Over the past two months we’ve witnessed the ends of two cultural phenomena, the Sopranos and Harry Potter. Those of us with a melancholy bent towards nostalgia can already imagine looking back on these moments with hazy pleasure, remembering life Back When.
I know that I’m in the minority when I say that the Sopranos finale [...]
I must be watching shows that target their demographic, because I’m constantly seeing 3M’s commercials for their computer privacy filter. One commercial shows a guy using his laptop from an airplane middle seat as his neighbors on either side try to see what he’s typing; the other commercial shows the same guy (or at least he [...]
EDIT: Obviously, I’ve let this one lie… After catching my breath to be in a place to do a rewrite, the moment pretty much passed. Although, given more time for the opeditors to get their footing, predictably they did start spinning tragedy into policy gold. Witness this Globe piece from 4/26 (Our addiction to violence) [...]
Soon after an initial outpouring of shock and grief at the senseless murder of 32 members of the Virginia Tech community, we began seeking explanations for the tragedy. By all accounts Seung-Hui Cho, perpetrator and 33rd victim of this rampage, was a severely disturbed young man; the snippets of video released so far by NBC [...]
This is a cross-post from the Green Computing forum that I recently convinced SilentPCReview.com to create (the interest of silence freaks and eco-computing are actually closely aligned most of the time). I actually think the following is an achievable goal with a meaningful potential impact on the environment:
As Vista prepares for a delayed takeoff, I’m [...]
I have been in my office at 99 Chauncy St for less than a year, and in that time have come to hate the gloomy air shaft my wondow overlooks. I’m on the 5th floor of an 11-story building, so not only is the “air” in this shaft is of rather dubious quality, but the [...]
There are some movies so terrifyingly awful that they evoke a fight or flight response, and Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is one of them. Now, I admit to a certain Pavlovian response because I’d seen parts of it while suffering from a fever as a small child, but it’s also quite possible that it [...]
We’ve been in Chicago (well, Wheaton) IL this week, and on Monday the Andersons and the Anderkoos swung by the Field Museum, which is currently hosting a blockbuster exhibit on Pompeii.
The exhibit itself was decent, perhaps surprisingly lackluster until you
realize that the Field is a museum of natural history, not social history
(though, despite our new [...]
Whether NPR or FOX, the news reporters’ currency is fair, objective
reporting… except when it comes to the weather. As the New Yorker’s
“Dawn Patrol” (August 8/15, no longer online) pointed out, the weather
report is really for entertainment and reassurance value, not its
factual content. Newspapers and TV stations have ombudsmen and some
semblance of professional commitment to minimize [...]
After a recent warning about a pending botnet attack (via Slashdot), I started wondering what good can be done via viruses and worms. There has already been much talk about “white hat” worms that close computer vulnerabilities or warn their owners about security risks. Pretending for the moment that “good worms” don’t do as much [...]
