Computers and Internet
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Take a look at Atkinson Hyperlegible
Enter the Braille Institute’s contribution, the Atkinson Hyperlegible computer font, especially designed for those of us with blurry vision. Follow the link to download your free copy, ready to install on a Mac or Windows PC. I gave it a spin yesterday with Microsoft Word, and it works like a charm, much more readable than… Read more
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Distance Learning — an Unexpected Life Skill
The Babylon Bee finds a pearl in the oyster of distance learning: Public Schools Now Preparing Kids for a Lifetime of Soul-Crushing Zoom Meetings. Update: Damn it, Bee! You’re supposed to be doing satire, not straight reporting! Read more
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Old Software Never Dies…
…it just keeps byte-ing. All of a sudden, with payroll and government financial systems being stressed, large institutions are desperate to find COBOL programmers. Foolishly, they pensioned off all those crusty old codgers, instead of keeping a few on staff to tinker and optimize and untangle all the old code running payroll and inventory and Read more
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Oh, and in my spare time, I invented TeX
Writing in Quanta, Susan D’Agostino has a fascinating interview with the computing-est of all computer scientists, Donald Knuth. Who continues his Everest-like trek up his monumental Art of Computer Programming. This (intrinsically) never-to-be-completed opus to the mathematics and techniques of algorithms was, for many of us, the first introduction to formal analysis of algorithms and Read more
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The Perfect is the Enemy of the Good
Many of us university instructors are scrambling to adapt our formerly face-to-face courses into online courses. This, to allow “social distancing” in response to the Wuhan Flu pandemic. Rebecca Barrett-Fox urges us “Please do a bad job of putting your courses online.” I’m absolutely serious. For my colleagues who are now being instructed to put Read more
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The Cyberfascism Bulleting #3: Spring Cleaning Edition
BIG BIZ Uh, oh. The punditry is starting to wise up. Here’s 4 Reasons Why Big Tech is Hazardous to Our Lives. Google AI Ethics Council is Falling Apart. Part artistic ethical differences, part Googloid mau-mauing. Only the truly clueless would use “Google” and “ethics” in the same sentence. Time for a ‘Third-Party Audit’ of Read more
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You’re not just web surfing, you’re participating in an A/B test
Pretty much every time you log on to Facebook or use Google, you’re participating, as a subject, in an A/B test. Unknowingly. Without informed consent. This is how privacy and human rights are eroded, one click at a time. Worse yet, the folks who do this brag about it! Don’t believe me? Type “A/B testing Read more
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Even your doorbell is spying on you
In it’s unbridled quest for behavioral data, Google put microphones in its subsidiary Nest’s home security systems. Ostensibly for future upgrades. Without telling their customers. Who does PR for these guys? Jussie Smollett? Bonus: apparently Google was pushing privacy limits with Street View as well, sucking up local WiFi addresses. Tip from Stephen Green at Read more
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Past performance is no indication of future…
I am such a slow pony. I’ve just web-surfed my way into discovering Rob Hyndman’s Time Series Data Library, which has hundreds of time-series datasets suitable for every teaching need. I was looking for one of my old faves, from that hoary old classic, Forecasting, Time Series, and Regression, and voila! there it is. Read more
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Need a 3-Way?
One of my techno-nerdy students got me hip to the Logitech Anywhere2 wireless mouse. It can be linked with a dedicated USB device AND paired with Bluetooth-capable devices. So now my old Windows desktop computer, my Surface laptop, AND my old Surface tablet can be clicked with a single mouse. How cool (and handy) is Read more
The Random Texan 