Why eBooks won’t rule the Earth

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The certainty in the headlines is almost palpable. “eBooks Now ‘Dominant Single Format’ in Adult Fiction Sales,” shouted book publishing site GalleyCat. “Kindle ebook sales have overtaken Amazon print sales,” trumpeted UK’s The Guardian. “E-book revenue outstrips hardbacks in first quarter,” trembled The Bookseller. But if these stories led to you to believe that the… Read More…

How to keep your big business from acting like a startup

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Much has been written — including my last column on GeekWire —about why it’s important for new businesses and startups to keep from acting like big companies. But that doesn’t mean the startup environment is a model of efficiency and productivity. There are, in fact, several common startup characteristics that big companies should avoid to increase their… Read More…

Ask Andru: How do I stop iPhoto from opening when I plug in my iPhone?

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Apple tries to make it easy to use all of its products together harmoniously, but there are times where it might get in the way. Today we received a question that asks how to stop iPhoto from opening automatically whenever an iPhone is plugged in, and that’s exactly the kind of synergy that can get… Read More…

How to keep your startup from acting like a big company

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The kind of big-company behavior we all hate – bureaucracy, slow decision-making, politics, stifled innovation – doesn’t just happen at big companies. It creeps into new businesses as well, with just a handful of people. If you don’t actively watch for it, proactively keep it out, and eject it immediately when you see the first… Read More…

Banks behaving badly: Dealing with a divisive digital divide

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When a company providing financial services emphasizes digital convenience, you’d think that also applies to its customer service. After all, nearly every major bank and credit union pushes online banking, mobile banking, text and email alerts and electronic bill payment. But there seems to be a digital divide between financial institutions promoting digital and thinking… Read More…

7 ways to get other people to read for you

Photo Kevin Lim

Want to read more, but just don’t have the time? Let someone else read for you! It’s not crazy. There are a number of tools, most online and many for free, where someone else does the “heavy lifting” of reading everything, summarizing what’s most important and prescient for you. In just a few minutes, you… Read More…

Olympic fever grips Synapse: Beer relays, synchro wall climbs and flying monkey toss

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It’s just nine days until some of the best athletes in the world converge on London for the opening of the summer Olympics. But a different type of athlete, one might say more of the “mathlete” variety, will be competing this August in Seattle and San Francisco.  Synapse, an engineering firm which has designed everything… Read More…

Ask Andru: How do I prepare my Mac for Mountain Lion?

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Apple is set to release its next major operating system update, known os OS X Mountain Lion, later this month. In this edition of Ask Andru, Tracy writes in and asks if there is anything she should do to prepare her Mac computers for the Mountain Lion installation. I share some tips on what we… Read More…

10 questions: ‘Existence’ author David Brin on science fiction, science and geeks

David Brin

One could successfully argue that modern geek culture wouldn’t exist in its current form without 20th century science fiction and its fan culture, the true Ancient Geeks. Tech’s unconferences have their roots in PowerPoint-free, volunteer-organized, fan-driven science-fiction conventions run by organizations such as the Los Angeles Science Fantasy Society (LASFS), which go back nearly eight… Read More…