Reed's Ruminations: The Past, Present, and Future
Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience
Category: Information Technology
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Research Summers
Research challenges us to pose new questions, choose research avenues carefully, and be frugal and wise stewards of the financial trust invested in us. It means nurturing each new generation of students in the ways and methods of discovery, shaping national and international research agendas, and serving society by transferring promising ideas. Finally, it means…
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Modeling the World
Today, Microsoft publicly launched a new technical computing vision, Modeling the World. The web site contains vignettes about computing from a variety of technical computing leaders, both inside Microsoft and across the broader community.
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Research and Innovation
As a lifelong researcher (at least my professional life), I periodically remind myself that the return on investment for basic research is sometimes long, but the payoff can be dramatic.
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Consumerization of IT and Research
When a corporate, government or university IT department of the 1970s debated an upgrade to its IBM S/370 mainframes, it is doubtful that the IT director was in any way influenced by the computing experiences or opinions of their teenage children. Today,smartphones, social networks, consumer email, cloud services, community software and tools are blurring the…
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Volcanoes, Travel and Social Networks
Many of us have had family, friends, colleagues or acquaintances stranded far from home by the eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano. At one point, I joked with one friend that he should consider a land route to central Europe, catch the Trans-Siberian Railway to Vladivostok, kayak across the Bering Strait to Alaska, then drive down…
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Presentations, Humor and Memes
I have been reflecting on the nature of technical presentations. The motivations are manifold, the potential audiences are diverse, the expected outcomes varied, and there are so many ways to sink irretrievably into the quicksand of somnambulant soliloquy.When done well, however, public speaking is a form of performance art. Enjoy it, and help your listeners…