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
Intelligent Garden Spiders? It’s Not Even Halloween
Let me make it clear, I don’t like spiders. It’s not like I run away screaming when I see one. I’ve been forced to share the bathroom with a wolf spider and we both survived but neither of us enjoyed that experience either. On the other side of the spectrum, my wife...
Musings On The Effectivity Of Lessons Learned Databases
People frequently suggest use of a Lessons Learned database as a best practice. Many companies have invested large amounts of time and money in creating those databases. Both the exceptional projects, where nothing goes wrong, and the plagued-ridden projects that...
Sundae, The Life And Times Of A Dedicated Companion
I’ve been fortunate enough to spend the last 14 years under very close supervision. If I tried to stay up too late, I was gently reminded it was past my bed time. Her displeasure was clear if I tried to snack too often. I was never allowed to sit at my desk too long...
Common Designs, Industrial Spies Or Technology, A Perspective
Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone, or did he? The truth isn’t nearly as clear as we’ve been taught. In fact, in America, it was a dead heat to the patent office. The telephone isn’t the only invention with murky origins. Consider wireless, the light bulb,...
Written By An Engineer, Improved By AI. Which Do You Prefer?
A request for data: I have a problem. While I don't intend to suggest a topic and have ChatGPT write my post for me, I'm also not going to ignore a tool I can use to make my writing better. I've always felt that more readers will read other posts if they find my...
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...
Random Posts
Cooped Up With An Engineer For A While? Maybe This Will Help.In these times of uncertainty and outright panic, it seems almost irresponsible to publish a post on living with an engineer. I certainly can’t argue the logic behind that line of thinking. On the other hand, the prospect of being cooped up with an engineer for an extended period can also be life threatening. Especially […]
A Cost Analysis of Blogging Versus GamingHypothesis : Blogging is cheaper than gaming. Experiment: Follow blogger through first three months and collect cost data. Results: Collected costs after the first three months are shown below. $300 Webhosting and Domain Name registration for 3 years…..Subject chose to do three years because it would keep him committed to the blog and […]
A Review Of The Audible Books I Listened To In 2018In years past, my first post of the New Year tends to be a retrospective of the previous year for Opinionbypen. These have included a look at the numbers of visitors, my favorite posts, what I did right over the year and even a look back at how well I met my goals for the […]
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 week I was sequestered out […]
Utility Software I Depend OnI thought a lot about my first post of 2013. I wanted to start the year with a great post. I considered one on Congress but my efforts would be insignificant compared to the spectacle they’ve already made of themselves. Statistics is always a good topic and the course from Udacity is certainly worthy of […]
How To Talk With An EngineerLast week when I described my current systems engineer position as being all about communications, I almost lost my wife to uncontrollable laughter. When she finally recovered, all she said, while still trying to catch her breath was, “how do you stay employed?” She has a point. If you have an engineer in your life, you […]
Random Posts
Spam Reduction, An Idea From The Thought Simulation ChamberToday I’m the recipient of some sixty odd emails. Fifty-five of them assume I’m dumber than a pile of rocks and want me to visit their website and spend money. That’s not quite true, only eight of them want me to spend money on useless junk, the rest want to infect my computer and eliminate […]
Making Decisions Based On Website DataIf there’s an engineer in your life, you know how utterly fascinated we are by data. We use data to make purchases, to troubleshoot and to make important decisions. In How to Argue with an Engineer, I told you how engineers use data to support our arguments. It should come as no surprise to you that […]
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 Word is out of date, asked me if I want to upgrade […]
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
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 …
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 …
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 …
They Make It So Easy to Sign Up, Why Do They Make So Hard to Cancel?Why is it so easy to sign up for a service and yet so hard to cancel that same service? The current trend in business lets you sign up with nothing more than a credit card and an internet connection but when time comes to end the relationship, they make …
Betrayal at Neverwinter Mod 6(If you’re not into MMORPGs, Neverwinter mod 6 in particular, do yourself a favor and skip this.) You say you want me to help you kill a dragon? Times must be worse than I thought when you have to scour taverns to get a group together. Still, like myself, I …