Asymptomatic

There must be intelligent life down here

Kids on Computers
May 01, 2009

We got Abby a new computer for her birthday last week, and she’s now starting to use it fairly regularly. She has a current school assignment to do a research project on an endangered species. She had to look up a list of species and choose three interesting ones, from which the teacher would determine on what topic her report would be written. We looked at a few sites and found the island fox, which has since been learning more about online.

Of course, one of the concerns you have when you let kids browse the internet is that they would encounter inappropriate content. I’ve installed Microsoft’s Live Family Safety on her computer, which does a handy job of blocking everything on the web until Beta or I approve it. It also manages her contact list, so I can add approved family members to her instant messenger (Live).

Wizard's First Rule
April 30, 2009

Yesterday, I finished the book Wizard’s First Rule by Terry Goodkind. I originally became interested in the book as a result of seeing the TV show Legend of the Seeker, which is loosely based on the book.

In the novel, Richard Cypher is an unassuming woodland guide in a region called Westland. His land is separated from the two other lands of the world, Midland and D’Hara, by the “boundary”, a magical wall where the separation between the living world and the underworld has been removed. The intention of the boundary is to protect Westland’s residents from the effects of magic, which is prevalent in the other regions.

Abby Growing Up - Birthday Eight
April 23, 2009


On Tuesday it was pretty nice outside, although I hadn’t realized it until Abby came in my office to ask me to take the training wheels off of her bike.

The question was phrased something like, “We need the things to take the wheels off my bike.” “A wrench?” I asked. We went for the toolbox.

Run a Server on Verizon FiOS
April 20, 2009

Someone on the PANMA list recently asked about running a web server on his FiOS line. I have some thoughts.

Verizon definitely blocks incoming port 80. The only way around that is to get a business account that allows servers (opens port 80) and provides a dedicated IP address.

Owen of the Green Thumb
April 17, 2009

While the girls went out last weekend to attend a show, Riley and I stopped at the farm store on route 113 to have a look around. Inside, they had ducks and chickens and various rodents, but we were most interested in the garden seeds.

We bought many packs of seeds. Tomatoes, squash, carrots, lettuce, radishes… All kinds of tasty veggies. In addition to the seed, we got a little 72-spot starter planter and some starter soil. Buying the seeds and soil was basically a jumpstart for an idea that Berta had earlier.