Articles by Nick Kolakowski
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Google Maps Offers Up Tasty Thanksgiving Data
Whatever your plans for Thanksgiving, Google can offer some advice: Try to avoid driving anywhere the day before. Analysts from the search-engine giant’s Google Maps division crunched traffic dat… -
Does a Startup Need a Moral Compass?
Ride-sharing service Uber found itself in a lot of trouble this week after BuzzFeed quoted one of its top executives as saying the company should fund opposition research into journalists. The ex… -
Amazon Hiring Drone Pilots
If you’re an aerospace engineer with experience in drones, Amazon might have a job for you. According to a handful of recent job postings, the company’s Amazon Prime Air Team wants “flight operat… -
Twitter Shows How to Not Write a Mission Statement
Every company needs a mission statement of some sort. Some companies have managed to build mission statements of superior corporate poetry, concise and inspirational in equal measure. For more Tw… -
'Assassin's Creed' Debacle Highlights Need for QA
No matter how diligent the QA engineers, bugs often find their way into software. Many of these bugs are small, and quickly “swatted” with a quick patch. Others can cripple functionality, which s… -
Watch This Robot Kick Like the 'Karate Kid'
Robots: They roll, crawl, walk, and even gallop. But now a Google-built machine has taken the evolution of mechanical movement to the next glorious stage. In the above video, the humanoid Atlas r… -
Can Microsoft Survive on a Freemium Model?
When Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer ran Microsoft, profit was king. As far back as 1976, with Gates’ “Open Letter to Hobbyists” memo, the company focused on getting as many dollars as possible in e… -
Amazon's Echo Enters Digital-Assistant Fight
Imagine a device in your home that passively listens to everything you say. In past decades, you might have called such a device a “bug,” and it was probably installed without your knowledge. But… -
Yep, Amazon Goofed on the Fire Phone
Amazon’s vice president of devices in Europe just admitted that the first generation of the company’s Fire Phone hasn’t performed well on the open market. “In an honest assessment of the Fire Pho… -
You Can Bid for Atari's Long-Lost 'E.T.' Game
In the early 1980s, Atari made what seemed like a slam-dunk bet: a game based on E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, one of the most beloved (and highest-grossing) films of all time. The company was so…