Category Archives: technology

I like programmers with a sense of humor…

Posted on 2010 August 23 by mongreldogs

dropbox is one of my favorite “cloud” utilities.  It keeps a directory synchronized across many computers, allowing remote access and automatic backup.  Whenever you set up dropbox on a new computer, all of the files need to be copied across.  … Continue reading →

Posted in humor, technology | Leave a comment

Review: Metatropolis

Posted on 2010 July 23 by mongreldogs

Metatropolis Edited by Jack Scalzi Rating on an arbitrary 5-point scale: 4 out of 5 Metatropolis is a science fiction anthology exploring, as it claims, the “future of cities”.  That’s not strictly accurate. It’s really a collection of stories that … Continue reading →

Posted in books, review, science fiction, technology | Leave a comment

Why I have no respect for design behaviors at Microsoft

Posted on 2010 June 30 by mongreldogs

I’ve received my new laptop and am working on getting it outfitted and up to speed.  (This process, by the way, is distressingly like moving to a new home and is equally as frustrating and potentially as traumatizing.)  After logging … Continue reading →

Posted in personal, technology | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Ethics and Economics in Journalism

Posted on 2010 June 28 by mongreldogs

Via Ezra Klein, a wll-argued piece by Timothy Lee on the recent flap over the forced resignation of Dave Weigel from The Washington Post.  If none of those names mean anything to you, then this is unlikely to be very … Continue reading →

Posted in politics, review, technology | Leave a comment

The impact of sharing, a case study

Posted on 2010 June 1 by mongreldogs

This is an excellent TED talk about what intellectual property people can learn from the fashion industry. In essence, there is no IP protection in fashion (except for trademark), and yet its economic impact dwarfs highly-protected fields like music or … Continue reading →

Posted in law, technology | Leave a comment

Even better visualization of Facebook’s vanishing privacy

Posted on 2010 May 10 by mongreldogs

This (http://mattmckeon.com/facebook-privacy/) is an animated illustration of how Facebook has been increasingly defining your personal data as “open to everyone”.

Posted in law, personal, technology | Leave a comment

Facebook’s vanishing privacy

Posted on 2010 April 29 by mongreldogs

The EFF has an excellent timeline of the changes in the privacy policy at Facebook.  It’s worth a read for anyone who might consider Facebook either (a) private in any sense or (b) ethically reliable in any sense.  These changes … Continue reading →

Posted in personal, technology | Leave a comment

The rising threat to music of the home taping phenomenon

Posted on 2010 March 17 by mongreldogs

This video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R3jkUhG68wY&feature=player_embedded) is a hilarious take-down of the music publishing industry’s allegation that personal filesharing is “killing” music.  Part of the fun is figuring out the early 1980s references.  Also, I would totally buy a flag that had that … Continue reading →

Posted in law, movie, music, politics, technology | Leave a comment

Knowing is Half the Battle

Posted on 2009 August 17 by mongreldogs

I was cruising TechDirt and saw a neat post on “Is The Federal Government The Most Interesting Tech Startup For 2009?“  The idea is that the recent data.gov initiative has led to an outpouring of with-it and effective apps allowing … Continue reading →

Posted in Health of the Republic, politics, review, technology | Leave a comment

Throwing Out the Textbook (Part II)

Posted on 2008 August 15 by mongreldogs

(Part I gives the background.) Since the date to order a textbook has long since passed, I’m pretty committed to not going with one for “Space Science & Astrophysics”. I’ve taken the plunge. The problem is, I don’t know exactly … Continue reading →

Posted in science, teaching, technology | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment