I felt a headache coming on.  It didn’t seem like it was going to be too bad, but I decided to try to get some sleep.  I emailed my roommate asking if he could pick me up a few items on his way home.
I awakened when he arrived, and still had a slight headache.  I [...]

The Free Software Foundation has started a “Defective by Design” campaign to eliminate DRM (Digital Restrictions Management).
DRM is intended to prevent unauthorized copying of music, movies, and software. However, it also prevents copying and use that is within fair use rights provided by copyright law. In many cases, DRM is also harmful to [...]

Todd Michael Bailey, an embedded systems developer, uses a printed circuit board as his business card. He included a 3×10 grid of holes on tenth inch centers as a prototyping area. But he should have made it a 4×10 grid, so that it could be used for a DIP IC.

I’ve been trying to get a copy of the HAL/S Language Specification for some time. HAL/S is the programming language used for the on-board software of the Space Shuttle. A contact at NASA was able to provide me with a copy of the book Programming in HAL/S, which is a tutorial introduction to [...]

On May 11 I submitted a FOIA (5 U.S.C. 552) request to the NSA which requested information on their arrangements with telecommunications carriers to obtain telephone call detail records without warrants or court orders. I haven’t gotten a reply yet; it will be interesting to see how they respond. I expect that they [...]

I was moving to Lawrence, Kansas to study at KU.  I took a flight from San Francisco to Kansas City, which arrived around 2 AM local time.  I rented a car and drove to Lawrence (about 40 miles).  I stopped at a Denny’s to get a bite to eat.  There were only a few other [...]

Two years ago I bought a Soleus MAC-12K 12,000 BTU/hr portable air conditioner. It also had an electric heating element. The first year it worked fine. This past winter the heater wouldn’t work; perhaps the heating element burned out, or a connection failed. I didn’t care too much because I have [...]

I somehow developed this “ability” where objects in close physical proximity to me would age rapidly and/or combust.  This was particularly unfortunate when it happened to friends and family.  No one seemed to know how or why this happened.  With a lot of effort, I got the affect partially under control; I could suppress it [...]

Steve and I were going to a lecture on the fourth floor of a buiding.  The corridors were around the exterior of the building, but there were no exterior walls or railings.  The floors were very slippery, and sloped toward the outside.  The elevator was also outside, and there was a gap between the elevator [...]

Seen on a mailing list:
I’m sure I’m not the only one to have observed that the new nominee for DCI shares a branch of service (USAF) and a surname (Hayden) with the actor who played the nutjob general who first launches the bombers in Dr. Strangelove. (USAF Gen. “Jack D. Ripper” was played by Sterling [...]