|
|
 |
Dr. Samuel Says
|
Smart Design
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Wednesday, 12 November 2008 |
A while back, I wrote about how disease specialists were using massively multiplayer online games like EverQuest and World of Warcraft to model potential disease outbreaks. This is a riddle the Center for Disease Control has been trying to crack for decades; how to best and most accurately track the spread of outbreaks.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 November 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Weirdness
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Wednesday, 05 November 2008 |
I understand there was an election of some sort recently? We haven't been getting much outside news lately. We're in lockdown here at Dyscern World HQ Labs. My faithful guard dog, Copernicus, chewed through some power cables and shut down the cryofreezer, releasing a cloud of retroviral farandolae spores. Now the lab monkeys are mutating every 45 minutes, and none of us can blink for some reason. It's always something around here…
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 05 November 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Bidness
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Thursday, 30 October 2008 |
'Ello guv'nor, or whatever, from glamorous London. I'm in town for the annual Stuff Live international gadget show. I love this town. So much history! Last night, in the spirit of the season, I took the London Ghost Tour and logged some interesting ectoplasmic readings on my Zuul 3000 EMR detector. Also: London Bridge is, actually, falling down. Good thing I had my portable seismometer with me. I've already alerted Parliament. Why I keep doing favors for these guys, I'll never know.
|
|
Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 October 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Rants
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Friday, 24 October 2008 |
A few years ago, when everyone was carrying a cell phone in one pocket and a digital music player in the other, it was clear what had to happen next. And it did. And the iPhone and its competitors hit the market. And it was good.
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 24 October 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Rants
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Friday, 17 October 2008 |
A report out of Europe this week warns that millions of children and teenagers could suffer permanent hearing loss from setting the headphone volume on their digital music players too loud. This is a familiar warning, of course, but now there are some hard numbers coming in, and they're pretty scary.
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 17 October 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Bidness
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Wednesday, 15 October 2008 |
Hard to believe, but twenty-five years ago this week, the first commercial wireless call was made. That's right -- the cell phone is 25 years old. How things have changed. What was once a very expensive toy for yuppies is now more or less ubiquitous. I even got my Dad using one, and he's about as rabid a Luddite as you're likely to find. He has exactly one TV is the house, an old cathode-ray cabinet-style box, which he uses as a workbench in the garage.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 15 October 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Bidness
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Friday, 10 October 2008 |
In terms of corporate culture, Google is known to be a pretty freewheeling place. I did some contract work in the Ann Arbor office a few years ago, and was suitably impressed. The atmosphere is very laid-back indeed, and creativity is encouraged. I particularly enjoyed the Extremely Casual Fridays tradition, in which employees work the whole day in their underwear. Well, I did, anyway. Come to think if it, that was more of a personal tradition than an office policy.
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 10 October 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Arts & Science
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Monday, 06 October 2008 |
Grandpa, circa 2055: Why, when we were kids, we played our video games with a console and a TV set! We didn’t have no fancy holographic displays or biosoft wetware! We used a control pad, with buttons – and we liked it! If you were really lucky, you might have a plastic dance pad on the floor! And our games came on compact discs – in a box! With booklets! None of this brainwave molecular ethercasting! You kids today are spoiled rotten…
|
|
Last Updated ( Monday, 06 October 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Bidness
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Monday, 06 October 2008 |
It feels like I’ve been writing about this story for 10 years. Wait a sec, let me check my notes. Hmm. Actually, I have. The cutting edge tech guys have been presaging the death of ink and paper since at least 1994. According to these reports, filed over the last decade, newspapers and magazines will be supplanted by the Internet, and portable devices, and eventually by crazy sci-fi devices like foldable electronic displays.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 04 March 2009 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Arts & Science
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Friday, 03 October 2008 |
Well, I just finished up one of my biggest and most ambitious research projects this week. This is a task that has taken me, literally, an entire calendar year to complete. I worked in fits and starts, but usually devoted several hours every week to the project. On balance, I must say this has been the most rewarding experiment in recent years. To wit: I watched Seinfeld -- The Complete Series DVD box set. Yes; all of it.
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 03 October 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Smart Design
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Tuesday, 30 September 2008 |
|
When I feel the need to relax, I like to test ride high-end factory prototype motorcycles. Like many loyal Dyscern readers, I suspect. There's nothing like winding up Pacific Coast Highway at 130 mph to take your mind off your daily troubles. I don't mean to brag, but I still hold the North American land speed record on the Ducati GT 9000, and you can find my picture of the walls of many biker bars near the Bonneville Salt Flats.
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 30 September 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Smart Design
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Friday, 26 September 2008 |
Hello from fabulous Berlin, where I've been refreshing my old Cold War connections and basically hanging around after attending the ginormous IFA consumer electronics show. The Germans know how to do these things right, I'll tell you. As a people, they have a flair for organizing, have you noticed? In fact, I just went to the cinema to see their latest comedy blockbuster, "Efficient and Efficienter." (Yes, I stole that joke. Sue me.)
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 26 September 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Rants
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Wednesday, 24 September 2008 |
|
I'm prone to a certain paranoia anyway, but after enduring all these terrifying headlines on the economy -- and recently reading a collection of Thomas Friedman essays -- I'm becoming convinced that unchecked capitalism is going to kill us. Seriously, I'm becoming a real communist over here. I've even busted out my old Mao jacket. Still fits, too.
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 24 September 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Bidness
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Tuesday, 23 September 2008 |
So I was on the MENSA online forums the other day, discussing my recent wish list item regarding iPods and satellite radio. This sparked a whole conversation about radio, and the perennial, greatly exaggerated reports of its impending demise. Ever since the dotcom boom, pundits have been predicting the death of old media like radio, newspapers and books. And yet these institutions have proven remarkably tenacious.
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 23 September 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Rants
|
|
Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
|
|
Friday, 19 September 2008 |
Among my many, many past professional incarnations, I once spent several years laboring in that most rarified of academic environs -- the university music department. When the bottom fell out of the international espionage market in the 1990s, I fell back on my musical training and ducked back onto campus for a few semesters. If you ever want evidence of the essential meaningless of existence, there's nothing like teaching viola to uppity sophomores, I'll tell you.
|
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 19 September 2008 )
|
|
Read more...
|
| << Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
| | Results 31 - 45 of 172 |
|
