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Posts

Welcome to Jekyll!

less than 1 minute read

You’ll find this post in your _posts directory. Go ahead and edit it and re-build the site to see your changes. You can rebuild the site in many different wa...

AI Tools: Is it Ethical? Legal?

5 minute read

Another of the bigger topics recently is the emergence and use of AI tools and, specifically, the use of AI tools in software development. As part of this, t...

“As Is” — This Old House, Day 0

2 minute read

Two words I never expected to be on an offer I would sign on a house are “as is”. This means, in general, that whatever might be right or wrong with the hous...

This Old House

2 minute read

I accidentally bought a new house. “Accidentally” because we really weren’t looking. But we ended up finding a cool old house, or maybe it found us? I am tel...

Flutter Talk Links

1 minute read

Links from handouts at Introduction to Flutter talk at THAT Conference 2018

Circle with Disney

less than 1 minute read

The internet is a wonderful resource – more information, ideas, resources, entertainment, etc. at our fingertips than ever before in history. It can also be ...

EBook Innovations Needed

5 minute read

I have had my Nook eBook Reader for a few month, and I am really hooked – so hooked that it bothers me when I have to resort to “paper solutions” for anythin...

Maker Faire Detroit 2011

10 minute read

I was able to attend Maker Faire Detroit 2011 this last weekend at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI. It was an amazingly full day from 9:30 in the morni...

Losing 70 pounds

8 minute read

Today I “graduated” from my medical weight loss program – down 70 pounds in 17 weeks. All my “stats” got better – losing 10 inches on my waist, blood pressur...

Silverlight Certification Test – Passed

4 minute read

Microsoft released it’s long awaited (very long awaited) Silverlight Certification (MCTS 70-506) earlier this year. It was reportedly held up several times a...

TalkTimer app for WP7

2 minute read

I have been part of the Toastmasters for Techies group in Grand Rapids since starting with the group about a year ago. In fact I am Vice President in charge...

Nook Simple Touch Reader – First Month

17 minute read

For Father’s Day this year I got a new Nook “Simple Touch Reader” so I have had it for about a month – time for a review. I figure it was time when the “ba...

Rebooting the blog in WordPress

2 minute read

I had a goal to get my blog up and running again by the end of June – so I figured I’d get a head start today

iPad Hands-On Impressions

5 minute read

I headed over to the Apple Store over lunch to see the new iPad, and I was really happy they had about 12 of them out for people to try out. I did not become...

Toastmasters for Techies

4 minute read

About a month ago I started attending a new group forming now in Grand Rapids called “ Toastmasters for Techies”. I had heard of “Toastmasters” many times ...

Candyland, LCR, and Warstorm

8 minute read

If “Candyland, LCR, and Warstorm” was a Jeopardy answer, my question of the day would be “Name three games that seem really fun when you start playing them, ...

Book Review: Think and Make It Happen

4 minute read

Think and Make it Happen, by Dr. Augsto Cury, caught my eye because of the catchy title, interesting premise, and seemingly lofty claims. Who doesn’t want t...

One Month of No Fast Food or Drive Thru

8 minute read

I tweeted earlier that I had now officially gone one month without fast food or drive thru, and that my goal is to keep this up. I “went public” with this ac...

What is hypervideo anyway?

9 minute read

If you know me or follow this blog at all you will probably know a few things about me: 1) I really like working with the latest technology and 2) I have a l...

CodeMash Apps for iPhone

8 minute read

The CodeMash conference is next week – it is a regional “software developer smörgåsbord” covering topics on a wide variety of technologies, patterns and proc...

Where does all the money for schools go?

4 minute read

I occasionally break down and have to write about something off-topic that is wearing on my mind. One such thing is school funding, and that is all over the ...

Success in drying out waterlogged Laptop

2 minute read

Here’s a not-so-hypothetical situation – one night when 15 or so kids are running around the house you happen to leave your laptop in a very public location ...

