Author: Jon

Ah, Christmas. A time to compile lists of desired items in the hopes that someone will get them for you as a gift. I amused myself by thinking up this list of things that made perfect sense to ask for at the time… but today, just seem hopelessly outdated. I like to think of this… Continue reading Christmas wishlists of yesteryear

Maybe it’s just me, but this story on Slashdot about Google developing quantum computing is making me nervous. Why? One word: Skynet. I have an idea that the first real quantum computer will go "runaway" and develop into a true strong AI—the first sentient computer. It’s a science fictional notion, sure, but when they’ve essentially… Continue reading Google’s next logo doodle will be of a Terminator

I’ve been thinking a bit lately about Twitter‘s new "Retweet" functionality. Okay, first of all, there is a scary number of hits when you search "retweet": 9.8 million from Google. That just seems wrong somehow, considering "retweet" is a made up word that’s only been in the lexicon for what, a couple of years at… Continue reading Twitter and Retweeting

(As I type in the title to this blog post, I have the line "Remember, remember the fifth of November" from "V for Vendetta" running through my head.) I blink, and November has passed; tomorrow is December 1st which for all intents and purposes heralds the Christmas season. Well, actually according to the Shopping Gods… Continue reading The end of November

No, I’m not actually participating in National Novel Writing Month, but I toyed with the idea (again), and in doing so I did some back-of-the-envelope calculations to see how manageable it would be. The results were interesting, so I thought I’d share. The idea, of course, is to write a 50,000 word (minimum) novel in… Continue reading NaNoWriMo (manageably)

Happy Halloween everyone! Hope you all have a safe trick-or-treating (or whatever it is you do) and thoroughly enjoy the day. And because it’s Halloween I couldn’t resist running a few of the various weird images I’ve posted over the years. Enjoy!

I was in our local Bend Bulletin today, in an article about seasonal beers. Nice article, mostly accurate, but I was very surprised by the amount of "screen time" I got, so to speak. I only spoke with the reporter for something like 10 minutes on the phone last week. This makes the third time… Continue reading I’ve been in the newspaper 3 times now. I think.

A few years back, Law & Order had an episode where the killer planted a body part in the wreckage of the World Trade Center so that the crime would be covered up, looking instead like collateral damage from 9/11. It almost worked (but didn’t, of course) and got me thinking that the same type… Continue reading A book I’d like to read

As a blogger who receives samples of products (mostly beer) and writes reviews of them, I read with interest this story that popped up on LATimes.com today: Bloggers must now disclose if they got paid to write a review. Basically, the Federal Trade Commission has revised their "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials… Continue reading Bloggers must disclose payments for reviews

This year, or the latter half, at least, has been a big harvest year for us. And one of the things that goes along with harvesting your own produce (or whatever) is the packaging and storage: you don’t want the stuff you picked to go bad. So there’s been a lot of freezing and canning… Continue reading The year of harvest