View from the Edge

One of my first posts on View from the Edge was a collection of posts I’d made elsewhere on the Mayan calender. It actually ended up being two posts (here and here), but its always been a fairly disjointed collection of thoughts. I’ve wanted to …

I’ve added a new post over at Geeks are Sexy on blogging. Check it out … here’s an excerpt …
By Lyle Bateman
Contributing Writer, [GAS]

From a perspective of some six centuries later, it’s pretty easy to see the revolution inherent in …

Today marks the 50th anniversary of one of the most significant events of the 20th century. Technology never exists in a vacuum … no matter what technical advancement we think of, there are always social, political, and ideological currents swirling around it as well as the technical currents …

Most people see the history of the modern PC as an epic battle between Microsoft and Apple, and in many ways, thats exactly what it is. Those two companies have certainly been the most influential over the longest period, and their implementation of technology and ideas has shaped what we see today as a modern computer. What most people don’t realize, I think, is that the modern computer actually started with a company that we tend to think of far more closely associated with photocopying than computers.

Its been awhile since I’ve posted about anything from Modern Mechanix, but recently he posted an interesting article from Time Magazine about “The Computer Society.” Published in 1978, the special section contained several articles about the specifics of the new microprocessor revolution going on …

Bill Moyers has long been one of the sharpest and most in-depth voices in American Media, a journalist who can take us deeper into a story than almost any other. In his recent look at American media failures in the run up to the Iraq war in 2002 …

This week marks the 42nd anniversary of Selma’s Bloody Sunday march, where State Troopers and Sheriffs brutally attacked a crowd of peaceful marchers in the full glare of the national media. For the first time, really, the brutality of the segregationist movement was put on display for the country on March 7, 1965, and in stark contrast, the pacifism

Most folks who know me will have heard me rave about Noam Chomsky at one time or another … I tend to think he is one of the most important cultural philosophers and ethical commentators of the 20th century …

Its hard enough for modern computer users to imagine a time when magnetic tape was the average medium of storage, never mind the notion of libraries full of meticulously sorted boxes full of punch cards. This wonderful ad (Courtesy, as always, of…

I haven’t raved lately about Modern Mechanix, that ultra-modern purveyor of the tomorrows from yesterday for us, but day in and day out they put up articles from the past that are both fascinating and challenging, making us think about yesterday, as well as today and tomorrow. One of the key themes there that […]