 This index links to all entries arranged by the period of my life they address. It is not a suitable index to use to follow my "blog" while I am still adding to it, because entries will appear in a scattered fashion (both before and after entries you've already read). It will become a useful index primarily after my writing is done, at which point this will no longer be a blog, but rather a set of memoirs. As described in the entry "Who am I?", I can very roughly organize my life story by calendar decades, although this division is not exact. There may also be entries that can be thought of as "essays", not connected to any particular period of time. The indexes: Blog index
Numeric index
Memoirs index
Alphabetic index
Quick jumps to sections of this index: Introduction: What are these pages?
On immortality, and why this blog is being written. The main topics to be covered: memoirs and stories from my life, technology, and languages.
Who am I?
A quick once-over on my life story, broken down roughly by decade.
Why write using the HTML and JPG file formats? Keeping things forever: the ability of digital technology to make exact copies.
How I write My writing style, and the technology that supports my writing (past and present).
Abe My paternal grandfather Abraham Krakauer.
Telephones How telephones have changed since the forties.
Telephones (bis) More about the history of telephones.
My brain on Ovaltine Are our brains simpler than we think? Radio days.
The poison apple A minor childhood trauma.
Ask Larry Do I know everything?
Miss Crouch Adventures in babysitting, morphing into a discussion of the early technology leading to some of the keys on modern personal computer keyboards.
Television The television technology of my youth.
Sex in the woods A summer camp story that says a lot about what I was like as a kid.
Vocabulary My vocabulary cards from the sixth grade.
Nils Frederiksen Some stories about Nils and Nancy Frederiksen.
Lobster My sister Phyllis discovers a magic word to shut me up. Want to know what it is?
Grandpa's first flight My Grandpa Abe gets on an airplane.
Mr. Canfield Studying French with Mr. Canfield at Great Neck North High School.
Mr. Lusch My high school physics course at Great Neck North High School.
Dan and the moon Using the moon, my father teaches me how to think.
The English sparrow A few stories about birds.
Being smart What being of above average intelligence has meant to me.
The chipmunk An incident when I was a summer camp counselor-in-training.
Sailing A few sailing and windsurfing stories. In one, I get knocked over by a beam of light.
Amateur radio My history in amateur ("ham") radio.
Véronique About my first trip to France, and learning to speak French.
Monsieur L'Oiseau A story about French formality, on my first trip to France in 1961.
The Ayache formula Getting to the Place Clemenceau in the shortest time, with mention of the "patisserie effect".
Sehr gut
My first attempt at speaking German, plus my favorite tri-lingual joke.
The Masons How I came to join the Masons.
Wrestling for Baker House My brief athletic career at MIT.
Computer Camp I created the very first computer programming course taught at a summer camp.
Le stage A summer job in France.
Frau Pan Studying German with Frau Pan: memorizing poetry, linguistic memory depth.
Herr Bon Some stories about Primus Benedict Bon, a German teacher at MIT in the sixties.
German article and adjectivial inflections This is not a regular blog entry. It's a highly technical discussion of a particular aspect of German grammar. If you're not into that, skip it. Otherwise: it's my (hopefully) simplified chart of German article and adjectivial inflections.
The gambler My MIT course on Statistical Decision Theory
In loco parentis Dating in the sixties.
Man v. Machine The ongoing battle with our own creations.
Word processors An interesting 1963 study on human factors in word processing.
Hackers The Artificial Intelligence Lab in the sixties.
Chess and nim About chess, and other finite deterministic games.
I resign
On a casual game played against Mac Hack VI, Richard Greenblatt's chess program, with a brief discussion of the anthropomorphization of computers.
Mac Hack VI competes Stories of Mac Hack VI, Richard Greenblatt's chess program, competing against human players in tournament play.
Chess stories Tales of Richard Greenblatt's Mac Hack VI chess program, and some related stories.
Computer chess via ham radio I was involved in what was probably the first chess game played between two computers via amateur ("ham"") radio.
MIT people Some people I encountered at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which I attended for 11 years.
Nerd pride Early computer geeks.
Moby Memory About a 256 Kiloword core memory.
Mont-Tremblant A camping vacation in Mont-Tremblant National Park (Québec, Canada). Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!
