Comments/Questions
This is a page where you can leave a comment about the site. Or ask me a question about anything on the site and I'll do my best to answer your question.
Thanks for visiting!
Mike O’Connor
Mike O’Connor - St Paul, MN - geek entrepreneur type guy
March 29th, 2007 at 9:27 pm
whats on this website
March 30th, 2007 at 6:48 am
This here's my personal home page -- up on the very top are some links to the usual vanity "stuff about me" pages. If you follow the "Click here for the latest blog entries" link, you'll find my blog -- which covers all kinds of stuff that this old geezer geek finds interesting
May 1st, 2007 at 8:19 am
hi my name is haven...i was wondering why you have this site
named after my name....and where that old man sitting on the bench picture is
because it used to be at the bottom of this page.
thanx!
♥haven
May 2nd, 2007 at 5:31 am
Easy there Buckaroo! *I'm* that "old man sitting on the bench"!
I changed that picture a while ago -- now I swap in a new "favorite picture" every once in a while. Since it's spring, it's about time to put something up besides the TracDOR picture I suppose.
May 6th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
My maiden name is Haven (coincidentally, my father Don was born and raised in Minnesota). I've always meant to look up haven.com and just now got around to it. I'd like to see the picture of the old man on the bench sometime. :o)
May 6th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Ok, in response to popular demand, here's a picture of the "old guy on the bench"
This is a picture of yours truly, sitting on a bench at our farm, more specifically Big View Prairie, on a bench that I'd just finished making.
May 8th, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Can a fox become a pet ? (like a dog)
May 8th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I asked Marcie that same question (she's the naturalist in the household). She doesn't think so, but doesn't know for sure. Her guess is that they are cute as pups, but start to get unruly as they get older.
May 17th, 2007 at 10:36 pm
Hi my name is Haven and this is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo cool!!!!!!!!!!
May 24th, 2007 at 2:50 pm
The picture of the man on the bench is so beautiful!!! I wish I could live somewhere like that. OH!!! My best friend's name is Haven. As a matter of fact she is beautiful too. Well gotta go and I'll be sure to let Haven know about this web site it is soooooo cool!!!!!!! And, are foxes mean and horrible like people say or are they playful and cute?
May 24th, 2007 at 7:13 pm
I am no fox expert, but we think they're great. Not as pets though -- they're wild, and would probably get to be a handful as they get older. But we really like to see the native habitat and animals return as we continue our restoration efforts.
June 16th, 2007 at 9:01 am
Could you put another picture on this? You don't have to take the one of the man on the bench off because it is beautiful! But something new might be good. Thank You!
hearts~Desiree Hartman~hearts
June 20th, 2007 at 10:26 pm
I'm poor in English. So I can't understand most of your sentences.
June 20th, 2007 at 10:30 pm
你能看懂中文吗？Can you understand Chinese??Where's your hometown??
June 22nd, 2007 at 9:30 am
I enjoy the pictures taken on the farm.
July 4th, 2007 at 1:19 am
Yo my name is Haven. Thanks for making this site!
August 4th, 2007 at 11:50 am
Hey, Mike -
A few things.
First, want to remind you the Govt Tech Symposium presentation deadline is coming up. I know that for many of us, hearing an annual rant from you is one of the highlights of the conference. Hope you submit a proposal.
Second, loong time, no GeezerCast.
When we chatted last year, I had said we'd probably ride past the farm at some pojnt this summer and we're still hoping to get down there. We went through Alma on the way to ReggaeFest in Trempeleau early this summer but didn't have a chance to get off the beaten path.
Namaste.
(Do you read the Fake Steve Jobs blog?)
Mike says:
hi Tom,
I let the Government Symposium deadline slip by this summer. I've got an implementation project running over at MnSCU and decided to drop pretty much everything else until that's done (towards the end of the calendar year).
So, unfortunately, no rant this year. Sorry about that.
Haven't seen the fake Steve Jobs blog. I bet it's a riot
August 6th, 2007 at 5:14 am
I know this may seem a bit rude but would you be interested in selling haven.com to me? We're starting up a business and we've picked out the name Haven.
E-mail me and let me know please, if not no worries.
Mike says;
Hi Monica,
I sent you an email about this, so look in your Inbox if you haven't already seen it.
August 22nd, 2007 at 10:19 pm
So.....did Monika get lucky? : )
Mike says;
September 1st, 2007 at 8:00 pm
Hi!
I am sending you this comment as I am in desperate help of some answers for my MSc Thesis in the London School of Economics and Political Sciences.
My the topic that i am researching in VoIP regulation (how bad of a choice was that i say to myself now) I am on the verge of going crazy and i need to conduct a semi-structured interview with someone in order to hand it in by Tuesday afternoon.
Would you be willing to help by answering a few short questions? They can be e-mailed to you directly or else we can have a conversation on a real-time app such as msn messenger.
Your help would be GREATLY appreciated!!
Panos Scoursis
Mike says
Argh... sorry about this very tardy reply -- by now your deadline is long passed. I've been on a 2 week road trip and just got back to the 'net. If you still need the help, I'm game. But I bet it's too late. Sorry about that.
November 30th, 2007 at 11:01 pm
I am looking for help identifying some old wood. Found your website and I was wondering if you could recommend someone I could contact in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area.
I bought an old box coffee grinder at one of the antique shows at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. The coffee grinder was made around 1850 in Pennsylvania, but the bottom portion is missing. I would like to restore this wooden box mill, matching it with the correct type of wood. (Pennsylvania mills during 1840 - 1860 were often made with curly maple, cherry and walnut.) I am not sure what kind of wood I have in this coffee mill.
