Tech Friday: Surprised at the recent increase in blog traffic

Posted By on December 10, 2021

FonziEhhhThe surprise increase in blog traffic corresponded to my taking a few more security measures such as locking down more of the personal content to only logged in readers but I’m not sure that had anything to do with increasing earnings? Still, I noticed upward change (more than doubling) of Google Adsense earnings and most of this has occurred in the last couple of months; not much else has changed?

A more logical approach would be to look into the analytics to see if a search engine, social network or higher profile website has been linking to a particular post? That might shed some light on this positive windfall. HA windfall!

At least I’ve met my goal in covering my webserver costs and will have a few dollars to invest in my blog funded cryptocurrency account – that’s where I plunk the proceeds. I should have kept “hodling” my original “fractional” coins and never sold Bitcoin on a couple of those early sharp moves up. Grr!

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A first light snow of the season and a truck in the ditch

Posted By on December 9, 2021

CarOffRoad_Bethany211208Since the post scheduled for today is for those who have signed-in (you should register) … I’m adding this one as a public filler for the day. These week we had our first slick road for the season with a touch of snow … and as it does every year, triggered an accident on the road behind our house. I noticed it early in the morning and since my camera was out from the “moon and Venus” photos, I took a photo of the headlights and slow traffic. Someone was off in the ditch behind our neighbor’s property — it was 6AM and still dark.

At about 7AM, it was light enough to see that it was a small pickup truck. A tow truck with a winch took care of it in less than 5 minutes. I think this makes FIVE accidents that I’ve posted about along Bethany Road on the blog … although I know there have been many more in the years we’ve lived here. (previous One, Two, Three & Four).

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A couple days of photos leftover from the weekend: Part 2

Posted By on December 9, 2021

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A couple days of photos leftover from the weekend: Part 1

Posted By on December 8, 2021

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Since part one of a couple of blog photo posts will be pubic and not include family, I’ll archive it first. I finished (hopefully) the NINE trailer loads of leaves I mulched and raked in the front yard this year. Oh for the pre-Global Warming and now Climate Change days of burning leaves rather than making monster compost piles that I hope will degrade without creating additional problems (rotting compost, fungi, etc) … but I did enjoy being outside since the weather was mostly sunny and 50 degrees.

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The office update project is moving at a snails pace … partly because I’m not fond of painting … but also because of overthinking the adding of a new electrical outlet in the closet (for cable box, etc) and creating a wire pass-thru so that I can hang a thin screen TV …  “a possible” Christmas present from Brenda for the wall in my office (I asked for a thin Samsung QLED screen TV).

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Since I’m also planning to work on both cars this month, I wanted to save a couple interesting dual piston brake caliper compression tool ideas. I don’t think I’ll do enough brake jobs to justify making one like this, but I do like it. (here’s a post from the last time I did them on the BMW X5 35d and a post from 2013 — I was shocked to see a clean floor and shop photo after waxing floors of my basement woodworking shop!)

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Thinking of Pearl Harbor by finishing a Battle of Midway book

Posted By on December 7, 2021

downmagaz.netAs we remember the day that the Empire of Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and try to “never forget” our ill-preparedness “date that will live in infamy” on December 7, 1941, I’ll finally finish the hefty bookShattered Sword” by Jonathan Parshall and Anthony Tully. (it’s a 1139 pages!) 

Theuntold story of the Battle of Midway” (from the Japanese perspective) book highlighting the revenge story (if you were and American or in the US military) and fairly detailed account of a major Pacific Theater World War II. The 2005 book detailed the Japanese subs, ships, planes, aircraft carriers and the officers who planned and troops who were ordered to attack the US island military base of Midway in the Pacific Ocean. The Battle of Midway has been written about and studied thoroughly (even by me), but the “Shattered Sword” account from the Japanese perspective was particularly interesting.

I68in1934_mImperial Japanese Navy’s I-68 in 1934 (I-168 on 5/20/1942)

I’m almost finished with the book and learning about the Japanese submarine I-168 (one of 13 subs forming the Advance Expeditionary Force in attacking Midway Island).

I-168 spent the first three days of June observing Midway’s southern horizon through the periscope by day and through binoculars at a range of five miles (8.0 km) at night. I-168 observed and reported heavy aircraft activity indicating the island anticipated the Japanese attack. She made periscope observations during the first Japanese air attack on Midway. I-168 commenced shelling Midway with its 10-centimetre (3.9 in) deck gun at 0130 5 June; but submerged when illuminated by shore searchlights after firing only six rounds.

I-168 was the submarine that sunk the only two American warships which became the turning point battle in the Pacific. The Battle of Midway cost the Empire of Japan 3057 lives, 4 1000px-USS_Yorktown_(CV-5)_Jul1937fleet USS_Hammann_DD-412_completed_1939carriers, 1 heavy cruiser and 248 aircraft. The US lost 307 airmen and sailors and the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown as well as the destroyer USS Hammann (along with approximately 150 aircraft). The sub was damaged after they  fired 4 torpedoes, were depth charged … but able to evaded the American destroyers under the cover of diesel smoke and darkness. They limped back to Japan for full repairs only to suffer sinking with all hands on July 27, 1943 after being torpedoed by the USS Scamp.

