Category: tech
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More people than bots?
In 1975, BusinessWeek magazine imagined the rise of the paperless office as computer use became more widespread. Of course, over the following two decades, consumption of paper doubled. A couple more decades on, we are finally seeing year-on-year decreases in office paper use, at least in North America and Europe. One recent tech fascination is…
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Why NOT Uber?
What do people really want when they say they want Uber to come to their community? Once they learn about all the scandals, lawsuits, riots and demonstrations, the many lists of reasons not to use Uber, most people come away with a nuanced opinion. But typically, at first blush, many people have a very positive…
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Sectioned — On tech coverage in local media
Our mayor ran on a platform including tech. Our premier seems to have shifted her economic policy to tech. Our downtown is physically changing thanks to tech. Dozens of new tech companies start here each year. Dozens die, too. We are told it is a $1 billion industry. (Tourism is $840M by comparison.) There is…
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Nice coverage of tech issues at the local level
Kudos to Kelowna Capital News, one of our local newspapers, for running a special on technology last week. Tech is one of the dominant problems in the global zeitgeist, and it is not often that a local paper will put the resources into exploring such an issue in a local context. The Tech Talk package…
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A slim crisis — a review of Disruptive Power
Disruptive Power: The Crisis of the State in the Digital Age by Taylor Owen From the book: Coupled with the power that is derived by the state’s increasing sophistication in this space — whether through automation, biometrics, or the new forms of social control and the violence they enable — there is reason to question…
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More than computers — A recap of LinuxFest Northwest 2015
For me, this year’s LinuxFest Northwest 2015 was learning more about the politics of the Free Software movement. This track featured some excellent and eminent speakers, and I enjoyed it very much. Here is a short recap of each session: 1. Deb Nicholson, the Director of Community Outreach at the Open Invention Network gave an…
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The long and the short of mobile messaging incompatibility
15 years ago in Japan, I thought it was pretty cool that I could send short messages via text to my friends. That wasn’t a thing yet in North America. I was living in the future! But it was complicated. There was “short mail” and “long mail.” Short mail could be sent at a steep…
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Technology is a symptom
As “software eats the world,” further intertwining with our daily lives, more and more discussions that are ostensibly about tech are at heart political discussions. What looks like technology criticism is actually political critique, and therefore cannot be countered by arguments resting entirely within the niche of technology. That is why I do not look…
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What is data doing to our species? — A review of Kitten Clone
My review in the Literary Review of Canada is finally released. It is behind a paywall now, but will open up in about a month or so. Or you could pick it up at your local magazine purveyor and support Canadian publishing! The piece is mostly about “industrial innovation” and the wonderful (and forgotten?) legacy…
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An overly positive contribution — A review of How We Got to Now
How We Got to Now: The History and Power of Great Ideas by Steven Johnson I have mixed feelings about this book. I am a big fan of Steven Johnson, and my familiarity of his work might be why I didn’t love this book. In How We Got to Now Johnson explores the scaffolding of…