technology trends
The Road Not Taken is Guaranteed Minimum Income
The dream is incomplete until we share it with our fellow Americans.
technology trends
Stay Gold, America
We are at an unprecedented point in American history, and I'm concerned we may lose sight of the American Dream.
programming languages
I Fight For The Users
If you haven’t been able to keep up with my blistering pace of one blog post per year, I don’t blame you. There’s a lot going on right now. It’s a busy time. But let’s pause and take a moment to celebrate that Elon Musk
self-driving cars
The 2030 Self-Driving Car Bet
It’s my honor to announce that John Carmack and I have initiated a friendly bet of $10,000* to the 501(c)(3) charity of the winner’s choice: By January 1st, 2030, completely autonomous self-driving cars meeting SAE J3016 level 5 will be commercially available for passenger use
programming languages
Updating The Single Most Influential Book of the BASIC Era
In a way, these two books are responsible for my entire professional career. With early computers, you didn’t boot up to a fancy schmancy desktop, or a screen full of apps you could easily poke and prod with your finger. No, those computers booted up to the command line.
battery technology
The Rise of the Electric Scooter
In an electric car, the (enormous) battery is a major part of the price. If electric car prices are decreasing, battery costs must be decreasing, because it’s not like the cost of fabricating rubber, aluminum, glass, and steel into car shapes can decline that much, right? On an electric
cars
Electric Geek Transportation Systems
I’ve never thought of myself as a “car person.” The last new car I bought (and in fact, now that I think about it, the first new car I ever bought) was the quirky 1998 Ford Contour SVT. Since then, we bought a VW station wagon in 2011 and
software development
What does Stack Overflow want to be when it grows up?
I sometimes get asked by regular people in the actual real world what it is that I do for a living, and here’s my 15 second answer: We built a sort of Wikipedia website for computer programmers to post questions and answers. It’s called Stack Overflow. As of
programming languages
To Serve Man, with Software
I didn’t choose to be a programmer. Somehow, it seemed, the computers chose me. For a long time, that was fine, that was enough; that was all I needed. But along the way I never felt that being a programmer was this unambiguously great-for-everyone career field with zero downsides.
video games
The Existential Terror of Battle Royale
It’s been a while since I wrote a blog post, I guess in general, but also a blog post about video games. Video games are probably the single thing most attributable to my career as a programmer, and everything else I’ve done professionally after that. I still feel
pinball
Your Digital Pinball Machine
I’ve had something of an obsession with digital pinball for years now. That recently culminated in me buying a Virtuapin Mini. OK, yes, it’s an extravagance. There’s no question. But in my defense, it is a minor extravagance relative to a real pinball machine. The mini is
programming languages
The Raspberry Pi Has Revolutionized Emulation
Every geek goes through a phase where they discover emulation. It’s practically a rite of passage. I think I spent most of my childhood – and a large part of my life as a young adult – desperately wishing I was in a video game arcade. When I finally obtained my