Craig Keefner Homepage

Birthday Problem or Birthday Paradox

One of my favorite entertainments is being in a group of 50 people and wagering someone that at least 2 people share the same birthday. My mathematical probability is over 99% surprisingly (at least I think).

Dignity code hasn't survived modern life

Article by David Brooks on the death of dignity in modern life. Begins with George Washington and 110 Rules of Civility and Decent Behavior. We no longer have time for decent actions or civility, and those of us that make time seem more out of step and less likely to survive...Then again it is the decent and civil that are remembered and honored still.

When you succeed with Free, you are going to die by Free

Mark Cuban thoughts on the better path that internet companies living by the free should follow. In case of MySpace, why fight it? You're going down, you may as well optimize that path revenue-wise.

The Old Bluff Hole

My brother did a really nice story with pictures of life in Oklahoma. Best I have seen. Here is WMV

1,474 MegaPixel image of Obama Address

Pretty cool example of new Gigapan technology. Take a look at this 1474 megapixel image and notice the detail afforded.

Link to Photo

Connecting the Dots and Getting Fired

15 minutes well-spent listening to commencement address delivered by Steve Jobs. Pretty amazing stories.

http://maturemarketexperts.wordpress.com/2009/02/25/steve-jobs/

Politics 2008

After 8 years of mismanagement and misdirection by the Republican party, I waited to see if the 1st objective of the McCain platform would be to reform the Republican party direction. Difficult to reform a country when you won't reform your party first.

Instead he adopted the do anything to win mode.

Couple that with having to watch the Republican party doing everything possible to discourage and suppress voting and I am now at the point of officially leaving.

If there were ever a single issue I think could demand my vote it is our right to vote (and for that vote be counted). When a political party has it best chance of winning with fewer voters, then I know which party not to vote for.

Kiosk and Self-Service History 2008 & Look Back at 2006

A chronilog of self-service and kiosk history that I've kept over the years on the kiosk industry.
Update: In memorial -- Don England of LiveWire

Singing Big Bend's praises

Nice article on Big Bend and texas songwriter -- Floating the Rio Grande with Texas songwriter Butch Hancock is a lyrical odyssey.

Listening Music and Movies

Music I listen to and movies I have seen and liked.

Scotch Whiskies

Single malt scotch used to be something that I avoided. Sometimes we'd do Irish whiskey with beer and I could never remember anything the morning after (that's when I switched to beer). Anyway, seems that I am developing a taste for it after all.

Oklahoma Painters and Artists : Part 4

Paintings from Joyce Keefner. Joyce is works mostly in oil and is currently living in Arkansas. She was raised in Eastern Oklahoma. Images 13 thru 24.

Oklahoma Painters and Artists : Part 3

Paintings from Joyce Keefner. Joyce is works mostly in oil and is currently living in Arkansas. She was raised in Eastern Oklahoma. Images 13 thru 24.

Oklahoma Painters and Artists : Part 2

Paintings from Joyce Keefner. Joyce is works mostly in oil and is currently living in Arkansas. She was raised in Eastern Oklahoma. Images 1 thru 12.

Oklahoma Painters and Artists : Part 1

Paintings from Joyce Keefner. Joyce is works mostly in oil and is currently living in Arkansas. She was raised in Eastern Oklahoma. Images 1 thru 12.

Songs and Lyrics - Oklahoma

Nice tune by James McMurtry covering Oklahoma. Lyrics are vintage McMurtry.

Walleye and the FInish

Story about my Dad and walleye.

Blast From the Past -- Darts

Personality Disorder Discharges

One of those things that really irks me is how dedicated we can seem to making memorials or salutes of all sorts to fallen soldiers, and then end up not paying attention (or respect) to soldiers that come home. The military with each passing war just seems to get more efficient at screwing our soldiers.

It's not unlike chemical/pharm companies or other companies that suddenly launch a "lets all feel good" publicity campaign. 9 times out of 10 the only reason they are doing that is in preparation for some legal lawsuit declaring them only concerned with making profit any way they can.

Using "lets honor our fallen soldiers" events to inoculate/prevent people from looking at what the military is really doing to our soldiers is taking it to the most obscene degree.

Ed Keefner Airforce picture 455th 743rd Bomb Squadron

Nice picture of Edward Keefner and crew in Italy. Served in 15th Airforce, 455th and 743rd Bomber Squadron. More of the Armed Forces/Genealogy is on the Susan subsite located at http://www.keefner.com/susan

Packing Parachutes

How many times do we forget to consider the people that pack our parachutes (and we neglect to pack one for someone else).

