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Lost in Translation

By Dennis E. Powell | Dec 13, 2023 at 11:21 PM

It took a few months of daily communication requiring translation software for me to notice the similarity. The software — Google Translate, a product called DeepL, and Apple\’s translator (which does to languages what its maps did a few years ago to geography) — seems to be close to accurate much of the time. Sometimes that is good enough. Often it isn\’t. The mistranslations are so serious so often that one learns to ask the correspondent to rephrase the sentence. With luck the realization comes before much damage is done, and war is averted.

The Procrastinator's Nifty Gadget Gift Guide

By Timothy R. Butler | Dec 13, 2023 at 10:46 PM

Looking for something more unusual than a gift card to give this Christmas? Here at OFB we have a sampler of options that are (mostly) inexpensive and useful for those with a wide variety of interests.

Off By Default

By Dennis E. Powell | Dec 06, 2023 at 11:04 PM

You probably have never heard of Nick Shabazz. We seldom hear of people who make sense. Our attention is drawn instead to noisy malevolent clowns.

Netbird Flies to My Remote Access Rescue

By Timothy R. Butler | Dec 06, 2023 at 9:59 PM

When you write about an ongoing project it’s always risky that it’ll go south afterward. My attempt to link my home and office together with Netmaker last week had such a southerly flow.

The Privacy Tablet -- from Google!

By Dennis E. Powell | Nov 30, 2023 at 1:04 AM

Thanks, Google! You have struck a blow for privacy! Okay, that overstates things slightly, but only slightly. And while the Google Pixel Tablet is anything but private as shipped, the enormous, generally evil company (who knows that you are looking at this article unless you did something to prevent tracking, which you probably didn’t) left the tablet open so people concerned with privacy and security can fix it.

A Cloud of One's Own

By Timothy R. Butler | Nov 28, 2023 at 11:42 PM

I’ve been spoiled by the cloud. A decade and a half after I first used Dropbox, and years after iCloud made the dream of secure, seamless “login and forget” cloud sync a reality (most of the time), it seems obvious that all of my stuff should be available from every device I have whenever I need it. But what about content too big to keep on the cloud?

The Zen of Pictures

By Dennis E. Powell | Nov 22, 2023 at 11:57 PM

The conversation with my friend Angelo was satisfying and thought-provoking, as they always are. We had been talking about how men, when they grow up (chronologically) and have money, are wont to buy the things they desired but didn’t get when they were little boys.

Thanksgiving in the Dark

By Timothy R. Butler | Nov 22, 2023 at 11:56 PM

Today I was looking for a photo from the end of last year and inadvertently stumbled on one of my uncle from then. My Uncle Jay went on hospice a few weeks ago amid a sharp decline. The difference of a year was shouted from that picture.

You Don't Have to Go Home, But Please Don't Stay Here

By Dennis E. Powell | Nov 15, 2023 at 9:30 PM

We’re not-so-slowly being overrun by invasive animal and plant species, and it’s costing money. Costing me money in particular. And like so many terrible things for which no one can be held personally accountable, in many cases the government is to blame.

Resolve

By Timothy R. Butler | Nov 15, 2023 at 8:08 PM

My feed on X has filled with posts from officials of Ukraine, Romania and the Netherlands touting the opening of the European F-16 Training Center in Romania. Highlighting this was a video of Ukrainian pilots showing off their newly acquired skills in piloting said aircraft. The word “resolve” comes to mind given that I can write that sentence at all — for a long time, the West refused the beleaguered nation access to advanced jets. “Resolve” also speaks to the dangerous test ahead hinted at in that hesitancy.

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