The hot story in the news this week is Volkswagen's reported brazen cheating in diesel engine emissions testing. This brought to mind a host of similar occurrences, from Samsung/HTC cheating at benchmarks to alleged cheating in SPC enterprise storage performance testing. Cynics say we should just assume we're being cheated, but is this a world in which we want to … [Read more...] about Your Mileage May Vary: Lies, Damn Lies, and Benchmarks
Personal
Thoughts on the Modern Miracle of 3D Printing
3D printing is stuck firmly in the hobbyist world: It's overly expensive, not at all practical, produces items of limited utility, and requires far too much time and effort. Yet it's also so utterly transformative that the experience is other-worldly. Other-timely, really, since it's obvious that this is how many daily objects will be produced in just a few years. My 3D … [Read more...] about Thoughts on the Modern Miracle of 3D Printing
Blatant Fraud At Amazon: Do Something About It!
This is not a link blog, but I just had to highlight this blatant fraudulent activity at Amazon reported by my friend Lee Badman. A quick glance shows that the same thing is widespread - too-good prices on items offered off-Amazon with payment through gift cards. It's a straight-up scam, and I wonder how many people have been hurt by it and why Amazon hasn't done anything to … [Read more...] about Blatant Fraud At Amazon: Do Something About It!
A Watch Guy’s Review of the Apple Watch
Note: This article is cross-posted to both my technology blog, Pack Rat, and my watch blog, Grail Watch Is the Apple Watch a personal communication revolution like the iPhone, a well-executed gadget like the Apple TV, or a total miss? Does it mark the end of the the world as we know it for watches? And what's it like to use one? I'm a watch guy and a gadget guy, so perhaps my … [Read more...] about A Watch Guy’s Review of the Apple Watch
Regarding My Symbolic Links and Good Reads
A question came up today about something I've been doing for years but never adequately explained. In addition to this blog (which contains long-form articles written by me), I also maintain two other link blogs: Symlinks.Tumblr.Com is my collection of interesting tech articles, and SFoskett.Tumblr.Com is for non-technical "Good Reads". Symbolic Links In UNIX file systems, a … [Read more...] about Regarding My Symbolic Links and Good Reads