I’m a big fan of mainstream media — course I am, I work for them — but I’m also a big fan of the other stuff. Like Wikipedia. It’s usually the first place I start if I’m trying to familiarize myself with a new subject, even a new one. Which is why I get uppity when… Read More »
Steven Levitt makes a good point on the Freakonomics blog about the spike in cellphone usage after the Minneapolis bridge collapse which alerted at least one carrier to an emergency before the news hit. His conclusion: This would seem to hints at strategies that could be useful for coordinating quick emergency response more generally, as… Read More »
I’m amazed by how many times this happens, and it always seems to be PR folk in the technology industry who are the culprits: An email where the sender, say Geoff Blah, hasn’t filled in the ‘From’ field in his email program or service so it appears in my inbox as from ‘gblah@aol.com’ or, sometimes, just… Read More »
I’ve written too much of late about PersonalBrain, so I’m not going to do so anymore — at least here. Instead I’ve started a Google Group for those of us interested in exploring how to use the tool, but not necessarily so excited about it we want to follow all its ins and outs. For such folk there are the PersonalBrain forums… Read More »
(This is the text of my weekly Loose Wire Service column, written mostly for newcomers to personal technology, and syndicated to newspapers like The Jakarta Post. Editors interested in carrying the service please feel free to email me.) I’m always horrified when I see people’s e-mail inboxes. They are always so full — brimming with… Read More »