Archive for the ‘Sci / Tech’ Category

The Answer is 124

Tuesday, December 27th, 2011

  The question is: If you start with a laptop that has Windows Vista, that is, Windows Vista that has never, ever been updated since the day it was brand-spankin' new, how many updates does it take to get it current?   The moral of the story is: There is no free lunch. ...

One More Shot

Monday, July 11th, 2011

On Saturday, 2 July, 2011 Steph decided to surprise me with a trip to witness the final space shuttle launch. On Tuesday, 5 July, she told me about the trip by way of a hand-made book.   Read the rest of the story of the book and our trip to see ...

How Computers Make Us More Productive

Tuesday, May 25th, 2010

Click for larger image.

Doug’s Tip Makes Engadget – the D620 Story

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Steph was on TV on Wednesday and I get a mention on Engadget on Friday. Quite a week for us. http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/02/dell-latitude-e6410-e6510-finally-make-it-to-us/ (click on any photo for larger size)

Science in Four Panels

Friday, April 2nd, 2010



Fear, thy name is Ron Wayne

Monday, February 15th, 2010

One of the little known facts of Apple’s history is that Apple wasn’t the creation of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs. Apple was actually founded by three guys: Steve Wozniak, Steve Jobs and Ron Wayne. The equity split was Wozniak 45%, Jobs 45% and Wayne 10%. Wozniak recalls, “Steve had 45 percent ...

IBM and Creative Destruction

Thursday, January 14th, 2010

One of the fundamental aspects of successful capitalism is the principal of creative destruction. In a capitalist system, businesses that are hampered with flawed business models, substandard management, unproductive labor or changing markets, among other things, pass away in a sometimes agonizing fit of destruction. New businesses, with a better ...

They Still Can’t

Wednesday, December 30th, 2009

This post is available as a PDF file here: http://www.hackneys.com/docs/theystillcant.pdf 30 December 2009 In August of 2002 I endured a personal challenge. At the time, I was sitting on a bar stool at a friend’s house in my Iowa home town listening to a classmate prattle on about 9/11 and all of ...

Smartphones: The Decision

Tuesday, December 15th, 2009

Seven months and seven days ago, I asked some friends and relatives for input on smartphones, specifically iPhone vs. Blackberry. Not seeing any need to rush into this, I took my time before committing. I especially felt there was no need to rush into this since when you’ve been away for a ...

CERN and Doors to Other Dimensions

Friday, November 20th, 2009

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is probably best known as the birthplace of the world wide web, CERN being the then employer of Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of HTML, the markup language used to create web pages. Less known, at least outside Europe and physics nerd circles, is that CERN is also home ...