Tech Tuesday: Finite State Machines (Introduction)
As promised (threatened?) Tech Tuesday is embarking on a look at the theoretical side of computer science. We also call this the theory of computation and it deals with two big questions: first, what are the limits to computation (known [...] Read more
Reclaiming Control of My Schedule
I am implementing a radical change to my scheduling: my default is going from saying yes to a meeting request to no. For a long time I have tried to meet with pretty much everybody who sincerely reached out to [...] Read more
SecureDrop: Fighting Government Secrecy
I was asked on Twitter what I think about SecureDrop. The short answer is that I am thrilled to see it. Just like I was thrilled about the New Yorker’s StrongBox which is based on the same original code by [...] Read more
Homeschool Wednesday: Math Motivation
It is definitely Homeschool Wednesday in our household, as Susan has a blog post out about raising active decision makers. My post today will be about math. There are a great many problems with how math is taught in schools [...] Read more
Twitter: Life is Unfair?
At MIT one of my statistics classes was taught by Prof. Jerry Hausman (of the Hausman test). In every class Prof. Hausman would at some point reach a result and then exclaim “and this proves that life is unfair” (usually [...] Read more
Amazon Activate for Seed Funded Startups
I am often asked about what has changed in Venture Capital and how that has impacted startups. Inevitably I answer that the right place to start when looking for impact on startups is Amazon. My line is: “Amazon has done [...] Read more
Homeschool Wednesday: Presentations (Public Speaking)
One of the skills we want all of our kids to learn is how to present. This seems like one of those universally useful things: being able to get up in front of an audience and get them to listen [...] Read more
Tech Tuesday: Second Anniversary Celebration (and Recap)
It turns out I announced Tech Tuesday just over two years ago and wrote the first actual post on Tuesday, October 11, 2011, titled “Computing’s Building Blocks.” Today I am recapping some of the major themes that I have covered [...] Read more
Silk Road and Law Enforcement Online
So yesterday the Feds busted the guy behind Silk Road, the marketplace for drugs and other illegal things paid in bitcoin. The indictment reads like a screenplay for a movie or Breaking Bad style television series (not that I watched [...] Read more