Category Archives: Life

September 19, 2019

Bummer in the Dell

If I went with longer titles, I might have called this post Why I’ll Never Buy Another Dell Computer! Or I could have gone for the much shorter Dell Sucks! But I can’t resist a good pun or play on wyrds, so Bummer it is.

About a year ago I replaced my aging Sony Vaio laptop with a Dell XPS 15. The Sony taught me some hard lessons about buying a laptop online, one of them being “you’ll be sorry if you buy a Sony” — it had many annoyances, not the least of which was the wireless never worked. And it had a literal bug in it! The Dell is better in many ways, but… well…

Dell, you disappoint me. Let me count the ways…

22 Comments | tags: computer woes, Dell Computers, Dell XPS 15 | posted in Computers, Life, Rant

September 14, 2019

Round Numbers

By Wyrd Smythe

1000000₂

1000₄

100₈

40₁₆

10₆₄

@_char

Leave a comment | tags: base 16, base 2, base 8, fun with numbers, numbers, sun sign | posted in Life

September 6, 2019

Ow!

By Wyrd Smythe

Stung! Ow!!

I’ve been dog-sitting my pal, Bentley, the last few days, and when we began our early morning walk today, she was checking out an interesting hole in the ground. She’s noticed it before, sniffed at it, and then moved on, so I assumed it was just a hole in the ground worthy of smelling.

But today, suddenly she reacted — pawing at the air in front of her. Because bees! Or rather, yellow-jacket wasps, which nest in holes in the ground. Small ones, but equipped with stingers nevertheless. I whipped my hat off and started trying to clear the air (there were only three or so that I saw, not a swarm), swatted one off her side, and then we high-tailed it across the street as fast as we could run.

As we walked away, I noticed that my left hand hurt: one of them got me!

7 Comments | tags: bee sting, Bentley, dogs, walk it off | posted in Life

August 12, 2019

Sliced Bread

By Wyrd Smythe

There is a saying: “The best thing since sliced bread!” That seems a low bar but sliced or not (and despite the danger), I’m a huge fan of bread. I always have been. Fresh out of the oven can’t be beat, but toasted takes a close second place in my book. Toasting can make mediocre bread tasty and good bread divine.

As such, my standard breakfast for decades has been two slices of toast. (With the occasional substitution of a toasted bagel.) And I’ve noticed that a loaf of sliced bread always seems to have an even number of slices — which works out perfectly for those who make sandwiches as well as for anyone like me with my two-slice breakfast.

So imagine my surprise, today, when a single slice was left!

9 Comments | tags: bread, toast | posted in Life

July 11, 2019

Lost is Found!

By Wyrd Smythe

Oh, the advantages of finally getting around to starting to clean out the garage (which, in Minnesota, is strictly a summer activity).

I just knew I had a copy of Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, by Douglas Hofstadter. (Full disclosure, it’s a copy someone lent me decades ago that I never returned because it took me so long to get around to reading it. By then I’d lost touch with the co-worker who’d given it to me.)

Lately, I’ve been wanting to go at it again (and finish it this time), but I couldn’t find the copy I was sure I had. Turned out to be, along with a few other long-missing friends, in a box of books in the garage; one I’d just left out there with some other boxes (and luckily, no weather damage).

So added bonus to finally starting a chore I’ve been putting off for years!

15 Comments | tags: Douglas Hofstadter, GEB | posted in Books, Life

July 4, 2019

The Grateful Eight

By Wyrd Smythe

We all have our personal milestones, those marker days that tick off the passing years. July 4th has become a big one for me over the years. I’ve always liked fireworks (and thunder), so the day was always something of a joy. Various personal events over the years give it a bullet list of associations.

At the top of that list, today is my blog anniversary, so I’ve spent all month working on a little something to celebrate:

25 Comments | tags: 3D images, Anniversary, blog, blogger, blogging, July 4, POV-Ray, ray tracing | posted in Life, Writing

June 21, 2019

Darkness Ahead

By Wyrd Smythe

Ding! It just happened. Summer solstice. My bummer day — the return of darkness as the days start getting shorter. Only three months left of having more day than night.

Welcome to the first day of summer! Standby for winter…

18 Comments | tags: Solstice, Summer Solstice | posted in Life

June 3, 2019

Verizon Sucks!

By Wyrd Smythe

Trapped in the past!

I should have known better. From where I sit, Verizon has always had something of a stench I couldn’t quite identify. There was just something about that company that rubbed me the wrong way.

Now I realize it’s because they’re a bunch of fucking assholes who don’t give two shits about their customers. And, based on my horrible, terrible, very bad experience with them (never again, never again), don’t give two shits about new customers. And I’m beginning to think all technology companies, perhaps all companies, no longer even pretend to care about their customers.

This seems just one more way we’ve seriously lost our way culturally.

12 Comments | tags: cell phones, mobile phone, Sprint, Verizon | posted in Life, Rant

May 25, 2019

Bad ROM Call

By Wyrd Smythe

Did someone say walkies?

I’m spending the weekend dog-sitting my pal, Bentley (who seems to have fully recovered from eating a cotton towel!), while her mom follows strict Minnesota tradition by “going up north for the weekend.” So I have a nice furry end to the two-week posting marathon. Time for lots of walkies!

As a posted footnote to that marathon, this post contains various odds and ends left over from the assembly. Extra bits of this and that. And I finally found a place to tell you about a metaphor I stumbled over long ago and which I’ve found quite illustrative and fun. (It’s in my metaphor toolkit along with “Doing a Boston” and “Star Trekking It”)

It involves the idea of making a bad ROM call…

7 Comments | tags: consciousness, human brain, human consciousness, human mind, mind, Theory of Consciousness, theory of mind | posted in Computers, Life

May 18, 2019

The Transistor (1953)

By Wyrd Smythe

I think this may be the most (unintentionally) hysterical thing I’ve seen in a good long time (oh, the world of the future):

I mean seriously side-splitting, tears streaming down the face, really truly, delightfully, must-see funny. (I love the wrist device! Dick Tracy has come true in that regard. And just imagine: portable televisions!)

22 Comments | tags: blog, blogging, funny, funny images, history, humor, transistor, vacuum tubes | posted in Life