Category: Random

Last Thursday we trapped five feral kittens living in our backyard. We took them to the vet on Friday morning, where they were neutered and were vaccinated for rabies. We picked them up on Saturday, and kept them inside. On Sunday we let the two males go. Today we let the three females go. Unfortunately,…

I had an interesting experience this weekend. I bought some Fedora 9 CDs in order to easily upgrade a new laptop. Since I had them, I decided to upgrade one of my desktops from a CD rather than over the net (I usually install over the net, but, sadly but understandably, installing from CD tends…

At the Chabot Space and Science Museum this weekend, I saw the first tangible result I’ve seen of the demotion of Pluto: a ruler in the gift shop had the eight planets plus the asteroid belt, but no mention of Pluto. The Tour of the Planets does still mention Pluto, though.

One of the general trends in financial systems these days is the removal of friction. It wasn’t all that long ago that stocks were traded by waving pieces of papers in the faces of market makers (does anybody else remember the game Pit?). In fact, some futures markets still work that way. The action could…

I think of myself as living in a city. It’s an easy walk to two supermarkets, a dozen restaurants, four movie theaters, four bookstores, public transportation. I commute to work on a combination of bicycle and bus. I don’t live in a dense part of the city, to be sure; I live in a neighborhood…