Office Space, Three Years On

Last week, Diamond entered the fourth year of work-from-home. I work out of the offices two or three days a week — it depends on the kind of work I’m doing and the projects I’m working on — and have, honestly, since the end of March 2020, but full time in the office, for mostContinue reading “Office Space, Three Years On”

Saving the Galaxy, One Quadrant and Sector at a Time

For a certain type Star Trek fan, this is the coolest thing ever — Emanuele Bolognesi has taken the original, classic 1970s quadrant-sector Super Star Trek computer game and melded it with the interface of Interplay’s Star Trek 25th-Anniversary, resulting in the perfect marriage of gameplay and aesthetics. I discovered it last night, through anContinue reading “Saving the Galaxy, One Quadrant and Sector at a Time”

Changing up the Desktop

Discovering NASA’s Flickr photo archive this week was nice, as it game me an opportunity to update a desktop wallpaper. Notice the use of a. Manjaro My Manjaro installation probably could have used a refresh. Now it looks like this. It’s KDE with the Sweet Ambar Blue theme, the Candy icon set, and the PlankContinue reading “Changing up the Desktop”

Retro Cool Computing

I am a well-known crazy person. Normal people do not install WindowMaker on a perfectly fine Linux Mint installation just for kicks. Nor do they then make an icon for their work VPN connection with the company logo so it looks nice in the dock. Out of the box, so to speak, WindowMaker had theContinue reading “Retro Cool Computing”

Falling Victim to the Classic Blunder

Guess who rang in the new year by falling victim to one of the classic blunders, the eBay scam? Okay, okay, technically, it was two weeks ago. We got a small bonus check at work, and I spent it on a 2TB SSD drive on eBay. I’m not hurting for storage — I have fourContinue reading “Falling Victim to the Classic Blunder”

The Adam West Christmas Album

I keep thinking about an album that doesn’t exist — Adam West’s 1968 record, Christmas at Stately Wayne Manor. Other than the title and the jacket art — West looking very much like Bruce Wayne, in a velvet jacket against a solid color background — there’s nothing related to the Batman television series about thisContinue reading “The Adam West Christmas Album”

The New LEGO Project

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that an empty USB port in good working order, must be in want of a device.”— Jane Austen, Specifications and Serial Busses I needed a USB hub. The Doctor Who TARDIS USB hub that I was given at work during the David Tennant era — so, circa 2008 —Continue reading “The New LEGO Project”

Lancaster Wins It All

This happened last night. And I was there! So, too, apparently, was Charlie Brown, who went home to his sister Sally, very happy and excited. I was In Lancaster last week for games 1 and 2 of the division series against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs. Lancaster lost game 1, though they made a furiousContinue reading “Lancaster Wins It All”

The Lighter Side of Life

A meme seen on Facebook by a number of friends, Keith R.A. DeCandido among them: Will somebody play, please! I want to see your answers and I’m tired of seeing political posts, bad news, or anything about gas prices!!! You’re next. Let’s lighten up! Favorite pie: Key Lime Pie Steak or Seafood: Steak Coke orContinue reading “The Lighter Side of Life”

Looking for Methodists

I went to last night’s Baltimore Orioles game — they were paying tribute to Brooks Robinson with a personal appearance and a Norman Rockwell print giveaway — but before the game I made a visit to Baltimore’s Mt. Olivet Cemetery. I was looking for two things — early Methodist bishops and Joe Biden’s ancestors. We’llContinue reading “Looking for Methodists”