RichC | November 11, 2016
A lot has changed in the 11 years that have passed since I posted on “First Man” Neil Armstrong … but after re-watching the 60 Minutes clip and pondering going “back to the moon and to Mars by 2018,” Armstrong would have been disappointed as a lot hasn’t changed. Click for post from 11/11/2005 WHY […]
RichC | September 7, 2016
Updated WordPress to 4.6.1 and some housekeeping. All running as it should. Summary From the WordPress 4.6.1 release post: WordPress versions 4.6 and earlier are affected by two security issues: a cross-site scripting vulnerability via image filename, reported by SumOfPwn researcher Cengiz Han Sahin; and a path traversal vulnerability in the upgrade package uploader, reported […]
RichC | August 20, 2016
An aside … I spent my formative years engrossed in photography, back before it was digital and when "souping" film in a darkroom. Nowadays 90% of what I take is on a smartphone due to the simplicity and recent improvements in quality. Still, the best photographic images come from a quality lens and large sensor […]
RichC | August 5, 2016
Sometimes there are things that seemed to be written just for me … like the response to a serious of questions posed to Mike Rowe. I can relate 100% to the want of a Crosman BB gun at the 9 year old mark (and dad was understanding, but mom was worried — a "worrywart" was […]
RichC | August 3, 2016
An online website project that I have the privilege to be involved with is GroupBibleStudy.com. My good friend Pastor Keith Thomas, a super nice guy and one of the more scholarly writers and teachers that I know, writes and teaches small group Bible studies from his home base in Cincinnati, Ohio. His online reach is […]
RichC | April 22, 2016
While learning a bit more about Amazon S3 data storage, it was time to experiment with the hotlinking and leaching of stored content, be it video or photo. Although the S3 storage is relatively inexpensive, every byte that is stored (no biggie) … or megabyte that is downloaded/streamed (photo/video) is billed whether or not it […]
RichC | April 11, 2016
While cleaning up the MyDesultoryBlog.com WordPress install in preparation for an eventually PHP 7.0 update, I decided it was time to see just what posts were getting the most eyeballs. For years, the top post was the Great White Shark following a kayak … and rightly so. After a few years and a popular Accelerated Medical […]
RichC | April 8, 2016
American Pi (richcorbett.us) is up and running PHP 7.0 on this Raspberry Pi 3. So far no issues with the Iconic One WordPress theme, handful of plugins or the speeds on this Apache2 server (is it faster?) Click to check PHP Version
RichC | March 19, 2016
When do you reef? How should you reef? What are some excellent ways to screw it up? A few thoughts from Jamie (filtered through fun with salty sayings and his fondness for puns). Many witty phrases… Source: Reefing, by and large
RichC | March 16, 2016
Updated a bunch of plugins and WordPress themes on a couple of my personal servers … prior to making any mods to my clients sites. I’m pleased with the efficiency improvements after Apache2 configuration changes last week keeping it from hogging to much memory (no restarts since!) In this same trend continued to tweak things in order […]
RichC | February 28, 2016
Under water volcanos spewing up floating rocks and pumice is something that I have not read or heard much about. It is both interesting and dangerous for those who are voyaging and cruising. In August of 2006, a small yacht called the Maiken encountered a bizarre shadow on the ocean. Upon closer inspection they discovered […]
RichC | January 28, 2016
On the 30th anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster, I re-read a post from my blog back on the 20th anniversary — thought I would share. Saturday morning, January 27, 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger and seven astronauts prepared for a cold morning ride into space at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida; they […]
RichC | January 6, 2016
This past December, after hearing in July that one of my favorite applications would be givng new life as open source software, Open Live Writer was released. The parent application was retired by Microsoft a few year ago but has remained available. Unfortunately after my move to Windows 10 and issues with sFTP support, it […]
RichC | December 30, 2015
Digital Ocean’s cloud based servers have me debating which is best for the MyDesultoryBlog.com in a worse case scenario? Do I continue with the $1/mo automated backups 4 times per month or go with the no-charge manual “Snapshops?” The $12/yr charge in the short term is probably reasonable but would have preferred a daily image […]
RichC | December 21, 2015
