RichC | December 31, 2008
Popular Mechanics offers a nice review of the new VW Touareg V-6 TDI. Our drive to Mexico and back in a Touareg V6 TDI required few fill-ups. In fact, after several hundred miles we still had nearly two-thirds of a tank of fuel left. If we maintained our 65-mph cruising speed while getting the indicated […]
RichC | December 30, 2008
In the last issue of Volkswagen’s DasAuto Magazine, the “Ask Volkswagen” segment answered one of the most common questions I hear Volkswagen TDI owners ask. This as to do with how their TDI diesel vehicles run alternatives to petroleum, be it be SVO, WVO (Straight or Waste Vegetable Oil) or biodiesel. The “Can I use […]
RichC | December 29, 2008
I should probably wait until I get a chance to read Daniel Tammet‘s new book “Embracing the Wide Sky: A Tour Across the Horizons of the Mind,” but since I commented and enjoy his previous book, “Born on a Blue Day,” will make a comment. Tammet, one of the more notable high-functioning autistic savants,and has […]
RichC | December 28, 2008
Once again my Treo smart phone ’email to blog’ didn’t post correctly while visiting family in New York state. A couple posts were missed, but I’ll quickly upload at least this one family photo for posterity sake. It is from the Howard Bowl 2008 and shows the well trampled field (my father-in-laws lawn) after our […]
RichC | December 27, 2008
Although I really haven’t watched much television (besides some news and sports) for years, I’m now hooked on a couple DVD television series sets. A couple of months ago, instead of watching a movie on a Friday or Saturday night, my wife and I started the series 24. We were quickly hooked by Jack Bauer […]
RichC | December 26, 2008
Often times those who are ‘somewhat’ computer literate dread the holidays with family for reason other than “they are family.” How many receive the annual (or semi-annual) questions a post over at Lifehacker offers assistance about? “It takes forever to start up.” “I keep getting a pop-up saying I need to pay for my antivirus […]
RichC | December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas all. We had a nice day relaxing at home and enjoying presents, cookies and each other’s company. Unfortunately I notice a “diesel fuel smell” in the garage when my daughter parked her 2001 VW Jetta TDI in the other night … so I took part of the afternoon to investigate: a leaking fuel […]
RichC | December 23, 2008
Although I’m pretty fond of the Volkswagen Jetta TDI clean-diesel when it comes to highly efficient, yet enjoyable to drive, transportation, Ford might have a winner if they can build and price the new Ford Fusion Hybrid attractively. Their new 2010 mid-sized vehicle is going to be the most fuel efficient mid-sized car sold in […]
RichC | December 23, 2008
My daughter’s good friend Nora headed home for Christmas in Seattle about the time heavy snow socked in all, but the most capable of winter vehicles … you know … snowmobiles, large 4×4 trucks, Jeeps and Smartcars! (thanks Nora for the great iPhone photos of your dad’s car that I’ll post below)
RichC | December 22, 2008
The drugstore sector stumbles at the market open on Monday after Walgreen’s (WAG) announced that their profit fell 10 percent in its fiscal first quarter. Traders responded with selling shares even after acknowledging the shortfall was due to “the costs opening more than 200 new store.” The company answered the loss with a plan to […]
RichC | December 21, 2008
I was updating a small video project this weekend and have been struggling with a way to boost the gain on a USB Snowball microphone used for voice overs. Thankfully there are a couple links for the updates that at least give it boost on the Mac and Windows computers — unfortunately I wasn’t able […]
RichC | December 19, 2008
The US military’s DARPA research agency is sponsoring research under the Biofuels-Cellulosic and Algal Feedstock program. Its goal is to develop the technical capability and commercial experience to produce an affordable JP-8 surrogate fuel from algae, in order to create a wider range of options if some of the US Army’s Corps of Engineers’ predictions […]
RichC | December 18, 2008
Using Treo to “Press It” post a cellphone photo that only has a little personal meaning to a few of us … and my friend who sent us the cotton for our Christmas tree many years ago. EDIT: Hmm, PressIt didn’t work and will have to edit to post?
