Posts from March 21, 2011

So what’s the deal with robots?

A doctor says to his patient, “I have bad news and worse news. The bad news is that you only have twenty-four hours to live.” “That’s terrible,” says the patient. “How can the news possibly be worse?” “I’ve been trying to contact you since yesterday.” It’s a joke we’ve all heard numerous times over, with […]

In defense of “textese”

Rudolph T. Moneybanks and TetrahedraCorp® International present “THE DEATH OF JOURNALISM”

GREETINGS, NEWSPAPER READERS! My name is Tammy Tomorrow™, Tour Guide of the Future, and I’m excited to take you on a thrilling sneak preview of things to come in the field you once called “Journalism.” Please excuse any clumsiness on my part — being back on the printed page after all these years is sure […]

How to Internet

Own a smartphone Face it: you’re going to have to buy one eventually. It’s about time you get out of the cellphone stone age and become a valuable member of society. You can’t just arbitrarily pick a smartphone though — each type has its own distinct personality and set of features. iPhone: It’s hip and […]

The Great Net Neutrality Debate

Imagine that one day you flipped open your laptop and the Internet as you had known it was changed forever. You try to do a Google search, but the results now come from Microsoft’s search engine, Bing. You visit the Eye Weekly website, but a large banner across the top of the page suggests that […]

Why can’t we be friends?

There’s a point on lonely Friday nights, after watching about fifteen consecutive Grey’s Anatomy episodes and stalking every last person on your Facebook friends list, that you eventually find yourself strolling through the darkness that is Craigslist personals. Located between the sadness of Missed Connections and the even creepier sadness that is Casual Encounters lies […]

The new face of warfare

Throughout history new technologies have revolutionized warfare — think of the chariot, gunpowder, aircraft, radar, and nuclear fission. The same is true about information technology. Modern societies are increasingly reliant on computer systems linked to the Internet, giving enemies more avenues of attack. Cyberspace has become the fifth domain of warfare, following land, sea, air, […]

Laying cable

The best way to understand the inner workings of the Internet is to see it as a massive network branching out into several smaller networks. These become increasingly smaller, until the end user is reached. If a stem of that network is damaged or severed for political or strategic reasons, as seen in the recent […]