Bruce's Blog

So I was looking at the change in my pocket the other day when I came across this weird looking coin. I caught the back of the coin first or I may not have even noticed. It was a dime, but a Canadian dime. The back side of the coin bugged me for two reasons: (1) I...

This is an interesting find (if you are in Michigan and interested in what goes on in the Legislature). I was trying to get to actual source material on the budget issues going on in Lansing right now, when I came across this feed....

Yes, it can be said that I learned to program at the community college – at least my first computer classroom experience that is. It was one of those enrichment-style classes that colleges at the time were offering to help make the most of their expensive computer...

So I have been slowly moving back into my house since we decided not to move - we basically "moved out" when we painted, carpeted, and boxed up everything that made our house look "cluttered" and put it in a storage unit.  In moving back in, we decided that the...

Well it has been almost exactly a month since we started growing the "Alum" crystals, and about two weeks since we harvested the first one - now we have a complete first batch.  Looks like someone's struck it rich with a pocket full of diamonds ... Let's go...

It's been covered well enough in the blogs - but this could change quite a bit in the next 6 months.  Let's see how Silverlight and developers take off with these new tools.  Now on Windows, Macintosh, and "Moonlight" on Linux .......

I've been wanting to find the right time to try out some of the HOWTOONS ideas (if you haven't seen them, they are well drawn fun ideas for cool construction projects), and the Labor Day weekend seemed like the perfect chance.  So on the way up north we...

I learned a couple of interesting new things over the weekend. (1) Wal-mart carries pretty cool Meade telescopes and (2) my camera phone actually takes decent pictures. The girls were shopping for some gymnastics clothes so Nathan and I were just wandering around the...

Ooooh, our first crystal from the "Dangerous Crystal Experiment" (from Dangerous Book for Boys). Ironically nothing grew so far on the "starter rock" hanging from the string.  But there are a whole bunch of little crystals like this one (looks...

Nice. As Dan put it - "Why didn't I think of that?" These little rivets, along with a copy of "Dangerous Book for Boys" should be an almost no-brainier for a Christmas or Birthday present this year for any child 7-17. You know how kids like...

OK, for those brave enough to have moved to Windows Vista, and had some of the more noteworthy issues with it, they announced today on the Windows Vista Blog that there will be a beta of Vista SP1 out in the next few weeks, and that it will be ready for mass...

Now on to games – I love games, I love playing games – games that involve two or more players. A game you play by yourself is really more of a “puzzle”, skill builder, or simulation. And while I have played games that use a single player, I lose interest very quickly...

Now if you don't work in a cube, congratulations - you have made wise choices in life.  If you do "get" to work in a cube, I'd want a cube like this one. There is a great gallery on the "Qube" site where it shows you all the options of this great...

I realized that in re-reading my last post I did not tell the whole story, and wanted to add a quick follow up to say where I am still struggling. I still have two collections/addictions that I am trying to come to terms with (1) books, and (2) board games...

We would decide to try to move during the most difficult real estate market in recent memory.  It is depressing going to open houses just to find out the previous occupants have been evicted (or are in the process) – but the bank wants to make a quick deal,...

Some say that Open Source != Microsoft, and that they are even polar opposites.  I disagree and this nice recap from the "Programming Resources' blog basically proves that Microsoft Open Source Projects are alive and well.  Below are nine of the projects I...

Many folks find themselves nowadays having to learn something new nearly every day - so keeping your brain in working order is quite important.  Over at "SharpBrains" they have a number of great recommendations.  I know first hand how much better on a day...

I have seen some lists to encourage developers to stay current with technology, but none as complete or innovative as this post from Scott Hanselman.  I'll only show a few of his ideas here (check out the full post for more great ones).  I don't know...