I recently discovered a distributed computing project for COVID-19 DNA research called Rosetta@Home  ( https://foldforcovid.io/ ).  Having 8 Raspberry Pis which are lying dormant after I completed a project with them, I decided to put them online as workers. For security precautions, I decided to create a segmented guest network on my router for the Pis […]

You may have noticed a wave of channels removed recently by Google for violating content policies, and the screams from their owners about foul play–even outright censorship.  There are very important constitutional concerns about arbitrary removal of content. And viewed at its face value, it seems like targeted censorship. And then today, there is the […]

That’s the famous line from the Wizard of Oz.  The Wizard is putting on quite a show for Dorothy, The Tin Man, The Scarecrow and The Lion, filled with smoke, lights, a large and scary projected picture of himself on the wall, while he is sternly shouting loud and bullying threats over a loudspeaker.  They […]

A few weeks ago, I read the new reports based on tweets made during the diversion of a flight, on which Keanu Reeves was travelling.  And it left me a little disturbed about our social media focused society. The plane had a minor mechanical issue and had to divert to Victorville, CA, instead of continuing […]

After an unusual set of circumstances, my company has shifted its IT and software development staff into a distributed workforce even though all of us are within a local drive of the office.  Previously other terms were used for this type of work, like working from home or working remotely.  But it is so much […]

It’s time. The United States Constitution, in Article V, has a clause describing a Constitutional Convention which the states may invoke with 3/4 of the State Legislatures requesting it. It is a safety valve for an out of control federal government, and the time to pull that valve is now. The constitutional convention is initiated […]

Story #1: There was an old Indian Chief who once commissioned a group of young men in his tribe for a major project.  The Chief understood the value of documenting the lessons of the past, for the benefit of future generations in the tribe.  So he set the group out to gather, compile  and document […]

“The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers.”  — Steven Harris As a software developer, it is sometimes difficult for me to watch technology evolve into the current direction it has taken:  Software as a Service (SaaS).  I have been programming both […]

I was lucky to be in the United States Air Force and stationed at Tempelhof Central Air Base in Berlin, on the day the Berlin Wall fell: Nov 9, 1989.  It occurred only one month after I married my wife, so the event is strongly etched in both of our minds.  I am occasionally asked where I was when […]

The Fall of the Berlin Wall is an event that is very personal to me, since I was stationed at Tempelhof airbase in Berlin with the US Air Force when it happened.  As the 25th anniversary of the opening of the Berlin Wall is being celebrated in Germany, there are two key people being credited […]