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Attention
A set of connected connections. “What, the internet requires less attention? Yes, because it demands so little of us intellectually and appeals so powerfully to our feelings.” “Postman distinguishes the Orwellian vision of the future, in which totalitarian governments seize individual rights, from that offered by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World, where people medicate themselves into bliss, thereby voluntarily sacrificing their rights.” Continue reading
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Clifford Cocks
It’s not as unusual as you might think for an idea or invention to arise more than once, completely independently, even at roughly the same time. That’s the case with public-key encryption, which is widely used today. The “s” in “https” that precedes website URLs stands for “secure,” and depends on that kind of encryption. Continue reading
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You are not free
You are not free. At the very least, you’re nowhere near as free as you like to think you are. What it even means to be free isn’t really all that clear. The things you are free to do depend to some extent on where you live. In today’s world, you live in a “nation” Continue reading
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Up in the sky, it’s a bird! It’s a guy with wings!
Ancient myths and legends from many cultures include creatures like the Greek minotaur, which was a man’s body with a bull’s head. There were various Egyptian gods that were similar amalgams; Anubis had the head of a jackal and Bast had a cat’s head. Satyrs are part human and part goat, and so on. All Continue reading
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Connections
It’s not documents (books, articles, stories, notes, posts) that are important, even when they encapsulate fantastically important, incisive ideas. It’s the connections among and between documents that are the most important. Browsing the web is valuable because of hypertext. Ted Nelson coined that word back in 1965, when there were only a handful of real-world Continue reading
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The Hackneyed Hackneys of Hackney
If you hear the word “hackney” today it’s nearly always in the context of some idea that’s tired or played out. A “hackneyed expression” is one that’s simply overused; a cliché. You can have a “hackneyed excuse” (your dog ate your homework AGAIN?), hackneyed speeches (“We offer our thoughts and prayers…”), and even people can Continue reading
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Beginning at the end
In many books — the old kind, actually printed in real ink on real paper — there’s a page near the end that tells you some things about the book itself. Sometimes it lists the typefaces used, occasionally the paper, and maybe even some of the people involved in creating the book, such as the Continue reading
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Oh stop your grumbling
A “pet peeve” is an annoyance you notice all over the place, but doesn’t usually rise above “irritating”. And besides, there’s generally nothing you can really do about it. Many people have pet peeves about words, and how other people misuse them! Take, for example, “systematic” and “systemic.” You’ll often hear them used interchangeably — Continue reading
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Catch and release
The word “complete”, which means something having all of its parts or components, has been around in English since the 1300s. It comes from the Latin word “complere,” which means “full.” Back in the 1500s, “complete” had another meaning as well. When you used it in reference to a person, it meant highly accomplished, or Continue reading
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December 23
December 23 is not just Christmas Eve Eve; it’s a holiday in its own right. More than one, in fact. It’s the Night of the Radishes in Oaxaca City, Mexico, Tibb’s Eve in Newfoundland, Tom Bawcock’s Eve in Cornwall, and Festivus everywhere. Festivus first became widely recognized (in the US, anyway) in 1997 when it Continue reading
About Me
I’m Pete Harbeson, a writer located near Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to writing my own content, I’ve learned to translate for my loquacious and opinionated pup Chocolate Bossypaws. I shouldn’t be surprised, but she mostly speaks in doggerel. You can find her contributions tagged with Chocolatiana.
Check out my other blog, Techlimitics, where I’m grappling with the nature of simplicity.
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Contact
peterharbeson@me.com