When I was still going to CalArts in the early to mid 1980s, I parlayed my recently acquired BASIC programming skills (via a Timex Sinclair 1000) into a part time job at a little mom-and-pop company in Granada Hills. The company did chemical recycling. They would buy used or surplus chemicals, such as industrial solvents, […]

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted, but hopefully, there are still one or two of you out there who understand the value of a good RSS feed. I’m back to write about a book I’m enjoying, with the following cryptic title: 10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10 If this line of BASIC code […]

I first heard of Apple computer in college.. My friend Kevin Bjorke brought an Apple II from home, with a shoebox full of pirated games. For a few precious weeks, we would stay up all night, munching on junk food, and loading one disk after another, playing Kings Quest, Mystery House and others, the litle […]

A is for Amazon B is for Best Buy C is for Craigslist D is for Dictionary E is for EBay F is for Facebook G is for Gmail H is for Hotmail I is for IKEA J is for Jet Blue K is for Kohls L is for Lowes M is for MapQuest N […]

In a software design meeting the other day, I found myself saying “it needs to be a little less here” (tapping myself on the forehead) “and a little more here” (tapping myself on the heart). As a pointy-eared technical guy, I’ve long been resistant to this type of language, knowing it to be logically meaningless. […]

Whoever made this had too much time on his/her hands. — Truth-lover Some people have way too much free time on their hands. —

While visiting the Gold Bug shop in Pasadena, a wonderful place that more closely resembles a cabinet of curiosity than a gift store, jewelry shop or art gallery, I was reminded of my love for the unclassifiable. Its a fundamental problem that accompanies our need for taxonomy, I guess. When I used to visit real […]

Etude in G Minor, 1983 I thought it might be a good idea to catalog and record all my old piano pieces, many of which exist solely in my head, and haven’t been notated or recorded. “Etude in G Minor” is something I used to play a lot in 1983, during a period when I […]

My employer, Topspin, has been nominated for a Crunchie award for “Best New Startup of 2008.” I will personally vouch for us: Among all the Crunchie nominees, Topspin is indeed the best new startup of 2008! Okay, seriously, I don’t know a heck of a lot about the other nominees, who I imagine are very […]

Have you noticed that both Obama and Biden’s names have five letters apiece? If you stack them on top of each other, you can draw various paths to spell out such things as “BO BI DA ME NA” and “O BIBA DE MAN” I don’t know if this is actually useful, but then, utility is […]