Raymond Scott is not a name that is going to jump out at you as being famous; but if you are a Bugs Bunny fan (and who isn't?), you probably know more about the man and his work than you think you do.
I am about to do something I have never done before, in all my years of writing this little column: Knowingly repeat myself.
Since most of the games so far have been rather tawdry, and since the new "Jubalani" soccer ball represents a new low in sport technology, the current South African World Cup will probably be most remembered (by me, at least) primarily as the world's firs
The high point of my life as a techno-nerd this week was my day junket to Haines Junction, to attend a workshop of highways, permafrost and adaptation technologies.
I passed a fair amount of time this past week in the jungles Africa, hanging out with the gorillas - well, on my iPod Touch, at least.
In the middle of what was an unusually hectic work week, this week, I had a brief interlude of techie-bliss with a fellow computer nerd. He treated me to a really good lunch and showed me his cool, new Nexus One phone, from the Google company.
The most recent development in my life as a techie is that I was recently in the news as something else than a techie - as a member of the Untied Citizens Group that seeks to start a new and very different kind of political party in the Yukon.
Last Wednesday morning, I was standing in the yard of the Computers for Schools warehouse, just off Lewes Boulevard, taking a slightly melancholy solace in small chunks of computer junk stuck in the exposed but still frozen ground.
For reasons that I am sure will be explained, someday, I am currently in Inuvik, attending a conference called the Northern Housing Forum 2010.
I don't know if the question is provocative or just stupid, but I am going to ask it anyway: Why can't we have ubiquitous, free wireless internet access in all Yukon communities? In framing the question this way, I am consciously echoing the mission state
Lame as it may both sound and be, the most instructive techno-adventure of my current junket in Brazil was the disappearance - temporary, as it fortunately turned out - of my iPod Touch.
Super Bowl XLIV last week was probably the most exciting, outstanding Super Bowl I have never seen.
I am beginning the writing of the article in arboreal shade in the botanical gardens of Curitiba (pronounced Kur-ih-CHEE-bah), in southern Brazil.
I learned something this week: Jewelry manufacture requires a sharp eye and a steady hand, and I have neither.
Earlier this week, I was having a beer or two with some fellow computer nerds, and sharing a conversation about the virtues, failings and future of Linux. I kid you not, that is the kind of subject that excites computer nerds in a bar.
Some time near the end of this month, a computer-nerd friend of mine of long standing is going to go through a mild but significant change in his lifestyle: He is going to cease offering services as a network node on FidoNet.
Shortly before Christmas, I accompanied a friend of mine to a local Bell Telephone dealership to see about getting her an Apple iPhone and 3G, high-speed cellular service.
This week, as is my wont, I have chosen the big, thick book to read to while away the hours of enforced idleness of the Christmas season. This time out, I have chosen Robert K. Massie's Dreadnought: Britain, Germany and the Coming of the Great War.
Earlier this week, I spent an hour or so tipping some cold ones with two computer techies, and sharing reminiscences about the early days of internet in the Yukon.
At the risk of sounding perverse, I think the recent scandal around the alleged data-faking at the Climate Research Unit of East Anglia University may turn out to be a good thing for all of us, when it comes to talking about climate change, pollution, and