Posted By RichC on April 1, 2023
We have had several windstorms in recent days and weeks, but I didn’t notice the missing ridge cap shingles until last week (not noticeable in this photo).
Shockingly it has been 8 years since we put on a new roof, but I was thankfully able to track down the company who installed it and they will be out to “at least” take a look at the entire roof (it is too steep for me to feel comfortable climb around on it anymore … but. reminded me of a Blue Heron sitting on our roof — very odd).
I do have the brand and a few spare shingles, but only two or three caps, so hopefully it will be an easy match … and there won’t be any additional damage. The last thing we need is to deal with insurance or a new roof even though I wonder if the chimney repair did any damage back in 2016 … although the last time shingles were missing the news wasn’t good.
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Category: Archive, Photos, Repairs, Weather |
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Tags: blue heron, chimney, repair, roof, shingles
Posted By RichC on March 31, 2023
One of the untouched add-ons to my computer life has been the cloud component odrive. It took me a while to add it to my new Apple MacBook Air M2, but while messing with a few upgrades this week, decided it was time to add it.
First, WordPress came out with their 6.2 update so after some backing up and cleaning a few questionable plug-ins and multiplex Google ads (what a pain they are), things are humming along again.
Back to working … well a new way of working … with odrive. It is a service that works with several different cloud and off-site FTP servers. 
By re-sizing images and placing them in a Mac OS folder, the files will 
automatically be uploaded and ready on the myarchive.us image server for use on a WordPress blog. It saves the uploading of content and keeps a significant amount of data off the server handling WordPress and the database. It is also configured to do the same for Amazon S3 AWS servers … which I’ve been using for larger chunks of protected data. AWS serves up audio and video at very high speed no matter the number demanding the content. The protected nature of the content prevents audio and video from being shared elsewhere or harvested (no hot linking).
For now it is working well and the images above are an example of those coming from the image server, but will on a future Music Monday use it with S3 uploads (I also use odrive for Box and Amazon Photos).
Category: Apple, Cloud, Computer, Software, Technology |
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Tags: aws, box, cloud, ftp, m2 chip, macbook air, marsedit, odrive, testing, update, wordpress
Posted By RichC on March 30, 2023
It may not be pretty with the old mulch, leaves and dirty sidewalks … but spring has sprung in 2023. The old-ish bulbs are up and the buds are on the magnolias and lilacs.
On another subject, I’ve contacted Wyze about one of my newer cams triggering a RED “Smoke Alarm” message which definitely caught my attention. While I love having this kind of warning, it does make your heart skip a beat when it pops up. 
I’ve watched and listened to the recorded video several time and struggle to hear anything similar to the feedback message that the “Wyze Wizard” sent me back (that’s what they call their tech support people).
The Wyze Cam’s sound detection algorithm is programmed to detect the pattern of standard smoke and carbon monoxide alarm signals. For smoke alarms, the Wyze Cam listens for the Temporal-Three (T3) alarm signal, which produces 3 long beeps followed by a pause. For carbon monoxide alarms, the Wyze Cam listens for the T4 alarm signal, which produces 4 long beeps followed by a pause.
Please ensure the Smoke Alarm Sound is enabled
Settings > Alarm Settings > Smoke Alarm Sound
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Category: Misc, Photos, Technology, Weather |
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Tags: Cam, flowers, security, smoke alarm, spring, tech support, wyze
Posted By RichC on March 29, 2023
My daily routine, at least when I’m in town, is to DVR the evening news, “Special Report” at 6PM. I generally watch it and skip the commercials while eating … when it is permitted by Brenda. HA! The daily new wrap-up is probably not edifying 
since it includes a good dose of disfunctional national politics and mostly bad news in our country. BUT … I still watch and enjoy Bret Baier’s professionism and journalistic integrity. Most of his guests do favor my political leanings, but he does include a few with opposing views (slanted to the right is expected as the program is on FoxNews).
Each night I look forward to several of the segments, including his “common ground” segment and of course the last 15 minutes with the panel (although miss Charles Krauthammer – I guarantee that I am not alone).
That aside, Bret showcased the cover of a new book, “To Rescue the Constitution,” coming out in October 
on Monday night’s program, which got me thinking, “I haven’t read his previous books?” So … on Monday evening I decided to download and start reading “Three Days in January: Dwight Eisenhower’s Final Mission.” It immediately grabbed my attention as I continued to read until bedtime. I’m only good for an hour or so of reading in the evening. It is well written and covers a bit of biographical military history that I enjoy and am familiar with — World War II. What I’m finding interesting is just how much of Ike’s background I didn’t know and how little attention I gave his presidency consider he was a well-liked two term president who had to deal with the Soviet Union building up their military and nuclear capability. Those of a certain age can clearly remember the cold war and fear of a nuclear holocaust.
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Category: Books, History, News, Social Networking |
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Tags: book, bret baier, Dwight D. Eisenhower, ike, reading, twitter, ww2
Posted By RichC on March 28, 2023
While experimenting with Google’s Bard last weekend, Katelyn had the AI software write a poem about her husband. Impressive although questionable when it comes to being personal?
For the fun of it, I asked Bard to write a poem about my “Wonderful Daughter” and then sent it back to her for the fun of it. Katelyn sent a smile and we were both amazed at the computer AI’s ability to generate an “artistic” poem based on the accumulated poetry data … and so I thought it would be interesting to do the same thing with ChatGPT. Google’s Bard did generate a faster response in my test, but both were pretty impressive … considering that even if most of us “could” write a poem … 
it wouldn’t be nearly as quick or likely half as good as either AI engine. We are in for a very interesting future.
Bard’s “Wonderful Daughter” poem on left, ChatGPT’s on the right
Category: Computer, Productivity, Technology |
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Tags: ai, bard, chatbot, chatgpt, daughter, katelyn, wonderful