Jerks versus Morons

Today I encountered a clerk becoming annoyed with the behavior of a customer. I shared with him a technique that I have long been using in similar situations. It helps me maintain a pleasant attitude. When someone does something inconsiderate and annoying (e.g., as often happens when driving), it is easy to assume that the […]

CO2 Monitoring

A few weeks ago I ran across a post by someone who claimed that he had improved his productivity by installing a CO2 monitor in his office and opening the window when the reading went over 1,000 ppm. There are measured decreases in cognitive function at 1,000 ppm and lower. This made me curious, so […]

Quitting Caffeine

As I write this, I have been off of caffeine for two years. I had my last caffeinated beverage on August 13, 2015. Here are my experiences with quitting caffeine and what I’ve learned: Why? Almost always, when discussing being caffeine-free, people ask me why. I had a couple of primary reasons. First, I had […]

External SuperDrive woes

I have a MacBook Pro (“Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013”). I also have an external SuperDrive, revision 2.00 according to drutil. At some point, the MacBook Pro decided that the SuperDrive is “Unsupported”, according to drutil. Lots of people report similar problems. They advise setting a boot-args parameter, mbasd=1, in the NVRAM (by executing nvram boot-args="mbasd=1"). Unfortunately, […]