Professor of War
Mark Bowden's article The Professor of War describes the life of David Petraeus, the General recently shamed for having an affair with his biographer. It was written back in 2010 before this scandal got the better of him.
I didn't know much about Petraeus before the gossip mill exploded; it …
Pee-Powered Generator
Alex Wilhelm, writing for the next web, African girls have created a pee-powered generator
What have you built lately? 14-year-olds Duro-Aina Adebola, Akindele Abiola, Faleke Oluwatoyin, and 15-year-old Bello Eniola have created a urine powered generator.
And we just pump it out to sea. Also, I now feel bad about …
Embedded Buffers
Many of my projects include a microcontroller or digital signal processor of some kind. Because I program these chips in C and use similar chips across projects, I seem to be reusing a lot of code. This isn't necessarily a problem, but there are better ways to re-use code than …
Sketching Designs
The learning process gives us some appreciation for the unfathomable plasticity of our brains. Many of the skills we acquire throughout life are learned, rather than instinctual. For example, although I can't draw, over the years I have learned how to make a convincing sketch. I understand that even this …
Richard Rogers's House
From Deborah Copaken Kogan's Lessons from a Surprise Visit to Richard Rogers's House, recently published in the New Yorker
How does a world-famous architect organize life’s minutiae? One drawer, I vowed to myself. Just one. I randomly chose a drawer and pulled it open. In my memory of this …
Emerging Democratic Majority
I am puzzled by this passage from Ruy Teixeira's piece The Emerging Democratic Majority Turns 10, in the Atlantic
If the Democrats can do all that, the emerging Democratic majority could be here to stay.
I'm no political scientist, but this makes no sense to me.
I'm the first to …
Pocketing Instapaper
Recent history is replete with tech companies competing for our hearts, minds, and wallets. Ultimately, competition is good for consumers, but only if we set aside our loyalties and choose the better product. I recently decided to weigh up alternative read-later services. First, let me describe what they are and …
Imperfection in Design
Like many left-brain people, I am constantly frustrated by imperfection. But I've decided that perfectionism is totally irrational.
Many great technologies are designed with tolerance to imperfection, including the internet protocol, HTML, CSS, and JPEG images, which together form the underlying framework of modern web browsing.
To visit a website …
Amplifier Version 4
I have been designing and building audio amplifiers since high school. I don't have a cogent justification for this hobby since it would be cheaper, easier, and better to buy a professionally made amplifier (admittedly, most hobbies are somewhat irrational). Nevertheless, I get a kick out of …