News Panel with Sean Percival and James Altucher #223

Friday

Jan132012

Friday, January 13, 2012 at 03:49PM

News Panel with Sean Percival and James Altucher #223

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Sean Percival, EIR at Science, and writer and entrepreneur James Altucher joined the TWiST News Panel to unpack a week dominated by CES product news. They also paused to offer their analysis on SOPA, Google's shady scraping practices in Kenya and the working conditions at the Foxconn factories in China.

0:00-2:15 On today’s News Roundtable, we’re joined by Sean Percival and James Altucher.
2:15-3:30 Welcome, Sean. So you’re an EIR over at Science now?
3:30-5:30 James, thanks for joining us. How are you doing?
5:30-7:30 Thank you to Sourcebits for sponsoring the program. Everyone remember to show their support by tweeting them a thank you @Sourcebits!
7:30-10:00 First story: Google was caught scraping the database of a company in Kenya called Mocality. Google apologized, but how did this happen?
10:00-11:00 Jason: The list of things that Google is under fire for right now is really growing. What’s your take, James?
11:00-12:45 Are they making a mistake by trying to integrate Google+ so deeply into search?
12:45-13:00 Lon: They’re converging the social graph and the interest graph.
13:00-17:15 Should this have been opt-in as opposed to opt-out?
17:15-19:00 James: This could be a genius move. Now everyone has to sign up for Google Plus to be relevant in search results.
19:00-21:30 Will Twitter acquiesce and give Google their feed?
21:30-25:15 Jason: Twitter and Facebook both need to launch their own social search engines.
25:15-25:30 James: I don’t like to have to think when I use Google.
25:30-28:00 Thank you to MailChimp for sponsoring the program.
28:00-30:30 Moving along to a CES Roundup: Ultrabooks were all the rage at the conference this week. HP and Lenovo both showed off new models, so what did everyone think of this?
30:30-32:15 What do you use as a computer, James? What do you think of the ultrabooks?
32:15-34:15 Will any sales eclipse the iPad this year?
34:15-35:00 Sean, do you limit the number of hours of day your daughter uses an iPad?
35:00-39:15 James, is having Asperger’s Syndrome a superpower?
39:15-40:30 Jason: So the constant begging for attention and validation is what we’re moving to in media?
40:30-46:30 The gang watches an Eckhart Tolle video on being yourself.
46:30-49:15 Next story: Myspace has announced a new venture with Panasonic called Myspace TV.
49:15-51:00 Jason: Why don’t the bundle a netbook with your TV?
51:00-52:45 Om Malik noted in a post on his site that Myspace traffic is still greater than Google Plus’s. What’s going on there?
52:45-56:00 What’s the story with Pinterest? Why is it so popular?
56:00-56:45 Next story: Facebooks is teaming up with news site Politico to provide data about their user’s political sentiments in advance of the South Carolina Republican presidential primary on Jan. 21. Will this show any meaningful trends?
56:45-59:30 James, do you think sentiment analysis is going to work in the long-term for politics?
59:30-1:00:30 Do you think Reddit would have this much impact if they went after another issue (besides SOPA)?
1:00:30-1:04:30 Tyler: According to a Reuters article, the lawmaker behind SOPA vowed to press forward despite wide-spread criticism.
1:04:30-1:08:45 Does anyone think that it’s out of line to put someone in jail for two days for stealing a movie?
1:08:45-1:11:30 Lon, if there was an award-winning film and someone downloaded it off of bit torrent after they bought it on Amazon, is that ok ethically?
1:11:30-1:15:00 Next story: Hundreds of workers at a Foxconn factory in China threatened this week to commit suicide over a pay dispute. The dispute was eventually resolved, but companies who use Foxconn--like Apple and Microsoft--have vowed to investigate working conditions. James, what’s the acceptable number of suicides per iPad?
1:15:00-1:18:30 Lon: But Apple’s one of the richest companies in the world. If they wanted to make this even a little bit better, they could.
1:18:30-1:19:45 James, what do you think of Eckhart Tolle? Have you ever heard of him?
1:19:45-1:20:15 Thank you to our friends at Sourcebits and MailChimp for making this interesting program possible.
1:20:15-1:20:45 Sean, when is the series A happening for your new company?
1:20:45-1:22:00 James, thank you for joining us today. Everyone remember to check out Ranker.com.
1:21:45-1:22:00 Thanks for joining us everyone, we’ll see you next time.

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