Collaborate Disseminate
Monthly bills. Everyone has them. Except if you go far enough back, not everyone had them. After all, you might live in a home your family has owned for generations. …read more Continue reading All Your Robots Are Belong to Us: You Just Rent Them
Copyright law is a triple-edged sword. Historically, it has been used to make sure that authors and rock musicians get their due, but it’s also been extended to the breaking …read more Continue reading Copyright Data, But do it Right
Like many of you, I’ve become the designated “fix-it” person for my family and friends. While it can be a lot of work — I just finished an oil change …read more Continue reading Ask Hackaday: What’s Your Worst Repair Win?
As creative problem solvers, we like to “think outside the box,” and we should strive for that. But what happens if your strange idea isn’t kept in check by cooler …read more Continue reading Build a Better Mousetrap… But It Better be Better!
We’ve all looked up things on Wikipedia and, generally, it is usually correct information. However, the fact that anyone can edit it leads to abuse and makes it somewhat unreliable. …read more Continue reading Don’t Believe Everything You Read: The Great Electric Toaster Hoax
Science fiction is full of things you don’t want to think too hard about. Why do starships with transporters have brigs with forcefields? Why not just beam a prisoner into …read more Continue reading In Our Own Image: Do We Need Humanoid Robots?
Who do you think of when you think of ancient civilizations? Romans? Greeks? Chinese? India? Egyptians? What about the Scythians, the Muisca, Gana, or the Kerma? You might not recognize …read more Continue reading Publish or Perish: Data Storage and Civilization
First, it was the WiFi router: my ancient WRT54G that had given me nearly two decades service. Something finally gave out in the 2.4 GHz circuitry, and it would WiFi …read more Continue reading Unintentional Emissions
The true measure of engineering success — or, at least, one of them — is how long something remains in use. A TV set someone designed in 1980 is probably, …read more Continue reading A Love Letter to Small Design Teams, and the B-52
The other day, a medical office needed my insurance card. I asked them where to e-mail it and they acted like I had offered them human flesh as an appetizer. …read more Continue reading Floppy Disk Sings: I’m Big in Japan