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
Contempt For Others, An Object Lesson
During my career I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some very skilled engineers. I’ve managed to learn from all of them but one stands out from the rest, not because he was such a good engineer, although he was, but rather because he taught me a very valuable...
Space Heaters, They Need Lots of Power
It's winter again in Texas. Most of the time, unless you're a farmer, that statement means very little to us but every once in a while it gets below freezing and we break out the space heaters. These little heaters are very useful in heating greenhouses, in heating...
Emotional Content as a Communication Protocol
I'm writing this post for all the other bewildered engineers out there. You're welcome to read on if you're not an engineer but I'm not sure what you'll glean from it. If you're familiar with communication theory you've already been introduced to the Nyquist theorem...
A Futuristic Design Concept, REPTILE
Today's post doesn't fall into any of my normal categories. It won't educate you or make you think about an issue. It won't give you a better idea of how to cope with an engineer (although you will see the imagination that my wife has to put up with). No, today I'm...
The Rise and Fall of a Power Zombie
We've all been told about the coming zombie apocalypse. We've seen the movies of the zombie hordes but the reality is here, now and it's far uglier. Forget the mindless searching for brains and more brains. That particular species of zombies accidentally migrated to...
A Question About Poor Customer Service
I often try to get you to comment on my blogs but today is a little different. I'm going to describe an issue I had with customer service about a year ago and I really want your opinion. Am I being petty? What have you done in a similar situation? What do you want the...
Random Posts
Communication, Google and a Nexus 7Communications has always been an important issue for me. Over my career, I’ve had to fix more problems caused by poor communications than anything else. These problems can be caused by someone assuming that their audience is in possession of more information than their actions suggest or by not responding to the question. If I […]
Why Do I Need To Change My Passwords So Frequently?I was in a discussion about passwords a few days ago when somebody mentioned that it was a good idea to change your passwords frequently. That sounds good on the face of it but if you have a strong password should you change it frequently? It’s that frequent changing that causes us write them down […]
Musings On Why Organizations Fail and How You Can Prevent ItJust after Easter, a friend told me about attending the last meeting of a club he had helped start almost 42 years ago. Their downfall was caused by a simple problem, nobody wanted to serve as officers. I suspect there were other factors too but considering the state of our government, we can certainly see […]
Random Posts
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. […]
The Zone, An Explanation For The Rest Of YouIt’s evening and your dearly beloved has been sitting at the computer for hours. You know that this obsession has something to do with the latest project but you aren’t sure of the details. With a smile, you decide to do something nice for your beloved. You pour a glass of their favorite beverage and […]
After The Crash, Comparing Backup Software, Acronis, Aomei and ParagonThe idea behind a software review is to give an unbiased appraisal of the program. Unfortunately most reviews are anything but unbiased. As hard as I tried, this review is no exception. After my experiences last month, I decided to see what else was out there for backup software. Given my love hate relationship with […]
Random Posts
The Polarization Of America, A Side Effect of Our Smart Phones?Last week when I discussed how we’re relying on our gadgets to outsource our minds. I was asked for a part two, what are we doing with all that time we free up. Looking at the Internet landscape, it seems like most of us are turning to more social interaction, Facebook, Snapchat and of course, […]
In Search of an EditorI’m afraid that my mental picture of a newspaper editor is largely limited to movie characters. Perry White and J. Jonah Jameson are two that come to mind. I also assumed that they had something to do with the big picture for a newspaper but I never gave it much thought. When it came to […]
The Opinionbypen 2016 StrategyPlease consider this post as a newsletter to my subscribers. Yes, I’ll make sure it has good SEO but that only gets me to the starting gate. There will also be that one lone fool that stumbles onto this post by accident but if experience is any guide, he will quickly leave. Congratulations, that makes you […]
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
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 …
Why All The Hate For PO Boxes, Part TwoAlmost two years ago I preordered a Google Nexus tablet, only to have the order cancelled two weeks later because I had used a PO Box as my address. Needless to say I wasn’t happy. Being very frustrated and having limited options, I wrote Google Wallet, PO Boxes and No …
TNSTAAFL, Windows 10TNSTAAFL, There’s No Such Thing As A Free Lunch. Microsoft’s continuing antics to coerce me, by hook, crook or outright trickery, into accepting their free upgrade to Windows 10 brought this phrase to mind. Microsoft is hardly a nonprofit organization and I doubt that are trying to apologize to all …
Windows 10, Microsoft Doesn’t Get ItHave you ever been listening to someone and thought to yourself, “they just don’t get it.” No, I wasn’t talking about our politicians. Although given their actions over the last few year, it’s obvious that they don’t get it either. Instead I was talking about some of our leading industries …- In Search of an EditorI’m afraid that my mental picture of a newspaper editor is largely limited to movie characters. Perry White and J. Jonah Jameson are two that come to mind. I also assumed that they had something to do with the big picture for a newspaper but I never gave it much …