Category Archives: science and technology

A Letter to AT&T

Dear AT&T Wireless people:

As seems to be standard practice for companies these days, you do not provide an obvious or easy method to give direct feedback on your products and services. So, after rummaging around the AT&T Wireless website for a while and finding no ways to “contact” you except when I need “support,” I decided instead to write a blog post, hoping that you, like Comcast, have minions that track these kinds of things.

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Welcome, Robot Overlords!

Check out what people are saying (and here) about an interesting new patent application filed by Google:

A system includes a floating platform-mounted computer data center comprising a plurality of computing units, a sea-based electrical generator in electrical connection with the plurality of computing units, and one or more sea-water cooling units for providing cooling to the plurality of computing units.

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Libertarians at Sea?

A bunch of geeks are apparently trying to upstage the Free State Project.

Silicon Valley Nerds Plan Sea-Based Utopian Country to Call Their Own

“A group of super-rich Silicon Valley nerds are sick of the man keeping them down. That’s why they’re planning to create their own sea-based country made up of floating structures that will be similar to oil rigs, but with houses and offices rather than, you know, oil rig stuff on board. And this isn’t some conceptual plan; they’re looking to have their first prototype in the San Francisco Bay within two years.”

That’s What I Said!

What took so long?

I had some friends who got digital cable about five or six years ago. They were all excited. They invited me over to check out the wondrous new technology. So I showed up, sat down on the couch, and watched in horror as: (1) compression artifacts destroyed the integrity of the images and (2) my friends not only seemed utterly oblivious or incapable of recognizing compression artifacts, they claimed that I was just imagining things because I was jealous.

For years it’s been the same every time I see this “amazing” new digital television. It sucks. Big time.

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Science Does Have Limits

In the process of learning science throughout my life and teaching physics formally for a short time, I have come to appreciate scientists’ ability to help society explore the natural world. However, I am dismayed that many in society are using science in ways that it was never meant to be used. Continue reading