Family Net Worth Fell Almost 40% Between 2007-2010

| June 11, 2012

How challenging has it really been for families these past few years? Well if you’re in college or just starting out and able to pay the bills, finding work or able to keep borrowing for school … then you might not notice much (can you tell I’m talking with my college age son while he […]

Testing MP4 compression for streaming

| May 20, 2012

This is a video test to check for streaming compression using Handbrake on a PC. (this is a test for Keith Thomas at GroupBibleStudy.com) Deleting the Hana-FLV-Player plugin from WordPress as it is no longer supported.

My sailing friends know how to be thankful

| May 4, 2012

I received a needed lesson in blessings and being thankful today. My sailing friends Mark and Judy Handley have been sharing their daily lives online for many years while cruising around the world. Their circumnavigation ended over a year ago, but Judy continues to document their return to a “somewhat” more normal life. Unfortunately this […]

Video for WordPress and embed issues for multiple browsers

| April 23, 2012

Here’s what works and what doesn’t work when using the Hana Flv Player plug in with my WordPress install in an attempt to figure out the best way to post video that will play in all browser/hardware combinations. Embedding test video with the Kodak Playsport Zx5 1. Safari on the iPad 2 only post description […]

Surprising what high powered website can do for blog traffic

| April 14, 2012

I noticed a spike in my normal web traffic the other day as a weekend post was mentioned on a high traffic website. As someone who posts to a tiny personal blog, it still amazes me how many clicks and visitors My Desultory Blog generates. Over the years I have also noticed that viewers are […]

Tech Friday: Chris Miller talks about security for online IDs

| March 23, 2012

Saw these tips on Google+ earlier this week and thought they would make for a good Tech Friday post.  Chris Miller has some great ideas regarding online security such as using a set of fabricated security question answers, separate addresses for Private, Personal and Public emails and setting all online avatars and info the same […]

Twitter Buys Into Blogging With Posterous

| March 12, 2012

Hmm … I’ll have to keep my eye on this … Twitter Buys Into Blogging With Posterous Twitter said Monday that it has acquired micro-blogging service Posterous, but will leave it up and running. Both companies announced the acquisition in a pair of blog posts that were posted Monday. “Today we are welcoming a very […]

Finally updated WordPress to version 3.3.1

| March 1, 2012

I did a little housecleaning to my blog today and finally updated the WordPress install to the current 3.3.1 release (Jan 2012).  (updated my WordPress.com “alias” blog and Posterous blog too … but am unsure exactly how and what I want to use the duplicate postings for?)

The Bahamas look pretty inviting this time of year

| January 15, 2012

Although I love our house and like living in Ohio, winter is the time I envy those who have sailed south and are spending their days exploring the islands of the Caribbean. Jen and Maxwell sailing in the Bahamas on sv Anastasia January 2012 A sailing couple spending the winter in the Bahamas aboard their […]

Rats in Bronx and #odc in Washington DC (no surprise)

| January 9, 2012

A couple of“rat” stories (and a photo above) caught my attention today — and I thought all the “rats” in Washington DC were on vacation? City: Rat population has ‘exploded’ around Occupy D.C. camps By Annie Gowen The rat population around the two Occupy D.C. camps at McPherson Square and Freedom Plaza has “exploded”since protesters […]

Avast! Antivirus, Revo Uninstaller and my WordPress install

| December 21, 2011

I’ve been happily using Avast! as my virus scanner for the last couple years … and have been off and on satisfied for over a decade. The company updates always get me concerned knowing that the free version could become as bloated as are many others (paid versions aren’t immune either). Thankfully the most recent […]

WordPress and my slow MySQL database issue is solved!

| November 20, 2011

Finally, after about a month of trial and error fiddling with WordPress and MySQL since moving to a new server, I’ve figured out why MyDesultoryBlog has been so slow. Initially I blamed the new server since everything was fine at the old host, and even started to wonder if 6 years or so of daily […]

Tweaking the blog site after database continues to stumble

| October 14, 2011

Unfortunately the new WordPress install from a couple weeks ago is not running as smoothly as I had hoped. I’ve been tweaking the caching setup and still finding the database is shutting down regularly. I’m in the process of streamlining some of the canned content and advertising items, although am reluctant to reduce my use […]

