Category Archives: science

Crypto Is Not A Panacea

June 8, 2013 – 9:36 am

I was going to write this to an internal mailing list, following this week’s PRISM excitement, but I’ve decided to put it here instead. It was written (and cribbed from other stuff I’ve written elsewhere) in response to an argument that encrypting everything would somehow solve a scary-sounding though imprecisely-specified problem, a claim you may [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in academic, digital, doom, future, interfaces, vendetta, work | Comments (1)

That’s Too Much Machine For You

February 18, 2013 – 11:10 am

Man, how awful is it to see people broken by the realization that they are no longer young. Why are you being cantankerous, newly-old person? It’s totally OK not to be 17 or 23, things are still amazing! Kids are having fun! You may not really understand it, but just roll with it! The stuff [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in awesome, documentation, future, interfaces, irc, linux, toys | Comments (4)

Today, In Orbital Panopticon News

June 4, 2012 – 3:23 pm

This is really astounding, though perhaps it shouldn’t be. The Department of Defence has given NASA a gift of two better-than-Hubble telescopes it built but never used, because despite this quote describing them… They have 2.4-meter (7.9 feet) mirrors, just like the Hubble. They also have an additional feature that the civilian space telescopes lack: [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in doom, future, interfaces, lunacy, toys | Comments (1)

Bring Your Daughter To Work Day

May 14, 2012 – 9:11 pm

Seen here wearing her favorite Rocket Shirt, this is Maya is helping me change the tires on my car. It’s important to get kids started early on this sort of work, I think.

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Early Signs Of Anthro

May 14, 2012 – 9:05 pm

Noted psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan has an interesting theory about infant development, something called the “Mirror Stage”. The idea is that at some point very early in a child’s development they will, on seeing themselves and a parent in the mirror, look from themselves to their parent back to themselves, in shock and laughter; this is [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in documentation, interfaces, parenting | Comments (1)

On The Perpetual Threat Of Regressive Nonsense In Children’s Literature

May 10, 2012 – 9:33 pm

We took Arthur’s Science Fair Trouble out of the library for Maya the other day, and let me tell you: I had always suspected that most of what adults tell you is bullshit, but children’s books live at some horrible Venn overlap of Moore and Sturgeon’s respective Laws where 90% of everything is not only [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in a/b, academic, books, documentation, fail, future, interfaces, parenting | Comments (8)

Even A Change Of Hats

April 16, 2012 – 10:23 am

Sufficiently advanced fashion is indistinguishable from cosplay. The obvious corollary to that is: fashion that is easily distinguished from cosplay is insufficiently advanced. I mentioned this to somebody in passing the other day; today, my goodness, the Internet Provides: If you wear a white coat that you believe belongs to a doctor, your ability to [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in awesome, beauty, future, interfaces, life, lunacy, parenting, weird | Comments (3)

Astrophysics

December 22, 2011 – 11:27 pm

According to Wolfram Alpha, there are 2.9 x 10^6 dietary calories in a cubic meter of cheese, 142829% of your recommended daily caloric intake. Furthermore, there are 8.468×10^47 cubic meters in a cubic light year. From this, we can conclude that there are 2.455 x 10^54 dietary calories in a cubic light year of cheese. [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in academic, lunacy | Comments (7)

It’s Hard To Overstate My Satisfaction

November 26, 2011 – 1:39 pm

A while back, I sent some email to Valve suggesting they should make a shirt commemorating Portal 2′s “Bring Your Daughter To Work Day”. They did. I love Valve a little bit more all the time. So awesome. (Also, the date given – 08/05/85 – it is… very interesting.)

By mhoye | Also posted in arcade, awesome, digital, life, parenting, toys, want | Comments Off

Shooting Holes In The Story

October 17, 2011 – 3:53 pm

I don’t think I’m actually done this, so just pretend it’s a late draft. I might try to tighten it up later, but here you go; I hope you’re interested. Yeah, this is still about Portal 2, so bear with me. It’s not like Gears Of War deserves to be dissected like this, you know? [...]

By mhoye | Also posted in academic, arcade, awesome, digital, doom, interfaces, parenting, toys, weird | Comments (2)