Paw Prints: Writings of the maddog

May 22, 2012 GMT

Many of you know that I am involved with events called “Campus Party”, which started sixteen years ago in Spain and have spread out to Latin America.

Briefly, Campus Party events bring together between 7,000 and 10,000 “campuseros” who live in tents under a gigantic roof, supplied with large amounts of electricity, tabletops, comfy chairs and state-of-the-art Internet. These “campuseros” then share... more »

Apr 20, 2012 GMT

The Titanic is probably the most discussed ship of all times. Last weekend on the 100^th anniversary of its sinking I went to see the 1953 classic movie “Titanic” with Clifton Web, Barbara Stanwyck and a very young Robert Wagner at our local “arts” theater, the Wilton Town Hall Theater. The movie was... more »

Apr 06, 2012 GMT

The last couple of days the press has been reporting on the glasses from Google, and the press seems to think that this is something new. Far from it.

As early as 1980 at MIT “Cyborgs” roamed the halls.

One of the more famous of them was Steve Mann, who now works at the University of Toronto. When Steve first started his research into “wearable computing” he was a bit strange looking, wearing a hat with rabbit-ear antennas coming out of it, a large backpack to carry the equipment and a huge “heads up” display over one eye, but over time as the equipment became... more »

Jan 05, 2012 GMT

I was four years old when Alan Turing died At the age of four I never knew I would become involved with computers, in fact I did not know what a computer was.

It was only when I entered university in 1968 and started studying what was then “computer black magic” that I heard about the man who conceived of the theory of the Turing Machine, and later the classic test for artificial intelligence, the Turing Test.

When I worked at Digital Equipment Corporation, we had conference rooms named after great computer scientists, and of course the “Turing... more »

Jan 03, 2012 GMT

Since I have written about Project Cauã before, most of the readers of this blog know that Project Cauã is about using Free Software to create jobs for Systems Administrator/Entrepreneurs (SA/Es), both selling and supporting services that utilize Free Software.

In implementing Project Cauã we decided to take a half-step and create a demonstration unit that people could use in their homes as a home theater, store pictures and store music. From there we... more »

Jan 01, 2012 GMT

Just when you think the copyright and patent laws have reached their peak, more atrocities whack you in the face. After all these years I find out that according to US patent law (35 U.S.C. 161 Patents for Plants) my grandmother was a thief!

My grandmother loved plants. Every year seed catalogs would appear in our mailbox, and grand-mom would pour through them for hours. A couple of weeks later small packages would appear in the mail and a few weeks after... more »

Nov 16, 2011 GMT

Those of you who know me also know that I like a little beer every once in a while. Some of you also know that I often brew my own beer at an establishment called Incredibrew in Nashua, New Hampshire very close to my home, and sometimes use this beer at various Free Software events.

Incredibrew is known as a “brew-on-premises” or “BOP” for short. At a BOP you will find all the materials and equipment necessary... more »