- Follow THE INFO MONKEY on WordPress.com
-
Recent Posts
Categories
- Baseball
- Charitable giving
- Crime
- Critical Thinking
- Cybersecurity
- Cycling
- Demographics
- Earth
- Economics
- Economy
- Gaming
- Health
- Information visualization
- Language
- Music
- Neuroscience
- Numbers Game
- Nutrition
- Personal story
- Privacy
- Psychology
- Science
- Seasons
- Social media
- Space
- Sport
- Technology
- Uncategorized
- Weapons
- Weather
- Weight loss
Category Archives: Technology
Hoisting YouTube’s Content ID system on its own petard
A couple of years ago Google introduced its Content ID system to YouTube. Copyright holders upload their content to Content ID and whenever someone uploads a video to YouTube it’s matched against this massive content database. If any segment of the … Continue reading
A brilliant inventor and fighter for equal opportunity
In the early 1960s James West and his colleague Gerhard Sessler invented the electret microphone while they were working together at Bell Labs. The condenser mics that were being used at the time cost hundreds of dollars; an electret mic that … Continue reading
Computer writes political speech. Does anyone notice?
Can you tell the difference between a political speech written by a computer program and one written by a speechwriter? Valentin Kassarnig at the University of Massachusetts Amherst has written a computer program that writes political speeches on demand and it … Continue reading
Posted in Language, Technology
Tagged computer programs, Forbes, political speeches, Speechwriting
Leave a comment
Jerry Lawson: A video game pioneer
Jerry Lawson was a largely self-taught electrical engineer and video game pioneer who was almost forgotten during his lifetime. His father was a longshoreman who loved to read about science; his mother was uncompromising in her insistence that her son get a … Continue reading
Posted in Gaming, Technology
Tagged Fairchild Channel F, Fairchild Semiconductor, Jerry Lawson, video games
Leave a comment
Baseball, wheelhouses, and the effects of technological change on language
If you watch baseball on TV, you’ve almost certainly heard an announcer describe a pitch as being in the batter’s wheelhouse when the pitch is in the area of the strike zone where the batter has the most success … Continue reading
Posted in Baseball, Language, Technology
Tagged airplanes, baseball, Bill Rigney, language, Orlando Cepeda, railroads, San Francisco Giants, wheelhouse, word meaning
Leave a comment
How virtual reality affects balance
In an earlier article we wondered whether Daredevil has a harder time keeping his balance because he’s blind. Blindness raises questions about balance because human balance rests on the complex interaction of visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems. Any problems Daredevil may have … Continue reading
Moore’s Law and the Technologies of Daily Life
One small step. One giant leap. On July 20, 1969 Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon. It was awesome. It still is. The picture above shows part of the instrument panel of the Apollo lunar command module. The person in the picture … Continue reading
Posted in Information visualization, Technology
Tagged Apollo 11, information visualization, Moore's Law, technology
Leave a comment
Light My Fire / Smite My Fire
Earth, air, fire and water. So many possible combinations. So many possible stories. One story we all know is that air feeds fire while earth and water smother it. Natural antagonists. A fair fight – two against two. Turns … Continue reading
Posted in Science, Technology
Tagged bass, fire, fire extinguisher, George Mason University, music video, video
Leave a comment
Privacy in the Digital World of 2025
We live in a world where mega corporate entities require us to trade personal information in exchange for using the tools and toys they make available on the internet, where smaller companies surreptitiously mine everything about us they can from the … Continue reading
THE INFO MONKEY 