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Bob Brown on Muck Rack

Bob Brown

  • Managing Editor, Mass.gov, Co-Editor, The Swellesley Report and Contributor, Freelance
  • Co-editor, Natick Report
  • None, Wellesley Report
Wellesley
As seen in: Natick Report, Business Insider, The Guardian, The Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Sydney Morning Herald, PCWorld, The Age, The Christian Science Monitor, The Jerusalem Post, Yahoo and
Managing editor for Mass.gov | BU grad & 1-time yoyo champ 📰NetworkWorld/IDG Class of '17 focused on IT pros 🖥net research 🔬startups bit.ly/2hLK3fU
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Wi-Fi hotspot blocking persists despite FCC crackdown

Wi-Fi hotspot blocking persists despite FCC crackdown

Network World — The FCC has slapped hotels and other organizations with nearly $2.1 million in fines since the fall of 2014 for blocking patrons' portable Wi-Fi hotspots in the name of IT security, or more likely, to gouge customers for Internet service. But Network World 's examination of more than a year's worth of consumer complaints to the FCC about Wi-Fi jamming shows that not all venue operators are getting the message (see infographic below). Indeed, more than half of the 50-plus complaints whose contents we pored through following a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the FCC came within the few months after the FCC's initial action on this matter, a $600,000 fine on Marriott in October of 2014.
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An epic search for the IBM Verse email system

An epic search for the IBM Verse email system

Network World — It's been almost exactly 10 months since IBM formally launched its analytics-infused messaging system called Verse, and while the company's announcement of "software for a new way to work" initially generated a relatively positive blast of press and analyst coverage, buzz about the cloud-first product has dwindled since. So I went in search of signs of excitement, or even signs of life, for Verse at the IBM Connect conference this week in Orlando. It's fair to say that IBM didn't exactly lead with Verse in terms of its IBM Connect marketing, rather pushing a broader message about social business and digital experience.
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Jack Sanford — The greatest Wellesley sports star you probably never heard of

Jack Sanford — The greatest Wellesley sports star you probably never heard of

wellesleywestonmagazine.com — Jack Sanford's baseball career would seem to be the stuff of legend: the feisty fire-baller toiled for seven years in the minors, pitched his way to National League Rookie of the Year at the ripe age of 28, and nearly led Willie Mays and the San Francisco Giants over the New York Yankees in Game Seven of the World Series 50 years ago this fall. Yet in Wellesley, where the ballplayer was born John Stanley Sanford on May 18, 1929 and pitched for the high school team in the mid-1940s, his name is hardly a household one these many years later.
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Why there's no Nobel Prize in Computing

Why there's no Nobel Prize in Computing

Network World — When Nobel Prizes are dished out each fall, the most accomplished professionals in computing, telecom and IT have usually been left out in the cold. That's because there is no Nobel Prize for these fields, and it's unlikely there will be one any time soon. Why? BACKGROUND: Gold medals, knighthood and $1M cash prizes: Being a tech pioneer is a real honor SLIDESHOW: Whirlwind tour of technology's top honors, awards and prizes According to the Nobel Foundation: "The Nobel Prizes, as designated in the Will of Alfred Nobel, are in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace.
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Whirling through the world of propeller beanies

Whirling through the world of propeller beanies

Network World — While business isn't bad, Stacy Samuels can't help longing for the boom days of the early '90s. If your memory is fuzzy, that was the time of the last big propeller beanie craze, most notably in Baltimore, where the multicolored hats morphed from being geek chic to a must-have item for the city's youths. While business isn't bad, Stacy Samuels can't help longing for the boom days of the early '90s. If your memory is fuzzy, that was the time of the last big propeller beanie craze, most notably in Baltimore, where the multicolored hats morphed from being geek chic to a must-have item for the city's youths.
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FIRST LOOK: Ray Ozzie's Talko cloud calling/messaging iPhone app

FIRST LOOK: Ray Ozzie's Talko cloud calling/messaging iPhone app

Network World — I never did use Ray Ozzie's Lotus Notes or Groove (acquired by Microsoft) collaboration tools, mainly because the companies I worked for didn't use them, though I have interviewed the famed software designer and watched his colorful career unfold over the years. So when Ozzie's latest venture, Talko, released its free calling/messaging app for iPhones today, I decided I would give it a whirl and rope my colleague, Michael Cooney, into testing it with me. Another colleague, Tim Greene, wrote our story on Talko's unveiling but couldn't play with us since as our Microsoft reporter he wields a Microsoft Phone.
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King of String

King of String

www.boston.com — "Mom, meet Bob Brown. He broke the Guinness world record for yo-yo endurance." Strange way to be introduced in any context, but this how-you-doin' happened mere feet from an open casket that held my friend's recently departed dad. And it came despite the fact that my 15 minutes of Guinness fame had occurred nearly two decades prior. No matter. I stood there fidgeting in my suit and staring down at the deceased while his loved ones grilled me about how I ate and went to the bathroom during my five-day yo-yo stunt. Needless to say, I scrambled to change the subject.
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