To put it in a nutshell. No Gutenberg, no Luther. No Luther, no Reformation. At one point, Luther (1483-1546) was publishing a book (more like a pamphlet) every three or four weeks. The advent of moveable type and the printing press (ca. 1440) made it possible for an obscure monk’s critique of late medieval Catholicism to travel all over Europe. The …
When people say that the internet and the digitization of culture represent something as important as the invention of movable type by Gutenberg in the 15th century, I usually wonder if that can be true. The Gutenberg revolution gave us the Reformation. Luther was the first publishing phenomenon in human history, and later, when it had settled down a bit, …
Privacy was a big deal when I was growing up in small-town North Dakota — mostly because there wasn’t any. From party lines to rural postmasters who made a mental note of your bills and letters, confidentiality was as rare as neighbors who didn’t gossip. My mother adhered to just one strategy: When you turn on the lights at night, always …
Visitors to this blog may recall that I like to scam scammers. You know, the ones who steal a Facebook friend’s identity and use FB messaging to try to get you to send them some of your hard-earned money. I like to fight back in my own little way by writing back. Wasting as much of their time as possible. …
The FCC appears ready to roll back net neutrality rules in December. I know your eyes are glazing over, but hang with me just a second, and let me tell you how this will be good for you. (Silence.) OK, it won’t actually be good for you. Not at first, anyway. But in the same way that tax breaks for …
Back when it began, email was a harmless new toy. In the era when we baby boomers first went online — at the dawn of time or, at least, in those now-quaint 1990s — we took to our AOL and Yahoo mail accounts like proverbial fuzzy little ducks to water. It seemed so unthreatening … just an easy, novel way …
Regular visitors may recall that here at the Dullum File we like to play with scammers from time to time. You know, the ones who rather than try to land actual jobs, pretend to be your Facebook friends. It’s their lame efforts to try to get us to send them money, supposedly to claim huge prizes or gifts. Here is …
I enjoy playing with scammers. You know, the ones who pretend to be your friends on Facebook. I like to think I’ve wasted at least some of their “work” time by keeping them occupied for as long as possible. Below is my actual conversation from Saturday: Scammer: Hello. How are you? Me: Doing well. Scammer: Am pretty good, life is …