Cheerful Curmudgeon

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

Remember Modems?

Sometimes I forget how long I have been using a some nifty technology so the universe whacks me over the head with a clue stick and reminds me. Over the weekend, my younger son was building a file server out of an old PC that he found in the basement. Digging through the case, he […]

Geezer Tech

The discussion on one of my favorite mailing lists has turned toward nostalgic reminisces of the golden days of technology, including antique floppy disks and RT-11 cheat sheets. Scott Adams then made my morning with this strip (and a very merry Christmas to you, Scott!): Since I can’t fight it, I might as well wallow […]

Google’s eBookstore: Yay! eBook Licenses: Boo!

Google’s new eBookstore is open for business, selling over three million books. This is great news. I like books and I like technology and I like competition. I particularly like the partnership which Google has forged with local bricks and mortar bookstores, allowing the stores to sell ebooks through their own web sites. I will […]

That Comfy Small Town Feeling

I remember how nice it was, after I moved from Chicago to Valparaiso, IN, that I could tell someone my name and he knew where I lived. It was a small town. We all knew where pretty much everybody lived. One time, just to see what would happen, I sent a letter to my step-father […]

Software Jobs

By day, I own a software company and occasionally write software. Wally, Dilbert’s friend, reveals all about my job in today’s strip. Click the image to read the whole comic. The disturbing question is: Which job do I hold???

Real Virtual Alchemy

I have learned to change lead into gold, and back again, for real! Well, sort of. Thus far, it only works within the virtual world of programming languages like Python. Here is the recipe. (If you are not into geek-speak, skip to the bottom where I natter on about reading ebooks on an iPad.) class […]

Python Generators Neatly Untangle Loops

The Python programming language has become my first choice for most tasks over the last year or so. The more I use it, the more I find to like about it. I just stumbled across generators in a way that made them make sense to me and it is so cool that I want to […]

Instrument Approach Plates on the iPad

I just upgraded the instrument approach plates that I use when flying IFR in my airplane. My new iPad with ForeFlight Mobile HD replaces my Sony PRS-505 with ReaderPlates that I have been using since December 2008. The Sony and ReaderPlates replaced paper that I had been using since 1987. This is a very good […]

Facebook’s Last Straw

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 […]

Server Backups are Important

I got a frantic email from a friend this week. One of his subcontractors went crazy and trashed several of my friend’s clients’ web sites as well as my friend’s own business site. The police have been involved but much damage has already been done. I wish I had been hosting my friend’s sites. Had I […]

More Bandwidth Than a Station Wagon

Back when I administered VAXen running BSD UNIX at FileNet, “just” 25 years ago or so, we didn’t have a high speed internet connection to use in transferring files between computers. I used a bank of Racal-Vadic 2400 baud modems to run UUCP and shuffle email and usenet articles around. With five modems in the […]

Retro Slide Rule

My deepest appreciation to ThinkGeek for making me feel old first thing in the morning. They have recreated the “classic student slide rule” and are hawking them for a pittance of what this paragon of useful technology is worth. The sad thing is… not only do I remember slide rules, I depended on them to […]

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: […]

It’s a Boy!

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!

Programming Feeds the Mad Scientist

I have been writing a new program, having a ball doing it, and it has brought to consciousness something which I have not thought about for years: There is a bit of Dr. Henry Frankenstein in me. I love to create things which do stuff autonomously and, when I create these things, bigger is definitely […]

Newborn Feeding Patterns Correlated to Adult Sleep/Wake Patterns

Researchers have found a strong correlation between newborn feeding patterns and the seemingly immutable “night person” or “morning person”  patterns which govern our adult lives. Dr. Emily Erudita of the Hatch Institute of Mamalian Studies reports in today’s issue of Pan Generational Physiology, In a study of 1,063 adults, 97.2% of the “night people” had […]

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