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Blue-collar workers are used to being surveilled at work, but a new kind of self-tracking is headed for your desk job, too. Here’s what I learned watching myself work for a week.


CCTV or surveillance operating in office - Stnazkul / Getty Images

"What about Wikipedia?" My manager is peering over my shoulder as I scroll down a list of websites I regularly visit, attempting to place each into one of two categories.
"Work," she says decisively.
"What about Amazon?"
"Private."
"OK, what about Seamless?"
"Private."
"What?! It was for lunch at work!" I protest.
"Sorry," she says, shaking her head. "I run a tight ship."

About a week earlier, I had decided to surveil myself at work using Sapience Buddy, an employee-monitoring software system now available to the masses for the first time as a workplace productivity tracker. Sapience runs in the background on any Windows computer, constantly collecting, aggregating, and analyzing data on metrics including the applications a user runs, the websites she visits, and how much time she spends online. (Plans are in the works to bring it to Mac, but the company hasn't announced a timeline.)


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On a foggy afternoon in San Francisco, four children sit at a dining room table, determinedly pouring sprinkles and sparkles on sugar cookies. It's an adorable moment - one to savor, and save. And so, a mother stands on a chair, iPhone 5S held high overhead to photograph the scene. She trills in a sharp, high-pitched - tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr-tr! Four little heads snap up, eyes wide, all looking in her direction. Then: She frowns at the little glass and aluminum rectangle in her hand. My phone is out of room. I have to delete some pictures.



Google Photos Product Lead David Lieb, Engineering Lead Aravind Krishnaswamy, Research Lead Liz Shelly, and Head of Photos Anil Sabharwal.


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Obama’s signature marked a victory for critics of the national security state, even as some lawmakers call for a more comprehensive overhaul of surveillance powers.


Pool / Getty Images

President Obama signed the USA Freedom Act into law on Tuesday, ending the NSA's authority to sweep up the phone records of millions of Americans and reining in domestic surveillance programs provoked by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11.

The signing of the bill followed a Senate debate so contentious that portions of the Patriot Act expired after lawmakers failed to resolve their differences by a Monday deadline. Under the new law, federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies will regain some of their surveillance powers -- but they'll be tempered by some important privacy protections.

President Obama's signature marked a victory for critics of the national security state, even as some lawmakers call for a more comprehensive overhaul of surveillance powers enacted after 9/11.


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The search giant builds cheap from within, and the social giant builds expensive from without. Sports fans know which one usually works.


Google

In professional sports, it is a truism that building a team via the minor leagues, the draft, and cheap, undervalued free agents is better than building a team by hiring superstars. The former method is inexpensive, sustainable, and leads to a coherent organizational culture. The latter, by contrast, is expensive, often unsustainable, and can lead to a mercenary and incoherent organizational culture. Though win/loss columns do contain examples to the contrary, any sports fan will tell you building cheap and from within is the way to go. It's Moneyball versus the Yankees.

That seems to be the approach to virtual reality Google outlined today at its annual I/O developer's conference, which clarified several things about the tech world's never-ending sprint towards "immersive experiences." Most prominently, Google's initiative stands in sharp relief to the swaggering and slightly mercenary VR strategy of their greatest rival in the nascent space, Facebook.

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Is it the one that shows photos of drunk girls passed out, or the one that’s almost all stolen photos? Make your own rankings!





From the "Drunk Girls" subreddit

This February, Reddit announced changes to its policy to address harassment and abuse on its platform, and make it easier for victims of revenge porn to have their photos taken down. However, some of the most deeply creepy and misogynist sections within Reddit aren't affected by these new policies, as they don't directly involve revenge porn or direct harassment.

Take, for example, the ones below. A reccurring theme through some of these outstandingly creepy subreddits is the sexualization of images of women in non-sexual contexts – at the gym or a wedding, for example. Others have contain some other violation of privacy or are just ... creepy.

Here are the 8 most creepy of these NSFW subreddits. I have arranged them in order of what I personally find grossest to least gross. I am not including any photos in this list, for obvs reasons.

One note: This list purposely does not include subreddits that contain mostly consensual pornography, even if the theme is a little more out-there (foot porn, or more extreme BDSM, for example). We're all (maybe?) adults here, and should free to enjoy whatever floats our boat in a consensual adult way. This list focuses on things that are not commercial consensual pornography.

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It's sprinkling outside on an early April day, but inside the Trunk Club clubhouse, it feels like deep fall. The couches are dark, pocketed leather; the bar is a rich walnut and, according to the receptionist serving as temporary bartender, fully stocked. It feels like man in here. Or more precisely: It feels like man-with-a-lot-of-money in here.

As I wait for my glass of champagne, a lithe, chirpy woman enters the room.


Via trunkclub.com

The CEO of Trunk Club, Brian Spaly, looks a lot like a Ken doll who just got off the beach. He has chin-length hair he tucks respectably behind his ears, a slight trace of a stubble, and a constant tan. He’s as impeccably dressed as one would expect from a man who’s launched not one, but two successful men’s clothing companies.

His first project, Bonobos, was a collaboration with Andy Dunn, offering a hipper, mail order–only alternative to J.Crew. Spaly left the Bonobos in 2009 to take over Trunk Club, which had started as a brilliant idea, conceived of by Joanna Van Vleck, a 25-year-old University of Oregon business student, but was floundering as it attempted to expand.
Spaly helped resurrect the struggling company, growing its stylist workforce, brand offerings, and clubhouse presence. Today, Van Vleck has been excised from the Trunk Club narrative, and the aura that clings to the brand is one of unflappable coolness. Just look at the company's Chicago headquarters: straight-up West Elm–ed whiskey bar.
“Guys hate shopping but want to look good” is the one-sentence Spaly sales pitch, repeated in nearly every interview he gives. It’s an essentialist statement that nonetheless gets to the heart of a very American desire: Men want all of the privilege that attends fitting societal norms, but want to perform none of the labor that would accompany it.

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“Photography is a way of feeling, of touching, of loving. What you have caught on film is captured forever... it remembers little things, long after you have forgotten everything.” – Aaron Siskind

World Art - by Craig Hill :

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You'll see something ~new and different~ on Pinterest.


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Elena Fabretti photo



Ascoltavo la pioggia...
domandare al silenzio
quanti nastri di strade
annodavano il cuore.
Alda Merini

No deal — yet.


Dave Allocca / AP

When Apple unveils its new streaming music service at its annual WWDC conference tomorrow, it won't be announcing an exclusive on Kanye West's next album along with it. Despite what you may have heard, the rumors are not true - not entirely, anyway.

Sources familiar with Apple's new music-streaming service tell BuzzFeed News that when the company rolls Apple Music out to the public, it will indeed do so with limited or "windowed" exclusives from some big-name artists. And one artist it's been pursuing aggressively with the help of Beats Music co-founder Jimmy Iovine — now an Apple employee following the company's $3 billion acquisition of Beats Electronics last year - is Kanye West.

Apple is particularly keen on an exclusive from West's forthcoming album, currently — but not definitively titled "Swish". Sources say the company has been talking to him about it for some time, but hasn't yet been able to finalize a deal, and negotiations between West and Iovine continue.


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