What’s The Bottom Line On Tariffs? How Much Will They Cost Me?

Tariffs are a tax nations charge on imported or exported goods. The importer always pays the tax, and the money always goes straight into the pockets of the country imposing the tariff. But don’t be fooled—while the importer technically pays the tax, the cost always...

French Culture, I’m Forced To Admit I Was Wrong

My father returned from WW2 with pieces of shrapnel slowly working their way out of his body and a deep and abiding hatred of the French. I don’t know about you and your father, but mine never wanted to discuss the details. I never knew his reasons, but he passed his...

What Can Spirit Animals Teach Us About Today’s America?

This week, while perusing my feed on Bluesky, I stumbled upon a post in which someone shared that she had just learned that crows can hold a grudge for 17 years and thus declared crows as her new spirit animal. While many responses expressed surprise or shared their...

From the Doghouse

A look at dogs having fun

Poser Gallery

My gallery of pictures I’ve created in Poser

Nature by Carol

A look at the less technical side of life

OTR Mobile, A Review

OTR Mobile, A Review

OTR Mobile is not the Internet solution you’re looking for and whatever you do, don’t expect any money back from them. At $60 a month, OTR Mobile seemed like a no brainer decision. they offered me as much as 10 mps, almost 7 times than what my archaic ADSL service...

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Random Posts

  • BYOD, a Rallying Cry For RevolutionBYOD, a Rallying Cry For Revolution
    BYOD, Bring Your Own Device, is a relatively new term. It reflects the desire of employees to use their own tablet, iPad or Android device rather than using the device provided by their company. I’ve been here before and it’s nothing less than a revolution, not one of violence or guns but one of computers […]
  • Makerspace for Young and Old EngineersMakerspace for Young and Old Engineers
    I was doing some research for this post when I stumbled onto the Makerspace site for Dallas. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard the term before but you could think of as a gathering for innovators, people willing to share their knowledge and skills with other people wanting to learn. Looking at their website, […]
  • A Brief Guided Tour of an Engineer’s Thought ProcessA Brief Guided Tour of an Engineer’s Thought Process
    I’m going to break a few rules today. I’m going to take you on a guided tour of an engineer’s thought process. Just in case you know an engineer and realize just how easily we get distracted, we’ll keep this very focused with no detours allowed. My particular brand of engineering is electrical but except […]

Random Posts

  • Outsourcing Our Mind To Gadgets, The Sad Case For HumanityOutsourcing Our Mind To Gadgets, The Sad Case For Humanity
    When my wife was complaining that she no longer remembered any phone numbers, her phone took care of that, I remembered something Kurzweil said in his book, we were outsourcing our mind to our machines. Remembering phone numbers is certainly not the only function we’ve outsourced to our gadgets. I used to pride myself on […]
  • 2023, I’m Very Glad To See It End2023, I’m Very Glad To See It End
    2023 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 just under a year, her […]
  • Why Do I Care If My Random Number Generator Isn’t RandomWhy Do I Care If My Random Number Generator Isn’t Random
    I’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 branch of mathematics devoted to […]

Random Posts

  • Heidi’s Heavenly Cookies, WowHeidi’s Heavenly Cookies, Wow
    I enjoy writing this blog because I’m not constrained to a single topic. Today is all about cookies. Let me set the background. I love cookies. Everyone who knows me knows I love cookies. The only thing that lured me off my Atkins diet was cookies. My Food Scout quickly learned how much I loved […]
  • Closing Out 2019 In Bits And PiecesClosing Out 2019 In Bits And Pieces
    I admit it. Sometimes very logical conclusions completely escape me. I started Opinionbypen because I realized I was too isolated. At the time it never occurred to me that nobody cared. In order to people to take time out of their life and read my blog, they have to get something in return. When I […]
  • Apathy, How To Waste Your VoteApathy, How To Waste Your Vote
    Over the last few months I’ve had some very harsh words for our politicians in Washington. My Mother-in-law pointed out that the politicians really aren’t to blame for our current situation. They may be totally incompetent and dysfunctional but it’s not their fault they are in office. The only reason they are in office is […]

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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

  • All I Want For Christmas is Rural High Speed InternetAll I Want For Christmas is Rural High Speed Internet
    All I want for Christmas is rural high speed Internet. Well, at least my area of rural America with unlimited data while I’m wishing. As ridiculous as that sounds, it’s true for me and an ever increasing number of people living in rural America. With all the advances made in technology, …
  • Do Electronics Have Feelings? How Can You Doubt It?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 …
  • A Guide To Your Valentine’s Day ChocolateA Guide To Your Valentine’s Day Chocolate
    Valentine’s day is always difficult for me. I love my wife but I have trouble remembering an arbitrary date hyped by advertising agencies to make poor fools like myself feel like lesser creatures if we don’t shower our wives with chocolate and presents.  If you’ve read my previous Valentine’s Day posts, …
  • Making Decisions Based On Website DataMaking Decisions Based On Website Data
    If there’s an engineer in your life, you know how utterly fascinated we are by data. We use data to make purchases, to troubleshoot and to make important decisions. In How to Argue with an Engineer, I told you how engineers use data to support our arguments. It should come as …
  • How The FCC Wants To Improve Rural InternetHow The FCC Wants To Improve Rural Internet
    I caught on to Santa Claus fairly early in life. It’s unfortunate then that it took me so long to realize that, despite their strongly spoken rhetoric, my government really doesn’t care about helping me. Sometimes this truth is so evident that I question my intelligence in ever believing their …
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