I went ahead and disabled Facebook last night.  I decided I could see anything I want to see on Lorena’s Facebook.  It is something that did not add any value to my life.  It is interesting that the kids spend much less time on Facebook than they did just a couple of months ago.  Maybe it is because they are so busy with school.  Maybe it is because there are no big exciting social events going on.  We are so far away from many of our friends that it is nice for them to have a way to stay in contact with the ones they do not text and email several times per week.  Still, I am glad their initial enamoration is now somewhat more tempered.

The rest of this post is just a placeholder for some topics on which I hope to expand over the coming months:

  1. Several buddies and I (you know who you are) plan start a business over the next couple of months.  It will not be a full time job for me for the foreseeable future; I will only be one of the worker bees to provide machine vision code.  The leader of the group and I met yesterday to talk about when and where to get started.  I should be able to talk about it a lot more after the first of the year.  The really cool part for me is that includes gadgets and software that just about anyone can appreciate.  I will write more when I can.
  2. My weight loss program is working quite well even though I have not yet had a chance to get the chart up.  I am now down eight pounds!
  3. We need to get a color printer for the kids to use for school.  Christian has found a way to turn a very good $300 photo quality inkjet printer that takes very expensive cartridges into a one that uses a “continuous ink system”.  The upside to this is that ink is purchased in bottles for cheap rather than in expensive inkjet heads.  It is about a $100 upgrade and well worth the effort.
  4. Christian has purchased a ZipIt computer for $15 on eBay.  It is a full blown computer that runs Linux Debian with full wireless support.  It is very small:  4 x 3.5 x 0.75 inches.
  5. Kelly is working furiously on Betty Blonde.
  6. GaugeCam proceeds on course with our Beta software release still on track for the end of the year.