Articles Tagged with “technology”

As much as I am in love with the technological achievement that is the Amazon Kindle, I have to chastise Amazon and the producers of other eBook readers for what I see as a step backward.

You may have heard last week about Amazon deleting books off Kindles. This is worrisome because--as Jonathan Zittrain explains--it emphasizes how much you don't own what you "buy" from Amazon or any other company that digs its claws…

I quite enjoyed on Easter weekend watching the instantaneous outrage across the Internet, particularly #amazonfail on Twitter, as it became apparent that Amazon had removed sales rankings from books with "adult" content. The outrage stems more from the fact that the application of the "adult" label seems skewed toward books with homosexual content; the heterosexual books are safe. In the ensuing light-speed confusion: Mark R. Probst shared his limited interaction with an Amazon rep…

It's a Wednesday. (That doesn't mean anything particular. I just wanted to point it out for those of you who hadn't noticed.) I haven't posted a new blog post in a while, so here's something I wrote a little while ago and never got around to posting.

I first read about this in an issue of TIME magazine covering the best inventions of 2007. Recently it was featured in an episode of Daily Planet,…

Two months ago I read The Numerati, in which Stephen Baker discusses how technology--particularly the Internet--is affecting marketing techniques and how businesses and individuals manage their data. Now that we have the tools and understanding to mathematically model more behaviour than ever before, there's a new group of people--the eponymous Numerati--at the forefront of this information revolution.

One of the concerns Baker briefly addresses is privacy. On the Internet, this has always been…

Lately Merlin Mann has been helping Spark listeners build their "Digital You." Implicit in this new series is the fact that technology is now an ingrained part of us--how we appear online is as important as how we dress in public. Your online presence, like your personality, can be diverse: open and inviting, cold and formal--whatever works for you and gets you the audience you want.

The era of ubiquitous technology is upon us. Smartphones…

The polls are closed, and the votes are mostly tallied. Last month, Stephen Harper called an election; this month, he was re-elected with yet anohter minority government--a stronger minority, but still a minority. In the ensuing chaotic coverage, some interesting trends have emerged. The new hot issues are Liberal leadership, government functionality, voting reform, and voter turnout.

The Liberals lost eighteen seats (at the time of this writing), which is a blow for them. Still…

I'm addicted to a new game called Superstruct. It's a "massively multiplayer" forecasting game. Sort of like a role-playing game, Superstruct is set in 2019 and concerns five "superthreats" that together weaken humanity enough to make our survival outside of the century unlikely. But you aren't playing as a superhero or a zombie: you're playing as you--or as you will be, in 2019.

Created by The Institute for the Future, Superstruct is more…

CBC radio show Spark wants to know what Canada needs to do today to become a major innovator tomorrow. This is an important issue with the election looming. In addition to interviewing technology experts, the Spark blog has asked listeners to submit their own "Digital Wish Lists". Here's mine:

• Establishment of a Minister of Technology. I agree with Mitch Kapoor. We have a Minister of Health, a Minister of Industry--why not someone in charge
…

A couple of months ago, I stumbled across a way to create a low-cost interactive whiteboard using a Wiimote. All that was required was a Wiimote (for its infrared camera), an infrared-emitting pen, and a flat surface. The Wiimote would track the pen across the surface and report its coordinates back to the computer program, which could then draw, trigger controls, or whatever you wantetd it to do.

I don't own a Wii, so…

Yesterday, I explained why I was excited about Google getting into the browser game. Of course, no new Google venture is complete without some people taking issue with Google's privacy policies. In this case, the controversy was around Google Chrome's EULA, specifically section 11.1. Now, since everything on the Internet happens at the speed of light, Google has already changed the wording of that clause and applied it retroactively, claiming that it was…

Google made a splash on Labour Day when it announced the release of its own browser, Google Chrome.

It's important to note that this is only a beta release, and Google's made it clear that they are going to make major improvements to it. Check out the comic book that explains Google Chrome for techie details. A comic book--how cool is that?

Of course, Google has set a high standard for itself in the…

It's the 25th birthday of GNU this month, and Stephen Fry recorded a delightful little video that explains about free software in a very comprehensible manner.

Yay free software!

Lately I've been listening to CBC Radio's new show Spark.

Some of you may recall that I'm not always fond of the CBC, but they've got something good going with Spark. It's the sort of show that would appeal to demographics that might otherwise view the CBC as stodgy and uninteresting. Spark's host, Nora Young, discusses the latest technology and technological phenomena with guests. Specifically, the show focuses on how technology integrates into and…

Last night I signed up for Twitter, an increasingly popular online service that allows users to send status messages from a variety of platforms--mobile, web, IM, etc. Big deal, you say. So what--who cares? The neat thing isn't so much what Twitter does as how you can use Twitter elsewhere on the Internet.

For example, thanks to a Facebook application, I can update my Twitter status and have it show up on my Facebook…

I have a lot of projects going on all at once. I'm coding VSNS Lemon, trying to code another site, managing a couple of other sites, trying to redesign this site, doing support at InvisionFree/ZetaBoards--and that's just in my free time. I've also got school and work to balance. So time management is a big deal for me. Unfortunately, I'm the sort of person who, instead of doing the things on his to-do list, spends…

I had a very good day today. Everything just seemed to go well. Sure, there were some rocky moments--I got stuck behind a tow truck trying to hoist a vehicle on two separate occasions--is that weird or what? But I won't let that ruin the rest of the good moments.

If you come up to a group of people waiting outside a room, don't assume they're waiting because the door is locked. Until you actually…

Great Bird of the Galaxy, forgive me.

It was just a matter of time, of course. My willpower is far from legendary or anything, and I knew that I was going to "cave", as Cortney so eloquently puts it, sometime or another--I fully intended to, since once I'm done high school I'd like to preserve my connections with my friends through whatever means available. And, as much as I hate to admit it, social networking…

Nearly a year ago, I first blogged about Portable Apps. Now I'm going to once again declare: Portable Apps rock! :drool:

They are an excellent way to carry your favourite programs with you on your USB key (or other portable method; I just prefer that). I love Firefox Portable, which is just want it sounds like. I've also got FileZilla Portable, Portable GIMP, Portable OpenOffice.org, and Portable Gaim. :jay: Although I haven't figured…

I've learned a life lesson today: People will give you cell phones if you take English classes.

Go back and read that sentence. Yeah. Crazy, eh? You see, my brother is in grade 8 and shall be going into grade 9, so he has his option sheets for next year. He originally intended on taking several applied-level courses (if you don't live in Ontario, you probably don't understand this part, but you'll get the gist…

My day was a good day. I'm really only stressed about drama. Four more school days to go.

Rat dissection tomorrow in biology. If those rats arrive. . . . We order them from Boreal Laboratories in Toronto, and they're late. >_<

Anyway, so in a moment of idleness I downloaded BOINC and joined up for Climateprediction.net, Einstein@home, and Rosetta@home. I want to participate in SETI@home, but something seems to…