I used to have this great standing policy that I’ve let lapse recently.  It went like this – if anyone asked me to go to a live music event with them, I’d go. Why would someone behave like Jim Carrey’s character in “Yes Man” when concerts are concerned?  I made the rule when I was [...]

Snow is supposed to be fun, dammit!  25 inches of snow isn’t, though.  News 12 said Holtsville got over two feet, and considering what I went through this weekend, I believe it. Saturday, I figured out that getting Craig’s plow and attaching it to my truck wasn’t an easy task.  The frame rails on a [...]

Forgive me, father. It’s been two months since my last confession update. When I was in high school, I had a computer science teacher who tried to describe a stack (the data structure, that is). Her first analogy about a stack of lunch trays in the cafeteria didn’t work. The “A-Ha!” moment for me came [...]

Last night, I was invited over to the Fifth Avenue offices of Future US, where I got to hang out with some friends from Guitar World.  We were treated to a night of listening to terrific playing from some of the longtime contributors to the magazine.  With beer. This was really cool for me, because [...]

I’d like those advertisers who place ads within New York’s free daily papers to devote a minute or two to thinking about how their message is perceived in those vehicles.  One of the things I’m struggling with is that in a world where The New York Times and other non-free papers are struggling to stay [...]

The earliest I can remember music and computers beginning to come together was when I was a kid playing with my Commodore 64.  I can’t remember the name of the program, but it allowed me to input music scores and edit them, and the computer would play them back in this weird square-wave tone.  Just [...]

On Friday, the mold abatement contractor unexpectedly kicked me out of the house, saying I couldn’t be inside to breathe the fumes from the chemicals he was using to kill the mold in my basement.  So I had to make a bunch of Underscore-related phone calls from the patio and take my Mac outside.  Not [...]

So we lucked out and got the one weekend day thus far this summer that actually got sun.  The party was lots of fun.  Some answers to frequently-asked questions: 1) Yes, we hired a Backyardigan to play with the kids.  Actually, so we don’t get Cease & Desist notices from Viacom, we hired a “Backyard [...]

Anybody remember what goofiness was required to display what was on a given floppy disk on a Commodore 64?  I spent many hours playing/copying games back in the early 1980s on one of these machines, and I remember how you used to have to load directories from disk and then use a LIST command to [...]

It’s Kate’s birthday today!  Send her a quick birthday wish at Kate@Hespos.com, if you like. Her latest exploit is practicing her walking.  For weeks now, she’s been able to balance in place.  She can also walk along a wall or with Mommy holding her hands.  Her record unassisted is six steps. It’s also Uncle Rob’s [...]