The Super Cache plugin, a WordPress tweak and a shirt

| October 8, 2011

This is a miscellaneous post to test the WordPress Super Cache plugin on the new server install. I’ve been having a few update problems with posts and am tweaking the advance setting that will rebuild the cache after each post. Hopefully all domains DNS records will now update with the current post, rather than just […]

Isarithmic depiction of the U.S. two-party system

| September 19, 2011

This was posted in late 2010, but I found the tracking of our two-party voting pretty interesting sped up over time. While trying to remember my American history, it is interesting to watch the political swings in ideology over the years. The swings between too much centralized government and regulation … and unregulated capitalism has […]

My Desultory Blog returns this weekend and a Roku2 XD

| September 17, 2011

After a few days off after arguing with my “previous” web hosting company in serving up my blog, I’ve moved the 12 gigabytes of files and content over to a new server. The task was not made any easier by my 6 years of linking photo, video and embedded content from a variety of places. […]

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes are happening on my personal blog

| September 13, 2011

This content is restricted.

Tech Friday and QR codes for smartphones and tablets

| August 19, 2011

I’m getting pretty geeky with this post, but then again it this is a Tech Friday post. Having recently installed a QR (Quick Response) code reader on my Palm Pre, I’ve been trying to figure out just how to use them effectively. Obviously people sitting on a computer don’t need to use their smart-phone to […]

The U.S. Navy’s Carrier F-14s have been retired for 5 years

| August 13, 2011

Every once in a while I look at the right hand column of my blog to see what interested me in previous years. I noticed The Navy catapults the last F-14 Tomcat post from back in the summer of 2006. Has it been 5 years?

Photography: Eclipse of the moon photos from South Africa

| July 12, 2011

In keeping with my previous theme of photography and space, my sailing acquaintance Fred Roswold currently working on his sailboat in South Africa posted his photo the June eclipse of the moon. His did a little Photoshop composite work after taking a series of shots 10-20 minutes apart. Great image Fred. The settings, for any […]

What College Graduates shold know about finances and careers

| July 5, 2011

I saw some good advice from TheSimpleDollar.com blog that is worth reading. If you are advising someone who will soon be moving on as a college graduate, some of these points may be worth passing along. On Facebook, Brittaney asked “what should every soon to be college graduate know about finances before entering the real […]

Finally registered the domain name: mydesultoryblog.com

| May 25, 2011

After 6 years and over 2600 posts to My Desultory Blog, I’ve finally decided to use a few dollars from my Google’s Adsense earnings (small as it is) to register the domain name mydesultoryblog.com. For the time being I’ll still post under my originally richc.myarchive.us (and probably will continue); this myarchive.us site was intended to […]

WordPress 3.1.1 – MyDesultoryBlog has been updated

| April 5, 2011

  As of April 5, 2011 … My Desultory Blog and its associated databases have been updated to the latest release of Word Press, version 3.1.1. WordPress 3.1.1 WordPress 3.1.1 is now available. This maintenance and security release fixes almost thirty issues in 3.1, including: Some security hardening to media uploads Performance improvements Fixes for […]

If you enjoy woodworking, you’ll like Woodgears.ca

| March 22, 2011

With hundreds of great woodworking sites on the web, it is difficult to know which ones are worth viewing whenever there is a new article. Most promote their published product or so overrun with advertising that it reminds me of going to a myspace page (mind you I haven’t gone to one in a few […]

Technical problems … restart test post

| January 28, 2008

Once again I’m having technical problems with my blog and have lost the last couple posts to server/host issues. Stay tuned …

Storing and ripening fruit – truly “Desultory”

| August 16, 2005

In keeping with ‘desultory‘ in my blog, I ran across some useful advice from a specialty produce distributor in regard to storing and ripening fruit. Karen Caplan of Frieda’s Inc. suggests that you rinse peaches, nectarines and plums and place in a shallow wire basket for ventilation after purchasing, rather than putting them in the […]

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog