Cheerful Curmudgeon

A complete lack of ideas and the power to express them.

  • Home
  • About Me
    • Art Zemon’s PGP Key
    • Privacy Policy
  • Bede BD-4C
    • Hall of Fame
  • Piper Arrow

$76 Media Center

January 28, 2013 Art Zemon

Raspberry Pi top

Several years ago, we got a Sony PlayStation 3 as a home theater PC and it has been a fantastic way to watch Blu-ray discs, Netflix, etc. It has not been a good way to listen to music for two reasons. First, listening to music requires me to turn on the home theater projector, since we […]

Fun, Rants & Raves, Software, Technology

You want me to register my WHAT?

January 24, 2013 Art Zemon

To operate an automobile, I have to register the vehicle with the state government. I also have to register myself, demonstrate that I have been trained in the safe operation of the vehicle, and maintain a government issued license for vehicle operations. I am limited in the types of vehicles that I may own and […]

Government, Rants & Raves, Safety

I Love Great Customer Service

June 19, 2012 Art Zemon

Thank you!

Receiving fantastic customer service always makes me smile. Not only do I appreciate getting what I want, I love the feeling that a live human being paid attention to what I said. This happened to me twice in the last few days so let me share both stories with you. I sent an email to […]

Aviation, Business, Rants & Raves

Nut Starter Tool

June 10, 2012 Art Zemon

Slotted bottom plate

One of the opportunities challenges of assembling my airplane has been starting nuts in hard impossible to reach places. Two of the nuts are in a position that is even difficult to reach with needle nose pliers. I remembered seeing a flat nut starter tool years ago which would be perfect for these nuts so […]

Cabbages & Kings, Rants & Raves, Technology

Heads Up, Doc!

October 21, 2011 Art Zemon

Added November 6, 2011: Since sending a copy of this letter to the doctor, I spoke with his office manager and him, receiving both a good explanation and sincere apologies. I have returned to his office for my FAA medical exam and had a delightful experience with everything running on time and like clockwork.  Dear […]

Business, Health, Rants & Raves

An Open Letter to Netflix: Don’t Separate Netflix.com and Qwikster.com

September 19, 2011 Art Zemon

Reed, Thank you for the explanation. I have been a Netflix subscriber since June 2002 and I did feel offended by the large price jump in my plan (2 Blu-Ray discs + streaming) I believe that you are making a mistake in dis-integrating the Qwikster.com and Netflix.com sites. My family receives great value from the […]

Business, Movies, Rants & Raves

Bad Policy: Forbidding Social Network Contact Between Teachers and Students

August 10, 2011 Art Zemon

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, […]

Communicating, Family, Government, Rants & Raves, Safety, Technology

Last Shuttle Launch

July 8, 2011 Art Zemon

Atlantis Shuttle Launch, July 8 2011. Photo by Robert Scoble

Robert Scoble got a beautiful photo of Atlantis’ final launch, STS-135 I am very proud of what we have done and sad to reach the end of this era.  

Aviation, Rants & Raves, Science, Technology

FIAT 500 Joins Our Family

May 1, 2011 Art Zemon

Map of route from Salt Lake City to St. Charles, MO

A feisty yellow FIAT 500 Sport joined our family on Friday. 🙂 I picked it up from FIAT of Salt Lake City after an on-line chat with Shane revealed a car on their lot configured just like Candy and I had been prepared to special order. After a tough week at work, I had the “chore” of […]

Fun, Rants & Raves

Ban the Bikes!

July 11, 2010 Art Zemon

St. Charles County, MO, will try to ban bicyclists from using some state highways, as reported in the Suburban Journals, Bill would ban bicycles from some highways in St. Charles County. How wrong can you get? In the year 2010, amidst all the hue and cry about poor health, obesity, and greenhouse gases from automobiles, Councilman […]

Bicycling, Government, Health, Rants & Raves

Copyright Madness

July 7, 2010 Art Zemon

You may not be aware of some of the insanity which current copyright laws create in many countries, not just the United States. Here are two songs which you may think are free and clear but which are, in fact, copyrighted and subject to royalty payments: Happy Birthday to You The Chicago-based music publisher Clayton […]

