One of the side-effects of using Google+ is that I’m getting exposed to a kind of writing I usually avoid – ponderous divagations on how the Internet should be and the meaning of it all written by people who’ve never gotten their hands dirty actually making it work. No, I’m not talking about users –… Continue reading Those who can’t build, talk
Month: July 2011
What I did on my 2011 summer vacation (part one)
It’s always one of the high points of my year when I get to go to Michigan and play with the sword geeks. This year my wife and I went out for Summer Weapons Retreat 3, run by our friends at the Polaris Fellowship of Weapons Study, with an unstructured several days afterwards for extra… Continue reading What I did on my 2011 summer vacation (part one)
Issue analysis of the G+ realnames policy
Here’s hoping I’ve figured out how to extract a public permalink this time. The issue analysis.
A modest proposal for Google+ handles.
Normally I post essay-length stuff here, but I’ve weighed in on a G+ policy dispute and thought this post should be there. Comments there too please.
The Smartphone Wars: Expectation and Surprise
If style is truly the contrast of expectation and surprise, it’s been a very stylin’ couple of weeks in the smartphone world while I’ve been on vacation.
Brin on Heinlein on guns is dead wrong
Everyone is entitled to their own opinions about Robert Heinlein, but not to their own facts. In a blog post on Heinlein’s novel Beyond This Horizon, David Brin advances a number of claims which are disputable, and one that is utterly bizarre. He alleges that the thought behind Heinlein’s famous quote “An armed society is… Continue reading Brin on Heinlein on guns is dead wrong
Tau versus Pi
I’ve recently become aware of an entertaining controversy in the world of mathematics. It seems a dissident faction of mathematicians is advocating the replacement of the mathematical constant π with the related constant τ = 2π. T he self-described ‘Tauists’ are conducting their campaign with a form of ha-ha-only-serious dry humor that gently mocks the… Continue reading Tau versus Pi
Heads up: Google+ changes things
This is a heads-up for all fans of this blog. You probably want to get on Google+ ASAP, because in the future some content I would have shipped as short posts here will be Google+ shared text instead. Essay-length stuff will remain here with pointers from Google+ updates. Likely I will lock comments on the… Continue reading Heads up: Google+ changes things
I’ve joined Google+
Google+ is interesting. I was persuaded to try it by three things: (1) Circles, so I can structure my contacts rather than having an undifferentiated blob of “friends”, (2) I’m fairly confident that Google’s Data Liberation Front won’t let it turn into a jail, and (3) my best geeky friends seem to be joining en… Continue reading I’ve joined Google+
Yahtzee — In — Spaaace!
I’m just back from another session with the Friday night gaming crew, occupied this time with a new game called Alien Frontiers. Summary: It’s Yahtzee — in — spaaace!.
Recreating the Nutty Buddy
This is a happy story about how, sometimes, you can go home again. When I was a small child (this would have been a good 45 years or so in the mid-1960s), there was a style of ice cream cone with a sort of top cap of solidified chocolate and chopped peanuts on it. They… Continue reading Recreating the Nutty Buddy
The Smartphone Wars: Not the expected surprise
I have plotted the May 2011 comScore data. There are two conspicuous things to notice about it. One is that recent rumors of an Android stallout seem utterly bogus, and the other is that Apple appears to be actually gaining some share rather than simply bouncing around 25% in a random way.