Like everyone who makes it to middle age, I have a rich tapestry of memories. Today, while bicycling, I reminisced about my first computer, an Atari 800. The year was 1979, my freshman year of high school, and I got exposed to the new computer lab at school. It had (I think) 4 Apple ][+’s each with two disk drives, and small color composite monitors. I was in love. Of course, I...
Been a while since I updated. I started this quest about 2 months ago (actually April 9th, I started weighing myself daily), and I was 232#’s. I began counting calories, and tracking everything I ate, as well as trying to be more diligent about exercising. In early May, I got back on the bicycle (first ride in 6 months or so, I was rusty and SORE afterwards), and have been getting more...
Today on the drive home, I was behind a Prius who was hypermiling. In case you are unaware, there is a phenomenon in the hybrid car world of people who work to minimize their fuel consumption. The cars’ onboard computer very accurately tracks fuel consumption, and they challenge themselves to keep the MPG as high as possible. To do this, they very slowly accelerate from a stop light, and...
I freely admit that I am a Mac user. OS-X just works better for me, and my workflow. But I will grant that Windows 7 is pretty good, and usable. Of course, since I work in the corporate world, I am forced to use Windows (well, in the past I have been a rebel and was a Mac in a PC world, but I stopped beating my head against that wall). For the most part, Windows is fine. I even like Office 2010...
Recap: After Google announced their “All Access” plan for their Play service, I jumped on the free week. The intent was to compare it to Spotify which I had been a premium customer for about a year and a half (I went premium there to get rid of the ads and the “sponsored tunes” which really sucked – being top 40 crap). Early on, the reason why I went to spotify was...
In a meeting today, we were talking about models for contact mechanics to measure the indentation of an indenter probe into a surface. I got to correct someone that the correct term is Hertz-Sneddon.
Ian Sneddon, referred to as a Mathematician, made significant contributions to many areas of physics.
Yeah, I am a geek.
Life is a series of challenges, but some are more welcome than others. Today I bicycled into the office, showered and changed into street clothes. I brought in a pair of jeans, a polo shirt and the usual accoutrements. After showering, and dressing I made a stark observation: My jeans are almost too big to wear. Woo hoo, what a good problem to have. I don’t yet need to shop for more...
Since I have had a bout with coronary artery disease (a mild understatement), I get to daily take a fun regimen of medications. Prior to my “event” I had battled high blood pressure (ironically, my cholesterol was OK), and was on an ace inhibitor to keep it in the “sane” range. Post event, my cardiologist has been much more aggressive. I am still on the ace inhibitor...
Last week was a challenge. With the holiday (grilled some yummy steaks), and our anniversary (tried another local Mexican place that is now our favorite), and two days of training a new sales engineer put a crimp on the diet. But all told, I came out of the week down a pound, and once the over abundance of salt worked its way out, my blood pressure recovered nicely. This weekend, I got into the...
Lately I have seen people in my friends list tell me to change some setting to prevent their life events leaking into the facebook social graph. Sigh. It seems like every few months, there is some new way that Facebook abuses your personal information, making it harder for you to control who sees what that you post. First, for those who expect me to change some setting to help you, or you are...