RichC | March 29, 2017
We all struggle with ease of use and security when using a computer and online services … what’s the best way? That’s likely a debatable question since we want easy access, but don’t want our data compromised – "how easy is too easy?" What we do know is that a simple or "no" password is […]
RichC | March 4, 2017
Well … so much for cutting the cord as I mentioned in February and contemplating using the Sony Playstation Vue streaming service for the few channels ($30/mo) we wanted to receive that are unavailable over-the-air. We never really got to that point since the local antenna channels seemed way too slow in changing and somewhat […]
RichC | February 24, 2017
Previous efforts at using older wireless access points and routers have all been a disappointment when extending WiFi out to our detached garage/poolhouse/workshop, so when Amazon had an AC750 Netgear WiFi Range Extender (Model EX3700) on a "Prime Daily Deals" sale, I was skeptical. Still frustrated with the lack of a good Internet connection further […]
RichC | February 17, 2017
While talking with my IT friend Jeff about controlling relays with my Pine64 and Raspberry Pi computers, he thought developing with the Arduino or Particle Photon might be a better idea. I did a little bit more reading as to what an Internet Of Things device might be good for, and decided my relay switching […]
RichC | February 3, 2017
The cursor on my new Lenovo Yoga 710 Windows 10 notebook has been driving me crazy. It jumps around the screen when I’m typing and often ends up add or deleting text in previous paragraphs. In an attempt to diagnosis the problem, I’ve fiddled with the trackpad thinking that my palms or thumbs must be […]
RichC | January 27, 2017
After a previous simple $20 relay component test, my friend Jeff and I realized that there were a few shortcomings in using it for a future project — enter the cheaper eBay $3.99 higher powered solid state relay module. This smallish sized relay component can be wired into a 40 amp circuit and switched with […]
RichC | January 20, 2017
A friend of mine has been brainstorming the components and options for a project that I’m tinkering on for both the sailboat and improving my back up power at the house. Basically the idea is to use a minimalist single board computer like the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Pine64 or maybe just the new IoT Photon. […]
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 9, 2016
I helped fund the Raspberry Pi based computer Kickstarter project known as the RaspberryShake networkingworking a large number of inexpensive earthquake monitoring station around the world (www.raspberryshake.org/quick-start-guide). The idea of connecting hundreds if not thousands of independent volunteer monitoring stations isn’t new, but it is a growing force in data collection. Hopefully I’ll be able […]
RichC | November 25, 2016
It is easy to forget just how much software one ends up with after 9 years using a computer. There was everything from odd ball utilities to a variety of outdated Adobe Creative Suite design software that I occasionally need. These were all versions installed from CD and are not openly supported anymore. Unlike my […]
RichC | November 20, 2016
I couldn’t take the continued typos anymore and had to map the "right-shift" key on my new Lenovo Yoga 710 to the "arrow-up" key. So as not to lose my "arrow-up" key, I mapped that to the rarely used "right-ctrl" key. Now all is well with the world. … although I really struggled coming […]
RichC | November 19, 2016
I just couldn’t pass up burning my $280 Best Buy credit on a new mid-level Windows 10 Lenovo Yoga notebook computer. It is going to take some time tweaking it before I’m comfortable with it, but I decided that a new MacBook Pro was not in the cards for me (too expensive and missing so […]
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 […]
RichC | November 5, 2016
While I continue to struggle with the "do I need a new notebook computer" question, I continue to frustrate myself with the old 2007 Gateway, iMac desktop and iPad? It would really be nice to have a fast, lightweight traveling notebook computer (with more than 30 minutes of battery life!), but have found that a […]
RichC | November 4, 2016
The pile of new electrical parts in my photo likely doesn’t mean much to those who don’t enjoy tinkering with computer and robotic projects, but for me a novice in programming computers gadgets, it is an chance to learn on the cheap. With the budget Raspberry Pi and Pine64 computers, beginners of “all ages” have […]
RichC | October 28, 2016
As Fernando Lamas would say (or Mark Howard – it’s on the back of my late brother-in-law grave marker) … "it looks mahvelous!" (paraphrased). Unfortunately the Apple’s newest MacBook Pro has a price to match it’s looks and expected performance with the 13" model WITH the new TouchBar starting at $1799 and the big boy […]
