Below is a long blog post about 1930s and early ’40s New York. It was written by my grandfather, who had lived in that city since the late teens of last century. He died when I was very young but his stories have stayed with me ever since he told them to my mother (and even before then). My father grew up listening to these tales as well – it’s possible they were told more than once!…

Below is a long blog post about 3D printing. I wrote it for the first half of last year, and then stopped when I lost my laptop to hard drive failure (yes - that’s what happens if you leave your computer plugged in overnight without updating its software). I just found the file on an old flash drive today, so here goes… If you have any comments or corrections please email me at matthew@mjm-productions.…

Below is a long blog post about 2016, and all the things I’ve been up to this year. I started my first book on July 4th of last year (the birthday that Americans celebrate as Independence Day), but I didn’t actually start writing until October or November – which was after several months of planning it out in detail with help from some very talented people who helped me see how much work there would be involved!…

Below is a long blog post about 5.2 that I wrote for the Dilbert Blog on August 13, 2009: I’ve been following Microsoft with interest since they announced their plans to release three major service packs of Windows XP and Office in one go called Service Pack (SP) 3. They started talking it up over two years ago at WinHEC ‘07 as “the biggest upgrade ever” even though SP2 was only released six months beforehand!…

Below is a long blog post about 10 things that I am thankful for this Thanksgiving. This one may be obvious, but if you really think of what it means to have something, the meaning becomes much more powerful. The fact that we can wake up in our own beds at home every morning and not worry where our next meal will come from or whether there are going to be any bullets flying around us today (and sometimes even when those threats do arise) makes us incredibly fortunate.…

Below is a long blog post about 24 hours of food and traveling around New York City. We had arrived in NYC early afternoon on June 15th, after taking the Amtrak from Washington DC to Penn Station. A big thank you goes out to my friend Brian who offered his place for us to stay during our trip! We would have paid top dollar at any hotel near Times Square but we got free lodging because he was awesome enough to host two strangers with nowhere else to go!…

Below is a long blog post about 10 tips for successful video interviews. I’ve been doing this sort of thing since the dawn of online interviewing (that would be before the days when it was all done over Skype) and I figured my wisdom might prove useful to other people as well, so here goes: #1 – You will have technical issues. This should not surprise you because any time that technology gets involved in your life there are going to be problems.…

Below is a long blog post about 1960s and the New York City of that time. I found it to be an interesting read, but also one where some facts are missing or wrong (I’m going to point them out below). For example, there was no “Sweet Honey In The Rock” in the early ’70s - they were founded by Bernice Johnson Reagon at Dartmouth College in 1973. So much for this: “…one night when the group was singing on stage, I felt God touch me…I had never heard music so powerful.…

Below is a long blog post about 10 years of working in the IT industry and what I’ve learned. When I was first starting out as an engineer, I would ask people how they got started doing their job or where to find opportunities for advancement. Often times, these conversations revolved around things like college degrees (which were often overrated), work experience, etc… There are many variables that go into finding success as someone trying to break into this field but one thing that isn’t talked enough about is luck!…

Below is a long blog post about 15 tips on how to become an entrepreneur. First of all, what is the definition of being and becoming an entrepreneur? What does it mean if you are one or not? Well, there’s no single answer for that but in this case I want to give my personal point of view because most people (including me) don’t really know exactly what makes someone who he/she is until they have experienced something themselves; so here goes nothing!…