TechNudge

Being a veterinarian, I had been called to examine a ten-year-old Irish Wolfhound named Belker. The dog’s owners, Ron, his wife Lisa, and their little boy Shane, were all very attached to Belker, and they were hoping for a miracle.

I examined Belker and found he was dying of cancer. I told the family we couldn’t do anything for Belker, and offered to perform the euthanasia procedure for the old dog in their home.

As we made arrangements, Ron and Lisa told me they thought it would be good for six-year-old Shane to observe the procedure. They felt as though Shane might learn something from the experience.

The next day, I felt the familiar catch in my throat as Belker ‘s family surrounded him. Shane seemed so calm, petting the old dog for the last time, that I wondered if he understood what was going on. Within a few minutes, Belker slipped peacefully away.

The little boy seemed to accept Belker’s transition without any difficulty or confusion. We sat together for a while after Belker’s Death, wondering aloud about the sad fact that animal lives are shorter than human lives. Shane, who had been listening quietly, piped up, ”I know why.”

Startled, we all turned to him. What came out of his mouth next stunned me. I’d never heard a more comforting explanation. It has changed the way I try and live.

He said,”People are born so that they can learn how to live a good life — like loving everybody all the time and being nice, right?” The Six-year-old continued,

”Well, dogs already know how to do that, so they don’t have to stay as long.”

Live simply.

Love generously.

Care deeply.

Speak kindly.

Remember, if a dog was the teacher you would learn things like:

When loved ones come home, always run to greet them.

Never pass up the opportunity to go for a joyride.

Allow the experience of fresh air and the wind in your face to be pure Ecstasy.

Take naps.

Stretch before rising.

Run, romp, and play daily.

Thrive on attention and let people touch you.

Avoid biting when a simple growl will do.

On warm days, stop to lie on your back on the grass.

On hot days, drink lots of water and lie under a shady tree.

When you’re happy, dance around and wag your entire body.

Delight in the simple joy of a long walk.

Be loyal.

Never pretend to be something you’re not.

If what you want lies buried, dig until you find it.

When someone is having a bad day, be silent, sit close by, and nuzzle them gently.

ENJOY EVERY MOMENT OF EVERY DAY!

The Doctor, without a Companion, becomes a Time Lord.

A miniature tree door of unknown origin just showed up one day in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, and has been captivating neighborhood residents ever since.

“When I see the door, I think of the word ‘delight,’” Richmond District Blog editor Sarah Bacon told ABC News. “When people talk about walking by it, it makes their day a little happier because it’s unexpected.”

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This is a horse and a colt:

“Let me make you an offa you can’t refuse…”

…I’d close the place for good and go home.

A couple of months back, eBay had this vile, annoying, sliding notice that appeared on the first item on my bidding list. Simply put, it contains no new information and no additional options than what are already contained in the listing itself. Essentially, this is eBay’s way of whipping out its penis and hanging a towel on it to show us all that it can. Then it went away; now it’s back again.

I don’t want to look at it. eBay, like some Viagra bloated juvenile, can’t make it stop, or so they say. In fact, Ramash over in Delhi did hid best to convince me it was a feature placed there for my benefit. (Yeah, it was one of those tech support calls.) But he did put my objection into his report…

It’s probably just me getting crankier as I get older but is anyone else getting tired of the unfailing levels of condescension wafting out from tech support? Two days ago I had a conversation with Cablevision tech support. Yesterday it was with WordPress tech support. And this morning it was BillMeLater. In all three instances, the tech support gurus (one actually called herself a “Diva”) labored on without actually answering my questions. At one point, I suggested to WordPress (paraphrasing) that while I suspected there were massive quantities of hemp around, precious little of it had been fashioned into life-line for customers.

So far, as a result of my misadventures, I’ve canceled my BillMeLater account and received an apologetic letter from that company; received an e-mail apology from Cablevision; and had one overseer at WordPress censor two of my comments while providing a backhanded solution to the problem his minion couldn’t seem to grasp for two days.

Depending on your location, you perhaps have more of the day left than I do here in the, still rather chilly, mid-Atlantic region. That’s a good thing if you are looking for your next external hard drive, because today Amazon has a one day deal for you.

The online retailer is offering the Seagate 4 TB USB 3.0 external HDD for only $139.99 — a price it touts as $100 off of the regular retail rate. Before you wonder what is wrong with the drive, I should point out that The Wirecutter’s Seamus Bellamy rated it as their favorite external drive. It also carries a four-star rating on Amazon as well.

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After a computer glitch sidelined NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity late last month, another problem has it down again. NASA reported that Curiosity put itself into safe mode on Saturday after a software bug caused a command file to fail a size-check.

“This is a very straightforward matter to deal with,” said Richard Cook, Curiosity’s project manager. “We can just delete that file, which we don’t need any more, and we know how to keep this from occurring in the future.” NASA said late on Monday that bringing Curiosity out of safe mode is expected to take a couple of days.

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Editor of mine has asked me to do a “slideshow” type piece for her. It consists of about 10 picutres and dialog blurbs about current, similar, items (gadgets, gizmos, products) from different manufacturers. Somebody took away my vrayon because I’m drawing a blank. Any ideas appreciated.

-O’B.

Last year, a group of researchers at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria refined a 3D printing technique that allowed the construction of sophisticated structures (an F1 racecar and a cathedral) smaller than dust mites in about 4 minutes.

Now, a company called Nanoscribe GmbH that emerged from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany has made a 3D printer called the Photonic Professional GT which can produce detailed structures on a similar scale but faster.

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Someone should put out a call for practical applications….

On Saturday, Defense Distributed—America’s best-known group of 3D gunsmiths—announced on Facebook that its founder, Cody Wilson, now has a federal license to be a gun manufacturer and dealer. The group published a picture of the Type 7 federal firearms license (FFL) to prove it.

“The big thing it allows me to do is that it makes me manufacture under the law—everything that manufacturers are allowed to do,” he said. “I can sell some of the pieces that we’ve been making. I can do firearms transactions and transport.”

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