WorldCAD Access

Finding that Second Screen

Opinion During an extreme cold spell earlier this year, the 12V battery in my car died, and so I replaced it. Imagine my surprise when the car’s clock no longer displayed anything; it was blank. On the car’s interactive screen, the menu item for setting the time was grayed-out. I could no longer set it. See the image above. Same for the calendar display. For me, this is a problem. When I drive, I frequently glance at the clock to gauge time remaining. I did find online a bunch of "solutions," but none worked. The local Ford dealer offered to... Read more →

The Machine Never Had a Soul

Opinion Tracy Kidder's groundbreaking 1981 "The Soul of the Machine" book described the speed at which Data General's Eclipse MV/8000 mini-computer was launched. The "soul" consisted of the engineers who brought the machine to life. Today, however, we realize the machine, which now dominates us, has no soul. Robert Sterling expresses our frustration for us. (Robert Sterling’s cry against the machine with no soul was first posted on Twitter at https://x.com/RobertMSterling/status/1889097312103747776.) --- I don’t want to connect my coffee machine to the wifi network I don’t want to share the file with OneDrive I don’t want to download an app... Read more →