Monthly Recap (Oct 2020)
Major updates * Gradual “actual physical school” transition for Tara * Halloween! Minor updates * Introducing card games to Tara: War, Go Fish! * Misc maintenance * replacing hood and r…
Generally interesting links - Oct 2020
Computing * A sobering reality: “the world runs on Excel, Java 8, and Sharepoint” * A trend toward the end of open source * Something cool: Pharo and the “Glamorous Toolkit” * Next, the “programm…
On Airtable and Numbers
I tried out Airtable for a year, for a simple personal spreadsheet that I’ve been keeping for a few years now. It’s slick, and quick to enter data, but in the end I’ve decided to go back to Numbers.…
My history with computers, part 4: The early internet
Context In my previous post I talked about how the realm of what was possible expanded when we got a better, faster computer … but it took a whole other leap with the first “on-line” experiences. Q…
Opening words
I decided to take pictures of the beginnings of three books at home. The first is from Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing. The second is from Maps of Meaning: The Architectu…
Youtube and Spotify
Youtube is always goiong to be superior to Spotify just because ... it has more stuff. The downside is that it's hard to know wtf is real any more, when searching for something. The upside is th…
Sky Guide
Apps on our smartphones get a bad rap for wasting our time, and deservedly. It's true that most are either harmful or neutral, or a distraction, or a minor convenience. One set of apps that are…
Monthly Recap (Sep 2020)
Major updates * Trip to Capitola Minor updates * A new family board game: Labyrinth * Re-activated my Facebook account, mostly to follow Tara’s school account * This month went by … really qui…
Generally interesting links - Sep 2020
* A John Carmack interview from way, way back. Legendary. * Rapping on cartoon impressions (I was … very impressed!) * This month in Archaeology #1: examining the evidence of a massive bronze-age b…
Harry Potter: revisited & renewed
We recently watched Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone — and I realized the movie is already twenty years old! I thought I’d read the book with my daughter, now that we’ve seen the movie, and I th…
Deus Ex McKenna
I was going to make a short comment about liking some specific video, then thought I should provide context, then realized that I have … no real way to start because there was too much to say, and if…
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Trials
Came upon this scene recently — well, no, I didn’t just come upon it, that would be creepy even by Youtube’s standards1 — I was suddenly reminded of the movie at night, and then (as often happens? ins…