The year was 2001 and semiotics (the study of signs and symbols and their use and interpretations) had by then permeated Western thought, I think mostly because of Umberto Eco’s erudite The Name of the Rose, published in 1980. I had just gotten done reading a rather baffling book that purported to find layers of meaning in the architecture of Hilton hotels around the world and their (I am not making this up) semiotic significance to the Cold War. And pulp writer Dan Brown had just embarked on his series of pop novels like Angels & Demons and The Da Vinci Code, each of which would build a whole story arc on the thinnest of semiotic reeds. Continue reading “The Annotated Alice”
Learning about baluns
It is fun to learn about baluns. The word “balun” is a portmanteu (Wikipedia article) drawn from the words “balanced” and “unbalanced”. The idea of the balun (Wikipedia article) is to provide a way to connect a balanced electrical line and an unbalanced electrical line. I recently encountered the baluns that you see in the photograph at right, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that they really worked well despite falling far short of the classic defining qualities of a balun. Continue reading “Learning about baluns”
A pickup truck with no grill?
Never until today had I seen a pickup truck that lacked a grille. Indeed over the years I had come to realize that motor vehicles differ from one to the next in the “gapingness” of the openings in the grille. Motor vehicles that are more, shall we say, manly, tend to have grilles with larger and more gaping openings. And here is an otherwise presumably extremely manly Ford pickup truck, but with … wait for it … no grille at all. There is only a sort of decorative panel in its place. Who can guess where I am going with this? What vehicle is this? Continue reading “A pickup truck with no grill?”
Higher voltage? Lower current?
The first car I owned was a 1966 VW bug. It cost me $750. When I bought that car in 1977, I was the king of the world. I was independent. I could drive around wherever and whenever I wanted. Now as I look back in 2022, this reminds me of the the current-versus-voltage tradeoff that has permeated everything in our lives ever since. Continue reading “Higher voltage? Lower current?”
Magnetic camber gauges
Now and again, usually completely by accident, I learn of some very clever and inexpensive device that solves some problem that previously could only be addressed in some complicated way. The magnetic camber gauge, seen at right, is such a device. Continue reading “Magnetic camber gauges”
Are your lug nuts tight?
Executive summary: the other day I checked my lug nuts, assuming that they would all be nice and tight just like they always have been over the course of many years, any time that I have ever gone to the trouble of checking my lug nuts. And I was gobsmacked to find that one of my lug nuts was loose enough that it could be turned using one’s fingers. Yes, as soon as I realized it was loose, I tightened it to the desired number of foot-pounds. But it sure was a good thing that I checked my lug nuts!
The main point of this blog article being, of course you should check your lug nuts. Continue reading “Are your lug nuts tight?”
Monitoring a sump pit
I decided to try to monitor a sump pit. This is how the project stands as of now.
The blog looks different today
Yes, folks, the Ant-Like Persistence blog looks very different today from the way it looked yesterday.
The executive summary is: Stuff changed, and I had no choice but to deal with it, and I am sorry, but you my loyal reader will hopefully be a good sport about it, and now the blog looks different. And gradually I will hopefully be able to get the blog to the point where it looks somewhat like the way it looked before.
The geek detailed discussion is: Continue reading “The blog looks different today”
What it is like organizing an event at INTA annual meeting time
The experience of booking a reception for an INTA-annual-meeting-related event is always quite odd. I just yesterday reached closure in the arduous process of booking the venue for the Tenth Annual e-Trademarks Listserv reception (see posting). It is quite weird dealing with the INTA annual meeting environment, as I will describe. Continue reading “What it is like organizing an event at INTA annual meeting time”
How to get “add to calendar” wrong
Back before the Internet happened, the way that a patient interacted with his or her primary care physician was, well, who can remember? It was so long ago. I guess it was mostly telephone calls, postal mail, and the occasional in-person visit. Nowadays for most of us, the chief mode of interaction is the “patient portal”. Recently my health insurance changed, and so I found myself interacting with a new (new to me) patient portal. Whoever designed this particular portal made a dumb mistake in the programming of its “add to calendar” function. The result was that when I showed up on time to my first get-acquainted appointment with my new primary care physician, I was told that I was an hour late and had missed my appointment. I will describe the programming mistake. Continue reading “How to get “add to calendar” wrong”