This is the website of Abulsme Noibatno Itramne (also known as Sam Minter). Posts here are rare these days. For current stuff, follow me on Mastodon

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Curmudgeon’s Corner: Very Cool

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner Sam and Ivan go a little light and fluffy, mostly avoiding the serious topics, instead talking about the helicopter on mars, some other space stuff, a bit on internet scams and the effectiveness of paper junk mail, and even some talk about the new Apple stuff that was announced a few days ago. Oh. And the pandemic. They did talk about the pandemic. Less light and fluffy. Couldn’t avoid it. But still a less news heavy show than usual. Also important, this week’s episode was sponsored! By ALeXMXeLA.com! Yeah. So there ya go.

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Show Details:

Recorded 2021-04-23
Length this week – 1:38:47

  • (0:00:38-0:55:03) Segment 1:
    • Sam: Mars Helicopter and Other Space Stuff
    • Ivan: Internet Scams and Physical Mail
  • (0:58:13-1:27:40) Segment 2:
    • Sam: New Apple Stuff
    • Ivan: Pandemic
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Some Kind of Bird

On this week’s Curmudgeon’s Corner Sam and Ivan once again do it lightning round style. Eight topics, averaging about 15 minutes each. This week we have the calming of the news cycle, the pandemic, impeachment, the crisis in Texas, Sam watching Back to the Future, the death of Rush Limbaugh, the Mars rover landing, and Ted Cruz. Plus some special contributions from Sam’s son Alex. Enjoy!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

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Show Details:

Recorded 2021-02-20
Length this week – 2:03:02

  • (0:00:34-1:18:23) Round 1
    • Sam: The Calm
    • Ivan: Pandemic
    • Sam: Impeachment
    • Ivan: Texas
  • (1:21:38-1:58:53) Round 2
    • Sam: Movie: Back to the Future (1985)
    • Ivan: Rush Limbaugh
    • Sam: Mars Rover
    • Ivan: Ted Cruz
The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch. Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link) Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link) Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link) Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Curmudgeon’s Corner: Ten and a Bit

This week on Curmudgeon’s Corner, Sam and Ivan talk about the anniversary of the iPhone, using password managers, the travel ban, the healthcare bill, the newest Trump scandal news, and anti-Trump fake news. Oh, and also the Martian slave colony, and the fact that like the iPhone, this show is now ten years old too. Happy ten years to Curmudgeon’s Corner!

Click below to listen and subscribe!

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Show Details:

Recorded 2017-06-30
Length this week – 2:15:35

  • (00:01:37-0:21:30) But First
    • Ten years
    • Agenda
    • Leavenworth
  • (0:22:46-0:58:29) Tech
    • iPhone anniversary
    • Sam gets a password manager
    • New cyberattacks
  • (0:59:38-1:39:36) Policy
    • Travel ban
    • Healthcare
  • (1:40:15-2:15:15) Trump Scandals
    • Mars slave colony
    • Russian hackers to Smith to Flynn?
    • Anti-Trump fake news
    • Collusion not that bad?

 

The Curmudgeon’s Corner theme music is generously provided by Ray Lynch.

Our intro is “The Oh of Pleasure” (Amazon MP3 link)

Our outro is “Celestial Soda Pop” (Amazon MP3 link)

Both are from the album “Deep Breakfast” (iTunes link)

Please buy his music and support his GoFundMe.

Triple Conjunction

IMG_0474

My best shot of tonight’s triple conjunction (Venus, Mars, and the Moon from left to right).

Taken 2015-02-21 02:27 UTC from my driveway (2 second exposure, f/5.6, ISO 80, 60.57mm zoom, some minor adjustments to the levels off camera)

I had a number of things not quite set up the way I really wanted. I think I can do better next time. But this isn’t that bad. I’m happy enough. :-)

[Edit 03:49 to fix typo.]

Curmudgeon’s Corner: You Can Control the World by Blinking

In the latest Curmudgeon’s Corner Sam talks about:

  • Parenthood
  • Curiosity Landing
  • Election 2012
  • More Election 2012 / Mountain Lion

Recorded on 6 Aug 2012

Length this week – 1:13:30

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They Pulled It Off!

I watched the whole Curiosity landing live on a couple different video feeds, with and without commentary. I turned down the commentary for most of the “7 minutes of terror”… just wanted to hear the control room raw.

Given the complexity of this landing, and all the many many places where something could have gone wrong, I was fully expecting for something to fail. But so far it looks like the landing was pretty much perfect*. That is just incredible. Amazing job by everybody involved, who have worked for many years to make this happen.

* Although we won’t know for sure until everything gets woken up and tested over the next few days.