technology

RIP Doug Engelbart, and Thanks For All the Mice

The computer visionary, Doug Engelbart, BSOD’d on July 2. He should have been the computing star everyone outside of the nerd community …

For many weeks I’ve been having tons of problems with my mouse pointer skipping across the screen seemingly without rhyme or reason. After much wailing and gnashing of teeth (I won’t admit to the renting of raiment…or the refusing to paint of raiment) I think I found the reason: the color in parts of my mouse pad rendered the laser in the mouse ineffective to the cause. Since changing out that mouse pad for a different one which lacked the offensive color zones, no noticeable problems (so far).

Sometimes it’s the simple things that trip us up the most easily in our complex technological world.

Julian Treasure: Why architects need to use their ears (TED)

This is an issue with a great deal of importance to me as my brain isn’t much help in separating ambient sound from the …

Mudskipper: A Mars Colony Ship

To boldly go beyond Earth’s orbital neighborhood is the next level of courageous, crewed exploration. To make it to that step, we’ll need a spaceship purpose-built with the idea that that crew will be gone for protracted amounts of time and will likely set up camp somewhere else.

For Want of a Couple of Gibibytes

It’s been an interesting couple of weeks, computer-wise, here at the casa. My main machine has started showing its age and I’ve been forced to put it on blocks for a while to see if I can get it back to its usual self. In the meantime, I’m having to do my work on my laptop — which beats not having a computer at all, n’est ce pas?.

Opinion: Video games and Male Gaze – are we men or boys? (Gamasutra)

We really need a lot more game designers who are not of the Male Gaze variety — whatever gender they happen to …

How Artificial Intelligences Will See Us (io9)

What if XNet exists in a thousand robots, and they all decide for some weird reason that humans should stand completely still …

Anti-sciencers Should Stop Stealing Science

One of the things that really irks me is unabashed hypocrisy. Take, for example, the recent report that a growing number of conservatives are increasingly distrustful of science. Fine. Distrust science; you can believe what you will. All I ask is that you stand by your convictions and stop using this science that you find so onerous.

Congressman Tells NASA Rocket Science Is Simple

Some people in congress don’t seem to understand that rocket science is…well…rocket science. It’s not easy. It can be made to look that way, but it really, really isn’t.

What Is Space Exploration Worth? (The Planetary Society Blog)

“Our space program is one of the things that makes us great, that sets us far apart from other productive countries, that …

The nightmarish SOPA hearings (The Washington Post)

“There ought to be a law, I think, that in order to regulate something you have to have some understanding of it.” …

I Like Ubuntu

I’ve gotten to use a lot of operating systems over the past few decades. Some I like, some…well, not so much. In recent years I’ve come to like Linux in general and Ubuntu in particular. Maybe you should give it a try, too.

Supermarkets start bagging self-serve checkouts (AP)

This trend is sad news indeed. There are rarely enough check-outs open and many of them are slow. I still have to …

Robots Successfully Invent Their Own Language (ExtremeTech)

Once they start talking, will we ever get them to shut up? I mean, people have tried altering my programming to stop …

Let’s Talk “Que Será Serees”

Barring disaster, my science fiction novel, Que Será Serees, will be released in early May. It is being prepped to be available for sale both in a print version and an ebook version for the Kindle so you’re free to pick your preferred format.

TCW Close With the Bug Thing

Remember back when there was mention on another blog that the Fox lawyers had examined The Connor Wars to that point and …

Steve Wozniak: The Geek Who Made Geek Cool

I think Steve Wozniak is perhaps, overall, the neatest of the old-school geeks. Partly is comes from the boxes he designed, but it’s also largely because he’s just a cool human being as well.

5 Science Fiction Technologies We’re Still Waiting On

For a SF writer, it gets harder and harder to find those science things that are “indistinguishable from magic”. Harder, but not impossible. There are still wonders we don’t yet have.

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