Some prominent bloggers have recently asked the question “Why don’t people care about freedom 0?” To me this just raises the question “What is this freedom 0 stuff anyway?” Herewith the (lengthy) results of my own attempts to find out the answers to both of these questions, and even raise some of my own.
So I recently finished Lawrence Lessig’s Code 2.0 and I am compelled to pass some sort of comment on it. Book reviews aren’t really my strength, but this one definitely deserves attention of some sort.
First the easy stuff. This book is a new edition of an earlier book with the obvious title. The changes and [...]
So in my discussion about headcycles I alluded to the possibility of detecting audio compression flaws with my fancy new equipment. By this I mean artifacts that are introduced as a result of the lossy process that squeezes audio into MP3s, AACs and so forth. I decided to conduct a double-blind test on myself to [...]
Some half-arsed pseudo-philosophical ramblings follow. It starts with some musings on transistors and eventually circles around to show some relevance to current events, specifically the climate change debate. But be warned, it will take a while.
Some brief thoughts on The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins’ latest book.
I was initially reluctant to read The God Delusion, on the assumption that it was going to tell me a lot of things I already know, and reinforce views I already have. And I assumed that it was just going to make me cross. Upon [...]
By now most people who have had any dealings with a large institution will have been asked what their mother’s maiden name is.
The first time you encounter this, it makes you do a bit of a double-take and wonder how such information can be relevant to anyone. Look into it a bit further and you [...]
Amongst my family I am rapidly acquiring a reputation as The Explainer of Internet Mindreading Tricks.
The last time it was relatively simple. This time, not so much.
Try it yourself, excuse the advertising, and then read on for my explanation.
A recent post on OddThinking got me thinking oddly about puzzles, particularly their relevance to software engineering. Julian uses the example of some thinking which enabled him to solve a puzzle but which would not be appropriate for solving software engineering problems.
This topic came up on slashdot recently. The consensus seemed to be that the [...]
There’s a science fiction story I read as a kid, and I want to say that it’s Phillip K. Dick’s Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said, but that may not be right. In this story, or one like it, I can remember being amused and confused at the decadent characters in the story who, as [...]
In general I find it a lot easier to put my data somewhere that I know I will be able to get it out again. This applies especially for web applications hosted by third-parties, where export facilities are a must before I’ll even look at it, but I believe it is generally a good practice.
Hence [...]
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