Open for Business

14/02/2025

: “Do all families have a deep corporate interest in ? I hope so, because it is fascinating and satisfying. The subject swoops in unannounced and occupies my days every few years.“

Do all families have a deep corporate interest in genealogy? I hope so, because it is fascinating and satisfying. The subject swoops in unannounced and occupies my days every few years. Though I’m by no means an expert, I think I’m a relatively skilled dilettante and have a long, strangely const...

14/02/2025

I defended DOGE last week and it might as well have been two years ago. Elon Musk’s continued work rolls along impressively and has the promise to achieve the lasting legacy President Trump reportedly desires, but the president must prioritize to secure it.

06/02/2025

"It is coincidence, not design, that makes my small contributions so far this year into what seem like an endless reminiscence. Even so, I am forced by circumstance to write about water heaters then and now."

It is coincidence, not design, that makes my small contributions so far this year into what seem like an endless reminiscence. Even so, I am forced by circumstance to write about water heaters then and now.

05/02/2025

Screaming “coup” doesn’t make it so, though it might help someone perform one in the future. We need to care about words mean, E. Ryan Haffner argues.

Screaming “coup” doesn’t make it so, though it might help someone perform one in the future. These disproportionate reactions, even from ordinarily reasonable folks, will not help stop the real or imagined problems of the new American administration.

30/01/2025

The KiiBoom Phantom 81 is smooth, with glossy acrylic keys and custom lubricated switches. Is it a good typist's keyboard? Let's find out.

KiiBoom isn’t exactly a name that rolls off the tongue. The company’s Phantom 81 is what their name is not: smooth, with glossy acrylic keys and custom lubricated switches.

30/01/2025

Dennis E. Powell writes, "Saturday will mark 20 years since the chilly day I arrived at this peculiar little house on a peculiar little farm in the Appalachian foothills..."

Saturday will mark 20 years since the chilly day I arrived at this peculiar little house on a peculiar little farm in the Appalachian foothills. When you meet people they always ask what brought you here, and in my case, there’s no particular answer. The currents of life, I suppose. It was a gambl...

23/01/2025

In the early part of this century there was an imaginative musical ensemble, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players. They would go to thrift stores and flea markets and buy up all the old photographic slides they found there...

In the early part of this century there was an imaginative musical ensemble, the Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players.

23/01/2025

Through an exclusive breakthrough in quantum journalism, OFB has obtained a classified 1956 Soviet memorandum from an alternate timeline, describing a service we never enjoyed, Tick Tock Radio (TTR), an initiative apparently key to that reality’s starkly divergent present day from our own.

Through an exclusive breakthrough in quantum journalism, Open for Business has obtained a classified Soviet Union memorandum from an alternate timeline. The document from 1956 in that reality describes a service we never enjoyed, Tick Tock Radio (TTR), an initiative apparently key to that reality’...

23/01/2025

In addition to its other attributes, winter is a time of low . That gives static electricity opportunity to romp in its annoying way. It does dangerous things, too...

In addition to its other attributes, winter is a time of low humidity. That gives static electricity opportunity to romp in its annoying way. It does dangerous things, too, such as making it easy for your city to burn down. We’ve joked for decades how January and February are the months of compute...

16/01/2025

Last week, I praised Meta’s move from censoring information to using Community Notes to provide transparent, crowdsourced accountability. This swift reversal is encouraging, but its speed and decisiveness warn of the dangers of centralized social media like Facebook, X and even Bluesky.

08/01/2025

“As more and more institutions come to realize that backing the organized crime family was not the smart play, we are likely to give thanks that Biden and his monkeys bidened everything up. Their incompetence has been the country's salvation.”

We’re 12 days away from being rid of Bugout Joe Biden and his technocratic though dimwitted minions. As the coming months unfold and more and more institutions come to realize that backing the Biden organized crime family was not the smart play, we are likely to give thanks that Biden and his monk...

08/01/2025

Meta’s New Approach is the Best Attack on Misinformation

02/01/2025

: There are things we can know about the within a minuscule margin of error, and it’s worthwhile to know at least some of them ahead of time, for planning purposes. Many of them are things humans cannot change.

There are things we can know about 2025 within a minuscule margin of error, and it’s worthwhile to know at least some of them ahead of time, for planning purposes. Many of them are things humans cannot change. Others are things that humans could change but probably won’t, for good or bad reasons...

02/01/2025

It’s New Year’s Day. As a kid, I noted it as the day ended. The music cut off on the radio, the lights went off around the neighborhood and, curiously, the came down all over, too.

It’s New Year’s Day. As a kid, I noted it as the day Christmas ended. The music cut off on the radio, the lights went off around the neighborhood and, curiously, the snowmen came down all over, too.

26/12/2024

Does joy end when the clock strikes midnight, closing out Christmas Day? Tim Butler's new 12 days of devotional booklet _the Joys of Christmas_, which is our Christmas gift to you, explores the ongoing joys of the day.

Does joy end when the clock strikes midnight, closing out Christmas Day? Tim Butler’s new twelve days of Christmas devotional booklet the Joys of Christmas, which is our Christmas gift to you, invites us to embark on a journey to “store up” Christmas joy well beyond December 25. Following the ...

26/12/2024

Dennis E. Powell recalls beautiful memories of Christmas Eves past while pondering the value of the silence that Silent Night calls us to.

In Austria, 206 years ago this Christmas Eve, one of the most enduring religious (as opposed to secular retail) Christmas songs was sung for the first time. In Athens, Ohio, 10 years ago, I did what I used to do every year after Christmas Eve midnight Mass (no longer held at midnight, I’m sad to s...

19/12/2024

This week’s has Dennis E. Powell journeying from great Keyboards of the past to the Unicomp, Inc. Mini with a stop by the .

In my elementary school, we weren’t given grades of A B C D F as was the standard before and since. Instead, New Haven R-II school employed a different set of letters that meant the same thing. They were E S M I F. I have no idea how this came to pass, but I hope it was because some person seeking...

12/12/2024

looks for a : “It's important, I think, to begin by saying that I'm writing this on my television, as I sit on the couch 10 feet away and use a wireless keyboard.”

It’s important, I think, to begin by saying that I’m writing this on my television, as I sit on the couch 10 feet away and use a wireless keyboard.