"Whether made by the Gap or American Eagle, a pair of khakis with a 32-inch inseam and a 34-inch waist will fit you just about the same. A Panasonic phone will plug into the jacks in your home as easily as a phone from AT&T…. Today, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology,…
2-year-old Morgan was broad-sided by a man who admitted he was distracted by his cell phone. Morgan was killed; the guy on the phone got a $50 fine and 2 tickets. —Don’t talk on the phone while driving. Similar:Kinetic Theatre's "Hound of the Baskervilles" was hilarious. Kinetic Theatre’s production was ful…BooksAttribution, Editorializing and DefamationIn the Nightly Noodle…
(PBS) A report on the creators and marketers of popular culture for teenagers (teens talk back). —Merchants of Cool Similar:Just a handful more of these elegant #steampunk control panels and I can move on to the ne…AestheticsToday I didn't save the world, but I did help a student while power-walking at the mall.I’m far from…
There has always been a gap between those people and communities who can make effective use of information technology and those who cannot. Now, more than ever, unequal adoption of technology excludes many from reaping the fruits of the economy. —Digital Divide Basics Similar:NAVY TO DROP ALL-CAPS COMMUNICATIONSCaps off to the Navy’s plan to drop…
It may turn out that the “digital divide”—one of the most fashionable political slogans of recent years—is largely fiction. —Debunking the Digital Divide Similar:The insect apocalypse: ‘Our world will grind to a halt without them’It is 50 years since I first collected t…CultureLet He Who Is Without Sin #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 7)…
"After one too many bad presentations, I decided to see if I could do something about it. Back in my hotel room I decided to show what Abe Lincoln might have done if he had used PowerPoint rather than the power of oratory at Gettysburg." Peter Norvig —Gettysburg Address on PowerPoint Similar:What can you do…
“Computer technology was supposed to replace paper. But that hasn’t happened. Every country in the Western world uses more paper today, on a per-capita basis, than it did ten years ago.” —The Social Life of PaperNew Yorker) Similar:Because words matter, old sport.AcademiaThat Class Where Stanford Profs Projected Hundreds of Zoom Students on a Video WallOf…
I have a small collection of text-based computer games that you can play via a web browser. These online versions won’t let you save and restore games, but they ought to get you started. —Interactive Fiction Online Gallery Similar:Oh, No. YouTube is Deleting Videos.Oh no. First YouTube institutes a “COVI…Current_EventsPerseverance lands on Mars today! Here's…
The first space colonists will probably take their faiths to the stars. The reference to “Star Trek” in the title of the article is cute, but Star Trek: The Next Generation was almost universally hostile to religious concepts (except when aliens presented them, that is). The more recent TV show Bablylon 5, although created by…
A progressive critique of Bush’s response to the 9-11 attacks, interpreting Bush in terms of George Orwell’s bleak totalitarian novel 1984: "1984 has arrived. In his address to Congress Thursday, George Bush effectively declared permanent war — war without temporal or geographic limits; war without clear goals; war against a vaguely defined and constantly shifting…
“‘Nigerian Money Offers’ zoomed from the seventh to the third most common type of online fraud last year, and the reason is obvious. In days gone by, the scammers had to canvass potential victims one at a time by fax and snail mail; now they have the speed, cost-effectiveness and anonymity of the Internet at…
"Asked by the firing squad commander if he had a last request, James Roges said, ‘Why yes. A bullet-proof vest!‘" Christopher Orlet —The Last Words (Vocabula Review) Similar:The Printed Word in Peril: The age of Homo virtualis is upon usWho, I thought, besides a multidisciplin…BooksVisiting my parents. Admiring their original Hallmark Enterprise Christmas ornament. I…
The survey, published by an organization promoting "World Book Day," probably does not count time spent in chat rooms, reading web pages as "reading", but the news item does not raise that issue. Related question: has feminism harmed boys? —Girls Read Twice as Much as Boys (BBC) Similar:In January 2001, I was blogging about Bill…
A "collaborative hyperdrama" purports to be the archives of a young psychiatrist offering his services to the employees of a dot-com. "Through transcripts of therapy sessions, patient diaries and logs, doodles, personnel records, telephone conversations, and other written and graphical materials, the Company Therapist is designed to allow a deep exploration of its characters and…
Fine-Tuned is a free, text-based game, playable in many formats. From a review by Adam Cadre: “Not only has the author created an absolutely wonderful world, full of ‘anti-autoists,’ roving herds of goats, and fist-shaking train engineers, but it dares — and manages to pull off — a number of pieces of participatory comedy, which…
"In 1044, a Chinese manual on producing gunpowder-based weapons included cannons, bombs for lobbing at invaders, two-stage rockets, and land mines." Chinese researchers stumbled across the formula for gunpowder while researching what they called the "immortality pill". What forces control the way inventions end up being used? Mark Robinson —Accidental Geniusb> (Wired) Similar:Post-Pandemic News: 7…
The genius of Web sites for accommodating multiple points of view is nowhere better illustrated than in the recent on-line craze for public diaries, or “blogs.” The term is a shortening of Weblog – and also the name of the easy-to-use technology available at www.blogger.com: “Push-Button Publishing for the People.” Jeff Warren —Point and Think…
September 11, 2001.It’s been six months since Similar:NYPD's Lt. Cattani offers heartfelt apology for "wrong decision" that threw his reputation…Cops are trained to make snap decisions …Current_EventsFurious Trump orders officials to boycott correspondents' dinnerTrump spent the morning insulting the ne…CultureTwitterverse, are we grieving over coder droves now leaving? AmusingVIRUS DIARY: For these kids, no adventures…
If they throw this renegade hacker hero in jail, it’ll be the first time he’s had a steady place to stay in five years. —He Hacks by Day, Squats by Night (Wired) Similar:While searching my bag for a cable, I found an unexpected wealth of food-substitute items.Amusing'Peter Pan Live' Was Never Intended to Be EnjoyedI…
: "No more blog blog blog!" — line not quite spoken by Captain Kirk ("Miri," Star Trek). —William Shatner’s Weblog Similar:Perspective | Could ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ really be done? We found out. The three of us approach them in…AmusingSymbiosis (TNG Rewatch, Season 1 Episode 22)Rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generatio…Culture"This Is Probably Going to…