Odd Lots

[jeff_duntemann]

There is a foundation dedicated to the study of and public education about kites.

Stumbled across Army Radio Sales while looking for working military radio batteries. Didn't have the batteries I needed (which may not in fact exist anymore) but it's a fascinating site and evidently a prime source for military surplus radios (as well as a number of other fascinating things, like Geiger counters) from the US and other countries.

Don Doerres pointed me to what might be called The Incredible Shrinking Embedded Platform Development System from TI. Everything's on a thumb drive, including a dock for a detachable F20xx target board. Unless my bifocals deceive me, the whole schmear, including software, sells for $20. Damn. If there were only another 20 hours in the day...

Chuck Waggoner pointed out that the Foxit Reader (see my entry for February 23, 2006) has a "typerwriter" mode that allows you to fill in forms distributed as PDF files. You open the PDF, select Tools|Typewriter, and type. You can save the PDF out with the added text, or simply print it. Very handy for tax forms!

Here's a nice piece by ZD's George Ou on why rich client software is better than "thin client" software. This has always been my position, but he makes a number of good points I hadn't thought about. Software doesn't have to have an installer or barf all over the Registry. (Look at the Foxit Reader, or anything you build with Delphi.) And having had plenty of experience with networking, I sure don't savor the thought of having my computing experience be absolutely dependent on it.

Pete Albrecht sent me this article on Robert A. Heinlein's house in Colorado Springs, which is about three miles linear distance from where we live now, near Old Broadmoor. Oddly, Carol and I lived only a few miles from the Heinleins' house in Bonny Doon, near Santa Cruz, when I worked for Borland in the late 1980s. Of course RAH was gone by then, but Carol's boss's wife was the realtor who listed the house for Mrs. Heinlein, and I actually thought hard about putting in an offer.