Assorted musings

SAN MATEO, Calif.--I'm probably the last of my co-workers to discover Maker Faire.

For those that don't know, the annual San Francisco Bay Area event is kind of like what would happen if one turned over the county fair to the A.V. club instead of the folks from 4-H.

The event is a do-it-yourself paradise, with all that one needs to build everything from model rocket kits to remote-control robots. Mind you, I usually don't do anything more ambitious than upgrade my computer's memory or hard drive, but on Sunday I decided to give … Read more

Computing industry pioneer Chuck Thacker was honored Tuesday with the industry's highest prize--the A. M. Turing Award.

Thacker, who these days works in Microsoft's Silicon Valley research lab, helped create personal computing at Xerox's famed Palo Alto Research Center and is one of the co-creators of both the Alto personal computer and Ethernet networking.

In an interview Tuesday, Thacker said he was surprised that he would even be considered for the Turing Award, which typically goes to folks on the software or theory side of things.

"I was flabbergasted," Thacker said. "The last one … Read more

SEATTLE--Bill Gates thought that coming up with vaccines would be the hard part and that delivering vaccines would be the easy part.

It turns out they are both hard.

That's one of the lessons that Gates tells CNET he has learned in his new role as full-time philanthropist. In travels to Africa, he saw firsthand the challenges of delivering vaccines, many of which have to be kept cold to be effective and are needed in places with no refrigeration.

"We were a bit naive about that, particularly getting new vaccines adopted by countries," Gates said in an interview with CNET's Ina Fried last week. "It had been so long since they had done it, I just assumed they would look at the numbers, it would be a very straightforward process. Well, the process doesn't even exist."

Plus, he said, "The cold chain is more messed up than I expected."

In the interview, which was done in conjunction with the release of the annual letter (PDF) from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Gates talked about other surprises he encountered in his travels, including the fact that one of the ways to reduce the spread of AIDS in Africa is to promote adult circumcision--something that he wasn't sure would be feasible.

"Male circumcision--which I thought wouldn't be a big effect because I didn't think adults would be that interested in it--it looks like that's really going to help slow the disease," Gates said.

Gates also talked about his recent foray into Twitter and the launch of his Gates Notes Web site.

"The Internet is tailor-made for the kind of activities I'm involved in," Gates said. "When I take a trip, we have all these photos. And there were things that were fun and exciting, and people want to see that. It's very easy to put it up there...I think it's going to be a lot of fun to be sharing on an ongoing basis, and people who are interested in a particular topic can just find that piece and go after that." … Read more

SEATTLE--Now you have a chance to compare notes with Bill Gates.

The Microsoft chairman is launching a Web site on Wednesday designed to to share his thoughts on everything from his foundation work to musings on other topics including energy and the environment.

Dubbed Gates Notes, the site is launching with postings from Gates himself, and in the works are plans to allow for more discussion on the topics he raises.

In an exclusive interview, Gates told CNET that he missed having the kind of Web presence he had at Microsoft.

"The Internet is tailor-made for the kind of … Read more

SEATTLE--If the goal of a reporter is to observe and remain separate from the action, I was a very bad reporter on Tuesday night.

In town for other reasons, I happened to notice that Seattle-area tech site TechFlash was hosting a tournament of the board game "Settlers of Catan." Knowing TechFlash co-founder Todd Bishop quite well, I dropped a note to see if I could take part, or at least watch. As many friends know, I am a bit of a Catan addict, an obsession fueled by the game's recent release for the iPod Touch (leading the … Read more

Marko Calasan, a 9-year-old from Macedonia, is more than just a kid who's into computers.

At age 6, he got his first systems administrator credential from Microsoft and, last month, he became perhaps the youngest Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer.

"I must say that from the technological point of view, Marko is definitely a wonder child," said Matej Potokar, the general manager of Microsoft Slovenia. Potokar said in an e-mail interview that he first heard about Marko two years ago and was eager to get the chance to meet the young prodigy.

"When we were informed that … Read more

The tech industry is opening up its wallets and its Web sites to help with earthquake relief efforts in Haiti.

The moves come in the wake of the massive 7.0 earthquake that left much of Haiti's capital in ruins and millions in the already impoverished country without access to food, clean water, housing, and sanitation.

Google has pledged $1 million and set up a special page for donations and added updated satellite imagery of the region to Google Maps. Microsoft has said it will give up to $1.25 million in cash and in-kind donations, as well as … Read more

Microsoft researcher Matt MacLaurin came up for the idea for Kodu in his kitchen in the fall of 2006, noticing the way his three-year-old daughter watched her mom browse away on Facebook. MacLaurin saw how different computing is now than when he was a kid. While his Commodore Pet was like a lump of clay that he could mold by writing software in Basic, his daughter's generation is using computers whose functions are already set in stone.

So he set about creating a new developer language that would appeal to the current generation of kids. He settled on one … Read more

Apple's former software chief was pretty happy in retirement. But the opportunity to again influence the next generation of consumer technology lured Avie Tevanian back to work, this time on the money side.

Private equity firm Elevation Partners announced on Tuesday that Tevanian is joining its ranks. Shortly after the announcement, I had a chance to talk with Tevanian about a wide range of technology topics including his former employer, the biggest trends in technology, as well as whether he'll have to trade in his iPhone for a Palm Pre.

Here's an edited transcript of our conversation: … Read more