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
Why Does the Net Neutrality Fight Look Like A 1970’s Wrestling Script?
It’s times like this that I feel fortunate to only have ten loyal readers. You see, much to my eternal embarrassment, I used to spend my Sunday mornings watching wrestling. That was a long time ago and I was fairly sure it was fake staged but the constant battle of...
Customer Retention, A Forgotten Concept Or Counting On Our Laziness
I just finished deleting Opinionbypen. No, not this version of my blog obviously. I’m talking about the version hosted at GoDaddy. This year when my renewal rolled around, GoDaddy rewarded my tenure with a rate increase. Having been with then for five years, they...
If You Want To Become A Better Writer, First Become A Better Listener
Six years ago, when I started Opinionbypen, I had a goal to become a better writer. Somehow I assumed that the constant practice provided by weekly posts would miraculously improve my writing. That’s certainly not the first thing I’ve ever been wrong about. Think...
Dessert Selection, A Description of One Engineer’s Decision Process
My wife constantly tells me that nobody but an engineer thinks the way I do. I say she’s exaggerating but in an attempt to keep peace in the family I’ve agreed to a test. I'll write about an ordinary decision process and leave it up to my readers. The Decision In Fort...
An AI Assistant Comparison, Alexa, Google and Folgers?
Once they hit the market, it was a given that sooner or later I would acquire one of the AI assistants on the market. The only thing holding me back was bandwidth and cost. When Google dropped the price on their mini and Amazon dropped the price on their Dot. I was...
A Very Personal Look At The Engineering Decision Making Process
I've written a number of posts about how engineers think and make decisions, so I was stunned when my Wife questioned my decision making process and demanded details. My first response was to deny any malfeasance on my part but when I recovered my composure I realized...
Random Posts
Time Travel, We All Do ItRead enough science fiction and sooner or later the subject of time travel will come up. I think we all agree that time travel is not only possible, it’s inevitable. We are always traveling forward in time at a more or less fixed rate. I say more or less because our rate of time travel […]
DALL-E versus Poser Image Generation, Both Have Their Place[Fair warning – I’m cheap, my website is slow and this is very picture intensive. It will load slowly] When I started Opinionbypen.com, I quickly learned that people wanted pictures. There’s a number of photo sites out there but between usage rights and finding the right picture, I quickly turned to Poser as a way […]
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 […]
Random Posts
A Followup to Amazon Polly and My Solar FountainI live in Texas because I enjoy the hot summers, mild winters and the food. Well, also because my wife has told me she’s not moving out of Texas. What I really dread is springtime when my allergies kick into overtime and I feel like a druggie looking for my next Claritin fix. The majority […]
Want To Try Some AI Song Writing? Songer Makes It Very Easy.It’s an unfortunate truth that music plays a very small part of my life. So small that I’ve always felt handicapped as a writer because I don’t appreciate music. That probably stems from a lack of rhythm, I have none. I can’t even clap in time to music. Having lived with that all my life, […]
Lifetime Updates and Lifetime Warranties, Scam Or Real Value?When I was comparing back up software, Acronis, Paragon and Aomei, the licensing terms were very different. Paragon provided updates until they released another major update. Acronis would update you for that year’s version. Unlike the others, for an extra $30 Aomei would give me lifetime updates. In order to do the review, I bought […]
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Amazon vs Hachette, A Consumer’s ViewIn the current argument between Amazon and Hachette, I’m not qualified to discuss the finer details of price points and author royalties. What I can discuss is my opinion and my response as a consumer. I don’t expect anything I say to influence Hachette. I think they see e-books as a threat to their existence […]
How The FCC Wants To Improve Rural InternetI 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 intentions were good. Avoiding the […]
Dragon Naturally Speaking , a User’s ReviewThis post is going to represent an experiment. I’ve recently acquired Dragon naturally speaking . For some reason every time I start writing I think how much better it would be if I could dictate rather than type. I’ve actually bought Dragon speaking naturally three times in my lifetime and each time it was slightly […]
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
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, …
Fathers DayGrowing up in my house it was easy to assume which of my parents was smarter. My mother was a bookkeeper and then a journalist. My father was a lithographer who ran a printing press. My mother represented books and knowledge. My father represented hunting, fishing and sports. I wanted …
Windows 10 Versus Chromebook, What Does Intregity Have To Do With It?I’m writing this on a Chromebook. Think of it more as an experiment rather than a review of Chromebook capabilities. Why? When my wife asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I saw it as an opportunity to upgrade my computer. A little research and I realized that in order …
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 …
Why Can’t I get The Internet Speed I’m Paying For?This year my electric company made me a deal I couldn’t refuse, 1000 Mbps Internet. Only two years ago, I was still living with two very questionable ADSL lines from AT&T. On a good day I might get 1.2 Mbps. Last year T-Mobile Home offered service in my area and …