Everything updates. Several days ago Horse, my summer computer, horked on an update. I rebooted late at night for reasons I can’t recall, and ended up staring at error messages I’d never seen before. A new version of the kernel had been inserted somewhen. It took effect on bootup, but freaked out when it met…
Couple of days ago I started to play with a Closed Sink fold in a Waterbomb Base. Things got interesting. As usual, I explored, tweaked, twisted, and inside-outed every possible angle. Sure enough, I found my own way around the thing. Ended up with cube holders all over the place. Then I took a look…
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Apophenia “Apophenia is the experience of seeing meaningful patterns or connections in random or meaningless data. The term was coined by neurologist Klaus Conrad and defined as the ‘unmotivated seeing of connections.’” One evening, a good many years ago, I was exercising — just a sort of free-form dance — in the living room, with…
I’ve been using Google Voice for years. I use it for business calls because I can’t afford extra features on my land line (or get a cell phone). It has worked well for me. Voicemail and messages have allowed me to return missed calls when people call me about computer problems. It’s been great. And…
Around ten years ago, a friend got involved in multi-level marketing (MLM) — in other words, a pyramid scheme. I could see straight through the hype, but he was a beLIEver. My attempts to open his eyes were futile. In 2013, the FTC kicked the scam off the map — and its founder, a narcissistic…
I love small things. Looking at origami furniture models, I thought how fun it would be to assemble a paper suite for Borrowers. But out of all the chest-of-drawers type models available, I found none that I really wanted to fold. Either they were fussily complex, or not proportioned right. So I took paper in…
SSL, Secure Sockets Layer, keeps data sent between two points from being intercepted and misused by a third party. This means that your password, credit card info, Social Security card number, or the name of your girlfriend’s dog will be safely transmitted when you click the DoIt button. But that is all it does. Once…
I was sitting at my computer (where else), hopping between Twitter and other things. Music suddenly started playing out of nowhere, loud and clear. I went all WTF and looked for the source. With four workspaces, four browsers and a few other windows open…woof. On my way down through my cyberspace mansion, I closed the…
…you need something else to call Tronald Gump, here is the list I composed. Some of these may be found elsewhere, but none of them were copied. Not all gems, perhaps, but I wanted a mix of long and short. Prune Covered In Orange Slime Mold Decaying Baby-Tooth Dead Blobfish Dipped In Tang Thing Moving…
I was made aware of Steve McEllistrem’s blog post on militarization, Why Are We Militarizing the World?, on Twitter today. He makes a terribly clear statement on matters we are not supposed to think about. “Good” Americans who mindlessly repeat the Pledge of Allegiance, who want to Make America “Great” “Again,” who don’t see the…