Why I am voting for Nessie

3 minute read

My family has had a great time at ArtPrize these last few weeks visiting as many of the different venues and artists as possible. The final vote is upon us ...

Brother Color Laser Printer HL-4040CDN

4 minute read

So I have been looking at printers for home since my old HP multifunction printer died in the spring, and used some birthday money and a great sale at Office...

Fearless by Max Lucado

2 minute read

The last book on the Summer 2009 reading list was Fearless by Max Lucado. This book was very timely for me and was a nice break from technical and fiction bo...

Programming for Today’s Kids

8 minute read

Programming for Today’s Kids: Why NXT-G, Kodu, Scratch, Alice, Small Basic, KPL / Phrogram and others can reignite the imagination and understanding of techn...

Kodu Review and First Impressions

1 minute read

One of the other fortunate things we were able to spend some time on last week was Kodu for the XBox 360. Kodu is one of those things that is difficult to de...

Homemade Kubb Set Plans and Report

4 minute read

I first saw the game Kubb [Wikipedia Link] [Kubbin Link] (pronounced k-oo-b) a few years ago and it caught my interest. My interpretation of the game is that...

Post Interesting Links to Blog 06/30/2009

less than 1 minute read

Dell Latitude 2100 Netbook Sold in More Than 500 US School Districts – Dell sees successful launch of Atom-based netbook – Softpedia tags: 2100,...

NECC 2009 Themes

1 minute read

NECC is the National Educational Computing Conference put on yearly by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) (http://center.uoregon.ed...

Tech Trends and Netbooks

4 minute read

I had the opportunity to attend Keith Brophy's 10th Annual "Tech Trends" Wednesday last night. It is great to have regular events like this to bring people t...

Marie Catrib’s Restaurant Review

1 minute read

For Valentine’s Day this year, Laura wanted to have a lunchdate at someplace new. After a littlesearching she found a place in East Grand Rapids called Marie...

Outliers by Malcom Gladwell

2 minute read

I just got done reading Malcom Gladwell's "Outliers: The Story of Success" and I want to make this as little like a middle school book report as possible. So …

What is CodeMash?

2 minute read

I get regularly chided by some friends on Twitter and Facebook when my updates and messages seem to include things that are quite foreign to many people – an...

2008 Retrospective

6 minute read

I wanted to write a 2008 post for a couple of reasons: 1) for “historical” reasons to look back on later, and 2) to let new (and old) people who actually rea...

What would make a good/great Netbook?

4 minute read

I’ve been hoping and watching for a great portable computer that would be ideal for students (and others) for many years – at least since we tested some Powe...

Another reason I love Woot.

less than 1 minute read

You may or may not know about the www.woot.com site where they sell one item per day until it is gone at really good prices. That’s cool, and there are great...

World Animal Day – boston.com

less than 1 minute read

This was such an amazing and surprising picture – Narwhals in Arctic Bay, Canada – that I had to share it. I honestly didn’t know if it was real or not and t...

Silverlight IRL – Requests

3 minute read

This is the first in a series of posts that I promised to do after my presentation to the User Group on Tuesday. These will be details, link and some sample ...

Reason #458 People Don’t Like Computers

less than 1 minute read

After a really busy summer I am making an effort to get back into a routine which includes posting about some interesting things going on personally, profess...

Lessons from Keynote #2 – Steve Jobs

3 minute read

If you ask most of the world about Steve Job’s keynote this week, they will basically tell you that it was the iPhone 3G announcement (new cheaper, faster, s...

Lessons from Keynote #1: Bill Gates

3 minute read

There have been two interesting keynote speeches in recent memory: Bill Gates at TechEd, and Steve Jobs at WWDC. They both reflected on the current state of ...

Community Clips

1 minute read

I’ve been committing to get back to occasional blogging, in addition to following Twitter, so I wanted to see if I really could get out a 10 minute idea-to-b...