Mike says;
I'd take that mill over to Youngblood Lumber (click HERE for a link to their site). They're brilliant about wood and can help you identify what kind of wood your mill is made out of. They also have all sorts of wood (including curly maple) that you can buy once you've decided what kind to use. Send a link to some pictures when you get it done!
December 2nd, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Hello Mike,
Thanks for the info. I'll certainly check with Youngblood and keep you posted.
Ref: Item 21 - antique coffee grinder wood
December 19th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Hello Mike,
This is a follow-up report to your suggestion to visit Youngblood Lumber. I did and they were very helpful. I showed them my old coffee mill and asked them about the wood. They identified the wood as pine and fir. That was very helpful. They pointed out the differences in the staining too. To hide differences in woods, this tells me to use a darker stain when I get everything stripped/sanded off.
I sent this information to a friend of mine in Pennsylvania, who is an expert on these 150 year old coffee grinders. When I told him that I was going to restore mine but the bottom part was missing, he offered to send me a piece of 150 year old pine from his collection of old wood.
Thanks for your lead to Youngblood Lumber.
December 28th, 2007 at 5:31 am
what is the process of constructing upholstry frame and door frame?i need helpin these area.if there is any material that can aid my learning help me with such material.
Mike says;
Hi Matthew,
I've never built an upholstery frame or a door frame, so I'm not speaking from experience here. Here are a few links to try;
Click HERE for the Wikipedia article about upholstery frames
Click HERE for a personal-blog type article that's pretty consistent with Wikipedia
Framing a door looks a lot more complicated to me -- that's really more a part of the "build a building" skill-set than the "make furniture" skill-set. I don't have any experience at all framing walls or doors. Click HERE for a link to an article that looks promising...
Google searches on "upholstery frame how to" and "door frame how to" turned up a lot of links you will want to explore.
December 28th, 2007 at 5:37 am
what kind of joint is used for a chair without breace?and what is the procedure of constructing it?and what is the name of the joint?
Mike says;
Hi Matthew,
I use "mortise and tenon" joints in my construction -- but they're hard to make, so be prepared to spend a lot of time learning. They're not the only kind of joint to use, but I personally don't know how to do any other kind. You might consider the dowel-joints that are mentioned in the answers to your question about upholstery framing. Here are a few links to get you started on mortise and tenon joints if you decide to go for it...
Click HERE for a good description, and examples of application. The trouble with this article is that it glosses over most of the construction techniques.
Click HERE for a great series of pages that lay out how to make the joints using hand tools. If you're doing this project as a hobby, and want to master the use of your hand tools, nothing beats making mortise and tenon joints by hand. But this is really really hard, so be prepared to spend a lot of time practicing before you make any joints for a real project.
Click HERE for a an article that spends more time telling you about construction steps using power tools. Note the extensive reliance on jigs! Jigs are important to this process if you decide to use power tools to make your joints. I used to make my joints on the table saw, using jigs like these.
These days I generally use "loose tenons" or "slip tenons" using a router (and a jig!) to make mortises on both pieces of the joint, and use slip-tenons to put them together. Click HERE for a great video that shows you how to do it.
Hope this helps!
April 28th, 2008 at 9:26 am
How'd I get you when I was searching for Cobblestone Publishing? I found that nowhere in your interesting conglomerate of activities. I hoped to locate the guidelines list as was suggested in the Magazine Market for Children's Writers, issue 2008. Help? Thanks!
Mike says
That is weird. I'm as puzzled as you are on that one.
June 14th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
So, I'am testing a simple web server monitoring tool called dwatch.
It is intended to run as a cron job, periodically fetching pages from sites I care about, and looking for http errors to see if the site is up, and if not I'll get an email, so I can go fix it or complain to the host.
I told dwatch my list of sites I care about. Then I think, "I should put in a bogus one to see if failure succeeds as well as success". I choose "bogus.place.com" as my bogus url.
So, that's what got me here.
Congrats on the Ham license. It looks like you are having fun. What I need is a url with a server configured so there is a page for all the possible http errors. If you owned error.com you could set this up as a public service:
404.error.com -- returns a 404 error
200.error.com -- returns a 404 "error"
...
slow.error.com -- returns 200, but after a delay...
you get the Idea...
BNCU,
George
August 19th, 2008 at 8:02 pm
Mike,
Greetings from your dark past. I strongly suspect you are the same Mike O'Connor, who was the piano man on the LRY Record 40 years ago. Well guess what? We are not putting the band together again, but I have dug up the original mix tapes and I am having the album remastered using slightly better technology than we had access to in Santa Fe.
Write me back and I will tell you more. I have found about half of the people thus far.
Mike
August 29th, 2008 at 1:42 am
Hi, Im looking for the LRY Record! If someone have a copy im very interested to buy one...
I live in Denmark...
Thanks Martin
Mike sez;
Hi Martin,
Mike Smeltzer (the impresario that put the original record together) is doing a project to reissue the record. Digitally remastered! On CD! Director's cuts! Bonus tracks!
I'll send you email in a second with the instructions on how to reach Mike.
February 7th, 2009 at 4:08 pm
I too would be extremely interested in obtaining a copy of The L.R.Y. Album. I'd appreciate any information you could give me about how to get one. Thanks!
February 14th, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Hi, I am doing some research on my grandfather Michael Tovey who was adopted by the Tovey's in Chicago. His original Name was Michael O'Connor. He was adopted and moved to western Illinois and later to North Dakota. Just wondering if you might know anything about that.
Also as a side not, I am a certified IT Project Manager so I found your site interesting as well. Thank you!
Mike says;
Hi Mark,
Glad you like the blog. Nope, there aren't any significant Michael O'Connors in my family tree until you get back to Ireland a couple centuries ago.