RichC | October 21, 2016
Twitter status above illustrating second attack shutting down services. The cyber threat continues … as a second wave cripples some of the biggest domain names through Dyn (Manchester, NH), a company that provide DNS services for connecting domain names to IP addresses. Dyn said it had resolved one attack, which disrupted operations for about two […]
RichC | October 21, 2016
Given what Sir Tim did for all of us when he developed HTML and created the World Wide Web, he’s got a fair amount of credit in the bank. If he did have any major regrets about the web, we wouldn’t find it too difficult to forgive him, but his mea culpa relates to only […]
RichC | October 19, 2016
Wouldn’t you know, about the time the Cubs find themselves inching closer to a World Series (drought since 1908), the Logmein FREE cloud storage component know as Cubby is being retired. I highlight "free" since paying PRO customers will continue to keep their storage. For me, Cubby has been a regular file exchange option, although […]
RichC | October 5, 2016
Google calendar has automatically added a few important annual events to my calendar (my settings), but unfortunately it is not artificially intelligent enough to remove or delete. Today I was sent a reminder that we normally celebrate our late dog Tootie’s birthday on October 5th. She is missed and I often catch what I thought […]
RichC | September 30, 2016
The Raspberry Pi’s main operating system, Raspbian, just got a brand new look from the Raspberry Pi Foundation. Dubbed PIXEL, it’s a skin for Raspbian that modernises the interface, adds some new programs and makes it much more pleasant to use. Click for a full review from Lifehacker Australia: The New Raspberry Pi OS Is […]
RichC | August 25, 2016
The latest Intel Optane data storage may be the next big advance for servers and PCs if this is the next chip technology. I’m not sure about power requirements, but perhaps it will make its way in to mobile devices?
RichC | August 10, 2016
One of the great things about working with Digital Ocean is the ability to spin up a new droplet server based on a previously saved image/backups within a few minutes. Due to recent improvement of adding volumes in order to expand storage, currently only a couple of their data centers, I opted to image an […]
RichC | August 7, 2016
Once again, the little Raspberry Pi 3 is running hotter than optimal for long life and performance. I’m adding the small heatsinks as with the first Pi3 which eventually failed to boot — exchanged under warranty BUT it was running consistently hot. I have purposely monitored and kept the case open (saves a few degrees) […]
RichC | July 15, 2016
It has been a long time in coming, but the PineA64 Kickstarter project that I backed in January finally arrived. As start-ups, this one was not as smooth as it could have been. The team promised deliveries in March, then April and finally no later than May. Eventually June and finally July for the last […]
RichC | July 8, 2016
Will Internet transactions be secure when relatively affordable quantum computers show up? Google is not taking chances and is working on their Chrome browser now (according to The Verge). Google is working on safeguarding Chrome against the potential threat of quantum computers, the company announced today. It’s doing so by implementing post-quantum cryptography in an […]
RichC | July 1, 2016
This is a quick test for a new computer running Open Live Writer. I’m retiring my 9 year old Gateway notebook computer and forging ahead with a low powered and low cost Microsoft Window 10 notebook. More to come on my recent addition in a future post, but after the Gateway overheated and cooked itself […]
RichC | May 25, 2016
The Raspberry Pi 3 acting as the American Pi Apache server may have over heated last week. I detected a slow and steady rise in processor temperatures near the time it flickered the monitor on and off three times before it gave up the ghost (solid red light only); it was over 70 degrees Celsius […]
RichC | April 22, 2016
The saga of our poorly running 2010 BMW X5 35d continues while replacing component by component the SUV is inching back towards running condition. The most recent hiccup was a bit of a computer glitch after getting the ECU back from the tuner. I was hoping that as as soon as I powered everything back […]
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 15, 2016
Since I’m running a couple of Raspberry Pi computers 24/7 and have both the Pi2 and Pi3 forwarding their processor temps a couple times each day with a Python Twitter script, it has been interesting to compare the two boards. Obviously the Pi3 is in every way faster at computing and running stock at 1200Mhz, […]
RichC | April 13, 2016
It looks like a small heatsink might be a good idea in order to preserve the stability of my Raspberry Pi3 as well as a cooler processor making the little American Pi microserver last a bit longer. Temperatures are generally 20 degrees higher than the Pi2 and have reached 90 degrees C a couple times during […]
