I read Cory Doctorow’s didactic dystopian near future Speculative Fiction (“SF”) Young Adult (“YA”) novels Pirate Cinema, and Walkaway, and the collection of novellas Radicalized in the last few years. I recall his story “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” published in his 2007 collection Overclocked and widely reprinted. I have recently read his novels Little …
Index, by Dennis Dutton was favourably reviewed in the Times Literary Supplement, the Guardian, the NY Times and the Washington Post. I put a hold on it while the Greater Victoria library system had it on order. As the reviews promised, the book has anecdotes about British writers, including the historian MacAulay, the 18th century …
I have listened to Kermode and Mayo’s Film Review podcast, on an Ipod and more recently on podcatcher apps on my phones, since 2011. The podcast was a repeat of a radio program broadcast on the BBC Radio 5 channel in the UK, with added audio. In the podcast on April 1, 2022, Simon Mayo …
In Febuary and March 2021 Player FM (the Android podcatcher) failed to perform the functions it had performed over the preceding years that I had been using it. I thought Google Podcasts would work, but Google is blocked in Britain from serving BBC podcasts. An issue of broadcast rights in British law. Google scrapes content …
Original or classic cyclometers measure and display distance, time and speed. The monochrome displays were visible even in bright sunlight and under low light condition. The devices could be powered by button cell batteries. These units have a magnet that clips onto a spoke which rotates the magnet past a sensor. They count rotations and …
I used Pocket Casts as a podcatcher on my Android smartphones for years. A podcatcher searches for podcasts, downloads selectected podcasts, and plays podcasts. A podcast publisher stores podcasts. A podcast directory provides a list of podcasts and information about where the podcasts can be found for streaming and download. Who controls the broadcast and …
I used Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2013 as my desktop email client because they were nearly free. Employees of my employer got the Office Suites for a nominal charge. (my employer rolled back to Word 2010, and Outlook 2010 connected to its MS Exchange server). The programs did what I needed. I had a server …
I made some IT changes in the past few years. I bought a used HP desktop in 2011 – a 64 bit machine- and put Windows 8 Developer edition (free at the time) on it. I have stayed with Windows 8 – using the desktop interface. I have an iPad – a gift when I was …
Over the last 6 weeks I spent more time than I want to think about trying to get a new Satellite (Model A200, or A200-03V, specifically PSAE3C-03V08C) to run an alternative OS to its pre-installed Windows Vista. The laptop was attractively priced, perhaps because it was pre-loaded with Vista, as much as the fact that …
Another piece of reportage and ideas served up by AL Daily. Christine Rosen writing in the New Atlantis on Virtual Friendship and the New Narcissism. This proves topical as I have signed up on Facebook, using some of the message and communication resources. Rosen’s work is pretty good – her essay on cameras, photography and …