Randy the Transistor Radio
Found this booklet up in the attic at Mom and Dad’s House. I don’t know to which of my brothers it belonged, but the publish date is 1963. Wouldn’t it be great if American children were still excited about truly technical things? This book depicts the circuit board (Chet the Circuit Board) admonishing the reader to not take him apart–you’ll learn how I work when you get older. We’ve lost something along the way. Randy the Transistor...
Safeguarding Family Internet – Firewalls
Yep. Jack Bauer uses them all the time. Every movie, TV show, novel, and newspaper article talks about them. Apparently, they exist as some magical device that at one time both renders a “server” impenetrable and throws open secret files to terrorists. Depending on the character in our little drama, there seems to always hide some trick or pathway around this “firewall” thing, and the description usually relies on pseudo-technical jargon to explain it away. By the way, this is article #2 – Check out the first post in the series to get some background. “I’ll just use the subnet and reconfigure the port server to back-door the web client terminal.” In case you don’t know, the statement above doesn’t...
Safeguarding Family Internet – Overview
(Haven’t posted in a long time–sorry for that. Been busy. Having twins unexpectedly (as if there were any other way) will do that to a guy.) Home Networks My wife and I home school our children using excellent videos from Abeka, and it works out very well. They can travel with me when the opportunity arises, work from the dentist’s waiting room, or whatever. Except for the problem of how to let the kids get to the Internet safely. Well, there’s all kinds of thoughts out there on the subject. Everything from “Don’t” (absolutist) to the school of thought that says “They’re Going to See It Anyway” (defeatist). Then there are the people who say, “My kids would never do anything like...
Wilbur Curtis and the Warmers
Wilber Curtis and the Warmers broke onto the scene back in 1987 with their first album, “Ready to Brew.” Taste the music the way it was before the commercialism and the “pop” sellout. This album has percolated around my attic for years without much play, now I find that it’s strong and dark flavors keep me up at night. Some cuts are sweet and sugary, some are dark and bitter, but the cream of the crop are probably “Up for the Daily Grind” and the nutty-flavored “Rain Drips”. Man. I think I like...
Buzz Light Year – Fisher Price Power Wheels Hack
Yeah, I know it’s for toddlers, but really–how pointless to not have a reverse. Just so everyone’s clear, this was done with only the purchase of a DPDT rocker switch at RadShack for $3 or $4 (can’t remember). Everything else came from stuff I already had–so please don’t comment on how lame I am using solid core 14-gauge wire. I pulled it out of a chunk of Romex I had in the basement. I didn’t really want to go spend the cash on heat-shrink tubing, the proper hookup wire, connectors, and such. Here’s my philosophy on the matter: Whatever I used and however bad the solder joints look, they will still WAAAAAY outlast this $50.00 electric scooter. This is what I’m going for. A simple rocker switch...
RecordingHacks Microphone Contest – Royer
Pop over to RecordingHacks and enter the contest–they are giving away a new Royer R-121 Ribbon Microphone! Here’s the link: http://recordinghacks.com/contest/
Buried In Time – Running in Windows XP/Vista/7
This is the second game in the Journeyman Project trilogy. Â And, for me, the most memorable. Â The artwork seems a bit dated now, but at the time of release it looked beautiful to me. Â The acting didn’t bother me either…back then. Â Now, well, any time an actor (in this case the main character) stops to smack his lips between phrases, you know you’re in for a treat! Â The best part was the news editorial that was in no way editorial–the “news anchor” had no opinion of anything. Â He just reported what other people thought. Â Fortunately, the player may suffer through the video clips early on in the game and leave them far behind. All-in-all, though, the game excells in story–marginalizing even these...
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