RichC | December 15, 2019
I’ve often questioned just how much data is being collected by Facebook, Google, Amazon, etc … but considering I’m a relatively light user of FB … getting push timely advertising is a bit creepy. I called my insurance company last week for a windshield repair/replacement for our 2010 BMW X5 35d and handled the entire […]
RichC | September 8, 2019
Hopefully grandparents are as appreciated ad much today as they were in generations past? I think most are, but as a new grandfather, it is hard to live up to the legacy left by grandparents of previous generations. I’m thankful for the 10-years I had with my grandparents on this year’s National Grandparents Day (September […]
RichC | August 13, 2019
Great energy use tip for those of use who heavily rely on ceiling fans: The direction a ceiling fan should turn can be confusing. Modern fans have a switch that enables them to blow the air either up or down. During the summer you want the fan to blow air straight down, so your ceiling […]
RichC | August 9, 2019
Currently, I pay for a few subscriptions. Some pricey (Wall Street Journal, Barrons, etc) because I avidly read them. Others, like monthly magazines, I continue to pay for and rarely get around to reading, especially online only subscriptions. Several others, I occasionally receive a link or click on one from those annoying “reader apps” that […]
RichC | May 7, 2019
In a discussion with my son Taylor last week, the subject of homeownership came up. He is single and currently rents, but like many millennials, hasn’t been in a big hurry to "put down roots" as have previous generations. On the other hand, being that his career is in "planning" and "economic development," regularly talks […]
RichC | March 27, 2019
A couple of decades ago I suffered from Ménière disease (Ménière’s disease) and struggled to find treatment and relief from the miserably vertigo episodes. One does not understand how debilitating and miserable that this be, so much so that any potential treatment, regardless of the risk, seemed worth it at the time. In my case, […]
RichC | March 15, 2019
Just upgrading blog to WordPress 5.1.1 and needed a little text copy to try out the new editor (below). It does seem a bit snappier? BTW, did you know WordPress now powers over 1/3rd of the top 10 million sites on the web? Site Health With security and speed in mind, this release introduces WordPress’s […]
RichC | March 9, 2019
We all see them, even if we are not using Pinterest or refuse to go to pages designed to generate click income … but still, there are some great ideas. Here’s a packing tip that might help next time your putting liquids in your suitcase – put a little plastic wrap or any plastic over […]
RichC | March 8, 2019
Animated GIF of Dolphin pod jumping and leaping
RichC | February 28, 2019
I enjoyed this photo enough to use it as my “too lazy to blog” filler photo for the day … and just to make it a ThrowBack Thursday #TBT … how about a photo with my buddy Mark Jones from 2014 looking down from up on Encore’s mast? 🙂
RichC | February 20, 2019
Just an ominous filler photo that you probably don’t want to be looking at before going for a swim in the ocean. The Great White Shark can definitely give you nightmares. EDIT 2/22/2019 with an image from a Twitter friend: Let’s just hope sharks don’t like the crunchy texture of surfboards?
RichC | February 9, 2019
Although I’m not fond of birds that mess up the topsides of our boat, this Osprey made for a great photo from Aruba. Above is an Osprey is catching a blue reef fish.
