I just watched the pilot episode of AMC's new show, Halt and Catch Fire, which airs in Mad Men's Sunday 10pm slot. I was pretty intrigued by the slew of…
Two whistle-blowers are in the news today: Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden. Manning is the Army soldier who was convicted yesterday of 17 of the 22 counts against him. He…
I went to see Prometheus last week with some good friends. I had been eagerly anticipating the film, both because it has a great cast and because I LOVED the…
Although it is not a personal email written by founder and President of Netflix Reed Hastings, I was happy to receive the following email this morning. Perhaps "the Netflix team"…
Like all Netflix subscribers, I received an email from Netflix founder Reed Hastings this morning. I will post my comments on their blog but I also decided to post the…
I just got back from a three day workshop on academic technology. As a computer scientist, I was intrigued by the idea of this workshop but I was worried that…
As I wrote in a previous post, I have been testing Tumblr as a way of consolidating my web contributions in one place. After using the site for a couple…
Because I spend my time thinking and writing about today's online media, I have a fairly significant web presence. I write this blog. I have a web site and a…
I received this open letter from the International Game Developer's Association. I think it's a very reasoned, educational letter and points to a dominant theme of our times. Corporations are…
Media outlets of all types see April 1st of each year as a time to play with their audiences. These stories rarely "catch" me because they typically have to be…
There is a huge controversy raging in NH this year involving the Northern Pass Project. According to the project's web site, the Northern Pass is "a transmission project designed to deliver…
This entry was inspired by Meg, who asked some great questions after I posted my last entry. In that entry, I explained what the net neutrality debate is about and why…
The debate about net neutrality has been around for a while. I taught my students about it back when I was still in the Computer Science Department, during the Bush…
As I drove to the airport in late September, I listened, as usual, to New Hampshire Public Radio in my car. Election season is upon us so much of the coverage that…
I could not believe what I was hearing on NPR this afternoon. I had heard about the "Hussein" controversy when Obama was running for President of the United States, where…
One of the best books I've ever read is a short novel about South Africa after the end of apartheid. The novel is the Booker Prize-winning Disgrace written by J.M. Coetzee, who won the…
I haven't written in a while. The end of a semester and a sinus infection will do that to a person. But that doesn't mean that I haven't been thinking…
A few months ago, Liz bought a Roku so that she could stream Netflix content to her television. She complained slightly about the $80 price tag for a device that…