technology

  • The New York Times has an article about how President-elect Barack Obama may have to give up his Blackberry and emailing in general when he assumes the presidency. I'm sort of hoping they work out the security issues and he can continue to communicate in a way that he finds comfortable. This line also got my attention:
    Mr. Obama, however, seems intent on pulling the office at least partly into the 21st century on that score; aides said he hopes to have a laptop computer on his desk in the Oval Office, making him the first American president to do so.
    (2) #
    11/16/2008
  • This has been in the cards for months now, but it looks like HD DVD is officially dead, as there's a rumor going around that Toshiba is halting the manufacture of new players. This was a rivalry I hadn't invested in, except that I never really liked the name "Blu Ray." (0) #
    2/16/2008
  • PBS's NOW has an excellent interview with Zephyr Teachout -- who was the director of online organizing for Howard Dean's 2004 campaign -- about the Ron Paul phenomenon.
    There is some part of the Ron Paul story that is a little bit of expression of anger at how limited our political debate has become. The feedback for a lot of media, I think, is unfortunately very small because we spend a lot of time—or political reporters spend a lot of time—around political staff. And they have their own set of language, metrics, fundraising, and what's serious and what's not serious, and what's okay and what's not okay, and what's crazy, and what's not crazy.
    (via techpres) (22) #
    12/14/2007
  • Thirteen hours before the bodies of WWE pro wrestler Chris Benoit, his wife, and their son was found by the police (and later ruled a murder/suicide), an anonymous user from Stamford, CT edited Benoit's Wikipedia entry announcing the death of his wife. Stamford, incidentally, is the home of the WWE headquarters. Benoit must have been in communication with others before his suicide, possibly sending the news through the wrestling rumor mill. The most dramatic result of this is probably an obstruction of justice charge, but still, this is the first time I've heard about Wikipedia timestamps opening up a new angle in a homicide case. (thx, flea) Update: The person who made the edit has spoken out, claiming that they had no inside information and that they made the edit based on some online rumors. (6) #
    6/28/2007
  • Lawrence Lessig, the Stanford Law professor who played a large role in popularizing the "free culture" movement and in bringing "intellectual property" policy to the mainstream as the founder of Creative Commons, has publicly announced that he will be shifting his focus away from copyright issues:
    I have decided to shift my academic work, and soon, my activism, away from the issues that have consumed me for the last 10 years, towards a new set of issues... "Corruption" as I've defined it elsewhere will be the focus of my work. For at least the next 10 years, it is the problem I will try to help solve.
    I applaud the courage it must take to abandon the field that has given one fame, comfort, and stability. Even among the wealthy or others in stable academic positions like Lessig, this sort of thing is all too rare. I wish him luck. (0) #
    6/19/2007
  • Top 15 Google Street View sightings. I'm quite familiar with the truck depicted in #8 -- a fleet of eight or so of them would pass by my window every evening like clockwork when I was working for Nevada's Question 7 campaign. (thx, sean) (2) #
    6/1/2007
  • Want to drive down the Las Vegas Strip on your computer? Google's new Street View will let you. It's only up for select roads in select cities (e.g., SF, LV, NYC), but it's pretty freaky/cool. (8) #
    5/29/2007
  • I have a patent. Number 7,164,779. The application was filed over five years ago, so I had almost forgotten about it, but I looked it up on a whim this morning. Check that off the list. Update: More information about the invention, in less technical language. I also have a VHS tape of a demonstration somewhere that I should dig up and put on YouTube. (11) #
    5/24/2007
  • Apple announces two new big gadgets: the iPhone and Apple TV. I need to become closer friends to some early adopters. (3) #
    1/9/2007
  • Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos's up until now secret project, is finally beginning to reveal more details about their plans. Writes Bezos:
    We’re working, patiently and step-by-step, to lower the cost of spaceflight so that many people can afford to go and so that we humans can better continue exploring the solar system.
    Last November, they had their first publicized and successful test launch. And incidentally, author Neal Stephenson is a part-time advisor for the company. (I assume that he still is, since that link is three years old.) (via bb) (0) #
    1/3/2007

Google mail hiccup

I just got an email from myself on my gmail account that I never actually sent. The subject is a seven digit number and the body a three digit number. (I won't divulge them in case it involves a security flaw.) Thinking it could be a Google-wide hiccup, I asked my officemate if he had received the same. He has, with different numbers. Anyone else get one of these? And if so, any idea what happened?

Mon, 06/05/2006 - 11:01am
  • Holy shit. I knew the NSA had some advanced stuff going on, but for some reason I didn't expect it to be all stored at once. Everyone: switch to Qwest if you can. (8) #
    5/10/2006
12next ›last »
Home