Trump Is Not Texting You

What should have been a routine, required national test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts system has become a crucible for public distrust.

At 2:18 p.m. et today, your smartphone probably buzzed and shrieked before displaying a notice that resembled a text message. This was the Federal Emergency Management Agency and Federal Communications Commission’s test of the Wireless Emergency Alerts system (WEA). A test of the Emergency Alert System (EAS), which sends emergency messages to radio and television, followed two minutes later. Both… read more

Put Words Between Buns

Hey, I made you a tool to put words between buns.

It occurred to me one summer day: It’s really nice when word are typeset between buns. I remarked upon this fact on social media: The specimens in that tweet were hand-crafted, of course. It’s easy enough to do in software like Adobe Illustrator, but time consuming too. Maybe that’s one of the reasons why so few sets of words find… read more

The Internet Broke Emergency Alerts

America’s emergency notification systems were first built for war, and then rebuilt for peace. A false alarm in Hawaii shows that they didn’t anticipate how media works in the smartphone era.

It’s hard to imagine a worse way to be awoken on a Saturday morning in paradise than with a blaring Klaxon accompanying a government alert about an inbound ballistic-missile attack. But that’s exactly what happened to more than 1.5 million people in Hawaii this morning. “BALLISTIC MISSILE THREAT INBOUND TO HAWAII,” the emergency alert read, in all caps, on smartphones.… read more

Metropolis Now

A series at The Atlantic on how technology is transforming cities, for better and worse

Starting in early 2018, I’ve been editing a special project on how technology is changing cities, for better and worse. The series addresses urbanism, transit, computation, policing, inequality, climate change, commerce, development, and many more topics, through a lens that’s somewhat different from what you’ll find in publications focusing on technology alone, or architecture alone, or planning alone, or politics… read more

Why Computers Should Be Hidden

A luxury bicycle computer forecasts a welcome future of humble, embedded systems.

The joy I used to feel when using computers has turned largely to anguish. These machines once provided a unique and compelling way to do things, from writing to shopping to communication to entertainment. But today, devices and services strive to replace every activity with computer use itself. Now I think about escaping the computer as much as using it.… read more

The Real Chaos of Campus Gun Laws

New legislation in Georgia shows ambiguous campus-carry laws might create a greater burden than the guns themselves.

ATLANTA—Last week, Georgia Governor Nathan Deal signed a bill that will allow Georgia weapons permit holders over 21 years of age to carry concealed firearms in most parts of the state’s college and university campuses. The impacted schools include the Georgia Institute of Technology, where I teach, and the University of Georgia. Here, as in other states where similar laws… read more

Pepsi’s New Ad Is a Total Success

Every feature of the “Jump In” ad benefits the company—even the act of pulling it from the airwaves.

Before it’s an ad for shampoo or cat food or cola, every advertisement is first an ad for capitalism. Without a privately-controlled industry jockeying to compete with one another for consumer dollars, there’s no need for advertising. People would wash their hair with Shampoo, and feed their cats with Cat Food, and quench their thirst with Cola. Without competition, there… read more

Tenure, a game by Owen Gaede

The example title that opens my book Persuasive Games

In 2007—ten years ago!—I published Persuasive Games, a book about how computer software, and especially games, make arguments. In it, I advanced a theory of “procedural rhetoric,” or argumentation through process and model instead of oration, writing, image, and the other media formats typically associated with rhetoric. The book opens with an anecdote about my session with remarkable game. Remarkable in part because it offered such a… read more

Is #DeleteUber Good for Workers’ Rights?

The social-media campaign highlights labor issues, but only through the lens of identity.

When the New York Symphony goes on strike for better wages and benefits in the web TV series Mozart in the Jungle, its members find new ways to make do. Union Bob, a piccolo player whose nickname underscores his commitment to union rules, starts taking Uber fares in his Prius. Uber couldn’t have asked for a better endorsement: Even for… read more

Will Trump Make Silicon Valley Kiss the Ring at His Tech Summit?

The president-elect’s history in Hollywood might offer a clue.

Many years ago, when I was working at a Hollywood production company, a coworker went out to dinner with an out-of-town friend. When conversation turned to work, my colleague explained that he was producing marketing for a film by the director Michael Bay. His friend was no fan of Bayhem, it turned out, and issued a tirade against the director’s… read more

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