Success Story - Tyler Keefner

Tyler is a freshman at Carl Albert State College in Poteau, Oklahoma, majoring in Criminal Law. Tyler's long range goals are to teach others how to solve some of society's problems by employing hands-on teaching methods. He has survived Hodgkin's Lymphoma. In his own words... click here for story

Meteor in Colorado

Almost arriving at work this last Friday an amazing fireball came down directly in front of me at 6:44am just as I was driving into work. The guy I work for was just leaving his house further east and also saw it. The fireball got bigger as it got lower and never did flame out as it passed behind Boulder Mountain (probably 15 degree azimuth). I emailed the local TV station and its funny how they quoted me but for some reason they got confused as to my location. I was driving on Dillion just past 287 (near Louisville) and the TV station published it as me being in Dillion (a city quite some distance to west).

I've been looking for someone in Grand Junction to speak up and say they saw the fireball but in the eastern sky. Someone further west had to see it in the eastern sky and that localize where it hit somewhat (right now its just somewhere west of Louisville.)

UPDATE POSTED Feb 2007

Cigars Tried and True

A quick listing of the cigars that I have smoked. I quit smoking cigarettes back in January of 2004 (and still get tempted).

Bad Jokes, Lord I love em..

I saw the Prairie Home Companion movie the other day. It was pretty good but the star of the show for me was the Bad Jokes Dust & Lefty duet by Woody Harrelson and John C. Riley. Hilarious.

Barbershop Mirrors

I remember sitting in the barbers chair, looking in the mirror in front of me and seeing myself. I could also see myself in the mirror behind me, and could see that in the mirror in front of me, and so on and so on...

Kiosk History - 2006 thru 2004

A personal history log of the self-service kiosk industry. I started in the industry back in 1991 doing Bridal Registry kiosks for Target Stores and haven't been able to extricate myself from it so far...

Faith in Action

How many fathers do you know that carry their crippled sons with them while in a triathalon? True story of Rick and Dick Hoyt. Read the story then watch the video. It's faith in action.

Final Immunity -- Thoughts on 9/11

Easy to write about beer, or cigars. What about something like 9/11?

Musings on my Drive Home

Short stuff: taking a few minutes out to stretch what's left of the muscles.

French Incident at World Cup

The "headbutt" by Zidane of France just won't go away. Now a new montage of video illustrates how different cultures are viewing this incident.

Link for video

Internet King for a Year, A Month, or just a Day...

Yahoo reacts to the "Myspace ranked #1 now...". I guess it is fun being number one but it seems impossible to stay there once you get there.

Blast from the Past: Stardock

Out net-cruising and blast from the past with Brad Wardell, Stardock, CDS and Back Again/2. That's my old Back In A Flash days with Brad Benson and what was his name...

Backside of Vista

Whatever the reason, a Microsoft employee really unloaded on his employer, and not in an anonymous blog, but on the company's own public developers site.

Gates Departure Changes Nothing for Microsoft

Another look at Gates and his leaving Microsoft and how much it hurts, and how much it helps.

Impending Death of Internet?

I gotta stop this thread but for goodness sakes now its possible that the Internet as we have known is now ontrack to be "monetized" and principally controlled by the Telecoms?

Final death for Silicon Graphics

I used to work on an Indy and I remember when SGI and the Silicon Surfer meant something. How does an innovator on the leading edge turn into a obsolete defunct? That's the lesson.

Juggling to Golden Slumbers

A very talented juggle does his routine synced to Beatles Golden Slumbers.
http://marketplace.espeakers.com/movie.php?sid=5290&aid=10558

tunes of mine

Been awhile since MP3.com where I had songs before but I needed to cut some to digital so I did.

KIosk History notation

It is with sadness we note the passing of Kevin O'Keeffe. Kevin was best known as the marketing and tradeshow coordinator for Netshift UK. In my full history log, Kevin first appears in 1997 sending out the first newsletter for Daw Systems (the company Netshift was borne from).

Kevin was extremely well-liked by all who knew him, and those of us who did, will always remember ourselves fortunate to have known him.

kiosk history log

New MMO model being developed

New startup with big backing puts whole new spin on MMO games and the AI platform itself (in all ways).

The Battle Lines Are Getting Clearer in "Open Source"

Busy week as Microsoft releases/supports Python. That's unheard of. IBM seems to be pushing PHP now and Google has new developer repository (with first tools targeting Python).

Trip To Nigeria Africa

People and family have asked about my recent trip to Nigeria (I spent a week there). Nigeria seems to elicit a high level of curiosity.

I found the people to be extremely though the infrastructure and "order" in the society for lack of better word is way below even a poorer country such as Ghana. Here are some pics

The yahoo of games is on its way

Cool article on the latest "yahoo for games". Forbes.

