All my blog posts and articles
Page 58 of 142 (2823 total posts)
An interesting question, and an expert answer from a friend of mine. If you are interested in elections and voting and how they can and cannot be bought, you might find this intriguing. By the way, this scheme would never work in the US as we have many mechanisms that would prevent that, but these m...
Read more →I recently subscribed to the New York Review of Books. Not sure this was a good decision as the last thing I need is more stuff to read. I came to it because I kept seeing interesting articles from the NYRB come up on various blogs and searches. Here’s quite an [interesting book review](http://www...
Read more →I remember wondering about this when I was in college — this is before I really knew anything about computers. I noticed that our computer center charged by the minute of processor time and it was a lot! I remember people freaking out because their random prime number generator ran overnight an...
Read more →I first came across Sandy Metz in this video: [vimeo 12350535 w=500 h=281] 2009 – Sandi Metz – SOLID Object-Oriented Design from Gotham Ruby Conference on Vimeo. If you are interested in Object Oriented design you will en...
Read more →I created this quick and dirty list of useful resources for some friends who wanted to dig into the latest thinking on web and mobile user interface design. I am sure this list is incomplete and quirky but I thought it would be good to share: - I’ve had great luck with Lynda.com courses. It’s only ...
Read more →What an antiquated term: Full Duplex. I don’t know if that term is used anymore but what i mean is this: I use Skype on many many voice calls, either to other Skype users or to telephone. It seems to me that while the other person is talking, I cannot interrupt them. In other words, either I am talking or I am listening, but not both. Am I mistaken? Or is my Skype set up incorrectly? Full Duplex is a term that used to mean, maybe still means, that both parties to a connection can be active at the same time. Last time I used it, it was in reference to a teletype machine!
Did you hear that Google bought Sparrow? Sparrow is a really cool email client that I for one have been using very happily for a while now. Did you hear the announcement that [there would be no more development of sparrow](http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google-acq...
Read more →You know the old joke that today they say something is good for you, tomorrow it’s bad, and the day after it’s good again? Recently there was a lot of press that sitting 3 hours a day could take years off your lifespan. “[Sitting for More Than Three Hours a Day Cuts Life Expectancy”, so said the Wal...
Read more →I like this quote: “Everyone here introduces themselves as an “entrepreneur.” It’s as if they hand out the title at the airport when you arrive. “Welcome to San Francisco, you are now an entrepreneur! Which start-up T-shirt would you like?” > This belief that everyone is an entrepreneur has a stultifying effect. It can drive founders to seek an easy acquisition instead of a quest for true innovation and a sustainable, profitable business — a truly entrepreneurial challenge.” (from Bits Blog, NYT)
Lucky Me! After tortured litigation and lots of legal fees (not mine, of course), I am receiving a check for $0.47 as my payout for the litigation between Hanson and Google. What, never heard of Hanson? Well apparently the law suit was about Google doing something wrong in how the charged or paid for Google Adwords. Which I think I might have used a little some long time ago. But really, how does it make sense to pay out 47 cents? I am sure the lawyers (for both sides) are laughing all the way to the bank! 
Code T-Shirt, © Pito Salas, 2012. Let me know if you want to order one! 
I am considering these Bluetooth Wireless Powered Speakers… which should I get? - Jawbone JAMBOX Wireless Bluetooth Speaker - [Braven 625s Wir...
Read more →Just from today’s New York Times: > “Voters in New York State use a vote-scanning system that can tally votes swiftly and, in most cases, correctly. Not New York City. The city’s Board of Elections uses a creaky system of counting by hand that is prone to embarrassing errors on election night.” (from Why Can’t NYC Count Votes?)
An interesting fact: > “In the last years of the nineteenth century, Charles Dow created an index of 12 leading industrial companies. Almost none of them exist today….[…]… Four years after Dow invented his average, a group of 14 leading research institutions created the Association of American Uni...
Read more →As you may know, I’ve been working on launching Bootup Academy, which will offer applied computer science or engineering programs to college students who want to supplement their studies with an intensive 10 week summer program. That’s why you may have seen more post...
Read more →Instead of charging extra (‘congestion pricing’) to drive your car during rush hour, how about giving me a reward (a lottery ticket) for driving using less congested routes? That’s a clever idea that is being tested by a Stanford professor: > “[…]So this spring, with a $3 million research grant fr...
Read more →I am a pretty regular LinkedIn user, so the news that some unspecified number of LinkedIn users had their passwords compromised was of some interest to me. Here’s what a recent post on their blog says: > “We want to pro...
Read more →Today (May 29) is Manhattenhenge. One of two days every year when sunrise and sunset are exactly aligned with the Manhattan (New York City, New York, USA) street grid. Just a fun fact. > *“What will future civilizations thin...
“It is impossible to be unmoved by the juxtaposition of the eternal stone-faced warrior and the disheveled modern military wife-turned-widow, him rigid in his dress uniform, her on the floor in her blanket nest, wearing glasses and a baggy T-shirt, him nearly concealed by shadow while the pale blue light from the computer screen illuminates her like God’s own grace.” (from At War Blog)