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
Companies Not Reading Your Complaints? You’re Probably Dealing With A Chatbot
Ever write to a company about a problem and their response made it obvious they weren't reading your message? No, it's not your spouse moonlighting as customer support. Odds are, you've just encountered a chatbot. Chatbots have been around as long as I've been...
Closing 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...
The Overly Contemplative Writer’s Dilemma, How Do I Spend My Time?
It’s amazing how far we go to kill time. I have a firm rule when I travel, I never turn the TV on. This is supposed to encourage me to write, read or catch up on Audio books. To re-enforce this, I have no games on my phone or tablet. Nor do I have Facebook. You would...
3D Printed Christmas Presents, A Good Idea Or Not?
One of the attractions of a 3D printer is all the money you can save with 3D printed Christmas presents. I mean who wouldn't want that collection of cute animal figures you've been printing. Never mind that it took sixty hours to print and that they could find better...
The Me Too Movement, One Woman’s Opinion
I want to make it very clear that this was not written by me. I could give the standard disclaimer about the opinions expressed here and so on but as a male, I’m not qualified to express an opinion on the topic. However, as a woman who has spent over forty years in...
Why 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...
Random Posts
Patent Reform, We Should Demand ItThere is no easier way to get me to jump on a soapbox than to start a discussion on patents. While I fully support the concept of patents and I feel that the inventor should be rewarded for his efforts, I just don’t think that’s the way our system is working. Nor do I think many […]
SEO, How You Got Here Without Intending ToDespite the title I’m not going to tell you how to improve the SEO on your website. If you have a website, you really do need to understand SEO but I’m not the one to tell you. Instead I’m going to tell you what SEO is and how it affects your searches on the web […]
What I Learned From Udacity About LinkedIn Getting HackedThe only thing keeping me from doing my victory dance at the moment is the presence of my wife in the living room. Like many of the people in my profession I’m a member of LinkedIn, so I was very concerned when I heard LinkedIn had been hacked. Then why the urge to do a […]
Random Posts
The Importance Of Good Grammar, A Mathematic LookEvery once in a while I have to let my inner engineer interact with the real world. I apologize to you now but this post is the result of one of those times. About a year ago I wrote a post bemoaning the confusing rules of writing. It’s my nature to look at a system […]
The Great Courses, I Almost Missed ThemI have a long list of topics for blogs sitting in my Dropbox folder. I even have a few unfinished posts that would only take a short time to finish. The problem is that nothing appeals to me as a subject and I try to do at least one new post a week. Being completely […]
Trust In The Digital Age, Has The Definition Changed?I want to ask you the question. If Target announced that it was having a 50% off sale today and you could only use your credit card but they assured you that you could not get hacked, would you do it? My guess is no. Simply speaking, they have lost your trust in their ability […]
Random Posts
The Way We Present Numbers Reveals A Lot About UsThe first time I saw Spock turn to Captain Kirk and say, “This plan only has a 5.377 percent probability of success,” I was hooked. Spock was able to use his massive intellect and compute the probability of the Enterprise surviving an encounter with the Romulans to three decimal places. That one action immediately earned […]
Does Communication Method Influence Thought?I want to confess that my previous post was an experiment in communication. No, there’s no subliminal messages or hidden phrases. It wasn’t written using a random buzzword generator. Instead, it was written almost completely by dictating it to Dragon Naturally Speaking. Hmm, I see by the expression on your face, you don’t understand why […]
Married to an Engineer – Part 3, Brussel SproutsOver all the years my wife and I have been married one thing has remained constant, I hate Brussel sprouts. I’ve eaten stuff all over the world but nothing that tastes as bad as those little green balls of cabbage. When the marriage was still young my wife tried serving them to me in a […]
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
Poser Debut, an Engineer’s ReviewI think Smith Micro has a real hit with Poser Debut. As a engineer I’ve always been impressed by an artist’s ability to convey a message using a minimum of information. If I want to represent a bird in a picture I immediately think of feathers, beak, eyes and wings. …
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 that’s the case, …
An Engineer’s PerspectiveI admit it, I went into engineering because I enjoy solving problems. When I look at something I think about the design techniques employed and the ways to use it in practice. I think about possible improvements, design trade-offs and always enjoy seeing new technology. If you see me staring …
A Mother’s Day Post On Political ChangeI should explain why I’m doing a political post for Mother’s Day. Last year I explained that I have to consider both my Mother and my Mother-in-law. When it comes to this blog both of them have given me strong encouragement to continue writing. They’ve only expressed one minor disappointment, …
Tired Of Being Spied On? Support Data Gathering TaxesIt’s fall again and with the lower temperatures I tend to take longer showers. Those of you that visit my site frequently know what that means, more time for me to think about solving world problems. My first shower of the season and I think I’ve really found a gem …
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