privacy Archives - Eric F. Frazier

Facebook Quiz: What Kind of Fool Am I?

April 15, 2018August 27, 2019 Eric F. Frazier

Every time I click “Accept” or “Agree” on one of those software end-user license agreements, I feel like a schnook. That’s Yiddish for a person who is gullible or easily cheated. (One Yiddish word generally outworks half a dozen English…

Peeing, Privacy and Politics

April 9, 2016August 27, 2019 Eric F. Frazier

Since politicians have made bathrooms a trending topic, I have a confession: I’ve been urinating in public all my life. Or at least it feels that way. For those of us with penises (and birth certificates to prove it), exposing…

My Writing Published Elsewhere

Privacy in the Age of Cellphones

May 5, 2014 Eric F. Frazier

Although the paranoid among us fear a long-running government conspiracy to track our every move à la Orwell’s 1984—and to be sure, technology now makes that possible—the path to having GPS in every pocket was more uncertain, less coordinated and…

GPS Turns 40: Test Your Knowledge with a Quiz

December 17, 2013August 9, 2023 Eric F. Frazier

December 2013 brought two important anniversaries for GPS, a technology that has changed the world, yet both milestones have gone unnoticed in the media. The Pentagon authorized GPS development 40 years ago on Dec. 17, 1973. If GPS were a…

The Privacy of Rooftops

August 14, 2013October 10, 2013 Eric F. Frazier

C-SPAN’s Washington Journal broadcast an excellent program on the “Domestic Use of Drones” coinciding with AUVSI’s Unmanned Systems 2013, a trade show in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International. On display were the latest in…

About Eric F. Frazier

I am an independent writer, editor, book reviewer and co-author of GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones.

Frazeology is my take on matters large and small, in the news or off the radar. My approach is personal, but the goal is not to write about me. Rather, it is to offer subjective observations about experiences and concerns that we all share.

From time to time, I link to and comment on things others have said particularly well--or especially poorly. And sometimes I make up new words. We have more than enough already, but it's fun and I find playing around with language irresistible.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by, and I hope you enjoy reading.

“A useful work about a complex topic.”

— Roger Launius, Quest

“GPS Declassified is a carefully researched, well written, fast-paced, and thoroughly enjoyable book. It offers an excellent mix of science, technology, history and culture. This book is highly recommended.”

— William F. Mellberg, The Space Review

“Expertly weaves the story of GPS development and its ever-expanding use."

— M. W. Carr, Choice

“Written in a clear and lively style GPS Declassified provides readers with GPS development history including personal recollections from leading developers…. As an introduction to GPS, its history, uses, issues and concerns GPS Declassified can’t be beat.”

— Robert Schaefer, New York Journal of Books

“The authors do the impossible, making an intricate technological advance fascinating to read. They offer an informative and well researched account of how GPS proved its worth even before the system was complete.”

—Walter J. Boyne, author of How the Helicopter Changed Modern Warfare and former director of the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution

“A fine and entertaining story of the origins of the Global Positioning System, a consequential space-age technology that has affected the lives of hundreds of millions in war and peace."

—Mike Gruntman, PhD, professor of astronautics, University of Southern California at Los Angeles, and author of Blazing The Trail: The Early History Of Spacecraft And Rocketry

“The authors deftly place the concept and development of GPS within two broader historical contexts: navigation and robotic spaceflight.”

— from the foreword by Rick W. Sturdevant, PhD, Deputy Director of History, Air Force Space Command

Paid writing gigs keep me busy, so I post these personal blogs at irregular times. Subscribe below to receive new posts as soon as I make them.