Those Anti-Social Smartphones

An ironically popular theme in social media lately is “Smartphones have made people antisocial!”, often illustrated with a photo of a bunch of people who happen to be standing or sitting near each other, all heads-down, engrossed in whatever is happening on their phones. There is usually accompanying text, some sanctimonious, head-shaking statement about how “before smartphones, people used to actually talk to each other in public.”

Actually, they didn’t. Continue reading Those Anti-Social Smartphones

Tom Alter as Maulana Azad

I’ve been hoping for years to see this full show, but the right confluence of circumstances will have to occur. At least I have now seen some excerpts, thanks to Tom’s presence at the WOSA annual reunion I just attended in Baltimore.

The Place for Me

On June 16, I became an employee of Ericsson, the Swedish telecom multinational, following Jason Hoffman (above), the founder who had originally hired me into Joyent in late 2010, and was until last September the CTO and my direct boss there.

Continue reading The Place for Me

Deirdré Straughan on Italy, India, the Internet, the world, and now Australia