REAL SILLY The following op-ed piece in the San Francisco Chronicle is worth some attention involving an initiative called RealDVD* by Real Networks.  Titled the "Movie industry's shortsighted fight", it explains: "Thomas Edison, probably America's best-known and most prominent inventor of all time...

DEEP BLUE As someone who's long been a fan of relief globes of the Earth depicting the depths of the oceans, I was glad to see this announcement by Google today.  As the New York Times explains: "Two and a half years ago, the software engineers behind Google Earth, the searchable online replica of ...

COMING SOON Regular readers have long known my enthusiasm for solid state drives and their potential.  While the costs of these drives today vs. mechanical hard drives is still substantial and the relative benefits still incremental, there are some big improvements on the horizon.  This ComputerWo...

"There Was Blood," my review-essay of two recent books about the 1914 Ludlow Massacre, appears in the New Yorker on 19 January 2009. What follows is a bibliography and supplementary online smorgasbord, which won't make much sense until after you've read the article itself. My first debt, as ever, is...

David Samuels has a fine piece on John Coster-Mullen in the December 15, 2008 issue of The New Yorker.  The online version is here. Coster-Mullen is obsessed with reconstructing the details of early American atomic weapons and has done a remarkable job.  Great piece.   ...

ABOUT TIME As a fan of Ted Nelson for decades, I'm glad to see he's self-publishing a book that claims some credit where a lot is due.  The New York Times explains: "BEFORE the personal computer, and before the Web, there was Theodor Holm Nelson, who almost half a century ago understood how compute...

TOTAL HIT Like so many iPhone geeks, I'd been waiting for this long-anticipated game to be released and it doesn't disappoint.  IGN has a review that puts it in context and explains: "A few years ago, an oft-asked question at mobile games conferences was, "Where is mobile's Mario?" It was essential...

NEEDLES IN HAYSTACKS Well, I've had a couple of days now to play with the new iPhone 3G and the flood of third-party applications now available for it in the Apple App Store, both free and for a fee.  And the good news is that there are some pretty cool applications, especially games that take ...

THE NEW REALITY The Wall Street Journal is running some excerpts from  former Bush press secretary Scott McClellan's new book, "What Happened".  Obviously, most of the national attention around is how he seems to have turned on his former boss and his administration.  But he...

STOP TO SMELL A ROSE Use something several times a day, everyday for half a decade or more, and you can't but help take it a bit for granted.  I'm talking here about Google Search, which so many of us have become so addicted to in living our daily lives. For that reason alone, it's interesting ...