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I know that hockey is important to some misguided souls.

I can't entirely fathom why, but I'm prepared to respect those who feel the need for a little institutionalized violence in their lives.

The thing is, the National Hockey League also enjoys institutionalized lockouts that seem to make whole seasons disappear.

There's one occurring right now. Progress seems to be running slightly behind the pace of DSL.

Perhaps one shouldn't be surprised, then, that the Chicago Blackhawks' Dave Bolland appears to support the, um, death of NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.

The what?

The way that ESPN slapshoots it, … Read more

Being reminded of what you were doing exactly one, two, or even three years ago to the day can leave you feeling a bit nostalgic. And that's exactly what the Timehop iOS app accomplishes.

We talked about Timehop once before, when it was an e-mail-only service. You would sign up by linking your Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Foursquare, and Flickr accounts to the service. Then each morning you'd receive an e-mail containing your tweets, links, check-ins, updates, and photos from exactly one year (or longer) ago.

Later, sharing options were added. You could share an event you may have … Read more

The present is social. The future is social. Media is social.

It's quite amazing that people still manage to hate each other so much.

Perhaps things are a little more complex than we first thought -- or perhaps social media experts truly are the troubling bags of wind that "Saturday Night Live" recently suggested they might be.

Less leaping on the bandwagon and more skewering the still-twitching carcass, The Onion has just released a video that masquerades as a TED talk.

I am grateful to TechCrunch for spotting this phenomenon, in which a sprightly intellectual young thing … Read more

It's hard not to love the New York Times. There's so much "there" there that it's like a lover who has so many facets you can't embrace them all at once.

And yet one of those facets is that the Times is sometimes touchy.

Indeed, it has just engineered the blocking of a Twitter account, ostensibly because it doesn't enjoy the idea of the account having an avatar that includes the Times' legendary 't' -- which is something of a trademark.

For some, this might appear to be a storm in a t-cup. … Read more

Medium, a publishing platform being developed by Twitter co-founder Ev Williams, has hired a director of content.

Williams announced on his company's blog yesterday that Medium has hired Kate Lee, former literary agent at International Creative Management. Lee left her job at ICM in April, after deciding that she wanted to have some time off. She spent 10 years at ICM and focused heavily on bringing blog writers to the book publishing world.

In her new role at Medium, Lee will serve as director of content, a job that will see her "help get great stuff onto Medium,&… Read more

SAN FRANCISCO -- There's so many choices. Cupcakes. Pizza. Sandwiches. Artisanal beverages. A chiropractor. Even a world-class speaker series. And that's all just within a few blocks.

My iPhone is in my hand, and I'm about to head out on a spending spree. No cash or credit cards will see the light of day, but I won't be having any uncomfortable conversations with security guards either. Welcome to my Square Wallet walking tour.

For the uninitiated who think of Square and visualize someone in a food truck ringing up a burrito by swiping a credit card … Read more

Sometimes when people send me an abusive, ignorant tweet, I retweet it.

Because, well, it seems somehow the right thing to do to make them feel better.

However, I am not Britain's flagship airline, with customers whose sensibilities are touchy at best.

Please feel the pain, therefore, of British Airways, which today retweeted this: "@JoeLadd @British_Airways F*** You. F****** cancelling my flight! #bunchofc***s"

That's a partial quote. As if the fusillade of four-letter phrases wasn't enough, the retweeted tweet topped it all off with a racial epithet.

It seems entirely unsurprising that others who … Read more

What big feature will be missing from the Wii U on launch day?

Bad news for first-day Wii U buyers: the company has announced that the TVii service, which was promised to be available at launch, will now not be live until sometime in December. In addition, streaming services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, YouTube, and Amazon Instant Video will now be going live in the coming weeks. This is certainly a blow for Nintendo, which can't seem to get things ready for any launch -- you'll recall that the 3DS launched without access to the virtual eShop store, … Read more

Let's not act so shocked if Frankenstein's invention is on the loose.

A couple of days ago the Israel Defense Forces began live-tweeting as the newest round of hostilities broke out along Israel's already hot border with Gaza. The IDF Twitter stream included the video recording of a missile attack that killed Hamas military leader Ahmed Jabari, along with an in your face taunt: "We recommend that no Hamas operatives, whether low level or senior leaders, show their faces above ground in the days ahead." For its part, the military wing of Hamas used its … Read more