NASA sent out two probes that have inspired generations of space and, unexpectedly, Star Trek fans — I’ve always had a soft spot for the Voyager Spacecraft. It started not so much with their two launches back in 1977, but two years later, when my favorite cultural franchise, Star Trek built an entire movie around them or at least the concept of them. Like most people, I…

Electronic mail started simply and now it’s eating us alive — Not long ago, I posted the number of unread emails in my iPhone inbox on Twitter. This sparked a lively game of one-upmanship among a growing list of Internet luminaries, some of whom had — no joke — one million unread emails. We laughed but also cringed because these numbers…

Apple carved out a fruit-shaped hole in our collective psyche — Apple is like that too-good looking person in high school that everyone admires, often for different reasons, but without entirely grasping what makes them so darn special. Is it the looks? The effortless grace on the ballfield? That casual confidence? Or is that aura, that ineffable something that compels and…

It’s not just about backup, media storage demands duplication to guard against worst-case scenarios — “How’s the baby sleeping?” I asked a friend about his daughter, who was born just weeks before. He told me she was sleeping and that things were going well. “We learned a lot from the first one,” he added. I smiled knowingly and quipped, “Just make sure to take as…

Stepping into the maelstrom — What a time it is on Twitter right now. The future of the beloved (by some), excoriated (by just as many) social media platform hangs in the balance as Billionaire Tycoon, Tony Stark without filter Elon Musk decides if he truly wants the platform he has, except for shareholder and…

Of comics and watches and all things you can touch — The long corridor of space overflowed with people, all jostling to chat with artists, get a custom balloon sculpture, and peruse a massive table full of free comic books. It was National Free Comic Book Day and I marveled at just how many people still wanted to own these seemingly…

A look at emerging social media platforms and their fundamental flaw — Being a glass is half-full kind of guy, I’ve tried to look on the bright side of billionaire Elon Musk scooping up Twitter for $44 billion and turning it into his private company plaything. But I’m faltering. Maybe it’s his constant needling tweets that intentionally attempt to pit the left…

The European Union’s DSA could fundamentally change the Internet — Over the course of 48 hours the ephemeral discussion of how to manage online content solidified into something concrete and formidable. It seemed to start with a landmark speech on the dangers of disinformation from former President Barack Obama at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center in which he warned that…

Are we too impatient for our own good? — I think it started with microwaves. A typical microwave can cook an entire chicken in 16 minutes. That’s three times faster (or more) than the best convection oven. We started using microwaves to reheat and cook virtually everything back in the late 1970s. …