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February 2, 2012: If you're new to this blog, click the next link for advice on Getting started. Entry #0116, The Masons, explains how I came to be a "Free and Accepted Mason".
January 26, 2012: Entry #0115, Chester (bis), is the second of three entries on our first family dog, a Tibetan Terrier named Chester.
January 19, 2012: Entry #0114, called Sara's birthday gift, is a "guest entry", written by my daughter Sara in honor of my 70th birthday.
January 11, 2012: Entry #0113, entitled 70, is being posted on my 70th birthday, which is also the second anniversary of my blog.
I've altered my pages to display better on browsers other than Internet Explorer, such as Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox (for you techies: I removed the now deprecated <basefont> tag, recognized only by Explorer).
January 5, 2012: Entry #0112, Chester, is the first of what will ultimately be three entries on our first family dog, a Tibetan Terrier named Chester.
December 29, 2011: Entry #0111, Word processors, describes an interesting 1963 study on human factors in word processing, for which I did some of the programming.
December 22, 2011: My great-grandfather Philip Krakauer and the next three generations of his descendents have been granted 73 United States patents, as described in entry #0110, Patents. Only three of them are mine.
December 15, 2011: Entry #0109, Kristin Espinasse, describes a visit in France to my "blogging idol".
December 8, 2011: Entry #0108, Tracks, discusses some tracks I found in the snow.
December 1, 2011: Entry #0107, The chipmunk, recounts the story of an incident that occurred when I was a summer camp counselor-in-training.
November 23, 2011: Entry #0106, Frequent kickbacks, discusses "frequent flyer" programs and corporate ethics policies.
November 17, 2011: Entry #0105 contains some thoughts on Algorithms (with cartoons).
November 10, 2011: Entry #0104, Yiddish, contains some stories relating to the Yiddish language.
November 3, 2011: Entry #0103, Krakauer, discusses the origin of my family name (and how to pronounce it).
October 27, 2011: Entry #0102, Vocabulary, presents my vocabulary cards from the sixth grade, illustrated by cartoons.
October 20, 2011: Entry #0101, Dan and Elissa, talks about interests shared by my father and a daughter.
This blog has been included in a list of the "50 Best Memoir Blogs" put together by the site "AdultEducationCourse.org". Scroll down on this page and look in the left-hand column to see their "Best Blog Badge".
October 13, 2011: This blog was started in January of 2010, and this is entry number one hundred! Entry #0100, Recalculating!, talks about GPS units in general, our own Garmin GPS, and in particular its use in Europe.
October 6, 2011: Entry #0099, The French, gives some impressions from a recent trip to France.
September 29, 2011: Entry #0098 describes The Costco effect: Buying more than you want because it's cheaper than buying only what you need.
September 8, 2011: Entry #0097, Live free and die, is an essay on seatbelts.
September 1, 2011: Entry #0096, Wrestling for Baker House, describes my brief athletic career at MIT.
August 25, 2011: Is it good to have a "bias for action"? How much should we think about a problem before acting? See Entry #0095, Just do it.
August 18, 2011: Entry #0094 discusses some aspects of "Gender", both human and linguistic.
August 11, 2011: Entry #0093 is in memory of Marthe Mulvaney.
August 4, 2011: Entry #0092 contains some stories about our relationship to Food.
July 28, 2011: Entry #0091 is a tribute to the late great analog designer Bob Pease.
July 21, 2011: Entry #0090, Being smart discusses what being of above average intelligence has meant to me.
July 14, 2011: The Fourteenth of July commemorates the taking of the Bastille prison, the start of the French Revolution. So it's appropriate that Entry #0089, Allons enfants de la patrie ..., describes a Bastille Day celebration we took part in on our honeymoon at the Club Med in Martinique in 1970 (with lots of pictures).
July 7, 2011: Entry #0088, The English sparrow, contains a few stories about birds. In the first, we harass a bird, but it triumphs in the end. In the second, an early bird harasses a New York reporter. And in the third, we meet Brad Blodgett, and learn a bit about a particular bird on Cape Cod.
June 30, 2011: Entry #0087, Copies, recalls that it was once not that easy to make copies of a document. This is followed by a discussion of digital copying.
June 23, 2011: Entry #0086, Dan and the moon, shows how, using the moon, my father taught me how to think.