American destroyers Gwin, Hughes, and Monaghan dropped 60 depth charges before damaging I-168 at 1530. A depth charge exploding near the bow put out the lights, damaged the forward battery room, sprung the hatches to #1 torpedo tube and reduced the submerged depth to 60 feet (18 m). All unoccupied crewmen grabbed sacks of rice from forward storage and moved astern to trim the submarine because of the flooding forward. After a few hours of relative quiet, I-168 surfaced an hour before sunset and ran west at 14 knots (26 km/h; 16 mph) to charge batteries and ventilate interior spaces. Two American destroyers spotted her at a range of 11,000 yards (10,000 m) and commenced firing from a range of 6,500 yards (5,900 m) about 30 minutes later. I-168 submerged and evaded the approaching destroyers.

After conducting emergency repairs, Tanabe and his crew limped back to Japan using only two engines, a journey of twelve days.

But today, 80 years after the United States was “suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan,” we remember those who died and thousand who were called to arms. Thank you to all who served and may the 2403 who lost their lives on that day rest in peace. 

EDIT: Saw this YouTube video and wanted to include.

Stargazing on a cold and crisp evening out the back door

Posted By on December 6, 2021

I took a quick photo as the Moon and Venus are lit up by the sun well down in our evening sky in the Cincinnati, Ohio area. Cold, clear and beautiful. Be watching for Saturn and Jupiter!

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Rickie Lee Jones: Her book “Chronicles of an American Troubadour” plus “Chuck E’s in Love” music from 1979

Posted By on December 6, 2021

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Advice: Consider replacing the wax ring seal on your toilet

Posted By on December 5, 2021

MasterBathToiletLeak211130It might be a good idea to replace, or at least check, the wax ring seal on your toilet … as the line goes, “ask me how I know.” It seems ours was fine for 25 years, but at some point decided to drip when flushed. Slowly but surely the drip turned into a wet spot under the tile (didn’t damage the wood subfloor) and dripped onto our finished drywall ceiling in the basement. Earlier this year, I thought all was well when I fished through the TV signal box wiring, but obviously not.

After cutting away all the damp drywall and after removing the insulation material (in our basement media/game room area) … I found the culprit. So after removing the toilet and “electing” Brenda to do some deep Clorox cleaning in the master bath … I headed to Home Depot to pick up thepremium ring with 40% more wax … just in case.

Instead of patching the drywall, I am planning to add a framed panel in the ceiling so that I can remove and access the drain pipes that merge in this spot (hopefully never to be needed again, but who knows).

I’m not really happy with the “removable panel” look … and might still end up patching with drywall again. 🤔

The Asteroid 4660 Nereus will come relatively close to earth

Posted By on December 4, 2021

The scientific community which tracks asteroids has known about the “potentially hazardous” asteroid 4660 Nereus, which is the size of the Eiffel Tower, since it was discovered in 1982. It will pass at its closest point in 20-years on December 11, 2021, although still a safe distance from earth.

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The “egg shaped” asteroid may contains $4.71 billion worth of nickel, iron and cobalt which makes 4660 Nereus a candidate for a “rendezvous mission.” Private space exploration firms like SpaceX and Blue Origin might eventually look an asteroid this size and “only” 2.5 million miles from Earth as an ideal candidate for orbiting, landing or mining.

Tech Friday: Is there too much of YOU on the Internet?

Posted By on December 3, 2021

As years of your personal information accumulates on servers across the Internet, do you ever wonder just how much of your data has evolved from a generic interpreted sketch, to a hiddenfacecolorful painting with specific details … to now a high resolution gigabyte sized photo of you and your life?

Well it is past due time to clean up what you can and limit just how much personal data you share … and as a friend commented to me, “overload the databases with as much bogus and inaccurate information as possible” …although I’m not sure if that is possible?

Can really delete yourself from the Internet? Doubtful, but perhaps the advice of cybersecurity journalist Malcolm Higgins can help.

How to remove personal information from the internet

MalcolmHigginsIf you’ve been using the internet for years, untangling your information from the Web won’t be easy. When you share something online, you usually give up control of that piece of data. It may still belong to you, but it’s very difficult for you to limit who has access to it and what it’s used for.

The first step will be to understand what’s out there so you know what you’ll have to scrub away to disappear.

  • Data scraping: There’s now a whole industry built around “data scraping” — companies will take the information you put online, store it in databases, and then sell it on to other businesses and organizations. Deleting your data from their databases may be very difficult or impossible, but we’ll discuss a few potential methods below.
  • Old accounts: It’s easy enough to track down and delete, anonymize or hide accounts you use every day. But what about old accounts on forgotten or defunct sites? Will you be able to delete them all – if you can even find them?
  • Caching: Let’s say you delete a page with information about yourself. It may still take a while before mentions of that page (and your data) disappear from search engine results. That’s because that data may be stored in their caches for quick access when people search for you.

Internet scrubbing is a challenge, but it’s not impossible and it is your right. We’ll go over everything step by step.

Delete social media and online shopping accounts

Deleting yourself from the internet is a long journey. The first place you need to visit is your social media. The companies behind these platforms hoard your data, and your social profiles will often be the first ones to come up in Google searches.

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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.
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