Google has released a tool which may help you find a flu vaccine near you. Visit [www.google.com] or (soon) you can also visit www.flu.gov.
[...]Google has released a tool which may help you find a flu vaccine near you. Visit [www.google.com] or (soon) you can also visit www.flu.gov.
[...]Four batches of six word stories, oy vay! I hope you are at least a tiny bit amused (and not too abused), even if only for the second or two that it takes you to read these.
Genealogy: Research begat research begat research…
Crash splatter! Who dunnit? Cat naps.
Dog barks. Squirrel laughs. [...]
For better or worse, writing continues… Perhaps Twitter has it only partly right. Perhaps instead of 140 characters, we need to be limited to six words.
“ARTHUR JOSEPH!” I’m in big trouble.
Rejected by NaNoWriMo. Not novel enough.
Morning walk. Trees rustle. World sparkles.
I read another story. Friends groan.
[...] My friend, Scott, is writing a novel. I’m just like him except I lack the talent, time, and patience to write a novel. But disregarding those tiny hindrances, I’m going to write a novel one of these days, too. Until then, I continue to offer my short short short stories [...]
Being undiagnosed ADHD (who has the time or attention span to get properly diagnosed?), I am fascinated with the ultimate in concise literary expression: the six word story. My wife may be distressed at my latest obsession but, hapless you, I share a few of my more precious gems here:
Face [...]
I am so happy. Netflix will finally stream movies to the Sony Playstation PS3. We have a Roku player, too, but it will be more convenient to have all of our entertainment stuff in one box. And the PS3 ought to produce a better picture, too.
We have many opportunities to experience both good and bad customer service. Rarely, though, do we bump into extremes at both ends of the spectrum in the course of one technical support issue. Doing so makes both experiences all the more poignant.
I use a Garmin GPSmap 396 coupled with a [...]
Candy and I have talked it over and decided to build a Vans RV-7A. To make room for the RV in our lives, we are selling our 1968 Piper Arrow. Details at www.N7430J.com
I am excited about the RV-7A. It will be almost 50 MPH faster than the Arrow, simpler [...]
The reactions to the mid-air collision last month between an airplane and a helicopter over the Hudson River in New York City have me thinking about safety in airplanes and safety in cars. For those unfamiliar with the details, just before noon on August 8, a six person airplane and [...]
My deepest appreciation to ThinkGeek for making me feel old first thing in the morning. They have recreated the “classic student slide rule” and are hawking them for a pittance of what this paragon of useful technology is worth.
ThinkGeek Slide Rule
The sad thing [...]
Candy and I took a day out of our Door County escape to visit Oshkosh for the AirVenture 2009 airshow. Landing on “runway” 36R was fun.
Landing at Oshkosh on 36R. It's a runway, not a [...]
Health care reform is about people, not money. Specifically, it is our opportunity to assure that all Americans have access to good health care, not just the lucky 4/5ths of us. If your mom came to you for help getting medical care, your first response would be, “How can we make [...]
My hat’s off to David who is finishing up Fast Track Calculus this morning at Rose-Hulman. For those of us who are not entering freshmen engineering students with a yearning to get the calc out of the way, FTC is a full year of calc compressed into just five [...]
I have a proposal to reduce the cost of groceries very significantly, something which I think will be welcomed in this goofy economy. We will form grocery buying cooperatives, essentially grocery insurance programs, which will amortize the costs of groceries across all buyers, lowering the costs for all and protecting [...]
Candy and I are just back from a week in Door County, WI. Wow! The stories we were told were all right: gorgeous sunsets, great food, interesting parks, fun shops.
Breakfast at Trollhaugen Lodge
We stayed in one of the bed & breakfast rooms at [...]
This is why we fly. I took these photos flying over Illinois at 5,000 feet. Make your browser full screen and click through to see the pictures large.
If you are reading this on Facebook, you won’t see the photos until you click on Cloud Dancing.
[...]Candy and I dropped David off at Rose-Hulman yesterday. He is taking their Fast Track Calculus program, 15 credits of calc in just five weeks. Whew! After that, he gets a week off and then dives into his freshman year.
Here are a few photos. (Click to see them larger.)
[...]The sun set as we flew home over Illinois yesterday. Here is a small sample. These photos really look better large so make your browser window full screen and click through to the photo gallery for maximum enjoyment.
[...]
Candy and I got to see Caedmon, Cindy, Geoff, Becky and Derek yesterday. Caedmon sure is getting big. (Click the picture to jump to the photo album.)
Caedmon, Geoff and Cindy
[...]
I sold my Nikon D200 and lenses and bought a (lighter) Nikon D90 with (lighter) lenses. Not much time to write now (work calls) and none last night (I was playing with the camera) but here is one photo that I took last night:
Mr. Toad
There [...]
