Short item: as Apple’s App Store, as associated with its popular iPhone and iPod Touch devices, continues to dominate the mobile app world, developers who have not found success in getting their apps approved (and others who have a bone to pick with Apple) have complained that Apple is not allowing applications that they […]
A student, upset at a paper grade, brought her paper to me with some questions. They were all excellent questions, and I did my best to explain why I scored her paper as I had. After my explanation, she said the she didn’t know what the point of the assignment was. This […]
Last night felt like Sunday night to me, as the weekend has stretched on for so long. Though I was done on campus on Wednesday, I had no classes. In fact, Monday and Tuesday hardly felt like regular school days anyway. It’s been a very long break, though I still have things […]
On several occasions, starting when I was a young teenager, I tried to read The Hobbit. I never got past the 50 page mark. The book plodded along, miserably slowly, and I never felt any compulsion to keep reading. When expressing this sentiment to someone in college, he (or she… can’t remember […]
Ham causing you trouble? Why not get some Arby’s roast beef?
Facing scorn in the tech community are companies who willingly go along with China’s regressive censorship of information. Be it through excessive restrictions on the media or through their “Great Firewall,” the Chinese government goes to great lengths to protect (or control) the minds of their citizens (or subjects). While most defenses of […]
More and more, we hear reports that the call quality and dependability of AT&T’s network is remarkably poor. Especially in high traffic areas (busy cities) and especially on the iPhone, reviewers would have you believe that it is near impossible to actually complete a call. Yet the iPhone continues to fly off the […]
Can someone please define the word “terrorism”? The dictionary puts it rather plainly: the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims. But if you listen to lawmakers, especially Connecticut’s notoriously fickle Joe Lieberman, the recent shootings at Fort Hood were terrorism. Since these politicians are given an […]
I like Sarah Palin because she continually provides very interesting topics for blog posts. I hate everything else about her, but since she isn’t vice president nor governor, her purpose has become galvanizing people who favor my political leanings. Sarah Palin has provided more benefits to my life than she has caused hardships. […]
For months, I have been waiting for this album. In case you are unaware, Them Crooked Vultures is Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age, Eagles of Death Metal, Kyuss) on guitars and vocals, Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) on drums, and John Paul Jones (Led Zeppelin) on bass and keyboards. Of all […]
Commenting on a story from a few weeks ago, Randall Stross wrote Saturday in the New York Times about a patent filing by Apple. This patent describes methods for embedding ads in applications and content that force the user to indicate engagement with the advertisement. The ad system is enabled at the core […]
Now get out of my restaurants! Seriously, every single time Lauren and I have tried to go to a restaurant in the last couple of weeks, it’s been busy. Like last weekend, we tried to go twice to Pizza Brutta only to find a line stretching near out the door, and all tables […]
There’s a certain paradox in liberal’s and conservative’s claims on freedom from government interference. On issues like gun rights, liberals claim that the government must step in and exercise control; conservatives claim need for freedom to own guns, as established in the Bill of Rights. On issues like free speech, liberals claim rights […]
When setting literary goals, it’s often good to keep your sights limited. For example, reading all works by a great author is possible when that author hasn’t written too much. 10 novels is a lot easier to get through than a prolific publisher with dozens of novels, short story collections, and poems. […]
Since winter of 2006, I’ve been mildly obsessed with Moleskine notebooks. These are fine quality notebooks, supposedly used by famous artists including Hemingway and Van Gogh. Most have hard covers, resulting in an especially durable notebook. They’ve also released softcover and cardboard cover versions. I have acquired all types. Recently, […]