Archives: 2012 February
Timelessness of an Old Pickup
February 25th, 2012, 6 Comments
Our society is one that is pretty well defined by timeliness. TV programs start at a precise time, down to the second. Schools have elaborate timekeeping systems. Even church services are carefully timed. We know how fast we’re going, and our GPS or phones tell us when we’ll get there. And we’re pretty confident that [...]
XMPP for Children
February 11th, 2012, 8 Comments
When Jacob was just born, I wondered how I might introduce them to computing. I thought over various things, but that wasn’t really the most pressing thing right then. I don’t suppose that I could have predicted installing an XMPP IM server (Prosody) for the boys. And I certainly couldn’t have predicted creating accounts named: [...]
Shell Scripts For Preschoolers
February 10th, 2012, 5 Comments
It probably comes as no surprise to anybody that Jacob has had a computer since he was 3. Jacob and I built it from spare parts, together. It may come as something of a surprise that it has no graphical interface, and Jacob uses the command line and loves it — and did even before [...]
Rain, A Funeral, and Excitement
February 4th, 2012, 2 Comments
Rain Friday was something of a rare day for February in Kansas. Starting at about 2AM, the wind picked up, blowing so hard that our windows rattled. That part isn’t so rare. Then the cold rain started, dropping almost 2.5″ throughout the day. As I worked, I had the blinds on the windows open, but [...]
