Author Archive

From the Top: PBS Does Online Content Right

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

I stumbled across a neat little site today that I originally intended to simply bookmark for later. As a parent of budding musicians including one eight-year-old cellist, I'm regularly searching for content that continues to inspire her, because we all know that struggling through practicing can be frustrating.
What I found was a great example of how content providers should be sharing their content with their audience. Since this is PBS (funded by viewers like you!), the pressure isn't there [...]

Another New York Attorney General, Another Sex-Related Crisis to Solve

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

I apologize in advance for the New-York-centric posts when it comes to Internet-related legislation, since that is usually the domain of Center Networks. However, I live in New York, and I feel duty-bound to comment on what happens here so that the rest of the U.S. and other countries can try to lobby their governments to prevent the same stupidity from occurring where they live.
It seems like only yesterday that New Yorkers were enjoying the fruits of Attorney General Eliot [...]

Technologizer: Harry McCracken’s Next Trick

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

When Harry McCracken announced he was leaving PC World last month, I was a little curious, but not entirely surprised. Even as Editor-in-Chief, he seemed to be the most "with it" regarding new web technology, and PC World seems so inexorably tied to hardware that I actually quit reading them some time back, figuring any major news hits a gadget blog anyway.
This morning, his new project, promised in his farewell blog post, was announced. Technologizer will launch this summer (with [...]

Sipping the AT&T Haterade: Why the iPhone 3G May Not Win Fans

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

Yesterday, I tuned in to no fewer than three liveblogs for the announcement of the phone I've been waiting for: the 3G iPhone. Last year I even replaced my Motorola RAZR at the unsubsidized price just so I could get the iPhone 3G when they finally came out with one, so yesterday's announcement had me darn near hysteria.
Today, however, the dust has settled. And Apple and AT&T may just have conspired to lose themselves a customer who was willing to [...]

Are You the Sum of Your Search Terms?

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

How much do most of us think about the search terms we enter into our search engine of choice? Are there times when you hesitate entering a word or phrase? Do you ever wonder if someone out there, either an employee of the company that runs your search engine or some faceless researcher who gains access to that data, is wondering exactly what sort of weirdo searches for such things?
A new play in Philadelphia called User 927 wonders as well. [...]

Hippie 2.0: Better World Books Is Proving You Can Make Money Being Green

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

There are those who would assume that running a business that keeps old textbooks out of landfills, takes those books and sells them at a low price, and then buys carbon credits to offset emissions that result from shipping those books is actually a charity. How could a company ever make money by trying to do good things for the environment? Better World Books is out to prove those doubters wrong.
Founded by three college friends who wanted to support global [...]

Maybe the First Rule of Business Plans Should Be Don’t Get Sued

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

There's been an alarming trend in music services launching recently. In an era in which the recording industry fears just about everything electronic, most music services have a lot to worry about besides just getting users and making money. Muxtape search engine Muxfind had even removed the ability to search by artist for a while because of fear of legal repercussions. (After all, if Torrent indexers can be sued, why not a search engine for a site that potentially infringes [...]

Tech Journalists: How Much Street Cred Do You Need?

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

When I first got out of college and had to get a real job, I met a lot of resistance when it came to technical writing jobs, which was what I originally intended to do. From software development companies to engineering companies, they all said the same thing: the writing degree was fine, but I wasn't a programmer/engineer, and therefore, "couldn't understand." Based on a lot of the documentation I've seen in user manuals and other documentation since then, I'd [...]

Warner Took Their Music and I Don’t Care

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

All the bloggers were abuzz today with the news that Warner has required last.fm to remove their music. Silicon Alley Insider notes that contracts signed with iMeem and the coming MySpace music service included equity stakes in the company.
As for me? I don't really care. I hope last.fm tells Warner that they can take their music and stuff it. I'm watching the artists scroll by on their web site as I write this, and gee, that [...]

280 Slides: Not Quite Keynote

Cyndy Aleo-Carreira

I am an open-source addict. I have a totally legal machine, yet I run no big commercial software on my machine other than what came installed. Most of it is open-source or shareware or indie software I've trialed and paid for, and the rest of the apps I use are online apps. However, I'm not a huge fan of the presentation software in NeoOffice, and when my husband sent me a link to 280 Slides, I had to give it [...]