RichC | April 12, 2016
Ever notice that the emoji you send from one device to another isn’t always translated the same? Well that because each platform has their own unique way of translating that "grinning or grimacing face" that we once-upon-a-time type as punctuation marks and called emoticons. A study by the GroupLens Research team at the University of […]
RichC | April 10, 2016
It is pretty easy for me to get distracted when I’m suppose to be working on taxes … especially when my Raspberry Pi2 has given up webserver duties to the Raspberry Pi3. There were a couple glitches in imaging the new 64GB micro SD card but all is as it should be now. With the […]
RichC | April 9, 2016
A little more tinkering with webservers and websites this weekend lead me to adding open source YOURLS project to my little used richc.us domain (it was just place holder for a server). Its use gives me a simplified bit.ly or goo.gl "like" personalized URL shortener. Initially I thought about opening it for public use, but […]
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 | April 6, 2016
After buying a new 64GB Samsung EVO+ microSD card and imaging Raspian on it, I started the Raspberry Pi 3 in my home office. It is now time to start installing software and updating it to make it a proper "micro" webserver … although I already have WordPress and American Pi running on it (even […]
RichC | March 30, 2016
Amazon has released a step-by-step guide on how to turn the $35 Raspberry Pi into a voice-controlled assistant. The instructions demonstrate how to set up the single board computer to use Amazon’s Alexa Voice Service to create a low-cost alternative to the Echo, Amazon’s $180 smart speaker. Like other online assistants, Amazon’s Alexa responds to […]
RichC | March 29, 2016
Once in a while, you may want to do some maintenance on your Ubuntu machine and clean up unnecessary files that are chunking up large storage space in your hard disk. Here are 8 ways that you can use to clean up your Ubuntu[…] Source: 8 Ways to Maintain a Clean, Lean Ubuntu Machine – […]
RichC | March 24, 2016
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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 | March 1, 2016
The Raspberry Pi is arguably the world’s most successful and accessible computer platform that anyone can program. Today, the Raspberry Pi foundation has launched the Raspberry Pi 3, an upgraded model that is on sale now for the same $35 price. Source: Raspberry Pi 3 launches with faster 64-bit processor and Wi-Fi for the same […]
RichC | February 27, 2016
Read an independent review about this IXCC 4-port IXCC USB charger with what it claims as “plenty of power” … although one descriptions says 48W and the other 36W (both claim 9.6 amp) … we’ll see. The Amazon reviews were a very high 4-1/2 stars and since our new “older” car doesn’t have an abundance […]
RichC | January 27, 2016
This little “toy” will be fun! (should receive mine in March) Specs: CPU: 1.2 Ghz Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit Processor. It has 64 and 32 Bit execution states for scalable high performance power – including a NEON Multimedia processing engine. I/O EXPANSION: Two I/O Expansion slots – the Pi-2 Expansion and Euler box – […]
RichC | January 16, 2016
My cluttered desktop was overdue for a good clean-up and at least a little bit of organizing. After recently adding a second monitor to my iMac dedicated to virtual Windows 10 there ended up being more room to spreadout and clutter. Besides there is a 3rd monitor running after plugging in the new Raspberry Pi […]
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 | January 5, 2016
After tweaking the 64GB micro SD card to get a few things set up on the Raspberry Pi, it sounded like a good idea to backup an image. The best option sounds like using the Terminal and command line instructions … but be aware, even with rdisk, it take a while. An example from raspberrypi.stackexchange.com […]
RichC | January 4, 2016
This post is more to test a “borrowed” wireless keypad that is set up on the Raspberry Pi — I’m not fond of the Logitech K400r. The photo to the left is part of the ongoing roof project and continuing chimney repair. In order test the Raspberry Pi’s image serving ability, I uploaded it from […]
RichC | January 1, 2016
If you enjoy playing with inexpensive computer gadgets and perhaps getting them a LinuxOS Raspberry Pi … or maybe a PINE A64??? Check out the inexpensive Single board Super Computer … and under $100 computer set-up and top of the line smartphone might be all the tech many of us need? PINE A64 compared with […]
RichC | January 1, 2016
Out with the old and in with the new. Happy New Year 2016! Edit: Posting this as a Raspberry Pi home image server test from the iPad. Impressive little box!
