Anecdote

Boy, that’s different!

I finished the kit months ago but couldn’t get the black powder, especially the FFFF (or 4F) that’s recommended for the pan. That stuff is rare!

And before that, they used logarithms which, as it happens, are the basis for slide rules and, later, some of the parts in analog computers.

Speculation is a double-charge when reloading caused it. (Shooter had no serious injuries … except to his wallet.)

The computer cheated.

The company I work for makes a 100% deterministic operating system. You want that when the computer is flying the airplane. (Have you traveled on a 787?)

I was shaving in the mirror when that happened. Looking up, I saw my right eye move. It had looked off to the side for a moment but then came back to the mirror an instant later. I had no idea what it had seen nor why it had looked over there.

After the party for our son-in-law’s birthday yesterday at his parent’s home, we took a hike into the Bureau of Land Management wilderness area behind their property to find a safe spot for target shooting.

You probably don’t know the Red Baron Operating System, “R-Boss” (RBOS). It was named for a strip bar in Houston Texas and it carried billions, probably trillions, of dollars of credit card authorizations for American Express – including long after they lost the source code for it.

Back when 300 baud dial-up was new – yeah, that’s a long time ago, all right – we had a “guest” login to a mainframe where a friend worked. He had administrative privileges and, being the generous sort, we were “in”.

I was a terrible student.

I rarely did homework but somehow slid by with Cs and just barely advanced from grade to grade. What homework I did was driven solely by fear of a teacher’s wrath but, over time, my skin grew thicker with each passing year. “Homework time” was spent alone in my room with doors shut as I worked on hobbies or reading Science Fiction.

On Saturdays, Dad would sometimes go to the hospital to see a couple of his patients. And sometimes he would take me along.