general topics

Machine Abundance

November 25, 2012

I was digging through old stuff when I found some notebooks I had filled up about 20 years ago. I used to be a trivia fan and copied down things like Olympics gold medal winners from reference books. The idea was that I could easily look up the information without having to go to some […]

Read the full article →

RIP Michael Hart, Founder of Project Gutenberg

September 21, 2011

I learned this only a few days after. Michael S. Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, the online repository of copyright-free books, passed away earlier this month. Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or eBooks. He founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one of the earliest and longest-lasting online literary […]

Read the full article →

Market Correction Still in Progress

March 5, 2009

Once again raising the specter of a great Depression, the stock markets today are at fresh 12-year lows. Citigroup shares at less than a dollar and nationalization (by whatever term it will be called) imminent. To rephrase a tired joke, you could have made a million dollars in Citi stocks, provided you had 27 million […]

Read the full article →

Real Education Reform

March 4, 2009

Every year during election season, we hear politicians bemoan the state of the American education system. We are presented with statistics that show European countries way ahead of America on math and science scores. Also, there is no dearth of horror scenarios where China and India graduate millions of engineers every year with Americans finding […]

Read the full article →

Slumdog Millionaire and the Real India

February 22, 2009

It is Oscar time once again. This year’s favorite for the Best Picture of the Year is “Slumdog Millionaire”. Not that it necessarily means anything, but the best prediction expert in baseball and politics, Nate Silver, gives it a 99% chance of winning both Best Director and Best Picture. “Slumdog” is a consummate entertainer, but […]

Read the full article →

Recursive Professions

February 18, 2009

The most fascinating professions, in my opinion, are the ones where you make money by preaching what you practice, and where the preaching is the practice. If that is confusing, here are some examples: Blogging about blogging: Every blogger does this to some extent by talking about their experiences with setting up their blog and […]

Read the full article →