Brian Gongol
May 15, 2016
Show notes - Brian Gongol Show on WHO Radio - May 15, 2016
With links to the podcast
May 14, 2016
Show notes - WHO Radio Wise Guys - May 14, 2016
With links to the podcast
May 13, 2016
Apple invests $1 billion in a Chinese ride-sharing service
The company is wise to start investing beyond its core business
Airport operators now tell TSA that long security lines are at a "breaking point"
If security becomes impossibly slow, it makes air travel less and less useful
Using a slipstream of bubbles to make ships more efficient
Adding bubbles to the water at the bow of a ship could permit the rest of the vessel to pass through the water with less friction
A closer look at the Hyperloop
Tested successfully over a very short track for a very short time this week, it may be in line for real implementation in the future
Reuters says Berkshire Hathaway is part of a bid for Yahoo
Yahoo may be so vastly under-priced that even the notoriously tech-averse Berkshire has to give it a serious look. It would probably only participate in a deal that leaves Berkshire in the role of investment bank (with someone else responsible for any ongoing operations), but with the right deal, anything is possible.
May 12, 2016
Used aircraft are now economical
They may be old and less fuel-efficient than newer jets, but fuel costs so little that they may still be economical to fly
Instagram channels 2002 for its redesign
Their new logo and application icons depend heavily on gradients, which are pretty passe in the design world today. The new look really isn't all that new-looking.
How Facebook picks trending news to feature
Mostly a human process, mostly dependent upon what's being covered by a handful of widely-known sources
This is what it's come to for newspapers
The St. Paul Pioneer Press is being "harvested" for parts
No matter how your day has gone today...
...you're not the driver who harassed a cop on I-235, got pulled over in the Valley High School parking lot, and found yourself arrested for flashing a weapon
May 11, 2016
When crimes and tragedies show up in live streams
Suicides and other personal tragedies are showing up as people stream their experiences live to the Internet. How can and should the service providers react? Immature young people are making bad decisions with these streaming tools, too. This issue is only going to become more important as the options become universal: Facebook Live is now available to everyone in the US.
Walmart sues Visa over EMV cards
Chips don't make a lot of difference to security without PINs. And nobody's using that part of the card yet.
One more calendar app bites the dust
Microsoft is killing off the "Sunrise" app
They want to deliver the videos upon which YouTube heavily depends
Microsoft to turn off service to share WiFi passwords with contacts
Definitely one of the items that people should have been disabling when setting up Windows 10
May 10, 2016
A major-party Presidential candidate who is all but certain to carry his party's nomination into the general election seems neither to understand the consequences of inflation nor the devastation that would result from a failure to keep the central bank independent. An independent authority over the money supply is a non-negotiable condition for a large, stable economy within a free political system.
Hedge fund managers and their obscene pay
2-and-20: 2% of assets every year, plus 20% of returns year-over-year. That's a huge cut being taken by people who on average are not delivering excess performance.
Good design matters on things like ballots
Clarity and legibility aren't matters just for graphic designers. They matter to public policy.
Is the Libertarian Party failing to capture the moment?
The problem is that the Libertarian Party has far too long been identified with some of its more counter-cultural issues, like the legalization of drugs. The real opportunity right now is for a party in the center of a normal distribution of the population and its political views -- not from some corner of the map of the "world's smallest political quiz". As the parties have drifted apart, they haven't stranded the extremes -- they've stranded the center.
A failure to standardize in a way that crosses over to pure online content has really held back the field
May 9, 2016
After the Millennials: Generation Z
The prefer YouTube and Instagram over Facebook
Drone footage of a live tornado
A fantastic use of UAV technology. Why should people place themselves in harm's way if the machines can go there for us and get a better view?
Facebook is putting them in your face
One family business. 1300 years.
That takes longevity to a whole new level.
Self-driving electric cars on the road...next year?
That's the rumor now