- Blog
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Ave Beaker! Torrituri te Salutant!
I don’t want to say much about where the Sterno craft project is heading, except that it’s evolving into something beautiful involving siphon coffee, a go-anywhere coffee roaster, propane wok burners, and of course motorcycle sidecars. And maybe, just maybe, a mini gas turbine (turn up your speakers and skip to 3:20). Watching this project…
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Ice Cream + Fire, Winter Edition: suggestions for s’mores cookers?
The web-development space I share is above beloved local ice-cream-and-donut shop West Chester Scoop. We named it "@superscoop" on Twitter. West Chester Scoop is a great ice-cream-and-donut shop: they’ve won every local “best dessert” award I’m aware of in the past year that they’ve been open. You might not know it, but they have a…
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Shakers: Co-ed Nerd Monks
Kate, Lydia, Barb and I are in the Berkshires right now, staying at a nice hotel for Thanksgiving where someone else cooked the turkey. It’s really tranquil and relaxing; I got a chance to read all 955 pages of Neal Stephenson’s Anathem, which features cloistered, technology-loving ascetics living in a community separated from the outside…
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The New West Chester Web Development Space
Tikaro Interactive (by which I mean me, my desk, and my Lucky Dotcom Chair) has moved offices! I’ve teamed up with some really excellent Philadelphia web developers to start a shared office space. We’re at 20 North Darlington Street in West Chester, right above local ice-cream and donut shop West Chester Scoop. For those of…
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According to Lydia, I’m “Lifting Plates”
I triumphed over my skinny veins and gave platelets in West Chester this morning. Kate came and visit after dropping Lydia off at playschool, and took this picture (while trying not to look at the needl-y bits): Here’s what happens: The blood goes out your left arm It’s centrifuged in the machine next to you,…
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Okay, somebody hand me a shovel!
Now that Obama’s the President-Elect, I want someone in a wool serge suit to show up on my doorstep and hand me a shovel so I can get to work helping undo the damage of the last eight years: “that retaining wall over there needs a-shorin’ up, friend!” “We got to dig us a channel…
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Barb Wins!
Kate’s mom Barb McIlvaine Smith won a narrowly-contested election in 2006, taking the 156th district seat in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives by about 28 votes. This after a recount that lasted six weeks, all while Bob had been diagnosed with terminal bone cancer. It was a really difficult time. Barb won the seat, though,…
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Another reason why you should move to West Chester: SECRET MOBILE ROBOTIC PIPE ORGANS
Since Christmas carol season is coming up, we decided to buy a used console piano. We went to Philip Jamison’s workshop to have a look at one. It’s in a square brick building, in an alley, in downtown West Chester. Little did we suspect his shop is crammed with AMAZING PUNCH-CARD POWERED PNEUMATIC ROBOT ORGANS.…
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Halloween in West Chester: 2008 Census
Lydia as the Wicked Witch of the East (that’s the witch the house lands on, right?) and Kate as Rosie the Riveter, a little while ago before they left to go trick-or-treating. As far as I’m concerned, the Rosie costume is another triumph for Kate, who was Mary Poppins last year. Plus, she makes it…
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Will’s Ronco’s Sister, Amy Smith: Nerd Hero
Tikaro Interactive iron developer Will Ronco’s sister, Amy Smith, is a Nerd Hero. That’s completely, 100% literally true; Amy runs the D-Lab at MIT, where she teaches students the principles of “appropriate design” — things that are useful, even life-saving, in developing areas, are simple and cheap to make, and can manufactured locally. I can’t…
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