It has become obvious to nearly everyone that we need to stop burning fossil fuels, and while that is all well and good, what takes their place? We have renewable energy sources that can provide electricity to run our vehicles … Continue reading
I have been using Audacity for a variety of audio processing needs for some years now, and until lately I have been quite satisified. But lately it seems to have developed a hyper-sensitivity to errors and refusing to load files … Continue reading
Living With Moore’s Law: Past, Present and Future by Dana Blankenhorn My rating: 5 of 5 stars This was a fascinating book. I first started following Blankenhorn when he was a reporter covering technology, particularly Linux and Open Source software. … Continue reading
I was listening to Hacker Public Radio episode #3242, which was a lengthy look at Chromebooks by a couple of Linux folks, who were on the whole pretty happy with the experience. This may surprise some folks, but I was … Continue reading
Tips for Time Travelers by Peter Cochrane My rating: 3 of 5 stars Peter Cochrane was the head of the research labs at British Telecommunications, and this book is a series of short essays on his ideas about future technologies. … Continue reading
How Google Works by Eric Schmidt My rating: 4 of 5 stars Google started as the project of graduate students at Stanford, but as it became successful and grew they realized they needed some managerial assistance, and this book comes … Continue reading
What Technology Wants by Kevin Kelly My rating: 4 of 5 stars This is an interesting read if you don’t mind a bit of teleology. Kelly conceives of technology like an organism, which he calls the technium: “The technium is … Continue reading
In the Plex: How Google Thinks, Works, and Shapes Our Lives by Steven Levy My rating: 4 of 5 stars Not quite as mandatory reading as his classic Hackers, this is nonetheless a good book for anyone who is interested … Continue reading
Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy My rating: 5 of 5 stars This is a recently updated and reissued version of Levy’s classic book from 25 years ago. He traces the development of computing from the MIT … Continue reading
The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology by Ray Kurzweil My rating: 4 of 5 stars I think it is important to consider how the things we do today will create the future we will inhabit. Kurzweil’s book is … Continue reading
