I like craft beer, rye whiskey, red zinfandel wine, and the occasional martini or gin and tonic; but never the less I’m not a big drinker. So when a cocktail is called for but I’m just not up for it: tonic and bitters. I like the taste of tonic water anyway, and bitters come in a wide variety of flavors. It’s good, it…

I’m an Amazon Prime member and have two Echos in the house (upstairs, downstairs) so this is where I am. I don’t have Amazon’s premium service, but I buy a *lot* of CDs off Amazon, and these days most of those are “auto-ripped”. As a result, I have a lot of unopened CDs laying around; those are my backups in the event…

Over the years, much or perhaps most of my travel has been business travel, including internationally. For business, I personally find even more reasons to travel as light as possible. Less stuff to schlep around === more flexibility.

Yeah, French and Italian clothing doesn’t work for me, either. Which is probably just as well as I have a bit of a thing for designer clothing. (The last time I was in Las Vegas I checked out the Armani store. Thank Crom the leather jacket didn’t fit me.)

Another idea that has helped me pack light: the whole concept of travel is that it’s not supposed to be like you are at home. So don’t take all that stuff that’s just there to keep you at your comfort level. Same reason when I go into an ethic restaurant I’ve never been to I try to find the weirdest thing on the menu.

The late Malcome Forbes, an avid motorcyclist, once remarked “Lay all the stuff and all the money you’re going to take out on the bed, than take half the stuff and twice the money.” I’ve found that’s great advice. Most places, if you really have an emergency and need something, you can whip out a credit card and buy…

So I guess you don’t want to hear about the time a tornado touched down a few blocks from our home and the wind drove hail sideways breaking windows on the north side of the house, including the second-story master bedroom, so we were up all the rest of the night shoveling hail and broken glass out the bedroom window…

This has also been my delicious experience when I was in graduate school.

Sometimes when circumstances permit I have traveled with Mrs. Dr. Overclock when she attends a medical conference in some interesting locale. Once or twice I joined the spouses’ events. I had a *great* time. I recommend it.

I just tried this stuff for corralling some wires in my latest home-brew project (an atomic clock... no, srsly, it’s an NTP server with a chip-scale GPS-disciplined cesium-133 oscillator) and found it pretty useful. I’m kinda impressed. You can see where I used the white-colored Sugru to keep some of the more…

I just tried this stuff for corralling some wires in my latest home-brew project (an atomic clock... no, srsly, it’s…

I predict that the era of reclining airplane seats is coming to an end.

(Sure wish Anker would make a tiny USB UPS. Would be just the ticket for a lot of the stuff I work on.)

(Sure wish Anker would make a tiny USB UPS. Would be just the ticket for a lot of the stuff I work on.)

Just to be clear: the reason you don’t notice this while charging your mobile phone is your phone already *has* a UPS built in: it’s internal battery. Alas, not the case with tiny single board computers like the Raspberry Pi.

Just to be clear: the reason you don’t notice this while charging your mobile phone is your phone already *has* a…

I own several of these. Convenient for travel and for my briefcase. Eliminates the need to carry both a charger and a battery.

I own several of these. Convenient for travel and for my briefcase. Eliminates the need to carry both a charger and…

Having moved from Ohio to Denver Colorado almost thirty years ago, leaving family and friends behind, I’ve made the occasional road trip back. I-70 through Kansas is just as you describe. But US-36 through Kansas and Missouri is actually pretty interesting, particularly on a motorcycle. Two and four lane roads. Little…

I am totally guessing. But I can imagine it might be useful f0r sentries or other observers when the sub is on the surface, particularly in the arctic. Blocks the wind, may even be heated.

I get up at 5AM workdays just so I can devote a part of my morning - an hour or hour and a half, depending on my commute - to reading. I do it at the end of my commute. I’m self employed and typically work at the client site, so when I take on a new gig, I scope out the nearest coffee shop in the neighborhood. That’s…

Is anyone else impressed as hell at that column in the gas station awning? I would have expected that to sheer off. Instead it stood fast and launched the car. I suppose there are building codes or safety regulations for those sorts of things.

The Girl Scouts are a dangerous, highly trained, paramilitary organization. I know this because my wife of thirty-three years was a girl scout for most of her childhood, and later a camp counselor. And she’s one of the most dangerous people I know.

Hey, the first rule of flight club is we don’t talk about flight club.