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Rethinking Software: Writing With Links
by Mark BernsteinMy morning drive to Eastgate, our software workshop, is literary. In the car this morning, I listened to the estimable Katherine Kellgren reading Connie Willis' new historical...
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'Cheese Sandwiches': Blogging Beyond the Lab
by Mark BernsteinI like to eat, and so I like to cook.I used to be a chemist, though I never really liked bench work. The kitchen is a wonderfully transgressive laboratory, a place where you can...
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Men v. Machine(s): Day One
by Edward GoldstickPlease note, dear readers: What follows is a typical "real time" email that I have sent to Jim Fallows on occasion (such as when watching a speech, etc.). Sorry if it seems a bit...
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Another Corrupt Official in China Bites the Dust
by Damien MaThe big political imbroglio out of China over the weekend was the sacking of the railway ministry party chief Liu Zhijun. The official reason given is that Liu is being investigated for...
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Rebuilding Society After Communism, One Greeting at a Time
by Kate SedgwickLife in the Slovak Republic is a bit different than what I imagined when I was living 5,000 miles away before coming to the country with my husband, the U.S. ambassador. I am not...
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Three Tidbits on 'Robust Systems'
by Edward GoldstickI often discover things in three's, whether just things to share or the thoughts that immediately come to mind while considering them... which is a topic for discussion in its own...
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China's 12th Five-Year Plan: Is It So Wrong to Plan Ahead?
by Edward GoldstickHaving just read Damien Ma's report about the current "standings" on the global economic scene when I remembered an email from a Taiwan-based electronics display industry intel shop...
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The Value of Tech Support
by Mark BernsteinMy day starts with tech support. Morning e-mail brings news from writers in Europe who have run into problems, from West Coast students who are trying to puzzle out their reading...
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On Watson's Eyes and Ears
By Edward GoldstickA reader focuses on my observations:Submission to Watson by text isn't really the advantage it might appear,or at least it's a "fair advantage."First, it's essential to "see" the...
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Comparing the GDP of China's Provinces to Countries
Inner Mongolia is the Size of Chileby Damien MaThe title reflects my recent obsession with Inner Mongolia, after a visit to a rare earth high-tech zone there last November (and having been elbowed out...
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Art and Engineering: How to Build Better Devices
by Mark BernsteinIt is a truth nearly universally acknowledged that programmers and engineers cannot design good user interfaces. The lore of software management is filled with tricks and techniques...
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Amazing Scientific Discovery #1: Can DNA Talk?
by Edward GoldstickIn early January, I sent Jim Fallows a link to a piece on Slashdot that seems incredible..."...DNA performs quantum teleportation"...were it not that the origin is the Nobel-Prize...
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Don't Hail Our Computer Overlords Just Yet
by Mark BernsteinUnnerved by an IBM publicity stunt pitting a computer program against a human "champion" in a television game show, the New York Times ran John Markoff's coverage of the contest...
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The Other Book Revolution
By Mark BernsteinLots of people think that the Internet has ruined today's kids. They don't read, it seems. Google has rewired their brains and stunted their attention spans. Are attention spans...
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How to Solve China's Gender Imbalance? The 'Babe Tax'
by Damien MaNot my normal beat, but I had to point this one out because there's just so much here!"China's biggest strategic resource is not oil, not rare earths, not even pandas. It is young women,"...
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Three MacOS Tips and One Vista Whimper...
by Edward Goldstick When Jim asked me to do this gig, he made it clear that I could touch on controversial issues but that he was principally looking for some techie/geeky/nerdy gossip or rocket...
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Men v. Machine(s): The Rest of the Story?
by Edward GoldstickFirst, this is a "prologue" that I wrote on Monday but that did not get posted (I didn't understand the process yet):I didn't get home fast enough to do more than enter my "guess"...
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For Old Times' Sake
Recently installed in Beijing, I was composing a note of thanks to the fourth week's crew of guest bloggers, just finishing their stint, and a welcome their successors. I'll do that in a little while,...
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Software Mistakes and Mistakes About Software
By Mark BernsteinA lot conventional wisdom about software is mistaken. It's probably a mistake to try to tackle these misconceptions in too much detail in a blog post, but my time here is limited and...
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Belmont Beer Break
By Edward GoldstickOK, a disclaimer first: I prefer to relax with a bourbon in hand (no ice, please)... but with the right meal or when watching a ball game or on a hot summer day, there is nothing...
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