Tag: Computers
I did a speech yesterday
I'm in a public speaking class and yesterday I had to do a "demonstrative" speech. I chose to demonstrate, using some physical analogs since I can't help my class see into the quantum space, how we've generated electricity for the last hundred-twenty-ish years (ignoring photovoltaics, I wanted to touch on them but I only had...
1984 - snow white
I have a hazy, potentially false memory of a computer hiding in my dad’s closet before our family workstation arrived. In my mind's eye, I can still picture playing a game featuring a little cursor turtle, though I’ve never been able to find any hard evidence to prove that mystery machine actually existed. What I do know for certain is that sometime right after my fifth birthday in 1984, both the revolutionary new Apple Macintosh and the sleek Apple IIc were sitting side-by-side on the showroom ...
The Tech Coup
From the insider who—according to The New Yorker —offers a “forceful critique...of Big Tech’s steady erosion of democracy,” a detailed account of Big Tech’s power grab and what must be done to stop it Over the past decades, under the cover of “innovation,” technology companies have successfully resisted regulation and have even begun to seize power from governments themselves. Facial recognition firms track citizens for police surveillance. Cryptocurrency has wiped out the personal savings of millions and threatens the stability of the global financial system. Spyware companies sell digital intelligence tools to anyone who can afford them. This new reality—where unregulated technology has become a forceful instrument for autocrats around the world—is terrible news for democracies and citizens. In The Tech Coup , Marietje Schaake offers a behind-the-scenes account of how technology companies crept into nearly every corner of our lives and our governments. She takes us beyond the headlines to high-stakes meetings with human rights defenders, business leaders, computer scientists, and politicians to show how technologies—from social media to artificial intelligence—have gone from being heralded as utopian to undermining the pillars of our democracies. To reverse this existential power imbalance, Schaake outlines game-changing solutions to empower elected officials and citizens alike. Democratic leaders can—and must—resist the influence of corporate lobbying and reinvent themselves as dynamic, flexible guardians of our digital world. Drawing on her experiences in the halls of the European Parliament and among Silicon Valley insiders, Schaake offers a frightening look at our modern tech-obsessed world—and a clear-eyed view of how democracies can build a better future before it is too late.
Processing Cycles
You may not have to imagine a world where air conditioning uses more energy than computing for much longer. Also: As the Commodore turns.
CSS in Depth
To create web designs that delight, entertain, and impress your users, you need to know CSS in depth! Go beyond the basics of CSS and discover web design techniques that range from clever to mind-blowing! This totally revised new edition of CSS in Depth expands your CSS skills with the patterns, layouts, and methods you need to deliver truly beautiful front ends. In CSS in Depth, Second Edition you will learn how to: Create a web page with layout methods Develop essential website components, like dropdown menus and modal dialog boxes Make your website fully responsive across devices Organize your CSS for easy future maintenance Implement designer mockups with attention to detail Use animations to guide user focus Avoid common CSS pitfalls CSS in Depth has given thousands of web developers the tools and the inspiration to make sites that really pop. This second edition is packed with the latest best practices, new CSS language features, and essential advice on how to organize and maintain your CSS codebase.
Code Dependent
A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience—unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code-Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community. AI has already infiltrated our day-to-day, through language-generating chatbots like ChatGPT and social media. But it’s also affecting us in more insidious ways. It touches everything from our interpersonal relationships, to our kids’ education, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights. By highlighting the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, Code-Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often-exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will. The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we can’t agree on a common path forward. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these entities—or what controls we may want to impose on them. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines. In Code-Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also charts a path of resistance. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small, and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity.
The Liaison
How firmware became the layer between our hardware and software experiences. It was only sorta like Halt and Catch Fire.
The Sneaky Standard
How Intel screwed over a standards body in the midst of giving computer users one of the most resilient technologies around.
Counterfeit Computing
Discussing the piratical efforts to rip people off by counterfeiting computer hardware. It’s been happening for more than 40 years.
Sorry State
SSD prices are insanely low right now—but manufacturers focused on bottom line have built computers designed to prevent consumers from leveraging this trend.
The Squeal of Data
The through line between the telegraph and the computer is more direct than you might realize. Its influence can be seen in common technologies, like the modem.
A Splash of Impatience
Discussing the legacy of splash screens, those annoying windows that appear when you’re trying to load up a giant program on your desktop machine.
Friction, Baby
In a world where technology is trying to make things increasingly easier, make things a little harder on yourself. You’ll get better results.
The Artist and the Amiga
Andy Warhol was enamored with the first computer he ever owned—and he didn’t seem all that worried about the risks of disruption.
CISC-y RISC-ness
An unusual type of processor from the early 2000s seemed to offer the best of all worlds—and may be the most inventive approach to the CPU ever developed.
