Ajit Pay, FCC Chairman; photo by Tom Brenner, NYT The Chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai , put forth a motion to repeal the rules that ensured that the internet was open in terms of bandwidth. He vigorously defended the repeal before the vote. He said the...

short interview bites from Seraina Maag ; For more, see speech after honor Seraina Maag (Macia), age 49 , has had a remarkable international career in insurance and finance. So far, it has included these highlights: An idyllic childhood in the Swiss...

PBS : Why do we go to space? Planet Money , the podcast series on business from NPR, has obtained space on a satellite (owned by Planet ) orbiting the Earth and taking pictures. (But they still need a rocket.) This may sound exciting, but then they...

KTNV report on toy-buying bots Have ever tried to buy concert tickets and have logged in again and again from the moment the ticket sales opened--but have failed to successfully complete a transaction? If so, it is totally possible that tickets were...

image by Minh Uong for the NYT in article linked below In the aftermath of the Equifax security breach, several companies have tried to step into the marketing niche as financial-identity Hero. But the costs can be hefty: ID Shield charges $899 to...

John Oliver on Equifax TRIGGER WARNING! Bad language In September of this year, Equifax announced a security breach that had occurred in July that affected just about every American with a bank account or credit card. There was a flurry of stories telling...

Zuckerberg spins Facebook's involvement in politics Facebook has been in the news lately--not for its cute baby goat videos, but for its considerable political influence. Mark Zuckerberg's belated and underwhelming response to his company's...

PBS NewsHour on the Equifax hack Equifax, one of the three gatekeepers of credit histories for individuals, recently announced a breach affecting virtually all financially active individuals in the United States. The breach occurred between May and...

CNN piece on increased robocalls " Spoofing " is a new twist on robocalls. The telemarketing call is routed so that it looks as though it originates from the town in which you grew up. So, instead of ignoring it, you might answer it, hoping...

from CBS News, Los Angeles Amazon did not require vendors selling eye protection for viewing the partial solar eclipse to prove they were selling "certified" wares prior to posting on the retail site. But it turns out SOME of the glasses...

c|net news More than one stand-up comic has asked something like, " How many of you have recently had to update Adobe Flash on your laptop?....Really? Have they still not gotten all of the bugs out of it yet? " The reminders to update Adobe...

An instruction manual for an early ATM, from the article linked below On June 27, 1967, the first ATM --or "robot cashier"--was put into service at London's Barclays Bank. It was greeted with suspicion and fear, and often broke down. Nevertheless...

how a Ring doorbell works The Ring Doorbell brings video and smartphone technology to connect a resident to their front door, even when they are not at home. A tenant in Santa Monica installed a Ring doorbell when security gates in her apartment complex...

advertising copy for Essex's book (ironically) Andrew Essex , who founded the ad agency Droga5 , recently published a book called The End of Advertising: Why It Had to Die and the Creative Revolution to Come . Essex left the agency he founded in...

image from Kaspersky Blog How could ransomware get any worse? Now it is being reported that ransomware victims are being given a choice: either pay up in bitcoin...or turn on the ransomers to two more potential victims. Popcorn time is the first ransomware...

image from 123RF.com The start-up Opendoor offers a new way to sell your house: Opendoor will buy it outright, charge you a convenience fee, and close the transaction within a few days. How is this possible? Opendoor is capitalized with $300 million...

image from Paste Magazine The world is changing faster than ever, right? Isn't that common knowledge? Economist Robert Gordon tested out this premise by researching and organizing changes by date. He wrote a 700 page book called The Rise and Fall...

Photo credit: Dolly Faibyshev for The New York Times What is the latest thing in selfie photography? The "selfie booth." In the photograph above, clients Kat Cohen and LaShonna Holloway are taking a photo in a special selfie booth at Tracy...

investment analysis of Snap, Inc. as of March 2017 (IPO) Snap Inc. , the parent company of Snapchat, had a disappointing first quarter. It lost $2.2 billion--much of which was the result of IPO-related compensation paid. The stock price fell from $22...

TEDx March 2017 via YouTube: Steve Ballmer talks about USAFacts Steve Ballmer , a "numbers guy" who retired from his position as CEO of Microsoft in 2014, is about to launch a new project: USAFacts.org . This is a database of financial information...

Bill Gates via YouTube When a robot replaces a human who used to be paid for doing the same job, the "winners" include: the trained engineers who have designed the robots, and who maintain and improve them over time; the corporation...

image by Chelsea Beck for NPR " Last week, the biggest investment firm in the world laid off a bunch of its top stock pickers and replaced them with computer programs. This is happening all over Wall Street. Firms are moving away from having humans...

image from pbs.com Is your job robot-proof? More than 800 U.S. job activities were analyzed by The McKinsey Global Institute to determine if the jobs could be automated based on existing technology. Here are a few of their findings: Robot...

microchipping process at Epicenter; photo: Paul Mitchell, Wikipedia It had to happen sooner or later--the microchipping technology that can help an owner re-connect with their dog is now being used as a convenient way to authenticate employee activities...

image from the Better Business Bureau If you sign up for an online budgeting and bookkeeping system like Mint , you agree to allow them access to your credit card and banking transactions. What they (and other tech companies) might do with the information...