Posted By RichC on December 17, 2018
How about a classic … Merry Christmas from the Family … first recorded by the “alternative country music” artist Robert Earl Keene in 1994 (below is a live version from 2006 still on YouTube).
It still makes me smile even if in today’s world it is probably not PC … nor was it appropriate to play in my mom’s house or even in our house!
Posted By RichC on December 16, 2018
If you can get 7 years out of a car battery, that pretty good. I usually start watching them in my daily driver after 5 years, but this hefty 950 cold cranking amp AutoCraft Gold battery doesn’t have to work everyday … although sitting might be even harder on a lead acid battery? In any case, it started the car every time up until about a week ago, and then it didn’t. 
It went completely D-E-A D showing only 9.05 volts on my tester. Shocking as sort of expected a little more warning.
What was really surprising is that even sitting overnight on a charger and with a 400 amp jump-starter pack, the Mercedes 300D Turbodiesel wouldn’t start the car (heavy old diesels are hard to turn over, especially when it is a bit colder and need to also heat glow plugs). Eventually I did get it boosted after fully charging the battery, jumper pack and setting my charger to a 50 amp booster.
Whew … I think I need to find a new battery. Should I go traditional lead acid again, an AGM or should I retrofit one of those fancy spiralcell Optima batteries? I do have plenty of room in my fairly new battery tray.
Posted By RichC on December 15, 2018
Although Brenda and I are making steady progress in getting things ready for Christmas, the iMac surgery mentioned yesterday did not go as smoothly as planned, but at least I do have backups to rebuild things from.
Currently the “way too many” cloud services that I’m using are working overtime as my Time Machine archive failed to property handle the virtual drive for Windows 10 running on Parallels. I was able to somewhat 
reconfigure the same way earlier this year, but it is never as simple as editing a little bit of code and seeing everything magically appear. For my part, I’ve also decided to update the iMac to Mojave OS, Apple’s current operating system and so far so good. The computer is running but only taped together while pumping data to and from Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive, iCloud and oDrive (which now handles only Box and Amazon’s AWSCloud).
It’s just Fun, Fun, Fun.
Posted By RichC on December 14, 2018
"Hey Rich, should I wait for a 5G phone … and by the way, what is 5G?"
One of these days I’m just going to say, "I don’t know," but until then, I bump along pretending I know more than I do … that is until I get in too deep to walk away.
This past week I was asked about the upcoming 5th Generation wireless soon to make its way into bigger cities and likely the standard for all wireless for the next decade — yes, it is that big of a deal. But what I didn’t know was how it differs from the previous wireless standard or at least the lingo we have all grown accustom to … so I had to do a little reading … while my iMac puttered along at pitiful 60/Mbps (or less) to restore my data from my Apple Time Machine archive on a painfully slow USB 2.0 external hard drive (photo of the surgery on my iMac).
As for the new 5 Generation standard, the two early players in bringing 5G to the US are Verizon Wireless and AT&T, although all are working on it. Verizon launch its version on October 1, 2018 as a home service in Houston, Indianapolis, Los Angeles and Sacramento. It is currently not to the "accepted" global standard, but according to the company, all they will need to do is switch out their equipment when it is available next year. AT&T says they will be "live" at the end of 2018 in some cities, but that has yet to be seen. In my opinion … if you have a relatively modern LTE device, don’t rush out to by the first one on the market (they will all be Android initially).
According to Sascha Segan writing for PCMag …
5G stands for fifth-generation cellular wireless, and the initial standards for it were set at the end of 2017. But a standard doesn’t mean that all 5G will work the same—or that we even know what applications 5G will enable. There will be slow but responsive 5G, and fast 5G with limited coverage. Let us take you down the 5G rabbit hole to give you a picture of what the upcoming 5G world will be like.
1G, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G
The G in 5G means it’s a generation of wireless technology. While most generations have technically been defined by their data transmission speeds, each has also been marked by a break in encoding methods, or "air interfaces," which make it incompatible with the previous generation.
Posted By RichC on December 13, 2018
While this article (PDF version) may not necessarily garner front page news, it is something I wanted to read and archive because it was researched and published by my nephew Aaron Howard. Well done.
The consequences of altered flowering dates due to climate change can be severe, especially for plants that rely on coordinated flower and pollinator emergence for reproduction. The plant Asclepias syriaca (Common Milkweed) relies on pollinators for movement of its pollen and evidence suggests that it has recently been declining. Given these factors and this plant’s importance as a host species for the declining Danaus plexippus (Monarch Butterfly), it is critical to determine if its flowering is being modified by climate change …
Posted By RichC on December 13, 2018
The design of the storage lid and latch on my2010 BMW X5 35d SUV leave a lot to be desired and now that I have new NON-run flat tires, I’m actually using the space under the rear deck for the temporary tire … so it was time to fix the deck lid latch.
