Linux: Baby Steps
Due to overwhelming demand (four votes in the last poll), I'm going to lay out exactly how to download, burn to CD, and test the most popular Linux distro, Ubuntu. This will net you the...
View ArticleLinux: Apps, Wireless, Odds & Ends
Excuse me for being a bit distracted this time around, as I'm still getting to know my newest Linux install, SabayonLinux. After using it for a bit less than twenty-four hours, I have to say...
View ArticleBiggest Generation Gap since Rock n Roll!
I'm referring to a theme touched upon in a recent PBS Frontline documentary. It's not about the candidates or the caucuses. It's not about criminals in the White House, but it is a VERY current topic...
View ArticleThe Water's Fine
There really is no reason to be tied down by a proprietary system any longer. Everything you need to do is available in a Linux distribution of your choice. All you need to do is get the iso file, burn...
View ArticleA Better Society
The US is not a capitalist society. I am not arguing whether or not the US was a capitalist society, but that the US today is not a capitalist society. Further, the world economy is not capitalist. An...
View ArticleThe Promise of Watson
I'm sure that many of you watched two of Jeopardy's greatest living human players go up against Watson last night. So far, there's been a lot of differing opinions on it. Some are awed by the ability...
View ArticlePentagon's cyber-security contractor hacked
Earlier this week, RSA, the main cyber-security contractor for the Pentagon, was the victim of major hacking attack. "Recently our security systems identified an extremely sophisticated cyber attack...
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eSci: INTEL's Revolutionary 3D Chip Designed by Radical UC Berkeley Prof
The next big leap in computing, chips based on microscopic three dimensional transistors, designed by "socialist Berkeley radical professor" Chenming Hu, will be used in all of Intel's next generation...
View ArticleComputing in the Long Emergency
Where will computing go in the coming years? I thought I should find out, so I watched this roundtable and other talks and interviews on the subject (warning: it's pretty dry stuff). I came away...
View ArticleMeet Stuxnet's Big Brother - It's called Flame
Some interesting reading this morning on a new "state sponsored" software virus called Flame. At present this virus appears to be targeted at Middle Eastern countries (there have been other countries...
View ArticleYour Privacy: Those facebook messages you thought were private, well, now...
Ok spreading across the internet is a story that all of your private messages are now public. There is some truth to it and you should now review your timeline. The big scary message reads: *Your...
View ArticleTumblr Hacked
I am not a Tumblr user, but some in this community may be. It appears that the Tumblr website is in the process of being hacked by a group called GNAA. The hack is being reported on Gizmodo,...
View ArticleWomen in Science: Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace 1815-1852
The only legitimate child of Lord Byron by Anne Isabella "Annabella" Milbanke, Baroness Byron, was destined to lay the groundwork for the modern computer. Born Ada Augusta Byron in 1815, she became...
View ArticleWhy I hate Windows 8
Here is my rant on Microsoft Windows 8. It may be not as detailed as possible since I no longer have a working example in front of me as I write this – of course, I would be writing it in any case on a...
View ArticleWomen in Science: Admiral Grace Hopper 1906-1992
A Navy Admiral who was a woman and a computer scientist was certainly unusual. However Grace Hopper, who became both, was an unusual person.Born Grace Brewster Murray in New York City on December 9,...
View ArticleDoug Engelbart 1925 - 2013
Douglas Carl Engelbart passed away peacefully yesterday after a long illness. He was 88.Who was Doug Engelbart? Put it this way -- If ever you have used:A mouse,A windowing system,Video chat,A...
View ArticleEveryday Magic: How does my computer know where to find Daily Kos?
Hello, Kossacks!Everyday Magic is a new diary series that seeks to explain many of the computing concepts we use on a regular basis in a way that non-techies can understand, and introduce them to the...
View ArticleEveryday Magic: How does Daily Kos get delivered to my browser?
Everyday Magic is a diary series that seeks to explain many of the computing concepts we use on a regular basis in a way that non-techies can understand, and introduce them to the lingo we techies use...
View ArticleEveryday Magic: A Complete Look at Comcast/Netflix/Net Neutrality
Everyday Magic is a diary series that seeks to explain many of the computing concepts we use on a regular basis in a way that non-techies can understand, and introduce them to the lingo we techies use...
View ArticleWhy Net Neutrality? Because We Paid For It!
The central, indispensable role of the US government (and of the American taxpayer) in the development of computing and the internet is detailed in a book created by the National Research Council and...
View ArticleThis Threat to Net Neutrality Makes FCC Fast Lanes Look Like Child's Play
I feel like a broken record lately as I've been writing diaries and participating in comment threads about Net Neutrality over the past week or so.And the hits...oh man, do the hits keep on coming....
View ArticleNet Neutrality Alone Does Not Guarantee an Open Internet
Hello, Kossacks!There is a must read article over at Vox that expands on the concepts I blogged about when it comes to explaining Net Neutrality, how the interconnections negotiated by Netflix wouldn't...
View ArticleLevel 3: "[US ISPs are] deliberately harming the service they deliver to...
Level 3 is one of the Tier 1 backbone ISPs. And they've had enough of US monopolist ISPs blaming service issues on them. So they addressed it on their blog. And it's a bombshell, folks. In the tech...
View ArticleGetting to use my powers for good!
Hello, Kossacks!I've got some good news on the personal front. I've been doing sysadmin and development work for a bit over a decade now, and a lot of it has been for some very successful...