Another excuse to try to get Blogsy, the blog posting app on my iPad, to include photos without posting them to Flickr or Google (the two options besides “normal WordPress media” built into Blogsy). Unfortunately the suggestion from the programmer was to use a separate sFTP client — very cumbersome and not the way to […]
Admin | December 10, 2015
I move my WordPress blog to Digital Ocean‘s smallest cloud based Linux server and the move is now complete, I think. Everything seems to be working as it should, although I’ve experienced a couple snags. All posts have been consolidated (except this one) under the RichC user_id and I’ve updated to WordPress to 4.4. The Linux “swap” as been set […]
RichC | December 6, 2015
Slowly but surely I'm rebuilding the archives and associated linked images from my old back ups for MyDesultoryBlog. There may be a reason to keep things in multiple locations BUT it does make upgrading servers a bit more difficult. The long story is that through Consolidated Printing and Publishing, I have worked with the same […]
RichC | December 5, 2015
Testing the LiveWriter access to Digital Ocean with sFTP. FAILED … I’ll keep the photo and update with a “what’s going on” post tomorrow.
RichC | December 1, 2015
This is a new post for after the move … no photo, just text … now edit with an image.
RichC | July 4, 2015
Once in a while when commenting online about an item that I use, someone will ask me if I tried or would like to try their product. If the cost is reasonable, or no-charge, I’m usually happy to give it a try. A company called TheInsoleStore.com after reading one of my posts about Sperry Topsider boat and insoles asked if I […]
RichC | June 29, 2015
I’m bummed to see that total views on MyDesultoryBlog are down about 10% this past year. The drop-off may have to do with more users looking at things on their mobile devices? Blogs, mine in particular, are difficult to read on a small screen phone and longer copy (like the previous two posts) are not […]
RichC | June 19, 2015
Plugins for CMS like WordPress are a dime a dozen and many improve the look and use of a WordPress.org blog, but usually at a sacrifice of speed. Recommending them is not usually something I would do … believing that a lean and fast site is better than bulky and slow sites. Unfortunately I’ve fallen […]
RichC | March 23, 2015
I spent a few minutes updating and cleaning up some of the tags on MyDesultoryBlog this past weekend … more of a maintenance thing than anything essential. Part of the reason was that I am still learning about Blogsy as a blog writing and editing tool, but also just to clean things up. I realized […]
RichC | March 19, 2015
I received a few long overdue updates items from our EAA chapter’s president for the interior pages of the EAA284 chapter website on Wednesday and so before forgetting I jumped right on it. We are continuing to keep the EAA284.org domain, but opt to use WordPress.com to host because it is free. Still there are […]
RichC | March 6, 2015
One of the reasons for adding the @Blogsyapp to my iPad is so I have an easy way to write and include the media items that I often post. So far, it is almost as easy as using my notebook computer and the “no longer supported” Microsoft Livewriter software. I say “almost as easy” since […]
RichC | March 2, 2015
Really, I’m just looking to make a test post and include a photo to see how a new app called Blogsy does from the iPad. The feature-rich app offer an excellent platform to post to a variety of blogs and has nearly every familiar feature from Microsoft’s dead or dying LiveWriter. Besides not having to […]
RichC | March 1, 2015
Welcome to Blogsy! Let's get started. Set up your blog by going to the Settings Menu → Service Settings. Then choose your blog platform and fill in your information. Tap on the Post Info. button to get to all post information. Tap on the Plus button to start a new post or open a local […]
RichC | January 1, 2015
The year 2014 ended on a rather positive note thanks to lower oil prices, low inflation and higher stock prices. Considering the economic malaise most Americans have endured most of the past 7 years, a little optimism feels good. Consumer confidence climbed to 92.6 in December as measured by The Conference Board’s private survey and […]
RichC | December 2, 2014
In talking with a long time customer today about shopping and using credit cards, the subject of FICO scores came up since they are printed each month on Discover Card statements (nice touch Discover). He ask me what a good score was and I “sort of” knew that over 700 was good and thought 760 […]
RichC | October 31, 2014
Chris Bryan Films
RichC | August 22, 2014
A second Tech Friday post: I’ve been looking for an excuse to try embed.ly … so here it goes with a Fox Business News Elio story … and a good PR one at that.