The plastic mechanism in general seems to be over-designed and far more complicated than necessary. Unfortunately the plastic material choice that clamshells together and snaps together to lift and lock the rather heavy lid is a weak point. It has been broken since I’ve owned the vehicle, but still sort of snaps back together with broken tabs. The screws which are tapped into the bottom half of the plastic clamshell is a definite weak point.
My first thought was epoxy, but knew it would not hold up to regular pulling on the handle. Eventually I removed all the broken ‘guts’ of the plastic locking mechanism and snipped off the worthless pieces. I then drilled and countersunk 2 holes under the spring loaded handle and added two 3/4" long #8 screws with washers and nuts on the back (or underside). The washer and nuts slipped nicely into the openings and countersunk screw head sit flush under the spring loaded handle. Once the clamshell mechanism is snapped back into the fitted position (little nubs in the lid keep it aligned), the screw can be tightened down to keep the clamshell latch from pulling apart when the handle is grabbed and deck lid lifted. All that is missing is the "silly" plastic latch that locks the storage area with the almost never used BMW key (hidden in the key fob).
Posted By RichC on December 12, 2018
The final piece of converting our 2010 BMW X5 35d from run-flat tires to normal tires is now complete … a temporary spare. Unfortunately, I’ve lost much of my "under the rear floor" storage area (below), but have the security knowing that I have a spare tire and the tools to change it.
The only glitch in buying a secondhand, but unused, temporary tire on Ebay is that it didn’t come with the "under floor filler foam, jack and tools" in order to change the tire. Not a problem, I have an extra 17mm 1/2" deep well impact socket and my old Craftsman ratchet … plus my handy-dandy small tool box fits perfectly in the spare tire (along with my 2" hitch). The jack on the other hand did not fit … so I made something work with my first steel floor jack from the 1970s! It is heavy, but somewhat smaller than even the scissor jack that I bought at Harbor Freight. It took a little fiddling, but without the plastic carrying handle, the floor jack slides into the drivers rear side well … barely!
Posted By RichC on December 11, 2018
Who doesn’t fall for the “treasures” found in the hardware store discount bins? I’m always looking for a “good buy” when I’m walking through the hardware store … and such was the case in seeing this outdoor LED floodlight.
The twin incandescent floodlights that were on the back of the pool house garage for security have long disappeared … but I continue to think about mounting some kind of light back in the open box. Preferably I was planning to install another motion-sensitive light … but since the fixture is up so high, the off the shelf sensors don’t seem to work correctly (it is 20′ feet up). I’ve pondered rigging up a Raspberry Pi to do the sensing and switching, but since LEDs draw so little power, just leaving them on all night as a deterrent might be inexpensive insurance (we really need another Tootsie!)
Anyway, I picked up this new (with missing parts) LED spot/flood for $5 and it should work well. I had a photo-sensor and so decided to add it for dusk-til-dawn operation … probably pennies a week in electrical usage? Unfortunately the aluminum housing was completely filled with the LED circuit board and the only place to add the one I already had was to cut away some of the internal casting and carefully epoxy the photo-eye in place so it will be watertight (it isn’t the first LED that needed an epoxy fix and probably won’t be the last). So far it works… next warm day I’ll get the ladder out to mount it.
EDIT: Put the new LED light up since the ladder was out for Christmas decor. Nice.
Posted By RichC on December 10, 2018
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Posted By RichC on December 9, 2018
One fluorescent fixture at a time … that’s how I’ve been updating the old tubes in two and four light panels to LEDs. Unfortunately I’m ending up with a mish-mash of inexpensive and unfortunately questionable quality LED strips assembled into plastic tubes. 
Advice: stick to name brand and big box store lights – ie. Phillips, etc.
The recent six LED tubes I replaced this past month started when I removed the fluorescent fixture in the laundry room. Against my plan, Brenda picked out a new LED track light just as I ordered two 4-foot LED replacements on eBay for $7.50 each. We at least found common ground and compromised on a white 3 fixture white track light, to go along with the LED workspace light. The white will blend in to the ceiling once it is patched and repainted. It is hard to believe it has been exactly 2 years since we added the stacking LG washer and dryer. Wow, time flies. Hopefully there will be enough light?
I ended up with another old ceiling fixture for the workshop or garage, and removed the ballast and rewired as usual (always opt for the single end power G13s). At the same time I had already ordered a box of 4 tubes on Amazon to add to my now portable four tube panel light — can move it to the garage when working on a car or painting where brighter light is helpful.
Surprisingly, the 18W 2400 lumen LEDs on eBay were better made and less expensive than the Viribright tube lights on Amazon.com — see failed tube below.
