From the tablet today: Yes, oh, yes it was…
Category: Technology
A Pro-Science Film Festival: Why Not?
Over at Shifting Baselines, Randy Olson posts a comment suggesting how to combat anti-science movies like Expelled: You want to know how to start — why doesn’t somebody run a film festival for pro-evolution films? THAT is how you reach out to tap into new voices, new blood, new perspectives. THAT is what is desperately… Continue reading A Pro-Science Film Festival: Why Not?
Bad Toasters and Software
Seth Godin offers a parable about toasters and web sites: We recently acquired what might be the worst toaster in the history of the world. It’s pretty fancy and shiny and microprocessor controlled. And it makes toast. But here’s what I have to do to use it: [list of 10 steps] He goes on to… Continue reading Bad Toasters and Software
Web Design Is Stupid
The College maintain an “OnCampus” page, intended to serve as a clearinghouse for electronic resources on campus. I have it set as the home page for all my campus computers, because it lets me access a lot of stuff very quickly– Blackboard, course rosters, academic calendars, etc. This page has always consisted of two bands… Continue reading Web Design Is Stupid
Science in the 21st Century
The Perimeter Institute will be hosting a workshop in September on “Science in the 21st Century“: Times are changing. In the earlier days, we used to go to the library, today we search and archive our papers online. We have collaborations per email, hold telephone seminars, organize virtual networks, write blogs, and make our seminars… Continue reading Science in the 21st Century
On the Suckitude of Office 2007
My sabbatical is coming to an end, so I’ve begun prepping my class for the term that starts Monday. I’m teaching the honors section of introductory E&M, and for the intro classes, I lecture off PowerPoint. We’re starting an entirely new syllabus this year, and I plan to use my spiffy tablet PC to do… Continue reading On the Suckitude of Office 2007
Firefox Query: Dumping Acrobat
A question for the Firefox users: How do I make Firefox on a PC use something other than Adobe Acrobat to read PDF files? Background: Opera is my browser of choice for web surfing, but I use Firefox for accessing GMail, Movable Type, and a few other sites that don’t play well with Opera, and… Continue reading Firefox Query: Dumping Acrobat
Literary Poll: Nanotechnology in Fiction?
A reader writes in with a literary query: I was asked to teach a 400-level course on Nanotechnology at my U. In addition to the usual technical content, I would like to include a critical view of how nanotechnology is portrayed in popular culture. So I am looking for suitable works that can be examined.… Continue reading Literary Poll: Nanotechnology in Fiction?
Gadget Query: Presentation Remotes
I’m going to be giving a bunch of presentations in the coming year, mostly using PowerPoint on my Tablet PC. One of the awkward things about using it in class is that I have to keep walking back across the room to change slides (I prefer physically pointing at the screen to waving a laser… Continue reading Gadget Query: Presentation Remotes
Uncertain Principles Radio
Well, OK, not really. You can, however, hear what I sound like by listening to a couple of official Tor podcasts made from the panel I did at Worldcon with Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Adam Rakunas, Paul Cornell and Yoshio Kobayashi. The panel was back in September, but I haven’t seen the files on Tor’s web… Continue reading Uncertain Principles Radio