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technology

Getting Off Gmail

A few weeks ago, TechCrunch published stories about how Facebook and Google used unauthorized iOS apps to gather data about phone usage from external users in ways that the users likely didn’t understand. In light of these stories, I wondered how feasible it was to switch away from Google services to other platforms.

Categories
personal technology

My Understanding of the 5-star Rating System

Julie and I have very different understandings of the 5 star rating system. Here’s what usually happens at a restaurant: (Kevin nosily scrapes the last bits of food from his plate using his finger as a backstop instead of his knife) Kevin: So how would you rate this restaurant? Julie: I liked it! Maybe four […]

Categories
technology travel

Working from an iPad

Julie and I just got back from vacation in China. Amongst many other things, we saw baby pandas. On the trip, I wasn’t carrying my MacBook Air, but I did have my iPad and iPhone, and I learned a few things about trying to do work on my mobile devices.

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technology video games

Thoughts on OpenAI Figuring Out Dota 2

In 1996, Deep Blue played competitive Chess against world champion Garry Kasparov. In 2011, Watson beat Ken Jennings at Jeopardy. In 2016, AlphaGo played and beat Lee Sedol in Go. And in 2018, OpenAI Five played 2 games against professional Data 2 players, and the humans survived 2 very fun games. But in another year, I think […]

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technology video games

My Life on Shiny, Spinning Disks

When Julie and I got back from our road trip from Oregon, we still had a few chapters left on The Golden Compass audiobook. At first, I figured we could finish it inside while we were unpacking, but when we took out the CD, I immediately recognized a problem. It’s 2017, and the only CD drive that […]

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technology

Catching up on Instagram

About a week ago, my coworkers were talking about signing up for Instagram over all-you-can-eat sushi. While mentally preparing ourselves for an onslaught of rice and raw fish, they explained the humor in picking a username, the mechanics of gathering followers, the importance of too many hash tags, and anything else that one asks when comparing […]

Categories
technology video games

First Thoughts on the HTC Vive and Virtual Reality

In the last 2 weeks, both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive came to consumers as the newest, fanciest virtual reality (VR) hardware available. Maybe you have had an opportunity to try out VR before, but I get the sense that this is the year and iteration on VR that really has the industry excited. […]

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blogging essay technology

Outrage and Strongly Worded Blog Posts

On my long drive back down the west coast this past holiday season, I listened about 20 hours of podcasts. Most of them were political and current events, including “Left, Right, and Center”, “The Bugle”, and my favorite, “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” I also listened to several episodes of “Political Gabfest”, and one segment about […]

Categories
technology

Who is using Facebook these days?

(Author’s note: I embrace the irony that most of my readers will come from the facebook link) I often use my younger cousins to find out what’s going on with kids these days. A few weeks ago, I asked them to explain what “ratchet” meant. They tried to explain. I still don’t think I get it. […]

Categories
technology

My Apple Event Reactions

The Apple event yesterday unveiled the iPhone 6, Apple Pay, and the Apple Watch, which might be the biggest Apple announcement since the iPad. This event was big for me, however, because it was the first iPhone event after getting one myself, which finally gave me the experience of, “I gotta get me one of […]