RichC | February 2, 2019
One never knows who you will offend and who you will connect with when posting on an open social network, but Friday I had an enjoyable back and forth with Troy from Missouri. He is a like-minded political conservative, a patriot (a Navy veteran who served on the USS Stonewall Jackson) and seemed to also enjoy […]
RichC | January 30, 2019
An ani-gif of our Canary driveway cam early Wednesday Morning – 1/30/2019 The … dare I say a hated and banished phrase … “polar vortex” has swooped down from the north and frozen everything. It is brutally cold, but then it is winter. Schools, of course, are closed and even mail delivery in Cincinnati has been suspended. […]
RichC | January 14, 2019
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RichC | January 7, 2019
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RichC | January 2, 2019
Each year since 1976 Lake Superior State University posts its list of “banished words.” Usually, we’ve all heard (or used!) the overused words and phrases — this year is no exception. I thankfully have only repeated a few, but have certainly heard most of them overused. The 2019 list, along with reasons for banishment by […]
RichC | December 7, 2018
A couple years ago I added Simple Slideshow Manager to MyDesultoryBlog as a way to include a series of photos in a single post. Having “attempted” different approaches that fail in one OS, Browser or device before the above plugin seemed to work … that is, until it didn’t. Having posted to the forums, trying […]
RichC | August 19, 2018
In preparation for an upcoming work related project, I need to record a video for a client’s website and include both their voice and that of someone asking questions. I was hoping to keep it as professional as possible and will be using my Lumix GX8 DSLR.f I am using my external Rode shotgun microphone […]
RichC | July 31, 2018
I’ve mentioned GroupBibleStudy.com before as a website I work on and have helped develop for my friend Pastor Keith Thomas, but didn’t realize I’ve been doing it for 7 years — shocker. It is now time to hand it over to a new volunteer … and I’m finding it difficult to relinquish control, but also know Keith would love […]
RichC | July 25, 2018
While doing a bit of server housekeeping on the CPP servers and preparing for the eventual push to make all websites secure for users, I ran across a helpful Qualys SSL Labs site to check on certificates, etc. If you are working to get websites updated and compliant for the day ALL site will need […]
RichC | July 15, 2018
Like most who spend their days using smartphones, tablets and computer devices, I’m prone to making typos along with various written communication mistakes. If you’ve read my blog a few times, you will undoubtedly notice mistakes, even if you have an untrained eye — that is because I rarely proofread. I’ve been criticized by everyone […]
RichC | June 14, 2018
Americans are struggling once again with carrots, sticks and tariffs event though throughout our history we have always been advocates for "free trade" … believing that in the end open trade wins. Unfortunately it isn’t always that simple when it is your job, your house and your life on the line. It is understandable that […]
RichC | June 1, 2018
Tom Hoskins wrote an interesting article on "Overcoming Seasickness by Habituation On Land" and although parts of it seems humorous (lamp shade and swings), the testing of motion sickness on land makes a good deal of sense … especially the testing the meds one might try when going sailing. Better to know in advance how […]
RichC | May 25, 2018
Noticed a blog post from 12 years ago discussing “portable” computing and how things have changed. In 2006 the average laptop weighed about 7 pounds with batteries, compared to 20 years prior where my Compaq was 28 pounds … and required 110VAC power. LINK to post Now an iPhone or iPad can run circles around […]
RichC | May 24, 2018
A moon rock? Yes, my very own moon rock … or perhaps "rock" or even "stone" is too big a word – maybe moon chip or flake is more appropriate? Nevertheless, the publisher’s promotion to encourage social networking assistance in marketing Robert Kurson’s new book Rocket Men, The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the […]
RichC | April 7, 2018
After an exchange of text messages with my cousin regarding old 35mm slides that her father and my father had taken through their lifetime (all YEARS ago), I mentioned I might try to digitize them someday and that if she wanted me to keep them I would. That triggered the back up and archiving bug […]
RichC | March 23, 2018
Here’s some advice from someone who as blogged daily since 2005 — AVOID using data, photos, video, etc archived on other services. Over the years, I have been frustrated by “what seemed great at the time” using services offered by companies who specialize in hosting data for users. A little history: It started for me […]
RichC | March 9, 2018
Enjoyed the opportunity to ask questions and exchange thoughts with a Twitter management group working on improving online #health (safety/abuse). The live Periscopechat was a way for Twitter operate as transparently as possible. They will be opening an RFP process (request for proposal) from academia and the community. Twitter along with most of Silicon Valley […]
RichC | March 7, 2018
The long time investigative correspondent for CBS, Sharyl Attkisson did an excellent job of “fairly” building a timeline in the “Collusion against Trump” details on her website. If you really want to understand what we know so far regarding the Russian connections, it is worth at least skimming the points below. On a separate note, […]
RichC | February 15, 2018
Using acetone to clean up after nasty messy projects such as epoxy or sealant? There’s something that works better, is cheaper AND is less toxic! … Vinegar.
