Facebook, Google and Apple make the headlines, but there are many inspiring startups to dissipate the sense of techno-dreadA quarter of a century ago, the Canadian author Douglas Coupland published his third novel. Microserfs was the tale of a group of young Microsoft employees who decide to exit the realm of Bill Gates in Washington state and chase a dream of their own in California places that, back then, sounded like the epitome of futuristic magic: Palo Alto, Menlo Park. As well as prescient flashes of the world to come – “Beware of the corporate invasion of private memory,” warned one of its protagonists – what always stuck with me was its air of techno-optimism, perfectly crystallised right at the end, when the central character’s mother has a stroke and is rescued from silence by a set-up attached to an Apple Macintosh. She communicates via such staccato sentences as “I am here”, and “I feel U”; the novel’s closing pages capture her and her family marvelling at the fact that she has become “part woman/part machine, emanating blue Macintosh light”.The book was published in 1995, when computers suddenly offered an ever-expanding window on to the world. Many of us had no doubt that the leap from old to new represented nothing but progress. By the start of this decade social media platforms were being hailed as a means of individual and collective emancipation. But where has this faith in the future gone? Related: The rise of technology in care: how will it affect... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-12-05 00:00:00 UTC ]
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In comments submitted to the U.S. Copyright Office this week, the Association of American Publishers slammed assertions by the tech industry that fair use permits AI developers to use copyrighted works to train their systems without permission or compensation. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-12-06 05:00:00 UTC ]
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This week, the 42nd John Dos Passos Prize was awarded to novelist and short story writer Patricia Engel (Vida; The Veins of the Ocean; Infinite Country; The Faraway World) by Longwood University. The Dos Passos Prize is the oldest literary award given by a Virginia college or university, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-12-05 16:21:20 UTC ]
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Storing online data in perpetuity is not just about photos and texts but thoughts and ideas. Platforms such as WordPress are starting to act, but it must be at a realistic priceWay back in 2004 the two founders of Google, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, thought that it would be a cool idea to scan... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-11-25 16:00:53 UTC ]
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Black Friday 2023 is finally upon us, so if you're just getting started on your holiday shopping, you're in luck. Even though we've seen Black Friday deals populate the internet over the past couple of weeks, there remain plenty to be had today. Many of the deals we've... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-11-24 15:32:10 UTC ]
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Black Friday 2023 is finally here, and if you're just getting around to your holiday shopping, there are a ton of great deals to be had across the internet. Black Friday may still technically be one day, but we've been seeing solid early Black Friday deals throughout the... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-11-24 14:12:44 UTC ]
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We've still got a few hours before Black Friday begins in earnest, but the deals are already here. Really, Black Friday deals have been here for the entire month of November. As has been the case for a few years in a row, most retailers including Amazon, Target, Best Buy... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-11-23 21:00:15 UTC ]
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American readers have largely forgotten the single greatest writer to come from the Latin American Boom: Chilean novelist José Donoso. The post José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature appeared first on The Millions. Continue reading at The Millions
[ The Millions | 2023-11-21 12:00:00 UTC ]
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With the publication of Billy and the Giant Adventure (Tundra), celebrity chef Jamie Oliver becomes a children’s book author. In the inventive and inspiring story, a group of friends enter a portal to another world, where they have a wild adventure and meet a menagerie of creatures. Oliver... Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-21 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Pan-Universal Galactic Worldwide, a new publisher of books, comics, games, and other media from Wildstorm cofounder and longtime comics veteran John Nee, is getting ready for a 2024 debut after four years of preparations. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-20 05:00:00 UTC ]
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Novelists and poets, Bernardine Evaristo, Jeanette Winterson, Stephen Marche and others, consider the threats and thrilling possibilities of artificial intelligenceChatGPT seems to have blindsided us all. In less than a year it has proved that it can make writers redundant, which is one of the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-11-11 09:00:30 UTC ]
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Nicholas Cornwell will return his father’s best-loved spy to the page in a new novel set between The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier SpyFans of thriller writer David Cornwell – better known by his pen name John le Carré – may have thought they had seen the last of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-11-10 14:00:10 UTC ]
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After a long run of record financial results, sales at Simon & Schuster fell 13%, and operating income dropped 35.5%, in the third quarter ended September 30, 2023. Nonetheless, CEO Jonathan Karp is excited about prospects for both the holiday season and life after Paramount Global. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-11-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Joy Buolamwini, author of "Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines," joins the L.A. Times Book Club on Nov. 14. Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2023-11-03 00:31:12 UTC ]
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Roxanne Coady talks with John Sargent about his many adventures in book publishing at a time when the industry met many challenges and some of the authors and other characters he worked with along the way. Subscribe and download the episode, wherever you get your podcasts!... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-11-02 08:18:56 UTC ]
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Police services across Canada in early October saw a demo of Fusus — a service that makes it easier for police to access privately owned security camera footage. It's becoming more common in America, but Canadian researchers have concerns it is overkill. Continue reading at CBC
[ CBC | 2023-10-27 08:00:00 UTC ]
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Documentary tells story of David Holmes who sustained a spinal injury during filming of The Deathly Hallows: Part 1Daniel Radcliffe has teamed up with his Harry Potter stunt double, who became paralysed after an on-set accident, for an HBO documentary.David Holmes worked closely with Radcliffe... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-10-25 14:32:27 UTC ]
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Poet, editor, and writer John Freeman and novelist Omar El Akkad join co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about the final issue of Freeman’s, a literary magazine founded in 2015. El Akkad, a contributor to the volume, describes founding editor Freeman’s intense and uniquely... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-19 08:10:54 UTC ]
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In her essay for PW, author Dhonielle Clayton reflects on the perils of publishing a diverse magic school series in the shadow of Harry Potter and its creator. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2023-10-17 04:00:00 UTC ]
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The tech industry is reeling from the combination of a rough economy, the COVID-19 pandemic and some obvious business missteps. And while that led to job cuts in 2022, the headcount reductions have unfortunately ramped up in 2023. It can be tough to keep track of these... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2023-10-16 15:52:41 UTC ]
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In this week’s Dispatches from The Secret Library, Dr Oliver Tearle reviews John Plotz’s personal reading of a fantasy classic by Ursula K. Le Guin The American author Ursula K. Le Guin (1929-2018) is widely regarded as one of the finest authors of what is broadly termed ‘speculative fiction’.... Continue reading at Interesting Literature
[ Interesting Literature | 2023-10-13 14:00:53 UTC ]
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