News and Views

When I worked in the real world I wore a wrist watch all the time. But since retiring, and especially since getting a smart phone, I have found it more bothersome than helpful. If I want to know the time there are usually clocks around, and if not I can pull my phone out of […]

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Our bathroom shower is just about as far from the water heater as it could be. When taking a shower, we turn on the hot water and then go do something else while we wait 1-2 minutes for the hot water to make it through the pipes. But it’s hard to guess when the water […]

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There’s a very useful webpage, ninite.com. Put a checkmark next to all the programs you have installed on your computer, click “Get Installer”, and the page will download and install all updates. It even makes sure to leave out the add-ons so many programs like to include, such as the despicable Ask bar, or McAfee […]

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How do airplanes fly? I was taught in high school that the reason a wing provides lift is because the top is curved more than the bottom and that the air flowing faster over the top has less pressure. There is some truth to that, but the major source of lift is angle of attack, […]

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Starting January 1, 2014 it is now illegal to manufacture or import incandescent light bulbs in the US. Actually, the law (signed by George W. Bush) doesn’t specifically state incandescents. It just sets a maximum wattage to produce a given amount of light, from 40 to 100 watt equivalents, and there are many loopholes for […]

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The word “malaria” comes from the Latin for “bad air”. Before the mosquito connection was discovered, people thought that the disease came from exposure to air from swamps. Black Plague in the middle ages was also thought to be caused by exposure to bad air, and the rat-flea connection was only discovered in the 19th […]

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Just before coming to Taiwan I bought a tablet computer — the Nexus 7 from Google. It’s a 7″ Android tablet. Small, but perfect for traveling. Now here in Taiwan, I found a compatible Bluetooth keyboard, and plugged a mouse in to the USB port (this could also be Bluetooth in a future iteration) and […]

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Here’s a picture of the keypad in the elevator in my hotel. What’s wrong? Why?

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Even though the days are still hot (in the high 90s), nights are getting down into the 60s. I have set up a whole house ventilation system to take advantage of the cool nights. Once the temperature outside drops below the temperature in the house (usually about 80), I turn on two fans in upstairs […]

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I’ve had my Chevy Volt for about 18 months now. Update: I still love it. Still fun to drive, still extremely economical to drive, after you get past the purchase price (which has recently dropped $5000). I’ve put about 13,400 miles on it, and used 48 gallons of gas. I typically drive about 90% of […]

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