The guy who basically invented nearly everything most people think of when they think “computer” has abended.

In addition to the computer mouse, Engelbart’s work at SRI from 1957 to 1977 helped develop tech innovations such as display editing, online processing, linking and in-file object addressing, use of multiple windows, hypermedia, and context-sensitive help, the institute said.

Add to that WYSIWYG, video conferencing, and collaborative real-time editing.

Engelbart’s Mother of All Demos is perhaps the greatest virtuosic achievement in practical applied computing technology ever, akin to someone in second-century BC Rome building a functioning 747 in a stable, rolling it down the Appian Way and taking off.

I think the main reason despite having decent social skills that I have trouble fitting into human social groups is that most people are primarily concerned with what others think of them, while I am mostly concerned with what I think of myself.

That sounds solipsistic, but I just mean that I base my ethical and moral axioms less from my social milieu and more from at least what I perceive as higher principles and more-reliable precepts.

Of course, no one can be completely unconcerned with what others think. Not if they want to live in a society of any type. But just saying that my priorities are reversed from the norm.

And it means that if everyone claims the sky is purple when it is in fact blue, I will be ostracized because I will invariably say, “That looks blue to me, ya’ll.”

I know because it happens. And I know it’s going to happen, and I can’t help myself. It’s not that I like being right. That really, truly doesn’t matter to me. What I don’t like is being a moron because everyone else has decided to be one as at the moment it’s the socially accepted way to be.

There will always be this distance, I think. It is an indelible part of who I am, and has been as long as I can remember.

Another reason to avoid Windows 8 – it nearly forces you to use SkyDrive, and it is very, very easy to lose everything that way.

After contact with Microsoft support he found out that his account was blocked because there was a  folder on his SkyDrive that contained content which was not allowed by the code of conduct of Microsoft SkyDrive. The folder was a private folder, not shared to anyone else.

The folder had four partial nudes in it. That’s it. And of course anything on SkyDrive is getting shared with the NSA.

Anyone who uses a “cloud” service for anything at all important is being foolish. There is no other way to put it.

Holy goddamn, what a performance.

I don’t even like the recorded version of this song. But I’d pay $20 just to see them perform this one song live. As the DJ at the end points out, only three people make all that glorious noise.

Ritzy Bryan (the singer) reminds me of a badass paratrooper I served with. I was a paratrooper; she, however, was a badass paratrooper.

What a great blend of the best parts of dream pop and thrash. And what fun they all are obviously having with it, too.