Shelby, We Miss You
Our first and oldest Australian Shepherd, Shelby, died early Monday morning. Her death was a natural one brought about by old age. We knew it was coming but the knowledge did little to soften the loss. She spent fifteen too short years with us, having joined our...
Where Have All The Mentors Gone?
It’s easy to forget there was a time before the Internet, before YouTube and before Facebook. Nowadays if you want to know how to change the power window motor on your 1994 Ford pickup, you pull up Google and do a search. Odds are good that someone has made a...
Sundae Explains Why Fashion Changes
While engineers are far more challenged by fashion than most of our species, I don’t believe a lack of fashion sense is limited to engineers. I have the basic rules down, well as long as I’m wearing nothing more than business casual. Throw a tie into the mix and I...
Half Full or Half Empty, An Engineer’s Viewpoint
My 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...
Windows 10 Upgrade, Can You Trust Microsoft?
Somehow a discussion of trust seems very appropriate as Microsoft starts rolling out Windows 10 for free. Are they doing this to apologize for the mess they made of Windows 8? Are they hoping that giving free upgrades will convince Windows 7 users to upgrade? And if...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
A Late Mother’s Day Praise For Mother NatureIt’s amazing how fast time passes. This makes my fourth Mother’s Day post since I started Opinionbypen. Okay, last year was a political piece but I dedicated it to both my Mother and Mother-in-Law because of their strong interest in politics. Given how tough it is to have good SEO …
Why Do I Care If My Random Number Generator Isn’t RandomI’m always amazed at how little interest people take in probability and random numbers. Is that RAND function in Excel really random? Is it possible to synchronize two random number generators and predict numbers? What is a weak random number generator and why would you want one? There’s an entire …
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 …
Married To An Engineer: We See Problems DifferentlySeveral years ago, there was a study on the differences in the way dogs and wolves interacted with people. Now I’m not going to insult your intelligence by comparing engineers to wolves but the study did reveal an intriguing similarity. Like wolves, Engineers see problems differently than our counterparts. When …
2023, I’m Very Glad To See It End2023 is now firmly in my rear view mirror and I have zero feelings of nostalgia. It was tough losing two of our beloved dogs to cancer. Sundae had been a part of our family for 14 years, leaving a significant void, and even though Hilde was with us for …