Bitcoin grows up, gets its own hardware
The big news in the Bitcoin world is that there are several Bitcoin-mining ASICs (custom chips) already shipping or about to be launched. Avalon in particular has been getting some attention recently....
View ArticleBasic Economics of Bitcoin Mining
Arvind wrote yesterday about the availability of chips that do super-fast Bitcoin mining. I want to follow up by unpacking the economics of Bitcoin mining, to see what the effect of the new chips will...
View ArticleMaking Excuses for Fees on Electronic Public Records
I wrote a letter to Judge Hogan, the recently appointed Director of the Administrative Office of the US Courts. I wanted to make the case directly to him that the courts should do the right thing — and...
View ArticleEd Felten elected to National Academy
The National Academy of Engineering announced today that Edward W. Felten, professor of computer science and public affairs, and director, Center for Information Technology Policy, Princeton...
View Article"What we've got here is failure to communicate"
Since the historic snow storm, “Nemo,” deposited a NOAA-certified 40 inches of snow on my hometown of Hamden, CT, I have been watching from afar to see how the town and its citizens are using a...
View ArticlePresidential Commission on Election reform – good news & bad
In his State of the Union address, President Obama stated: “But defending our freedom is not the job of our military alone. We must all do our part to make sure our God-given rights are protected here...
View ArticleComputer science education done right: A rookie’s view from the front lines...
In many organizations that are leaders in their field, new inductees often report being awed when they start to comprehend how sophisticated the system is compared to what they’d assumed. Engineers...
View ArticleA Reivew of Oral Arguments in McBurney v. Young: State FOIA and State Rights
Yesterday, I attended oral arguments in the Supreme Court case of McBurney v. Young, which I have previously written about. The case involves two different petitioners who were denied access to state...
View ArticleThe State of Connectivity in Latin America: from Mobile Phones to Tablets
Ten years ago, issues like e-health, e-education and e-government were more products of wishful thinking than ideas with a real possibility of being implemented in most Latin American countries....
View ArticleFirst Principles for Fostering Civic Engagement via Digital Technologies: #1...
Over the first few months of my Fellowship at CITP, I have had the pleasure of meeting with a number of people from academia, non-profits, for-profit companies and government to discuss the role of...
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