Well, guess who was summoned for jury duty? The Montgomery Country courts have decided that once again I should appear before the court to become a prospective juror in a criminal case… If I was retired like my father, I might actually find
Category: Business
Teaching Mathematics in the United States
The evolution of teaching math in the US since the 1950s: 1. Teaching Math In 1950 — A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is 4/5 of the price. What is his profit? 2.
Sun is Setting on Sun
Sun Microsystems was the darling of the dot-bomb era. Every emerging technology company felt that they had to have a bank of Sun servers offering up web pages. Sun was so successful that it’s stock price was 10 times greater
Hydrogen Powered BMW
My son Barry pointed out this recent article about a hydrogen powered BMW… Even though I’m a BMW fan, this roll-out is really just for show. This is BMW trying to demonstrate to the “green” environmentalists that BMW cares about pollution. In
Movie Review: World Trade Center
We recently went to see the new Oliver Stone movie, “World Trade Center“. There have been various reviews — both good and bad — in the Washington Post, New York Times, etc. Frankly, I must admit that I had a very
Survey of Military Heroes & Technology
I just spent the last few days at a Department of Defense conference in Huntsville, Alabama, which provided me with the occasion to sit through presentations from a couple of American heroes. The first was Michael Durant, who was the
Hosted File Sharing
I’ve discovered a web site known as 4shared.com that provides free hosting of file sharing. The nice part about 4shared is that it’s user interface is very similar to Windows Explorer — i.e., hierarchical directories, file properties, searches, etc. It also
PC – 25th Birthday
On August 12, 1981, IBM released the PC. In less than two years, IBM had created a computer that would not only change IBM, but the entire world, mostly because it did not follow IBM tradition. It used a new
The Story Behind Social Security
This little story was sent to me from Mark Clower. Neither he nor I can vouch for its accuracy, but it’s interesting reading: Here is a little history on the Social Security Program. Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social
New Ways of Purchasing Goods
You may have heard of priceline.com, the website made famous by William Shatner. This website allows you to participate in an electronic auction, where you offer a price that you’re willing to pay for common items such as hotel rooms… Well, it appears