Enter at Your Own Risk
My ISP has been pestering me lately, claiming that my equipment is outdated, and I am not taking full advantage of the higher data rates available on my current Internet plan. I was skeptical, as always, that this was another ploy to sell me less for more – just how bad could my 14-year-old modem/router […]
Artificial Dementia
While it is widely known that Pompeii was destroyed by the eruption of Mount Vesuvius, only serious historians will recall that this catastrophic event took place on August 24, 79 AD. If you are curious what typical Pompeiians ate for breakfast that morning nearly 2000 years ago, there are a few conserved bits of papyrus that […]
A Do-It-Yourself BS Detector
Both of my parents were educators, and reading was a common pastime in my family. Dad subscribed to U.S. News and World Report, the Los Angeles Times and the Pasadena Star News. When we got a TV, his favorite news provider was Walter Cronkite. For those too young to remember, Cronkite anchored the CBS Evening […]
You Need This
I was doing some last-minute online research for an overseas flight when it hit me – I’d forgotten to pack my neck pillow. It’s hard enough to get a little rest on a plane, and small things like this make a difference. Shortly after my packing epiphany, an ad for my exact same pillow showed […]
The Hidden History of Big Brother in America by Thom Hartmann – A Review
Companies like Facebook-Meta and Google are under increasing scrutiny as we have come to realize that our personal information and browsing habits are the highly profitable product that they are selling. In his book “The Hidden History of Big Brother in America”, radio host and best-selling author Thom Hartmann shows us how the consequences of […]
A Few of My Favorite Things
One of my favorite things, particularly in this pandemic-era of working from home, has to be the Internet. It is also one of my least favorite things. The reason it made both of my lists is not complicated, and perhaps best explained by this metaphor – the Internet is like the most extensive library on […]
Empathy: A Requiem
It was the summer of 1977 when I drove with my fiancé’s younger brother to the Hollywood Boulevard Walk-of-Fame. Neither of us was that impressed with the famous names on the sidewalk; we were there to stand in line at Mann’s Chinese Theater for the very first Star Wars movie. These were the days when […]
Entangled
If you’re a Network Data Professional and you walk into the server room to find this, you know it will not be a good day. It’s as though the word “entangle” (verb – “to twist together or entwine into a confusing mass”) was coined just for this. Another word commonly used for this situation cannot […]
Just the Facts
“The story you are about to see is true. The names have been changed to protect the innocent.” Anyone who can still remember the sixties will recognize this as the tagline for the TV drama Dragnet. For four seasons beginning in 1967, Sergeant Joe Friday and his sidekick Officer Bill Gannon investigated crimes in the […]
Reality Check
Reality can be disappointing. Self-help books and motivational speakers tell us the answer is to set ambitious goals and reach for the stars. When the results don’t meet our expectations, disappointment soon follows. There are many ways of dealing with this. In the 60’s, one answer was to give up on reality completely and settle […]
