Browsing all posts in Commentary.
I Love Google
This is the first of a three part series on my thoughts about the search giant Google. I definitely have a love/hate thing going on with them. I thought it was appropriate to start with love. Parts two and three will be published within the next couple of weeks. My first experience with Google came [...]
Craigslist Scammers
I’ve listed a couple of things on Craigslist recently. I generally prefer selling on Craigslist because its free, but you do have to deal with scammers. Generally my policy is to avoid them, but this week I decided to let the story play out just to see what happens. The “person” that wants to buy [...]
Cellulosic Ethanol
Image via Wikipedia Last summer I shared my thoughts on biofuels, specifically E85. In short, yes they can offset our dependence on foreign oil, but because biofuels contain less energy per gallon than gasoline we’ll need more of it to keep up with our current consumption rates, and this solution completely neglects our need for [...]
Sweetwater Texas
Image via Wikipedia I have believed for a long time that high energy prices would ultimately be good for the American economy. I generally keep an ear to the ground for new developments in renewable energy technology, and new products that take advantage of alternative energy sources. I recently learned of a small town that [...]
Gene Kranz
Image via Wikipedia Tonight Gene Kranz, the famed NASA mission controller played by Ed Harris in Apollo 13, came to speak at UT and I was able to make it. I went with low expectations because I didn’t know much about him other than what I had seen in the movie, and just wow. This [...]
My Oma
A week and a half ago my grandma, whom I have always referred to as “Oma” (the German word for grandma), passed away in her sleep. She was 93 years old. I feel pretty fortunate to have had her in my life as long as I did, she was truly one of the most beautiful [...]
Less is More
If you read my Twitter or Facebook updates then you may already know that I’m selling some of my guitar equipment. Earlier this week I listed all of my effects pedals. People keep telling me not to sell my guitar or amp, that later I’ll be sorry. I’ve spent a fair amount of time thinking [...]
Electric Drag Racing
A buddy of mine sent me a link to an electric car that is entering in drag races. This is awesome. John Weyland gutted a 1972 Datsun 1200, converted it into an electric drive, named it White Zombie and has breaking records at his local drag strip. In this video he drops both a Corvette [...]
Ubuntu on Inspiron B130
Once again I have two laptops, both Dells. My main system is a Vostro 1500 that sees daily use and a lot of miles, and an Inspiron B130 that was previously my daily system, but now is the computer that I keep in the living room to surf while I’m watching TV. As part of [...]
The Ford ECOnetic
I just learned that Ford has a car in production that will get 65 MPG. That’s not a misprint. The Ford ECOnetic is a diesel hatchback that gets a full 65 MPG. For those of you keeping up, that’s better than the Prius, and it isn’t even a hybrid. Ford has opted to have the [...]