Security? What kind of answer does that question really have? This paper gives an answer, kind of: “Cybersecurity is not very important,” Andrew Odlyzko [pictured here], University of Minnesota, Revised version, March 18, 2019. The author explains: “There is a rising tide of security breaches. There is an even faster rising tide of hysteria over […]
Tag: computers
“Inelegant Mathematics and Worse Social Science?”
For a while, a long while ago, some people thought they would soon make computers simulate the ways people behave with each other. This paper, published in 1974, suggested that maybe such things would not be simple or easy: “Computer Simulations: Inelegant Mathematics and Worse Social Science?“, Hayward R. Alker, International Journal of Mathematical Education […]
Patients prefer robots (to tablets)
If you were obliged to receive healthcare instructions from a machine rather than a human, which would you prefer, a robot or a tablet? ‘People respond better to robots than computer tablets delivering healthcare instructions’ say a team from the Department of Psychological Medicine, and the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at The University […]
USB cigarettes (pay-as-you-smoke) patent
Phillip Morris International (PMI) has received (Oct. 7th 2014) its US patent for an ‘Electrically Heated Smoking System’ Unlike many currently available ‘vape’ sticks, the new device can heat actual tobacco rather than evaporating a nicotine-based liquid. And, unusually for a cigarette, it can ‘communicate’ with a host computer/ tablet etc via a USB plug. […]
