"My Roomba is Rambo". (PDF. Ubicomp 2007. About human adaptation to the domestic robot. Not all that great of a paper, but great title.) Second best title from that journal, and a really good paper: "Merolyn the Phone", an HP Labs paper about cell phone naming.

Jump, Apple, jump ( Read more... )

Have I missed the day? It seems I have. We've been dealing with a domestic drama involving my lover's daughter, and I have had other things on my mind. And at first I thought I didn't have anything to say on the subject. I mean, what is there to say other than, "torture bad?" Which has been said over and over again over the centuries, believed for ( Read more... )

A little common sense, please. The US voting system is an exceptionally poor one, but that's no excuse for not recognizing the difference between "not so good" and "spawn of hell".

Yes, I've been reading the political blogs again. Bad wolf! Bad!

The Theory of Interstellar Trade, by Prof. Paul Krugman.

I've recently read William Poundstone's book Gaming the Vote, on voting systems. It's an interesting book, and I'll probably have more to say about it. Pounstone makes mention of economic analyses which point out that the personal value to voters of any given vote is minuscule. The more authoritarian sort of economist tends to regard this as One ( Read more... )

Or at least,
( Ducks )

I wonder what effect Castro's resignation will have on the US elections. There are a lot of old Cuban refugees in Florida--even their children are old. Bush has called for democracy in Cuba. Over 100 members of Congress have called for a review of the embargo of Cuba.

(This is your brain when you live with an interpreter...)

The words "sopa" and "soup" have the same Latin root, but actually "sopa" means "stew", at least to Mexicans. A clear soup is "caldo"--something that used to be made in, yes, a calderonAnd "raza". It has the same Latin root as English "race". But a better translation is "nation" or "people ( Read more... )

BTW, has anyone noticed the wonderful digression Girl Genius has taken into a story commenting on the story? I find this wonderfully funny. It's also gracefully providing backstory that explains volumes 5 & 6. Odd to think that Girl Genius may be one of the great literary comedies, but I am beginning to suspect it it so.