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
Married To An Engineer, The Christmas Dinner Dilemma
I just discovered that I'll be having steak for Christmas dinner instead of the ham everyone else will be having. Truthfully, I don't see this as a bad thing but I hate to see this happen simply because my wife and I don't seem to communicate on the meaning of like...
All 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...
I Need You To Stop Watching Me, An Engineer’s Confession
Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean no one is watching you. There’s a lot of truth to that statement. All my life, people have been watching me. No, I don’t mean spies, foreign agents or even the NSA. Not that I'm dismissing the notion that they might be lurking...
Most of My Knowledge Started With Failure
There are people who say I have an enormous ego, not that I disagree. I’ve gone so far as to write about my ego, although in that post I attributed my ego to being an engineer. There are even a few people who believe I deserve to have a big ego. So much for truth...
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...
How To Take Part In A DDoS Attack Without Even Trying
This last Friday was a busy day for many of us. For my part, I was flying back to Texas after a brief business trip but if the numbers are to be believed, many of you were taking part in a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack that affected much of the Internet....
Random Posts
Married To An Engineer, The New CarBefore you start reading, I should warn you that this post has a lot of math. It’s not complicated, it’s not difficult and you really don’t need to follow the math to get the point I’m trying to make but the math is there. I only want you to see that I don’t think differently than you […]
Don’t Be Seduced by TechnologyWhen it comes to new technology most of us are familiar with the terms “Bleeding edge” “leading edge” and “legacy”. Bleeding edge is the latest and greatest. It’s just beginning to show up in the hands of a few tech savvy consumers. We call it bleeding because it’s a given that you will endure pain. […]
The Amazing Windows 8 Strategy, Thank You MicrosoftLet’s admit it, the last few years have been great for us geeks. At no other time in history has our fascination with technology been in so much demand. The fact that I could fix your computer, explain why Windows wasn’t working well and set up your router made it worthwhile for you to add […]
Random Posts
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 […]
Do Dogs Have Psychic Powers?I’d like you to consider the possibility that dogs have managed to develop a psychic bond with us. I know the animal psychologists say that dogs are extremely perceptive and watch us for small clues. That’s why our dogs turn into a pack of whirling dervishes when my wife gets her car keys. They know […]
Small Talk, How This Engineer Learned To Enjoy ItIt should come as no surprise that I regard social get togethers as a form of state sanctioned torture. There’s multiple reasons but the main issue is small talk. There’s no polite way to say how much I suck at small talk. At first mention of the train wreck to be of the current Bachelor […]
Random Posts
An Engineer’s Observations On Becoming A Better SupervisorThere was a time, long ago, when I thought the design was everything. Not to brag, but I was really good at it. I did the hardware, the software and the testing. I was a one man show. Fortunately, my management recognized this limited the complexity of the designs I was able to produce for […]
Email Scam or Luckiest Man Alive?I must be the luckiest man alive. Three weeks ago when I was looking at my bills and wondering how I was going to pay them, I got an email from an attorney in England. Some wealthy relative I didn’t even know about had died and left me his fortune. I immediately sent them all […]
Opinionbypen 2016 Goals in Review, How Well Did I Do?I force my wife to read the first draft of all my posts. I’ve found that this keeps me out of trouble with her and gives me some insight on how people will feel when they read it. I mention that because after reading this post she said I always seemed sad when summarizing my […]
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
How To Torture An Engineer, An Engineer’s Wife Shows You The WayEver wonder how to torture an engineer? You know you want to get rid of that smug know it all attitude. No, I’m not talking about staking us to an antbed. Over the years, my wife has developed some very effective techniques. Let me share an example with you. Last …
Stop Insulting My Intelligence, A Rant For The Rest Of UsI’m tired of people insulting my intelligence. No, I don’t mean the comments on Opinionbypen suggesting my writing is only slightly better than what my dogs could write or the few choice words my supervisor uses after reading my latest progress report. I’m not even talking about the 500 emails …
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 …
Creating An Alexa Podcast For OpinionByPen Using Amazon PollyIn my previous post I took you on my journey to add Amazon’s speech synthesizer Polly to Opinionbypen. I have to admit I did this as an excuse to play with some of the emerging technologies offered by Amazon. Although there were a few minor obstacles along the way, Amazon …
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 …