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
The Rubbermaid 7’ x 10’ Shed, A Review
This is a review of the Rubbermaid 7’ x 10’ shed but my story begins with a humbling confession of my own ignorance. When I bought my dream ranch, complete with a charming old barn, I was blissfully unaware of the storm of frustration that lay ahead. Neither the barn...
What Happened To Conversation?
I remember the day I made my first and last comment on LinkedIn. It was a discussion on a manned Mars mission and how it should be abandoned because the odds against the voyagers surviving were high. I remarked that Columbus’ crew probably faced the same fears. Boy,...
Re-occurring Bills, Do The Companies Just Not Get It?
It’s that time of the month again, the week most of my bills come due. Prior to retirement, I gave very little thought to making insurance payments as they were automatically extracted from my paycheck. Retirement brought monthly insurance bills. Just thinking about...
Solar Powered Wyze Cameras, An Engineering Evolution
As with most engineering projects, it started with a need. In my case, as soon as I got high-speed Internet, I eagerly added several cameras. I chose Wyze because they are affordable, don’t require a monthly subscription, and offer excellent picture quality. Wanting...
Have A Message? Viewing Conversation As A Value Transaction
I've embedded an audio version of this post. Of course, the voice is AI generated but please let me know how you feel about this feature. Thanks! Ever get out of a meeting thinking that’s an hour of my life I’ll never get back? When you consider it, getting someone to...
Is Your Team Always Missing Deadlines? It Might Be You!
Perhaps it’s my background in electronic design speaking, but I’ve always regarded time as sacrosanct. Consider this: when you're designing a system that operates at 100 MHz, tolerating a signal that "usually" arrives on time is out of the question. Too late, or even...
Random Posts
Change, The Impact of iPad On Our LivesIf you had a time traveling camera and went back four years ago to my bedroom in the evening (mind out of the gutter) you would often see my wife and me reading our books before calling it a night. A year ago you would see us both reading our Kindles before calling it a […]
Married To An Engineer: When Does Repair Become Replace?“I know engineers better than that! They would never throw away a 3D printer that quit working without trying to repair it first.” These words were exclaimed by my wife as she watched a credit card commercial showing engineers trashing a malfunctioning printer and using a credit card to order a new printer. She was […]
Apathy, How To Waste Your VoteOver 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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Data Mining For Personality CluesI find understanding people every bit as difficult as trying to crack an encrypted file. I spend a lot more time at trying to understand people because I believe communication requires mutual understanding. While taking Udacity’s Cryptography course I learned about the use of side channels to help in decrypting messages. A side channel was […]
Handwriting as a training method?There are a number of people that would describe my personality as a tightly closed book, written in small font, in code. I wasn’t always this open. When I still lived in the city I had a ritual for starting my weekend. On Saturday morning I would walk to a used bookstore to pick out […]
Use It Or Lose It, A Cautionary Tale To All HusbandsWe’ve all heard the term, use it or lose it. All you have to do is look at the mess our current voting system is in to realize the truth of that statement. Still, I’ve promised that I’ll stay away from politics so I’ll let that one pass. In college I learned how to do […]
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Company Buyouts, Good For The Consumer?You’re justifiably proud of your waffle maker. It was a lesser-known brand, yet it cost half as much as its competitors, and its brilliant texture sensor guaranteed you got flawless waffles every time. Unfortunately, as soon as you plugged it in, someone mistook your power station for a drive-through, and just like that, your waffle […]
WaitingJust as I feared, I got the wrong name for my website. It’s a very small thing but still annoying. I had selected OpinionByPen.com and then realized I might want more than one opinion. Easily fixed or so I thought. I then registered OpinionsByPen.com but my hosting account was still under the previous name. As […]
Magic, An Engineer’s PerspectiveBeing an engineer isn’t easy. I don’t mean the bewilderment that comes with social interaction. I don’t mean dealing with math and science. I’m talking about trying to enjoy a good fantasy book. I’m drawn to fantasy because it gives me a vehicle to explore new concepts. The problem is that I automatically start thinking […]
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 Much Memory Is A Megabyte?I’m constantly amazed when I encounter people who have no idea how to interpret their file sizes. Then I started writing this and I realized that a lot of this was very confusing. Almost like it was deliberately planned but I’m certainly not at liberty to tell you that. Let’s …
Companies Not Reading Your Complaints? You’re Probably Dealing With A ChatbotEver 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 interested in computers. My first encounter …
Cloud Encryption, Prudent or Paranoia?On a typical day I’ll use Dropbox three or four times. It provides an almost seamless method of sharing files between my smartphone, either of my tablets (iPad and Android) and my PC. I also use Dropbox to share pictures and files with my Wife and Mother-in-law. As far as …
Symbols Of Power, The Exclamation PointThey say symbols have power. My first response as an engineer is to deny that. Symbols don’t have any power, the power of a symbol is based only on our perception of the symbol. You could say symbols represent power. If we’ve never seen the symbol or don’t recognize it, …
Thank You UdacityWhat do I like about Udacity? From ST101 Statistics that I just finished, to CS387 Cryptography that I will have to take again, I’ve enjoyed the challenge and the learning experience. The instructors enjoy their work and it shows. With a very professional appearance in videos, coursework and instructors, Udacity …