Author Archives: dr.hypercube

Thirty Five Year Old Ancient History

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Somewhere/sometime in an office move I grabbed a Southwest Technical Products Corp. Computer Products Catalogue out of a trash pile. Yes, I am a pack rat. I’ve been meaning to scan it and put it on line for some time now and finally did so. You can see the results by clicking here or on the image below. There’s more SWTPC doco here (I didn’t see my catalog, so I don’t think I’m duping info that Mr. Holley has already made available).

Now this is a printer! (and in keeping with the era, “!” is pronounced bang):

Dogblogging

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I commented elsewhere that there seem to be two things that one does not need to teach a puppy: the play bow and what a wood stove is for. Dinah is right in the mix – participating in the slow-motion roil of boiling shorthairs.

Potential outage

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A storm is supposed to arrive here sometime late tonight. It’s making the local weather forecasters slightly frantic; depending on the precise track it takes, things might get a bit interesting. If we experience one of the possibilities – freezing rain followed by high winds – power failure is likely. No power means no DoaMNH – rest assured, we’ll be back as soon as electrons are once again available.

Geminids

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A skywatching note, courtesy of New Scientist:

The Earth is expected to pass through the thickest part of the cloud of debris at 1745 GMT on Friday 14 December. Observers in Europe will see the best display on Friday evening.

For observers in North and South America, the peak occurs during daylight hours. For them, the display will be best before dawn on Friday morning, when a few dozen meteors per hour should be visible from a dark site at mid-northern latitudes.

The weather doesn’t look like it’s going to cooperate here in NH but I’ll probably get up extra-early Friday morning, just in case.

Update – Well, that was a bust. Wall-to-wall clouds at about 1000 feet – I did get most of the driveway shoveled, though. We got six inches of snow yesterday afternoon and evening. Heavier snow to the south made last night’s commute nightmarish for those poor folk going in and out of Boston. One nice bit – on the way to work this AM, I saw a southbound freight train. Each boxcar had an identical little vortex of spindrift coming off the trailing edge of the roof – really pretty under the slate gray dawn.