Author: Steve A Furman
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September 11, 2015
Today, September 11th, we will relive that nightmarish day of 2001. We will relive it no matter how hard we try to suppress it. We will read the stories and blogs. Call family and friends. See the photos, yet again. And replay that footage over and over. What I will remember…
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Oliver Sacks: June 9, 1933 – August 30, 2015 – Some People Can’t be Replaced
Oliver Sacks mattered much more than most people will ever know. He is not a household name, so here’s some background. Oliver Sacks was born in London and educated at Oxford, California and New York. He was a professor of clinical neurology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and author…
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Dip Your Chip Card like a Boss!
Change is Only as Hard as One Makes it It’s so very hard to change the behavior of a population as large as the U.S. Previously-held beliefs, resistance to change and just sheer inertia are but a few of the many forces that keep people on their current track. Marketers…
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Review: Logitech Harmony Smart Control Universal Remote
It’s been a thorny problem for years. Numerous electronics devices purchased across different eras mashed together to create your home entertainment system with no simple way to integrate or control them. To connect the components you first need to navigate the maze of cables, inputs, outputs and converters. This is not an…
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Radio Shack Nurtured a Culture of Everyday Technology
We knew it was only a matter of time. We just didn’t know how much time. It appears as if that long dreaded day has arrived. By “it” I mean Radio Shack filing for bankruptcy. Radio Shack has been a staple on 4,000 American streets for decades. It was founded in…
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Decoding The Imitation Game: It Wasn’t Hard
The Movie The Imitation Game Delivers and Disappoints I was drawn to this film because of my keen interest in history and technology. During WWII Germany created The Enigma machine that coded and then uncoded messages to their military machine around the world via radio signals. The communications carried intelligence…
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Appreciation: A Tribute to Poet Mark Strand
Mark Strand April 11, 1934 — November 29, 2014 I first met Mark Strand in 1995 on a visit to small apartment in Hyde Park, a Chicago south side neighborhood. He was in town for the summer to conduct a master class in poetry at the University of Chicago and staying…
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Money 2020 Part 3 of 3: Tech Crime Takes Off
One of the most fascinating aspects of Money for me was sessions on fraud, security and of course hacking. I attended a keynote by Marc Goodman who started as a law enforcement officer in Los Angeles. He has been studying criminal behavior for years and has paired that knowledge with…
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Interstellar Extends Life as we Know it, Maybe
It takes a while to get into the flow of Interstellar, Christopher Nolan’s latest film odyssey. But that’s not a problem because with a running time of 2 hours and 49 minutes you don’t need to be in a hurry. Mr. Nolan combines a number of narratives and even more…
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Money 2020: Part 2 of 3: Mobile Payments and Crypto Currencies
At the close of day one my head was spinning. I managed to avoid all the trappings and temptations of Vegas and made it to my room at an early hour to review my notes and prepare for the next day. I chose to focus on two topics, Mobile payments…
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Money 2020: The Future of Currency and Payments: Part 1 of 3
I attended the Money 2020 conference in Las Vegas this November. It’s a gathering of over 7,500 financial and technology professionals from over 60 countries. Essentially we all talk about the innovation of money and payments, both of which are undergoing unprecedented disruption. It was the forum’s 4th year but my…
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“i” is for Jobs, “A” is for Cook, and Other Thoughts about Time
Two days after the big Apple announcement event in Cupertino I’m was just beginning to digest all of the content. One of the things that hit home was subtle, meaningful and very much Apple. Amidst the hundreds of rumors and musings about what would be coming, the iWatch and a…
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The City of the Century
Chicago has been called the City of the Century, Nature’s Metropolis and a number of other things that are maybe not so flattering. Many of you are sick and tired about me talking about Chicago, so instead of writing about it again, I’m embedding this incredible time-lapse video crafted by Eric Hines.…
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Career Opportunity at Discover Bank
THIS ROLE WAS FILLED ON JUNE 13, 2014 I’ve recently changed roles at Discover and am working on building out my digital team. There’s already a solid group of professionals in place shaping a best-in-class banking platform, but we are rapidly growing and I need more help. This is a Senior…
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My Annual Oscar Picks – 2014
It’s that time again. The Academy hands out their picks for best of every category. They can select 10 films for best picture, but apparently could find only nine worthy of the crown. The pictures span history, deep drama, AIDS, hijacking, swindle and a celestial exploration of the human spirit,…
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The Death of “Just in Case” Web Design
Ever since the first web browsers were created in the mid 1990’s people have been endlessly debating on how to design a web site. Or more specifically their companies’ site. At first it was left to a small group of people to make the decisions, because it was probably a…
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Your Favorite Film of 2013 – Poll
The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has the ability to nominate ten films for best picture in any given year. In the 1930’s and 1940’s eight to twelve films were nominated, but in the 1950’s there was a conscious decision to limit it to five. In 2009 that…
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Pencil 53 – Product Review
Post Updated with writing image February 16, 2014 (Scroll Down) One of the consistently read posts on my blog is Notability + Bamboo + iPad = Paperless Note Taking. I’m constantly looking for better ways to transfer necessary note taking from paper/pen/pencil to digital. Once we had the rise of the…