Collaborate Disseminate
More than 30 years since Cosmo Kramer spruiked his coffee table book of coffee tables on an episode of Seinfeld, a new companion tome has surfaced, and it’s become quite a hit. It’s a coffee table book about coffee. (Sadly, however, it doesn’t also tur… Continue reading Love coffee? Now you can look at it all day in this literal coffee table book
In July, I wrote about my new book project on AI and democracy, to be published by MIT Press in fall 2025. My co-author and collaborator Nathan Sanders and I are hard at work writing.
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In this Help Net Security interview, Jean-Philippe Aumasson, discusses the writing and research process for Serious Cryptography, his latest book. With a career steeped in research and practical cryptography, Aumasson offers a rare glimpse into the eff… Continue reading Behind the scenes of Serious Cryptography
The Washington Post reviews a new book about Microsoft’s 68-year-old co-founder Bill Gates:
“He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy.” That immortal line from Monty Python’s Life of Brian kept running through my head as I was reading “Billionai… Continue reading Cancel Bill Gates? New Book Paints Philanthropist as Billionaire Villain
Auto manufacturers are just starting to realize the problems of supporting the software in older models:
Today’s phones are able to receive updates six to eight years after their purchase date. Samsung and Google provide Android OS updates and security updates for seven years. Apple halts servicing products seven years after they stop selling them.
That might not cut it in the auto world, where the average age of cars on US roads is only going up. A recent report found that cars and trucks just reached a new record average age of 12.6 years, up two months from 2023. That means the car software hitting the road today needs to work—and maybe even improve—beyond 2036. The average length of smartphone ownership is just …
Continue reading Providing Security Updates to Automobile Software
If you’ve been reading my blog, you’ve noticed that I have written a lot about AI and democracy, mostly with my co-author Nathan Sanders. I am pleased to announce that we’re writing a book on the topic.
This isn’t a book about deep fakes, or misinformation. This is a book about what happens when AI writes laws, adjudicates disputes, audits bureaucratic actions, assists in political strategy, and advises citizens on what candidates and issues to support. It’s a book that tries to look into what an AI-assisted democratic system might look like, and then at how to best ensure that we make use of the good parts while avoiding the bad parts…
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Internet Archive (IA) went before a three-judge panel Friday to defend its open library’s controlled digital lending (CDL) practices after book publishers last year won a lawsuit claiming that … Continue reading Appeals Court Seems Lost On How Internet Archive Harms Publishers
The Internet Archive’s Open Library, which operates similarly to traditional libraries by lending out digital copies of purchased or donated physical books, has been forced to remove 500,000 books due to a lawsuit by big publishers. Mike Masnick report… Continue reading 500,000 Books Have Been Deleted From the Internet Archive’s Lending Library
Last week, I stumbled on a marvelous book: “Giant Brains; or, Machines That Think” by Edmund Callis Berkeley. What’s really fun about it is the way it sounds like it …read more Continue reading Giant Brains, Or Machines That Think
Long-time Slashdot reader theodp writes:
If you devoured the Childhood of Famous Americans book series as a kid and are ready for a longer read, Bill Gates has a book for you. “I’m excited to announce my new book, Source Code, which will be published … Continue reading Bill Gates Taking Pre-Orders For ‘Source Code’, a Memoir of His Early Years