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
So Much Knowledge Lost Through Retirement
I have a friend who has retired after many years as a mechanical designer. He was as good as most engineers when it came to mechanical design but he didn't have the degree that would allow him to call himself an engineer. Certainly he recognized his limitations. If...
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...
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 […]
So Much Knowledge Lost Through RetirementI have a friend who has retired after many years as a mechanical designer. He was as good as most engineers when it came to mechanical design but he didn’t have the degree that would allow him to call himself an engineer. Certainly he recognized his limitations. If you asked him to do a stress […]
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 […]
Random Posts
Why Can’t I get The Internet Speed I’m Paying For?This year my electric company made me a deal I couldn’t refuse, 1000 Mbps Internet. Only two years ago, I was still living with two very questionable ADSL lines from AT&T. On a good day I might get 1.2 Mbps. Last year T-Mobile Home offered service in my area and I felt like I had […]
The Plan, How My Wife Became a GamerIf you read my About section, you will see my comment about being the envy of Gamers everywhere by having a wife who games. This is very true. There’s nothing like having spent the last two hours painfully making your way to the boss mob, only to have your raid leader say, “Sorry, wife aggro” […]
A Plea For An End To Tiny Instruction ManualsOne of the movies being released this Christmas is Downsizing, a tale of people being shrunk to reduce their cost of living by reducing the resources needed to support them. It’s a sad commentary on our current state of affairs that my first thought was they would be able to read the tiny instruction manuals […]
Random Posts
The Loss of A Subscriber; You’re More Important Than You Realize.I lost one of my subscribers a few days ago. Although I never met the man but I always appreciated his willingness to read my posts and to remain a subscriber. I feel bad that I didn’t know more about him. It’s obvious that we could have been friends or he would have cancelled his […]
Email, A Training Tool For Poor PerformanceIn a typical game you have a number of obstacles that you have to overcome. Overcome enough of them and you gain a level. Not unexpectedly, the designers of these games often use psychologists to maximize the rush of endorphins you get for each accomplishment. It should come as no surprise that responding to your […]
Whitewall Nebraska, A Study Into Current RealityI’m proud to announce that I’ve been elected mayor of Whitewall, Nebraska. It was unanimous—or will be as soon as I update the websites I created for this event. Of course, you’ve probably never heard of Whitewall, Nebraska. That’s not surprising because it doesn’t really exist. Today, AI makes it astonishingly easy to write and […]
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
Is It Murder If You Club Your Beeping Carbon Monoxide Detector Into Silence?I like to think that my wife has learned a lot from me about dealing with recalcitrant electronics. Still after analyzing the situation,when she uses a hammer to completely destroy a beeping carbon monoxide detector in her RV, I find myself applauding her initiative. To make it worse, I realize …
It’s Absolutely Impossible For Us To Stop Being An EngineerWe all do it. When we’re reading a book or watching a movie containing elements of our expertise and the story does something so ridiculous that we find it impossible to enjoy the story. Even worse we find ourselves sharing our disgust with anyone willing to listen. My wife finally …
An Engineer’s PerspectiveI admit it, I went into engineering because I enjoy solving problems. When I look at something I think about the design techniques employed and the ways to use it in practice. I think about possible improvements, design trade-offs and always enjoy seeing new technology. If you see me staring …
The Importance of Teamwork in a DesignImagine if you will, a design team that has been tasked with designing a tablet that will be crucial to the future of their company. The team consists of the best and brightest engineers and programmers in the company. For those of you that like names, let’s call the company …
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 …