To set the scene: There is no patient in the world more frightened than myself. I am approaching a half-century in age, and until Friday April 21, 2023, I had never had an IV line inserted, never been under anesthesia or deep sedation, never had any procedure that I’d have to hear about afterwards, rather…
Avita Pura NS14A6
Due to some equipment reshuffles, I found myself needing another Windows laptop, and one thing and another led me to HSN’s special price of $350 for an unknown “Avita Pura” 14 inch machine. Obviously, given the venue and the price, this is aimed at non-technical buyers, probably as a computer for kids, but I am…
Getting Back Into MiniDisc
Back in the late 1990s, not long before I left Australia, I had a co-worker from Hong Kong who was always bringing back interesting things from HK. VideoCD players (and loads of great HK movies), my first DVD player – region free, of course – a NES clone with a bunch of those yellow Chinese…
Field Diagnosis of RFC1149
RFC1149 (A Standard for the Transmission of IP Datagrams on Avian Carriers) was the April Fool’s RFC in 1990. A co-worker who works with WiFi a great deal, and who therefore travels with various kits of WiFi diagnostic gear, has been enamored of the possibilities of this RFC for some time. Thus, as a random…
Beetle Dash 2020
It’s been a while since I last posted a Beetle repair article. In the intervening months, I’ve visited LKQ Pick-A-Part junkyards in Southern Florida many, MANY times looking for parts on my list. (I’ve also relocated to southwest Indiana, where the nearest LKQ is three hours’ drive away). Unfortunately, in the intervening months, the mostly-plastic…
A Short Nightmare
Preamble: I have nightmares when I get too warm while asleep. One night last week, I wore long sleeves to bed and had a nightmare, and this story is a quick Friday-night-to-Saturday adaptation of that nightmare into short story (~9500wd) form. The basic outline follows the pattern of “Youth” (Isaac Asimov), or any of a…
SAH Day 9: Preparedness
(Administrative note: We started our travel-triggered isolation on March 13th and it ended on the 27th. However, on March 25th Indiana went on stay-at-home via Executive Order 20-08, so we are still effectively locked in until April 6th – now updated to at least April 20th. The tl;dr is that this is actually more like…
Isolation: Day 13. Chroming.
With the soon-to-be-nationwide Covid-19 school shutdown in the United States, and need to move to e-learning (either formally or informally), and/or to work from home, there are a lot of people in my immediate circle who find themselves suddenly needing computing devices for every member of the family, and not necessarily being able to afford…
Isolation: Day 5. Curb your enthusiasm.
With widespread closures and restrictions of population movement and retail commerce in force (and likely more coming), one of the stimulus items being bruited about most loudly is a direct cash payment. The exact amount(s) vary from “$1000 per American” to “$1000 per American adult and $500 per child”, and both a one-time payment and…
I am not a smart man.
I am not a smart man. I have ways of doing things. Those ways are not always the best ways. So when I compare, as above, a dollar bill to the size of my mini-wallet (license, 3 credit cards, and a small cash pocket), I see this in my mind’s eye: Clearly, a dollar bill…