• I regret to report that Robert Bruce Thompson has left us, at age 64, of heart problems. He's best-known for his books PC Hardware in a Nutshell and Building the Perfect PC, but he's also written several books on astronomy ( Read more... )

• Yeeeeeeeeeee-HAH!*
• One of my backchannel correspondents emailed me some weeks ago: "I know what you're working on. Not much of a secret if it's listed on Amazon." True dat. I'm just following orders.
• People in disorderly environments pay more for the same things, and appear to think less clearly generally. I guess I had better start shoveling out my ( Read more... )

• It would be a little embarrassing to the US if Britain beat us to the Pan Am Clipper, but by God, I would stand with Arthur C. Clarke and the Queen and cheer if they do.
• Satire is the soul of civilization: A Colorado town wants to issue drone-hunting permits. All methods allowed...and no bag limits!
• In 1890, England had Eiffel Tower envy. So...let's ( Read more... )

• The length of the Earth's day varies more than I would guess, and the cause seems to be a certain amount of slosh in our molten core.
• PC World is shutting down its print edition. I still have early copies of both PC World and PC Magazine in boxes, including issues from those heady days when the PC universe was exploding like a supernova and the ( Read more... )

I haven't said anything here for a few days because...we drove to Chicago. I won't go into why at the moment, but the decision was a quick one and a little unexpected. We decided to take it slower and do it in three days rather than two (as last time) given that the weather forecast looked ( Read more... )