In 2001: A Space Odyssey, the on-board artificial intelligence, named HAL 9000, logic bombs when its mission imperatives appear threatened by the behavior of the humans on-board. As a result, HAL turns homicidal, and the remaining crew-member, Dave, is forced to shut it down. As he moves to disable the computer’s brain, HAL tries to … Continue reading A Bicycle Built for Two
The tech world’s latest villain is a woman named Elizabeth Holmes. You may have heard about her trial on the news, or maybe seen the documentary about her fall from grace. Maybe you even read the Wall Street Journal expose that started her downward spiral. We don’t know much about her as a person, save … Continue reading In Defense of Elizabeth Holmes
One of the first times I heard about Linux was during my freshman year at college. The first-year curriculum for Computer Programmer/Analyst was not particularly challenging — they used it as a level-set year, so assumed everyone was new to computers and programming. I’d been trying to teach myself programming since I was 11, and … Continue reading The Year of Linux on the Desktop
The original incarnation of the social network we know as Facebook was a bluntly misogynistic web app called “Facemash” designed to let frat boys rate how hot incoming freshman college girls were. Socially inept founder Mark Zuckerberg followed up that hit by stealing from his friends to market “TheFacebook” initially at Ivy League schools, then … Continue reading Opting Out of the Metaverse
There are a number of topics that I’d like to blog about, but I’m afraid our current cultural climate doesn’t leave room for the kind of nuance they’d require. Things like our conflicted feelings about getting our youngest vaccinated. We’re pro-vaccine in this house, and 4 out of 5 of us got our shots as … Continue reading The 3G Apocalypse
Travel is a kind of crucible. Its a special set of challenges that not everyone has the stomach for, but it produces a kind of outcome that not everyone gets to enjoy. Air travel, in particular, is this unusual combination of stress and boredom, where everyone has to meet a schedule that everyone knows is … Continue reading Crucibles
Five years ago I put a $1000 deposit on a Tesla Model 3. I was super excited that an affordable electric car was within reach of a middle class family: $35,000 was the promised sticker price, and I only had to wait a year or so… A year or so later I asked for my … Continue reading Our First Electric Car
Our big travel plans for 2020 were cancelled for obvious reasons, so we set smaller goals for this summer. Primary of which was seeing as much family as we could manage. A road trip on the way home was a stretch goal. Fortunately, Covid — and Canada — cooperated with both. We started the summer … Continue reading 2021 Post Vaccination Road Show
