Freezer Not Cooling? Check The Compressor Start Relay
After enduring a long, brutal Texas summer, in a grand display of irony, my chest freezer—a Hotpoint HHM7SMWW—gave out during a winter cold snap. My wife caught it quickly, but not quickly enough—the upper layer was already flirting with unsafe temperatures. A few...
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...
Why is An Engineer So Brutally Honest But Still Can’t Read A Schedule?
For a marketing person, introducing a potential customer to an engineer is the stuff nightmares are made from. Engineers can be brutally honest about technology. Note I said technology. We’re perfectly capable of lying. Ask us about schedule, percent complete,...
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...
Why Would An Engineer Find Gordon Ramsay Entertaining?
One of the major differences between my wife and I is the way we view food. My wife likes to savor new foods and enjoy the delicate interplay between the seasonings. Me, I’m more concerned about how long it takes to prepare and eat. My wife accuses me of only...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
Do Electronics Have Feelings? How Can You Doubt It?This morning as I left the shower, I heard my wife barking out orders to Alexa in a very forceful tone. Although Alexa has become an essential fixture in our life when she becomes confused, we tend raise our volume and enunciate very clearly. Almost like we were chastising her …
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 Design Principle Frequently ForgottenIn his lectures on rhetoric, Professor Michael Drout said write what your audience needs to hear, not what you want to say. Each time he said that I nodded my head in agreement. This concept was important enough that he repeated it several times at various points in his lecture. …
How Much Memory Is A Megabyte?I’m constantly amazed when I encounter people who have no idea how to interpret their file sizes. Then I started writing this and I realized that a lot of this was very confusing. Almost like it was deliberately planned but I’m certainly not at liberty to tell you that. Let’s …
Is Windows 10 So Bad I Should Consider Using Linux?If you’ve ever been frustrated to tears by some of the “enhancements” Microsoft has added to Windows over the years, sooner or later you’ll consider using Linux. As I’m writing this on my Windows 10 laptop, Microsoft has already told me that my version of Word is out of date, asked me …