Category Archives: Wired

Musings about computers, usually when one has just failed me, and the internet, usually when something has just baffled me.

The Law of No Free Lunch

Musings on the inevitable trade-offs in life and the odd things we lose when we gain time: recognizable signatures, for one. Continue reading

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Never Let It Rest

Hacking my way through the 947-step process required to set up my new laptop, I come face-to-screen with a failure to communicate, caused, perversely, by a commitment to continual improvement. Continue reading

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Clams Got Feet: Do Computers Cheat?

It isn’t that I mind losing fair and square. Yeah, yeah, OK, I absolutely detest losing under any conditions, but I accept that I will lose sometimes if the game is hard enough to be interesting. Continue reading

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How Long Has it Been?

Thanks to databases and nifty analytics, targeted advertising is almost magic. But nothing is perfect, as some notable clunkers make clear.   Isabel: University of Ottawa I glance at the apparently personalized subject line on the email from my professional … Continue reading

Posted in Thinking Broadly, Wired | Tagged | 12 Comments

There’s An App (er, Site) For That

A chance observation of a billboard for a personal-injury law firm launches deep thought (OK, maybe just a rant) about personal injuries and website proliferation. Injured in a hotel? If a billboard can blare, this one does. Injured in a … Continue reading

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Computer Illiteracy

The inherent challenge of relying on a machine so complex that I neither understand it nor can repair/maintain it.   Waking at zero-dark-hundred, I see the glow of the screen in the otherwise darkened room: my computer is quietly defragging … Continue reading

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