Ben's Journal

I love the name of our business - it's simple and direct, just like we strive to be as a company. But, if there's one thing I don...

I've always carried a Bic Lighter while backpacking, but it wasn't till I saw this post that I really appreciated that tiny device...

I try to be good about bringing along the appropriate load of books and technology whenever we take our 19 month old somewhere he'll ...

Tonight, one of my client's discovered an odd issue with his Google Custom Search setup - it was indexing and directing folks to http...

Exploriment pointed me to this song by Bluetech & Kilowatts - two artists I'd never heard of. I'm not exactly sure what to m...

Some very helpful advice from Unicorns For Socialism on how to deal with life's ups and downs: Now, a life lived ferociously is bou...

I've been experimenting with JSL, the JavaScript Loader and really been liking it. It allows to turn: <script type='text/jav...

Not sure where I came across this article describing the feats of one Hideaki Akaiwa and his response to the disaster in Japan - but it...

I'm back to using a Google Spreadsheet to track my time instead of a cloud based app (more on this later, perhaps). I've setup a r...

I like to travel and blog - which means that being ready to take quality photos anywhere, anytime, is pretty key for me. It's temptin...

So far, I'm really liking my Dell Vostro 3300 . The feel of the hardware is impressive, and it still surprises me at how fast some acti...

The project: replace the guts (yeah, that's a technical term) of our bedroom bathroom's toilet . The project went surprisingly wel...

I love the mailinator service. Need a disposable e-mail address? Just pick one, like, say, gotcha@mailintor.com and it's yours. In fa...

OK, Hero may be a bit strong, but still, this baking mat we picked up from Bed Bath and Beyond made Hamantaschen creation a lot less pai...

It's Friday - definitely time to laugh. Here are two bits from around the internet that made me smile. Check out this baby watching ...

Couple days ago, I go to eject my latest book on CD from my car and instead of the radio producing disks it produced a grinding sound. Not...

The radio is out in my car, so I've been listening to TED Talks on day care runs. I'm in the middle of listening to Salman Khan:...

In the tradition of EDC forums , everyday-carry.com and Flickr: What's in my bag , I give you What-I-Carry Wednesday . I've actual...

A friend of mine nudged me into reading The Shack by William Young. I'm glad she did. The Shack is a sort of Christian version of W...

Yesterday, we attempted to hit Theordore Roosevelt Island for a little light hiking. Unfortunately, we weren't the only ones with this...

I don't know whether to laugh, be appalled, or quickly forward this video to my father and brothers (who all have either a PhD or MD) ...

I love meeting face to face with clients - it's just a spectacular way to get a whole lot of work done in a short amount of time. Pro...

This guy takes 1 photo of his face every day for the 5 months he hikes the Pacific Crest Trail . It's awesome. Enjoy.

You simply have to go out and read Predictably Irrational by Dan Ariely. Why? Allow me to explain. You frequently make bad choices. ...

For months now, I've been getting mail with the headers like: From: MP3Waxx / Ciara / The Dream Reply-To: info2@musiknewrelea...

I needed an FTP client that would do FTPS - which, as I learned, is totally different than SFTP. One apparently runs over SSH and one over ...

I've been amazed at how easily I've been able to get up to speed on using my new Dell Vostro laptop . There are a few factors fo...

The Next Killer App My friend Nick pointed me to: Overdrive an audio book app. And the killer app part of this? It seamlessly integrate...

So I'm debugging some MySQL queries that shouldn't have been that slow. But were. They had a shape kinda like the following: SE...

I caught this essay on the radio the other day on the power of simple questions . Take a listen: The quick version goes as follows. O...

Hang out on the web long enough, and you'll hear the phrase Mall Ninja - it refers to someone who's acting especially tough when t...

The other day I mentioned I was dabbling with some elisp to make Racket (formerly: PLT-Scheme) and Emacs play nice. One of the comments ...

I thought this was the ultimate in romance. Shira thought it was irresponsible, and most likely illegal. Watch the video and you tell me w...

It was time to replace my ancient (OK, 3 year old) Dell Latitude D630 laptop. I had originally wanted to replace it with a Sony, as I love...

I love the power of racket (formerly known as PLT-scheme). And I love the power of emacs . In the past, though, to leverage racket I'v...

One of the go-to biblical texts that Jews turn to when Stuff (good, bad, or otherwise) Happens is Tehillim - the Book of Psalms . Here ...

First, I made it through Boy Scouts without learning to calculate distances with a compass . And I now I learn about yet another outdoor di...

Today's snack was powered by Batter Blaster - that's pancake batter that comes in the same form factor as whipped cream. I'm...

I have to admit, I love the stunt that the guys over at SurivalWeekly tried about a year ago. They both hit the local dollar store and pi...

Apparently, the video of Leeroy Jenkins doing his thing has been around nearly half a decade - yet my brother just shared it with me. Man,...