California homes are usually storage challenged. Basements generally don’t exist here, and attics are typically useless. Garages are most often outfitted as man-caves or warehouses. But I’ve noticed that my garage is actually attached to the driveway, and is a convenient place to store our cars when they are not being driven around. So for …
Category Archives: thoughts
Watts Premier: Failure and Redemption
Various ways to not unscrew the filter in a Watts Premier reverse osmosis filter system.
TCT Theater
Every fall for the past dozen years, Washington DC has hosted the annual celebration of cardiovascular medical device innovation, inspiration, teaching, marketing, controversy, and edutainment known as TCT. During this week, leading physicians, industry brass, deal makers, and investors mix at scientific sessions, banquet rooms, expo halls, bars, and restaurants at the heart of the …
Weihenstephan: Älteste Braueri der Welt
For some time, I’ve heard tales from my German colleagues of a mythical beer, brewed by monks for hundreds of years, atop a hill somewhere in Bravaria. A email exchange with Dieter, himself holidaying in the hills of the Black Forest, suggests that the beer is called Weihenstephan, and, in fact, it is brewed not …
Open Medsystems
For quite some time, I’ve had this crazy idea that medical device development sould be more like Linux and less like Windows. More Wikipedia, less Encyclopedia Britannica. Open, community driven, adaptive, dynamic. But medical devices aren’t typed up on crumb filled keyboards late at night. Instead, they are the product of years of investment, research, …
Open Source T-Ball v3.0
Since sometime around 20 months, Evan has been obsessed with T-Ball. His first set consisted of a foam bat (good), foam ball (check), and a completely useless T-Ball stand. The top of the thing was busted into pieces within a few days. And the base tipped over constantly, requiring Daddy intervention with each toppling. This …
Take a Hike: Canyon View Trail
Instructions: Drive about 15 minutes from the Pleasanton Home Base, down Calavaras Road to Geary, and into the Sunol Regional Wilderness. Pay $5 if somebody happens to be collecting money. Park at the Green Barn. Drink the first of three bottles of water. Put the second in your back pocket. Walk down the path, cross …
The Clove Orange Project
In December, I began work on an epic project. Seeking to recreate one of the greatest accomplishments of my life, and share the experience with my young son, I began inserting cloves into an otherwise perfectly serviceable orange. I had completed one such clove orange in my youth, and for many years, this strange smelling …
On the Perils of Relaxation
Relaxation can be dangerous. I avoided it completely from September 2007 through the end of 2008. In those fifteen months, my wife and I both left years of corporate servitude behind, started consulting and freelance businesses, and I joined with some former colleagues to re-startup a divested division of my former company. Our toddler son had …