I’m thankful that the Pilgrims had the foresight to have Thanksgiving on a Thursday, the day before trash day, so that it’s easy to dispose of all of the leftover trash. I wonder how they knew?
I just finished the process of installing an SSL certificate on my website and since I ran in to a few issues along the way, I thought I’d document the process here in the hope of saving someone some time and headaches in the future. I use InMotion Hosting for my domain provider but since the majority of the install process uses CPanel, I suspect that what I’ve done will apply to other providers as well. To perform the install of the certificate you will need SSH access to your site using Putty and also FTP access using the FTP program of your choice. First open PuTTY and enter in the host name and port for your site. In my …
I ran into a strange problem today. I’m setting up a new system and I wanted to place shortcuts to Windows Store applications on the desktop. To do so, I searched for the program in the start menu, and then attempted to drag the icon on to the screen. When I did this I was greeted with a strange looking icon. Even worse, clicking on the icon would just open a folder on the desktop instead of launching the desired program. With a bit of research I found that if you want to create a desktop icon for a Windows Store application you need to do things a little differently. First, press the Windows key and the ‘R’ key simultaneously. …
Any time I’m feeling down I just watch this… Instantly happy. Works every time.
Anton Rubaclini wins the Tweet of the week award.
The title, “Horrifying video shows California cop shooting man SEVEN TIMES outside a 7-Eleven after suspect grabbed the officer’s magazine” leads one to believe the cop had just purchased a copy of “Field and Stream’ from the local Seven Eleven. In reality, if you read the article, you learn it was a gun magazine that was grabbed. Huge difference. I would think the editors would want a more accurate title, but I guess making it sensational gets them more hits. That was the comment I attempted to post on the UK Daily Mail website but of course it was never published. I guess they can’t have any decent from the riff-raff and anyway, everyone knows you mustn’t let reality get …
A boy mowing the lawn is about American as apple pie. For a great many of us it was the first job we had when we were growning up. Earlier this week, we were treated to the story of Frank Giaccio, an eleven year old from Falls Church Virginia, who wrote President Trump saying that it would be his “honor to mow the White House lawn.” The president took him up on his offer and Gaiccio did the job telling Fox News, “So far it’s pretty much the best day of my life.” Nice story. Hard working, self starter, showing ambition and drive. A story that should make everyone happy. Not so, Steven Greenhouse, former labor reporter for the New …
I found this pretty amazing. A beetle whose defense mechanism is the ability to shoot hot boiling liquid and gas at an attacker. The beetle produces the liquid using an exothermic reaction of hydrogen peroxide and peroxidase enzymes. The temperature of the expelled liquid is around 100C. Photo by Patrick Coin License: CC BY-SA 2.5
I’m not a big Seth MacFarlene fan. I think the guy is hardworking and amazingly talented but for the most part I just don’t get his sense of humor. “Family Guy”, “The Cleveland Show”; what do people see in these? Every joke is telegraphed and sophomoric. I can see liking them if you’re a fourteen year old, but by fifteen you probably should have outgrown them. I’ve enjoyed MacFarlene’s movies much more. “Ted” and “Ted 2”, while not fantastic, were a lot of fun. “A Million Ways to Die in the West” is actually one of my favorites, although it appears I might be alone with that opinion. About a month ago, I saw a promo for “The Orville” and …
I was saddened last night to learn of the death of Jerry Pournelle. I never met Jerry, but I was certainly influenced by him. In the early days of computers, he wrote a column for Byte magazine and it was the first thing I would turn to when I received my issue. He was also a science fiction writer that wrote a number excellent novels. His collaborations with Larry Niven are some of the best sci-fi books in the business. He also was one of the first people to have a blog on the web. Chaos Manor (http://www.jerrypournelle.com) has been one of my go-to sites for years. Jerry always posted thought provoking articles and user comments. Sadly, in recent years, …