My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on December 7, 2023

About a month ago, I stumbled across a photo that I think was used as a header for the CinciTDI website at some point after Katelyn and I sold our VW Jetta TDIs, but I had to smile noticing the Volkswagen in the header photo was once Taylor’s GTI. Very good memories for sure (and what really makes me smile is that both Katelyn and Taylor drive Volkswagens today – click for 2019 photo).

After sending the photo to Taylor to get his reaction, I thought it might make for a good Throwback Thursday #TBT memory post … and am adding a leftover screen shot of our club’s How-To videos in the camcorder (pre-smartphone) and early Internet video pre-YouTube days. 

Shockingly the donation link still seems to work?

Category: Automotive, Memories, TBT, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: 2004, cincitdi, clips, gti, how to, katelyn, taylor, TBT, tdi, volkswagen

Posted By RichC on December 6, 2023

Read the full article in Phys.org

Ok … so it is not “manned,” but check out these physics facts from Discover Magazine anyway 😉 

Q: Why does the moon always present the same face to us? I find it impossible to believe that this could happen by chance. — Michael Connelly, Toronto

A: Nope, not by chance — it’s pure physics.

For starters, the moon is not stuck in place with one side facing us. Our lunar companion rotates while it orbits Earth. It’s just that the amount of time it takes the moon to complete a revolution on its axis is the same it takes to circle our planet — about 27 days. As a result, the same lunar hemisphere always faces Earth.

How’d this come to be? In a word: gravity. The moon’s gravity slightly warps our planet’s shape and gives us tides. Likewise, Earth tugs at the moon, creating a rocky, high-tide “bulge” facing us. That bulge ended up working like a brake, slowing the moon’s spin down to the current rate, so the lunar high tide permanently faces us.

When that happened, about 4 billion years ago, the moon became “tidally locked,” and it has presented us the same visage ever since.

Category: Science, Space, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: discover, moon, nasa, peregrine, physics, space

Posted By RichC on December 5, 2023

Category: Nature, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: cams, fox, red fox, security, wildlife, wyze

Posted By RichC on December 4, 2023

The music I listened to in the early 1980s was in my opinion still leftover from the 1970s. I was still finishing up college and grad school … but growing up since Brenda and I were married in 1982 (although “grown up” would be a stretch)!

So for me, Hall and Oates and their hit “Private Eyes” in 1981 was still 1970’s music and fit pretty well for today’s Music Monday selection. 

Category: Music | No Comments »
Tags: college, daryl hall, john oates, miami university, music monday, musicmonday, onu, private eyes, youtube

Posted By RichC on December 3, 2023

On the recommendation of General Keith Kellogg this past week, I check out the late Senator and President John F. Kennedy book from the library. It was written in 1956 called “Profiles In Courage.” Having grown up with a larger than life version of President Kennedy, I started reading immediately (also, the book “John F. Kennedy and PT-109” was a highlight in my early school reading years). Oh how the Democratic Party has changed … and in my opinion, “progressively” for the worse.  

My summary goes like this and applies equally to all who are in public service:

It’s not always politically wise to take positions and make decisions based on what is best for one personal career or short term gains … but to make the often difficult decision that is best for one’s country. Those who are elected to political parties are always being tugged this way or that based on loud voices and personal survival in elected office … but it take courage for patriots to make the best decisions the country as a whole. 

Category: Books | No Comments »
Tags: book, general, john f kennedy, recommendation

Posted By RichC on December 2, 2023

Loved this @Rainmaker1973 X.com post about digital storage and in particular USB flash drives (also enjoyed the photo):

Nope. Paradoxically (and theoretically), the more you save on a flash drive, the lighter it gets.

USB drives use Flash memory, which means the the ones and zeros of the data are stored on transistors.

When you save data, a binary zero is set by charging the float gate of the transistor, and a binary one is set by removing the charge.

To charge it, we add electrons, and the mass of each electron is 0.00000000000000000000000000091 grams.

This means that an empty USB drive (which mostly holds zeros) weighs more than a full USB drive (which has ones and zeros). Add data, reduce the weight.

Category: Social Networking, Technology, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: digital, flashdrive, ssd, storage, thumbdrive, twitter, usbdrive, x.com

Posted By RichC on December 1, 2023

After a long and steady battle with the Internet connections at the condo over our Thanksgiving vacation in Florida, the fight is finally over.

The pain of returning the hardware Xfinity sent was enough to make me scream (long wait JUST to return something) … but after tossing the Netgear R7000 router and replacing with a refurbished Eero Pro mesh router it solved the problem (a new modem or xFi gateway was not needed). 

Waiting about 40 minutes just to return and the previous speed test – note the upload speed is terrible!

Category: Technology | No Comments »
Tags: condo1718, internet, tech friday, techfriday, xfinity