Reed's Ruminations: The Past, Present, and Future
Reflections on science, technology, and computing — leavened by personal experience
Category: Random Musings
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The World Is Small
There was a time, not that many years ago, when international travel meant one was largely inaccessible to colleagues at home, wherever home might be. Today, I struggle to stay afloat in a deluge of email, regardless of my international location.
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Impact, Not Indicators or Artifacts
N.B. I also write for the Communications of the ACM (CACM). The following essay recently appeared on the CACM blog. Publish and/or perish; proposals and reports; research, teaching and service: these are the “death and taxes” equivalents for life in major research universities. Success — or at least promotion and tenure – is normally measured…
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That’s One Small Step for {a} Man …
On Sunday afternoon, July 20, 1969, I rode my AMF Roadmaster bicycle to the local Gulf gas station and asked for their cardboard model of the Apollo Lunar Module. I pedaled home in time to watch the Apollo 11 lunar landing later that afternoon, holding the cardboard model of the LEM in my hands. That…
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Doctoral Comedy: Which Way Is The Door?
The first time I saw the PhDComics strip, I knew the artist must have been a Ph.D. student, because only someone who has experienced graduate school and faculty life, particularly in a technical discipline, could have that much insight regarding the joy and misery of graduate student life and the trials and foibles of faculty…
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Electronic CACM Is Now Live
In an earlier post, I mentioned that the Communications of the ACM (CACM) was about to “go live,” together with a series of blogs, including one written by yours truly. CACM is now live, and the blog (Blog@CACM) is live as well. My first two blog entries are entitled Pipelining, Computing Innovation and Economic Growth…
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Blogging at CACM Also
Several of us will be blogging for the new CACM web site, offering perspectives on science policy, research, computing technology and societal implications. Look for me at the CACM web site soon, under Blog@CACM. (And yes, I will continue to blog on Reed’s Ruminations at www.hpcdan.org as well.)