RichC | August 12, 2014
A long time client and now retired friend, Clyde Witt, is publishing his first novel. He has always written stories in a style appeals to me … although his politics still needs some work (a personal joke). I’m anxious to pre-ordered a copy of his book to read and review. One of the advantages of […]
RichC | June 16, 2014
Some time ago I purchase a couple Command Brand Bundlers with the idea that I could use them for cords and coils and then a few months ago I saw a fellow sailor using them on a boat to organize lines. I’m not sure how well they will stand up to the sun and elements, […]
RichC | April 20, 2014
It is Easter and no matter what else is happening in the world, it is a “Happy” Easter knowing He Lives. I was reminded the other day just how casual those of us living in a democracy take our freedom to worship … or at least some of need a reminder. My reminder came when […]
RichC | April 9, 2014
I’ve hit a milestone on My Desultory Blog – 4000 posts since I started in April 2005. Amazing to have been blogging daily for that many posts; it doesn’t seem possible? Obviously those who regularly check in know there is very little of earthshattering significance (ok, nothing of significance), but since it is purely a […]
RichC | February 28, 2014
Once upon a time it seemed smart to host only light content on my own blog. In the early days it was easy to store larger files like video, audio and photos “for free” with content hosts like YouTube, Flickr and Posterous (among others). The plus was that I didn’t fill the “out of pocket” […]
RichC | February 20, 2014
Those who are regular readers of My Desultory Blog realize that besides posting commentary on newsy items, be it tech, cars, aviation, politics or whatever, that I also include personal entries and photos relating to my family. This blog, now 4000 posts, is a continuation of a journal that I started in 1977 as a […]
RichC | February 12, 2014
It has been 7 years since I (@RichC)first started using the social network known as Twitter and in that time I’ve tweeted over 8000 times from my personal account and almost 2900 from @MyDesultoryBlog (RSS feed style blog updates). I’ve added 1600 to my stream (many news feeds) and am closing in on 1000 followers. […]
RichC | January 22, 2014
This past weekend was “blog cleanup” as I am in the process of optimizing WordPress on my site and updating the plugin that manages Google’s Adsense — at one time I thought they were non-intrusive, but recently have become obnoxious. Unfortunately after tweaking the size and types of ads they seem even worse that before. […]
RichC | January 3, 2014
Those who enjoy cruising, but aren’t on the water as often as they’d like, still enjoy armchair sailing — reading about those who are liveaboard cruising. One of the most inspirational sailing and cruising blogs is Windtraveler.net by Brittany and Scott Meyers. Their story over the past few years of sailing from Chicago to the […]
RichC | December 17, 2013
It feels better to get WordPress updated to the current 3.8 version, as well as updating all the plug ins. This latest version is named “Parker” in honor of Charlie Parker, but don’t ask me what bebop has to do with blogging? Along with getting WP updated, a database optimization and backup was in order […]
RichC | November 26, 2013
Short on time for today’s post although I did add an Amateur Radio HF Propagation widget to my WordPress sidebar. I’m not sure cluttering up the screen with more data is a wise thing, but for now it helps to know which HF bands are open. Continuing with the radio theme, I applied for a […]
RichC | October 19, 2013
After offering a little tech help to a computer novice setting up email and an a few bookmarks, my friend asked me why some web pages are so “busy and confusing.” He was refering to the columns and underlined words in of all places … MY BLOG. Hmm … is it that confusing I wondered? Maybe because […]
RichC | October 18, 2013
Deadspin‘s Albert Burneko is not fond of Cincinnati style chili … be it on a hotdog or on pasta … and isn’t shy about dissing it. Something tells me if he ever visit Cincinnati again that he’ll be wearing chili. A word of advice if you ever come to town Mr. Burneko … don’t wear a […]
RichC | September 29, 2013