RichC | February 5, 2018
Although there are quite a few reservation holders starting to doubt whether we’ll ever see production (last update was 2019 deliveries), the marketing team continues to tease (update) on this small commuter car. The original low price has been inched up, but it still will be a bargain if Elio Motors can afford to put […]
RichC | January 19, 2018
Besides my personally server and fading Raspberry Pi server projects (just too small), I been using several different companies to host Internet connected servers for Consolidated Printing and Publishing’s customers – traditional servers and virtual Droplets. Having used a variety of dedicated servers and virtual shared machines over the years since first getting into archiving […]
RichC | January 12, 2018
Testing and tweaking the Handbrake software I use for video encoding and am hoping to improve the .MP4 compression settings for MyDesultoryBlog and others. The test video is an 18 sec knife sharpening iPhone clip and the new setting should average about 25-30 MB per minute at full 30 frame/sec at a reasonable 1280 x720 […]
RichC | January 7, 2018
After tweaking WordPress last week with AMP plugins, I noticed several posts were missing their schedules. I added a Schedule Post Trigger plug-in that corrected that issue, but never deactivated it after removing both AMP plug-ins. This past weekend, scheduled posts were not triggered at the correctly dated times so am testing with this post […]
RichC | January 5, 2018
In order to improve efficiency on WordPress sites (my customer installs) I often experiment with updates on my personal MyDesultoryBlog first since very little on this site really matters for paying customers. So over the Christmas and New Years holidays I fiddled with a few highly recommended updates to the LAMP server and WordPress installs. […]
RichC | January 1, 2018
Happy New Year 2018 to all those following or reading MyDesultoryBlog … thank you. A regular inclusion each year has been the Lake Superior State University Annual List of Banished Words. This is their 43rd year of doing it and there are some welcomed ones in this year’s list — highlighting the ones that bug […]
RichC | December 31, 2017
After installing Cloudflare in hope of adding another layer of security to WordPress blogs, I noticed a couple issues with sluggishness compared to my own DNS. I wish it were quicker, but something isn’t right since instead all aspects seems slower after switching. Even after bypassing the caching feature things continued to run slow. Once […]
RichC | December 29, 2017
In the world of community supported software and Internet applications, there are few better than those associated with the Linux Foundation Collaborative Projects … like Let’s Encrypt. The latter provides HTTPS certificates that are perfect for lightweight Linux OS webservers and it operates on a "donate" for certs services basis. This month Let’s Encrypt plans […]
RichC | December 23, 2017
Just a beautiful sky (photos doesn’t do it justice) as the new LED Christmas spots and candle lights pop on as I head up the driveway. Good for the blog archive. After a cold start, having sunny but cool weather right before Christmas is welcomed … but should be thinking about getting the blower put […]
RichC | December 15, 2017
We’ve had a colder than usual early December here in Cincinnati … and has much of the country. The freezing temperatures will likely show up in higher heating bills but I’m hoping the new LED Christmas lighting will offset that cost? We’ll see. I’ve been wanting to test the Live Photo editing feature on the […]
RichC | November 12, 2017
It has been a challenging year to get my old spreadsheets to update property after changes in sources for the dividend tracking financial data. Since the 1990s I’ve used Yahoo as a data source to use with Excel or Google Sheets and for the most part they have been satisfactory. After changes at Yahoo in […]
RichC | November 8, 2017
It might not seem like a monumental decision, but Twitter upped their 140 character limit to 280 yesterday … so it was kind of a big deal. One of the core attributes for those of us using the popular social networking tool is the brevity and discipline required to communicate with a limited number of […]
RichC | October 27, 2017
Received an email from Elio Motors (yes they are still alive) with an opportunity that I’m hoping to take advantage of when (IF) I ever get to pick up my "all in" order. I do enjoy reading the updates and hope production begins next year as planned. The big concern for most of us is that […]
RichC | September 20, 2017
In looking at a few improvements and bug fixes, it also looks like the “widget” process has seen a few changes. Will test the Video Widget in the center column of the blog. So far so good — targeting Friday for customers if all goes well.
