Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
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- My New Sony VAIO Laptop • July 2, 2007
A few days ago, I purchased a brand new Sony VAIO VGN-FZ140E notebook computer from the local Circuit City. It almost matches an Apple MacBook Pro for the coolness factor, even if it does come loaded with tons of unnecessary bloatware. - The Science of Infoquake • April 9, 2007
Norman Spinrad recently wrote a review in Asimov’s of my novel Infoquake wherein he discussed the scientific accuracy of the book. Mr. Spinrad had this to say: [W]hether or not such a novel could be considered “hard science fiction”… might be moot if Edelman himself were just blowing rubber science smoke and mirrors. Instead, he [...] - Google’s Instant Translation • March 31, 2007
In case they weren't working on enough already, Reuters reports that Google is working on the ability to instantly translate documents. Google's essentially trying to do the whole thing through pattern recognition, which has some interesting philosophical implications. - Dave on Ruby on Rails • March 12, 2007
Imagine you’ve never played the game of football (the American version) before. You’ve never even seen a football game, and you have no idea what the rules are. But somebody tells you it’s way hella cool, and you’ve got the build for it, why don’t you come on down and join the team. So you [...] - Don’t Worry, Vista Will Handle It • March 7, 2007
Call me a masochist, but I installed Windows Vista on my home machine this past weekend. I wasn’t about to spend much money to get my rapidly aging Shuttle XPC Vista ready, so I simply opted to buy an $85 ATI Radeon video card that would let me run the Aero interface, however creakily. The [...] - Windows Vista Frustrations • February 23, 2007
I've got a new part-time job, and along with that job came a brand-new Dell PC that came with Windows Vista Ultimate preinstalled. Here are my first impressions about the good and the bad. - Windows Vista and Easy Security • February 1, 2007
I’ve owned and continuously operated Microsoft PCs since that clunky 8086 behemoth running MS-DOS 3.3 that I took to college with me in 1989. It ran at a sizzling 6 MHz, unless you pressed the big white button labeled “Turbo” on the front, and then — look out! — 12 MHz. (Why you would ever [...] - You Are What You Read • January 31, 2007
Never let it be said that I’m not a sentimental idiot. I had a fun little idea earlier tonight about taking my catalog of books on LibraryThing and doing a photo mosaic out of it. You know, to prove that “you are what you read,” or something jejune like that. So I took a couple [...] - Hugo/Campbell Nomination Deadlines • January 30, 2007
Just a friendly public service announcement that just so coincidentally happens to pertain to, well, um, me. The deadline to submit nominations for the Hugo Awards and for the John W. Campbell Best New Science Fiction Writer Award is not until March 3, 2007. Plenty of time. However… in order to nominate someone, you must [...] - Ten Tech Companies That Blew It in the Past Two Decades • January 26, 2007
What makes a technology company fail? Here are a handful of companies from the past twenty years that strike me as prime examples of organizations who lost a commanding lead and/or market dominance in a particular field due to their own idiocy or incompetence.