Why Are So Many Tech Crowdfunding Projects Such A Mess?
"Overpromise, and underdeliver" has become a running theme of crowdfunders.
"Overpromise, and underdeliver" has become a running theme of crowdfunders.
2020 could be the year that hype comes back to bite the developers of self-driving cars.
Twenty years ago, Bill Gates wrote The Road Ahead. With so much asphalt behind us, some things he said were more obvious than others. Gates severely underestimated the impact of the Internet and overestimated the fate of the PC in the online era, an error reflected in the difference between the hardback and paperback editions of the book. […]
It's the stuff of horror movies: A convoy of military vehicles rolls over a highly militarized border, through a blasted, burnt-out war zone, to the tomb of an ancient chieftan. They dig up his remains, but one soldier dies "in an accident" while they're doing it. Then they bump their way back north, passing through the silent, wet streets of Kobane, and deposit the remains in a new tomb, a "temporary" resting place for the old Steppe conqueror. Then they pull back over the border and let the killing resume.
Thanks to the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, the government can read all your emails over 180 days old without a warrant. That's what the law says — and yet it remains obscure enough that every time some national media reminds us, it still shocks the senses.
A semi-secret surveillance program developed by the Drug Enforcement Administration is collecting location information about "millions" of Americans through the use of a license plate-reading system to which state police departments also contribute data.
In 2013, Jason Calacanis wrote a post titled, "I ain't gonna work on YouTube's farm no more."
Many thought he was crazy to reject cash from the largest online video distributor on the planet. But if the claims made about YouTube's new partner agreement in a blog post by cellist Zoe Keating are true, it may have been a smart move after all.
Unlike television, a film can't slowly sneak its way into an audience's heart over the course of many episodes.
In August, attorneys for classified site Craigslist filed their latest complaint in a years-long legal fight in which Craigslist claims Omidyar and other eBay executives plotted to steal trade secrets in order to launch their own rival classifieds sites.
By Sarah Lacy On November 17, 2014 A big debate among the Pando staff for the past two years has been over just how morally bankrupt Uber is. Earlier this evening, a bombshell story by Buzzfeed editor-in-chief Ben Smith proves the reality is way worse than anyone on our team could have expected. And that's […]
After all, they were originally issued solely to organize retirement benefits and the government explicitly stated that SSNs were not to be used for identification. And at just nine digits — with the first five corresponding to the city and year of issuance through 2011 (now randomized) — they're not the most secure or difficult to guess.
People shouldn't have to be afraid that their entire lives are going to be laid bare to the police just because they use a fingerprint to unlock their smartphone instead of relying on a passcode.
Between 1999 and 2009, U.S. music industry revenues were cut in half, thanks to the demise of overpriced CDs, the advent of cheap, song-by-song downloads, and piracy. Since that time, the bleeding has stopped, but the industry has yet to bounce back to its heady late-90s heights.
Countless articles have been written about General Motors and its massive recalls earlier this year. What hasn't been fully told is how GM might have gotten away with multiple counts of consumercidewere it not for the efforts of three men: a Georgia lawyer, a Mississippi mechanic, and a Florida engineer.
Get caught red-handed by the Department of Justice stealing an estimated $3 billion dollars in wages from tens of thousands of employees — and your "punishment" is an agreement with the DOJ "that does not constitute admission by the Defendants that the law has been violated or of any issue of fact or law." And, no fine.
By Sarah Lacy On October 6, 2014 [We're discussing this live on our new call-in show PandoLIVE. Listen here!] This piece originally appeared on PandoQuarterly, issue three. Silicon Valley has an asshole problem, and it's high time we owned up to it. Let me be clear what I'm not talking about. I'm not talking about […]
By David Holmes On September 24, 2014 With US music industry revenues flatlining, starting a record label in 2014 may not sound like the most lucrative business move. But that hasn't stopped the massive network of adult sites Pornhub (NSFW of course) from doing just that, according to a Billboard exclusive. To commemorate the launch, […]
By Paul Carr On September 9, 2014 The owners of Ashley Madison, the Canadian-based dating website for cheaters, is suing the South Korean government for… not playing fair. The lawsuit, brought in Canadian federal court by Avid Life Media, says that South Korea unfairly blocked access to Ashleymadison.com after determining that it contained unspecified "illegal information." […]
Sex robots are not as far away from reality as you might think. From butt clenching muscles to dancing humanoids, there's enough developments in robotics, artificial intelligence, and human skin rendering that if put together, could make a fairly humanoid sexbot.
In the middle of January, Vivint, the Utah based home automation company that also produces smart thermostats, found itself with a surprising new rival. Google bought Nest and by virtue of acquisition Vivint was suddenly competing head to head with the Silicon Valley search giant.
But Vivint — which was purchased by Blackstone in 2012 — certainly didn't expect what happened next. Just two weeks later, Vivint was delisted from Google's search results.