Category Academia

Mazower's Opinions

Mark Mazower has, for some time now, been writing poignant and increasingly strongly worded opinion articles about the effects of the crisis, the social and political repercussions that few politicians and economists bother worrying about while trying, unsuccessfully, if not plain badly, to enforce a flawed economic policy throughout Europe. His articles are grounded, accurate with the facts and highly worrisome, a scarily intense forewarning of how things can go wrong; they demonstrate the kind of foresight you would expect but seldom find in the foolish, greedy and highly myopic politicians currently governing Europe.

Το Στοίχημα της Πληροφορίας.

Σύμφωνα με εκτιμήσεις, μέσα στο 2009 θα ‘παραχθούν’ 4-5 exabytes — δηλαδή τέσσερα με πέντε εκατομμύρια terabytes — νεας, μοναδικής πληροφορίας παγκοσμίως από ιδιώτες και επιχειρήσεις, εξαιρώντας αυτή που παράγεται σε μεγάλα επιστημονικά κέντρα στα πλαίσια ερευνητικών προγραμμάτων (βλ. CERN) ή κυβερνήσεων. Στην εποχή των πολλαπλών διαθέσιμων Terabytes για οικιακή χρήση στην Ευρώπη, τις ΗΠΑ […]

Central planning and Research

Diomidis Spinellis wrote earlier today about the EUs planning priorities for research and how he thinks that’s bad for innovation. I agree with his thesis, but I find his complaint somewhat naïve. Let me explain myself: If I could only give one reason to the question “What’s wrong with EU Funded Research?”, I don’t believe […]

Phun

If anything is certain is that this is fun. Lots of fun. An excellent piece of software and a great educational companion.

Dissecting OLPC Politics.

This is an excellent article on some of the (somewhat obvious) political issues surrounding the OLPC --- some of which I have alluded to in previous articles on this site. At the same time, it gives an insight on the many of the policy and technology mistakes the OLPC project seems to have made over the past few years; from academic short-sightedness (call it arrogance if you will) to the abuse of free software ideology as a vehicle aiming to convince of the device's value. Absolutely worth a read.

Τα εργοστάσια της πληροφορίας

Τον Ιανουάριο του 2006 έγραφα για την ελληνική Wikipedia και μεταξύ άλλων πρότεινα κάποιες από τις εργασίες των μαθητών σε γυμνάσια και λύκεια να επεξεργάζονται ομαδικά από τη τάξη και στο τέλος να συνεισφέρωνται στη Wikipedia. Όπως φαίνεται δε θα μπορούσα να ήμουν ο μόνος που θα είχε σκεφθεί κάτι τέτοιο. Το σχετικό εγχείρημα μιας […]

Who needs actors anymore?

I really have no words for this. One of the most impressive videos on computer graphics I've seen in years. And I guess the guys and gals at Tübingen are not the only ones working on such models. Let the good times films roll.

The Joel Bakan Interview

As part of The Corporation's supplemental material, this interview of Joel Bakan, the author of the book and co-producer of the synonymous film, by Janeane Garofalo covers some of the topics presented in the book and the movie, but also goes a bit further to explain how politics, money and influence has allowed corporations to evolve into the powerful, dominant, yet completely immoral and irresponsible institution of our time. Extremely interesting and definitely worth watching, even if you have watched this excellent fllm.

Dangerous Knowledge

In order to break the stream of posts helping me vent my frustration about Hellenic politics and the upcoming elections in that country, here's an excellent documentary by the BBC (who else?). Its subject matter covers the work and lives of some of the most brilliant scientific minds of the last 200 years and specifically those of Georg Cantor, Ludwig Boltzmann, Kurt Gödel and Alan Turing. A common theme among them is the fact that they all committed suicide. The documentary vaguely attempts to link their prolific scientific and intellectual output and the primitive social environment in which they lived to their death, something which while possible, is vastly more complex correlation to what is presented in this documentary. Still, it is an interesting presentation, especially for those interested in the biographical details of these brilliant thinkers.

Αυτόνομα Οχήματα: Urban Challenge 2007

Το 2004 η Υπηρεσία Εξελιγμένης Έρευνας των Ενόπλεων Δυνάμεων των ΗΠΑ (DARPA), ο απόγονος της υπηρεσίας που δημιούργησε σειρά τεχνολογιών μέρος της καθημερινότητος μας (με πιο γνωστό ίσως το διαδίκτυο και τις βάσεις γι’αυτό προ τριαντα πέντε περίπου ετών), ξεκίνησε μια σειρά από ‘αγώνες’ μεταξύ αυτόνομων οχημάτων, οχημάτων δηλαδή που δεν ελέγχονται από ανθρώπους αλλά […]