As I predicted in Google Chrome to Replace Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux (September 2008) and again in Step 2: Google Chrome to Replace Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux (December 2008), Google is moving to replace the operating system, not just the browser. What changed two [...]
This just in from the Alliance for Aviation Across America:
The Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security recently released a report that dispels many of the myths about the security of general aviation.
In the report, DHS Inspector General Richard Skinner stated that “Although [TSA's Office of Intelligence] has' [...]
I am not surprised, but I am still dismayed, by the continued erosion of our personal privacy in the shadow of George W. Bush’s administration. The New York Times reports in E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress that the National Security Agency (NSA), as recently as early this year, [...]
My good friend Bert just purchased a farm in Enville, TN and opened his blog, Farmer Bert. I have always been a bit concerned about Bert’s, er, stability (he is my friend, after all) and his first blog posting, Twisted Reason I want to be a Farmer has [...]
Cindy and Geoff did a great job and produced Caedmon Geoffrey, a wonderful, healthy baby boy at 7:12pm on May 20. He’s 9 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches tall. His plumbing works so well that he peed on the doctor during delivery. I take that as a great omen!
On a gorgeous spring afternoon, Becky and Derek and Cindy and Geoff came over for dinner and entertainment. Unbeknownst to them, the entertainment was a new copy of BUZZ! Quiz TV for our PS3. The preview video looks hokey but the game is amazingly fun and goofy. Sony hit [...]
Some videos just should not be made. But once they are, you just cannot get that darned theme music out of your head. Do you remember the MacGyver TV show? Watch this if you dare:
[...]
I have been writing a new program, having a ball doing it, and it has brought to consciousness something which I have not thought about for years: There is a bit of Dr. Henry Frankenstein in me. I love to create things which [...]
My friend, Dan Suffian, wrote Swimming with Cripples and it’s absolutely beautiful. It’s just a long paragraph, too short for me to paraphrase it here, and anyway, if I were to try all I’d do is rob you of the joy of discovering Dan’s story through his own words. [...]
My stepfather is clearing out things he does not want any longer so about 25 of my old friends moved in last week, including these vintage Peanuts books:
[...]I like to feel safe and I like to know that my family is safe. I would wager that you do, too. John Goekler has written a crystal clear piece in CounterPunch, The Most Dangerous Person in the World?, which highlights the risks to our lives. Some snippets:
A significant [...]
Candidate Barack Obama promised change and more government transparency. President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice is delivering change for the worse: continuation of the Bush administration’s assertions that the US government can conduct warrantless wiretapping coupled with a new assertion that the government is completely immune from litigation for illegal [...]
Passover is here again (starting tomorrow at sundown) which raises the age old questions: Did I buy enough matzoh to last a week? If I bought too much, what will I do with it? Fortunately, Michelle Citrin and William Levin have answers for us.
[...]
Researchers have found a strong correlation between newborn feeding patterns and the seemingly immutable “night person” or “morning person” patterns which govern our adult lives. Dr. Emily Erudita of the Hatch Institute of Mamalian Studies reports in today’s issue of Pan Generational Physiology,
In a study of [...]
I woke up in a good mood this morning and then…
Sometimes one piece of technology makes another, seemingly unrelated, piece of technology misbehave. It happened this morning at 12:15am CDT when an automated program that I run in Amazon EC2 failed to do its thing. The EC2 instances (that’s geek [...]
My sister-in-law gave me about the goofiest gift I’ve ever received, a Play and Freeze ice cream maker. Now before I continue, I need to tell you a little bit about me and ice cream. Me and ice cream, we’re buddies. We’re together pretty much as often as we [...]
I couldn’t resist this test from Blogthings: What’s Your Life’s Mission?
Almost anything can be a catalyst for your creativity. You find the whole world [...]
I am fed up with wasting clients’ dollars “fixing” web sites so that they look good in Internet Explorer 6. IE7 has been out for 2 1/2 years. IE8 is available as a free beta. There are lots of other browsers available for free. All of these browsers work better [...]
Here is a short, informative video which explains the credit crisis in terms which ordinary mortals (i.e., I) can understand.
The Crisis of Credit Visualized from Jonathan Jarvis on Vimeo.
The Guardian write, Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline pledges cheap medicine for world’s poor
The world’s second biggest pharmaceutical company is to radically shift its attitude to providing cheap drugs to millions of people in the developing world.
In a major change of strategy, the new head of GlaxoSmithKline, Andrew Witty, has told [...]
Science is just plain cool. Check out the Ruben’s Tube (a surefire favorite if you are into flame and music) and the Non-Newtonian Fluid (if you are worried about burning down the garage).
[...]
