From the category archives:

Anti-Buzz

Anti-Buzz: User Training

December 27, 2011

The Buzz: Video Games speak their own language, and not everyone understands.

The Anti-Buzz: Video Games actually live and die by being easy to learn and understand.
If you are a parent, it seems likely that at some point this holiday season your children received that greatest gift of all: video games. There could be a series [...]

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Anti-Buzz: Sack of Topics 2011

December 20, 2011

I am playing the role of Santa this week. I have brought you a sack of toys. Well, a sack of topics anyway. There are things in the spirit of this column that don’t really lend themselves to a full article, but I’m itching to address them. So prepare yourself for a series of mini-buzzes.
The buzz: [...]

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Anti-Buzz: Operating Systems

December 13, 2011

The Buzz: Operating Systems are a brand, inseparable from the machine they are sold with.
The Anti-Buzz: Operating Systems are just mediators, and more interchangeable than you might think.
So for me last week was finals week, which means I forgot to write an article for you guys, (you might have noticed?). So last Tuesday, instead of [...]

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Anti-Buzz: Paradigm Shifts

November 29, 2011

The Buzz: Paradigm shifts are large, obvious and revolutionary.
The Anti-Buzz: Paradigm shifts often happen at a much smaller scale, and sometimes go unnoticed.
So this is a technology blog and we technophiles love to talk about, say, e-books and how the traditional publishing world has come unraveled. We like stories about giants falling. A lot of [...]

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Five Lessons in Pop Science…or…4 out of 5 Dentists

November 22, 2011

The Buzz: Correlation does not imply causation, and so all statistics showing correlation should be shunned and ignored forever and ever.
The Anti-Buzz: Correlation does not imply causation. And you’re probably using the word “correlation” wrong whenever you bring that up.
I can’t just talk about computers all the time. So much of what excites me about [...]

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The Anti-Buzz: Databases

November 15, 2011

The Buzz: A database is a big spreadsheet where you store phone numbers.
The Anti-Buzz: A database is a bunch of little spreadsheets where you store phone numbers.
Among people of my lot, it is quite common to hear non-technical people use the word database. Usually they are talking about an Excel spreadsheet they use to keep [...]

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Good-With-Computers, Part Five: Experts

November 8, 2011

The buzz: All computing professionals share the same skill set.
The anti-buzz: The field of computing is much broader than that. Not all geeks are created equal.
So here’s the romp I promised you three weeks ago. A survey of different categories of expert computer expertise. If you don’t remember what makes one good-with-computers and what makes [...]

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Good-With-Computers, Part Four: Gamers

November 1, 2011

Buzz: Computer Games are for Kids
Anti Buzz: Gaming Drives Hardware Innovation
(Editor’s Note: I have extended the series on types of computer users as written by Andrew to insert this short but interesting item, he wrote it as an aside to part three but I thought it deserved a post of its own. LE)
Gamers: I won’t define what [...]

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Steve Jobs made all our lives better

October 25, 2011

A break from the Anti Buzz series on Types of Computer users to honor Steve Jobs.
As most of you are probably aware, Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs passed away. Out of respect for the man I’m not going to present some Buzz/Anti-Buzz hook; all of my attempts to do so were either potentially in [...]

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Good-With-Computers, Part Three: User Types

October 18, 2011

The buzz: If we just had kids at work all our computer problems would be solved
The anti-buzz: The workforce user knows more than they think they do.
A recap of parts one and two:
Technophiles ie. (good-with-computers), are good at abstract thinking and problem solving.
Technophobes, (bad-with-computers), fear both failure and success.
If the above sounds strange to you, [...]

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Good-With-Computers, Part Two: Technophobia

October 11, 2011

The Buzz: Technophobia can be overcome with experience.

The Anti-buzz: Technophobia is overcome by, (surprise), letting go of your fear.
Part Two (Part One here)
Abstract Thinking and Problem Solving. Two hooks from part one to define “good-with-computers” in a way that accounts for both the software engineer and the self-made expert who uses Excel everyday:
This week, Technophobia. [...]

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Good-With-Computers, Part One: Temperament

October 4, 2011

The Buzz: People who are “good with computers” are good with every aspect of computing.
The Anti-Buzz: Nobody knows everything about computers.
Adam and Stephanie meet for the first time and engage in conversation; as they can get to know each other Stephanie tells Adam that she is an architect. Adam immediately responds, “Oh, really? I have [...]

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The Return of Anti-Buzz

September 30, 2011

I am pleased to announce the return of a popular feature to the EOT Blog: Anti-Buzz.
This is a feature written by Andrew Emmott who is a talented and witty writer as well as a graduate student in Computer Science. He also happens to be my son.
He takes a fresh and interesting look at [...]

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The Anti-Buzz: Printers

October 28, 2010

The Buzz: Your printer has a mind of its own, and will only print documents when it feels like it.

The Anti-Buzz: Your printer is actually an agent of the Jok’tu Empire from the Horsehead Nebula, bent on slowly weakening humanity through strategic document denial.

Why: One day I will have a PhD in Computer Science, and [...]

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The Anti-Buzz: Web Browsers … Again!

October 12, 2010

The Buzz: Recycling old content is a bad idea.
The Anti-Buzz: Recycling old content is a great idea!
Why: …
Okay, I’m joking – however this is now two articles in a row in which I have revisited old content. However, this time I didn’t have a choice, about 10 weeks ago I issued a general “try every [...]

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The Anti-Buzz: Multi-core Processors

September 14, 2010

The Buzz: Quad-core processors go four times as fast as single core processors.
The Anti-Buzz: Not exactly …
Why: Sometimes a whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and sometimes too many cooks spoil the broth.
Multi-cores are in many ways exactly what you think they are, CPUs with multiple processors, doing multiple things at once. [...]

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The Anti-Buzz: Tech Support

August 31, 2010

The Buzz: Once you invest in a computer system, it should work forever. That’s why you paid so much money!
The Anti-Buzz: Like or not, your real investment should be in quality tech support.
Why: Like everything else you depend on, maintainence is required to keep it working properly.
I have already told you how we computer geeks [...]

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The Anti-Buzz: Computers Are (Not) Smarter Than Us

August 24, 2010

The Buzz: Computers are taking over the world! They are all smarter than us and we are doomed!
The Anti-Buzz: Computers are not smarter than us, and Skynet is not on the horizon.
Why: Just because a machine can do arithmetic in less than a nanosecond does not mean it is intelligent.
Practical advice might be at a [...]

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