Category: February
Google’s New Headquarters
What happens when Google wants a new headquarters and hires two ridiculously talented architects to design it? That’s right, it’s freaking, ridiculous. The building will be able to move, MOVE!
Well not all of it. The company said they’ll have, “lightweight block-like structures which can be moved around easily,” The entire building won’t be like this, but only buildings that can be moved to better support the company, depending on its needs, like extra housing. The over-arching idea behind the building is for Google to have a solid, tangible thing that is as ground-breaking as Google’s intangible successes. They also want the surrounding area they construct to be useful not only for the employees, but to everyone else as well. With beautiful walkways and bike-trails, I’m sure many people in Mountain View, California, are greatly looking forward to the completion of this project.
The link has a video showcasing the idea for the project and the architects who designed it. Check it out!
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Our Pirate Problem
On January 15th the Oscar nominations were made. Because of this, in the next month, the number of illegally downloaded movies went up 385%. This led to an over 40 million dollar loss for the motion picture companies, and showed that we are no closer to solving our movie pirating problem.
The article mentions that one solution would be to release movies online, at the same times as it is released in theaters. This was done fairly successfully with the movie The Interview, but more money could have been made, if it had seen more time in theaters. Also, few theater owners would agree to show the movie, if it was typically done this way; therefore, costing the motion picture companies a lot of money. So, to reduce movie piracy, movies should be made available sooner, to gain the money illegal downloading costs us. But, if that happens, we’ll lose money from the movie theater owners.
This conflicting paradox is why we appear no closer to solving our pirate problem. Though with our ever-increasing technological capabilities, we will have new ways of releasing movies, and new reasons pirating should be stopped.
Article Link:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-19/how-oscar-buzz-fuels-online-movie-piracy
Who Gets Your Digital Accounts if Your Dead?
Who has access to your digital content when you die? What happens to your Itunes, Facebook, and Google accounts? Who do they belong to if you’re dead? The answer may surprise you.
I’ve often wondered about this, so I was extremely happy to see this article explain things. Facebook made recent changes to their settings, which allows you to appoint someone in charge of your legality, upon your death. This person is allowed to download the photos and other content of the deceased, as well as, make one final post. This ONLY allows someone access to your account. It does not give then legal rights to any of the deceased’s intellectual property.
But that’s just Facebook’s policy. Apple, Google, and Yahoo’s policies were shown as well. The most shocking for me is Apple’s. The policy says, “Any rights to your Apple ID or content within your account terminate upon your death.” If you die, no one else is legally allowed to gain access to your account. If you die, your content, you bought, belongs to Apple again.
Article Link:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-13/after-you-die-there-s-a-debate-about-your-data
Tripp's Tech Thoughts 