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
Common Designs, Industrial Spies Or Technology, A Perspective
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, or did he? The truth isn’t nearly as clear as we’ve been taught. In fact, in America, it was a dead heat to the patent office. The telephone isn’t the only invention with murky origins. Consider wireless, the light bulb,...
Written By An Engineer, Improved By AI. Which Do You Prefer?
A request for data: I have a problem. While I don't intend to suggest a topic and have ChatGPT write my post for me, I'm also not going to ignore a tool I can use to make my writing better. I've always felt that more readers will read other posts if they find my...
DALL-E versus Poser Image Generation, Both Have Their Place
[Fair warning - I'm cheap, my website is slow and this is very picture intensive. It will load slowly] When I started Opinionbypen.com, I quickly learned that people wanted pictures. There’s a number of photo sites out there but between usage rights and finding the...
Why Is ChatGBT So Angry? It’s Only A Reflection Of Ourselves
This week I’ve been subjected to an overwhelming amount of drivel on the ChatBot being developed by Microsoft and ChatGPT. I’m not surprised, today’s reporters think research is searching a key word on Twitter. Real reporters have all but disappeared. Still, some of...
Bringing It Altogether – An Engineer Attempts To Justify His Toys
Readers of my blog have been subjected to reviews on three different 3D printers, a CNC wood carver, a laser etcher and a host of solar projects. By now most of you have asked yourselves why is he doing all of this? The same is true of my wife. She eyes each new...
Married To An Engineer – The AI Version
I'm going to be up front about this post, I did not write or modify any of the text. All I did was give a word limit, a tone (snarky) and a subject (married to an engineer), the AI behind ChatGPT did the rest. After reading this, I'm both amazed and intimidated. Yes,...
Random Posts
An Engineer Muses On Fictional WritingIf you’ve seen the movie, Apollo 13, you remember the scene where the mission director comes in with a box of stuff dumps it on the desk and says this is what we’ve got, make it work. I don’t think there’s an engineer out there who wouldn’t love to have that challenge. Just watching the […]
How Much Am I Saving By Turning Out All The Lights?The start of a new year provides us with a time of reflection and resolutions. Today, with the end of the old year on the horizon, I find myself going from room to room turning out lights in an attempt to keep my electricity bill reasonable. I remember my father performing the same ritual, probably […]
Time, A Perspective and An ApologyWhen it comes to time I seem to have a lot of conflicting behaviors. If a meeting is supposed to start at 10AM, I strive to be there on time. If my meeting is supposed to last one hour, it will end before the hour is up. These actions are categorized by many people as […]
Random Posts
Congressional Lottery, A ProposalSequestration or not, every member of Congress should be deeply ashamed of the service they’ve given us getting here. Many people have advocated getting rid of incumbents, term limits, campaign spending limits. I would like to offer my own solution. I believe I have a plan that restores Democracy, brings back the idea of independents, […]
Teamwork, A Term Misunderstood By CongressApparently I lied when I said I was going to skip Congress as a topic. This morning my wife told me how Congress was congratulating themselves on coming up with a deal at the last minute and I was reminded of the six phases of a project. 1. Enthusiasm – We’re going to work together […]
Don’t Be Seduced by TechnologyWhen it comes to new technology most of us are familiar with the terms “Bleeding edge” “leading edge” and “legacy”. Bleeding edge is the latest and greatest. It’s just beginning to show up in the hands of a few tech savvy consumers. We call it bleeding because it’s a given that you will endure pain. […]
Random Posts
Do Dogs Have Psychic Powers?I’d like you to consider the possibility that dogs have managed to develop a psychic bond with us. I know the animal psychologists say that dogs are extremely perceptive and watch us for small clues. That’s why our dogs turn into a pack of whirling dervishes when my wife gets her car keys. They know […]
Repairing My 3D PrinterThis week had a number of coincidences. After telling you that my wife is like a magnet for nails, she ended up with another nail in her tire and right after I published my latest post on my 3D printer, my printer died. My wife felt it was a very convenient coincidence that my printer […]
Happy Mother’s DayIf I had given thought to the idea, I would have timed my Celebration post to come out on Mother’s Day. Then again, my Mother deserves her own post for all the grief I gave her as a child. The following are a few examples of what she had to cope with while raising me. […]
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
Whatever Happened To Compromise And Acceptance?I have no mouth and must scream is a short story by Harlen Ellison. Unfortunately it also very accurately sums up my feelings on American politics. I’ll confess to avoiding Twitter and Facebook. I have my website but I’ve accepted that the stats on my website don’t lie, nobody wants …
Terms and Conditions, a CautionEvery once in a while I read something that screams for a post. That’s the case with this news story, http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/02/tech/couple-fined-for-negative-review/. I’m not going to repeat all the details but it describes a couple who placed and order for a product they never received. Although they tried their best they …
Creeping Elegance, the Design of a RemoteI’m going to introduce a term that might be new to you, creeping elegance. It’s probably been the cause of more project failures than poor engineering. If you’re an engineer or a programmer you already know it way too well but just in case you’re not, let me give you …
The Importance of Teamwork in a DesignImagine if you will, a design team that has been tasked with designing a tablet that will be crucial to the future of their company. The team consists of the best and brightest engineers and programmers in the company. For those of you that like names, let’s call the company …
Betrayal at Neverwinter Mod 6(If you’re not into MMORPGs, Neverwinter mod 6 in particular, do yourself a favor and skip this.) You say you want me to help you kill a dragon? Times must be worse than I thought when you have to scour taverns to get a group together. Still, like myself, I …
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