MVC Tips and Tricks from WMDoDN 08

less than 1 minute read

Over the next week or so I plan to have individual blog posts about my “favorite” demos in this presentation, but I wanted to get the PowerPoint stack and co...

Day 1 – Festival of Faith and Writing 08

4 minute read

Well it has been quite a day – more than I ever expected. But a little background first. Every two years (i.e. the “even” years) since 1990 there has been a ...

Cool Tools: Window Clippings

2 minute read

Another tool I use almost daily for documentation and presentations is Window Clippings, by Kenny Kerr. There have been screen capture utilities out there si...

Cool Tools – ZoomIt v1.8

2 minute read

I occasionally run into some cool software tools that I end up using a lot, and wanted to blog about them.

Lunar Eclipse 2008

less than 1 minute read

Last night was about as perfect as a lunar eclipse can get (other than the cold). The skies were completely clear. The total eclipse was at a late enough tim...

Microsoft DreamSpark

1 minute read

So say you are a poor college student who wants to program computers or write games for the XBOX 360. You’ve already spent all your money on tuition, room-an...

Why I like Twitter

3 minute read

When I first heard about Twitter in late 2006, I thought it was the latest example of just another social experiment that seemed trivial and an amazing waste...

Shuttle Launch Experience

6 minute read

Well it is easy to say that one of the highlights of my Florida vacation was the launch of the Space Shuttle (STS-122).

Vacation Update

less than 1 minute read

Posting images has been troublesome because it is as if I am working over a 56k modem right now, but should have better access later today.

Missing You

1 minute read

We’ve been in Florida since about midnight yesterday after having the wrong size plane show up, then having a “unscheduled maintenance opportunity”, and then...

Shuttle Launch Passes Arrived!

1 minute read

Well the last “missing piece” of our vacation arrived today – the passes to view the planned Space Shuttle launch on February 7th. I was worried that there w...

Astronomy "Craft"?

1 minute read

Admittedly when I first heard they wanted the Cub Scouts to do a “craft” at the Planetarium event on Astronomy I was a little disappointed. A paper-mache pl...

Retire Fire Extinguishers

2 minute read

So I assume this happens to many people, every so often – you need to retire a fire extinguisher as it is past its “last good date” (sometimes by almost a y...

First Amazon non-DRM music purchase

1 minute read

So I’ve wanted to try out a “non-DRM” music purchase on Amazon to see how it works. I have purchased several iTunes albums and singles that are forever lost...

Computer Handyman and Plumber

3 minute read

I’ve had a long-term discussion/debate with a few people about the market reality of a full-time profession for computer help in the home. Sure there are Gee...

Tribot Sumo Test #1 – WallBot

1 minute read

I’ve been taking spare time every few days to keep learning about the LEGO robotics. I figured since we’d talked a lot about the recent LEGO Sumo Building Co...

Mousetrap Cars – Any advice?

less than 1 minute read

I have to get 7 cub scouts started tonight on creating a mousetrap car. This is in addition to the pinewood derby car they are already working on, and some a...

2007’s Resolutions in Review

3 minute read

I’ve been reading and listening to other people’s review of last year, and setting goals for the next year. I’m not typically a “resolution setter” but I do ...

New Scientist: The Santa Delusion

4 minute read

A friend (who shall remain nameless) sent a link to an article after we had several discussions this season about Christmas and Santa (yes we both have kids)...

Florida Freeze

less than 1 minute read

Sure, plan a trip to Florida and watch the record cold weather creep in.

Heading "South" – Any Ideas?

2 minute read

For various reasons we haven’t taken a vacation (of more than a long weekend) in several years. When looking at the calendar late last summer, it looked like...

PC ProSchools of Grand Rapids

2 minute read

Before I forget this with all that is going on, I came across a new resource in town when I was talking my certification test last week (or was it the week b...

15,000 digital pictures (& counting)

1 minute read

Well we’ve officially amassed >15,000 digital pictures since 2002 – that’s ~8 a day so it isn’t a crazy amount. I used to be able to back up to a DVD and ...