Today, my beautiful bride and I have been married ten years and I’m looking forward to at least another 10,000.
I hope that you, too, find the love of your life.
[...]Candy and I have talked about building or buying a home theater computer (HTPC) for years. We have a pretty nice home theater including a projected HD picture that is almost 100″ diagonal and fairly impressive 5.1 sound. This gear works great for DVDs and HD-DVDs (yes, I picked the [...]
I am extremely pleased with several of the actions our government has taken.
Close the Guantanamo Bay prison Immediately stop the military tribunals at Guantanamo Bay. Obama issued memos and an executive order instructing federal agencies to make information public as much as possible, reversing a 2001 Bush memo instructing agencies to generally [...]Surprise! Surprise! I received my movie today from Netflix, just as Netflix claimed I would. I do not know how they did it but they seem to have mailed via US Postal Service on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, a federal holiday. Cool.
[...]I am intrigued. I just received a “movie shipped” notice from Netflix, telling me that I will receive my disk tomorrow, the day after a federal holiday during which the US Postal Service does not work (or so I thought). I will be pretty impressed if the disk really does [...]
Julie Pukelis put a camera in front of a telescope to get this view of the scene in the river.
As I am sure you know by [...]
This article in Slashdot about the electronic trash that we create hit home. I cannot think of a good way to paraphrase it so here is the whole thing:
Every day, Americans toss out more than 350,000 cell phones and 130,000 computers, making electronic waste the fastest-growing part of [...]
CNN.com reports, Bush touts accomplishments, admits mistakes
President Bush admitted mistakes but defended his accomplishments in the final White House news conference of his presidency Monday.
I recommend the rest of the article; it’s a good read.
I do not like most of what Bush did while in office but I do [...]
We all know the story of Benjamin Franklin flying a kite in an electrical storm. I always thought that it was kind of fanciful, along the same lines as the myth about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree. Guess what: I was wrong. Franklin not only flew the [...]
When I was a kid, my parents got me a chemistry set, signed me up for the science kit of the month, and encouraged an incredible of experimentation which stank, buzzed, glowed and occasionally broke stuff or blew fuses. I performed useful public services by keeping trash like antique speakers [...]
I have ranted about our national paranoia before. We are still paranoid and it still bothers me. Over the last few days, I have read about:
Do you remember when I predicted that Google Chrome would take over the world replace Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux? Here is the next step, to be released for CES which begins January 8, 2009.
If all you want from your computer is to read your email (Gmail) and [...]
I purchased my Sony PRS-505 ebook reader primarily to run Reader Plates. This is a set of electronic IFR approach plates or, to be technically correct about the name, the FAA (NACO) Terminal Approach Procedures. When I fly IFR (in the clouds), I use these half-page charts when taking off [...]
My Sony PRS-505 ebook reader continues to delight me. I have chewed my way through a couple of books and several short stories, all without the bother of braving the mall to reach Borders or the traffic to reach the library. As I have finished these books, I simply let [...]
Having spent almost a week with my new Sony PRS-505 eBook reader, I am way past infatuated and well into love. For reading books, it just plain works. No fuss; no muss. I have grabbed several books, some old, some new, and am thoroughly enjoying reading them. The first [...]
I bought an ebook reader this week (a Sony PRS-505, more on that in another posting, I promise) and have been so busy figuring our the whole ebook game that I have not taken the time either to read many of the blogs that I follow or to write. Here [...]
Parents of the world, untie, er, unite! You have a duty! Bend your childrens’ brains. Warp the minds of your neighbors’ children. Share the insane joy of Monty Python, those paragons of parenting advice, at the official Monty Python channel on YouTube.
Are your kiddies too namby-pamby? Do they do [...]
Why do I hear my son’s voice in my head as I read this comic? (Click through for larger text.)
I published my family tree on-line so that other family members and genealogists would have easy access. I never imagined that it would turn into a way to find long lost friends. I just received this email message:
A friend of mine from college was looking for me. So, he [...]
I very much enjoyed the time that I got to spend with my father-in-law, Lester Start. Sadly, he was taken from this world much too soon.
My wife and her siblings have created a web site as a publishing platform for his sermons and talks. Please visit [...]
See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.
25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!
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[...]Turn your speakers up and kick back for four minutes of grand a capella entertainment courtesy of Moosebutter.
25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!
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[...]The headline The end of an era - Windows 3.x startled me this morning. My first thought was to look at the dateline; it had to be in the distant past and I wanted to see how distant. I will save you the tension and anticipation; the dateline is [...]
It’s election day. Go out and vote!
I am super special and deserve and sixteen gazillion votes, unlike regular people who only deserve a single vote. Unfortunately, no one else recognize my special-ness so I am depending on you to go vote. I trust that you’ll do the right thing since [...]
