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
Opinionbypen Hits 10,000 Views
Sometime this last week, Opinionbypen had its 10,000th page view. For those of you who, like myself, love numbers, that’s an average of 556 views a month or 18 views a day. I'm proud of that number because those are page views by real humans, not bots. If I...
Sundae at the Agility Nationals
Sundae reports from Agility Nationals I've seen my world from hotel room windows all over America. Oh, sorry, I’m supposed to introduce myself first. Mom always insists on manners. My name is Sundae, I'm an Australian Shepherd and I compete...
Improving Our Vote Through Technology, A TSC Idea
My wife dreads the arrival of Autumn. She loves the season, the brisk cold, the planning of next year’s garden but with the cold she also knows I spend more time in the shower taking long showers that completely drain our hot water system. The additional time spent in...
A Brief Guided Tour of an Engineer’s Thought Process
I'm going to break a few rules today. I'm going to take you on a guided tour of an engineer's thought process. Just in case you know an engineer and realize just how easily we get distracted, we'll keep this very focused with no detours allowed. My particular brand of...
Congress, Can We Force Politicians To Show Capability?
As a nation we firmly believe in certification and training. I can't charge people for doing their taxes without being certified. I can't teach without a teaching certificate. I can't wire someone's house without a lot of training and a license. I certainly can't...
The Royal Cobbler, A Fairy Tale For Small Business
A long time ago there was a cobbler of great renown. He made a comfortable living selling very nice shoes to rich people. As luck would have it, word of his skills reached the king. The king being a very noble and wise king ( they always are, aren't they) decided to...
Random Posts
Why Does Change Seem So Random?It’s a given that change happens. From fashion to transportation to political viewpoints, it always changes, but why? Change is seldom welcome so why does it happen? And why does it happen so often to the things you like? Why does today’s Big Mac more closely resemble a White Castle Slider than the Big Macs […]
Vampires, They Exist and Their Numbers Are GrowingThere was a time when Science Fiction described different worlds, aliens, spaceships and ray guns. Sometimes the science was a thin veneer for the author’s own social/political views but even those were usually entertaining. Not quite Science fiction but close enough to be stocked with the Science Fiction were the Swords and Sorcery novels. Tolkien […]
Journalism?I’m a little busy this week trying to finish my Udacity course and even though it doesn’t matter, I still want to get a good grade. With that in mind, I asked a friend to contribute and he was happy to help out. ___________________ The exposure and allure of journalism has drawn many people to […]
Random Posts
Common Designs, Industrial Spies Or Technology, A PerspectiveAlexander 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, flying machines and the list goes on. Why is […]
Technical Arrogance, No One Is ImmuneIf there’s one thing the engineering world is full of, it’s arrogance. Don’t get me wrong, I suffer from the same affliction. I think it comes with being an engineer. After you’ve done the simulations and all the testing, it’s not a surprise that your design works. Enough successes and sooner or later you come […]
Heidi’s Heavenly Cookies, WowI enjoy writing this blog because I’m not constrained to a single topic. Today is all about cookies. Let me set the background. I love cookies. Everyone who knows me knows I love cookies. The only thing that lured me off my Atkins diet was cookies. My Food Scout quickly learned how much I loved […]
Random Posts
A Design Principle Frequently ForgottenIn his lectures on rhetoric, Professor Michael Drout said write what your audience needs to hear, not what you want to say. Each time he said that I nodded my head in agreement. This concept was important enough that he repeated it several times at various points in his lecture. About the third time this […]
Interspecies Communication As Experienced By An EngineerI thoroughly enjoyed the first season of Star Trek: Enterprise because they spent much of the time grappling with communication issues. Universal translators, missing databases, peculiar methods of communication, and one memorable episode without a translator. I highlight this because finding similarities is one of my key problem-solving tools. When it comes to training a […]
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 […]
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 Take Part In A FCC Scam Without Really TryingI think I’ve made my view of the current FCC leadership fairly clear. In my opinion, commissioner Ajit Pai has lied and misrepresented facts in order to turn the Internet over to the big cable companies. When I read that the New York Attorney General was investigating a FCC scam, …
An Attempt To Make Sense Of The Rules Of WritingOver the last 3 months I’ve been trying to improve the content of my blog, both the pictures I use to illustrate my articles and the quality of my writing. As I expected, Poser has helped me to improve my pictures. I’m starting to understand the shortcuts and tricks that …
Death By Productivity ImprovementHave you ever screamed in frustration when your favorite software company announced that they had come up with new methods of productivity improvement? Personally I’m tired of all the help I’m getting. Windows 8 serves as a perfect example of a productivity improvement that nobody wants. Unless your job consists …
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 …
Knowing Mechanics Of Writing Doesn’t Make Me A WriterCreative writing has always appealed to me. During my career I’ve had a lot of practice writing reports, proposals and specifications. While these documents require the ability to communicate information in a clear concise and, hopefully, unambiguous manner, none of them require an active imagination. With the exception of a …