“If a Job Is Worth Doing…”
“…it’s worth doing badly first.” It’s a good idea to keep in mind, especially if (like me) you have a tendency toward perfectionism.
Archive of entries posted by Head Geek
“IBM: Mind-Reading Machines Will Change Our Lives”
I have no doubt that it will — but in five years? That seems more than a little overly optimistic. I’d love to be proven wrong though. Oddly enough, this sort of thing rarely appears in science fiction, at least the SF I know of. When people in SF literature deal with computers, it’s almost …
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“Dot-dash-diss: The gentleman hacker’s 1903 lulz”
Wow… it seems that hacking, and hacker pranks, got their start well before the first computers were created. I can’t imagine how Marconi could have thought any clear-text wireless signal was secure against eavesdroppers. Even if his patented tuning system worked to keep the signal on a very narrow band, all it would take to …
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“Verizon retreats on ‘convenience fee’ for online bill payment”
I’ve often said on this blog that if the governments of the world had realized the power that the Internet would give to their people, they would have quietly strangled it in its cradle. Apparently the wish for retroactive infanticide extends to large corporations as well, which makes sense.
“The Incredible True Story of the Collar Bomb Heist”
When I saw the TV ads for the movie 30 Minutes or Less, I thought the plot was interesting but pretty unworkable. A few days ago, I discovered that the basic plot was lifted from real life, nearly verbatim (though the people involved in the movie apparently deny knowing of it). Another case where reality …
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“Television show hosts eat each other’s flesh in front of studio audience”
I go to great lengths to satisfy my curiosity, but there are some lines I just don’t think I’d cross. (Via BoingBoing)
“Religious Expressions Are Rooted in Fear-Based Politics”
A “National Day of Prayer”? “One Nation Under God”? “In God We Trust”? I’ve heard people claim that they’re proof that America was founded on Christian principles. If the speaker acknowledges freedom of religion at all, he invariably means that everyone must be free to practice his religion. Thing is, all three of those were …
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“Autism boom: an epidemic of disease or of discovery?”
The LA Times recently published a four-part investigation of autism. It’s pretty good, it has more information on it than I’ve been able to find in my own research elsewhere. I’m not a scientist, and I’m operating solely on my own experience and what I’ve read of others, but it seems to me that autism …
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“Mysterious metal ball from space falls in Namibia”
A large metal ball that fell from space into the Namibian grasslands last month is not alien, officials say, but that’s about all they know for certain about the object. […] Uh-oh. Ape #1: Dear me. What are these things coming out of her nose? Ape #2 (looks through binoculars): Spaceballs. Ape #1: Oh, shit. …
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“A Very Portal Christmas Tree”
For those of you who don’t know, there’s a rather famous game called Portal. From the Wikipedia entry: […] The game primarily comprises a series of puzzles that must be solved by teleporting the player’s character and simple objects using “the handheld portal device”, a device that can create inter-spatial portals between two flat planes. …