Author Archives: Harry Katz
The Left Hand of Darkness
The Left Hand of Darkness By Ursula K. LeGuin Walker and Company, New York, 1969 I read The Left Hand of Darkness a long time ago, back in my university days I think. It popped back up to the top … Continue reading
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinciby Walter IsaacsonSimon & Schuster, New York, 2017 The first thing you notice about Walter Isaacson’s latest book, Leonardo da Vinci, is its weight. This is a hefty tome. It tips the scales at three pounds even (1360g … Continue reading
Video: What the Future of Energy Means for Canada
A link to this panel discussion cane across my FB feed and I wanted to share it here in a brief post. http://singularityucanadasummit.org/event/debate-future-energy-means-canada/ The context is Canadian but the perspective is definitely global. Really intelligent, though-provoking discussion about the energy … Continue reading
Crosscut Festival
I spent yesterday attending the Crosscut Festival at Seattle University. I’ve gone to so many conferences through work that I can’t seem to break the habit of taking and writing up notes. So here they are. The conference was organized … Continue reading
Unhitching
Yesterday morning we hitched up our much-loved tent trailer for the last time. We drove down to the Fauntleroy Ferry dock, made the short crossing over calm water to Vashon Island, and with mixed feelings delivered the trailer to a … Continue reading
Exit West
Wow! What a marvelous magical book to close out this tumultuous year! Nadia and Saeed live in an unnamed city in an unnamed country, perhaps in the Middle East, or maybe Afghanistan or Pakistan, or possibly anywhere, that is being … Continue reading
The Myth of the Strong Leader
We all admire strong leaders, leaders with a commanding presence, leaders who aren’t afraid to make tough decisions, who “tell it like it is” and press forward undaunted in the face of critics and nay-sayers. But are these strong leaders … Continue reading
On Dumping Stuff
Last weekend we took a load of stuff to the dump. Technically it’s called a municipal waste transfer station. You pull up, back up actually, to the sloping edge of a long deep rectangular trench. The trench is really an … Continue reading
Machine, Platform, Crowd
Machine, Platform, Crowd: Harnessing Our Digital FutureBy Andrew McAfee and Erik BrynjolfssonW. W. Norton & Co., New York, 2017 Machine, Platform, Crowd is an update to Andrew McAfee and Erik Brynjolfsson’s fabulous 2014 book, The Second Machine Age. (My review … Continue reading
Mr. O’Byrne
I’ve been remembering my high school calculus teacher, Mr. O’Byrne, over the last few days. It started while I was reading a lengthy article about neural networks and how they’re trained using backpropagation and analytic gradients. There’s not that much … Continue reading
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