Want to feel old? Read/listen to this.
Granted, you already knew instinctively that the world has moved on. Some technologies we grew up with are gone. Hell, some that came into being in our lifetimes have exceeded their shelf lives.
But still, it kind of stings, doesn’t it?
Bonus NPR interview on the subject.
There are a fair amount of articles I never posted due to either time constraints or the blog being down during the move.
Here is one concerning the dawn of the internet.
Enjoy.
As with any piece of technology, there are times when a CFL bulb should and should NOT be used.
Read this and check accordingly.
Some good news on the future survival of the Tasmanian Devil. When we were down that way we went to a research site where they were hoping to find a cure for a cancer that is ravaging the little beasts. Apparently nature is finding a way. Good luck to the dangerous little guys and gals.
They are cute in that “oh what a cute little vicious carnivore” kind of way. You’d have to set ’em to understand that I think.
A good story on the numbers station known as the “Buzzer”. Read it and read more on it.
Want a visual interpretation of the history of the web? Sure you do. You can find it here.
Here’s a solution in search of a problem. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, head of the Democratic Party, Representative from Florida, wants to protect America’s children.
She wants to keep them safe from pedophile predators.
All this sounds good until you realize she wants to out-Tipper All Gore’s ex-wife in order to do so.
She’s sponsoring a bill that would, if passed, track EVERY American’s internet activity and store it in a government database for up to 18 months.
Your IP, your name, your credit card number, your address, every single site you visited. It would presumably be the most hacked database in the history of man.
All to potentially stop some child porn viewers. Yes, odious folks. Folks currently being caught by other means just fine, thank you. Indeed police and prosecutors are baffled as to why this law is even necessary. They’re doing great without it.
It is draconian, it violates the rights of all Americans. It could potentially drive millions off of the internet and kill online purchases in general.
More on how leaning on IP tracking may not work anyway.
Some good ways to make old gear do new things. Or at least do their old tasks better.
I know there are a lot of these articles out there, but one look at the shuttle’s legacy, both good and bad.
Frankly, if not for Vietnam and the Nixon admin pushing to keep manned flight in the public eye, we’d probably have done the whole Moon and Mars base thing by now. That’s not even really a criticism, just how things went.
Oh well, maybe we can thing bigger than how not to pay taxes and still get government benefits. But we’re going to need to change a lot of the dialog to do it.
David Pogue did a nice swan song for the shuttle program last month. Here’s the video:
He followed it up recently with some more information, including an interview with NASA’s William Gerstenmaier. Enjoy!