Education
Technological ignorance
The proper functioning of a democracy depends on an informed electorate. Unfortunately, the US seems to have reached a state where neither the electorate nor the elected have the background knowledge to make reasonable judgments about the large scientific and technological issues that face us. Given how important a role technology plays in everyone’s life, [...]
Microsoft program for teaching basic tech skills
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer thinks that technology can help get us out of the present financial mess. To that end, Microsoft has announced a training program. Seattle P-I reports:
Microsoft Corp. said Sunday that in response to the economic crisis it would sponsor an initiative to help train up to two million people in basic [...]
The conundrum of too many security warnings
As I have said before, I wonder if the constant drumbeat of news and warnings about security problems might be counterproductive. Humans tend to tune out things that get repeated over and over. On the one hand, I feel that I owe it to the readers to warn about the severe security problems on [...]
Senior citizens and computers
One of my interests is teaching seniors to use computers and lately there have been several items in the news on the subject. The New York Times had a recent article on how learning to use computers was helping seniors find a job. The article mentions SeniorNet, with which I am affiliated:
NEVER-ENDING bad news [...]
The shame of Intel and Microsoft
Amidst all the news about the recent popularity of netbooks, we shouldn’t forget that it was Nicholas Negroponte at MIT who got the idea of a small inexpensive PC off the ground with his “One Laptop per Child” project. Nor should we forget the shameful behavior of Intel and Microsoft (actually, Bill Gates himself) in [...]
Introduction to 64-bit computing
It won’t be everybody’s cup of tea but, for the more technically minded, there is an article at Ars Technica with an informative little primer on 64-bit computing. Someday before too long, we will all be deciding whether to change from a 32-bit to a 64-bit operating system and it’s worth understanding what the possible [...]
Free Stanford University engineering courses online
More and more universities are offering free courses online and Stanford University is now offering some free engineering courses. Although most readers are probably not interested in learning about Fourier transforms or convex optimization, this is a great offering from one of the world’s best engineering schools.
Via AppScout.
New free newsletter
A few years back, email newsletters were common and there were a number of useful computer-related ones. Various factors, including the deleterious effects of spam on email, the rise of blogs, and consolidation, have greatly reduced the numbers and very few computing newsletters are left.
One of the veterans of computer newsletter publishing, Jack Teems, still [...]
How file compression works
Just about anyone using a computer will have encountered one of the compressed file formats, especially ZIP files. Have you ever wondered what is involved in compressing files so that they are smaller? Here’s a link to How Stuff Works that explains how it’s done.
One billion PCs and counting
Reuters reports:
The number of personal computers in use around the world has surpassed 1 billion, with strong growth in emerging markets set to double the number of PCs by early 2014, research firm Gartner said on Monday.
Mature markets accounted for 58 percent of the first billion installed PCs, but would only account for about [...]
Why home computing is a mess
A home computer is by far the most complex item that an average consumer is likely to own. Unfortunately, many of the possible uses of the standard home computer require a level of technical understanding that the average user does not have. Also a computer requires a level of routine maintenance that is [...]