June 16, 2011: Entry #0085, Hackers, has a few stories from MIT's Artificial Intelligence Lab, in the sixties. This makes three rather technological entries in a row, so I'll try for something else next week.
Having received comments from Richard Greenblatt, I've also updated last week's entry, Moby Memory, for those who might be interested in more detail (and greater accuracy).
June 9, 2011: Entry #0084, Moby Memory, is about a Fabri-Tek "core" memory of 256K 36-bit "words", purchased in the sixties by MIT's Artificial Intelligence group. This is a rather technological entry, so it may not be for everyone.
June 2, 2011: Entry #0083, Nerd pride, describes some experiences with early computer hackers.
May 26, 2011: Entry #0082, Nils Frederiksen, remembers Nils and Nancy Frederiksen (with incidents in a calculus class at MIT, and a doctor's office in Denmark).
May 19, 2011: Entry #0081, Le stage, describes a summer job in France in 1964.
May 12, 2011: In Entry #0080, Grandpa's first flight, my grandfather Abe gets on an airplane.
May 5, 2011: ¡ Feliz cinco de mayo ! Entry #0079, entitled Television, describes the television technology of my youth.
April 28, 2011: Entry #0078, entitled Air Chance, is about the return flight from our honeymoon in Martinique.
April 21, 2011: Entry #0077, entitled Abe, is about my paternal grandfather Abraham Krakauer.
April 14, 2011: In entry #0076, we have fun reinterpreting English noun phrases.
Based on recently obtained information, I've also added a short footnote (Note 2) to entry #0039, Ask Larry.
April 7, 2011: Entry #0075, Listening, tells how Margie draws people out.
March 31, 2011: Entry #0074, Toothache tells about a Fourth of July toothache I once had.
I've also added a bit to my earlier entry about Rats: some footnotes, and a sketch by Natalia Rybczynski. Natalia, with my daughter Elissa, organized the private bi-annual Duke rodentfest, which included a Rodent Olympics.
March 24, 2011: Entry #0073, Badges contains a few stories loosely related to corporate identification badges.
March 17, 2011: I hope everyone had a pleasant and sober St. Patrick's Day. Entry #0072, The mushroom, tells the story of an experience Margie and I had with a wild mushroom.
March 10, 2011: Entry #0071, Telephones (bis), continues the history of telephones started last week. I also added a few footnotes and a little bit of new text to last week's entry (see link below).
March 3, 2011: Entry #0070 is a history of technology entry on Telephones. Hey kids, know why we say "dial" a telephone?
February 24, 2011: In Entry #0069, MIT people, I tell of some of the fascinating people I crossed paths with in my eleven years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
February 17, 2011: Entry #0068, The gambler, tells about my MIT course on Statistical Decision Theory, and some of the lessons I learned from it.
I've also updated Entry #0061, Rats, to add a couple of cellphone pictures of a hairless rat that Elissa sent me (if you've already read it, scroll to the bottom).
February 10, 2011: Entry #0067, Eigenstories, talks about how stories have a tendency to get embellished over many retellings.
February 3, 2011: Entry #0066 is a bit more technical than most, but if you can at least skim the first part, I hope you'll find it interesting. It discusses the games Chess and nim, and by extension other finite, deterministic games. It starts with a question whose answer is easily computable in a finite amount of time, but which will probably never be known.
January 27, 2011: Why does English have so many words? Entry #0065 discusses one of the reasons, beginning with the example of Naked and nude.
January 20, 2011: Entry #0064, What's eating us?, discusses various parasites we've had the misfortune to become acquainted with.
January 11, 2011: This entry falls on my 69th birthday, and the first anniversary of my "Memoirs and Musings" blog. Thus entry #0063 discusses the various units we use to
represent Time, and also "interesting" numbers, such as today's date, 1/11/11.
January 6, 2011: I hope everyone emerged safe and sound from a great New Year's Eve celebration, and welcome to 2011. In entry #0062, we go from "Rats" to cats,
in The cat who came in from the cold.
December 29, 2010: Entry #0061 is about my daughter Elissa's pet Rats.
December 23, 2010: Entry #0060 has some stories from my first start-up
company, Micronetic Systems. And since it's December 23rd, let me wish everyone a very merry Christmas.
