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
Technical Arrogance, No One Is Immune
If 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....
Passwords, We Have Way Too Many
Passwords, it seems like everyplace you go on the Internet someone is asking for your password. It’s not bad enough that everybody and their brother wants you to set up an account with another password, they all have different rules for your password. Must be at least...
The Great Courses, I Almost Missed Them
I have a long list of topics for blogs sitting in my Dropbox folder. I even have a few unfinished posts that would only take a short time to finish. The problem is that nothing appeals to me as a subject and I try to do at least one new post a week. Being completely...
Data Mining For Personality Clues
I 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...
What’s Your Opinion On MOOCs?
A good friend sent me this link because he knew that I often recommend Udacity courses, San Jose State suspends collaboration with online provider. The story tells how San Jose University is scaling back their partnership with Udacity because things were not going as...
Did The Ninjas Use Mental Telepathy?
Remain calm. Act normal and look around slowly to make sure no one is watching you. I don’t want to scare you but I may have stumbled on an ancient technique of the Ninjas. If I'm right, my hope is to spread it widely before I’m silenced. We've all had the sensation...
Random Posts
Shelby, We Miss YouOur first and oldest Australian Shepherd, Shelby, died early Monday morning. Her death was a natural one brought about by old age. We knew it was coming but the knowledge did little to soften the loss. She spent fifteen too short years with us, having joined our family as a rescue at the approximate age of two. […]
My Adventures And More At Amazon WriteOnThis is the year I intend to promote my short stories. I have them posted on Opinionbypen but without better SEO on them I can’t expect Google to send anybody my way and sure enough, that’s exactly what has happened. When Amazon’s newsletter for self publishing authors highlighted their WriteOn site I decided it was now or never. […]
Using Data To Influence My Content, How Opinionbypen.com ChangesIn the design and maintenance of Opinionbypen.com, there are two guiding principles I always consider. When it comes to technology, resisting change is the best way to become forgotten. Then again maybe you’re still using a rotary telephone as you watch your VHS tapes on that black and white television. Whether you’re a gadget or […]
Random Posts
The Way We Present Numbers Reveals A Lot About UsThe first time I saw Spock turn to Captain Kirk and say, “This plan only has a 5.377 percent probability of success,” I was hooked. Spock was able to use his massive intellect and compute the probability of the Enterprise surviving an encounter with the Romulans to three decimal places. That one action immediately earned […]
I’m Not Insulting You, That’s My Aspect Starting UpI want you to take a simple test for me. Look at the picture below and identify the engineer. Not too hard was it? All of you got it. Well, all except for the person reading this that said they’re just Poser characters, none of them are engineers. Must be an engineer. You’re looking at […]
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 start with the basics. One […]
Random Posts
Musings on Parallel UniversesAll my life I’ve been fascinated by the concept of parallel universes. You know what I mean, universes that coexist with ours, having only minor differences. Then again, maybe you don’t know what I mean. The idea goes something like this. Every time you make a decision, a universe exists where you made a different […]- I’m Not Insulting You, That’s My Aspect Starting UpI want you to take a simple test for me. Look at the picture below and identify the engineer. Not too hard was it? All of you got it. Well, all except for the person reading this that said they’re just Poser characters, none of them are engineers. Must be an engineer. You’re looking at […]
Wanted, a Women’s Magazine for the Rest of UsTop-Drawer Women’s Magazine Wanted By Zee “Top Drawer” is fine because our flexibility to bend down to the bottom drawer isn’t what it used to be … but we still want to be acknowledged as important, but not “aged” or “senior” or “mature” or other dastardly names we’re called after we pass about the age […]
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
What I Learned From Udacity About LinkedIn Getting HackedThe only thing keeping me from doing my victory dance at the moment is the presence of my wife in the living room. Like many of the people in my profession I’m a member of LinkedIn, so I was very concerned when I heard LinkedIn had been hacked. Then why …
A Guide To Your Valentine’s Day ChocolateValentine’s day is always difficult for me. I love my wife but I have trouble remembering an arbitrary date hyped by advertising agencies to make poor fools like myself feel like lesser creatures if we don’t shower our wives with chocolate and presents. If you’ve read my previous Valentine’s Day posts, …
Olympics, Meet The Connected AgeEvery two years my wife starts building her media center for Olympic viewing. This consists of carefully looking at all the schedules, verifying that all the recording devices operate, verifying that everything is hooked up correctly and that we get all the channels we need to watch the Olympics. I …
Ever Think of Your Engineer as a Super Hero? The Evidence is There.I’m going to assume you’re reading this because you’re trying to make sense of the engineer in your life. I’ve written several posts on understanding engineers but maybe you’re looking for new insights. Ever think of your engineer as a super hero? There’s more evidence than you might suspect. Let …
Risk Reward Analysis And How to Influence Your Engineer’s DecisionEvery decision an engineer makes goes through a risk reward analysis, each and every one. It’s not a complicated process, it doesn’t involve calculus but it’s not always obvious. Let me give you an example. Recently my two year old Samsung dryer decided to stop working. Power would come on …