I realize Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto is old news, but it seems to have made some waves, and I keep hearing people talking about it, so I finally decided to dig in and read it.Basically, the Manifesto is Andreessen spending about 5000 words spelling out his values and his vision for the future of humanity. Having written more than a few 5000 word screeds … [Read more...] about Marc Andreessen’s Techno-Optimist Manifesto
Technology
The Mystery Of the Oscillator That Didn’t
I am continuing my attempt to self-educate myself at electronics by working through Charles Platt's book Make: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery, 2nd Edition.I'm currently working on an oscillator circuit. I was going to take a picture of my actual breadboard with the circuit on it, but this representational diagram from the book is a lot cleaner:The … [Read more...] about The Mystery Of the Oscillator That Didn’t
Some (Very) Basic Electronics
In an attempt at self-improvement, I'm trying to teach myself some basic electronics.I was fascinated by electronics when I was a kid. I remember my parents had given me a Science Fair electronics kit, which was a shallow wooden box that had electronic components mounted inside, with spring terminals wired to each of the leads. You could wire components together by bending … [Read more...] about Some (Very) Basic Electronics
Greg Laden Illustrates the Case For a Carbon Tax
Science blogger Greg Laden is having trouble figuring out whether or not to install a solar electric power system in his home. I want to put a solar panel on my roof so that I am releasing less greenhouse gas into the environment. But then I hear that manufacturing solar panels causes the release of greenhouse gasses, so I have to subtract that from the good I think I’m doing. … [Read more...] about Greg Laden Illustrates the Case For a Carbon Tax
Mysteries of Comcast
So last night around 2am I sat down at my computer and...no internet. Called Comcast and accepted the automated system's offer to reset my modem. When that didn't work, I asked for a human being. The technician told me there was an outage in the area, but they couldn't give me anymore information, and they couldn't take a trouble ticket because their system was down … [Read more...] about Mysteries of Comcast