December 16, 2010: Entry #0059 has some stories about my adopted
home, Boston (two of them relate to snow, which may be coming this Sunday).
Having received permission from the The MetroWest Daily News, I've now posted the old Herbert L. Kahn
column He didn't appreciate the solace, which you may enjoy. I've linked to it from my entry of two weeks ago, entry
#0057, In loco parentis.
December 9, 2010: Entry #0058, Linguistic lunacy, discusses some of the odd quirks of English and Spanish.
December 2, 2010: Entry #0057, In loco parentis, contains some comments on dating in the sixties, when I was a student at MIT.
November 24, 2010: In entry #0056, The house of turkey death, you'll find a couple of turkey-related stories for Thanksgiving. Because tomorrow is Thanksgiving, I'm posting this entry a day earlier than usual. I hope you have (or had, depending on when you're reading this) a happy Thanksgiving celebration.
November 18, 2010: Entry #0055, Chess stories, contains a couple of tales of Richard Greenblatt's Mac Hack VI chess program, and some related stories.
I've also made a slight addition to Entry #0034,
Biscotti, to discuss the word "butterfly" in various languages, and to add a link to Frank Model's beautiful butterfly pictures.
November 11, 2010: Entry #0054, Amateur radio, tells the story of my history in amateur ("ham") radio.
November 4, 2010: Sara's always on the move - see entry #0053, Busy, busy.
October 28, 2010: If you have children, I hope that entry #0052, Magic, helps you remember a time when your children still thought you were magical.
October 21, 2010: Entry
#0051, Personalities, discusses the differing personalities a company needs, illustrated by a Kronos troubleshooting story.
October 14, 2010: By the principle of the tyranny of round numbers, entry #0050 is a blog milestone, my fiftieth entry! Called Disable interrupts, it discusses interrupts for both people and computers, and algorithms for taking pills.
October 7, 2010: Entry #0049, Le Cercle Français, describes how I was introduced to my conversational French discussion group about thirty years ago. It includes an interesting event that occurred in Mme. Brynjolfson's conversational French course.
September 30, 2010: Entry #0048, The giant fork, is a collection of remembrances loosely related to sleep.
September 23, 2010: Entry #0047, Tyranny of the clock, is subtitled, "The pain in Spain is mainly in the brain." It's about eating in Spain, and how our modern dependence on the clock can limit our thinking.
September 2, 2010: A story about trying to track our children's flights can be found in entry #0046, Roots and wings.
August 26, 2010: Even if you're non-technical, see if you can get through
entry #0045, Bits. It will tell you what "one bit of memory" is, and how computers represent these bits physically, explained by way of the "Double Bed Dual-Control Electric Blanket Effect".
August 19, 2010: Entry #0044, Man v. Machine, contains a couple of stories of our ongoing battle with our own creations.
August 12, 2010: In entry #0043, Leon Cogan's story, a Russian Jewish émigré helps his daughter learn English.
August 5, 2010: Entry #0042, History of Kronos, part 2, presents the second part of my humorous 1997 speech (see below for part 1).
July 29, 2010: Entry #0041, History of Kronos, part 1, presents a humorous 1997 speech I gave to about 800 people at a Sales and Service conference in Chicago. It also explains exactly how, in the course of that speech, I set fire to a timecard. See just above for part 2.
July 22, 2010: Getting back to chess, the story of some of the tournament games played by Richard Greenblatt's chess program is told in entry #0040, Mac Hack VI competes.
July 15, 2010: This week reveals my first guest entry, written by my sister Alice. It's followed by some comments of my own. See entry #0039, Ask Larry. I hope you all had a great 14th of July yesterday (the French national holiday, celebrating the storming of the Bastille prison). Allons enfants de la patrie ...
July 8, 2010: Leaving my recent techie theme, I discuss the development of my childhood brain, in entry #0038, My brain on Ovaltine. Also a bit about radio in my youth.
July 1, 2010: Entry #0037, Computer chess via ham radio, describes a chess game played between two computers via amateur radio, for which I was the radio operator on the MIT side.
June 24, 2010: I think I was the first person in the world to ever teach a computer programming course at a summer camp, as described in
entry #0036, Computer camp.