RichC | July 11, 2017
Question: Why do Swedish warships have bar codes on their sides? Answer: So when the ships return to port, they can Scan-di-navi-an. (Merriam-Webster: Scan·di·na·vian \ˌskan-də-ˈnā-vē-ən, -vyən\ )
RichC | June 14, 2017
#TeamFiona playing cards on sale for short time at Cincinnati area Kroger It is strange after 50 years that curiosity finally piqued my interest as to how the four kings on playing cards came to be … who are they? Of course the beauty of having the Internet at your fingertips is that finding “an” answer […]
RichC | May 21, 2017
For those of you who are regular visitors to MyDesultoryBlog and are not running an ad blocker plugin on your browser, you may have noticed a small snippet of new ad content in the sidebar. Last month, GoogleAdsense offered an upgrade to this blog’s minimal advertising experiment. The new ad content promotes “matched” internal content from similar previous posts […]
RichC | April 28, 2017
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RichC | April 20, 2017
My apology for ignoring the blog these last couple of days, but duty calls when servers and networks go down for my clients … yes, for MyDesultoryBlog too. I’m red-eyed and frazzled, but hopefully by the end of the weekend all will return to normal on new hardware, but we’ll see as the tweaks continue.
RichC | March 25, 2017
Just when you think you’ve heard and read it all when it comes to sailing and telling the story … Guirec Soudée and his chicken Monique goes one step further. Crazy. The adventure of Monique & Guirec Our adventure is going global! Thank you all for your support! Notre aventure se mondialise! Merci à tous […]
RichC | February 19, 2017
Having been around journalists and the media most of my working life, I disagree with the broad brush of many who paint them as "knowingly biased and of misleading the public." Most reporters, professional journalists, aspire to gather and report the relevant facts with the purpose of getting a story correct and providing the facts […]
RichC | January 21, 2017
Those who have been blogging for a while learn to monitor their viewership. We’d like to know what kind of traffic is hitting the servers and often looking at the breakdown as to what generates interest and ad clicks. In the early days, a "hit counter" was sufficient, but as country music artist Loretta Lynn […]
RichC | January 13, 2017
Twice now I’ve found myself unable to post to my WordPress blog. Once a few years ago using the windows based Microsoft Live Writer (now defunct) and recently using the open-sourced Open Live Writer. The “Invalid Server Response – The response to the blogger.getUsersBlogs method received from the blog server was invalid:” error pops up. […]
RichC | December 31, 2016
The last several years MyDesultoryBlog has highlighted "banished words" from the list Lake Superior State University (LSSU), who puts together a list at the beginning of a new year (and probably still will in early January)? This year we’ll end we’ll end 2016 with a couple memorable photos. The first being serious, and second … […]
RichC | December 30, 2016
There are much better places to save articles than a publicly available blog like Evernote, GetPocket, Google apps as well as locally archived HTML, Docs and PDFs, but I still occasionally enjoy having them on MyDesultoryBlog. So as with a few other archived articles on reefing (1 & 2), I’m saving this Cruising World Seamanship 101: […]
RichC | December 11, 2016
A friend is thinking about writing a “subject oriented blog” (unlike MyDesultoryBlog) and asked me if I thought it was important to have an “about the author page.” I said yes, people will want to know if you are knowledgeable on the subject matter or if you at least have the researching and objective ability worthy of reading. […]
RichC | November 13, 2016
Surprise! At least that’s what I found out when I opened a couple virtual invoices from Amazon for my two AWS accounts (personal and business). After moving files for online web content to Amazon’s fast and reliable S3 cloud-based servers a couple years ago, I’ve been happily adding content regularly since then as the cost […]