williams

Why Gowalla hasn't stopped moving

AUSTIN, Texas--It can't be easy for Josh Williams, the CEO of geolocation service Gowalla, to see once-close rival Foursquare plastered all over his hometown this week for the annual South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW). On the massive outdoor "Pepsi Max Lot" where lucky Foursquare check-ins can earn users "golden tickets" to a Monday night concert by Big Boi, at local vendors participating in a blockbuster partnership between Foursquare and American Express, or just on the smartphones of the tens of thousands of geeks who flood the Texas capital for the conference each year.

"… Read more

Defense Dept. proposes armoring civilian networks

SAN FRANCISCO-- A top Defense Department official said today that the U.S. military should "extend" a technological shield used to protect its own networks to important private sector computers as well, which could sweep in portions of the Internet and raise civil liberty concerns.

William Lynn, the deputy secretary of defense, proposed at the RSA Conference extending "the high level of protection afforded by active defenses to private networks that operate infrastructure" that's crucial to the military or the U.S. economy.

What Lynn refers to as "active defenses" were pioneered by … Read more

Full steam ahead for record-challenging streamliner

Steam-powered engines have been around for about 300 years, but they've never been known for amazing speeds. Now, a company in Florida and a streamliner designer from Tennessee are building a steam-powered streamliner vehicle.

Cyclone Power Technologies today announced it is working to "complete installation of the engine, gearbox, and fiberglass body" of the Cyclone-Williams LSR streamliner--a steam-powered car that could set a new land speed record.

More traditional land speed record-breaking streamliner vehicles, such as Poteet & Main's Speed Demon, can reach speeds of more than 450 mph, with 1045 hp and 672 pound-feet of … Read more

When YouTube sensation Ted Williams was removed from YouTube

When we see someone else's redemption, it gives us hope for our own.

Perhaps someone will finally see us the way we would like to be seen. Perhaps someone will finally recognize our true talents, rather than, say, the ones we get paid for.

So the story of Ted Williams, the so-called "golden voice," which was first posted on the Web site of the Columbus Dispatch, has moved people to emotive heights. Footage of Williams has been seen by a figure that might now be 15 million people on YouTube.

However, the original video didn't have … Read more

U.K. bishop suspended for royal potshot on Facebook

The Diocese of London official biography for Peter Broadbent, bishop of Willesden, explains that the man of the cloth is a season-ticket-holding football fan who appreciates good beer, so he sounds like an upstanding gentleman.

But according to a number of U.K. news outlets, Broadbent is treading in some very unholy waters these days after making remarks on Facebook about the impending nuptials of Prince William and fiancee Kate Middleton, in which he referred to the events surrounding their April 2011 wedding as "nauseating tosh," compared the couple to "shallow celebrities," and predicted the marriage … Read more

Twitter co-founder riffs on Facebook, developers

SAN FRANCISCO--Twitter co-founder Evan Williams was

the final speaker of the Web 2.0 Summit conference on Wednesday, with a slew of potential announcements anticipated like perhaps a massive new funding round or a formal roll out of the "analytics dashboard" product that it's had in the works for some time.

Not quite that exciting. Williams' only comment on the funding rumors was "we have a lot of money in the bank," and with regard to the supposed dashboard announcement, he said casually that an "analytics dashboard-y thing" was being used by "… Read more

Beleaguered Digg announces more layoffs

Long gone are the days when then-Digg execs Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson would make joint appearances at tech industry conferences and giddily discuss a cluster of new features coming to the social-news site--as well as the fact that they were, invariably, looking to hire new employees.

On Monday, following a report in AllThingsD that publisher and Chief Revenue Officer Chas Edwards was bailing for a start-up, Pixazza, CEO Matt Williams e-mailed staffers to announce that "the burn rate is too high" at the company and that it would be laying off 25 of its 67 staffers, a … Read more

Symbian Foundation chief steps down

The head of the Symbian Foundation, Lee Williams, has quit.

According to a statement from Symbian today, Williams stepped down for "personal reasons." He has been immediately replaced with Tim Holbrow, the foundation's chief financial officer.

Williams' departure is the latest in a string of exits associated with the mobile operating system, which--since Samsung and Sony Ericsson abandoned the platform in the last month--is now supported only by Nokia, Fujitsu, and Sharp. Recent months have seen the resignations of Nokia chief Olli Pekka-Kallasvuo, smartphone division chief Anssi Vanjoki, and Ari Jaaksi, the chief of Nokia's other … Read more

Twitter will hit a billion users, co-founder predicts

Twitter may have just 160 million users now, but co-founder Evan Williams is already eyeing a day when the service caters to a billion.

Williams, who recently gave up the reins as chief executive, made the comment Monday night during an appearance at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco. Joining him was co-founder Biz Stone as they chatted about Twitter's new design, its lack of censorship, Williams' job shift, and a myriad of other topics, as covered by ZDNet.

On Twitter's new look and feel, the two said they had been prepared for a backlash from users, but … Read more