The Happy Moron

OCR for the common man. Thank you Google.
There are free online OCR services; there are companies that sell the software. I don’t think it will be too long before it becomes bundled standard with an operating system and people will just expect it as part of something a computer does.
But having an open project is [...]

People try and use software without learning how. It’s a fact. People expect to just be able to use a computer program. Just like that. If you can’t just use it, it’s rubbish.
There’s this idea that we should be able to sit down before any computer program and just use it, without any need for [...]

MIT lives to serve
I was blown away by the observation that C was designed as a common/portable machine language (true) for single processors. It’s quite correct – C works best as a portable assembly.
Simply put, processor design has changed radically changed in the last 40 years, but our portable machine language has not. [...]

I didn’t know people were doing this stuff. I should have guessed.
To me, these stories illustrate something about the internet.
At work are basic, understandable human forces and fundamental human problems. Kids like to party.
On the one hand, the internet gives us a power that we’ve never had before. An individual can organize an event that [...]

Facebook breaches Canadian privacy law.
I’ve written about this before, back when it was just a complaint to the Commissioner.
You bet that Facebook’s information about privacy practices is “confusing and incomplete.” Moreover, it’s confusing and incomplete by design, and not merely by accident.
Take a look at this marvellous essay by Bruce Schneier. The golden quote:
“From a [...]

At times I’ve been really impressed with the quality of spam messages I’ve seen appearing on blogs. Spam is a hard problem to solve; if it wasn’t, we’d be rid of it by now.
One of the popular defenses against spam is using a captcha. The basic problem that a captcha is trying to solve is, [...]

The other day I was walking past a store in the mall. Exciting, I know! But wait… it gets better!
The store had a sign:
“No

backpacks
duffle bags
food/merchandise without receipt “

Just as I was reading it… Someone walked in with food. But it was in a Subway bag so I assume he had a receipt and it was [...]

I know! I’ll:

Combine all the colours in the world to make one fantastic supercolour which is brighter than all others before!
Combine all the flavours in the world to make one fantastic superflavour which is tastier than all others before!
Combine all the authors in the world to make one fantastic superauthor who writes better than all [...]

Talk is Cheap
Hackers have a saying, “Information wants to be free.”
This is really just a way of saying what people have known for generations – that you can never take back a word once spoken. It’s not a new or a controversial statement – it’s a well known and accepted proverb.  (Being a proverb, it [...]

I like to read Bruce Schneier’s stuff; he writes in English. He has a gift for making technical material non-technical.
This little piece gives me hope.
We’re familiar with social audit; we call it “manners”. Break a taboo, and prepare to reap the ensuing outrage. People can do all sorts of things that are gauche and inconsiderate. [...]