My Chumby

less than 1 minute read

I’ll post more about this soon, but I wanted to see if this “virtual chumby” worked on the blog. My “geek present” this year was a “Chumby” (www.chumby.com)....

Merry Christmas

less than 1 minute read

I can’t imagine posting again before Christmas, so I wanted to wish everyone a safe and blessed Christmas.

Bug or a Feature

less than 1 minute read

I don’t know why images are getting to me so much today, but I laughed out lout today (while trying to get some software projects “out the door” by the end o...

The Bible According To Google Earth

less than 1 minute read

This is really creative – with all the people using Google Maps and Google Earth to view directions and satellite images from space, what would it have been ...

Cool Tool: Tourist Remover

less than 1 minute read

I’ve got to try this out soon – if it works it could really be brilliant. The idea is that you take a number of pictures (3+) of something touristy (i.e. som...

Bug vs. Feature

less than 1 minute read

He he – kind of on the “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade” theme …

MS Math Add-In for Word 2007

less than 1 minute read

I wont spend much time rehashing this because Chris does a great job of it in his post, but there is a Add-in for Word 2007 that does much more than just equ...

6Gb of memory – Now What?!?

1 minute read

Thanks to Chris for the heads-up on the $50 (after rebate) “cyber-Monday” memory deal at NewEgg – arrives on Thursday, can’t beat that.

Silverlight 2.0

1 minute read

Today’s post from ScottGu contains some really good news.

Health Care

less than 1 minute read

Yes, I subscribe to one of those “daily quote” widgets – but today’s just seemed to strike me as funny (having dealt with health care a lot in the last month...

Pet Peeve #26

1 minute read

I didn’t get up early for shopping on Friday, but there were some really good deals (including percent off coupons) that helped buy even the basics. If you ...

Oxford Word Of The Year: Locavore

1 minute read

Locavore …. clearly like carnivore, or omnivore …. something you eat …. a habit more than a diet …. but what’s a “Loc”?

Walking pneumonia

less than 1 minute read

a.k.a. when that cough isn’t “just a cough”

Bowling for Junior Achievement

less than 1 minute read

Straight to the point – I am on a bowling team next Wednesday in the 22nd Annual Coconut Bowl Bowling Classic to support Junior Achievement (no we don’t bowl...

Useless data – but interesting

1 minute read

In September, Mac Fowler asked “I wonder how many mouse clicks there are across the world per day?” – a Random thought, sure, but valid. So many questions ar...

Made in America: By Robots

less than 1 minute read

I was reading through the latest Despair, Inc. catalog when this shirt caught me off guard.

Howtoons: The Possibilities Are Endless!

1 minute read

I had forgotten that I preordered this book from Amazon but it came in the mail on Friday and I read through it over the weekend (also got a LEGO Droid Devel...

Day of .NET Ann Arbor

less than 1 minute read

Just a quick note out to say what a great day Saturday was at the Ann Arbor “Day of .Net”. Where else can you see and talk to a lot of people doing great wor...

"WIRED Science" on PBS

1 minute read

I read about this show in passing a few weeks ago so I asked TiVo to get it for me, and watched the first Episode (101) over the weekend. I have to say it is...

Solar Decathlon 2007 – LTU: ALOeTERRA

1 minute read

For the next three weeks, 20 university teams from across the country will be competing in Washington DC to “design, build, and operate the most attractive a...

Google Reader: Trends

2 minute read

I have been using Google Reader (www.google.com/reader) to follow all the blogs I am interested in for quite a while now (and highly recommend it). You will ...

UC Berkley launches YouTube channel

1 minute read

This is really interesting news. Yesterday the University of California at Berkeley launched a YouTube “channel” offering full courses on video to the public...

