In the past, I have posted a “best of 2010 software” or some other retrospective. This time around, let’s look forward and I’ll make some useless predictions about what I think will be a few hot topics in 2011. Consider these things you might not have thought about, but should […]
A visit by family members usually coincides with embarrassing failures of computing in our household. This is embarrassing because I try to be fairly tech savvy. However, any cred is immediately wiped away by events such as those which occurred during this most recent Thanksgiving: While my sister and I […]
As we going into this Thanksgiving travel season, I would remind all Americans that, according to the Constitution of the United States, The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall […]
While storms swept through the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex yesterday, today they created a new and dangerous line far east of the area. On our walk tonight, Jodi and I looked west and saw nothing but clear blue skies. East of us, however, we saw a wall of yellow-gray storm clouds. […]
The term “social network” is ironic, because it largely applies to systems on the internet that are themselves anti-social. For instance, Facebook and Twitter don’t really talk directly to each other. If I have one group of friends on Twitter and another on Facebook, I have to use a third-party […]
In his collection of essays, Profiles of the Future, Arthur C. Clark famously penned three “laws of prediction.” The third of these is the most widely quoted, and simply states that “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” [1] While in Fry’s tonight, Jodi and I happened by some […]
A few weeks ago, I was lying on the couch browsing RSS news feed headlines on my open-source “TiVO” (called STiVO – I’ve mentioned it before…), when I saw on the linux.org news feed that a letter-writing campaign was in gear. The Free Software Foundation, whose work I deeply appreciate […]
Don’t want to believe me, a practicing scientist, when I talk about the false science pitched by the Discovery Institute? Take it from the mouth of a religious scholar [1]. SMU’s Chair of Religious Studies, Dr. Mark Chancey, today rebutted the Victory Campus Ministry’s opinion piece [2], which itself rebutted […]
A young boy looks up at Neo, and reveals to him the most critical piece of information about the illusion known as “The Matrix”: “Do not try to bend the spoon — that’s impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth: there is no spoon.” (The Matrix, 1999) The Discovery […]
Despite the passing of Labor Day, summer had not gotten the hint that it was time to pack up and leave. The sun shimmered in humid air, hanging slightly to the west now that lunch was done. Millie had a pink card in one hand and a stopwatch in the […]
On the main quad of SMU appears about 3000 tiny American flags, and a sign asking us to never forget. We won’t. But rather that just worrying about not forgetting, I find it a more valuable personal exercise to ask also what we value, and how those values are influenced […]