A good friend of mine passed away in June. John had cancer. Before you offer condolences, you should know he did not want to be mourned. It’s been a hard request to follow, but he felt he had lived a full life...
Previously, I've written about the potential for a future smart grid, where homes with solar panels and batteries intelligently interconnect to form a cleaner, more-robust distributed power system...
During my recent talk at the AMI conference about social media and illustration, I skimmed this slide near the end. Talks were intended to be 20 minutes long and I don’t like to rehearse too much: I don’t read off of my slides so I tend to remind myself of the critical points and fret [...]..
Looking for a few good popular math books? In the latest New York Times Book Review, I look at five terrific recent ones: Jordan Ellenberg's How Not to Be Wrong, David J.
Hidden menus transform complicated programs into simple tools—or vice versa
Why it's nearly impossible to design new tech that will please everyone
A three-step plan for using data right in an age of government overreach
In the course of being a math person on Twitter, I have run across some math-related Twitter bots and feeds. It would just be mean to grade my human tweeps, but I have no qualms about rating the bots!...
Yes, a large glob of plasma and magnetic fields from the sun did just miss us two years ago, as news organizations have feverishly reported over the past few days, following a NASA press release...
My recent post about specialized dictionaries got me thinking about the fun books and sites I have encountered about words and language. I thought I would share a slightly off-topic post about my geeky love for words and language...
Computers talk to each other and the web in a variety of ways. This communication is facilitated by routers, bridges, switches, and other hardware. Tech Talker explains what these devices are, what they do, and which are best for your home's computer network...
A misalignment in data between satellites went undetected for years before being addressed
A successor to an essential part in today’s computers may arrive in just a few years
I used to keep a small dictionary in my bedside table, another in the end table near the couch, one on my home office desk and another on my desk at work.
Are computers taking our jobs? It is surprisingly hard to say, largely because of a lack of good data
Different types of weather drive Republicans and Democrats to search for climate change information
Augmented and virtual reality games focused on the environment are increasingly making their way into schools
As readers of this blog know, since 2005 I’ve been teaching at Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken, New Jersey. One of the best parts of being an academic is hanging out with cool (compared to me), young (compared to me), up-and-coming scholars, some of whom know far more about the history of science and [...]..
Why aren't we renting out our pools, cameras or cooking skills yet?
Do you promise to tell the truth on however many phones you carry?
