February 7, 2017 Not long ago I was reading about Domino’s Pizza and their efforts with their phone apps on what they call “frictionless ordering,” or the Zero Click App. You can read about it here. The assumption is if…
Science Fiction as Predictor and Guide
February 2, 2017 I don’t know if most IT practitioners start off as Sci-Fi fans, but ever since I was a young reader, I’ve loved science fiction, but not to the point of being rabid or having a single unrelenting…
The “Rashomon Effect” and my Dad
January 27, 2017 Many of you know that my Dad, Gergely “Greg” Szabo, came to the US in 1957 via the Hungarian Revolution. He died in 1994. When I was kid, my Dad told me a “sanitized” version of his…
Our Pet’s Christmas
January 3, 2017 For those of you who know me/us well, you know that we’re generally homebodies…particularly in 2016, when (1) our home was for sale, (2) we had to find a rental in the Jenks district, and (3) we…
Moderation in all things. Especially screentime…
I’ve asked this question back over Thanksgiving weekend on Facebook: Parents: Over the long holiday we’ve fully implemented the OurPact app to control/curtail screen time for Pi. Anyone else using it? Any advice on achieving a happy middle ground between total…
The United Colors of…Muskogee, 1967–78
Back in the Summer I sat with a visitor at my church, the adult chaperone of 15 Iraqi high school students who were touring parts of the U.S., learning about the various career choices that might be available to them. After…
Killer Clowns, Black Lives Matter and the Herd Mentality
Living in Tulsa recently has brought me face-to-face with how quickly we revert to the herd mentality, particularly when we find ourselves in an information-poor environment. With amazing speed we will tacitly accept “truth” from very tenuous sources, and spread…
First Thoughts on the Lyric Thermostat
08/30/2016: Since I’m all about lowering one’s energy consumption (within reason), our rent home came with a lovely mercury-filled “slider” thermostat, circa 1995. For our first month it seems the thing was a blunt instrument — running way too much…
Mow your own damn lawn. Please…
Permit me a momentary rant, which may anger some folks… If you’re healthy, and not an invalid…don’t have a Doctor’s note or in other ways not able to walk briskly for a half hour at a time…then you should mow…
“This is not my beautiful house…”
Last week we completed (mostly) our move from our house of 15+ years to a new rental in South Tulsa. Too many reasons to go into detail as to why — the thing I’m talking about now is DESIGN and…