Long gone, but now back… sort of. :)
Q. Is it easy to find a public bathroom in Downtown Boston? (via Quora) A. It’s not hard, but they’re not always obvious. For example, many Boston streets have large, circular kiosks with advertising on the outside. These are actually public restrooms, although they are not obviously so, until you see the door. They cost…
I needed a break from the incessant bad news, and so went for a walk in the rain from today’s Nor’easter. It was glorious, from the lower elevations still in Autumn foliage to the very windy summit. Thank you, Nature. Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/3JfRYZXJ1bJA1vDz50 Samples:
Check out @TheOnion’s Tweet: https://twitter.com/TheOnion/status/1055876481673506817?s=09
Reader Geoff Komeya asks (via the Contact link): Hi Fred: Just wanted to ask whether you still ride motorcycles? I can’t tell you how many times I’ve read and re-read your blog about your 10,000-mile ride on the ADVrider site. Such a great piece of travel writing. Thanks, Geoff Komeya Thanks for the kind words,…
Q: Did your hand writing go for a toss after using electronic keyboards? (via Quora) A: Well, any skill that’s not regularly practiced will atrophy. But in my case, there was little to lose; and I can’t blame keyboards! My handwriting was hard for others to read from grade school on. Formal penmanship was too…
Vietnam joins the parade of countries from which I’ve received for-real, private, and personal emails intended for others due to email shenanigans and a likely soft-hijacking of the Langa.com web domain. Today’s email-meant-for-others is from Vietnam. It’s pretty benign in itself, but is one of thousands and thousands of emails from all over the world, some…
Q: Can I use an HDMI splitter to extend, not duplicate, my laptop screen across two monitors? (via Quora) A: Nope. An electronics splitter (audio or video) takes a single signal and splits it into two identical signals. If you connect a signal splitter to any of your laptop’s AV outputs, you’ll get two identical…
In 1658, Irish Archbishop James Ussher said Earth was created 9am on 23 Oct, 4004 BC*, making our home planet a sprightly 6,022 years young today. Of course, stick-in-the-mud geologists believe that’s off by roughly 4.5 billion years, but what do they know? Come on, let’s party like it’s 6,022! * https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/history-of-geology/october-23-4004-bc-happy-birthday-earth/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ussher_chronology Permalink: https://wp.me/paaiox-dd…
Why on earth would Microsoft give two entirely different functions the same name? It’s a baffling user-interface mistake: When Microsoft spliced some functions from the classic Disk Cleanup app into Win10’s “Storage sense,” they created silliness like this: There are now two separate on-demand disk-cleanup functions, both called Free up space now, both just one…
Q: How did Massachusetts get its name? (via Quora) A: The name is an Algonquin Indian place name, variously mangled and interpreted by European explorers and settlers. The History of Massachusetts web site offers several interpretations: ● From the Algonquin “massa” meaning “great” and “wachusett” meaning “mountain place” or “large hill place;” probably referencing the…