A juggling technophile shares personal stories, challenges, humor and perhaps some political commentary.
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A New Day!
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This Morning
I laid down last night for “a couple of hours” and woke at 3:30 this morning to Amy hollering for her “lion.” I gave her a stuffed bear and took a bath. At the end of my bath I heard a little more chatter from her but then she faded back to sleep.
There is a very pleasant rain right now. It is nice to listen to while programming. Of course, the negative side to the rain is in getting to puppy to do her business outside.
The day ended up being fairly stress free and productive. None the less, I am ready for a break.
Today we put to rest two technologies, one 67 years old and the other came to exist, majorly altered your life, and died all within your lifetime.
In a move that marks the beginning of the end for a hugely successful chapter in technology history, Britain’s biggest high street electronics retailer Dixons has announced that it’s taking VCRs off its shelves for good.
Kodak projector, 67, slides into history Kaachingk Clang “And this is little Doug feeding the sea gulls on the ferry…” *laughter* “Oops. Slide is upside down.” Who can forget the whir of the fan, the hot air blowing, the clunky noises and that distinct smell of a slide presentation. This looks like the one I grew up using.
The Eastman Kodak slide projector, that magical box of light and lens that turned snapshots into tools of family bonding, passed into history Thursday night in Rochester. It was 67.
Its financial health failing for several years, the projector succumbed to a variety of technological and societal factors. Families eventually got too busy for home slideshows and cultivated a preference for photographic prints, while businesses migrated to computer-driven multimedia presentations.
The end had been expected since September 2003, when Kodak announced it would stop making the money-losing projectors as part of a shift from film to digital imaging. The last projectors came off production lines to cheers and tears at Kodak Park on Oct. 22.
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Kodak presented the final five projectors to the Eastman House and the Smithsonian Institution for historical display.
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The company estimates it made 35 million projectors in seven decades…
Student: I am working without a plan.
Master: Then plan on doing a lot of work.
Nov 21 – 27 “honoring strong families and the role they play in making communities stronger”
For you ardent writers out there, Kurzweil points out “A computer program known as Brutus.1 is generating brief outbursts of fiction that are probably superior to what many humans could turn out.”
“Dave Striver loved the university – its ivy-covered clocktowers, its ancient and sturdy brick, and its sun-splashed verdant greens and eager youth. The university, contrary to popular opinion, is far from free of the stark unforgiving trials of the business world: academia has its own tests, and some are as merciless as any in the marketplace. A prime example is the dissertation defense: to earn the Ph.D., to become a doctor, one must pass an oral examination on one’s dissertation. This was a test Professor Edward Hart enjoyed giving.”
That pregnant opening paragraph was written by a computer program known as Brutus.1 that was developed by Selmer Bringsjord, a computer scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and David A. Ferrucci, a researcher at I.B.M.
I want a total sensory deprivation experience but my wife is vehemently opposed.
That strange pulsing sensation in my lower right rib cage is bad real strong. I feel like jabbing a knife into it.
A New Day!
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This Morning
I am completely tripped out today. This weekend went really badly–well, I didn’t accomplish my goals. I have deadlines upon me. The budget isn’t landing where I expected so I’m fretting over Christmas. It’s bill time.
Cathy. First trimester October 2001. 
November 2004
So how do you wash your dog?
Mostly Risible (found through BlogExplosion) shares this awesome 1954 Popular Mechanics guess at what a home computer in 2004 would look like. I suppose they foresaw the popularity of the racing game with the inclusion of the steering wheel.
Fancy electric pencil sharper isn’t working now. My fingers are blackened.
I will accomplish nothing today.
A New Day!
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This Morning
“It’s a new day. I will do the best I can with it. At the end of the day, I will put this day to bed and start new tomorrow.”
The day started off with me committing to myself to program all day long in 4 hour increments. At the end of each 4 hours I would stop and switch to another project.
A phone call. Cathy and I try to rush off to church to deliver much needed clothing (Noah was bare back). Took us 40 minutes to get out of the house, gas in the car, return to house to turn off stove top, get to the church then another 20 minutes to get home. When we returned home the water from the backed up sink (the one with the busted garbage disposal) was running all over the floor from the dishwasher. Task change: fix plumbing.
Wife gets upset at filthiness of kitchen. Task change: clean house.
Task change: no, work.
Tommy is fighting his Trojan Horse project. Task change: Go buy balsa wood and build Tommy’s project with him.
Task change: no, blog to calm.
Task change: no, work.
Task change: no, just sit around and wig out.
Yesterday/Last Night
Rushed Noah out the door to get to his 10am soccer tournament. I took Molly as she had dog school at 2pm. The day promised to be an interesting juggling act of children swapping. Cathy had planned on being there for Noah’s first game then taking Sarah to Girl Scouts but they were running behind. Noah lost his first game in the tournament then played with his friends and jumped in the Bounce House. Molly was so over excited that by the end of the day I felt like I’d been chopping wood all day long. I kept her from jumping on people except for one sweet little girl in a white shirt. Did I mention how muddy the fields were? 20 minutes into the first game the grandparents joined us with Amy and Tommy. Granny left after a short bit for a rather lengthy time. Tommy slept in the chair. Amy bounced and played in wet beach sand and became a terrible mess. Molly calmed and wet pet by a thousand kids while parents cringed and warned their children not to approach dogs. My reply was always, “they already know each other” as most of the children had already pet Molly. A 3 month old Bassett Hound (I think that is wrong) showed up and they barked at each other until I asked if they could meet and the owner and I cautiously let them approach. The small dog’s child owner freaked but the dogs did no harm to each other and the small one realized “I should be scared of this” so I backed Molly off.
Noah lost his 2nd game and started to become dejected. Noah then disappeared for 30 minutes while I ran around with Molly trying to stay calm. I could not find yellow number 10 to save my life. Turns out he was right beside us with his gray sweat jacket donned.
Molly, Tommy and I parted company for dog school and Noah lost his third game of the tournament and declared he didn’t like soccer anymore.
Dog school was hard. Molly was overdone by that point. I gave Tommy the honors of walking to 1/4 mile down to the convenient mart to buy himself some food and he was thrilled.
After dog school we went to Agrifeed to have Molly’s picture made with Santa. She did really well!
Cathy and I decided a date was in order and ended the day on dinner and a movie (National Treasure) and included Tommy who was polite and well behaved.