Allons enfants de la patrie ... Bastille Day at the Club Med
Air Chance The return flight from our honeymoon.
Chester Our first family dog (part 1 of 3).
Chester (bis) Our first family dog (part 2 of 3)
Harold
Introducing Harold, my sister Alice's blue and gold macaw.
The cat who came in from the cold How Alice came by her pet cats.
The mushroom An experience with a wild mushroom.
Madhu and the death ray Two Ph.D.s at Micronetic Systems argue over the testing of a laser.
Micronetic Systems Some stories from my first start-up company
Badges A few stories loosely related to corporate identification badges.
Horseradish How many stories can I have about horseradish?
Marthe About Marthe Mulvaney
Magic Remember when your children still thought you were magical?
Busy, busy Sara's always on the move.
Listening Margie draws people out.
Kids say the darndest things Things my children said.
Coming to Kronos The story of how I came to work at Kronos in April, 1979.
Due diligence A "Due Diligence" meeting held when I invested in Kronos in July of 1979.
Personalities The differing personalities a company needs, illustrated by a troubleshooting story.
Le Cercle Français How I found Le Cercle Français, including an interesting event that occurred in Mme. Brynjolfson's conversational French course.
Boston Some stories about my adopted home.
Patents Inventors in my family
Toothache A Fourth of July toothache.
Remembrance of things breast À la recherche des seins perdus.
Have it your way My battle with Burger King over the Massachusetts meals tax.
History of Kronos, part 1 An annotated humorous 1997 speech on the history of Kronos, presented to an audience of about 800 people in Chicago. Part 1 of 2.
History of Kronos, part 2 An annotated humorous 1997 speech on the history of Kronos. Part 2 of 2.
house of turkey death, The A couple of turkey-related stories for Thanksgiving
Leon Cogan's story A Russian Jewish émigré helps his daughter learn English.
What's eating us? Parasites we have known.
Rats Elissa's pet rats
Roots and wings Tracking our children's flights.
Bob Pease A tribute to Bob Pease
Frequent kickbacks Frequent flyer programs and corporate ethics policies.
Kristin Espinasse A visit to my "blogging idol".
Tracks Tracks in the snow
Tyranny of the clock The pain in Spain is mainly in the brain. Eating in Spain, and how our modern dependence on the clock limits our thinking.
The French A recent trip to France.
Recalculating! Our Garmin GPS (and its use in Europe)
Sara's birthday gift A guest blog entry, written for my 70th birthday by my daughter Sara.
L'Accent tonique
Thoughts about listening to and speaking French (probably only of interest to those who speak or are studying French).
Western Ass Words in one language which are vulgar in another.
Why do women have two breasts? The "One-half Rule" that applies, approximately, to all mammals, including homo sapiens.
Windsurfing for sailors Hints for sailors learning to windsurf: the basic forces, and sailors' prejudices that could interfere with learning.
My moustache About my moustache, including why and how I shaved it off.
Biscotti Some word origins, and connections between languages.
Biscotti (bis) How Americans misuse and mispronounce Italian words.
Bits Just what is "one bit" of computer memory? An explanation for the non-technical reader, by way of the "Double-bed dual-control electric blanket effect". Includes pictures of some old "core" memories.
The giant fork A collection of stories from various points in my life, loosely tied to sleep.
Disable interrupts Interrupts, for both people and computers. Algorithms for taking pills.
Linguistic lunacy Some quirks of English and Spanish.
Time Some musings on our various ways of measuring time, and on interesting numbers.
Naked and nude Why does English have so many words?
Eigenstories How tales evolve over time.
English noun phrases Fun with English - reinterpreting noun phrases.
Copies Copies were once hard to make.
Food Some stories about how we relate to food
Gender Some stories about gender, human and linguistic.
Just do it A bias for action?
Live free and die Thoughts about seatbelts.
The Costco effect Buying more than you need.
Dan and Elissa Interests shared by my father and a daughter.
Krakauer The origin of my family name.
Yiddish Some stories relating to the Yiddish language.
Algorithms Mindlessly following automatic procedures.
70 On turning 70, and the second anniversary of my blog.
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