Daniel Lyons
Business Insider
Boston, MA, United States
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Past articles by Dan:
5 myths about Google
1) Google is a search company. Search is Google's primary product. Its search engine is so widely used that "Google" has become a dictionary-approved verb, and the company makes virtually all of its money by selling ads connected to search. But Google's ventures into self-driving cars and balloons that deliver Internet connectivity from the stratosphere show that it's not just a search company.… → Read More
Five myths about Google
Does the company really have a monopoly on search? → Read More
Plaxo Cofounder Arrested, Charged With Murder
Minh Nguyen, a co-founder of Plaxo and a techie who was involved in several other startups, was arrested and charged with murder after allegedly shooting his ex-wife's new husband in Virginia. Police say Nguyen's ex-wife was returning home with one of the kids when the attack took place. Two other kids were in the house at the time. NBC reports Nguyen and his wife had gone through "months of… → Read More
Apple Design Boss Jon Ive Gets Chauffeured To Work In A Bentley
There is surprisingly little to be learned about Sir Jonathan Ive in this 17,000-word piece in The New Yorker, except this: The fucker gets driven to work in a Bentley Mulsanne, "a car for a head of state," as Ian Parker puts it. → Read More
Bad News, Good News, Bad News
Bad news: I've been missing in action this week, as I've been stuck in bed heavily doped up and suffering with two things -- the recurrence of an old back injury, and the flu. The flu is letting up, but the back injury this time has left behind some damage, which will require ongoing treatment and physical therapy. → Read More
Baseball Bullies Trying To Rob Startup Of Its Logo
WalletHub is a social network where people can share information about credit cards and personal finance. The company has a logo that features the letter W, in white, on a green background. Not so fast, says Major League Baseball. In a classic jocks-versus-nerds standoff, the baseball guys claim that the WalletHub logo looks too much like the W logos trademarked by the Washington Nationals and… → Read More
Does Anyone Know What's Really Going On At Jawbone?
Fortune just did a big story on gizmo-maker Jawbone, reporting that the company last summer was sued by Flextronics for not paying its bills. We're hearing rumors that Flextronics might not be the only company having trouble collecting from Jawbone, and that Jawbone, which is 16 years old and still losing money, might be in trouble. → Read More
Truthiness: Jon Stewart Rips Anti-Vaxxer Mom, Leaves Out One Fact
You may have seen the Jon Stewart bit about the measles outbreak, where he teed off on Tracy Skytt, a Marin County mom presented as a goofy liberal California anti-vaxxer. What you may not know is that Stewart and his producers edited out part of the original CNN clip -- the part where CNN reported that Skytt's children have, in fact, been vaccinated against measles. → Read More
This Rap Video Will Make You Never Buy Anything From HTC, Ever
This video praising the virtues of HTC smartphones features an actual rapper, alongside someone who is not an actual rapper. See if you can tell which one is which. My theory is that Samsung, Apple, and Motorola all kicked in to make this video, because watching this makes it impossible for you to own an HTC device without feeling constantly ashamed. → Read More
Uber Gave Money To MADD Last Summer, 6 Months Before A Glowing Report
Uber and Mothers Against Drunk Driving last week put out a report suggesting Uber helped reduced drunk-driving accidents. However, the claim gets a little wobbly when you take a closer look at the numbers, as ProPublica just did. Now MADD is backing away from the assertion, claiming the relationship is "purely correlational." Meanwhile, it turns out Uber started donating money to MADD last… → Read More
Anti-Vaxxers: They're In Silicon Valley, Too
There's a big measles outbreak happening right now, thanks to anti-vaxxers like Jenny McCarthy and Jim Carrey and the people who listen to them. But Hollywood isn't the only place where people fall for junk science. There are anti-vaxxers in Silicon Valley, too. One of them is NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson, who in 2011 was supporting the doctor whose bogus research helped give rise to the anti-vaxxer… → Read More
Google Betrays Uber, And Now It's War
Remember how Eric Schmidt spent years sitting on the Apple board, quietly learning everything about the iPhone -- and then, presto, Google suddenly came out with Android and it looked a whole lot like the iPhone operating system and Steve Jobs went nuts on Schmidt for being such a sneaky, backstabbing son of a bitch? → Read More
Tech Job Of The Week: Executive Assistant And Nanny For CEO's Baby
Any working parent will tell you that finding decent child care is a nightmare. But one tech company seems to have come up with a cool idea: Just have the CEO's admin double as a nanny! A friendly tipster (and, I guess, job seeker) sent me a link to this incredible job opportunity posted by Skymosity in San Rafael, Calif. The company is looking for someone who will be an executive assistant… → Read More
The Shanley Show: Was The Whole Thing An Elaborate Hoax?
Over the past two years, Shanley Kane achieved a kind of celebrity on Twitter, where, as @shanley, she claimed to be leading a crusade for women in tech. But now some people wonder if the whole thing was a massive hoax. → Read More
Bill Gates: Also Afraid Of Robots And AI
First Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk expressed concern about artificial intelligence. Now Bill Gates joins the chorus. → Read More
Real Conversations With Make-Believe Girlfriends And Boyfriends
Last week I wrote about a service called Invisible Girlfriend and/or Invisible Boyfriend, which lets people create make-believe partners and have conversations with them via text message. ("World's Saddest Service Offers Make-Believe Boyfriend Or Girlfriend.") Since then I've heard from a guy who gets paid (5 cents per text message) to do this pen-pal work. He agreed to share some of the… → Read More
Women In VC: Still No Progress
A year ago, Fortune did a survey of VC firms to find out how many "decision makers" were female, and the number was tiny -- a mere 4.2 percent. But one year later, things must be better, right? Nope. This year's study shows things are almost exactly the same. → Read More
Elon Musk Turned Into Unwitting Hair Transplant Spokesmodel
Billionaire robot-hater Elon Musk is known for having a pretty short temper and a pretty big ego. Which means he probably doesn't appreciate the fact that some website called CosmeSys used his images (above) in a post touting new hair replacement techniques, with the headline, "Elon Musk and New Technologies in Hair Transplant." → Read More
Discuss: Tim Cook Is A Way Better CEO Than Steve Jobs Was
Apple just earned more profit in a single quarter than any company, ever, and the hacks in Silicon Valley press are fawning all over CEO Tim Cook and praising his genius. But you know what? They're right. Tim Cook is a brilliant CEO. He may, in fact, be way better at running Apple than Steve Jobs was. Let's discuss. → Read More
Warning: CEO Of Elite Dating Site Can Ban You Douchebags For Life
Amanda Bradford just launched a dating app called The League, which is designed to be used by beautiful, ambitious, intelligent people -- you know who you are! -- while keeping out the riffraff. Are you in our league? No surprise that some people find this app silly. Or sad. Or offensive. But don't you dare point that out, because Amanda Bradford does not tolerate haters and will use her… → Read More