Humanity is now entering a period of radical transformation in which technology has the potential to significantly raise the basic standards of living for every man, woman and child on the planet. The future can be a scary place It can be easy to develop a gloomy view of the future. Malthus was the first … Read more
I often struggle to find the right balance between automation and manual work. As it is tax time, and Chase bank only gives you 90 days of statements, I find myself every year going back through our statements to find any business expenses and do our overall financial review for the year. In the past … Read more
I love history, but raw history can be a bit boring and so I look for books that peer into the past with a different lens or narrative. Here, Tom Standage tells a popular history of the world through six beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca Cola. Full of the anecdotes and stories … Read more
Stephen Johnson loves making broad and interdisciplinary connections. He describes the complex evolution of technology, and the interactions of events leading to our modern world with an emphasis on understanding the true nature of role of innovation. In 289 pages, he surveys history, through the lens of the causal factors for science and technology in … Read more
Why learn assembly? It is painful, and nearly useless to know. But once you understand it, you now know how a computer “works”. It is impossible to understand the hardware/software interface without an knowledge of assembly. In particular, if you are in the computer security field, you have to understand how things really work. These … Read more
Recently, I had to produce form 40A’s in order to claim military leave. As a computer scientist, I found the process to be horrific and felt compelled to share my solution. I didn’t get much help with UTAPSWEB FOR IMAs CHEAT SHEET VERSION 101210. That document is filled with unhelpful and unprofessional statements like: Changes … Read more
It is not easy to quickly decipher military pay tables for us IMAs. In order to do some recent financial planning, I had to calculate my pay. I’m an O-4 with between 14 and 16 years of service. Here is what I did. IDTs You can find the official military pay tables from the DoD … Read more
One of the more frustrating things about the reserves: obscure codes like those above. I find it incredible how poor reserve support is, and unnecessary obscurity shouldn’t be tolerated. For those who wonder what these codes actually mean: Readiness Codes Full course title DOD IA DoD IAA CyberAwareness Challenge V2.0 (ZZ133098) FP Force Protection (ZZ133079) … Read more
Provenance is the ability to record the history of data and its place of origin. In general, it is the ability to determine the chronology of the ownership, custody or location of any object. The primary purpose of tracing the provenance of an object or entity is often to provide contextual and circumstantial evidence for … Read more
Hello fellow IMA. My apologies to you. Life is not easy. In the civilian world, you work hard, play office politics and with a little luck you might get promoted. Not so in the reserves. Here your promotion depends heavily on your ability to decode a bunch of Air Force personnel jargon and to make … Read more