STS-1 was the first of four orbital flight tests to verify the design and performance capability of the Space Transportation System.
Veteran Astronaut John Young was the commander of the mission. Rookie Astronaut Robert Crippen was the pilot.
The mission was approximately fifty-four hours.…
Read the rest “STS-1”
I’m generally a fan of Google products. Recent developments in Google Drive have me worried. I’m hoping that Google can fix these issues. Specifically I have talking about the musical chairs game that Google is playing with their cloud storage app.…
Read the rest “Just Say No to Kernel Extensions”
In 1981 I lived in Florida and the Space Shuttle Program was about to launch the first test of their new system. My father subscribed to the local newspaper, The St. Petersburg Times. He started pulling out newspaper clippings. At first I collected them in a box but then had the idea to put them in a scrapbook.…
Read the rest “Space Shuttle Project”
Rather nice documentary on Amazon Prime about (East) German Daniel Rintz and his motorcycle trip from Berlin to Australia. Like Motorcycle Diaries, Jupiter Travels, and Long Way Round, the story focuses on the interactions with the people along the journey and the hardships or travel.
HBO Europe has a new show from Norway that is a new take on the Alienation formula using time travel instead of space travel as the source of the refugees. It is an interesting look at 21st century Norway and how it relates to their Viking heritage.…
Read the rest “Beforeigners”
Back in August Shawn King announce the end of the Your Mac Life Show after many, many years. I wish him well on his future endeavors.
I had the pleasure of meeting Shawn twice. The first was a Mac World San Fransisco 1998.…
Read the rest “Farewell YML”
Just got my new Mac mini (M1, 2020) spun up and taking it for a test drive. I’m immediately impressed by how many apps that I use are showing up as “Apple” in the Architecture column of the Process Monitor. For apps that still required the old Intel chip, there’s Rosetta.…
Read the rest “This update is not allowed on this system.”
Every year I get calls and emails from my customer about a “bill” they received that apparently requires payment to keep their domain. The letters are intentionally formatted to look like an invoice complete with a spot to fill in your credit card number.…
Read the rest “Domain Registry Letter”
I’ve been thinking about zoom lenses lately. I bought my first SLR camera back in 1990. It was the then new Canon EOS 10s. With it I bought an EF 50mm f/1.8, an EF 35-105mm f/3.5-4.5, and an EF 100-300mm f/4.5-5.6 USM.…
Read the rest “Zoom Lens”
As discussed in my previous post, the cost of always-on data plans are too high for users like me who only occasionally need mobile data and occasionally need data overseas. While looking for a data plan for overseas use, I accidentally solved my domestic data needs.…
Read the rest “My New Data Plan”
I have an iPad Mini 5 that I use as my primary computer when I travel. I got the version with a cellular modem so that I can use it anywhere without having to worry about finding WiFi. This is not my first iPad with cell service.…
Read the rest “iPad Data Plan Cost”
My experiment with Citibank’s AAdantage MasterCard is (almost) over. Their security verification features pushed me over the edge. Every time I tried to talk to them on the phone I would come away frustrated.
Citi + Pay advertisement
Their phone verification system assumes that all their customers will have a land line or addition accounts with Citi.…
Read the rest “So Long Citi”
Recently I picked up the 1992 movie for $4.99 starring Sandra Bullock, Wesley Snipes, and Sylvester Stallone named after a 1981 song by The Police, Demolition Man. There’s no way this 1993 rated R film could/would get made today. It is a very strange film mixing violence, action, satire, and comedy.…
Read the rest “Demolition Man” 
