Ramblings of a Luddite Geek

When I was a kid, my favorite thing was to buy a new record from the music store and play it on my home stereo for the first time. Discover...

The website TryEngineering.org touts itself as a resource that should help pre-college students decide whether engineering is good career c...

It isn't easy being both a Luddite and a Geek. Each encounter with new technology evokes a Dr. Jeckyll / Mr. Hyde response. Sometimes ...

Today was not a good day, computer-wise. Thankfully, the problem was with my work computer and not my home computer, even though the two are...

What is it that spurs people to get a cell phone? In our case, it was separation anxiety. More precisely, it was my wife's concern ove...

Back in June of 2005, I bragged about how I spent a few hours to write Outlook VBA code that eliminates a few keystrokes. I had a request f...

I just read Sacha Chua's "On programming as a career" post and had to stop what I was doing and write about it. I understand ...

The US Senate is debating S 2917: Internet Freedom Preservation Act , which would prevent ISPs from giving preferential treatment to content...

In my post Free Computer Security -- Firewalls , I raved about the free Sygate Personal Firewall (SPF) last year. Since then, Symantec boug...

I read about Spore on Brad Neuberg's blog, "Coding In Paradise." This is what he posted about Spore back on April 12: Spore ...

I haven't felt this great since ... since ... since ... I don't know when. The reason is that I successfully installed DSL service ...

I bought a new computer, a Dell Dimension 3100. It came with 2.8GHz P4 processor, 1GB RAM, 80GB HD and a 17" flat panel display with 1...

Every so often I come across some short bit of text that underscores the stupidity of technology. I enter that text as the "Quote duJo...

Last year I discovered a way to file my federal income tax return electronically for free using the online income tax forms on the intriguin...

In testing my link to IEEE Spectrum, I was intrigued by this month's feature article, Psychiatry's Shocking New Tools , by Samuel K...

Why is this blog so devoid of new articles? My head is full of ideas. But my calendar is full of _____ . Yet I've struggled to keep th...

I was so inspired by reading "The Darwin Awards III: Survival of the Fittest," by Wendy Northcutt , I decided to launch my own awa...

Lately I've begun to think that maybe engineering is a bit boring. I know that sounds funny to most of you. It's like a member of ...

In one of the "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" works, New York City is described as a place where it's best to answer ...