Monthly Archives: May 2007

Resistor madness

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Eric

In response to a message about a donation of a large quantity of 16.9K resistors to the 6502 Group, Scot K. Anderson replied with a story of an unusual usage of resistors: This reminds me of a story, a cautionary … Continue reading →

Posted in General | 3 Comments

Paper analyzing U.S. v. Miller (Second Amendment case)

Posted on May 23, 2007 by Eric

A friend pointed out the paper The Peculiar Story of United States v. Miller, in which law clerk Brian L. Frye analyzes the only major Second Amendment case decided by the Supreme Court. This case is commonly cited by parties … Continue reading →

Posted in Right to Keep and Bear Arms | Leave a comment

TSA confiscates Congressman Tim Ryan’s next few meals

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Eric

I have a lot of respect for Congressman Tim Ryan for taking the Food Stamp Challenge. Recently as he was taking a commercial flight the TSA confiscated his peanut butter and jelly, depriving him of meals for two days. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Freedom and liberty | Leave a comment

Closed caption decoder enhancements contributed by user

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Eric

Kevin Timmerman sent me email about having built a USB version of the closed-caption decoder that Richard Ottosen and I developed.  He used an FTDI TTL-232R cable which incorporates a USB-to-serial interface chip.  He has added many new features to … Continue reading →

Posted in closed caption decoder | Leave a comment

Shrek the Third

Posted on May 21, 2007 by Eric

I saw Shrek the Third with friends this evening.  It was fairly entertaining, but not up to the standard set by the first two films.  The story is weaker and consequently less engaging for adults.  For me, the highlight was … Continue reading →

Posted in Film | Leave a comment

Viva Zapata!

Posted on May 20, 2007 by anonymous

On Friday night we watched Viva Zapata, Elia Kazan’s 1953 biopic, starring Marlon Brando and Anthony Quinn. It is well thought of (IMDB 7.6), but I found it an uneven collection of performances that were within themselves jewels. Once such … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, Right to Keep and Bear Arms | Leave a comment

Television watching habits, with or without a DVR

Posted on May 16, 2007 by Eric

Hanford Lemoore and I were both early employees of ReplayTV.  Hanford writes about how he became a DVR user more than a year before any were available commercially, and how he has now gone DVRless for over year. I watched … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Television | Leave a comment

Pink Floyd’s members play at Syd Barrett tribute

Posted on May 12, 2007 by Eric

As reported by the BBC, it wasn’t a reunion.  David Gilmour, Nick Mason, and Rick Wright played together, and Roger Waters played solo. Shine on, you crazy diamond!

Posted in In memoriam, Music | Leave a comment

At Cape Canaveral for a new Gemini launch

Posted on May 11, 2007 by Eric

I was visiting Cape Canaveral for the first launch of a new manned Gemini mission, as the guest of a friend who worked for NASA.  There was a failure seconds after liftoff, with an abrupt drop in rocket thrust, and … Continue reading →

Posted in Dreams | Leave a comment

Mama Get Your Hammer (There’s a Fly on Baby’s Head)

Posted on May 11, 2007 by Eric

I was listening to the “Theme Time Radio Hour with your host Bob Dylan,” and he played “Mama Get Your Hammer (There’s a Fly on Baby’s Head)” by the Bobby Peterson Quartet.  Aside from being an amusing song, it was … Continue reading →

Posted in Music | 1 Comment