Been a little empty here, I know. Quite a lot’s been going on in the background but I haven’t had much time or brain for writing. That ice seems to be thawing a bit now from a few directions, one of which is: I have a new newsletter through Revue (owned by Twitter) called “The…
Tag: technology
On Switching To Mac
As an IT professional I’m often asked for recommendations when someone’s looking for a new computer. I’m uniquely suited here in some ways because I’ve been a dedicated cross-platformer most of my life. Something to do with my attention span, maybe. New and shiny aren’t always the order of the day, but they’re up there….
Lessig, Ito, and Pure Absolute Fury
In the 2000’s I had a short-lived legal enthusiast blog inspired in part by law professor and legal reform activist Larry Lessig. I moved on from it after a few months but Lessig continued to be of interest to me. While I didn’t agree with everything he put forward he remained a guidepost of someone…
The Danger of Artificial Intelligence is Still Us
Earlier this year I had the privilege of being included on a discussion panel about the dangers of artificial intelligence. This is an area I’ve long watched and the panel went off well; I’ve been meaning, since then, to piece together my notes into a coherent blogpost. Nearly six months after the fact oughta be…
Quick Hit: Voice Assistant Moral Panic
It’s an incredibly weird day when I find myself defending Google, or voice assistants, but here we are. I’ve seen it mentioned in several places that a Google Voice Assistant contractor is “blowing the whistle” on inadvertent recordings made by google devices. I want to note first that I have a very good friend, whom…
Fiction: Scrape to soothe the rasp, hiss to hide the hum
Emily had been dreaming again. No tears on her pillow this time but the sound of rocket engines still rushed in her ears for a few fleeting moments. Slowly she came into her body, felt it materialize. Slowly the concrete around her became, well, concrete again. The camping mattress underneath felt like it had become…
The Explosive Trajectory of Technology
Jon Jeckell tweeted a Popular Mechanics piece showing what appeared to be a Ukrainian prototype shoulder-fired missile with a guidance system powered by the Raspberry Pi microcomputer. The inclusion of the Pi makes it a seeming next-step from the much shared image of Syrian rebels in Jobar in 2013 using an iPad to angle mortar…
Fucking with the Data Gods
First of December and my head’s still stuck in early AD, maybe even late BC. Still thinking about one of the images from my last post — namely, pre-Christian Britons depositing weapons and riches into lakes to honor and impress the gods. It hit me after writing about that in one context (projecting Fiction Conditions) that it…