The Adventures of Roberta X

     Alternative titles: "Get Off The Bus!" and "Partyline."      It has nothing to do with politics.  I went to work o...

     It's junk science, too: "A.I.," which is certainly artificial but has yet to demonstrate actual intelligence, is going to...

     It's not a metaphor.  A large Orb Weaver has set up shop in our side yard, between one wall of Roseholme Cottage and a skinny woode...

     Here's a whole series of pages with old General Radio publications!  Great stuff if you like that kind of thing; GR built a lot of...

     Nope, not my back -- my toolbox.      Working on my off-center-fed dipole ham antenna in its post-treefall location, I was using a 3/8...

     Okay, maybe it's not exactly his style, but if you're not claustrophobic -- and I most definitely am not -- and you put in the ...

     How knowledge fades: Tam was playing back an interview about storm damage in our a neighborhood a couple of weeks ago, as in the tree t...

     Still waiting on more examples, but so far, my theory about what it takes to run a successful human spaceflight program is holding wate...

     And, oh shucks, nobody missed me.  (Well, hardly anyone.)  This, in my kind of Engineering Department, counts as a success: if we do ou...

     The White River peaked through Indianapolis last night, having set new records at several measuring stations -- but never quite overtop...

     About all I did today was struggle with paperwork.  The extended leave time and medical stuff involves two big and doctrinaire insuranc...

     Other than routine -- laundry, dishes and the network politics shows -- I spent today on antenna projects.  Between heat, humidity and ...

     I've got my Doc Savage flashlight -- and they work just the way Lester Dent described!  Of course, he was writing pulp magazine st...

      Hair of the dogweed,* maybe?  I spent most of today playing an ultra-cautious version of Hiram Bingham in the back yard, slashing away...

     I'm off for four more weeks.  Well, the doctor actually prescribed light duty, still not lifting any more than fifteen pounds, and ...

     It's a trope from The Onion and like a lot of satire, it's realer than real.  The essay linked below explains how zillionaire ...

     After checking out the ladders I already own, I realized I had one that was light enough to carry and the right size to reach the roof,...

     Amazon keeps sticking her in a hang glider and flying her into the Uncanny Valley, and I have to coax her back out again.  Alexa goes f...

     Yesterday afternoon, I had an unbreakable obligation that meant driving to the far west side of Indy on 38th Street.  I did it, and was...

     Multitool maker Leatherman sells a gearless ratchet about the size of a fountain pen, and nobody told me.  There was apparently a lot ...