by david allan van nostrand | Jul 17, 2023 | Case Study, Technology, The world around us
Cavemen sharpened the points of wooden poles and used them to kill game and fight their enemies. When pointed steel tips were added to the business end of these long poles, spears became lances. When lances were adopted by cavalrymen (and yes, they were men) on...
by david allan van nostrand | May 16, 2022 | Americana, Technology, The Wayback Machine
“Oh, thank God and Greyhound you’re gone. That load on my mind got lighter when you got on. That shiny old bus is a beautiful sight, with the black smoke a-rolling up around the tail lights. It may sound kinda cruel but I’ve been silent too long. Thank God...
by david allan van nostrand | Mar 22, 2021 | Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Unintended Consequences
Robots are machines that respond automatically and unthinkingly to the commands of others. They perform routine mechanical tasks that have been pre-programmed by humans. They are not sentient beings and are not capable of conscious thought. Robots are best at...
by david allan van nostrand | Jan 14, 2019 | Fads, Items in the News, Research, Technology
In 1999, Star Wars was in theaters, Space Invaders was in arcades, and our team was crisscrossing Europe and Asia, testing mock-ups of what would one day become tablet computers. The main attraction of our prototypes?They were a new category on the power-mobility...
by david allan van nostrand | Jun 18, 2018 | Items in the News, Surveys, Technology
There are more than five million mobile apps, yet consumers only download a tiny fraction of them, and regularly use no more than 20 or 30 a month. Mobile users favor them over websites and expect them to be fast, comprehensive, and easy to use. How big is the mobile...
by david allan van nostrand | Jun 11, 2018 | Items in the News, Surveys, Technology
The Centers for Disease Control released a study that showed some things many of us would already have supposed to be true. For the first time ever, a majority of U.S. homes are cellphone-only. Ten years ago, nine of ten U.S. households had a landline, and now...