Technology

In case you were wondering, it really is Sammy Sosa, the real Sammy Sosa, on social media. Rebecca Polihronis, marketing manager for Injex 21, a company that makes needle-free technology for drugs that are injected, confirmed Thursday that the former Cubs star has joined the image-sharing site Pinterest . Sosa is the CEO of Injex 21. “We're learning social media, we're not pros at it yet, but we're working on it,” she said, also confirming...

"Sesame Street" is spoofing its fellow PBS show "Downton Abbey" on Feb. 4 with "Upside Downton Abbey. " As you can see in the clip above, the Dowager Countess and butler Mr. Carson are having some issues with the topsy turvy take on the British series. Carson just can't seem to get the Countess her tea, or crumpets, before they fall to the ceiling. Things get back to normal with she agrees to the change the name of the estate to Right Side Upton Abbey. Guest stars scheduled to appear in the 43rd season of "Sesame Street" include Kristen Bell, Jon Hamm, Matt Kemp, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Melissa McCarthy, Paula Patton, Amy Ryan, Donald Glover, Kareem Abdul Jabar, Bobby Moynihan and Dax Shepard.

El-P, as might be expected for a guy whose resume includes performing as part of the widely beloved New York rap group Company Flow, running the underground label Def Jux, and making acclaimed music of his own, has been busy lately. In recent months he's released a solo album, "Cancer for Cure," and produced an album for Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, "R.A.P. Music"--both of which stand among the year's most riveting hip-hop releases--while still finding time to collaborate with buzzed-about artists like Mr. MFN eXquire and Das Racist.

It wasn't what the Lady Gagas and the Jimmy Fallons of the Twitter world see when they tweet, but it was a response nonetheless. "Just saw @FiorettiChicago with a can of spray paint covering graffiti on Halsted. He said it was faster if he did it himself. Awesome. " So tweeted one resident about Robert Fioretti, alderman of the 2nd Ward, when he saw the Chicago politician taking a neighborhood problem into his own hands one night in October. The feedback - like everything on the site - was swift.

Riding the CTA doesn't have to be so taxing. Workers in Cook County can set aside a portion of their income before taxes to pay for their CTA card under the Transit Ridership Improvement Program. The incentive program benefits employees, who don't pay taxes on the amount of money used to purchase the card, and employers, who are paid $30 for any new employee who signs up for the benefits, according to the Center for Neighborhood Technology, a local environmental group that helps administer the program. Enrollment for businesses to receive incentives ends Feb. 10. There's a complex formula to determine how much money a commuter can save by enrolling.

Since Mayor Rahm Emmanuel took office last year, the city has increased the amount of data that it has released to the public. Enterprising software developers have taken that data and turned it into useful mobile phone applications like Plow Tracker and Buster, the CTA bus and train tracking app, but a recently launched website called openchicago.org hopes to takes the idea one step further. The social media site, which launched about two weeks ago, aims to connect local software developers with aldermen and other developers in their area to create hyperlocal neighborhood specific applications.

*** (out of four) Tasking Keanu Reeves with narrating and conducting interviews for a documentary almost seems like a challenge to audiences predisposed to questioning the actor's intelligence. As if “Side by Side” director Christopher Kenneally wants to ask us, “Oh, really? What makes you so smart?” This fast-paced doc about the movie industry's transition from using film to digital technology contains an impressive range of interview subjects with more than enough authority to speak as experts.

Before I came out, I used to peer out through a window - a chat window on my computer. From the comfort of my digital closet, AOL Instant Messenger, MySpace and numerous other sites were where I learned what it meant to be gay in my teen years. The people I met online, the conversations I had, the information I absorbed through hours upon hours surfing the Internet - it all helped me eventually become comfortable with myself and find my community. Like most gay people these days, I was gay online before I was out in a physical sense.

New regulations on city limo drivers could force a shutdown of on-demand car service Uber, and the company isn't taking it lying down. Under a proposed change to city ordinances made by the Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, Uber's limo services, Uber Black, would no longer be able to use electronic measuring devices to calculate fare--a staple of the company's service--nor would they be able to charge based on time or distance....

Chicago is set to have a big year for bank heists. After passing 2011's total of 115 total bank robberies in August, Chicago's FBI field office now expects to surpass another benchmark: 200 bank robberies for 2012, a high number for a one-year period. Currently, 197 robberies have happened in Chicago and its five collar counties, well shy of 2006's record of 284. "We fully expect to exceed that 200 mark, [since] over the last 10 years, December has averaged the highest number of bank robberies in a month," said Joan Hyde, a spokeswoman for the Chicago-area FBI field office.