I know what I am going to dress up as tonight. A Halloween costume so scary that my wife will be upset that I am wearing it in public. I am going to wear a disguise so socially unacceptable that three entire school districts will close for a day to [...]
Cross browser testing is always a pain to coordinate but at least it just got a lot less expensive. Amazon Web Services just released AMIs running Windows which means that you can now get Windows virtual machines for as little as $0.125 per hour. These beasties make great platforms for [...]
My life is certainly richer for having seen this BBC video
I don’t know how I went all these years without bumping into it. Perhaps my brain really is slowing down.
25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!
Feed enhanced [...]
Genealogy research has led me to connections with distant cousins that I never knew existed. Yes, I know that many purists consider genealogy to be the study of (primarily dead) ancestors but I rapidly hit dead-ends in that realm since I am of Jewish, eastern European and Russian descent. Between [...]
You might have noticed a bit of “uncertainty” in the economy these days. I was fascinated to see these two articles show up within 24 hours of each other:
| Economy to Give Open-Source a Good Thumping by Andrew Keen
<snip> So how will today’s brutal economic climate change the Web 2.0 “free” [...] Why McCain and the Republican Party Scare MeI am down on most career politicians (are there any other kinds?) but the Republican party has become particularly scary during the Bush administration. The Grand Old Party has shifted farther and farther right. McCain and the current party leaders are grandly continuing this new tradition. It looks like McCain’s [...] Airport Security: What a WasteI love the inconvenience of airport security. The fact that I am paying for the privilege of being inconvenienced, in lieu of having my security enhanced, makes the whole experience all the more charming. Recently, Jeffrey Goldberg took all of these goodies through airport security at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Steal This Comic or SongI buy a lot of music on-line and it breaks down like this:
Anthem Insurance Customer DisserviceLaptop Battery MythInfoworld published 10 power-saving myths debunked. I admit that I assumed this myth was true.
Netflix Quietly Begins Live TV Broadcasting
Number of comments: 2
Internet TV—broadcasting live television over the internet instead of using radio broadcasts or the cable television infrastruction. Almost everybody has heard of it. Some people talk about it as the Next Big Thing in television. Many people figure that it will not happen for a long time for a wide [...] Connecting with the Past and the PresentA lot of my genealogy research amounts to little more than adding names and dates to a computer database. It can be hard to understand why I bother. Every so often, though, I have one of those woo hoo! moments which keep me going. Last Saturday brought not one, but [...] Why the American Economy is in TroubleWith all the hoopla these days, it is very difficult to determine why our economy is tanking. Almost every news article, and certainly every political candidate, points the blame and tries to oversimplify the situation. FactCheck.org, a wonderful web site which debunks the spin in presidential candidate statements and advertisements, [...] +1 for Open Source Genealogy SoftwareGenealogy BloggingGenealogy has been a large part of my life for better than ten years yet I have never blogged about it. I have always assumed that you would not be interested because my genealogy is only about my family and not about yours. On the other hand, I have made [...] Ring “Tones”Sometimes I feel like such a Luddite but then something like this XKCD cartoon comes along and I feel completely validated :-)  Ring tone XKCD cartoon 25 FREE Downloads from eMusic. No Restrictions - Own Your Music!
Too Much Fun with Sticky NotesEepyBird is back… with sticky notes this time. And to enhance your viewing pleasure, click the “HD is off” button in the right side of the video when it starts playing. Assuming you have a high speed internet connection, you will see a video which is much higher quality than [...] All About the CERN LHC
Number of comments: 1
Welcome to today’s world. Physics isn’t just about the things thar normal human beings can understand but you can watch YouTube to catch up on the latest. My hat’s off to Geeks Are Sexy for finding and collecting these two videos, one educational and the other fun and educational. [...] Teenage Pregnancy, Politics, and Common SenseAm I the only one baffled by the notion that a pregnant teenager is somehow a worthy part of a presidential political campaign? The last time I thought about teenage pregnancy (which is depressingly often, since I have two teenage sons), I considered a pregnancy to be an “Oh shit” [...] Woo Hoo! Glider Pilot!!
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I owe it all to the Silver Creek Glider Club and the good [...] Use Google Chrome; Give Google Your Stuff
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As reported this morning in Slashdot, you should read and carefully consider Google Chrome’s end user license agreement (EULA) before using Chrome. It’s hard to read in the teeny tiny box that Google provides so I am reproducing the entire text below the break. I am certainly not [...] Google Chrome to Replace Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux
Number of comments: 10
My Analyst is a PB&J SandwichWho knew that a PB&J sandwich could tell so much about me?
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Google released Chrome today and you will see “Google Chrome is a browser” if you visit the 
