The AndPlus Blog

A few years ago, journalist Sara Bongiorni wrote a book called A Year Without “Made in China:” One Family’s True Life Adventure in the Global Economy, about her family’s yearlong quest to boycott Chinese-made products. The author never quite articulates the fundamental reasons for her boycott, nor explores the macroeconomic reasons for China’s manufacturing juggernaut. But she does succeed in making the point that yes, it’s pretty difficult for a middle-class American family to avoid buying products that are made in China or that contain Chinese components or materials.

An old joke in hardware engineering circles says, contrary to popular belief, electronic gizmos don’t run on electricity. They run on smoke. When something goes wrong, the smoke (sometimes accompanied by flames) escapes, and the device stops working.

Buildings are getting smarter all the time.

No, the structures at your local office park won’t be winning spelling bees or appearing on Jeopardy! But they are becoming more automated, energy-efficient, and easier to manage and protect. As a result, buildings are becoming safer, more pleasant places to live and work.

In 2015, cybersecurity researchers Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek demonstrated that a Jeep Cherokee could be hacked and its critical systems commandeered over the internet. They were able to completely disable the vehicle in one scenario; later they showed how they could arbitrarily control the vehicle’s acceleration, steering, and braking. Chrysler recalled 1.4 million of the vehicles to patch the exposed vulnerabilities, at great expense (and embarrassment) to the company.

What’s a computer?

Ask anyone that question, and you’ll probably get variations of, “A machine with a screen and a keyboard and pointing device, used for running various software programs.” This has been the general “high-level” definition since the personal computer became popular in homes and businesses in the early 1980s.

Advertising. Almost every business depends on it, in some form, as a major (if not primary) marketing tool. And for some companies—in fact, some entire industries, such as broadcast media and print journalism—advertising is the main source of revenue. Google could hardly fund its wide-ranging initiatives and services without the money it rakes in from online advertising.