Guest Bloggers

Guest Blogger Rob Koslowsky explains future verbage

Guest Blogger Rob Koslowsky writes about how . . . Mathematicians Address Verb(al) Decay Regular verbs feature a past tense that ends in “ed.” Words like brush or bump become brushed and bumped in the past tense. But what do you do with those irregular verbs that don’t follow such an easy rule? Arise becomes arose (past simple) or arisen (past participle) while find becomes found in both cases of past tense. English students need not despair. Two mathematicians recently collaborated and uncovered the fact that irregular verbs will convert to a regular form. It just takes time. The principle of atomic half-life is invoked. Erez Lieberman and Jean-Baptiste Michel’s formula suggests that the more popular the verb the longer the time it takes to be reduced to a regular form in its past tense. For example, have will become haved instead of had—in 38,800 years—and hold will become holded…

Book Reviews

The Upstart Startup: How Cerent Transformed Cisco by Rob Koslowsky

The end of the year seems like a good time for a book review about people who changed the landscape of Sonoma County, people who had amazing foresight about technology, and people who did not, would not, give up nor compromise their visions. The Upstart Startup: How Cerent Transformed Cisco is a story about the people who comprised Cerent and how their beloved Cerent 454 revolutionized the telecommunications world. It’s a story that has drama, intrigue, and involved massive amounts of money that landed in California’s Sonoma County, one of the premiere wine-growing locales in the world. Sharing this story is a tribute to the 210 employees that were the lifeblood of Cerent before Cisco took over. “The team at Cerent had this tenacity and unbelievable conviction in not just building a product but a platform for a successful and sustaining business. Rob’s book captures the innovation in every step and…