Just because Uber's motto is "Everyone's private driver," doesn't mean every car is yours for the hailing. But the popularity of apps like Uber and Lyft have spawned some awkward curbside interactions. "Basically anytime I'm pulled over on the side of the street, someone tries to hail me or just opens my car door," said tech investor Ashwin Deshmukh, when I asked him about the trend.
What happened to just letting a shitty idea die? For Kevin Rose, giving up the dream of owning a thriving app incubator is something he can't let go of. The former television personality's last company, Milk, released one app before the entire company shut down. Now after two years of investing, Rose is rehashing his old doomed business plan with a new company.
Children make great props for gadget commercials. They're cute—like lil mini grown-ups with years before the regret sets in. They also say the darndest slogans. But a recent barrage of precocious tots in tech ads puts a cheery face on latent panic currently hovering around threat level teal: our inability to keep up with rapidly changing technology.
On Facebook's diversity page, the company celebrates their gay users, proclaiming "we want you to feel comfortable being your true, authentic self." Mark Zuckerberg himself has shown up to San Francisco's Pride Parade, riding in a faux cable car down Market Street. However, when it comes to political donations, Facebook has no problem giving $10,000 to a man described as "the face legal opposition to marriage equality in America."
Sam Lessin is leaving his role as VP of product management at Facebook, signing off with "[smiley face] feeling gratitude." Lessin came to Facebook through the Drop.io acqui-hire and plans to kite-surf, trouble-make, and help out his wife Jessin Lessin, founder of the tech news site The Information.
Tech buses don't need anymore bad press. Their mere existence in San Francisco has been enough to make them the most hated bus system in America. But a new report is certain to drag their reputation down even further: companies are paying their bus drivers obscenely low wages and forcing them to work 15.5 hour days, six of which are unpaid.
The only tried and true PR strategy is to literally never say anything, ever, to anyone. Short of that, another good rule is to not post a list of "myths" to "debunk" about your "company" because it really makes you look "scared."
Some complaints are a morass of technical jargon and legalese. Others read like the makings of a zany crime-comedy by Steven Soderbergh. One new lawsuit filed against Google for copying the technology to compress video and audio files falls into the latter category, due primarily to allegedly incriminating Post-It notes accidentally handed over to the victim.
There's nothing quite as pathetic as swiping right on every profile you come across on Tinder. It's little more than the dating equivalent of throwing a giant bowl of questionably delicious spaghetti against a shit-covered wall. However, the lonely techies of Hacker News have optimized the catch-all process of seeing which poor souls come to them. And they're sharing their secrets.
