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...
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...
On The Design Of My New Business Card
About 40 years ago, during a period of self-discovery, I chanced upon a handwriting analysis book. Naturally, I used the book to analyze my own handwriting. What hidden aspects of my personality might it reveal? We won’t go into the gritty details, but the picture it...
Why Did My Electric Blanket Fail? An Autopsy Into Its Death
My electric blanket was just your typical, everyday electric blanket, barely a year old and lightly used. It came with a promising five-year warranty, a promise that quickly dissolved into nothing when the supplier conveniently went out of business or changed their...
Customer Service, Why The L8 Is My Last Sainsmart Product
When it comes to technology, I tend to have a pretty staunch brand loyalty. It’s not just about the tech meeting my needs; if two products are similar in technology and capability, the price isn’t as big a deal to me as the brand itself. However, there’s another...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
TNSTAAFL, Windows 10TNSTAAFL, There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Microsoft’s continuing antics to coerce me, by hook, crook or outright trickery, into accepting their free upgrade to Windows 10 brought this phrase to mind. Microsoft is hardly a nonprofit organization and I doubt that are trying to apologize to all …
Prusa MK3S, Built In Self Destruct Or Swiss Cheese Theory of FailureI’m writing to warn all the Prusa MK3S owners about a built in self destruct mechanism in your printer. Avoiding it is easy, not avoiding it cost me over $100 and took my printer down for over a week. It all started when I started seeing bare copper traces on …
An AI Assistant Comparison, Alexa, Google and Folgers?Once they hit the market, it was a given that sooner or later I would acquire one of the AI assistants on the market. The only thing holding me back was bandwidth and cost. When Google dropped the price on their mini and Amazon dropped the price on their Dot. …
Amazon’s Secret Weapon, No Will Call LinesWhen I needed 200 aluminum fence stays, I found them for $19 at Amazon and $11 at Lowe’s but I still bought them from Amazon. The decision wasn’t made because I’m a loyal dedicated Amazon shopper. It was a simple matter of economics. When I calculated all the costs, Amazon …
Sequestration, Escrow and Congressional Cuts, An IdeaThink about this. You’ve known for a while that your company was having some issues. Your company seems to be slipping in its market position and recently the board of directors can’t seem to agree on anything. Your manager calls you into his office to tell you that the board …