Author Archives: kevin.mccurley

The year of the Linux desktop (not)

Posted on July 4, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

There is an old joke in computer science that “This is the year of the Linux desktop.” It’s a joke because every year people say that, and every year there is a colossal fail in delivering a usable desktop. This … Continue reading →

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Democrats may have found a new way to lose

Posted on June 28, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

When the Hillary Clinton email story broke, I predicted at the time that it would lead to her downfall. In the end I think it was a variety of factors, but that was the one that she couldn’t bring herself … Continue reading →

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Google never clear on the concept of privacy

Posted on June 15, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

Over the years it became more and more clear to me that Google had redefined themselves as a company based on the surveillance economy. That was not true when I joined in 2005, but gradually became true as they tried to … Continue reading →

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Another Alexa failure

Posted on June 15, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

Today I was speaking to my wife about a listing in a book “Weird California”. I read a section that said it was “near 405 and LAX”, which caused alexa to think we were talking to it. The weird part … Continue reading →

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A previous version of twitter

Posted on May 17, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

I think license plate frames were the predecessor to twitter; short witticisms that are designed to make you smile. Over time I’ve come to appreciate this line from a Joe Walsh song. The title of the song (and the next … Continue reading →

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California election idiocy

Posted on May 17, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

If you are a registered voter in California, then you have probably already received your voter pamphlet containing arguments for and against the propositions, as well as statements from candidates for statewide offices. This year’s book is particularly ridiculous, with … Continue reading →

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Privacy is hard if you hunger for data

Posted on May 10, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

After I left Google I started looking into Mycroft, which is an open source alternative to Amazon Alexa or Google Home but promises to provide better privacy. Unfortunately, that concept of privacy seems to be elusive to the company behind … Continue reading →

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Screw you Embassy Suites

Posted on May 8, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

Now I know never to stay in an Embassy Suites again. I regularly use a different email address for every company that asks for one. At some point in the past I used a specialized email address for embassy suites, … Continue reading →

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RSA conference: not clear on the concept

Posted on May 4, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

I’ve been amused by the fact that the RSA conference uses a badge that has NFC in it, so that when you visit a vendor booth, they can scan the badge and read information on it. When I read the badge … Continue reading →

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On cloud APIs

Posted on May 3, 2018 by kevin.mccurley

Cloud APIs are like fair-weather friends. They work as long as it is convenient to do so, and they get to set the terms of the friendship. Today I received a notice from Google that the “free” maps API would … Continue reading →

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