Now and then I mention ham radio. I’ve been an “amateur radio operator” (the more formal title) for [gasp] a third of a century now; I’m K0RCC. You’d think, with the Internet creating instant, “free,” worldwide communications, that ham radio would be dwindling away, with just a few old-timers (heck: even older than me!) grasping at the straws of “No! Don’t change!”
Technology
Later Lyris: Arrived at AWeber
This week marks the first issue sent solely to the new distribution list. After months of notice, I have shut down the Lyris-based list, even though well over half the subscribers didn’t move to the new list, hosted by industry leader AWeber.
A Glorious Dawn
I’m really taken with a video released on YouTube last week. It’s an Auto-Tune, which is the name given to soundtracks that use the audio plug-in of the same name. Auto-Tune was designed to correct the pitch of vocals, but clever music creators realized they could use it to make spoken word recordings musical. This is a fantastic example of the genre.
Crash Boom Bang
I’ve been using computers for many, many years now, and finally had something happen to me that has never happened before: a disk crash. It happened yesterday.
Twitter: Why You Should Care
Chris in Washington asks:
Randy: you’ve mentioned Twitter a couple of times, and I see you have a link on TRUE’s home page to your Twitter page. I’ve looked at Twitter a couple of times, and I just don’t get it. Do people really care that their friends (or favorite celebrities) are “Waking up to face the day.” or “Eating a bologna sandwich for lunch.”? Why?
Weird News Video #14 — Clbuttic Mistake
Episode #14: “How Embarrbutting!”, from True’s 7 August 2008 issue.
7 Minutes of Terror
“Seven Minutes of Terror” — that’s what NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, where I worked for 10 years before leaving to work on True full time, went through yesterday.
Shift Happens
There’s a group of friends I hang out with online, all of us online entrepreneurs. One sent a URL around urging us all to “take 8 minutes to watch the video,” adding “if you care about such things, please consider blogging about it and/or passing it on.” What things? Our kids. Or, more accurately, the education of our kids. The world is a very, very different place than it was when we were kids.
Identity Theft: Protect Yourself
or, They Really Are Out To Get You
I’ve been warning about spam in True since 1996 — ten long years. My warnings have been summarized in my Spam Primer, which is now on its own site. As I predicted more than 10 years ago, it’s gotten worse — much worse. And the stakes are much higher than just clogging your inbox: your life savings are at risk.
Dell Hell
A Few Reader Horror Stories
Updates: A Happy Ending?
Conclusion — and Lessons Learned
I’ve recommended Dell computers for many years. But my confidence in them was shaken when I got a new laptop in Fall 2004, and I ended up in “Dell Hell”. This is the story: ridiculous, but even somewhat funny.
Animusic: a Pipe Dream
My Musician Brother, Curt, turned me on last week to something very cool. I ordered a copy of this disk and WOW! What a neat concept!
Why oh Why2K?
or, Ponderings on the New Millennium
“I would like to take you seriously, but to do so would affront your intelligence.” –William F. Buckley, conservative newspaper columnist.
It all started as a bit of musing in my author’s note in the first issue of the year 2000. Then, the more comments from readers I published, the more they streamed in. Let’s recap. In the issue published 7 January 2000, I pondered:
A Premium Idea
The daunting task of using poor-quality email software finally make it too hard to publish True by email every week, so I came up with an idea: publish it every other week.
Happy Birthday, Hal!
Take a moment on Sunday to send your best wishes to the HAL 9000 computer, which was supposedly brought to consciousness on January 12, 1997 in Urbana, Illinois.
Secret Identity
It took a while, but I’ve finally started to get the question from readers: “Are you the same Randy Cassingham that wrote the book on the Dvorak keyboard?”