This is good: The Cluetrain Listicle. Very good. It’s true. The Cluetrain Listicle sets out a sequence of 121 new ideas–clues–about the Web. And about us. And how the two are related. The new clues remind us of the incredible, world changing power of…
Sink or Float? Sailors Dive Training Riddle
A couple years ago, when my kids were in elementary school, I coached their school’s “Sink or Float” team for the Science Olympiad. The objective of the Sink or Float competition was straightforward: Students must demonstrate their ability to determine which objects will sink…
Pattern Matching using Mensa — A Quick Overview
Since first writing about the new open source Java project, Mensa, I’ve received a number of questions asking who is the target audience, what specific problems Mensa solves, and how it might actually be used. In this post, I address those questions. I…
Torture and Religion: A Curious Correlation
Torture and religion. That’s sort of an oxymoronic sounding phrase, isn’t it? But in fact, a recent Washington Post poll suggests that torture and religion are not entirely unrelated. Specifically, the poll shows that one’s religion–or lack thereof–is correlated with one’s view on…
Open Source Java–Mensa: Dictionary String Matching
I have been developing commercial software for more that thirty years. Now, I’m pleased to announce that, for the first time, some of my software has been released as a new Dell/Quest open source Java project, named Mensa. Mensa is a generic, flexible,…
RIP: Evernote Clearly Text-to-Speech
As every writer or blogger knows, proofreading your own work is difficult and error prone. Some time ago, I published 7 Tips for Proofreading Your Own Work. In that post, I described how Evernote Clearly text-to-speech capabilities had become one of my favorite…