Negligent waste and rabid consumerism are always in. What about refurbished? Can refurbished goods ever become cool enough to scale and compete with the shiny and new? Before you answer that, consider that Americans throw away 151 million cellphones every year, and that’s just a fraction of our annual electronic waste. To slow this pace […]
Uber Eats Delivers Food to Your Door, And Strange Commercials To Your Screens
What are you hungry for? Depending on where you live, a driver will bring it to you? In 2018, Frost and Sullivan estimated the food delivery service industry generated $82 billion in gross revenue and predicted that this number will more than double by 2025. So, $164 billion in four years. Several players are competing […]
Karen Wants Her Privacy
“Karen” wants her privacy. Come to think of it, so does “Ken.” I like this commercial because it is awkward. For me, peak awkward happens when the coworkers speak in emoji. “Read heart emoji. Blue heart emoji. Puke emoji!” The spot offers the technorati a funny takedown of the quantified life and a well-earned poke […]
Slack On You Crazy Diamonds
I asked Darby to turn off her Slack notifications earlier this summer. The constant pinging from her office was driving me slightly mad. As with any new tech, it’s how you choose to use it. Thankfully, Slack has many customization settings and a bevy of How-To videos to dive into for new users. Slack also […]
What No One Needs Now—Technology That Makes Things Worse
Make the technology easy to use, or lose people, lose elections, lose money, and lose your shit. E-TRADE understands. This is the kind of customer-focused copy I can get behind: You should be mad that they gave this guy a promotion. You should be made at forced camaraderie. You should be mad at tech that […]
Is Google Anti-Labor? Google It!
Are today’s technology titans the new monopolies? Do the filthy rich executives say one thing and do another? Or are Silicon Valley and its satellite cities (like Austin) geek utopias where abundance is the rule? When evaluating the titan’s there are many angles to take from the customer’s perspective, privacy invasion being foremost among them. […]
Dell Technologies Lifts Spirits with Magical Performance for the Visually Impaired
Here’s some good news. For the holidays, Dell Technologies partnered with Ballet Austin and eSight to equip visually impaired individuals with new technology that enabled them to view a live performance of The Nutcracker at The Long Center in Austin. With over 150 community members in attendance, “The Unseen Ballet” was a special event that […]
How’s The Job Search Going?
When you’re in the middle of a job search, people can be so helpful. A friend or family member might innocently and genuinely offer, “Hey, have you tried Indeed?” For the job seeker, it’s the kind of question that can make one want to sink deep into a tub. “Yes, thanks friend. My resume is […]
Learning To Use the Software You Need on the Job Is High-Value Education
Students need a break today, and not at McDonald’s. The financial burdens that come with tuition, textbooks, room and board, laptops and mobile phones, clothes, etc. can be overwhelming. Plus, there’s all the coursework, reading, writing, and attending class to do, on top of family and work obligations. Making sure you have all the software […]
Are You Prepared for South By Southwest?
I first made my way to South By Southwest in March of 2003. The conference, the city of Austin, and the creative industries have all changed considerably since then. It was just 16.5 years ago, but in our accelerated, digitally-disrupted world things happen fast. To make my point even clearer, when I first attended South […]