RichC | December 18, 2008
A few months ago my daughter and I enjoyed listening to comedian Brian Regan together. Since then, I’ve mentioned his reasonable clean comedy act (at least everything I have heard) to several friends who continue to point me to the audio and video segments that tickle their funny bone. I noticed a slew of Brian […]
RichC | December 17, 2008
Caroline McCarthy with CNET News offered up some thoughts on how Twitter and company Evan Williams, CEO could best eventually monetize their traffic and users. In an interview on Blip.tv, she talked about the rapid growth of this microblogging and social network company AND which companies stand to best use Twitter for marketing their product […]
RichC | December 16, 2008
Volkswagen announced the availability of its 4Motion all-wheel-drive system for the Golf TDI in Europe … but not in North America, of course. The drivetrain is exclusive to TDI models utilizing the manual-transmission variant of the 2.0L TDI clean diesel engine. The fuel efficiently is down about 8 mpg from the FWD only model, but […]
RichC | December 16, 2008
The somewhat irreverent automotive program Top Gear, with its opinionated hosts, generally does a pretty good job of bashing wienie cars with electric motors, but James May in a recent episode offered a different opinion. He had the chance to test drive the Honda FCX Clarity and film a report with guest Jay Leno. The […]
RichC | December 15, 2008
According to a WSJ article in Monday’s paper, the Chinese company BYD is demonstrating their new F3DM which runs off batteries today. This “EV” can be charged from a regular electrical outlet and will be marketed to cab operators and other potential fleet customers. They plan to have their all-electric vehicle in showrooms in China […]
RichC | December 13, 2008
A friend from Twitter (@cojonesx ) posted an answer by link to my question and photo TwitPic “tweet” yesterday pertaining to an all-electric utility vehicle being used at the University of Akron. Thanks for the answer and information Tim. By the way, you can follow me (@RichC) or just receive @MyDesultoryBlog updates on Twitter too.
RichC | December 12, 2008
I really enjoy Microsoft’s fine Vista OS, and I don’t even need the new SP2 Beta — written with a *hint* of sarcasm. Need I say more about how my morning was going? 👿
RichC | December 11, 2008
Lost an entire post last night and figured I had better look at the new “dashboard” for WordPress a little bit more carefully. I’ll include a photo from my Treo on this test post using TwitPic (FYI — they just started a blog today) as I headed into Red Lobster to have dinner with my […]
RichC | December 11, 2008
Fox News will debut a new program at 9PM EST, entitled “Hannity” featuring radio and TV personality Sean Hannity as the solo host. The program premieres January 12th and will include a panel with three studio guest. This “Great American Panel” is said to include a conservative, liberal and “X-factor” guest. One the the more […]
RichC | December 11, 2008
Cedarville University announced Wednesday that they will begin enrolling students in the fall of 2009 for the Dayton Ohio area’s first school of pharmacy. Fall freshmen will enter the pre-pharmacy program and enter the pharmacy graduate program which is scheduled to open its doors in 2012. The university plans to spend $20 million to build […]
RichC | December 11, 2008
A study in the online journal of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, reports that waste coffee grounds can provide a cheap, abundant, and environmentally friendly source of biodiesel fuel for powering cars and trucks. The study by Mano Misra, Susanta Mohapatra, and Narasimharao Kondamudi note that the major barrier […]
RichC | December 11, 2008
After the upgrade the new admin “Dashboard” has a new look, and a “QuickPress” feature to which this is a first test. EDIT: I’m very impressed with the new UI … nice. Here’s a video explaining some of the new management features of “Coltrane.”
RichC | December 10, 2008
For those of you on the Apple Macintosh computer, one of the better screen capture utilities/web services it Skitch.com. The downloadable application allows for a wide range of editting functions along with a variety of embed codes for web forums or blogs. I found the interface a bit cumbersome, but suspect that in time I […]
RichC | December 9, 2008
Will automakers rethink importing diesel cars to North America? Those of us who enjoy driving and owning ‘higher’ performance and efficient diesel cars have had this nagging suspicion that diesel cars may not arrive as planned, considering the auto slowdown and noting the price spread between gasoline and diesel fuel. According to a USA Today […]
RichC | December 8, 2008
Those who find baby animals cute (and a miraculous creation) might enjoy these photos to music video. (Really it is just a second test of Twitterfeed to be sure it is working.)
