All Purls. No Swine.
While August 2 is not the birthday of T.E. Lawrence (that's exactly two weeks from today), it is the birthday of the man whose most famous screen role was his portrayal of the British soldier, diplomat, adventurer, and writer. Peter O'Toole, who died in 2013, would have been 91 years old today. His portrayal, in… Continue reading Lawrence of Clouds Hill
Well, it's NCAA basketball time again. I know this only because I turned on the TV the other night, and there it was. I watch very few current programs, so I am always somewhat peeved when the event I've planned my evening around disappears, especially when it is replaced by something so absurd as a… Continue reading “Historia Calamitatum”
“The Analytical Engine has no pretensions whatever to originate anything. It can do whatever we know how to order it to perform.”–Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace Augusta Ada Byron (she was the poet’s only legitimate child) was born a little over two-hundred-six years ago, on December 10, 1815. She was a few weeks shy… Continue reading The Analytical Engine: “Dad” Edition
From the Wikipedia entry on the World Wide Web (emphasis added): While working at CERN, [Tim] Berners-Lee became frustrated with the inefficiencies and difficulties posed by finding information stored on different computers. On March 12, 1989, he submitted a memorandum, titled “Information Management: A Proposal“, to the management at CERN for a system called “Mesh” that referenced ENQUIRE, a database… Continue reading Happy Birthday, Dub Dub Dub!
Eight days after I began work there, as the organization’s first staff member dedicated to supporting its personal computer users, the unionized employees at my local community hospital went on strike. It was February 1, 1990. Early that morning, as instructed, I drove across a picket line for the first time in my life, showing… Continue reading “The Doors of Hell Are Locked On the Inside”
“You wonder what I am doing? Well, so do I, in truth. Days seem to dawn, suns to shine, evenings to follow, and then I sleep. What I have done, what I am doing, what I am going to do, puzzle and bewilder me. Have you ever been a leaf and fallen from your tree… Continue reading Occasional Quote of the Day–Lawrence of Clouds Hill
The title of this post may look like rather esoteric, bluestocking, or even erotic clickbait, but there’s nothing to that theory. It’s not a feminist take on the story of poor Peter Abelard, and no guy ends up minus an essential piece of equipment at the end of it. No. It’s just a rumination on one… Continue reading Occasional Quote of the Day: “Historia Calamitatum”