Q&A with Nick Carr
July 13, 2010
I recently reviewed Nick Carr's new book The Shallows for Interactions (which, alas, requires an ACM subscription to read online). To accompany the piece, I also conducted a brief Q&A with Carr, which I'm taking the liberty of reprinting here.
Welcome Colin
June 26, 2010
It's been a busy week in these parts, ever since my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby boy named Colin. He was born at 3:44 pm on Monday June 21 (the longest day of the year, as my wife can attest), 8lb 9oz and ready for trouble. Everybody is doing just fine. 
MFA student project review
April 19, 2010
For the last four months, I've been teaching a class in research methods at the School of Visual Arts' new MFA program in Interaction Design (which partly explains the glacial pace of posting around here lately). As the semester draws to a close, the students are getting ready to show the fruits of their labors at a semi-public presentation next Thursday 4/29 at SVA (132 W 21 St, 6th floor). Anyone who's interested is welcome to attend; we ask only that you RSVP to interactiondesign@sva.edu. Hope to see you there.
A note on the type
February 9, 2010
OK, this one is not for the faint of heart - the editors at the ACM recently asked me to write a piece on advances in type theory. This was a pretty daunting assignment - taking a computer science topic way beyond my technical depth and trying to make at least some kind of rudimentary sense out of it. This article won't tickle everyone's fancy, but if you have a taste for ad hoc polymorphism (which is, unfortunately, not nearly as kinky as it sounds), then I invite you to read on.
Museums 2.0
January 20, 2010
The Times is running an article of mine this morning exploring the impact of social media on museum collections. Briefly, the piece goes looking for examples of museum Web initiatives that go beyond the surface level of guestbooks and photo galleries, to invite Web users into the broader curatorial process.
The Territorial Enterprise
January 3, 2010
During a New Years' visit to Lake Tahoe we made a pilgrimage out across the Sierras to Virginia City, where amid all the tacky tourist trappings lies a buried shrine to a bygone age of American journalism: the Territorial Enterprise.
Ready for a Web OS?
December 6, 2009
The ACM recently published my article on the elusive Web OS, looking at emerging trends shaping the trajectory of Web browsers and desktop operating systems.
The Battle of the Books
December 4, 2009
A few months ago, the folks at The Wilson Quarterly approached me about writing a piece for the magazine, which is now seeing the light of print on the cover of the current issue, alongside companion pieces by Christine Rosen and Tyler Cowen.
Finally...
November 29, 2009
This blog is back on its feet after a long semi-hiatus, due largely to my own spectacular incompetence as a database administrator in migrating to a new ISP (long story involving Berkeley DB, MySQL, corrupt tarballs and a failed attempt at switching everything over to Wordpress). The long and short of it is that I'm back up and running here, having lowered my sights enough to make do with a slightly upgraded version of Movable Type. There are almost certainly a few hidden bugs lurking around here and there. If you happen to spot one, please let me know.
GLUT:
Mastering Information Through the Ages
New Paperback Edition
“A penetrating and highly entertaining meditation on the information age and its historical roots.”
—Los Angeles Times
