From the Doghouse
A look at dogs having fun
Poser Gallery
My gallery of pictures I’ve created in Poser
My Science Fiction and Fantasy stories
Stories I’ve written
Nature by Carol
A look at the less technical side of life
Want To Be A Great Writer? You Need Great Characters
Why 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 rewriting it....
Why All The Negative Political Ads? Are Politicians Afraid Of A Position?
I just finished exercising my political rights by voting against all the candidates so far from my own political views that I had no choice but to vote for their opposition. Looking back on my experience, I realize every vote I made was for the lessor evil. I did my...
How To Get A Solar Powered Potting Table. Married To An Engineer
I’m not going to say I was manipulated into my solar powered potting table but looking back at it, the signs were there. Shortly before our anniversary, my Wife started showing me potting tables made by other men for their wives. The thing was, none of these tables...
Prusa MK3S, Built In Self Destruct Or Swiss Cheese Theory of Failure
I’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 my heat...
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...
A Look At Class Action Suits Using the Google+ Settlement
When my sister asked me to write a post on class action suits, I greeted it with all the enthusiasm shown to managers showing up at the last minute asking for a white paper, before close of business. Never mind that the need has been languishing on their desk for the...
Random Posts
The Solar Powered Chicken Coop Fan ProjectSummers in Texas are brutal, especially if you’re a chicken locked up in your coop every evening. Sure, it’s for their own protection but on those evenings with little or no breeze, it can get very stuffy. Adding an electric fan would help but running a 200 foot extension cord was out of the question. […]
Bank of America, I Hear You CallingAfter reading my last post, my wife suggested I address one particular vampire. I’m doing two because I’m amazed at how long one of these vampires has been around. Over the last month both she and I have been getting daily text messages from “BOA”, “B of America” and finally “Bank of America” to call […]
An Engineer Muses On Fictional WritingIf you’ve seen the movie, Apollo 13, you remember the scene where the mission director comes in with a box of stuff dumps it on the desk and says this is what we’ve got, make it work. I don’t think there’s an engineer out there who wouldn’t love to have that challenge. Just watching the […]
Random Posts
Musings On The Effectivity Of Lessons Learned DatabasesPeople frequently suggest use of a Lessons Learned database as a best practice. Many companies have invested large amounts of time and money in creating those databases. Both the exceptional projects, where nothing goes wrong, and the plagued-ridden projects that quickly become fodder for our nightmares, provide ample lessons learned. It’s not that I don’t […]
To Mask Or Not To Mask, Why Is There Even A Question?2020 certainly was nothing like what we anticipated. We have politicians giving medical advice and orders based on nothing but their own fears and pocketbooks. We have doctors absolutely amazed that we’re ignoring their advice. Really, when was the last time you had a doctor explain anything clearly to you. Don’t get me wrong I […]
Congress, Too Focused on Being Politicians? – Part 2There’s an old saying “The enemy of my enemy is my ally”. Congress has certainly made me see the truth of that. My Mother-in-Law is a very nice person that shares my love of technology. There’s two topics where we are polar opposites, choice of computer platforms and politics. I can usually get past her […]
Random Posts
Why Do We Feel the Need To Revise History?I’ve always liked the mystique of being a Texan. While I miss that six foot plus ruggedly handsome stereotype by several inches and …on second thought, several inches is as far as I will admit. Every country I’ve been to fully expected to see me wearing boots, six gun and a ten gallon hat. I […]
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 engineer you’ve ever seen and […]
Too Good For Your Career?When you design a game you have two classes of gamers that you have to consider, those that are content doing the same thing over and over to get a high score and those that want new challenges, new levels, and new areas to explore. If people don’t find what they want in your game, […]
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
Needed, A Balanced Approach To Positive CommunicationRecently I received a thought provoking email from a friend resolving to take a more positive approach in his communications about people. I applaud his motives and had written this post on that issue but I realized that this is not the simple issue I was trying to make it. …
The Forces That InfluenceIf you’re a book lover there’s almost always that first book that seems to have a major impact on your life. It’s probably not the first book you read or even the first book you liked. It may not even seem important at the time. It is one that you …
Bell, Book and iPadWhen it comes to understanding women I often feel that my engineering background is a handicap. My entire career has been based on evaluating data, solving problems and looking beyond the obvious to find a root cause. All of which seems to be completely useless when it comes to dealing …
Terms and Conditions, a CautionEvery once in a while I read something that screams for a post. That’s the case with this news story, http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/02/tech/couple-fined-for-negative-review/. I’m not going to repeat all the details but it describes a couple who placed and order for a product they never received. Although they tried their best they …
TechnolustIt should come as no surprise to anyone that reads this blog that I suffer from Technolust. I certainly won’t die from it (that is unless my wife discovers how much I paid for my latest video card). This means that although I can’t always afford it, I always want …