RichC | December 28, 2015
After making the Microsoft update from Windows 7 to Windows 10, there were a few items lost in the mostly automatic update (BTW, it is as painless an upgrade Microsoft has ever done). One of the add-ons for the Mozilla’s Firefox browser that I find hard to live without is FireFTP (simple FTP client). Much […]
RichC | December 28, 2015
Google and NASA engineers announced that tests with the D-WAVE 2X, the quantum computer developed by them, showed that it’s 100 million times faster than an ordinary computer. The impressive record was achieved in a test in which the D-WAVE 2X ran an optimization problem and found a solution much faster than a conventional computer, […]
RichC | December 18, 2015
A couple improvement to our Internet connectivity at the house this past week as I quarreled with Time Warner Cable yet again about our service and our bill. Of course they once again wanted to schedule a tech to come out and look at things to determine why our paid for turbo speed was only […]
RichC | September 17, 2015
I’ve mentioned using Amazon’s AWS storage once or twice before as a way to store data in the cloud. The more I use and learn about their services, the better I feel moving data into the cloud and archiving with AWS. Next step is to dig deeper into their cloud based servers for applications, CMS […]
RichC | September 15, 2015
I snipped a few screen shots while watching the #AppleEvent last week as Tim Cook and team unveiled the new iPhones, iPads and AppleTV. All in all the surprises were “non-surprises” so really there weren’t any shockers … not necessarily a bad thing. The normal expectation in the month of September is either upgraded iPhones […]
RichC | August 7, 2015
If you are a Firefox browser user, be sure to select the “About” menu and apply the latest update. Yesterday morning, August 5, a Firefox user informed us that an advertisement on a news site in Russia was serving a Firefox exploit that searched for sensitive files and uploaded them to a server that appears […]
RichC | July 3, 2015
So much for “considering” Windows 10 on my iMac (Parallels). And here I was thinking that upgrading a couple of Windows machines wouldn’t be as expensive as in the past … with Microsofts FREE upgrad offer and all. (Parallels is working on a solution) Microsoft is making Windows 10 available as free upgrade for qualified […]
RichC | May 29, 2015
As some point in business, we need to know when it is time to throw in the towel. I’m not talking about going out of business, selling or retiring just yet, BUT “giving up” on competing when it comes to data storage. In my personal life, I’ve been using cloud based storage for years… be […]
RichC | March 20, 2015
Although cloud based apps aren’t for everyone, they have made inroads over the past few years. Googles’ online Docs, Sheets and Slides have been slowly improving and many other players have entered the foray including Microsoft with their Office Online. Apple has improve their iWorks online apps and offers their Pages, Numbers and Keynote […]
RichC | March 9, 2015
I ate a late lunch today and watched the live Apple product announcement events. The stock price moved up $3/sh to $129ish as the events were mentioned. Before the “main event Apple Watch” comments, Tim Cook and his team announced an HBONow ($14.99) exclusive tie to their devices as well as a lower price on […]