BlogEngine.NET 1.2

less than 1 minute read

Just a general note to let anyone that cares that (1) BlogEngine.NET 1.2 is out!!! and (2) I upgraded over lunch and it was relatively painless. I have to re...

Any good new fall TV?

1 minute read

I feel like I am getting old – there is “nothing good” on TV, the movies lately are uninspiring, and the music is just too loud (you can’t even hear the word...

Birthday Stuff – new Nano

2 minute read

Quick post, but I wanted to share some info about a few gifts I got for my birthday on Tuesday. The two “gadgety” things I got this year were a new iPod Nano...

Show and Tell #3: International Pen Pals

2 minute read

Back in the early 80s I learned about a pen pal program where you could write to kids in other countries and they would write you back – what a concept. Ther...

Crazy Canadian Dime

1 minute read

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 e...

Michigan Legislature Bills RSS Feed

1 minute read

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 ...

More Crystals

less than 1 minute read

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 co...

Silverlight 1.0 Released

less than 1 minute read

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 t...

Wal-mart Telescopes

1 minute read

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 decen...

First Dangerous Crystal

less than 1 minute read

Ooooh, our first crystal from the “Dangerous Crystal Experiment” (from Dangerous Book for Boys).

Windows Vista Service Pack 1 Beta

less than 1 minute read

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...

Collection/Addiction #2: Games

2 minute read

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”, ski...

If you have to work in a cube …

less than 1 minute read

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.

Not Moving Sale

4 minute read

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 prev...

Microsoft Open Source Projects

4 minute read

Some say that Open Source != Microsoft, and that they are even polar opposites. I disagree and this nice recap from the “Programming Resources’ blog basicall...

Habits of Highly Effective Brains

1 minute read

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 “Shar...

Sharpen the Saw for Developers

1 minute read

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 on...

Google Earth – No, Google Universe …

less than 1 minute read

There was Google Earth, Moon, even Mars, now Google Universe. Now we just need a fancy Star Trekish LCARS interface… I guess if 95% of the world’s population...

Germany Exploring The Moon Too

less than 1 minute read

NASA, China, and now Germany all looking closely at the moon – it’ll be mapped with more accuracy than the Earth soon. The next space race is on … – Bruce

Tafiti (beta)

less than 1 minute read

It isn’t a country or lightly baked desert, but a new search engine concept from Microsoft. You will need to install the beta of Silverlight to experience it...

Unskilled and Unaware of It

4 minute read

How knowing less about a skill or topic gives the impression that you know much more than you really do.

64-bit Vista Oddness

1 minute read

If you aren’t running (or thinking of running) a 64-bit Vista OS (or don’t know what that means) stop reading this post now, and have a nice day.

Crystal Experiment – Take 1

1 minute read

I have to admit, I’ve never done the “grow the crystals on a string” experiment before. Seems like everyone I talk to is saying “oh,yeah, I remember doing th...

Quad-Core Laptop

less than 1 minute read

I’ll be the first to admit when I am wrong. There is a laptop (coming) with similar specs to my quad-core desktop. It even has 30% more disk space, and a sec...

Pessimistic Shipping Dates

less than 1 minute read

I’m all for realistic expectations for shipping dates from online sellers. But this order recently from a popular online bookstore really got me wondering.

Water Weenies and Crystals

1 minute read

No, not some weird ritual – but about the most fun you can have with latex tubing and surgical clamps! I hope you’ve all had the chance to tie off the end of...

Laptop vs. Desktop for Development

3 minute read

I have spent the last 15+ years going back and forth between laptops and desktop machines for work and development.My first laptop was in 1991, a PowerBook 1...

Post from the Road

less than 1 minute read

I just want to see if I can actually do a blog post using Jott, let’s see if this works.

Turn On Channel 8

1 minute read

This could end up being a really great site – Microsoft has been really going after the student developer and releasing a lot of good tools (e.g. Express ver...

Starting fresh

less than 1 minute read

Time to move to a new blog platform - BlogEngine.NET

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