Anthology

Over almost 6 years I have written close to 1,000 articles on this blog. Since new readers come along every so often, I decided to publish this anthology of the posts I like best. I took the chance to revisit them and make a few corrections. They are sorted by year of publication, with a cap of 6 per year :confused:, I hope you enjoy them.

2005

• The legend of the space pen, sometimes the most effective solutions are the simplest ones.

• The legs of salamanders, from Alzheimer’s to the future of genetic engineering.

2006

• The doomsday machines, remember that the world was going to end on 6/6/6?

• Eppur si muove. Astronomers, give us back the planet Pluto!

• WikipediaMan, a rant, I probably inspired Nicholas Carr ;)

• The first Chilean web entrepreneur, a tribute to my friend Wenukura.

2007

• The lessons of Ratatouille, how that wonderful Pixar movie teaches us something about software engineering.

• Goodbye Chuquicamata, I was born last century in a city that no longer exists...

• The mysterious disappearance of Ettore Majorana, how did the most brilliant physicist in history disappear?

2008

• Chess, the story of how computers learned to play this game.

• All for a variable capacitor, that restless little boy who would help us get the internet.

• Pigs and dioxins, or how not to lose sleep over a politician’s alarmism.

• Mersenne, a Sunday divertimento for nerds, it’s more fun than The Solitude of Prime Numbers.

• The man who saved the world because he didn’t do what he was supposed to, the remarkable story of Stanislav Petrov

• The hackers of October 5, another tribute to a couple of friends, and a bit of the political history of our Chile

2009

This year has many articles I like, but I set myself a limit of 6 per year; I’m going to publish another anthology with the ones left out.

• With a Little Help from My Friends, innovation and free software

• The copyright of silence, yes, silence is copyrighted.

• A program for teaching mathematics, and I’m more and more convinced it would work.

• Digital tattoos, a reflection on forgetting and social networks

• How to design an API, I think it’s a good guide

• A bomber’s manifesto, Luddites and the story of Theodore Kaczynski

2010

This year I also started writing Akarrú, so there are articles from that blog

• The simple, the complex and the complicated, sometimes I write about the nature of software ;)

• Bill Gates’s pancakes, yes, the man also contributed to computer science and to genetics.

• Knots, swords and eggs, it takes courage to make the decision.

• The spirit of radio, memories of my father.

• A world of zombies, they were in fashion that year.

• Areté, let’s take pride back.

2011

Although this year isn’t over, there are some posts I’ve written lately that I like a lot. This is also the year I started writing my third blog.

• The memorandum, how one man motivated others to create the internet.

• Life cycle, a humorous story that reflects a lot of things that happen.

• The sugar king, the story of Federico Santa María, dedicated to my sansano friends (alumni of the university that bears his name).

• Bearer of light, Sympathy for the Devil

• The universal machine, two men and a machine, the origin of digital computers.

• Talking drums, percussion and Shannon’s information theory

And you, which articles have you liked the most?