Monthly Archives: August 2001

Make your own DSL!

The rarity and expense of DSL is totally bogus. Robert X. Cringely shows you the truth the baby bells don’t want you to know. Probably isn’t legal in some parts though.

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The Marinara Chant

Lots of nerds have their own version of the Mentat Chant. Here is mine: It is by pasta alone I set my mind in motion.It is by the paste of tomato thatthe thoughts acquire speed, the lips acquire stain,the stain … Continue reading

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Protein Engineering Begins

Researchers have managed to coax bacteria into building proteins out of amino acids other than the 20 used by all Earth organisms. One of the many things they hope to learn is why those 20, out of the many others … Continue reading

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Smart Dust and Paranoia

How’s this for a science fiction short story? What if the mass deployment of smart dust by various concerns leads to the discovery of unexpected data? What if in investigating the source of this mysterious data, researchers discover that the … Continue reading

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Artificial Intelligence and Commodities Trading

This was a news item I missed when I was at the Robotics/AI conference a week or so ago but, IBM has built AI programs that are apparently better than humans at commodities trading. One could make the argument that, … Continue reading

Posted in Science and Engineering | 3 Comments

Transportation in the XXI Century

Hey look! Paper Models of High Speed Trains! Automobiles powered by fuel cells!

Posted in The Future | 2 Comments

Web Bugs

If you need a reason to install an ad and cookie blocker, to spoof your referrer information and to shut off all client side scripting except for trusted domains, web bugs are that reason.

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The Battles That Remain, A Reprise

Now that the browser makers are finally playing by the rules, we must see to it that HTML editing programs generate W3C valid markup. It’s time for round two of the standards wars.

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Counterexamples to Tech Myths

Charles Mann, who wrote The Heavenly Jukebox, wrote another thoughtful article on Internet regulation. I only take issue with his assertion that hardware affords better protection against illegal copying than software. For example, if print media, music, movies and so … Continue reading

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And On a Personal Note–

I just celebrated my birthday on Saturday! I’m now 38! Probably hard to jibe this site with that age, eh? Well, what can I say? “I’ve lead a very weird life.”

Posted in Personal | 1 Comment