February 26, 2016

Rubio: FBI Not Asking Apple For Backdoor To Encryption

During last night’s Republican debate on CNN, Marco Rubio said, “They [FBI] are not asking for Apple to create a backdoor to encryption.” On a very specific parsing of that statement, Rubio might be correct, but what the FBI is asking Apple to do is create code that would be equal to a backdoor, because it would allow the FBI (and anyone else who gets their hands on this code) the ability to try unlimited passcodes using high-speed computers. virtually guaranteeing access to the phone’s data. So sure, on a technicality Rubio might be correct, but make no mistake, Apple is being asked to create code that would make it possible to render the iPhone’s encryption meaningless.

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February 22, 2015

WWW: The Latest Democracy To Fall Victim To The Rich And Powerful

If I asked you what it takes to get a popular web site onto the internet, what would you say? If you’re like most people, you’d probably say something about creating a site, then sprinkling relevant keywords strategically throughout (a.k.a. “Search Engine Optimization” (SEO)), and then, as people discover the site, and your audience & traffic builds, your site will move up to the top of the search page rankings making you a popular web site.

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February 6, 2014

Winter Storm Power Outages Reveal Problem For EVs

Yesterday the Philadelphia area was hit with an ice storm only thirty-six hours after a snow storm dumped as much as nine inches of snow in and around the city. The force of gravity combined with the weight of the wet snow and half an inch of ice proved too much for many trees in the greater Philadelphia area, resulting in what can only be referred to as “The Great Treepocalypse of 2014.”

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February 14, 2013

Electric Car Range Anxiety In Perspective, A Response To Tesla’s Musk vs. NYT’s Broder

A war has erupted between Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and New York Times columnist John Broder. Musk takes issue with Broder’s review of the Tesla Model S, and backs it up with data recorded by the test car. I’m not concerned with parsing the details of the feud. I simply want to address the issue of range anxiety. “As I crossed into New Jersey some 15 miles later, I noticed that the estimated range was falling faster than miles were accumulating,” said Broder. “At 68 miles since recharging, the range had dropped by 85 miles, and a little mental math told me that reaching Milford would be a stretch.”

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February 11, 2013

GeoCities: The World Wide Web Is Under Construction Again

Get ready to transport yourself back to a time when people used shiny plastic discs to listen to music — when connecting to the internet required a series of obnoxious squealing tones — and when it seemed everybody had an “under construction” web page on GeoCities. Ah yes, GeoCities, the now defunct service that allowed you to carve out your little space on the world wide web in one of many predefined “neighborhoods.” GeoCities users were official known as “homesteaders.” — It was such a quaint time in the history of the web.

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January 28, 2013

Want To Unlock Your Cell Phone? – It’s Now Illegal

Over the weekend it officially became illegal to unlock your cell phone. That means you can no longer switch carriers, at least not with subsidized cell phones, and well, at least not legally. This is yet another example of greed run amok, which is what happens when you have unfettered capitalism. We’ve allowed the rights and privileges of corporations (remember, corporations are people too!) to rise above the rights and privileges of the common citizen.

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October 8, 2012

The iPad and Other Touch Screen Devices Are Crowding Out The Computer Mouse

When I first saw Ariana Eunjung Cha’s article title in The Washington Post, (“The mouse faces extinction as computer interaction evolves“), my first reaction was that the computer mouse will be around for a long time to come. But after reading the article my opinion is now attenuated. Before reading the piece, I felt the mouse was still unchallenged as the ideal computer interface because of its precision, and I still feel that way. If you are working in a program that requires pinpoint accuracy, the mouse is still the best computer interface on the cheap. Trackballs and trackpads work well, but the mouse, and it’s more expensive cousin, the digitizer (used with engineering applications), offer a precision that cannot be found in other computer interfaces, especially touch screen interfaces. But does precision matter?

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