Category Archives: Technology, science, and math

You know you’re paying more for your cellphone service than you need to, right? Cellular subscribers are paying hundreds of millions of dollars each year to subsidize landline telephone service, enriching big telecommunications companies while providing little or no benefit … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I’ve read before about services like this, mostly in the context of storing one’s various account passwords in a single place that will be convenient for family members to access after one’s demise. I think I know how to get … Continue reading → Continue reading →

EarthLink is it in San Francisco. EarthLink Municipal Networks, one of the finalists to provide citywide wireless Internet in Houston, has reached an agreement with the city of San Francisco to build a network there and offer free access to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Dwight brings an update on Corpus Christi’s WiFi rollout, which he says still has a few bugs in the system. It’s still under construction, so the final chapter has not been written yet. As Earthlink is their vendor and one … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Yes, you’re getting more spam. Hearing from a lot of new friends lately? You know, the ones that write “It’s me, Esmeralda,” and tip you off to an obscure stock that is “poised to explode” or a great deal on … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The march of municipal WiFi comes to El Paso. Downtown El Paso soon will be home to a free wireless Internet network. City and county officials say the WiFi network, which will also be available in parts of South El … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Mayor White spoke to some business leaders regarding the citywide WiFi effort, telling them of the need to roof access for transmitters. That was all interesting, but this is what I noticed: Some business leaders who heard White speak at … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Dwight reports that the city has narrowed its search down to two vendors to provide its wireless Internet service. They expect to pick the winner by the end of the year. Dwight also says that there are more access points … Continue reading → Continue reading →

An idea whose time, frankly, is way overdue. Several prominent scientists said yesterday that they had formed an organization dedicated to electing politicians “who respect evidence and understand the importance of using scientific and engineering advice in making public policy.” … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Are you one of those people who carries a cellphone but doesn’t always have it in a conveniently reachable place when it rings? Have no fear, a Bluetooth wristwatch can help. Next time someone calls you on your cell phone, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This Chron article addresses what I think is the most crucial question about Pluto’s demotion from planet to Vowel Planet: What about the mnemonics? Now how will students learn the planets? Some possibilities: My Very Extravagant Mother Just Sent Us … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Remember when I said that Pluto was still a planet? Apparently, I was wrong. Astronomers debating Pluto’s future as a planet Thursday were forced to choose between science and culture. Culture lost. More than 75 years after its discovery by … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As a followup to my previous post on Grisha Perelman, the reclusive Russian mathematician who has apparently conquered the Poincare Conjecture, Matt emails me to point to this story about Perelman declining the Fields medal and quite possibly the one … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This, via Chad Orzel, is from last week, but what with all of the CD22 craziness I never got around to posting it. It’s an update on the status of eccentric Russian mathematician Grisha Perelman and his reported proof of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Dwight reports on the mostly laudable effort to ban the CAPS LOCK key. I say “mostly” because as some of Dwight’s commenters point out there are still some legitimate uses for the accursed thing. As the need to educate people … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Just wanted to pass along a little blurb in the Wireless Report on the progress of municipal WiFi networks in suburban communities near Fort Worth. [E]ight cities in the Northeast portion of Tarrant County now offer free or low-cost WiFi … Continue reading → Continue reading →

After reading about the possibility that Pluto would lose its status as a planet, I was quite a bit relieved after doing a little more research to find that it status is safe. Some astronomers had lobbied for reclassifying Pluto … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Dwight links to a story on the municipal WiFi rollout in Corpus Christi. The network, projected to be complete this summer, could drive down Internet prices around town and increase service quality. City officials also envision the wireless access making … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Via Kimberly, I present to you the 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time. You can mourn the CueCat if you want to, I’m getting an involuntary shudder thinking about PointCast, which our help desk quickly decided it would not … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I was sent this Inside Higher Ed article about our own Senator Hutchison chairing a meeting of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Science and Space. It’s amusing in the way that a person trying to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I mentioned before that a free WiFi network, to be put in place for the World Congress of Information Technology, was set to go live in Austin. Well, today’s the day. Starting today, Austinites can get a free high-speed wireless … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Dwight points to this article about some of the issues that the cities who have pioneered municipal WiFi service have encountered. Joe Lusardi’s friends back in New York couldn’t believe it when he told them he’d have free Internet access … Continue reading → Continue reading →

And the march to municipal WiFi takes another step forward in Austin. The city is partnering with Cisco Systems Inc., the largest maker of computer networking equipment, and the World Congress of Information Technology on the project. Cisco will donate … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Do you know what click fraud is? It just cost Google ninety million bucks. Google has agreed to pay $90 million to settle a lawsuit alleging the online search engine leader overcharged thousands of advertisers who paid for bogus sales … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This happened on Friday, but since I do BlackBerry for a living, I wanted to note that its maker, Research in Motion (RIM) settled its patent infringement lawsuit with NTP for a cool $612 million. Though one could easily ask … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Fighin’ Jay Lee (None more surly than he) has some of the gory details on AOL’s pay-for-email plan. Check it out. Continue reading →

I noted the concept of certified email awhile back as a spamfighting tool. AOL appears to be heading in that direction, and it’s causing some heartburn among various advocacy groups. “The creativity and ingenuity that have driven the Internet have … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Breathe easier, corporate America, your BlackBerries are still good to go, at least for now. U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer said at hearing today in Richmond, Virginia, that he would rule on a shutdown probably after first assessing how … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Via Dwight, the city of Houston has posted an RFP (which you can get in either Word or PDF format, and on which you can post a comment here) for a citywide WiFi network. It’ll be a public/private partnership like … Continue reading → Continue reading →

It’s bad enough that people like Richard Cohen can proudly write about their own ignorance and have it pass as commentary. What’s worse is that I don’t think it’s ever occurred to Cohen how competence in mathematics could make him … Continue reading → Continue reading →

When I said “Just implant the chip in my head now and be done with it”, I was only kidding, I swear! Two employees have been injected with RFID chips this week as part of a new requirement to access … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I need to pause for a moment to wish an unfond farewell to George Deutsch, the now-former NASA staffer who tried to tell its scientists how to do their jobs (see here and here for some background). The resignation came … Continue reading → Continue reading →

A few days ago, Kevin wrote about AOL and Yahoo’s implementation of a program to certify and enhance delivery of email from specified senders, with financial institutions being the prime example. “CertifiedEmail will cost a fraction of a cent to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Do you know what network neutrality is, and and how a change from that policy could affect the operation of the Internet? Read about it and keep an eye on it in the future. It looks unclear at this time … Continue reading → Continue reading →