Category: Off-topic

  • Stop Blaming Each Other Over the Response to Hurricane Katrina

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteI’m not surprised that people in other countries are shocked by the situation in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. They can only react to what they see on TV and what they read. Americans need to demand a non-political response to this disaster. Politicians need to stop blaming…

  • Thanks, Judge Bissell

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteJudge John W. “Jack” Bissell, the Chief Judge of the U.S. District Court of New Jersey, retired from the bench today. I’ve known Judge Bissell since about 1990 when I joined the Metropolitan New York – New Jersey Chapter of the National Ice Hockey Officials Association. He was a member of…

  • I’m Tired of Getting Ripped Off by Splogs

    Reading Time: 2 minutesI want to join my friend Doc Searls in pointing out splogs and urging concerted action from the search engine providers and context-sensitive advertising services to take as much of the profit out of splogs as possible. According to Mark Cuban, a splog is any blog whose creator doesn’t add any written…

  • Busy Working on a Client’s New Blog

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteI’m hard at work on a new blog for one of my Weblog Improvement clients. I hope to be done with the first production-ready version of their templates and style sheet early this afternoon. In the meantime, you won’t see much posted here….

  • No Getting Around the DMV

    Reading Time: 2 minutesPennsylvania License Plate: The only one you’ll find on my Jeep, and it’s on the rear lift gate. [ Photo: Dave Aiello ] Kathleen and I spent several hours yesterday working our way through the bureaucracy of the Pennsylvania Department of Motor Vehicles, also known as the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation or…

  • The Tyranny of the Boxes

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteGreetings from the new Home Office in Newtown, PA. I was telling a story of the move last night at a dinner with my wife’s co-workers and we were laughing about how I had said, “there will probably not be much new content on Operation Gadget until late Thursday or early…

  • Find One of Alex’s Lemonade Stands This Weekend

    Reading Time: < 1 minuteMy sister-in-law Mary Kuykendall called me earlier to point out that this weekend a nationwide fundraising effort for pediatric cancer research will take place. Alex’s Lemonade Stand, a charity inspired by Alexandra Scott’s (aka “Alex”) courageous fight against cancer, will be recreated in hundreds of locations throughout the country. Many of…

  • Engadget Repeatedly Disses Athletes

    Reading Time: 2 minutesI keep telling friends and Operation Gadget readers that you shouldn’t look at the major gadget sites like Engadget for credible discussion of fitness gadgets and sports technology. The editors of that site have adopted a sneering point of view toward the stuff that we’re interested in. There’s no better example of…

  • In Memory of Pope John Paul II

    Reading Time: 2 minutesPope John Paul II passed away on Saturday as a result of the collective impact of several illnesses. Whether you are a Catholic or not, you have to admire the Pope because he had great interest in our favorite subjects: Practical use of technology for everyday purposes: The Pope brought the Catholic…