Christian Johann Heinrich Heine born 13 December 1797, was a journalist, essayist, literary critic, and one of the most significant German poets of the 19th century. His radical political views meant that many of his works were banned by the authorities in Germany.  Heine spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate living in Paris.     I bring up Heine in light of recent current events.  Heine is actually admired and...

Client: “In the future, I’d prefer not to pay you to make websites for me. I’ve seen what you do, and I think it’s pretty easy. Can you just teach me how to do your web stuff?” Me: “If you’re really interested, I guess I can teach you the basics of web design, but it’s going to require at least several lessons and it’ll cost $xx for every hour I spend with you. Client: “Damnit, do you have to charge for...

    Oh, how I hate my fellow man.  Well, sometimes anyway.  Doing phone support all day can sure make a man jaded when it comes to having any kind of confidence that there is actually intelligent life on this planet.  I have a wall poster in my office that has several clever saying regarding technical support truths, but one in particular kind of sums up all the others.      “Can you help me with this” usually means...

“I am an atheist, out and out. It took me a long time to say it. I’ve been an atheist for years and years, but somehow I felt it was intellectually unrespectable to say that one is an atheist, because it assumed knowledge that one didn’t have. Somehow it was better to say one was a humanist or agnostic. I don’t have the evidence to prove that God doesn’t exist, but I so strongly suspect that he doesn’t...

Who would have ever thought that the demon, Gene Simmons could ever possibly impart any nuggets of wisdom whatsoever to me but I will be damned he sure did.  Tonight I was watching the Simmons family jewels and Gene said something that really hit home with me. “No amount of money or platinum records could ever take the place of the two children that Shannon Tweed and I have created.  I want all the precious, special moments that I...

Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Education will not; the world is full of uneducated derelicts. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. ~ Calvin Coolidge Share...