Compost Toilets the “in” thing
And I thought writing about composting in a Victory Garden was a good thing to do, but I’ve been easily bested by people in Fiji who created composting toilets because they found their sewage was...
View ArticleDeclassified imagery graphically shows global warming in action
President Barack Obama declassified satellite imagery that graphically shows the effect of global warming. The imagery was previously kept classified by the Bush administration. Read more:...
View ArticleSmall organic farms on the rise
I just read a Fortune magazine article about a farming youth movement and how young people are starting organic farms and businesses. Â I find the article timely considering I just wrote an article of...
View ArticleTrending local
$45 of every $100 dollars spent at local businesses stays in circulation in the local economy. The money is spent on local salaries, payments to other merchants, and so on. A big chain, on the...
View ArticleThe White Roof — Steven Chu is right!
Energy Secretary Steven Chu has advocated painting roofs white as a cost saving measure that also reduces the impact of climate change. The theory is that more heat would be reflected, thereby...
View ArticleA $9,000 water bill
“When I have a dollar to blow on a bottle of water, I buy Perrier!” quipped Robin Williams in his late ’70s stand-up days. It killed. The audience howled at Williams’ derision of paying a lot of money...
View ArticleBroccoli in December
South Carolina weather is good for an extended growing season. Here is my broccoli after Christmas.
View ArticleSigns of life
Spring is officially here and the growing season has begun! I have high hopes for these pole bean sprouts.
View ArticleMake your own seedling pots from newspaper
This How-To article shows how you can make your own seedling starter pots from newspaper! Very cool idea. My plastic trays are getting crumpled from continuous reuse and buying new peet pots is...
View Article“I just want to get started”
“I just want to get started.” Â How commonly uttered is this phrase in the life of a new project? My wife is tiling our bathroom and she’s carefully laying out tiles, measuring, preparing to make cuts...
View ArticleGet the latest subversion revision number with Bash
Here’s a quick one-liner you can use in Bash to get the latest subversion revision number from your present working directory: sed -n '4p' .svn/entries Use backticks to assign it to a local variable...
View ArticleBraintree’s customer support is 1st class
Braintree — an online payments processor — aims to have a developer-friendly API for integration and touts excellent customer service as one of their strengths. I have been on the phone with these guys...
View ArticleNever let a consultant handle your core business
From I, Cringley: In Minneapolis, Best Buy is known as a body shop. Â While they have something like 1000 IT workers, most of them are temporary contractors. Â They come and go. Â The number of IT...
View ArticleA few rules of business and travel
Business Rule #17432: When travelling on business, work! Â There are no interruptions. Â There are no kids demanding attention. Â It is quiet and it’s the perfect time to focus. Â There is no one to...
View ArticleHow to send asynchronous requests in PHP
It’s easy to make asynchronous calls in PHP with just a little bit of HTTP header knowledge and some library code around PHP sockets. This technique is useful when posting requests to your own server...
View ArticleRed Pen and Comments in the Margin for your UI
Do you remember how your High School English teacher graded your papers? Â Mine all used red pen and circled things and wrote comments in the margin. Â I still do this today when I write something...
View ArticleThe Driveway Strawberry Patch
Edible landscaping is the way to go. I turned a patch of full sun nothing alongside the driveway into a strawberry patch. Not only does it look great, but my girls get organic strawberries all summer...
View ArticleEdamame vs. the Sago Palm
The choice is pretty easy, if you ask me. Â I hate sago palms! Edible landscaping can look just as pretty as decorative shrubs with the additional benefit of yielding several pounds of fresh edamame...
View ArticleWhy Facebook will never catch up to Google
I don’t think Facebook will ever catch up with Google, personally. Â Maybe FB knows what everyone “likes” and can sell ads, but Google has equally good data on users. More than that, they bought all...
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