Skip to content

Author Archives:

The Future was Last Week

06-Jun-13

In the future, we will have roving autonomous self-assembling bioreactors which will take in cellulosic matter, and convert it to natural gas and bio-available nutrients including complex amino acid chains. Some units will allow on-line collection of liquid food product, which can either be transported as-is or condensed into various solid, more easily stored forms, […]

Not actually one of the reasons why we homeschool

04-Jun-13

But hey, if school kids are a) seeing knife wielding bullies and b) getting told to “not get involved” and quasi-punished for intervening, then well, maybe there’s more reasons to homeschool than I think. Of course, this is Calgary. Links via Gawker

Prague Floods Again

03-Jun-13

Looks like some dimwit opened Flood Control Dam #3

Chai vs. Tea

03-Jun-13

Most languages have a word for ‘tea’ derived from either ‘cha’ or ‘te’– a language map.

Things I hate: Hypocrites

02-Jun-13

Hypocritically hating hypocrites.

Spouses Should Not Strive For Equality

20-Mar-13

Don’t split tasks evenly, explains Noah Berlatsky, writing in Scientology puff-magazine the Atlantic:  Housework isn’t a debt wives owe to husbands, nor one husbands owe to wives. It’s not a gift you give to make a slave. Rather, it’s the quotidian stuff of which the relationship is made. We’re married, so we help each other. […]

C++ for Bozos: Problems with const

17-Mar-13

Part of an occasional series to help bozos program in C++.

Arnold Kling is discovering John Holt

06-Mar-13

Arnold Kling, quoting John Holt on schooling: Bryan’s view is benign compared with John Holt. society demands of schools… that they be a place where… children or young people can be shut up and so got out of everyone else’s way…. They are a kind of day jail for kids. [elided much of this paragraph – […]

.. is an ex-sysadmin

06-Mar-13

I am now an ex-sysadmin. That hit me pretty hard.  I was surprised. Yesterday I had a final meeting onsite with Client#1’s sysadmin; we talked over all the areas of responsibility, recapped all the services, talked about all the physical and virtual servers, discussed everything from low infrastructure (power, network wiring) to high hopes (finally […]

Less Painful Office Ribbons

15-Feb-13

Microsoft helpfully “upgraded” office in 2007 and destroyed all the personal intellectual capital that people had created by learning the menu system.  I took slight notice of this at the time because, hey, infant twins. Recently I’ve been dragged kicking and screaming off of Office 2003 and started using Office 2007, so I’ve had to […]