Information Overload
If gigabytes of data don't do you in, the paper they're printed on will.

Software v Beer
You guessed it right! Beer won hands downs.

Man vs Machine
Kasparov, there you go again! The last time K won over Fritz. Will he win the second time around? Maybe not as what happened to him when he went up against Deep Blue... but not so fast, according to this account that benchmarks the historical performance of computers against humans. Elsewhere, chess is regarded as a "game that generates examples and analogies relevant to a broad range of intellectual concerns."

Blogging is dead. Long live blogging!
El Reg notes the report that although blogosphere is growing in size, it's made up mostly of abandoned or dead sites. Blogging is typically an activity of teenage girls who want to keep their friends updated on their otherwise uneventful lives. However, teeny boopers don't have a monopology of blogging. Even Lawrence Lessig blogs. :-)

The Business That's Church
Forbes reports how churches are acting like business corporations (with matching ads and all). This is not inherently bad, if one thinks of the Christian origins of capitalism. Max Weber would feel vindicated.

Linux and Beer
Here's an illustration on what people can do with "comparison and constrast." :)

Solipsism delight!
If solipsism were to be in this form, I don't mind wearing it. Harold Bloom also speaks of Shakespeare as "the true mulitcultural author." I wonder how this guy is related to Alan Bloom, another great defender of the classics.

Multi-valued logic
Here's a piece on the possibility of the introducing multivalued logic in computing. There's nothing new about the idea of course. The Russians might have started it.

Nanotech Not?
While some corporations are rushing to nanotechnology, here are a few words of concern: 1 | 2

Movie flops due to txting?
Yes, you heard the excuse right! Or it's a good time to reassess movie marketing basics.

Market Failure 101
A central argument for government intervention in public affairs and the economy is
market failure.

Lights Out Please!
One segment of Korusawa's "Dreams" is "Watermill Village" where a city guy shows up asking questions about the lifestyle of the villagers (perhaps he's a sociologist :) ). One of his curiousities concerns the villagers' lack of electricity. The guy asked to the effect, "Why don't you have electricity? Wouldn't it be so dark at night?" To which an old villager replies, "The night is supposed to be dark!"

Only in the dark will one appreciate the beauty that is darkness and all the things that go with it: stars, fireflies, the moon. The downside of having too much light is this.

Elvish Language
Next item in my To Do List: learn Tengwar!

Process Linux

Linux is a process, not a product, says Debian founder Ian Murdock.

Designer Babies, Anyone?
Two days ago was the birthday of Louise Brown, the first 'test tube' baby. Since Brown, reproductive technologies have have changed, and it's interesting how public opinion changed as well. Here's an account of such opinion.

Cantenna
An Antenna made out of a tin can, this geeky stuff is practical to build. I'm constructing one, with the help of some info:

- orig diagram
- a good guide
- a "how to" guide

Porn Gore
Just when I thought I knew pornography, this Guardian reportage on the rough trade came. Pop Quiz: what's the diff between a feature and a gonzo? Read on...

Technological Gobbledygook
is a definite turn-off. Here's a BBC report on how new technology jargons have inhibited some people from reaping the benefits and wasted advertising money.

The Tragedy of the Anti-Common
The New Yorker writes about how America has "always had a vibrant patent system," and "managed to strike a balance between the need to encourage innovation and the need to foster competition." "In the past decade, the balance has been upset," says the writer James Surowiecki in an article. "The scope of patents has been expanded, copyrights have been extended, trademarks have been subjected to bizarre interpretations." Such is the tragedy of the anti-common.

Computing Power On Demand
I have yet to get my hands dirty on Beowulf. Notably, distibuted computing (Beowulf's an example) is the next wave of cheap supercomputing. Case in point: SETI@Home. It's the world's fastest distributed computing, and--best of all--it's freely provided for by millions of people with extra CPU power and time. "Put the computation near the data," thus urges this Microsoft research guy in his article on the economics of distributed computing.

[ more from IEEE Task Force on Cluster Computing ]