I sent a message to Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer. (I even wrote it myself, without the help of ChatGPT. ?) I received this letter back. I have rarely felt that my opinion was so heard and that I was so valued as a constituent. Thank you, Rep. Luetkemeyer and your staff, for modeling thoughtful communication.
A Livestreaming Year
Rosh Hashanah begins tomorrow at sundown. For the second year, Candy and I will livestream the high holy day services for our congregation, United Hebrew Congregation in Saint Louis, MO. But oh what a difference from last year! Then, Candy and I were scrambling as hard as we could to broadcast something good in the […]
Hebrew to be Written Left-to-Right
I could not believe it when I read the article beginning: “Bowing to international pressure, the sanhedrin of Hebraists has voted unanimously to reverse Hebrew, writing it left-to-right, reversing centuries of counter-intuitive tradition.” Read the rest here: https://goo.gl/Bf9xiU
Another Boundary
I just realized that I created another boundary in my life and have been happily living with it for quite awhile, maybe a year or more. I like boundaries; they keep me sane and productive. For instance, I have two email addresses and I never use my personal address for business or my business address […]
Missouri Teachers Challenge Facebook Ban
Good news: The Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) filed a law suit on Friday challenging Missouri Senate Bill 54, also known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act. The MSTA has asked the court to block implementation of the law pending a review of its constitutionality. In addition to the problems that I cited in […]
Bad Policy: Forbidding Social Network Contact Between Teachers and Students
Missouri is in the process of implementing a particularly bad law, forbidding contact on social networks between teachers and students. Formally, this is Missouri Senate Bill 54, the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act. The aim is laudable: protect vulnerable kids from predacious educators. Unfortunately, the law as written, and as being implemented by the school districts, […]
Thoughts on Google+
Ideas have been bubbling for awhile but are finally congealing (what an attractive metaphor!) into what will become an article or two on Google+. Over the past several years, Google has developed a strong set of tools for individuals to use. Some of these tools have facilitated collaboration or sharing. With Plus, Google is making […]
Join Me on Google+
Come join me on Google+, the new social-network-plus-a-whole-lot-more that Google launched at the beginning of July. If you are a Facebook or Twitter user, you may well find that you like Google+ better in some ways. The user interface is delightful. You can easily share posts and photos with just the people who you want […]
+1 for Google+
I have been playing with Google+ for the last several days and, thus far, like it very much. Most importantly, I trust Google to avoid making changes to their privacy policy which will reveal information that I decide to keep private. Facebook has done the opposite (made my private info available to third parties) so […]
500 & Counting!
I am tickled to share with you the news that this is my 500th posting here on CheerfulCurmudgeon.com. I started this blog just over six years ago, in May 2005. Thank you for sharing the journey with me. I have enjoyed your feedback as comments, in email messages, and occasionally in person. I am sure […]
Supporting Journalism
Over the last week, I have had several people actually ask me why I have not been posting here much over the last several months. It was not until yesterday, when I bumped into a man who I had not seen in several years and he asked me about this blog, that I finally twigged […]
Delightful Dialog
This article is hard to write not because of any uncertainty about what I want to say but simply because I want to gently suggest an idea to you. I do not want to come across as a know-it-all and raise your defenses. Maybe I worry too much. I am quite sure that you are […]
Infrastructures are Important
Sometimes (often) XKCD hits the nail squarely on the head.
English Language Pet Peeves
Quick rant on misuse of the English language. Neither “incent” nor “incentivise” are words. “Motivate” is a word. There is no verb form of “incentive.”
NSA Illegally Collecting US Citizens’ Email
I am not surprised, but I am still dismayed, by the continued erosion of our personal privacy in the shadow of George W. Bush’s administration. The New York Times reports in E-Mail Surveillance Renews Concerns in Congress that the National Security Agency (NSA), as recently as early this year, is illegally collecting email from Americans: […]
Checking In, Avoiding Hidden Dependencies
I woke up in a good mood this morning and then… Sometimes one piece of technology makes another, seemingly unrelated, piece of technology misbehave. It happened this morning at 12:15am CDT when an automated program that I run in Amazon EC2 failed to do its thing. The EC2 instances (that’s geek speak for “virtual machines” […]
IE6: Get Over It
I am fed up with wasting clients’ dollars “fixing” web sites so that they look good in Internet Explorer 6. IE7 has been out for 2 1/2 years. IE8 is available as a free beta. There are lots of other browsers available for free. All of these browsers work better than IE6. If you still […]
Added Benefit of On-line Family Trees
I published my family tree on-line so that other family members and genealogists would have easy access. I never imagined that it would turn into a way to find long lost friends. I just received this email message: A friend of mine from college was looking for me. So, he googled my family name and […]
Google Chrome to Replace Microsoft Windows, Apple OSX, and Linux
Google released Chrome today and you will see “Google Chrome is a browser” if you visit the Chrome web page. Do not be deceived, though. Chrome is not designed to replace Internet Explorer or Firefox or Safari. Chrome is designed to replace your operating system and virtually all of the software that you use every […]
When Words Fail: Use The Lazy Bloggers’ Post Generator
Sometimes the words just won’t come. What’s a blogger to do? I have a little confession to make: I turn to the Lazy Bloggers’ Post Generator. After you read this latest sample of it’s output, I’ll bet you’ll agree that you can’t tell the difference between what the Post Generator creates and my usual witticisms. […]
