Author Archives: Pace Arko

The pill to end procrastination

When I was young, I felt very bad about not being a better student. I felt bad about not being able to force myself to do the mental ditch-digging necessary to acquire skill in things–to make myself practice, practice, practice. … Continue reading

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An Introspective Design Moment

I’ve been a serious web technician since 1997 and an unserious one since 1996. So why is it that my CSS designs still appears so bland to me? It’s not the fault of CSS. If anything, as will be made … Continue reading

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Grumble, i, robot, grumble

Well, I’m not surprised. The movie, I, Robot, apparently lacks depth. It’s impossible for any project that large, involving that much money, to have any depth. But it’s still disappointing. Here we are on the edge of an explosion in … Continue reading

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Here's a reason why I'm glad to live in a constitutional republic.

Prince Charles of the UK weighs in on nanotechnology. I guess the guy is entitled to his opinion, but you’d figure he make an attempt to be better informed about it. But to be fair, we have our share of … Continue reading

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Something I suspected for a long time

By way of the Web Standards Project I came across an essay that, among discussing other things, states that web browsers will eventually become, the only application platform that matters, and that Microsoft may be ignoring this to their peril. … Continue reading

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The ultimate elevator must be built!

Recently a scientist predicted that we could have an operating space elevator within 15 years if a mere ten billion dollars is spent. The cynic in me thinks he is underestimating the cost, but I do agree with the time … Continue reading

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Fossil Fuel Subsidies Must End

Post-industrial countries subsidize the fossil fuel industries by about 73 billion dollars every year. On the other hand between 1 and 3 percent of the 40 billion dollars spent energy investment in developing countries is actually spent on renewable and … Continue reading

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Proprietary formats stink

Chris Phillips over at Curb Cut Learning has a rant, which I agree with, that HTML is better than PDF for accessibility. In fact, I go further than he does, HTML is already good enough for most people. Maybe professional … Continue reading

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Plucky little space robots

In contrast to yesterday’s entry, let’s mention the Cassini space probe. The Cassini-Huygens Mission is already returning great data from Saturn and its moons and in a few days will assume parking orbit for four years worth of exploring! Let’s … Continue reading

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Why I am not impressed with SpaceShipOne

Short Answer: It’s only suborbital. It’s just an exotic, jet-powered joyride for rich people. Long answer: Look, if purely private funding built something like a space elevator, then I’d be impressed, then I’d say NASA, ESA and the RKA need … Continue reading

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