The other night, after quaffing a couple fine Czech style pilsners at Gordon Birsch (highly recommended, I might add), I wandered the 100 or so feet to the Gilbert Apple Store. I am usually cautious at an apple store, because sometimes reason evades me and I find myself whipping out my plastic to upgrade to a new computer. I have studiously avoided getting up close and personal with a retina...
Last month, we visited my dad to celebrate his 80th birthday. A great accomplishment, and we had a great time with the whole clan together. (It doesn’t hurt that San Diego is a great place to visit ) One question that was asked of my dad was: “What is the biggest change in your lifetime(so far)?” I believe it was asked to try to determine what technology (was it the coming of...
I often flow with traffic keeping a low key, and cluck-cluck people who do dumb a-hole driving stunts around me. Phoenix (and SE Phoenix) drivers rarely fail to amuse me. But once in a while, I get an itch, and to scratch it, I need to drive like an a-hole. Honestly, it can be fun, as long as you do it in limited doses, and take care to not be near Johnny Law when you break free. Last night was...
In a prior post, I discussed how a pretty big familial change greatly affected me during a critical period of development. Now I would like to discuss another, somewhat related, topic. In the third grade, I was identified as “gifted”. This means that I scored high on the standardized tests, and consequently, I was “invited” into the advanced learning program. This was 2-3...
Two weeks ago, I lamented the need to get back on the horse and lose some weight. Of course, I know the formula, and I have tools to help me with my endeavor. But it is difficult to train the body to accept the new status quo. For the stats: Starting Weight: 232# Today’s weigh in: 225# Total lost – 7# Not a bad first two weeks, but a lot more to go (my goal is 190#). In the last two...
Lately I have been grooving to the X-Files episodes over on Netflix streaming. I remember waiting with baited breath each week for the next episode, and cursing the creators when they used a cliffhanger at the end of the season. If you haven’t watched the show, it has a fairly large portion of its episodes based on the idea that extra terrestrials (aliens, little green men what have you)...
Last Thursday, my Bose Quiet Comfort 2 headphones broke. I was bummed, but hey, they were almost 10 years old, so I couldn’t complain about the life. I tweeted about it, and somebody (not Bose) said that I should call their support line, as they often offer smoking prices to exchange your broken headset with a new one. I figured, why not try. So I called. After a very simple IVR, I got to...
Perhaps I should clarify this provocative intro. My early childhood was well taken care of. Late 60’s, Sunnyvale California, father worked at a defense contractor (and made a good salary). I was too young to know that this made us solidly middle class. There weren’t many worries about money, and the essentials. Then, when I was in 1st grade, my mother decided that she wanted out...
I work with atomic force microscopes (AFM’s). At their heart is a PID control system that keeps the probe doing the right thing, and giving us ultra high resolution images of a variety of things (topography, elasticity, etc). But I realized that I knew little about actual control systems. I was not an engineering student in university, so I wasn’t exposed to the concepts. Now I am...
In in effort to save money, I was investigating options to reduce the cost of my monthly cell phone bill. I had actually considered cancelling it, but thought better of that, since I use it for several 2-factor authentication sites. So I head over to AT&T’s site, log in, and start the “upgrade” process. I figure I will just get a cheap feature phone, and be done with it...