RichC | December 8, 2008
While waiting for a project to finish printing, I thought I would test a new Twitterfeed account set up to update a separat MyDesultoryBlog Twitter account. It is suppose to update with a Tweet whenever my Feedburner RSS feed receives a blog update — or at least within 60 minutes of a post. So … […]
RichC | December 7, 2008
Ward’s Auto World has published its 15th annual ten best engines list and two new diesel engines made the list. The dual turbocharged 3.0L inline 6 cylinder diesel from BMW and the Volkswagen 2.0L TDI were the first new 50-state legal diesels to be picked by the Ward’s editors. The other fuel efficient engine was […]
RichC | December 7, 2008
I had written and forward dated a December 7, 1941 post that was to show up … unfortunately it has disappeared (and I’m not rewriting it). I have been having a few problems with my recent WordPress update and how it interfaces with the MySQL database; I wonder it that’s the problem? For now I’ll […]
RichC | December 6, 2008
The crude oil pendulum is swinging back just as quickly as it went up, and might even drop lower than most drivers have seen in quiet a few years. According to reports from a Merrill Lynch Commodity report, oil prices may crash below $25 a barrel in 2009 and gasoline prices could fall below $1 […]
RichC | December 5, 2008
While traveling yesterday, I darted across the state of Ohio on Route 30 knowing that occasionally the gasoline prices are less expensive at a truck stop in Beaverdam, Ohio (Route 30 and Interstate 75), but before jumping onto the rural highway and leaving “known” stations, I pulled up GasBuddy‘s GasBuddyToGo on my Palm Treo. A […]
RichC | December 4, 2008
It’s hard to imagine General Motors going the diesel route again after their last go-around 30 years ago, but considering a number of vehicles desired by American purchasers are the larger SUV and light trucks, a clean, highly efficient diesel would make sense. Besides the fuel efficiency of a diesel engine mated to the GM […]
RichC | December 4, 2008
I’ve posted a few times on the social networking/micro-blogging tool called Twitter. This inspired a reader to send me his favorite Firefox add-on and an excellent Twitter related website that is worth sharing. First is the Pingfire (Ping.fm) Firefox add-on which isn’t working on my VistaOS notebook (surprise, surprise) and the other, a search tool […]
RichC | December 3, 2008
While traveling through Akron, Ohio today, I sat for a few minutes at a newly remodeled McDonald’s — actually I just stopped to use the restroom. It was my second look at the McCafé which debuted back in 2001 outside Chicago. It was also a chance to upload a Palm Treo photo directly to Ping.fm […]
RichC | December 2, 2008
A couple days ago I posted on a Twitter related site called Twitter.Grader. They have a quick ‘bookmark’ feature for sending ‘tweets’ and including links or text. Add it to your browser if you are a Twitter user … I’m betting you’ll find it useful? On a related topic, here’s a great Christmas gift for […]
RichC | December 1, 2008
Testing 16:9 YouTube embed with Neil Cavuto announcing Monday’s stock market close … down the entire gain from last week on Monday. DJIA closes down 680 points. (BTW … we are officially in a recession, shocking huh?) Now that we are officially in a recession, how long will we suffer? Will we be out by […]
RichC | December 1, 2008
Since we had family traveling the Ohio highways this past weekend, it was good to hear they all made it to and from their destinations safely. It is probably the “dad” coming out, but receiving the update Sunday night that both my kids were back at school after their evening drive … I think its […]
RichC | November 30, 2008
Considering the economy is weak, Americans when on a shopping spree the day after Thanksgiving this year, in fact retail sales were up about 7.2% over last year, according to the National Retail Federation. They also reported that 172.9 million made purchases from Friday and on through the following Saturday and Sunday. This “first holiday […]
RichC | November 29, 2008
While spending the day around home, I walked around the neighborhood and noticed one of the grass carp (white amur) was belly up around our lake. I headed back to pick up the shovel and rack … and realized I would probably need a wheel barrow to haul this 20 plus pound fish home. It […]
RichC | November 28, 2008
Here is sort of a tech Friday post today dealing with Twitter. If you are a ‘geeky’ Twitter user, check out a ‘grading’ website as a way to review ‘tweeting’ contacts before adding them as friends — see Twitter.Grader.com — or just as an ego boost. Although I don’t spend all that much time running […]
RichC | November 27, 2008
We’ve had pretty busy day and have enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner with our family (my side). We all ate plenty of food and enjoyed an excellent dinner at our house. The turkey was excellent (thanks Bren) and the pie’s excellent (thanks Claire).