Untitled Blog Post Name I’m taking a look at the Apple Macintosh blogging app called PixelPumper after using the Windows-only Live Writer for years. I know the day is coming when either I’ll upgrade my old clunky PC notebook computer for a lightweight Macbook Air or see Microsoft eliminate LiveWriter entirely (rumors). I’m still a […]
RichC | August 4, 2013
It has been a few years since the automatic update from WordPress.org failed on my server … and only after the fact did I regret not doing a full backup prior to attempting the update (really, I’m posting just to see that all is working after the upgrade). After downloading the new install files and […]
RichC | July 14, 2013
I didn’t bother to check on the authenticity of this forwarded email, but I don’t think it matters. You probably missed this in the rush of news, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper, an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American; any American. […]
RichC | July 8, 2013
It’s the perfect time to share a short shared video from Brittany, Scott and Isla, a couple Internet sailing friends, on their way south in order to be out of the track of most hurricanes this time of year. They are without a doubt one of the most envied young sailing families with a strong […]
RichC | June 21, 2013
Doing a little late Friday afternoon updating for several of the WordPress blogs that I maintain as the new 3.5.2 is now the current version. Along with that, plugins are next to follow, of which I’ve updated a couple installed on my server. Thankfully the blog has been running without a hitch recently a testament to this […]
RichC | June 21, 2013
Are you frustrated with the basic search feature available in WordPress? If so, join the club. I’ve been back and forth with several different search plugins and have even tried customizing my own using a Google API. Unfortunately none of them worked well for me when I was searching my own site for items that […]
RichC | April 30, 2013
I appreciated a video from America’s Test Kitchen on Lifehacker and thought it was worth archiving and sharing … not that I fix lobster everyday. Twist off the tail, split the shell on the back, pull legs apart, push meat out with small tools, use a rolling pin to squeeze meat from legs. […]
RichC | April 26, 2013
The part, which police believe came from one of the two commercial airliners destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001, was discovered Wednesday by surveyors inspecting the rear of 51 Park Pl., several blocks from ground zero. The surveyors called 911 to report the debris with a “clearly visible Boeing identification number,” the New York Police Department […]
RichC | March 20, 2013
The addition of a new bluetooth Jambox speaker has certainly improved the audio quality of my iPad … AND the new Postie plug-in for WordPress looks to be a great replacement for Posterous (shutting down next month). Here’s a 2 minute snippet from the iPhone of a post to our EAA284 site. Let’s see if […]
RichC | February 24, 2013
Every once in a while, actually a lot lately, someone will include something from the past in their books, articles or blog which reminds me of the challenges we face in becoming independent thinkers. A couple sailing friends of mine who have and are currently living a life out of the mainstream and shared a […]
RichC | February 22, 2013
There was a glitch in the HTML settings in the previous post, so am making an added Postie plugin test to be sure all is running correctly. The image I’m adding is an ad from a Popular Science magazine that I sorted and tossed after our basement flooding. It is state-of-the-art 1970s technology (answering machine) […]
RichC | February 22, 2013
After using Posterous to post by email to my blog I’ve grown use to being able to simply email a quick post with attachments on occasion. Now that Twitter is shutting down the Posterous blogging platform, I’m looking into new ways to do this. WordPress offers a simple “text only” posting, but there are a […]
RichC | February 18, 2013
Although I’ve only used Posterous to update MyDesultoryBlog by email, I’m going to miss having a place to quickly send text, photos and video for personal archiving. It was a great product while it lasted … an all the coded shortcuts very cool. So tonight I’m doing the “back-up” of data … and will figure […]