Dec 23, 2020Three Essays Written Circa 2004I can still remember what it felt like at such a young age to discover that I could tell a computer to perform a desired action. Later I became amazed with how much it would reveal to me. Today we find that the Internet is a device for learning, which…Essay8 min readEssay8 min read
Feb 16, 2020I Detest The Live Phone Coding Challenge PhenomenonI believe that it’s not able to accurately create a picture of someone’s coding ability, and it’s also not how problems get solved in the real world. Yet it’s become a staple of interviewing for a job in Silicon Valley. I’ve no statistics, but I would guess that these types…Programming4 min readProgramming4 min read
Nov 22, 2019Two timeless pieces of writing by the late Aaron SwartzAaron Swartz’s words that I am re-posting here (Creative Commons license) could’ve been a sort of guiding compass during a very specific phase of my life, and I hope that future generations of internet-connected activists will continually return to them for inspiration. …Aaron Swartz7 min readAaron Swartz7 min read
Nov 8, 2019Henry Miller: A Study (2012)This piece was published in Volume Ten of Nexus: The International Henry Miller Journal and earned myself the 2012 Sanderson Prize for “best essay” from the UMass Amherst English department. Of all the writers in the Western modernist canon, Henry Miller (1891–1980) will turn out to be one of singular…Books13 min readBooks13 min read
Nov 7, 2019Private Spies Deserve More Scrutiny (April 2014)This piece was first published on April 18, 2014 at The Huffington Post. The drama of Barrett Brown’s case and cancelled trial is all but over, but the media and the public has dropped the ball on what he was trying to expose. That’s the secretive world of private intelligence…Surveillance4 min readSurveillance4 min read
Nov 7, 2019What do the latest NSA leaks mean for Bitcoin? (Sept. 2013)This piece was first published on September 15th, 2013 at VICE Motherboard and also appeared the next day at the Daily Dot. Could the intelligence community have a secret exploit for Bitcoin? It’s rather obvious that Bitcoin presents a very strong financial incentive to break its cryptography, since such a…Bitcoin7 min readBitcoin7 min read
Nov 5, 2019The Arts of Recession: Hope for Indie Media (Feb. 2009)This piece was first published February 28, 2009 in UMass Media. In a controversial decision spurred on by the economic crisis, Brandeis University recently decided it will close its Rose Art Museum and sell its $300 million collection to help with its endowment. Meanwhile in Sweden, the operators of the…Copyright3 min readCopyright3 min read
Nov 5, 2019Big Government is Back, Conservatism in Decline (March 2009)This column was first published on March 11, 2009 in UMass Media. The Republican Party in the United States has lost all credibility. It is foolish for anyone to think that someone like Sarah Palin or Bobby Jindal will save them in 2012. To an independent observer like myself, it’s…Economic Stabilization4 min readEconomic Stabilization4 min read
Nov 5, 2019Concert review: Conor Oberst & the Mystic Valley Band (Nov. 2008)This piece was first published November 25, 2008 in UMass Media. In his unconventional 15-year career, Conor Oberst’s songs have evolved from angsty and emotional expositions on adolescence to the serious existential and occasionally political ones he is known for writing today. Having followed him closely since 2000, when I…Music4 min readMusic4 min read
Nov 1, 2019Album review: Vampire Weekend — Contra (Jan. 2010)This was first published January 24, 2010 in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. Just before the weekend, Vampire Weekend’s (VW) “Contra” album hit #1 on the Billboard 200. In order to understand this achievement, we might require a cursory glance at their first effort — the self-titled Vampire Weekend album was…Music3 min readMusic3 min read
