Gabe Stein

Gabe Stein is a contributor to Co.Labs specializing in computer science history, publishing and futurology. Prior to becoming a contributor, Gabe was the resident "News Hacker" and an editor for Co.Labs. Before that, he worked at Google and OgilvyAction in New York. He would love to talk to you about the future of everything on Twitter.

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Betting On Yahoo’s New Logo? Here’s What The Data Says They’ll Choose

Yahoo has been releasing a new logo every day for the last month, and a former Yahoo designer has been informally testing them against the original. Some of them are “real stinkers,” but the data indicates that there may be a few diamonds in the rough.

How An Arcane Coding Method From 1970s Banking Software Could Save The Sanity Of Web Developers Everywhere

Jeff Bezos Bought The Washington Post For One Thing: Distribution

The nature of Amazon’s business is changing to reflect a new media landscape. What does Bezos see in the future of publishing that the rest of us don’t?

Wow! Google’s Chromecast Is Amazingly Hackable

Google’s Chromecast is the first inexpensive smart TV device that uses web technologies to run applications on the receiving end. That means millions of developers are going to be able to build for it using tools they’re already comfortable with on day one.

Former BitTorrent Engineer Thinks He Can Fix Your Wi-Fi–For Good

Wouldn’t it be nice if you had a ubiquitous Internet connection that never needed your help to get connected? A highly regarded engineer and a VOIP pioneer think they have the answer.

Trying To Quit? This E-Cigarette Tweets Your Shame

Creative agency R/GA has built a prototype of the world’s first tweeting cigarette. Can a public record of your addiction finally badger you into quitting?

Microsoft And Polar Almost Built A Killer Smart TV

Microsoft’s new Companion Web concept, first adopted by popular polling app Polar, could be the living-room experience we’ve all been waiting for. Unfortunately, it’s missing one key ingredient: a connection between the TV’s content and the browser.

Does Anyone Want To Listen To The News Anymore?

We’ve been experimenting with adding audio layers to our news stories–think book-on-tape. Here’s what we’ve learned about the web’s least-used medium so far.

One Publisher Is Standing Up To Tech Giants Like Facebook And Google

The chief product officer of Vox Media, which owns sites like the Verge and SB Nation, thinks we need a new format for streaming news–and he’s not afraid to wrestle with Google and Facebook to build it.

Can Publishers Predict Pageviews? Probably Not.

In which I, the FastCo.Labs News Hacker, naively tried to predict pageviews–and failed. Here’s how I learned about what’s so difficult about forecasting the consumption of news.

Why Isn’t The MYO Armband Open Source?

This armband could someday replace the mouse. But its creators say that the new language of 3-D gestures needs to be closed and controlled before standards can be set. How will developers react?

Why PHP Has No Place On Our Experiments Server

We’re trying to build an open-source, language-agnostic super easy-to-use experiments server. Call it an internal Heroku. The only language we’re struggling with is PHP.

How Aziz Ansari Tests Jokes With Analytics

The popular comedian is using the Web to collect data on audiences so he can test jokes on them. What’s to stop him from knowing exactly what his audience wants to hear, before he ever steps foot on stage?

State-Owned Gold Mine: What Happens When Governments Sell Data?

A European microstate called Andorra is trying to turn government-backed data collection into a new high-tech industry. In the U.S., this could become very big business–if it doesn’t irrevocably trample our civil liberties in the process and turn us into a police state.

Dear Mozilla: Please Don’t Kill Cookies

Yesterday, Mozilla pressed ahead with a user privacy proposal that, if widely adopted, will radically change the way we develop for the web. Instead of trying to regulate technology to protect consumers from data collection, we should regulate what companies can do with the data they collect.

How We Made Nature Take Over Fast Company’s #Unplug Feature Using Parallax Scrolling

Why The Script Kiddie Next Door Is Just As Dangerous As A Chinese Government Hacker

As more people learn to code, more will learn to hack. Parsons Design and Technology graduate Samuel Snider-Held tells us why he created a cyber war box set, and why it’s time to take even the smallest security threats seriously.

What Happens When Robots Eliminate All Our Jobs?

Paul Krugman says we’re running out of jobs–because they’re all being automated. But can we sit back and let bots do all the work without going into another Great Depression? And is a new kind of welfare the solution?

I’m Beating The NSA To The Punch By Spying On Myself

Using just my own limited set of metadata, I can predict the gender of someone who calls me based only on the time of day and length of their call, with about 80% accuracy. What can the NSA do with all of the world’s data?

Impact

These hungry superworms happily munch through plastic

Summer Fridays get more serious: This company is testing a 4-day workweek

These are 8 simple reforms mayors could make to start to reduce police violence

Creativity

This darkly funny outdoor ad from Netflix proves we’re living in ‘Black Mirror’

5 books to start to teach anti-racism to children

Everyone’s favorite graduation gift, ‘Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ has its work cut out for it this year

Co.Design

The Walker Art Center officially cuts ties with Minneapolis police—will more museums follow suit?

Remodeling? Hire a black designer

The lethal history of rubber bullets—and why they should never be used on peaceful protesters

Work Life

To fight systemic racism, protest ‘leadership’—not just leaders

6 things to boost your résumé if your internship was canceled due to COVID-19

I’m a gay CEO, and this is why parental leave will promote gender equality