Newmark's Door

"10 Unusual Computer Keyboards"

The "Virtual Laser Keyboard" looks seriously cool.

Lik via Robert Lawson.

U.S. health care saves one young British woman

Lovely story: 19-year-old Meg Jones learned she had a malignant brain tumor. Her British neurosurgeon refused to operate. Her mom searched the Net looking for a surgeon who would. She found one who used an advanced procedure at Boston's Brigham and Woman's Hospital. Meg and her family and friends raised 50,000 pounds to pay for the surgery. Her surgery two years ago seems to have been successful; scans show no remaining cancer cells. (Also note that after an eight-hour brain surgery, she was out of the hospital in three days.)

An observation and a lesson.

The British surgeon's decision was debatable. Much more disturbing than his unwillingness to operate was that he apparently didn't know about the advanced procedure in Boston. And given what Meg's mom found on the Net, he apparently didn't think to search for options, either.

Technology is empowering. More and more people will be able to help themselves when they get bad medical news.

RIP Compuserve

I remember Internet access at $8.95/hour. I paid it.

Microsoft supposedly will release Office 2010 on Monday . . .

. . . and they seem to be following two of advertising's oldest maxims. If you don't have steak, sell the sizzle. And if you don't even have sizzle, try something like this.

"They Write the Right Stuff"

This article is a year and a half old, but I just recently came across it. It's a story about the 260 people who write the software that runs the space shuttles. It's remarkable.

But how much work the software does is not what makes it remarkable. What makes it remarkable is how well the software works. This software never crashes. It never needs to be re-booted. This software is bug-free. It is perfect, as perfect as human beings have achieved. Consider these stats : the last three versions of the program -- each 420,000 lines long-had just one error each. The last 11 versions of this software had a total of 17 errors. Commercial programs of equivalent complexity would have 5,000 errors.

"Classic Programming Quotes"

My two favorites:

Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live.
- Rick Osborne

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.
- Rich Cook

Honorable mention to the listed quote from Einstein.

"How to Scan and Fax Documents Online for Free"

I haven't tried any of these services, but still find I have to fax things occasionally--annoying!--I may in the near future.

"How One Teacher Uses Twitter in the Classroom"

Sounds gimmicky to me, but if it works, it works.

Windows 7 is coming

Is it the "best Windows ever"?

If you want, you can try a release candidate now.

"How Silicon Chips Are Made"

I tell my students that it's really, really close to magic.

The deserts of Arizona are home to Intel’s Fab 32, a $3billion factory that’s performing one of the most complicated electrical engineering feats of our time. It’s here that procesors with components measuring just 45 millionths of a millimetre across are manufactured, ready to be shipped out to motherboard manufacturers all over the world. Creating these complicated miniature systems is impressive enough, but it’s not the processors’ diminutive size that’s the most startling or impressive part of the process.