Weekend Thoughts - 3.3.18

Image by Marisa04, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. Car ownership is expected to plummet in the coming decades. In fact, the amount of young Americans between the ages of 16 and 24 who hold a driver's license has already dropped from 76 percent in 2000 to 71 percent in 2013. And that trend does not seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Assuming that this decline continues, the ride-hailing business is poised to expand past Uber and Lyft. New services headed up by companies like Bosch, Sony, and Avis are getting involved in this industry. I'm excited that more ride-hailing services seem to be on the horizon because more competition in this area could end up being better for consumers.

2. In the ever-evolving technology space, security is becoming increasingly more important. Major US cell phone carriers are hard at work on a new open mobile authentication standard. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon say that they have a solution that could roll out later this year that will replace the flawed two-factor authentication protocol that is currently in use. Currently known as multi-factor mobile authentication, this method will provide better security than the existing two-factor type. If it ends up working as well as these carriers are claiming, we will all benefit.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 2.24.18

Image by suketdedhia, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. A new 3d-printed smartphone microscope attachment will be able to examine samples as small as 1/200th of a millimeter. That's plenty accurate for scientists to conduct research. And as a bonus, the device does not require external light or power sources and can be made by anyone with access to a 3d printer, since the development team is sharing the 3d printing files publicly. This type of innovation is exciting because it will enable more scientific research to be conducted, which will further help us understand our world.

2. Bike-sharing is back again this week with a thinkpiece from Wired that explores the possibility that bike-sharing will become more competitive with car-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft. According to research in other parts of the world, electric bikes can disrupt other travel modes (like public transit, taxi, and ridesharing) because they are easy to use, have the benefit of additional power, and are capable of traveling from point A to point B without reaching as much congestion or experiencing multiple transit transfers. Only time will tell if this proves true in America, the land of the automobile. But here's hoping...

3. Although Amazon opened its first automated grocery store a year late, the company plans to open as many as six more cashierless Amazon Go smartstores later this year. Although the specific locations have not been announced yet, they are expected to show up in Seattle and Los Angeles.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 7.1.17

Image by Jody McIntrye, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday y'all! Below, I have rounded up some things for you to think about this weekend:

1. This week marked the 10-Year Anniversary of the release of the original iPhone, and John Gruber at Daring Fireball wrote a short piece that explored some of the various ways that the iPhone changed the world. Among some of the things to consider:

"The iPhone’s potential was obviously deep, but it was so deep as to be unfathomable at the time. The original iPhone didn’t even shoot video; today the iPhone and iPhone-like Android phones have largely killed the point-and-shoot camera industry. It has obviated portable music players, audio recorders, paper maps, GPS devices, flashlights, walkie-talkies, music radio (with streaming music), talk radio (with podcasts), and more. Ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft wouldn’t even make sense pre-iPhone. Social media is mobile-first, and in some cases mobile-only."

As usual, it's an extremely well-written piece and I'd like to suggest that we take some time to think about all of the things that the iPhone (and other smartphones) catalyzed over the past decade that are taken for granted nowadays.

2. Speaking of Uber and Lyft, the surge pricing model that those companies employ may start coming to your local parking meters soon. Imagine pulling up to a parking space on a Saturday night—the same one that you parked in earlier the same day for one dollar—and being charged eight dollars instead. It definitely seems like this is plausible and I wouldn't be surprised to experience this in the next few years.

That's all for this week's edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.

Weekend Thoughts - 5.16.15

Image by Ashton Pal, courtesy of Creative Commons licensing.

Happy Saturday, y'all! I was a bit under the weather this past week, but I have still gathered an excellent selection of reads for you to ponder this weekend.

1. Emily Guendelsberger from Philadelphia Citypaper went undercover as an Uber driver to find out what it's like to be behind the wheel of an Uber car. A fascinating read, but what sticks out is the paltry amount of money that Uber drivers receive for their services. A great read for anyone who has ever hailed an Uber (or Lyft, for that matter) as a rider.

2. DrugAbuse.com has a really interesting piece analyzing drug use at various music festivals. Burning Man seems to be to most well-rounded with its selection of substances, from what I can see.

3. An odd post on Boing Boing about a real book titled Dating Vegans. It seems sad to me that there is actually a book out there that is about dating vegans - do vegans really need to be that discriminatory in our dating practices that it would require a guidebook for dating?

That's all for this edition of Weekend Thoughts. Until next week, keep thinking wilder.