2004



Once again, we have produced a web site with pictures of what we did this year. In addition, we sent out two different postcards, this year pictures Marsha and I took in Paris:

Red Nose Studio

I occasionally run across an artist that immediately catches my attention and appeals to me. In the New York Times last week, there was an article in the Circuits section about Electronic Gadgets (my speciality) to buy for the gift giving season. The banner of this page had the illustration below.



After checking out the photo credits, I started poking around the web to find Red Nose Studios. There are two great places to go: 1) The Red Nose Studio web site and 2) A dealer ArtPick that represents Red Nose. Both fun places to view interesting objects de art.

Ben and John Kerry

Last Saturday night the New Hampshire Democratic Party held a reception for all of the Kerry campaign workers in New Hampshire. Ben and several of his friends who worked on the campaign went up to New Hampshire, and Ben returned home with this very nice picture. These are the kinds of pictures which years hence you look back on with good memories. more...

Right Tool for the Right Job I have been looking for a solution to organizing the various lists of "Things I Need To Do" that I have floating around my desk. When I was at Genuity, outside of each conference room, there was a plastic "gravity roller" note holder -- a clever thing where you could slip a piece of paper up into this device and a roller would grab onto the slip of paper. The roller was free floating in a channel and gravity pulled it down, jamming the note and holding it. To remove the note, all you had to do was to push up on it and silde to the right or left.
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I have been looking for such a device for a long time with no luck. Recently I was in Bertucci's Pizza in Lexington and I looked up and saw what I needed: an order holder that the cook uses to keep track of what he is doing. Perfect! Same idea, different domain. Instead of going to Staples, I went on line and searched restaurant supply houses, and found exactly what I wanted. Instead of specially made rollers, this device (which costs $12) uses marbles. It works great!

Helen Estelle Forsdick



My mother died this past June. As with my father Harry, and my dog Malcolm, I created a tribute to her on the web. This page contains several links to other pages that include a slide show with music, a collection of photographs, a booklet I wrote about her life, and the eulogy I gave at her memorial service.

A Visit With A The Red Sox Fan

Harry Forsdick



November 25, 2004

Earlier this week, Will and and I paid a visit to Nancy Hollomon to see some of her Red Sox Memoribilia. And boy, what a collection! For Nancy, the ultimate Sox fan this year has been the apex of her Red Sox fan-career.

A couple of weeks ago, Nancy sent me a message saying that she wondered if Will and I would like to come over and see a Red Sox scorecard that she had

been given by Trot Nixon and his wife Katherine. "Sure", I said and so we arrived at Nancy's home in Brookline which was adorned with the appropriate door decoration for the season. more...

Google Desktop Google has done it again. First it was the original Google web search engine. Then the Google Toolbar, the first good integration of a search engine into a browser. Then Google News, using the Google search technology to build a newspaper drawn from thousands of news sources around the world. Then Froogle, another use of the Google search engine to search for product prices. And now, Google Desktop, an application of Google technology but this time to the information on your personal computer -- integrated into the Google web search so that you can search one place for material either on your PC or on the World Wide Web. Very impressive.

Without a Doubt This is an incredible piece of writing from the New York Times Magazine of October 17, 2004. It is long, but once you start reading it, it's hard to put down. Although I obviously disagree with George Bush on just about everything, I found this article insightful about how he thinks and the direction he wants to take this country.

It seems that with little knowledge of history or of the world, and lacking the ability to analyze and think deeply about issues, George Bush falls back on his intuition mixed with the Bush-family bravado / confidence and labels his "no discussion" decision making process "faith-based" and himself "called by God" to make these decisions. The "Faith-based Presidency" is in contrast to the long history in the USA of "Reality-based Presidencies" where issues are debated and differences of opinion encouraged as a tool for arriving at the best decision.

Included is a roadmap for Bush's second term including the appointment of at least one Supreme Court Justice, with the possibility of a total of 4 Justices. I am more worried then ever before for our country and the possibility that George Bush might be re-elected. I used to think the article in Slate about the "Faith-based Missile Defense System" was a funny spoof. Now I see that Slate was prophetic about the entire Bush administration. And it's not funny anymore.

Click here to read the article.

Paris 2004   Marsha and I traveled to Paris for 16 days in September and October. We took a lot of photos and kept a diary of our experiences. Although I still have a lot of work to do to present the photos in the context of our diary, you can see what I have in place now. I will be updating this site continuously in the next month, so check back to see new pictures, panoramas, videos, and maps of our trip.

Click here to see our Paris 2004 travelog.

Interactive Panoramas



I have long been fascinated with panoramas, and recently, interactive panoramas. Interactive panoramas are 360º pictures of a scene that are presented on a web page with software that allows you to use your mouse to move around the full circle. In a new twist, I have discovered a package that not only allows you to move around, but it also shows you on an overhead view of the scene where you are looking. Very cool -- check it out.



In addition, I have recently added a "How To" document which describes how you can do the same thing. Click here to check it out.

Our Trip to Alaska



In June, we took a trip to Alaska. Marsha's mother, Anne is turning 90 this December and decided to take her children and their families on a cruise on the Inner Passage in South East Alaska, stopping at Juneau, Skagway, Hubbard Glacier and Ketchikan. We traveled on the Royal Caribbean Radiance of the Seas. Click on the snapshot of the page to the right to read about and see pictures of our trip.

Stern's Pond, Harold Parker State Forest



Last week, on a beautiful day, I put my kayak in my car and drove up to Andover, to Harold Parker State Forest. When I worked at CMGI, I passed by signs for this forest all the time, but never went to explore. Now that I have some more time, I took the opportunity and explored the pond -- with my digital camera and GPS. Here is a web page that records the results.

Project Vote Smart

Opensecrets.org--Money in politics data
lt;br />Here are two excellent web sites for understanding who you are voting for and how they get money so that they can run. This is a great example of how the Internet serves the democratic process.

Live365

I have followed music on the Internet since the first MP3s were published. I remember way back in 1997 (?) writing a gushing message (as I am want to do) to Guy Bradley, my good friend at CMGI@Ventures about how MP3s were going to change the way we thought about music. This was inresponse to my first encounter with MP3.COM. more...