Brave New World

Clown face in a pinball machine

Politics This Week: Telling Philly Exploits

By Justin Katz | June 17, 2023 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz check in on the latest developments in RI politics.

Digital eye made of numbers.

Catching Up with Rhode Island Misadventures

By John Loughlin | May 13, 2023 |

John Loughlin talks various Rhode Island controversies with his guests.

A water drop and ripples

Lock the robots out of your bathroom, at least.

By Justin Katz | January 10, 2023 |

Nobody should be surprised by news that Roomba vacuums caught images of users in (umm) compromising positions and then the Venezuelan workers who review the images for product development posted them in an online forum.  This is a major reason that, even as an “early adopter” type of guy, I’m reluctant to move onto the…

Mark Zaccaria on Rhody Reporter

Rhode Island municipalities probably aren’t prepared for escalating cyber crime.

By Justin Katz | May 19, 2021 |

Mark Zaccaria argues, for Rhody Reporter, that local officials should start getting used to having a line item for cyber-security as more and more of their activities move online. Of course, it would be nice if the costs of new technology could be offset (and then some) by the savings in labor and productivity that high-tech…

An aerial photograph of the U.S. at night.

High-speed internet is an asset Rhode Island should build on.

By Justin Katz | May 4, 2021 |

Obviously, those of us who choose to live in Rhode Island feel the state has a lot to recommend it, even as we’re perpetually frustrated by its flaws.  While making decisions for the future, we should build on our strengths.  Explicitly noting it as a reason to move to the state, TechRepublic’s N.F. Mendoza reports…

Two Twitter Tidbits

By Monique Chartier | July 4, 2012 |

Firstly, a Manhatten judge has ruled that Twitter must release three months of tweets of a man charged with disorderly conduct. The D.A. had supboenaed the tweets to establish that the defendant knew that he was breaking the law when he marched on the Brooklyn Bridge during a mass demonstration related to the Occupy Wall…

Friends, I Give You The Euphemistic Phrase of the Month (Possibly of the Year): “Premortem Donation”

By Monique Chartier | June 3, 2012 |

… as in, “donating” – this word actually goes beyond euphemistic to inaccurate as, usually, no consent can be obtained – an organ – yes, your own vital organs from your own personal body – before you’re … well, dead. From a website called BioEdge, though the suggestion originated in the mind of a professor…

What Exactly Do You Propose To Do About It?

By Monique Chartier | February 26, 2012 |

It took a moment to grasp the misanthropic message of this bumper sticker, spotted in Cranston recently. When it fully registered, I was shocked. (Yes, that’s a stork off on the right, carrying a “bundle”.)

Big Brother Hacker is Watching???

By Monique Chartier | July 9, 2011 |

Though I didn’t quite know how to react at first – technically, isn’t an Apple store a public place? – this man’s actions were undoubtedly weird, if not creepy. The US Secret Service has raided the home of an artist who collected images from webcams in a New York Apple store. Kyle McDonald is said…

Charlie Sheen as Internet Metaphor

By Justin Katz | May 19, 2011 |

In an essay that is, unfortunately, behind a subscriber wall, Rob Long casts Charlie Sheen as the harbinger of the entertainment industry’s Internet doom: … Charlie Sheen is the living embodiment of what everyone in Hollywood fears. Leaving aside, for a moment, the creepy prurience of his 2 mil1lion Twitter followers, or the death-watch quality…