Wayne Allen wonders if there's an assumption that geeks lean left. I've always detected a very strong libertarian streak in geeks: “fiscally conservative, socially liberal.” I think it's because libertarianism is the Simplest Thing That Could Possibly Work -- don't spend money on things you don't need, don't tell people what …

Are the Undecided's thinking about The Big Issues -- Terrorism, Iraq, Economy, Domestic Policy, Foreign Relations -- and failing to come to a conclusion, or do they just lump it all together into a gut feeling as to whether Bush or Kerry will cause more good / less harm?

Terrorism: the thing about …

MSR has a paper describing a very clever trick for video. They describe it for automatically creating cartoons, but the applications extend beyond that. Basically, one of the things those clever kids have been paying attention to is looking at video as a 3-D structure and applying algorithms to the …

According to a study quoted in a recent New Scientist, the companies in the Fortune 500 with the highest number of women in senior management positions had 35% higher return on stockholder investment than those with the fewest. Sounds good, but be aware that the study was done by “Catalyst …

Researchers at USC have modeled the transforms associated with production of memory. It's a black-box: they aren't interested in the subjective experience of the transform, just how inputs (short-term memories) are turned into outputs (long-term memories). The article speaks of prosthesis for memory disorders, which is certainly the first market …

Cat. Zero-G. I'll bet anything it's been declawed.

Continuing the mini-trend of posts that have nothing to do with the software development industry...

The HydroOptix dive mask seems like an excellent idea: instead of a flat piece of glass, the mask is fronted with what underwater photographers refer to as a “dome port,” eliminating refraction and providing a …

The Iowa Electronic Markets are a real-money trading system that is used to attempt to predict political outcomes. Right now, a \\(1.00 pay-off on the Presidency will cost \\).58 for Bush. In other words, Bush is favored. There's a strong case to be made that “real money” is a …

Umm... I know you'll think I'm kidding, but Has Been is really good. I mean, really, seriously good. Not ironic good. Like, good good. I mean, Shatner works as essentially a spoken-word poet over the tunes and he's got his distinctive cadence, but, y'know, that's how the majority of hip-hop …

EverNote, a note-taking app that supports the TabletPC, has entered public beta. I'm very excited about this app, as it has a couple great things that I've been dreaming about in a note-taking app: a timeline view, the ability to add custom categories, and templates for to-do and shopping lists …