You made it! Thanks for visiting.
While I'm still tallying responses from my last column (of which I plan to have in-depth coverage next week), I did want to address a concern from one reader.
Actually, she's not a reader, I don't even think she will ever read that column. But she wasn't pleased with a comment/answer in the questionnaire. Although she knows it was purely a joke, she wasn't too thrilled.
So I decided my reconciliation would be to write the rest of this column about her.
Spring begins many things, including my first love -- baseball.
There really isn't much that beats a spring or summer day, sitting in a favorite ballpark, watching baseball, eating nachos and just relaxing with a friend or two or 36,910. I would someday like to travel to every major league ballpark, but I'm going pretty slowly right now. I've visited just seven. Plus, I can't seem to stop going to my favorite place -- Wrigley Field in Chicago -- so maybe at least I'll see all the teams play there.
What do Theo Huxtable, Adolf Hitler and Magnum P.I. have in common?
1. They are names of my plants.
2. They have all recently purchased an iMac.
3. The computer knew I was trying to be each of them during an Internet game.
Are you serious? How many plants do you think I have?
It's a good thing there are Internet weather sites. Yes, it's beneficial for travelers to know if it's going to be nice at their destination. It's great to know if a large snowfall is coming, so everyone but bartenders can be off work. You can even check out the weather where all your friends live.
Nine-year-olds care about winning baseball games. Just ask Peter Smith, Maurice Robinson and Billy Rogers.
Peter has been to many Washington Nationals games this year, and he just recently started keeping track of the team's boxscores. Maurice listens to Baltimore Orioles games and his great-grandfather, who tells tales of John McGraw, Babe Ruth and Frank Robinson. Billy never seems to come inside until after dark, usually because he is in front of his house, playing baseball with the neighborhood friends.
... it doesn't take a super sci-fi buff to see the potential implications of an Internet superpower and the American government operating out of people's homes hand in hand. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine having a serious love jones while trying to begin a new chapter in the world of technology. With the recent Internet chatter that has been surfacing about larger, more powerful Internet companies the book's message appears to be eerily relevant.
I've been told by my publisher that my book, "The Developers," a book about ... hmm, not much of anything, is almost ready. It is due to be finished May 10. I'm currently busy trying to prepare a few things and make contacts for the books. With the first printing, there will be 200 copies made available to the public, so if you are interested, please visit the books page for more information.
It is really remarkable that after writing online stories for 25 years, I have a topic today that I’ve both never written about and something I know more about than almost anything else.
That thing is figs.
How did we get to this point? My uncle had a fig tree in his backyard, and we lived at his house 16 years ago. Coincidentally, my father-in-law also had fig trees, so when we bought a new house 14 years ago, we accepted a gift of a fig cutting and planted it in an auspicious backyard location.
Most people know of the Internet only from the mid '90s on. But actually, the Internet started long, long ago, in a galaxy, well, that you live in.
I recently came across a page on UCLA's website that showed the first words uttered on the Internet. The day was Oct. 29, 1969, which also happens to be my mom's birthday. The researchers sent an "l" and an "o" before the system crashed. Apparently they were trying to login, and, much like any old computer I've used, it crashed almost immediately.