Posts Tagged: Philosophy & Sophistry
How long would it take to get to Kepler 22b?
Posted by on Monday, December 12, 2011 in - 5 comments
Kepler 22b, the extrasolar planet discovered by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope is apparently around 600 light years away. I wondered how long it would actually take for us to get something there. Maybe if we start today, we could surprise our descendants with a signal from a probe in a 10,000 years …
That Oil Was For Us
Posted by on Monday, May 31, 2010 in - 8 comments
While lamenting the state of the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, my wife pointed out that, as consumers of oil, we’re all a party to it. I seemed so obvious that I was embarrassed that it hadn’t occurred to me earlier. Most things in my life - the heat in my home and office, the gas in my …
12 Albums
Posted by on Wednesday, January 27, 2010 in - 10 comments
It’s easy to romanticize the medium of our youth. I’m too young to miss vinyl; for me vinyl means Nana Mouskouri’s Christmas album. No one really misses cassettes; except maybe for mix tapes, which we mostly loved because of how much work we put into them. CDs are also hard to lament. They were …
Eastlink Injects Itself into the Internet Experience of its Customers
Posted by on Sunday, October 18, 2009 in - 5 comments
After having used Aliant (now Bell Aliant) as my Internet service provider (the term high-speed is useless in its relativity) for several years, I switched to Eastlink - the only alternative. My service with Aliant had been fine, but due to some bizarre Internet-topography, to get from my house … read more »
Introduction to New Urbanism
Posted by on Sunday, September 13, 2009 in
This 9-part lecture on New Urbanism (in 10-minute bite-sized chunks) is a pleasantly common-sense criticism of car-centered urban planning.
The Temptation of the Mobile Web
Posted by on Wednesday, August 26, 2009 in - 5 comments
In all of the talk about devices that provide pervasive internet connectivity (like the iPhone, Palm Pre, and Android phones), I had yet to see anyone address what I see as the most significant drawback of such devices. Until, that is, Tim Bray wrote up his experience with his Android G1 phone and …
Dr. Michio Kaku explains the pending possible proof of multiple universes (well, multiverses).
Posted by on Sunday, August 23, 2009 in - 1 comment
The Apple-ication Tax
Posted by on Sunday, August 23, 2009 in - 8 comments
Imagine for a moment that you are a brilliant person. Are you with me so far? Ok, now imagine that you’ve created a software application that everyone wants. Maybe it’s Lotus 123, or Mathematica, Doom, or a screensaver with flying toasters. • Imagine then, that as you went to sell your …
Digital Callousness
Posted by on Friday, August 14, 2009 in - 1 comment
Today I watched footage of a fatal plane crash and all I could think was, “Did YouTube redesign their search box?”
Technology Freedom in Metaphor
Posted by on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 in - 18 comments
Twitter • If Twitter were a phone company, you could only call people who used the same phone company as you. • iPhone • If the iPhone were a desktop computer, you could only install applications approved by Microsoft (or Apple). • DVD • If DVDs were books, you couldn’t read a book from …