Tag Archives: Technology

Making phones work

By alex | Published: 8/17/2005
Carolyn Marvin quotes the following account in her (excellent) When Old Technologies Were New about a farmer’s encounter with the newfangled telephone (p. 20): He then rolled up the paper and tried to push it in the aperture in the transmitter. Failing in his attempt with his finger, he took his lead pencil and jammed […]
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Chimera Discrimination

By alex | Published: 7/30/2005
First they came for the chimeras: S. 659: The Human Chimera Prohibition Act of 2005 On March 17, Senator Sam Brownback (R-KS), introduced S. 659, the Human Chimera Prohibition Act of 2005. The bill would prohibit any person from creating, or attempting to create a human chimera. A “human chimera” is broadly defined to include […]
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UW + Napster + DRM

By alex | Published: 7/12/2005
Oren writes about UW’s agreement to pipe free music into the dorms. Free as in beer, that is. Looks like an interesting approach. Of course, whatever the DRM scheme, it’s possible to record the music, even if it means sticking a microphone in the computer speakers (which it won’t). But the thing is, this is […]
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Self-service

By alex | Published: 7/10/2005
The Buffalo News recentle ran a story on self-service (ATMs, self-check-in kiosks, retail self-checkout, self-service prescriptions, etc.) that featured a photograph of the back of my head and a brief quote. A colleague here at UB (Neil Yerkey asked me how well the short quote reflected my real view. This is how I answered: My […]
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