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
They Make It So Easy to Sign Up, Why Do They Make So Hard to Cancel?
Why is it so easy to sign up for a service and yet so hard to cancel that same service? The current trend in business lets you sign up with nothing more than a credit card and an internet connection but when time comes to end the relationship, they make it as...
Married To An Engineer – Change Is Inevidable, For You
As I wrote in Married to an Engineer Part 1, living with an engineer isn’t for everybody. Not only do you have to put up with someone you often suspect loves technology more than you but living with an engineer will change you in more ways than you ever anticipated. I...
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman, Too Enjoyable?
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman was an unexpected treat. You would expect a collection of lectures from a Nobel Winning particle physicist to be dry, containing lots of math and another incomprehensible discussion on why they believe certain...
Lifetime Updates and Lifetime Warranties, Scam Or Real Value?
When I was comparing back up software, Acronis, Paragon and Aomei, the licensing terms were very different. Paragon provided updates until they released another major update. Acronis would update you for that year’s version. Unlike the others, for an extra $30 Aomei...
Baby Knowledge, An Important Concept In Being Understood
When we moved out to our ranch, my wife had to impress on me that horses were not merely big dogs that we could ride. Wagging their tail does not indicate pleasure at seeing you. Rolling on the ground doesn’t always mean their back itches and yawning certainly doesn’t...
The Way We Present Numbers Reveals A Lot About Us
The first time I saw Spock turn to Captain Kirk and say, "This plan only has a 5.377 percent probability of success," I was hooked. Spock was able to use his massive intellect and compute the probability of the Enterprise surviving an encounter with the Romulans to...
Random Posts
Idle Thoughts on TeleportationI don’t know how it is with other engineers but I don’t idle well. When I’m supposed to be having fun at the company picnic or at a social gathering, small talk is just not something I want to take part in. Working out the details of a design in my head is fun but […]
When Did the Definition of Unlimited Change?It always irritates me when I see commercials preying on our stupidity. I guess that’s why watching Sprint’s commercial extolling how their reliability is within one percent of everyone else, always results in my wife having to endure a rant on the difference between reliability and coverage. My lecture on the difference is usually cut […]
Bell, Book and iPadWhen it comes to understanding women I often feel that my engineering background is a handicap. My entire career has been based on evaluating data, solving problems and looking beyond the obvious to find a root cause. All of which seems to be completely useless when it comes to dealing with my wife. I feel […]
Random Posts
Data Mining For Personality CluesI find understanding people every bit as difficult as trying to crack an encrypted file. I spend a lot more time at trying to understand people because I believe communication requires mutual understanding. While taking Udacity’s Cryptography course I learned about the use of side channels to help in decrypting messages. A side channel was […]
The Importance Of Good Grammar, A Mathematic LookEvery once in a while I have to let my inner engineer interact with the real world. I apologize to you now but this post is the result of one of those times. About a year ago I wrote a post bemoaning the confusing rules of writing. It’s my nature to look at a system […]
The Solar Powered Chicken Coop Fan ProjectSummers in Texas are brutal, especially if you’re a chicken locked up in your coop every evening. Sure, it’s for their own protection but on those evenings with little or no breeze, it can get very stuffy. Adding an electric fan would help but running a 200 foot extension cord was out of the question. […]
Random Posts
- Idle Thoughts on TeleportationI don’t know how it is with other engineers but I don’t idle well. When I’m supposed to be having fun at the company picnic or at a social gathering, small talk is just not something I want to take part in. Working out the details of a design in my head is fun but […]
Bounce Rate, What It Means To Your Favorite SiteIn America we’re taught to tell someone something nice before we criticize them. I’ve never understood if this is supposed to soften the blow or if it’s a tool to boost their ego before it gets completely crushed. I’ve also been told by a few other cultures I work with that this is an American […]
Ramsay Hunt Syndrome, Three Years LaterI’d like to say that I wrote about my experience with Ramsay Hunt Syndrome for humanitarian reasons, maybe to share my story with other people suffering from the early phases, but those of you who know me would see right through that lie. I wrote that post to close out a chapter of my life and […]
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 Is It So Hard To Describe A Problem To An Engineer?If there’s an engineer in your life you already know the soul numbing frustration that comes from trying to describe a problem to an engineer. My poor Wife has suffered through this so many times she’s become a computer expert in self defense. Why is it so hard to work …
A Mother’s Day Post On Political ChangeI should explain why I’m doing a political post for Mother’s Day. Last year I explained that I have to consider both my Mother and my Mother-in-law. When it comes to this blog both of them have given me strong encouragement to continue writing. They’ve only expressed one minor disappointment, …
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 …
An Engineer Looks At AccountantsPut a group of engineers together discussing projects and sooner or later the discussion will turn to beancounters. No, beancounters aren’t an apparatus for counting individual beans, we use the term to refer to the accounting department. As you might guess, this is not a term of high regard. There’s …
Email, A Training Tool For Poor PerformanceIn a typical game you have a number of obstacles that you have to overcome. Overcome enough of them and you gain a level. Not unexpectedly, the designers of these games often use psychologists to maximize the rush of endorphins you get for each accomplishment. It should come as no …
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