Harness capitalism to help the poor – Bill Gates
Microsoft founder Bill Gates pitched a new form of capitalism on Thursday that would help better serve the neglected poor in a speech to company bosses assembled in Davos. He posited that capitalism...
View ArticleState of the Village Report
If the world were a village of 1000 people: 584 would be Asians 123 would be Africans 95 would be East and West Europeans 84 Latin Americans 55 Soviets (still including for the moment Lithuanians,...
View ArticleOf software and falability
Last week, the Google toolbar, software I have run for years, upgraded itself. As a result of the upgrade, it started offering to translate pages for me. It’s a nice feature, except for the small...
View ArticleMindstorms, or teaching our children about computers
Do you remember Professor Seymour Papert and his book Mindstorms? At a time when such things were expensive for adults, he put computers and a remote-control robotic turtle in kids classrooms. Armed...
View ArticleCheap Flights (with subtitles)
This link was sent to me by a friend. It’s a wonderful, musical youtube example of TANSTAAFL. It’s a cross between folk singing and Riverdance with the topic being modern so-called “discounted”...
View ArticleThe Rush to Release
Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always loved Firefox. Maybe that’s why I’m so disappointed with the latest release. Part of the attraction of Firefox is that so much good software is written for it or as an...
View ArticleSupreme Court stands up for the Internet – thestar.com
Supreme Court stands up for the Internet – thestar.com. The issue before the court was whether links to content should be viewed as republication of that content for the purposes of defamation law. The...
View ArticleJohn McCarthy, AI pioneer, dies at 84
John McCarthy, AI pioneer, dies at 84 — Engadget. Like Dennis Ritchie, I missed this when it happened. McCarthy pioneered LISP, a language I profoundly hated when I studied it, but it’s influences on...
View ArticleDennis Ritchie obituary
Dennis Ritchie obituary | Technology | The Guardian. Ritchie was a huge influence on computers and computer science as I was entering the field. The Unix operating system, the language C, so much. It’s...
View ArticleDon’t Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice
Don’t Call Yourself A Programmer, And Other Career Advice | Kalzumeus Software. How sad is this? Don’t call yourself a programmer: “Programmer” sounds like “anomalously high-cost peon who types some...
View ArticleAlan Turing to be given posthumous pardon
This, if it comes to pass, is great news for computer scientists, gay rights activists, historians, just about anyone, I guess....
View ArticleHappy birthday world wide web
I was in Germany when this happened, working on a different part of the web, email. Hard to believe how far it’s come in such a short period of time, from a fledgling idea to the way so much of the...
View ArticleTIFF 2014: The Imitation Game introduces world to Alan Turing | Toronto Star
I’ve written before about Alan Turing, what an outstanding pioneer of computer science he was, his huge influence on the outcome of the second world war, and how he was hounded to suicide because he...
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