March 2010
-
Remembering Jack Jensen
I just learned that Jack Jensen died yesterday, at age 71. I knew Jack a bit when I was a student at Guilford College in the late ’60s. (Class of ’69, to be precise.) Jack wasn’t much older than the rest of us then. When I was a freshman, Jack was a 26-year old assistant… Continue reading
-
On power, balance, shifting and disruption
What is this stuff we call power? This question came to mind when I read about Digital Power and Its Discontents, a conference coming up on 21 April at Georgetown. In it (says that link) they will be “exploring the ways digital technologies disrupt the balance of power between and among states, their citizens and… Continue reading
-
Advertising in the pits
There is an ad running during the NCAA basketball playoffs that’s so creepy and surreal that I decided to take some screen shots of it, as a kind of public service to the company spending money on it. The scene is a guy’s hairy armpit. (Do they have armpit models? Guess so.) As if this… Continue reading
-
Oil + Water
Four years and one day ago, we took a trip aboard a sailboat captained by our friend John Pfarr (who a few days later would later sail the same vessel to Hawaii, the South Seas and back — the dude is a serious sailor). Our modest destination was the string of oil platforms that rise… Continue reading
-
Wide Water Rafting
I’m no yacht freak, but I this is one of the most amazing boats I’ve ever seen: The concept is a “moving island.” It’s name is dimensional: 58×38. That’s in meters. From Why-Yachts.com. Hat tip to Dion Neutra. Continue reading
-
Correction
Roundabout dogs: Consider your taste made. Continue reading
-
Two reading assignments
I submit to your interest two speeches that challenge acceptance of status quos by which our collective frogs are slowly boiling. First is Freedom in the Cloud, by Eben Moglen, given at the Internet Society in New York on 5 February. Second is Making Sense of Privacy and Publicity, by Danah Boyd. Given on 13… Continue reading
-
Go Crimson Quaker Gaucho Blue Devils
Seems like all my favorite college hoops teams are playing in tournaments. Harvard’s Crimson go up against Appalachian State tonight in the CIT. UCSB’s Gauchos are the 15th seed in the NCAA Men’s Midwest bracket, a checkbox win for #2 seed Ohio State on Friday night. The Quakers of my alma mater, Guilford College, are… Continue reading
-
After the monsoon
We had a week of record rain here in Eastern Massachusetts. Lots of roads were closed as ponds and brooks overflowed their banks, and drainage systems backed up. At various places on Mass Ave north of Cambridge water was gushing up out of blown-off manhole covers. Traffic was backed up all over the place. Yesterday,… Continue reading
-
Futures of the Internet
Earlier this year the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project and Elon University conducted research toward The Future of the Internet IV, the latest in their survey series, which began with Future of the Internet I – 2004. This latest report includes guided input from subjects such as myself (a “thoughtful analyst,” they… Continue reading
-
Building the Information Squeezeway
Some encouraging words here about Verizon’s expected 4G data rates: After testing in the Boston and Seattle areas, the provider estimates that a real connection on a populated network should average between 5Mbps to 12Mbps in download rates and between 2Mbps to 5Mbps for uploads. Actual, achievable peak speeds in these areas float between 40-50Mbps… Continue reading
-
Gendercide
The worldwide war on baby girls, in the current (March 4) Economist, is one of the most disturbing stories I’ve read in years. In some parts of the world, millions of baby girls being prevented, aborted or killed at birth. And I thought this was bad enough. Continue reading
-
Deliberate Explosive Devices
After visiting the Titan Missle Museum in Arizona, Matt Blaze wrote, How did we keep from blowing ourselves up for all those years? Good question. Take a listen the next time you hear somebody say “Good question.” It means they don’t have the answer. Maybe it also means the best questions are unanswerable. And maybe… Continue reading
-
Slo-Mo Winter Hurricanes
I’ve done much of my weather-watching this Winter using MyWeather, an iPhone app that not only combines satellite and radar views, but shows the motions of both, together. What has amazed me, through much of the heavy weather that the Middle Atlantic states have had in recent weeks, is how smoothly cyclonic the precipitating weather… Continue reading