Socket To Me
Why the processor socket, an important part of most desktop computers, lost its upgrade path as computers became smaller and more integrated.
Slot Wars
The battle to replace the standard expansion slot in the IBM PC reflected an effort by two sides of the PC world to gain control. Spoiler: The clone-makers won.
The Execution of All Things
A list of executable file formats that didn’t make it. That said, if you want to load up an Adobe AIR application, we can’t stop you.
Camper Van Mainframe
Why the first “portable” computers, produced before integrated circuits, would really stretch the term today. Some portables needed a truck to move.
Plot Point Does Not Compute
On laughably bad uses of computers in mainstream movies and shows, starting with the virus upload in Independence Day.
You Spin Me Right Round, Baby
Before hard drives became the main way for us to back up our stuff, they were a key evolution for the business world. They were also huge and costly.
Booting Up The Cash Register
Computers didn’t immediately lend themselves to retail, but ambitious early computer retailers sold ‘em anyway. Eventually, they got trampled.
The Scrolling Orb
The evolution of the trackball, which is more than an upside-down mouse. It's the Royal Canadian Navy’s greatest gift to modern-day computing. Really.
Bog-Standard Multimedia
Why the PC industry standardized on multimedia in the early ’90s, and why that standardization effort didn’t really last.
I’m Controlling Your Cursor
The evolution of remote desktop access, and why it’s a bad idea for water supplies to be managed through remote desktop access without decent security measures.
Hack Back to the Mac
Why the Hackintosh era, even if it looks like it might just dead-end thanks to Apple Silicon, was still a useful phenomenon for the Mac.
It’s All In The Cards
With PCMCIA (also known as PC Card), it was easy to upgrade our old laptops. But for years, the tech was relegated to a depressing bureaucratic fate.
Touch And Go
Pondering the disastrous fate of the HP TouchPad, an early tablet based on WebOS that’s best known for being the subject of a well-remembered fire sale.
The Internet Of Trash
We may have made a horrible mistake by unnecessarily making our consumer electronics devices smart—and removing generations of future use in the process.
My Modular Mind
What makes modular designs great for consumers often makes them troublesome for businesses, or why you can’t upgrade an iPhone these days.
Text By Procedure
A short history of procedurally generated text, which both humans and computers have had a hand in making throughout history.
All Penn, No Teller
Pondering the success that Penn Jillette, the loud half of Penn & Teller, found as a sometimes-rebellious big-name computer magazine columnist in the ’90s.
Innovation Versus Preservation
How we keep screwing over yesterday’s technology due to an intent focus on what we’re doing today. The problem of planned obsolescence is getting worse.
Simulated Fireworks
How computers have helped to reinvent fireworks displays through timing and elaborate simulation techniques. It’s kinda like a mix of old and new technology.
The Other Windows
Before Windows became a fact of life for most computer users, a scrappy upstart named GeoWorks tried taking Microsoft on. It failed, but it gave us AOL.
Not iPod, iPAQ
There was a time when the iPAQ was ubiquitous part of the handheld market. But before that, the forgotten Compaq-borne brand surfaced in many bizarre contexts.
Upgrade Arbitrage
The charm of buying old workstation hardware on the cheap to support your modern computing needs. If it doesn’t work for them, it might just work for you.
Old Computers, New Inspiration
Some of the best highlights from the 2019 edition of VCF East, the long-running retro computing event that puts vintage machines in a modern context.
A Kernel Of Failure
How IBM bet big on the microkernel being the next big thing in operating systems back in the ’90s—and spent billions with little to show for it.
Sent From My $10 Mac
Pondering the lessons on user experience to be gained from using a 14-year-old Mac Mini as a daily driver. Can it be done, honestly?
The Platform Microsoft Forgot
The MSX computer standard was big in both Japan and Brazil. But despite a sizable cult, it may be the most obscure part of Microsoft’s history. Here’s why.
Silicon Persistence
Decades after Silicon Graphics' heyday, its supercomputers have found themselves a new home with a small community full of enthusiasts—some just teenagers.
Command Line
Nearly 40 years ago, DOS reshaped computing on the IBM PC. These days, nostalgia for that era—and a dose of fresh creativity—is keeping its legacy alive.
The Toy That Talked Back
Four decades ago, the Speak & Spell came about, and the result was Texas Instruments’ greatest gadget and a pop-culture icon.
With ARM Wide Open
The story of ARM Holdings, one of our most important tech companies, is full of sheer luck, happy accidents, and a faded British computing icon.
Make Some Noise
Sound cards like the Creative Sound Blaster were the missing element that computers needed to take on multimedia. Then, they faded from view. Here's why.