Apple’s Biggest Failures
Apple Inc. is one of the most successful companies in history, but they’ve certainly had their share of failures. From the earliest days with Jobs and Woz, to 1990s Dark Ages, to rise of...
Ranch Dressing and Other Modern Inventions
There are many things in this world that are older than you might think. For example, the Pope’s title of “Pontiff” predates Christianity by almost a millennium. The mouse driven computer with a mouse,...
Annoying Online Forms
Online forms can be frustrating. I’m sure just about everyone’s had the experience of filing out a long, elaborate form only to lose all your information three quarters of the way through. And while...
The Genius of Dr. Dre
In 2012, Dr. Dre was the highest grossing musician in the world. It’s an impressive feat for someone who first became popular in the early 1990s. He first appeared in a hip hop music...
The Fall of Roman Numerals
Have you noticed that no one uses Roman Numerals anymore? Copyrights and Clocks If you watch a movie from the mid-20th century, at the end of the credits, you’ll see something like “© MCMLXIII”....
The Ghosts of Microsoft Bob
In the early 1990s, Microsoft tried making a computer interface that looked like a house. The program was called Microsoft Bob. It featured a yellow smiley face logo with Bill Gates glasses. All your...
Meditations on Reunion Tower
Every great city needs a landmark, like the Statue of Liberty, the Eiffel Tower, the Space Needle or the Gateway Arch. All of these monuments evoke their host cities in any context. Here in...
A Trip to the World Bank
It all started with the commencement ceremony in May 2000. The keynote speaker was James Wolfensohn, president of the World Bank, an international agency that provides loans to developing countries. Our normally apathetic campus...
The Means of Production in the Information Age
Karl Marx explained that Capitalism is based on a limited ownership of the means of production. It takes a lot of money to build an auto plant, so only the largest joint-stock companies can...
No Place Like Home
When people ask me where I’m from, I never quite know what to say. I was born in St. Louis but I grew up in Illinois. I went to high school and college in...
