Category: Off-topic

  • The Most Important Two Letters at the Girls’ Nationals: “O” and “T”

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteI was chosen to officiate at the 2008 USA Hockey Girls’ Nationals last week in West Chester, PA. This was a marathon tournament that ran from April 2 to 6 and covered four different age groups: 12 and Under 14 and Under 16 and Under 19 and Under The tournament was…

  • Gone Officiating

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteBeginning Wednesday, April 2, I am officiating the USA Hockey Girls’ National Ice Hockey Tournament in West Chester, PA. I may not have time to post very much on Operation Gadget until the tournament is over on Sunday. Your best bet if you want to hear from me from Wednesday to…

  • Gadget Links: Old Granddad Edition

    Reading Time: 2 minutesFor the Phinney Family, a Dream and a Challenge on NYTimes.com: This story came out last week, right before Taylor Phinney raced in the Individual Pursuits at the Track Cycling World Championships. Taylor finished eighth. His father, Davis, is a legendary U.S. cycling champ who has struggled with Parkinson’s Disease in recent…

  • You Can Follow Me on Twitter

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteI’ve decided to spend a few moments on Twitter from time to time. If you want to follow me, please do so at https://twitter.com/daiello. You’ll probably see more tweets than updates to my Facebook profile.

  • Is Windows XP with the “Bliss” Background Supposed to Be Teletubbyland?

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteJimmy mistook Windows XP for Teletubbyland: Does your toddler do that too? [ Image: Dave Aiello, in my Flickr account ] I started building a Windows XP virtual machine in VMware Fusion on my new MacBook Pro the other day. My 21-month old son Jimmy was really excited when he saw it and…

  • In Memory of Sheldon Brown

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteI never met Sheldon Brown, but I learned a great deal from him. Sheldon developed a website, SheldonBrown.com, that had an incredible amount of technical information about bicycles and cycling. If I Googled for some information about one of my bikes, I often ended up consulting his site. Sheldon passed away…

  • Gadget Links: Freakout 2008 Edition

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteRPI Plays Princeton tonight in the 31st Annual Big Red Freakout. RPI needs the win. In other news, the White beat the Red in the Alumni Game 9-8. Kipkay’s Video Tips & Tricks on Instructables: “Here are 5 easy and cheap tricks for anyone who uses a camcorder. Total cost for…

  • Keeping Weight Off at Athlete-Oriented Companies

    Reading Time: 2 minutesSunday’s New York Times had a terrific article about fighting a weight loss battle while working a full time job which resonates with me. What was most interesting was the fact that two of the three people profiled work at very athletically-oriented companies. Steve Madden, the editor of Bicycling and Mountain Bike…

  • Power Supply Dies in Blogging Workstation, Days Away from MacBook Pro Purchase

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteWednesday morning 6:30 A.M. There’s an eerie silence in The Home Office. Over the next 10 minutes I come to the conclusion that the power supply on The Blogging Workstation, my four year old AMD Athlon 2500XP+ ATX Tower Machine that’s the fastest PC in the house, has breathed its last.…