my SXSW space tweeps slides

On March 11th, 2012 in Austin, TX at the SXSW Interactive conference, I had the privilege of being on a panel of space enthusiasts called “How to Win Friends and Influence Space Exploration“. You can listen to audio of the panel at the SXSW site. The panel was fun, and I put together a slide [...]

on life and its sources

Tonight I read the geeklet a story at bedtime, the kind of thing that’s designed to be restful with a hint of mind-broadening moral reassurance. As I finished, he looked thoughtful. “We wouldn’t be here without this.” He tapped on the floor. “I don’t mean the floor, or the neighbors downstairs. I mean the ground [...]

Short Story: Like An Arrow

Sometimes I get the urge to write a short story. Usually the feeling passes, but this one stuck with me and kept nagging until I let it out. More story notes at the bottom. A shaggy dog barred my path through the door. He was my sister’s dog, a long-suffering poodle lounging in the Louisiana [...]

Experiment Sunday update: Electric Circuits

[Note: Each week my geeklet and I have "experiment sunday", a brief and casual exploration of hands-on science and engineering.] This week’s experiment was a great success. That isn’t to say that it went off without a hitch; the hitches made for more valuable learning than the experiment itself. We set out to make a [...]

a note about passwords

Passwords bug me. Specifically, password management on most websites is maddening. Here are a few things to keep in mind when designing yours: List your password-format rules up front. All too often, sites ask for a password with no indication of their format rules, then scream “ERROR!” when you don’t guess correctly. Yell at your [...]