Outsourcing Our Mind To Gadgets, The Sad Case For Humanity
When my wife was complaining that she no longer remembered any phone numbers, her phone took care of that, I remembered something Kurzweil said in his book, we were outsourcing our mind to our machines. Remembering phone numbers is certainly not the only function...
Married To An Engineer, Sometimes You Have To Call The Professionals
Sometimes you have to call the professionals. In a story, you have time to develop all your characters. You let the reader discover how they look, how they react and their motivations. Good writers do it seamlessly. Too bad I’m not that good (yet), so, I’m taking the...
Opinionbypen 2016 Goals in Review, How Well Did I Do?
I force my wife to read the first draft of all my posts. I’ve found that this keeps me out of trouble with her and gives me some insight on how people will feel when they read it. I mention that because after reading this post she said I always seemed sad when...
Married To An Engineer, The Christmas Dinner Dilemma
I just discovered that I’ll be having steak for Christmas dinner instead of the ham everyone else will be having. Truthfully, I don’t see this as a bad thing but I hate to see this happen simply because my wife and I don’t seem to communicate on the...
All I Want For Christmas is Rural High Speed Internet
All 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...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
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 …
If You Want To Become A Better Writer, First Become A Better ListenerSix years ago, when I started Opinionbypen, I had a goal to become a better writer. Somehow I assumed that the constant practice provided by weekly posts would miraculously improve my writing. That’s certainly not the first thing I’ve ever been wrong about. Think about it this way. Suppose I …
First Thoughts on Flying a Phantom DJ3 Advanced QuadcopterSeveral years ago, I found myself admiring a friend’s F16 RC model. It was almost five feet from nose to tail and although it had single ducted fan motor in the body to replicate the jet engine of the F16, it was supposed to be one of the fastest models out there. It …
Reliability, Warranty and Why Nothing Lasts As Long As It Used ToFive years ago I had to make an emergency run to Fry’s because the video card in my wife’s computer had died and she had a raid scheduled with her gaming guild. With a wide selection of high end cards, I selected her current card because it had a lifetime …
Why Is It So Hard To Leave A Comment?The majority of Website owners want you to leave comments. After all, the only reason their site exists is for you to visit. Comments show you took enough time reading the post to make your comment. So why is it so hard to leave a comment? Why do these websites …