Search Engine Wars

Office Depot has filed suit against rival Staples for a series of search-engine ads that used as their keyword the name of Office Depot subsidiary Viking Office Products, "The Wall Street Journal" reported Friday. Search engines are quickly becoming the battlefield.

Why Everyone Hates The Music Industry

Does the music industry bother you? Does it seem like they are more interested in making a buck than being good (and highly profitable) corporate citizens?

Technology Usability Fails Us Again

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has not exactly won hearts and minds with its ability to manage an emergency. The agency, and its boss Michael Brown, has been widely slated for its handling of the post-Katrina disaster in the Southern US.

Although its latest failing hardly compares to the litany of incompetence already exhibited but it does manage to make the situation slightly worse for some people. FEMA's website can only be accessed by people using a PC which has Internet Explorer 6. Some of it is viewable using Firefox but anyone trying to apply for Disaster Assistance needs to use IE 6.0 or higher. There is a workaround for Mac that is available.

The alternative is a phone number on which you can apply for a postal application - not terribly practical for people still in emergency accomodation or waiting for a boat-borne postal worker.

Oil and Safety

The best thing that can be said about the recent disaster in New Orleans is that at least it wasn't the Straits of Hormuz. A couple of terminals in Saudi (Abiqaig and Ras Tanura) account for 10% of oil production.

I sure hope the Houston Ship Channel isn't a target in the U.S.

Nicklaus Farewell to UK/Europe

Greatest golfer ever says his final goodbye as a player over at St. Andrews.

On Friday at the Old Course, one of his most cherished places in the world, with the stubborn Scottish sun at his back, the Golden Bear mustered the waning remnants of his immense talents to close the circle on the long, gray line of his career. He made a birdie.

Best Beer I Have Found

Originally developed in the late 1700's, British breweries would send beer via sail to the troops and British expatriots in India.

The long trip had its own problems so brewers, they came up with a brew that was intensely hopped and rather high in alcohol --- thus the birth of the "India Pale Ale."

Stone Brewery in San Diego knows IPA. It's got the best finish and it holds up from the first beer to the last.

I've tried IPA after IPA and this still wins (AleSmith is one I need to try). Better than Fullers for sure. Good Stuff!

link to stone

OS/2 Dead Again

On Tuesday, IBM formally announced that it would cease marketing OS/2 at the end of next year.

This might cause wry amusement among the operating system's remaining enthusiasts, who maintain that IBM really never started marketing OS/2 in the first place.
Click Here

These death notices are almost an annual occurrence now. IBM ceased serious development on OS/2 in 1996, told regular users to shove off five years ago, and we've already run our valedictory, which leaves little more to add.

source: The Register

Award Winning Beer

New poll by CNN Money of brewmaster on the best beer in the world. Here is top 10.
1. AleSmith Brewing Co. San Diego, CA USA
2. Three Floyds Brewing Co. Munster, IN USA
3. Stone Brewing Co. San Diego, CA USA
4. Westvleteren Abdij St. Sixtus Westvleteren Belgium
5. Hair of the Dog Brewing Co. Portland, OR USA
6. De Dolle Brouwers Diksmuide Belgium
7. Kalamazoo Brewing Co. Kalamazoo, MI USA
8. Pizza Port (Solana Beach) Solana Beach, CA USA
9. Dogfish Head Brewery Milton, DE USA
10. Fuller, Smith & Turner London UK

The Last Stop of a Golf Legend

Jack Nicklaus plays in his last PGA tournament. It's the Memorial (his tournament) and everybody hoped he would make the cut one last time. I still remember picking up my ball and walking along back in the distance when Nicklaus was getting in a practice round back in Houston at Champions (US Open 1969).

The media world of Googlezon

In the year 2014, EPIC, or evolving Personalized Information Construct, is born. Interesting 8 minute movie on the future of information.
click here

Search Engines Gets Embroiled

Google, Yahoo! and other players in the search business have become embroiled in a lawsuit which involves overcharging for pay-per-click online advertising.

Ann All Leaves Networld Alliance

One of the ATM industry best observer/analysts is moving on from ATMmarketplace.com. I have a lot of respect for Ann and will most definitely miss her intelligent analysis of things. Albeit we did argue a lot (that's actually a good thing in this case).

Memeflow and Long Tail

On the Trail of the Long Tail. Yahoo makes comment on Long Tail and Memes in their blogger.

New media capture and distribution

It is getting complicated out there folks. We started with websites and this year the RSS/XML has come to the forefront. Now we have open source Podcasts and BitTorrent doing offline digital media capture (audio/video/etc). It is finally getting REALLY interesting out there.

Old Biography

Here is my last bio that I did.

Old Patent List

Adding old patent list for reference and search. This covers 1997 thru 2002 I think.