From the Doghouse
A look at dogs having fun
Poser Gallery
My gallery of pictures I’ve created in Poser
My Science Fiction and Fantasy stories
Stories I’ve written
Nature by Carol
A look at the less technical side of life
Is Your Team Always Missing Deadlines? It Might Be You!
Perhaps it’s my background in electronic design speaking, but I’ve always regarded time as sacrosanct. Consider this: when you're designing a system that operates at 100 MHz, tolerating a signal that "usually" arrives on time is out of the question. Too late, or even...
Adjusting To Retirement After A Lifetime Of Employment, A Journey
For all the fears I had about retirement, I wasn't expecting the real problems. First, there was the insurance dilemma. It turns out that my wife was too young for Medicare, and there's no such thing as a family plan that covers both of us. I ended up juggling two...
Company Buyouts, Good For The Consumer?
You're justifiably proud of your waffle maker. It was a lesser-known brand, yet it cost half as much as its competitors, and its brilliant texture sensor guaranteed you got flawless waffles every time. Unfortunately, as soon as you plugged it in, someone mistook your...
Interspecies Communication As Experienced By An Engineer
I thoroughly enjoyed the first season of Star Trek: Enterprise because they spent much of the time grappling with communication issues. Universal translators, missing databases, peculiar methods of communication, and one memorable episode without a translator. I...
A Conspiracy Theory Regarding Encryption Creating My Dilemma
It seems that the current trend on social media is overwhelmingly conspiracy theories, especially as elections draw near. I’m not particularly drawn to the political ones, but I'm gripped by a conspiracy theory regarding encryption that's threatening to upend my...
Musings On My Greatest Achievement As I Enter Retirement
When I retired, there were a few questions that everyone seemed to ask: how did I feel about stepping into retirement (frankly, terrified) and what was my first project going to be (the rebuilding of my dilapidated well house). Yet, there was one question that...
Random Posts
Blogging Changes and ImprovementsTwo months ago I posted about the mistakes I made in starting this blog. It’s in my nature to review the changes I’m made since then and give them an objective look. The most obvious change is my theme. I know I said that I wouldn’t but as I also said, it was something I […]
Too Good For Your Career?When you design a game you have two classes of gamers that you have to consider, those that are content doing the same thing over and over to get a high score and those that want new challenges, new levels, and new areas to explore. If people don’t find what they want in your game, […]
In Search of an EditorI’m afraid that my mental picture of a newspaper editor is largely limited to movie characters. Perry White and J. Jonah Jameson are two that come to mind. I also assumed that they had something to do with the big picture for a newspaper but I never gave it much thought. When it came to […]
Random Posts
A Futuristic Design Concept, REPTILEToday’s post doesn’t fall into any of my normal categories. It won’t educate you or make you think about an issue. It won’t give you a better idea of how to cope with an engineer (although you will see the imagination that my wife has to put up with). No, today I’m sharing a futuristic […]
Contempt For Others, An Object LessonDuring my career I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some very skilled engineers. I’ve managed to learn from all of them but one stands out from the rest, not because he was such a good engineer, although he was, but rather because he taught me a very valuable lesson on how not to deal […]
Pepper, Someone Else’s ProblemI’m mad and worse I find myself exceedingly frustrated because I can’t express the full depth of my anger. All my life has been suppressing anger in favor of calm rational analysis. No, I don’t pretend to be Spock but I do believe anger can distract from the message. Wanting this post to be written […]
Random Posts
How To Drive Customers Away, Why I’m Done With NetgearOver the years I’ve used a number of Netgear modems, routers and switchers but this weekend I received what will be my last Netgear product. It’s a simple Wi-Fi range extender and probably works well but Netgear’s attempt at customer retention is not acceptable. Netgear will not let me setup the extender until I enter […]
I Need You To Stop Watching Me, An Engineer’s ConfessionJust because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean no one is watching you. There’s a lot of truth to that statement. All my life, people have been watching me. No, I don’t mean spies, foreign agents or even the NSA. Not that I’m dismissing the notion that they might be lurking about but my current concern is […]
Solar Powered Wyze Cameras, An Engineering EvolutionAs with most engineering projects, it started with a need. In my case, as soon as I got high-speed Internet, I eagerly added several cameras. I chose Wyze because they are affordable, don’t require a monthly subscription, and offer excellent picture quality. Wanting to extend coverage beyond just my house, I opted to power the […]
From the Doghouse -It’s all about them
A look at dogs having fun!
Short Stories
With posts like these, ever wonder what kind of fiction I would write?
Random Posts
Why You Never Ask An Engineer, What Are You Thinking?It’s been a beautiful evening. The meal was delicious. The waiter had been right, the dessert was to die for. Noticing the smile on his face, you reach out and gently grasp your beloveds’ hand. In a warm voice, full of love and contentment, you say, “What are you thinking?” …
The Zone, An Explanation For The Rest Of YouIt’s evening and your dearly beloved has been sitting at the computer for hours. You know that this obsession has something to do with the latest project but you aren’t sure of the details. With a smile, you decide to do something nice for your beloved. You pour a glass …
Without Net Neutrality Expect Cable Television Content And ServiceNet neutrality is one of the things that keeps the Internet from becoming an echo of the vast cable television nothingness. If you were to take a survey of the most hated companies in the US, I’m willing to bet that the cable companies would top the list. Nobody likes …
I’m Not Insulting You, That’s My Aspect Starting UpI want you to take a simple test for me. Look at the picture below and identify the engineer. Not too hard was it? All of you got it. Well, all except for the person reading this that said they’re just Poser characters, none of them are engineers. Must be …
All I Want For Christmas is Rural High Speed InternetAll I want for Christmas is rural high speed Internet. Well, at least my area of rural America with unlimited data while I’m wishing. As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s true for me and an ever increasing number of people living in rural America. With all the advances made in technology, …
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