
George Carlin’s comedy was both ahead of its time and timeless. Why else would we keep hearing about it more than 15 years after his death in 2008, at age 71?
The pantheon-level comic’s political philosophy, as expressed in a 2005 special, fueled a viral anti-Trump ad during the 2020 election. His material on abortion, from 1996, made the rounds a couple summers ago, after the Dobbs decision imperiled Americans’ right to choose. Now, Carlin’s words are sh

We’ve been here many times before: a new technology paradigm shift happens and brings on an urgency to familiarize ourselves with the skills necessary to not only be knowledgeable but proficient. It also divides people into two categories: those who embrace the new technology, and those who get left behind. Past technology innovations like mobile and the web happened over many years and most people were able to adapt to change, modernize their skills, and adjust to new patterns and eve

After two years of battling antitrust scrutiny on two continents, Amazon and iRobot have agreed to cancel the tech giant’s $1.9 billion acquisition of the robot vacuum company. In a joint statement today, the companies acknowledged they saw “no path to regulatory approval in the European Union.”
It’s the end of what became an increasingly icky deal for almost everyone involved. Regulators in Europe were expected to approve or deny the bid by February 14,

Earnings season is underway once more, and this week, the Big Tech companies move front and center.
The start of 2024 hasn’t brought a lot of favorable headlines to that industry, as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and others have announced mass layoffs. In the first four weeks of the year, tech companies, led by the giants of the industry, have laid off some 25,000 employees. Now, investors want to know how the financials look.
Stock prices for The Magnificent Seven (Ap

The Biden administration will start implementing a new requirement for the developers of major artificial intelligence systems to disclose their safety test results to the government.
The White House AI Council is scheduled to meet Monday to review progress made on the executive order that President Joe Biden signed three months ago to manage the fast-evolving technology.
Chief among the 90-day goals from the order was a mandate under the Defe

The golden age of video streaming services is quickly coming to an end. It was an age where subscription fees were affordable, plans were sharable, and content was ad-free. But starting today, one of the last video streaming services that didn’t show advertisements to viewers is jumping on the ad bandwagon.
Subscribers to both the individual Amazon Prime Video streaming service and the Amazon Prime membership (which includes access to Prime Video) will now see ads served to t

Reddit, the 18-year-old social media network, is all grown up. Almost. After meeting with potential investors ahead of its upcoming IPO, the company is considering a valuation of at least $5 billion, Bloomberg reports.
At the moment, private trades of unlisted Reddit shares value the company below that number, at between $4.5 billion and $4.8 billion. Those numbers may indicate that the company will achieve a lower valuation than $5 billion at the time of its IPO.
The comp

I am not a crypto purist. At best I am a dabbler. Back in 2020, I had to teach myself Web3 just to navigate the frenzied startup deal flow of the times. The whole ordeal cost me a few thousand dollars, which I spent on “gas” (not real gas), an .eth handle, and a smattering of JPEGs I was told were super valuable, though it wasn’t entirely clear why. Today I own a little bit of Bitcoin, a little bit of eth, and 3 NFTs—roller-coaster investments that my husband predi

Donald Knight
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Remote work isn’t just a hangover from 2020. For many employees, it’s become the new standard—a recent survey found that over half (51%) of respondents would not apply to a job if remote or hybrid working was not an option.
This is because flexible working has opened up a world of possibilities for people who, because of remote work, now have the opportunity to work jobs they may otherwise not have had access to.

In 2024 generative Artificial Intelligence will grow to be a potential part of work at every small business, every team in a bigger company, and every individual worker. What does that mean for how we’ll work?Since last year, we’ve seen people work with gen AI across our own products, through Duet AI in Google Workspace. Sometimes it’s improving existing skills, as when writers smooth their work with a virtual editor, or designers brainstorm new ideas. Or sometimes it