Finally Fixing My Lazy Passcode
Prompted by the Apple/FBI encryption fight, I finally fixed my lazy four-digit passcode, turned on FileVault, and set up real two-factor auth. Here's exactly what I changed.
The Go Match Nobody At Work Cares About
Three days before AlphaGo plays Lee Sedol in Seoul, some thoughts on why this is a much bigger deal than Deep Blue ever was, and why nobody at my office seems to care.
The Google Car That Finally Admitted It Screwed Up
Google admitted its self-driving car caused a low-speed crash with a bus in Mountain View, and the honesty of that admission is more interesting to me than the crash itself.
The MicroSD Slot Is Back and I Have Feelings About It
Samsung spent MWC undoing its own S6 decisions, LG went modular with the G5, and Barcelona quietly ran two completely different tech storylines at once this week.
Turning On Encrypted Backups (Finally)
The Apple/FBI news made me actually check my own devices this weekend — turns out my passcode was still 4 digits and my iTunes backups weren't encrypted at all.
One Week Into Twitter's "Best Tweets First," and I Already Turned It Off
A week after Twitter quietly turned on its "best Tweets first" reordering, I went into settings and switched it back off. Here's why the algorithm lost.
I Turned Off Twitter's New "Best Tweets" Thing Before I Even Finished My Coffee
Twitter quietly rolled out its "best Tweets first" toggle this week, and after about four hours of use I switched it right back off. Here's why.
The RIPTwitter Freakout Aged About As Well As You'd Expect
Twitter's algorithmic timeline panic from last week met the actual quarterly numbers today, and the numbers were the real story all along.
Yahoo Cuts 15% of Its Staff and I Still Cant Log Out of the Nostalgia
Yahoo announced Tuesday it's cutting 15% of its workforce and shutting five offices while the board weighs "strategic alternatives." A look at what that phrase actually means, and why I still care about a company I havent used in years.
Waiting for AlphaGo vs. Lee Sedol
DeepMind's AlphaGo beat European champion Fan Hui 5-0, but the real test is the March match against Lee Sedol, plus some personal griping about how bad I still am at this game.
Minsky, Perceptrons, and a Machine That Finally Played Go
Marvin Minsky died this week, three days before DeepMind revealed AlphaGo had already beaten a European Go champion. Some thoughts on the strange timing and what got lost in the AlphaGo coverage.
Snowed In With a Dead Modem
A weekend blizzard knocked out my internet for the better part of a day and exposed just how untested my "backup plan" actually was.