story, where the technology at its heart is not only historically significant but hugely resonant in our lives today, then I don’t know where it would. The message of the movie is that the uncommon man can do amazing things, but the message we need is that the common man, woman, anybody can and should tinker with the technology that manages our whole world. — Guzman's essay is extraordinary — a must read for the /. set.

Submission + - Un-truthful Carrier: Ten Lies T-Mobile Told Me About My Data Plan (jeffreifman.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: Last June, my post “Yes, You Can Spend $750 in International Data Roaming in One Minute on AT&T” was slashdotted and this led to T-Mobile CEO John Legere tweeting 'how crappy @ATT is' and welcoming me to the fold. Unfortunately, now it’s TMobile that’s having trouble tracking data; it seems to be related to the rollout of their new DataStash promotion. Just like AT&T, they’re blaming the customer. Here are the ten lies T-Mobile told me about my data usage today.

Submission + - Viral Sensation ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com Domain Already For Sale (flippa.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: Reminiscent of the Million Dollar Home Page, that overnight Australian-based website phenomenon, ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.com featured everywhere this past week is already for sale at domain auction site Flippa: "In just four days the site received over 2.5 million visits! ... The new owner will have to decide whether or not they want to ship the envelopes themselves or outsource to a 3rd party." Could this be the fastest Internet sensation to hit ReplyAll?

Submission + - Seattle CEO Wants to Hire "Binders Full of Women" Into Tech (geekwire.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: Fizzmint CEO Tarah Wheeler Van Vlack says she "never had a problem with Mitt Romney’s use of the phrase 'binders full of women' ... Instead of congratulating him for his realization and his attempt to (awkwardly) rectify the situation, we crucified him for not already having a network of accomplished women." The scarcity of women in tech is a central issue in Seattle where Amazon's growth is literally reshaping the city but the company refuses to release its technology workforce diversity numbers and its been criticized for interviewing practices that put female candidates on a "horrifying steeplechase [by] careless and non-people-oriented technologists." Says Van Vlack, "It’s stupid on every level not to acknowledge the obstacles women face when they try to join a tech company." She suggests three concrete steps for technology leaders to attract more women into the fold: 1) Push your technical recruiters to hit 20% thresholds for female candidates 2) Challenge and question your personal assumptions about the leadership skills of women in technology and 3) Transparently and openly take a stand to improve your company's diversity figures.

Submission + - Revisiting Open Source Social Networking Alternatives (tutsplus.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: Upstart social networking startup Ello burst on the scene in September with promises of a utopian, post-Facebook platform that respected user's privacy. I was surprised to see so many public figures and media entities jump on board — mainly because of what Ello isn't. It isn't an open source, decentralized social networking technology. It's just another privately held, VC-funded silo. Remember Diaspora? In 2010, it raised $200,641 on Kickstarter to take on Facebook with "an open source personal web server to share all your stuff online." Two years later, they essentially gave up, leaving their code to the open source community to carry forward. In part one of "Revisiting Open Source Social Networking Alternatives," I revisit/review six open source social networking alternatives in search of a path forward beyond Facebook. Here's what I found...

Submission + - As Amazon Grows in Seattle, Pay Equity for Women Declines (geekwire.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: Amazon's hiring so quickly in Seattle that it's on pace to employ 45,000 people or seven percent of the city. But, 75% of these hires are male. While Seattle women earned 86 cents per dollar earned by men in 2012, today, they make only 78 cents per dollar. In "Amageddon: Seattle's Increasingly Obvious Future", I review these and other surprising facts about Amazon's growing impact on the city: we're the fastest growing — now larger than Boston, we have the fastest rising rents, the fourth worst traffic, we're only twelfth in public transit, we're the fifth whitest and getting whiter, we're experiencing record levels of property crime and the amount of office space under construction has nearly doubled to 3.2 million square feet in the past year.

Comment Re:Why didn't they ask Myspace? (Score 1) 206

by reifman (#48263981) Attached to: Is the Outrage Over the FBI's Seattle Times Tactics a Knee-Jerk Reaction?
I've put a question into the FBI spokesperson about this. This is 2007 - so WiFi and laptop penetration was a bit less than it is today. But, theoretically, the CIPAV would leverage additional data from their laptop. But, agreed - this would have been a logical step - trying to confirm if/why they tried this.

Submission + - Outrage over FBI's online tactics highlights knee-jerk Internet culture (geekwire.com)

Submitted by reifman
reifman writes: The Internet's been abuzz the past 48 hours about reports the FBI distributed malware via a fake Seattle Times news website. What the agency actually did is more of an example of smart, precise law enforcement tactics; the outrage online is more an indictment of Twitter's tendency towards uninformed, knee-jerk reaction. In this age of unwarranted, unconstitutional blanket data collection by the NSA, the FBI's tactics from 2007 seem refreshing for their precision.

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