Vegetable caltrops

Our younger two girls like bringing home these little non-eyecatching pale-greenish flowers.  (cymrullewes says sort of dogwood-ish.)  They have a little spiky seed pod in the center that's pointy from just about every angle.  After it's been picked a few days, detached from the flower, starting to dry out well and left lying on the floor, it's as hard as wood, and about the size and shape of a small spiky marble.

I know of this because I just stepped down from the bottom stair directly onto one.  It was right under the middle toes of my left foot ... you know, the one that can't tolerate localized pressure or having its toes bent upward?  I'm not exaggerating about vegetable caltrops; cymrullewes will doubtless testify as to the resulting scream of pain.

I'm going to sit at my desk and whimper for a bit now, until my foot calms down enough to walk on again.

Technology in the trenches

There is a possibility, by no means certain, that I may be writing some columns -- web columns, at first -- for Linux Journal.  I may possibly also be trying my hand at a regular weekly "Linux column practice" post here in my journal, to see whether I can actually come up with a weekly column.  I ask an open-ended question, therefore:

If this were to come to pass, what articles might you like to see?  Do you have unanswered questions about Linux or related to it?  Are there Linux-related issues you'd like to see someone cover in more depth or from different angles than you've read so far?

No guarantees.  No promises.  No warranty.  Consider this, at this stage, something akin to a market survey.