borg.org, the nobody reads it blog.

  • Net Neutrality: An Objective Definition (with Technical Gotchas)

    I saw someone on Twitter looking for a definition of net neutrality that was objective, and doubting it was possible. Here is my attempt, and I am going to maybe cheat a little by trying to give two perspectives. Disclaimer: I am for net neutrality. The Case For Everything seems to run over the internet […]

  • New "Pebble Time" Watch Announced

    It looks good. They still seem to understand what a watch is, that it is not a smartphone. They added color, but a low-power version of color. The competition has set themselves up to compete with the brightness of the sun if we were ever to venture outside. Pebble is still avoiding that losing battle. […]

  • Android Car Radio?

    They don’t seem to quite exist yet, but it looks like we are getting close to having nice Android car radios available. There are car radios with slide out screens, but the ones available domestically are proprietary software that I assume won’t be as good as Android and will cost a lot more for less. […]

  • Battling ISIL: For the Hearts and Minds of our own Citizens

    Last night President Obama said we will attack ISIL (or ISIS or IS…). Yes, they are extremely nasty, it makes sense to attack people who massacre religious minorities and behead US reporters. Even the Pope agrees that in this case violence must be met with violence. That is the easy part. But the scariest aspect […]

  • "Digital Quality" and "No Moving Parts": We Were Tricked!

    It used to be that “digital quality” meant “high quality” because going digital was a way to do better what could be done with analog. Consider CDs, they often had very high quality sound. But we were tricked. Now a days “digital quality” is as crappy as the engineers and MBAs decide to make it. […]

  • Late Show, with Stephen Colbert

    I couldn’t be more pleased for Stephen Colbert’s being hired to follow David Letterman on the Late Show. Congratulations, sir. However some people are sad that Stephen Colbert’s character from The Colbert Report will not continue in his new job. I suggest they not worry. Colbert was plenty good on The Daily Show, when he […]

  • Pebble Watch's Limitations: They are Key

    Maybe it is supposed to be click-bait, or maybe Jared Newman (@OneJaredNewman) is sincerely confused. In his posting on time.com (http://techland.time.com/2014/02/17/my-problem-with-pebble-its-still-too-much-work/) he complains that the Pebble watch is too much work, and “Pebble’s new apps are no easier to reach than the phone in your pocket.”. He misses the point. The Pebble watch is not […]

  • Deleted (?) Tweet I Like

    @counternotions tweeted: I’m not smart enough to know why Windows collapsed, but I know in 2004 you couldn’t do business without it, but in 2014 you absolutely can. — http://twitter.com/counternotions/status/425839478838554624 Very interesting. It might not be completely true, but is it semi-true? Or maybe not quite yet. -kb

  • Flies' Eye Security Cameras

    Instead of pan and zoom cameras, cameras should be modeled on flies’ eyes. Multiple little fixed cameras with overlapping fields of view. Each camera is reasonable resolution (and cheap), the whole thing has very high resolution. No need to steer any motors. Stitching together the images in the camera might save data rates, better quality […]

  • Mandela: I'm Honored to Have Been Alive While He Was

    A man of strength, accomplishment, wisdom, and compassion. He certainly suffered, but he had some fun too, and lived long enough for many to consider him something akin to a living saint. He was controversial, at the peak of the struggle against apartheid, Ronald Reagan and the United States government considered him more a terrorist […]