Posts Tagged: Philosophy & Sophistry
Video of Reboot conference presentations
Posted by on Sunday, June 29, 2003 in - 2 comments
Video of the presentations from the Reboot technology conference in Denmark is available for download. Presenters include Jason Fried (37signals and Signal vs. Noise) on contingency design and Cory Doctorow (author of Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom) on digital rights management and copyright (a …
The Genius Box: quality educational streaming video
Posted by on Tuesday, April 29, 2003 in - 2 comments
During my recent spell as a Mac-user, a friend pointed me to an interesting talk by Apple’s VP of Software Technology and all-around Unix-guy, Bud Tribble. The talk was great, both in terms of content (the speaker was interesting) and delivery (the streaming media was smooth and of sufficient …
Learning about the creative commons
Posted by on Thursday, August 15, 2002 in
I haven't felt that I've known enough about copyright and patents to have a clear position on the related issues. I have ordered Laurence Lessig's book, The Future of Ideas, in order to learn more about the issue. • In anticipation of reading the book, I watched/listened to Lessig's keynote …
when I grow up I'm gonna be a physicist
Posted by on Sunday, February 24, 2002 in - 10 comments
While aov rages with debate about web standards and development techniques, a regular reader speaks up for those who aren't enthralled by cascading style sheets and asks us to throw them a conversational bone. Fair enough, how's general relativity for a Sunday conversation topic? • Brian …
words and phrases due for retirement
Posted by on Saturday, December 15, 2001 in - 44 comments
It is usually a good practice to have your house in order before start shitting on your neighbours, lest you be shit upon yourself (I know there are more appropriate analogies, but they all seem so cliché). Criticizing writing can be a dangerous thing to do. If you do so and make a typo (something …
War, War, & Hockey
Posted by on Saturday, December 8, 2001 in - 6 comments
This is what I found on the front page of the CBC website today. • Note the earth-shatteringly improtant three main headlines. Everything they say about Canadians is true.
"The great enemy of clear language is insincerity."
Posted by on Monday, April 30, 2001 in - 3 comments
George Orwell is cool. 1984 and Animal Farm are staples of the high-school English class. If you read them in high-school, reread them. If not, read them. I was directed to an article Orwell wrote which feels like a hopeful obituary for the English language. • If you do any writing …
a tale of cats, philosophers, and SUVs
Posted by on Saturday, January 13, 2001 in
aov’s favourite philosophy professor, Tony Couture, to whom we owe a lot of our genius, has had quite a misadventure. • Click for larger image • (131Kb) • As featured in The Guardian newspaper, Tony’s unreasonably large Sport Utility Vehicle went off the road near Shediac. While Tony seems …
tonight: the real debate
Posted by on Sunday, November 19, 2000 in
Tonight at 8:00PM EST on CBC Newsworld, home of Canada's best TV show, Counterspin, be sure and tune into the Alternative Election Debate. • Five of Canada's ‘other’ parties will be debating the issues (I get the feeling the “issues” might be somewhat different than the “issues” we are used to …
commercial WIRED musings
Posted by on Wednesday, November 1, 2000 in
Some interesting (or at least I thought so) stats from the latest issue of WIRED Magazine. Of the total 366 pages, a little over half, 200 are advertisments. Of the remaining 166 pages of 'editorial' content, 16 are basically unpaid ads for the products the cover. • I haven't compared these …