Category Archives: Wired

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

Clams Got Feet: Do Computers Cheat?

Posted on 12 October 2014 by Isabel Gibson

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 →

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Wired | Tagged | 8 Comments

How Long Has it Been?

Posted on 25 May 2014 by Isabel Gibson

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

Posted on 02 March 2014 by Isabel Gibson

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 →

Posted in Laughing Frequently, Wired | Tagged | 9 Comments

Computer Illiteracy

Posted on 10 February 2013 by Isabel Gibson

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 →

Posted in Thinking Broadly, Wired | Tagged | Comments Off on Computer Illiteracy