Information Technology

bfwebster on October 5th, 2011

The second personal computer I ever owned[1] was an Apple II, with no floppy drive. I bought it, along with a small color TV, from my close friend Robert Trammel while we were both living in Houston sometime around 1980.We had already spent hours together programming on it, then carefully (though not always successfully) saving [...]

Continue reading about So long, Steve, and Godspeed.

bfwebster on March 22nd, 2011

CIA’s ‘Facebook’ Program Dramatically Cut Agency’s Costs The Onion, as usual, nails it. Once you’ve watched it, watch it again in full-screen mode to read the headlines and factoid crawls (starting around 1:45).  ..bruce w..

Continue reading about Internet veritas

bfwebster on June 2nd, 2010

Back on May 22nd, I ordered an Apple iPad (3GS, 64GB) in the full expectation of being able to use AT&T $30/month unlimited data access plan. It was scheduled to ship on June 9th and arrive here in Colorado around the 15th. However, today AT&T announced that this plan would go away on June 7th, [...]

Continue reading about I just canceled my iPad order

bfwebster on September 9th, 2009

Now that American Airlines has in-flight WiFi, it has become de rigueur to write at least one blog post while in flight. Well, here’s mine, at 35000 feet over, well, some state on the route from Denver to Dallas. That’s it.  ..bruce w..

Continue reading about Obligatory in-flight blogging post

bfwebster on September 8th, 2009

In the first part of this three-part series, I briefly outlined the parallels between developing software and crafting legislation, while pointing out the great risks and issues in the latter. I also indicated what I felt were some of the general structural flaws  in HR 3200, the House bill on health care reform — not [...]

Continue reading about HR 3200 from a systems design perspective (Part II)

bfwebster on September 8th, 2009

ITEM: My co-blogger, Bruce Henderson, has a post over at the New Ledger about the proposed legislation to give the President “emergency control of the Internet”: S773 makes no attempt to outline and describe what form of emergency would trigger the use of these broad new powers to limit communication, nor any means by which [...]

Continue reading about Countdown to 9/12 — Tuesday links

bfwebster on September 2nd, 2009

Google Opt Out Feature Lets Users Protect Privacy By Moving To Remote Village The Onion is doing some of the best video satire around. Hat tip to Randy Barnett over at the Volokh Conspiracy. ..bruce w..

Continue reading about New Google opt-out method

Bruce Henderson on July 14th, 2009

In interesting and complex story is unfolding, centered on Goldman Sachs, the large and highly profitable company that we all worked so hard to fund with bail out dollars. The story started as a small, throw-away technical story about a former Goldman employee named Sergey Aleynikov, who left the firm and was accused of taking [...]

Continue reading about What Did Sergey Aleynikov Really Do At Goldman?

bfwebster on April 20th, 2009

[For those of you coming in from Ace of Spades HQ, here's the Atlas Shrugged review.] AFTERNOON LINKS ITEM: Visualization is always a good thing. The Heritage Foundation graphically illustrates the minuscule nature of Obama’s proposed  — and far from realized — cuts (hat tip to Instapundit): MORNING LINKS — things are heating up a [...]

Continue reading about Monday churning

bfwebster on April 6th, 2009

MORNING LINKS — get ‘em while they’re fresh ITEM:  “Should war be a game?“ is the fatuous subhead of the day, from an article talking about a new videogame recreating the battle for Fallujah (Iraq). The reporter shows no awareness that wargames have been around for centuries and that most of them do indeed “use [...]

Continue reading about Monday yawns