View ArticleUS ISPs Threaten to Slow Innovation and Network Upgrades if Reclassified...
They call it a warning.What it is is a threat.The major ISPs that make up the trade group Broadband for America had their CEOs lay it all out on the table in this letter to the FCC:Not only is it...
View ArticleUS ISPs Prevent Cities From Using Unused/"Dark" Fiber Networks
Hello Kossacks!I'm back once again with more US ISP ridiculousness as we continue the fight for Net Neutrality and Common Carrier regulations, and this time it comes from Jason Koebler at VICE...
View ArticleUS Cable and Telco Firms Caught Astroturfing: Fake Consumer Groups are Fake
When you're a cable company or telco and you can't actually get popular, public support for your monopolist, innovation-smothering business model, what do you do?Apparently, the answer is "create a web...
View ArticleNet Neutrality Astroturf Scandal: Broadband for America Claiming Groups That...
Hello, Kossacks!Last week, I wrote a diary about how US Cable and Telco firms were caught astroturfing up support for their shell "advocacy group"Broadband for America. We saw how they hired groups...
View ArticleEveryday Magic: On Data and a Digital Bill of Rights
(h/t to G2geek and Wader for inspiration, duhban for better terminology than I had, and serendipityisabitch for proofreading)I've been commenting a lot in Steven D's excellent diary, and there's been a...
View ArticleProof that US ISPs deliberately harmed US consumers and businesses
Hello, Kossacks!It's been a while since I've written a diary -- work's been busy and I've been using my remaining hours to sleep.However, this is important enough for me to write up a diary on, as Net...
View ArticleEveryday Magic: Defragmentation, Passphrases, and Malware (oh my!)
Hello, Kossacks!I've been neglecting the education side of Everyday Magic for a while now in favor of writing Net Neutrality-related diaries, and I finally have some spare time to return to it! After...
View ArticleGoogle calls out ISP BS: Title II "would promote competition and spur more...
Hello, Kossacks!So, Google dropped a public comment to the FCC over the New Year's holiday, and it's a shot across the bow of Comcast, AT&T, and their lobbyists in the National Cable and...
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Moore's Law could kill 21st Century History to create a "digital Dark Age"
Timothy Leary might not live forever if what Vint Cerf believes comes to past with all digital images and documents lost forever due to hardware & software obsolescence. This assumes no Memristors...
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'The Cloud' and privacy
I had an interesting experience this morning. I think the Adobe Corporation is spying on me. Am I paranoid? I'm working on a little personal publishing project that needed a couple of graphics. It was...
View ArticlePut Grace Hopper On Your Money
There are a few diaries up about the announcement that a woman will be on the new $10 bill. I commented on those but I want to make a full on diary about why you should jump on the Grace Hopper train....
View ArticleChoosing And Testing A Linux Distro W/Poll
This is a follow-up to my first diary What's Your Distro? where I tried to outline some of the basics of why you should be using Linux as your desktop OS of choice. The top five Linux...
View ArticleLinux: Eye Candy, Work, And Play
In previous installments, I've asked What's Your Distro? for people already using Linux, and in Choosing And Testing A Linux Distro I've tried to go through the basic steps of how to pick and...
View ArticleScientists have created first 3D-printed 'organ-on-a-chip'—could end animal...
Researchers at Harvard have been able to create the first “entirely 3D-printed organ-on-a-chip with integrated sensing.” This has the potential to revolutionize how research into disease and treatments...
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The Coming Age of Ghosts: Elon Musk's "Neuralink" and Death
If you’re a nerd, you’ve probably heard of Elon Musk’s latest company, Neuralink, a company “developing ultra high bandwidth brain-machine interfaces to connect humans and computers.” If you’re really...
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The Emergency Generator: A Story About How Things Get Done When Faced With A...
As the facilities director for schools on campus, among my responsibilities was the infrastructure for the buildings in my domain. Here is the story of the Great Generator Caper aka much ado about...
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Chinese Researchers Demonstrate Quantum Supremacy With Photonic Computer
Published in the journal Science, Quantum computational advantage using photons by Han-sen Zhang, et al reports a successful demonstration of Quantum Advantage solving a problem of Gaussian Boson...
View ArticleBrief computing evolution
I am a little older now having made a career in the insurance industry beginning in 1970 and I have always been fascinated by computer innovation. When I came into the insurance industry it was...
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Contributing your computer time to science: World Community Grid
I’m a huge fan of citizen science projects and have contributed hundreds of hours to things like bioblitzes and volunteer water monitoring, and also quite a few hours online to the Zooniverse...
View ArticleThrowing away health records must stop !
Just now logged into my doctor’s “Patient Portal” to retrieve information. Only to discover that all test results prior to 2021 have been deleted, because my doctor’s practice has been absorbed by a...
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more Friedman units of coal-rolling arguments in the age of the Prius
Tom Friedman’s latest NY Times piece reduced the conflict between China and the US to one defined in the last century, as though Taiwan might be seized for its computer chips. Because Trust, or the...
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'There’s More to AI Bias Than Biased Data' - NIST.gov report and anti-bias...
The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST.gov) March 16 release of “Towards a Standard for Identifying and Managing Bias within Artificial Intelligence”offers background and...
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Nonfiction Views: Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who...
I enjoyed Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Computer, by Kathy Kleiman, published last July. In truth, I’m not really a tech kind of guy, and so...
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