Category: Technology

The E-Book Experience

A bit more than a month ago, I got a Sony Reader as a birthday present, upgrading my electronic book-reading platform from an old Palm Pilot. this is, obviously, not as sexy as a Kindle or a Nook, but then again, it doesn’t involve me paying fees to use wireless services and further stoke my… Continue reading The E-Book Experience

The Elusive Digital Native

Inside Higher Ed featured one of those every-so-often articles about the awesomeness of the demographic subgroup of the moment, this time Athur Levine’s panegyric about “digital natives”, who “grew up in a world of computers, Internet, cell phones, MP3 players, and social networking,” and how they’re too cool and tech-savvy for current universities: They differ… Continue reading The Elusive Digital Native

Knowing What’s Essential Is Essential

Spinning off a blog at Inside Higher Ed, the Dean Dad has a post on deciding what classes are essential: My personal sense of it is that the distinction between core and periphery is largely a function of purpose. If your goal in life is to be an exhibited artist, then you might well decide… Continue reading Knowing What’s Essential Is Essential

The Past and Future of the Laser

While it’s not aprt of the official LaserFest package of stuff, Physics World is marking the 50th anniversary of the laser with a couple of really nice pieces on lasers in science and popular culture: Where next for the laser interviews six laser experts– Claire Max of UCSC, Bill Phillips of NIST, Steven Block of… Continue reading The Past and Future of the Laser

The World Doesn’t Need More Promotional Blogs

Over at the Book Publicity blog, Yen takes up the question of Internet publicity (via SF Signal): Yesterday I spoke at an AAR / Association of Authors’ Representatives panel together with Connor Raus (who runs digital advertising agency CRKWD) about understanding social media and how to use it effectively — as you know, a favorite… Continue reading The World Doesn’t Need More Promotional Blogs

Laser Smackdown: Final Days of Voting for the Most Amazing Laser Application

We’re just over 600 votes in the Laser Smackdown poll in honor of the 50th anniversary of the laser, as of early Friday morning. I notice that it has moved off the front page of the blog, though, so here’s another signal-boosting repost, just so we have as many votes as possible, to establish maximum… Continue reading Laser Smackdown: Final Days of Voting for the Most Amazing Laser Application

Laser Smackdown: Vote for the Most Amazing Laser Application

In 1960, the first working laser was demonstrated, and promptly dubbed “a solution looking for a problem.” In the ensuing fifty years, lasers have found lots of problems to solve, but there has been no consensus about which of the many amazing applications of lasers is the most amazing. Now, in 2010, as we celebrate… Continue reading Laser Smackdown: Vote for the Most Amazing Laser Application

Amazing Laser Application 12: Laser Guide Stars!

What’s the application? Producing artificial “stars” to serve as a reference for telescopes using adaptive optics to correct for atmospheric turbulence. This allows ground-based telescopes to produce images that are as good as those from the Hubble Space Telescope. What problem(s) is it the solution to? “How can I make this giant telescope produce even… Continue reading Amazing Laser Application 12: Laser Guide Stars!

Amazing Laser Application 11: Frequency Combs!

What’s the application? An optical frequency comb is a short-duration pulsed laser whose output can be viewed as a regularly spaced series of different frequencies. If the pulses are short enough, this can span the entire visible spectrum, giving a “comb” of colored lines on a traditional spectrometer. This can be used for a wide… Continue reading Amazing Laser Application 11: Frequency Combs!