Business, Government, Rants & Raves

Death of St. Charles Municipal Airport

June 27, 2010 Art Zemon

This has got to be the coldest, most insensitive obituary ever written: !STL 06/424 3SQ AD CLSD WEF 1006300501 In English, this NOTAM (federal NOTice to AirMen) says that the St. Charles Municipal Airport will close at 12:01am CDT, Wednesday, June 30, 2010. After 67 years of service, the owner will shut it down forever. […]

Aviation, Rants & Raves

USPTO Grants Patent On ’60s Era Billing Method

June 27, 2010 Art Zemon

Back in the Old Days, I had to pay for computer time on Michigan Terminal System (MTS) at the University of Michigan. It was a simple system: the more you used, the more you paid. MTS charged for CPU time, RAM used while your program was running, disk space used to store your files, I/O […]

Business, Government, Rants & Raves

Facebook’s Last Straw

May 30, 2010 Art Zemon

Facebook Third-Party Privacy

Facebook added the proverbial last straw with its latest privacy faux pas. It has demonstrated, yet again, that in pursuing it’s goal of selling advertising, Facebook places very little importance on our personal privacy. Remember that, while Facebook ostensibly is a web site designed to help people connect with like-minded people, in fact Facebook is […]

Business, Internet, Rants & Raves

Shopping for a Refrigerator

May 19, 2010 Art Zemon

Candy and I are shopping for a new refrigerator. The good news is that we don’t need to spend as much as I feared we would. The bad news is that shopping for a fridge is worse than choosing a breakfast cereal. The manufacturers and stores seem to create as many models as possible just […]

Business, Rants & Raves

English Language Pet Peeves

December 8, 2009 Art Zemon

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.”

Communicating, Rants & Raves

Garmin & XM Radio: The Best & The Worst in Customer Service

October 4, 2009 Art Zemon

We have many opportunities to experience both good and bad customer service. Rarely, though, do we bump into extremes at both ends of the spectrum in the course of one technical support issue. Doing so makes both experiences all the more poignant. I use a Garmin GPSmap 396 coupled with a hockey puck sized XM […]

Aviation, Business, Rants & Raves, Recommendations

It’s a Boy!

May 20, 2009 Art Zemon

Cindy and Geoff did a great job and produced Caedmon Geoffrey, a wonderful, healthy baby boy at 7:12pm on May 20. He’s 9 lbs 1 oz, 21 inches tall. His plumbing works so well that he peed on the doctor during delivery. I take that as a great omen!

Family, Rants & Raves, Software

US Government Not Accountable for Warrentless Wiretapping

April 10, 2009 Art Zemon

Candidate Barack Obama promised change and more government transparency. President Barack Obama’s Department of Justice is delivering change for the worse: continuation of the Bush administration’s assertions that the US government can conduct warrantless wiretapping coupled with a new assertion that the government is completely immune from litigation for illegal spying under any federal statutes. […]

Government, Rants & Raves

IE6: Get Over It

March 9, 2009 Art Zemon

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 […]

Business, Communicating, Internet, Rants & Raves, Recommendations

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 6
  • Next Page »

Categories

  • Aviation (261)
    • Bede BD-4C (174)
    • Soaring (5)
  • Bicycling (37)
    • St. Louis to Atlanta (8)
    • St. Peters to Minneapolis (18)
  • Business (48)
  • Cabbages & Kings (24)
  • Communicating (37)
  • Ecology (21)
  • Economy (8)
  • Family (35)
  • Finding the Good (43)
  • Fun (188)
    • Six Word Stories (8)
  • Gardening (5)
  • Genealogy (5)
  • Government (35)
  • Health (67)
  • Judaism (10)
  • Men (12)
  • Mideast (5)
  • Movies (8)
  • Philosophy (15)
  • Photography (27)
  • Rants & Raves (103)
  • Recommendations (35)
  • Safety (37)
  • Science (22)
    • Biology (7)
    • Physics (7)
    • Pyschology (3)
  • Technology (195)
    • eBooks (7)
    • Internet (66)
    • Software (63)
    • VOIP (5)
  • Travel (43)
  • Tzedakah (12)
  • Women (5)

You Will Also Like

  • Art Zemon's Genealogy
  • Art Zemon's Photos
  • Mastodon @babka.social
  • Mastodon @raphus.social

Search

#DonorForLife

6 gallon blood donor badge
#DonorForLife - Give Blood - Save Lives

Archives

Copyright © 2025 · Daily Dish Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in