RichC | November 25, 2008
While I haven’t been paying attention to the Natalee Holloway story, the FoxNews “On The Record” program with Greta Van Susteren aired an hour long segment Monday night which I told a friend without cable that I would encode. Greta interviewed the twice arrested Joran van der Sloot and I found it hard to believe […]
RichC | November 24, 2008
One of the current replacement needs in our house is the dishwasher. It still works, but is far from efficient or effective. Like many people I’ve talked too, we spend more time washing the dishes before stacking them in the dishwasher then running the crazy thing with relatively clean dishes in it? (and we’ve done […]
RichC | November 23, 2008
Fuel prices everywhere are dropping to surprising lows as we near the Thanksgiving day holiday. While returning from the Moraine Airpark near Dayton, Ohio this afternoon I was able to fill up with unleaded regular for $1.56/gallon. That’s the lowest price I’ve seen for quite some time. Diesel is also working its way lower, although […]
RichC | November 22, 2008
Speed Channel will be broadcasting the final episode 2008 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup documentary on Saturday November 22nd. (Cincinnati area Time Warner listing to the right) This hour long broadcast will focus on the entire 2008 season, the drivers and the race versions of the new clean diesel VW Jetta TDIs. These 170hp 2.0L TDI […]
RichC | November 22, 2008
Well restrictive … especially the free version of Animoto.com’s website. The web based “creative” photo slide show with music application has a short free version, or an annual charge version which permits longer videos. (the free is suppose to be 30 seconds, but the 3 I tried ran a few seconds shorter and really didn’t […]
RichC | November 21, 2008
So what’s next for the big three domestic automakers? Their sales pitch to congress seems to have failed to convince lawmakers that the answer to Detroits’ woes is a $25 billion dollar loan; a loan in which was requested to bridge them “due to the current financial crisis which was no fault of theirs” (so […]
RichC | November 20, 2008
With a relatively low starting price, excellent fuel economy and refined driving dynamics: The 2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI was voted Green Car of the Year by Green Car Journal at the LA Autoshow. Check out the announcement at Autoblog.
RichC | November 20, 2008
Although this may not have been the “first snow” of the year in Ohio (see October post), it was the “first snow” that required some shoveling and has coated my car with salt. The photo above is at the University of Akron while the one below is traveling on I-76 not too far away. (click […]
RichC | November 19, 2008
Brrr … it was cold Wednesday morning as I headed out of town. I even noticed a thin layer of ice had already formed on the pond/lake in front of our house. I don’t recall having ice this early in November?
RichC | November 19, 2008
Tuesday evening was a fine time to try out the FoxNews Live Streaming feeds from the FoxNews.com website since they were broadcasting the hearing with the big three automakers. About the only disadvantage in watching these live streaming feeds is that occasionally the cameras pick up an odd face or set of eyes. ( partialscreenshot […]
RichC | November 18, 2008
Fuel prices are pretty low not too far from my house today. I filled up with unleaded regular at a Circle K Marathon station for $1.65 over the lunch hour and decided not to gripe about my 20.8 mpg. (Honda 4wd Pilot) This price is about the lowest I’ve seen and after listening to the […]
RichC | November 18, 2008
I’ve figured out that Twitter is down … again (Tuesday AM). I’ve been wondering just what the business plan is for this popular social networking site and suspect that we’ll eventually see deep pockets google gobble it up. 😛 It seems that the many of the media outlets are jumping on the Twitter bandwagon and […]
RichC | November 17, 2008
A little public announcement if you enjoy a nice evening, a little dinner, some local talent in the form of Holiday Music and “perhaps” a little local shopping. Be sure to plan to visit the Streets of West Chester 6 pm to 8 pm in December as the Lakota West High School Band will be […]
RichC | November 16, 2008
While watching the poorly performing and ulcer producing Cincinnati Bengals tie with the Philadelphia Eagles in suddlen-death overtime, I did some catch up on my links from friends. One of the links was a great driving video Twittered by sbilik — Thanks Scott.
RichC | November 16, 2008
I’ve noticed the Christmas ads are starting to make their way into the Sunday afternoon football games, and one of them by Kay Jewelers caught my attention. The ad features a deaf girl (or actress playing a deaf girl) and her boyfriend using American Sign Language while sitting under the Christmas tree. It caught my […]
RichC | November 15, 2008
I was tinkering with my aging Palm Treo 700p smartphone and the cellphone quality camera lens and sensor (1.2meg) while killing time trying to directly post a message to my blog. (the steaks and asparagus were great, but the phone-to-blog post didn’t work correctly)
RichC | November 15, 2008
I’m not sure why I continue to keep several different browsers updated on my notebook computer since am pretty loyal to Mozilla Firefox, but its interesting to compare the latest version of Firefox — which I updated to 3.04 this past week — with Google’s Chrome, Microsoft Internet Explorer 7, Apple’s Safari and Opera 9.6.