June 17, 2010: Entry #0035, Biscotti (bis), discusses how Americans misuse and mispronounce Italian words. For those who really want all the details, it closes with the exact rules for pronouncing G, C, and SC in Italian.
June 10, 2010: Entry #0034, Biscotti, discusses some word origins, and connections between English and various foreign languages. It gives some insight into my fascination with foreign language study.
June 3, 2010: Entry #0033 is about My moustache, including why and how I shaved it off after over 35 years.
May 27, 2010: Entry #0032 features The Ayache formula, which is all about getting to the Place Clemenceau in the shortest time (but curse the dreaded "patisserie effect").
May 21, 2010: Gak! I'm a day late! For a story in which the two Ph.D.s at Micronetic Systems argue over the testing of a laser, see
#0031, Madhu and the death ray.
May 13, 2010: Can I really have enough stories about horseradish for an entry in my memoirs? Apparently so. See #0030, Horseradish.
May 6, 2010: Entry #0028, Sailing, contains a few sailing and windsurfing stories. #0029, Windsurfing for sailors, discusses learning to windsurf. As the title indicates, it's probably of interest only to people who are interested in windsurfing and already know how to sail. Thus I'm including it as an "extra" along with the sailing stories.
April 29, 2010: Entry #0026, Herr Bon, contains some memories of Primus Benedikt Bon, a professor of German at MIT in the sixties. It's followed by another entry that you'll want to skip, unless you're really into German grammar. It's entry #0027, German article and adjectivial inflections.
April 22, 2010: Back to Great Neck North High School, this week's entry, #0025, is about studying French with Mr. Canfield.
April 15, 2010: U.S. citizens, I hope you've gotten your taxes in! This week's entry, #0024, is about my high school physics course, taught by Mr. Lusch.
April 8, 2010: This week's entry is #0022, Remembrance of things breast. And as a bonus, this week only, a free set of Ginsu knives a second entry, #0023, which answers the burning
question, Why do women have two breasts?.
April 1, 2010: Some of the memorable things my kids said as children are recalled in #0021, Kids say the darndest things.
March 25, 2010: For a story about French formality, on my first trip to France in 1961, see #0020, Monsieur L'Oiseau.
March 18, 2010: My battle with Burger King over the Massachusetts meals tax.
See #0019 Have it your way.
March 11, 2010: A romantic interlude in Mont-Tremblant National Park. See #0018 Mont-Tremblant.
March 4, 2010: Sometimes, words in one language are vulgar in another. See #0017 Western Ass.
February 26, 2010: My sister Phyllis once discovered a wonderful word that can get me to shut up! See #0016 Lobster. Sorry this entry is a bit late. We lost electricity for a few hours last evening, due to a rainstorm with high winds.
February 18, 2010: We're back from 12 wonderful days in Costa Rica (motto: "Still more monkeys than people"), where I was far away from my computer. Thus I can now
post #0015 "Sex in the Woods", about an event that transpired my first summer of sleepaway camp. It also introduces Camp Robinson Crusoe, which was important in my life, and about which there will eventually be other entries.
"Still more monkeys than people" is not actually the motto of Costa Rica, but was rather coined as a description of Manuel Antonio National Park by
the Hotel Costa Verde.
February 3, 2010: I won't be able to add an entry next week, so I'm posting two this week (a day early). These are #0013 "Frau Pan", about studying German at MIT, and #0014 "Due diligence", about investing in Kronos. Back again Thursday evening, February 18.
January 28, 2010: Added #0012 "Véronique", about my arrival at the house of my host family on my first trip to France in 1961.
January 21, 2010: Added #0011 "Harold", about my sister Alice's blue and gold macaw.
January 15, 2010: I added #0009 "Sehr gut", a story about my first adventure with German. Also #0010 "L'Accent tonique", some musings on the difficulties of hearing and speaking French, probably only of interest to those who speak or are studying French.
January 11, 2010: This blog was introduced on my 68th birthday, with eight entries to get you started. One or more new entries will be posted by the morning of every Friday. The initial eight entries are:
#0001, Introduction: What are these pages?
#0002, Who am I?
#0003, Why use the HTML and JPG file formats?
#0004, How I write
#0005, Coming to Kronos
#0006, The poison apple
#0007, Miss Crouch
#0008, I resign
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