Todd G. Simpson

Here is your guide to "sharking" a car. With Carshark, and a little creativity, you to can make your drive to work more interesting.  In the paper they show you how to hook things up so that you can control a car through WiFi. You are sitting at a red light, and want to have a little fun.  How about sending 07 AE 15 A2; this controls the horn frequency?  Drive-by ringtones.  Could be a $1B business.

This is an interesting project ( link ) and it is good to see that it is kickstarted. The opening video is quite well structured, starting from positive feedback and moving to negative.  I have taken a snapshot of the video at a screen which presages the five areas that will be covered. There is no doubt that Facebook is (1) a valuable service, and (2) has raised some hackles due to their ownership of users data. The area from above that most interests me is the "society" sphere, and what a student at Stanford (from the mobisocial lab...sorry, I don't have an exact name) calls the "circle of like."  Facebook provides great value today to users and to websites, and has created a virtuous circle where clicking "like" drives more traffic to Facebook, and more data / information / knowledge to websites.  I highlight this as the circle reinforces two strong user bases, so displacing Facebook is probably harder than even Google imagines. The main ques...

I have about a 20 minute commute to work, and like to simply relax and listen to the radio.  Lately, however, I can't find a station that is worth listening to.  It is not the innuendo that bothers me, it is the constant, lowest common denominator, one-track, childish innuendo that I find annoying.  So, I switch from channel to channel trying to avoid the announcers.  In the mornings this is almost impossible; every station (except pure classical music) is like talk radio for middle school boys. So, I listened to NPR today, and found it refreshing.  A few of the segments actually caused me to think :-) I also did a little searching, for academic interest, at how close to the line some of the stations are today.  I found this link , which outlines what is "indecent".  The definition is actually quite interesting: "Because the Supreme Court has determined that obscene speech is not entitled to First Amendment protection, radio and television stati...

I enjoy reading layman physics books.  And, I enjoy the Science vs Religion debates, especially those that cast Science as a Religion. Superstring theory has always both intrigued and bothered me. Intrigued as, on the surface, it has a nice visual "ah ha" about it; the universe is comprised of tiny (zero dimension) vibrating strings, which can form chords and harmonies that result in manifestations that are available to the human senses. Bothered as, below the surface, it is a huge mess of mumbo-jumbo that has no intuitive sense to it.  Relative to relativity (sic), this is a fairly easy statement to make; even a layman can get a grasp of relativity through Einstein's own writings.  But, relative to quantum theory, can Superstring theory really have "no intuitive sense".  What I really mean is that superstring theory has no science behind it - no way to test anything.  Quantum theory, on the other hand, has been tested over and over again. [...

I have both a Macbook Pro and a Gateway running Windows 7.  I use both about the same amount. Scorecard for the last month: Windows reboots required:       None Mac reboots required:               Three FYI, I have a lot more software running on my Windows box than I do on the Mac.

So, it is my first week at Mozilla Labs; I picked a great first week - the launch of Firefox 4 for both desktop and mobile.  One of the big topics for Mozilla is Identity and Privacy.  After all, "Firefox answers to no one but you."   However, digging into identity (above the layer of authentication and authorization) is a tricky business. This book is a very interesting framework in which to think of identity.  It is intuitive social science: we all have expectations about how our personal information should be used, based on the context of use; when our expectations are not met, we react poorly; when our expectations are stressed, but not broken, expectations may evolve, especially to encapsulate new technologies. Contextual Integrity is the catch phrase to encompass this idea...and the idea that identity/Privacy is not about hiding your information, but about its appropriate use. The difficulty is turning a social science into a computer science.  The...

Paul Starobin is a veteran international correspondent, who, as becomes apparent throughout the book, has an educated, experienced, and balanced opinion on the state of US. I picked up this book because of my sense of an undertone of pessimism about America that pervades a lot of discussions these days....and because ultimately I am hopeful that the US can recover from its current challenges. In summary, this book is an excellent read; it is precise, dense, comprehensive, and ultimately optimistic about the potential of the future.  That said, it is also realistic, and highlights several of my personal opinions on why the US could  be in trouble, namely: There is the aforementioned undercurrent of pessimism running through the country, based on the sustained issues with international policy, and the underlying causes of the financial meltdown. The US foreign policy of American Imperialism is seen as negative by large portions of the world; even portions t...

Nokia's CEO is courageous .  It is one thing to know that a company is in trouble, and another to really do something about it.  While it is almost certain that today's announcement will be a partnership with Microsoft, I wonder if that is the wrong choice.  While Windows 7 seems fine, it has no "sex appeal".   For $0 Nokia could have jumped to Android, and customized it as much as they wanted.  Because it was derived from Android, Nokia could have basked in the glow of that product.  Microsoft -- ho hum :-) Of course, maybe I am just wrong.  Google Trends shows more searches for Windows 7 (blue)....but more news for Android (red).

What next?  Here is a  confessional application from the Catholic Church. It would be great if Google and the Church could work together.  "I confess to amorous feelings" could be followed by a relevant ad ... especially now that Craigslist has been sanitized. I s ure hope we see so mething similar from The Flying Spaghetti Monster soon.   I would not want th e Pastafarian's to miss out on something this important.

Every once and while you just need a good laugh: here