James Farrell

James Farrell is the former editor-in-chief of Chiang Mai CityNews, where he wrote and managed daily news, features, op-eds and blogs on a diverse range of topics. Prior to this, in the same city of Northern Thailand where he lives, he was the longstanding deputy editor of the monthly magazine Citylife. He has written on culture, politics, travel, tech, business, human rights, for local, national, and international news services and magazines. He has a keen interest in the role technology is playing in the transformation of society, culture and politics, especially in developing nations. This is reflected in his not-so-successful first novel.

Latest from James Farrell

Monday blues for Mark Zuckerberg as his social media accounts get hacked

Even the Chief Executive Officer of the world’s largest social networking site, it seems, isn’t creative enough with his passwords. This morning Mark Zuckerberg’s Twitter, Inc. and Pinterest, Inc. accounts were both hacked by a Saudi Arabia-based group known as OurMine. The group also claimed to have hacked his Instagram, Inc. account, but this has since ...

World’s first virtual reality auto show points to rise in virtual tourism

If you can’t be there in body, the next best thing might be to don a virtual reality (VR) headset and experience a bit of travel from your bedroom. While much has been said about virtual reality headsets such as Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR being a gamer’s wet dream, or perhaps the closest ...

Facebook says its new DeepText A.I. will be able to read you like a human

Facebook has made a pretty bold claim. It says it has developed an A.I. called DeepText that can understand the context of what you have written just as good as your average literate reader. It’s better than the average Joe though; Deep Text is somewhat of an avid reader, and also a polyglot. In a ...

Finding the freedom to do what you love through automation and Basic Income

Last week, following widespread protests across the U.S., Ed Rensi, a former McDonald’s CEO, said that increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would result in businesses concluding that it’s time to replace their human staff with robots. “You’re gonna see a job loss like you can’t believe,” said Rensi, adding that when attending the ...

Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Twitter are moving towards a zero-tolerance attitude towards hate speech

In a move to combat hate speech, counter terrorism, or tackle behavior that might lead to violence, Microsoft, Facebook, Google and Twitter have agreed to implement new European Commission “Codes of Conduct”.  The tech companies will adhere to the code, but it is not legally binding. A European Comission press release explained the initiative, in part ...

Bringing high-quality VR to your average smartphone with Microsoft’s Flashback

The rise of virtual reality (VR) isn’t exactly meteoric, but it’s certainly well beyond anything people can simply call hype – something that happened when VR first started being talked about many moons ago.  The Oculus Rift is finally out there for consumers to play with; Google recently announced it’s making its own virtual reality ...

Microsoft’s ‘abusive’ efforts to push Windows 10 on the public annoys millions of Chinese consumers

Microsoft and its perhaps over-zealous efforts to sway consumers to upgrade to Windows 10 has done a fair bit damage on American soil so far. The tech giant has come under fire lately for a number of reasons relating to the big push to Windows 10, which has included automatic upgrades, incorrigible advertising and worst ...

Not one, but two new Xbox One consoles on the way

It looks like the rumors that Microsoft is on the verge of bringing out something big for the Xbox is true, in light of recent reports. For a while now speculations have been abundant as to what Microsoft will reveal at this year’s E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) taking place at the Galen Center in Los Angeles ...

Microsoft’s latest sneaky Windows 10 upgrade push called “indefensible”

Microsoft is certainly not winning people over with the way in which it is pushing Windows 10 down users’ throats, and things just got worse. It seems the company is making a series of final pushes before the free upgrade offer ends on July 29, but it also seems that Microsoft’s zealotry concerning Windows 10 is ...

Microsoft to get tough on terrorism, but leave Bing mostly uncensored

Microsoft has vowed to crackdown on content shared by terrorists, or supporters of terrorists, when that material is viewed as dangerous. The company will implement this crackdown by banning anyone from its services who disseminates material supporting terrorist groups, or people endorsing such groups within consumer services such as Xbox Live or Outlook webmail. In a blog ...