Don't Mess with Math Nerds!

In yet another tale of David, er um, Mike versus Goliath, the little guy wins, and shows there is value in staying in school and doing all your homework!

"Would you please join me in saluting Mike Mogil, a math tutor from Collier County, Fla.? Mogil is clearly that rare man who puts his math where his mouth is. And, indeed, where his wife is."

9-11 all over again

September 11, 2001 was a terrible day for America (and many other countries for that matter).  For many it's still really hard to remember.  For others, remembering is necessary to keep their loved ones alive, if only to them. 

Wikileaks has released 500,000 text messages sent on that day (from 3am on September 11, until 3AM the following day (US east coast time)).  Conspiracy theories asside, it is interesting and scary reading.  Interesting how the event was broadcast and communicated.  Interesting how the pages were intercepted.  Interesting how people reacted (corporate meetings called, etc).  Scary to relive the events.  Scary to have the human side of the events broought back to the front of your mind. 

Scary that this could still happen again.

Darn government data hoarding, creativity stifling, non-understanding, stink-at-customer-service jerks!

So a couple of guys decide to take free VoIP (voice over the Internet) software and a bit of programming skill and make available – for free – the availability of parking spots in Ann Arbor, MI. Sure, you could go to the City's web site to see it, or try calling one of the decks until you found one that was open, but this offered so many more options – and it was a cool use of technology, with publicly available data. Then the government found out about it…

You can read the entire story of the features, fights and future of the Ann Arbor Parking Data service on the VoIPTechChat site. I'm curious about your take on this…