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...
How My Wife Caused A Microwave To Be An Engineering Dilemma
I guess you could say my dilemma started somewhere over twelve years ago when a Panasonic engineer in the microwave division made a poor decision. Then again, Panasonic continued to build these long after the defect was obvious. He may have received a hefty bonus for...
Why Did Amazon Kill Amazon Explore? It Was Becoming Great.
Why did Amazon kill Amazon explore? Let me start this rant by admitting I am an Amazon fan. I love the large selection of merchandise and the quick delivery. I’m a member of Prime and I frequently use their credit card. Still, they do enough boneheaded things that I...
Married To An Engineer: When Does Repair Become Replace?
“I know engineers better than that! They would never throw away a 3D printer that quit working without trying to repair it first.” These words were exclaimed by my wife as she watched a credit card commercial showing engineers trashing a malfunctioning printer and...
The SainSmart Jinsoku LC-40 Laser Engraver, A Review
I’ve always been fascinated by lasers. When I was much younger, I tried to make one using an LED and a transistor for amplification. Fortunately physics was against me and I think we’re all happy my attempt was a failure. That failure did nothing to diminish my...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
Victory DanceAmong engineers there is a deep dark secret. After something goes incredibly right or when we find the solution to a problem that has been plaguing us for month , we do a victory dance. Mine is fairly vanilla but it’s also on a purely involuntary basis. Think about every …
Half Full or Half Empty, An Engineer’s ViewpointMy wife will confirm that living with an engineer is different. It’s not just that we tend to be socially inept or even standoffish. We see the world differently and until you spend time with one of us you can’t comprehend how differently. All my life I’ve listened to people describe …
Want To Be A Great Writer? You Need Great CharactersWhy this topic? Why now? Perhaps an explanation is in order. Recently I had to send a white paper I had written several years ago to a colleague having similar problems. Prior to sending it, I took the time to read it and almost spent the rest of the day …
WaitingJust as I feared, I got the wrong name for my website. It’s a very small thing but still annoying. I had selected OpinionByPen.com and then realized I might want more than one opinion. Easily fixed or so I thought. I then registered OpinionsByPen.com but my hosting account was still …
Windows 8While it seems like a year ago, it was only a few months ago that one of the primary initiators for this blog happened. Microsoft released the Windows 8 beta. With the exception of Vista, I’ve always tried to use the latest version of Windows. When Microsoft released the Windows …
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