The two brothers that have been squatting on an Airbnb rental since May have a history of exploiting peer-to-peer startups. Before exploiting California tenant laws to secure months of free rent, they managed to milk nearly $40,000 out of gullible Kickstarter donors. And they're pleased with their racket, saying they "would squat again."
"Messaging apps"—which bring all the computing power of AIM to your smartphone—are so very in right now. The problem is, most of them don't make any money. But what if your buddy list were filled with advertisers? That's the plan.
Ever since Paul Graham stepped down from Y Combinator, the Stanford of startup accelerators has been trying to give off a more welcoming vibe. The attempts thus far have seemed awkward, half-hearted, and therefore insincere. As though Sam Altman got PR advice on crisis control from a YC bro-founder: Just tell 'em what they want to hear.
Last night, Google announced what the Wall Street Journal says "may be its most ambitious and difficult science project ever." Baseline Study will try to create the most comprehensive picture of "what a healthy human being should be" by mapping personal genetic and molecular information. It will start with anonymous data from 175 people and then "thousands more," says the paper.
Google generated $22 billion in revenue from its Irish subsidiary. Guess what amount it paid in taxes on that revenue. Guess again, because it's even lower.
The latest tech boom has been inflating commercial rents all across the Bay Area, but nowhere have the impacts been as acute as in San Francisco. The increases are certainly welcome news to the city's commercial landlords, but non-profits, small businesses, and startups are getting pushed out by rents they can't afford.
It's a bad sign when your futuristic face computer is so universally hated that a conference full of Iron Man fanboys bans its presence.
I moved back to New York from Cairo in January of 2014, and among the biggest culture shocks was American Tinder. In Cairo, there was the occasional woman, mostly Russian tourists on holiday, using the mobile dating app; in New York, I met a torrent of instant flirtation. Patterns emerged: apparently almost every woman under 30 in this city "Loves whiskey," is really into Hallmark-caliber affirmation quotes, and fake moustaches. Tinder seemed like a lot of work. So much swiping, so much chatting, only to be disappointed in the flesh.
I am willing to wager a few shillings that Mozilla founder and former Facebook director Blake Ross has been to a Renaissance fair or two. For he hath bourne, on Facebook, the kind of dramatic play best enacted in a town square—and cast himself as the hero struggling to keep his dark, murderous desires at bay.
Yesterday evening, Ashton Kutcher tweeted out a photo of a "brain sensing headband" called Muse, telling his 16.3 million followers that he was: " Excited to learn from this incredible technology." Kutcher didn't mention that he's an investor, or why his name appears to be photoshopped onto the product.
The employment of the future is here, and it's terrific for everyone except the people doing the work. TaskRabbit, which lets you outsource the things you don't want to do to people who need money, is at the forefront of this chore revolution, and it's already making some lives harder.
