Music Monday: And for something totally different from Annalyn
Posted By RichC on January 14, 2019
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Shrimp are small, yet regulations and tax incentives can be big
Posted By RichC on January 13, 2019
With incentives, South Dakota and Minnesota compete for tiny trū Shrimp and its promise of indoor shrimp farms.
A company named trū Shrimp Co. had planned to break ground this spring in Luverne, Minn., on a $330 million to $360 million indoor shrimp farm. It aims to produce 8 million pounds of shrimp a year in stacked ponds that are about 12 inches deep, 12 feet wide and nearly the length of two football fields.
Last week, the company suddenly shifted gears and said it would build what it says will be the first in a string of such facilities in nearby Madison, S.D., citing Minnesota’s tough environmental permitting process.
The Minnesota deal “unraveled in recent weeks after trū Shrimp officials said they couldn’t meet a strict limit on chloride in its discharge water—and the time it would take to resolve issues with its permit was longer than its board could tolerate.”
At least we know why shrimp were working out on treadmills a few years ago. 
The wet, heavy snow might be too much for the John Deere?
Posted By RichC on January 12, 2019
The Raspberry Pi Cam photo automatically captured the backyard snow during a break in the falling snowflakes. The storm was well forecasted, so decided it was time to put the snowblower on the old John Deere 330 diesel tractor. I hope the wet snow will “blow” as my preliminary shoveling has me thinking it might not? We’ll see tomorrow.
Politicians of all stripes love spending someone else’s money
Posted By RichC on January 12, 2019
There is one thing that is consistent in Washington DC … politicians and bureaucrats love spending other people’s money.
It doesn’t matter whether they are a Democrats or a Republicans … socialists or capitalists … politicians all want someone else to pay for their ideas. The current top two politicians in the news are newly elected socialist-Democrat Representative Alexandria Ocasia-Cortez (D-NY) who is proposing big … really big …government programs (no surprise as she is a Democrat and socialist believer to boot) … and President Trump wanting his “big beautiful wall” on our southern border.
First, Representative Ocasio-Cortez hasn’t precisely worked out the numbers, even with Washington DC type fuzzy math. She merely tosses out to 60-minutes that “taxing the rich” more is a solution; this is not unlike the far-left approach in the past, EXCEPT this time they would need $40 TRILLION.
On the capitalist side, President Trump wants $5 Billion for southern border protection and his signature “WALL” … $5 Billion sounds modest in comparison to Ocsasia-Cortez’s dollar figure and would likely be do-able considering congress regularly spends like drunken sailors on far more frivolous 
pet projects when negotiating for votes – will they this time? BUT like @AOC, our @POTUS wants someone else to pay for it – in this case our southern neighbor, Mexico – are they feeling bullied yet?
With all the bloviating and theater, if it were not OUR hard earned tax dollars paying for it, this would be humorous. What a sad state of affairs in Washington DC … and you wonder why so many of us want smaller government?
Tech Friday: The best TECH life-changers in the last couple years
Posted By RichC on January 11, 2019
The Amazon Echo in Kitchen/Great Room and the new Echo Dot 3rd Gen in my workshop
Not a day goes by without Amazon’s Echo devices doing something for us in our home … and it is only a matter of time before “she” (Alexa) will be assisting me in the car too. It is almost embarrassing that in a very short time that I have added … with the aiding and abetting of Katelyn and Drew … a couple more Echo Dots to other rooms in the house in order to control lights, TV, add to
a list, play music or just function as a virtual assistant. Using Alexa productively has progressed faster than our even adopting personal computers in the 1980s. Computing and technology advancements in my lifetime have been amazing.
There has also been another device which I appreciate and love … likely because of my Meniere’s induced hearing loss, so YMMV. It is the AfterShokz Bluetooth headset has replaced wired earbuds, my old Bluetooth earpieces that I’ve used for years like the Jawbone, Jawbone Prime and Plantronics Savor M1100. It is not because the Aftershokz is smaller or does more than previous devices, but it is because it transmits sound partially through bone conduction … and for me that is a game changer. I can’t really “hear” sound better, but it gives me a far fuller sense of music and voice AND being deaf in one ear, it still enables me to hear what is going on around me (my “good ear” is still uncovered unlike in or over the ear devices). Perhaps only those who have struggled for years, or decades, without having cataracts removed or those with hearing loss and finding the perfect hearing aid will understand the improvement. (that “cataracts removed” reference was to my father-in-law commenting that it was as if he was no longer looking through a jar of honey or molasses.) All I know is that I appreciate this $100 headset and will likely buy the smaller and lighter Trekz Air someday (would love to do a product review if Aftershokz wants to send me one – hint, hint).
The only problem for me is that I keep my iPhone in my pocket, so when answering phone calls I don’t know who is calling. I pick up far too many unknown SPAM calls (the Do-Not-Call Registry is worthless) and often sound far too business-like when answering calls from my family. So … a suggestion would be to voice announce the caller ID info on the AfterShokz headset. A software improvement or downloadable app?
Learning about the Packard Twelve leaves me curious #TBT
Posted By RichC on January 10, 2019
While reading a few interesting older blog posts at Consumer Guide, my Twitter friend Tom Appel (@Car_Guy_Tom) post got me thinking about the strange company that seemed to be trying to revitalize the Packard car brand. The company built a prototype some years ago and by attending a few shows, generated some attention with the thought they might be trying revitalized the brand … or at least promote what they called the Packard Twelve, but likely generated just as much attention from car collectors as to if they could legally use the Packard name as they have no problem connecting their company to the original. The Arizona Corporation is offering the 
Packard Name Trademark for sale. Hm?)
For information about Packard® Holdings Inc. and the Packard Name Trademark, please contact:
Roy Gullickson
e-mail: rg@packardmotors.com
1 866 840-2766
Cell: (403) 317-0748
Battery replaced in my aging iPhone7plus under Apple program
Posted By RichC on January 9, 2019
It was a somewhat frustrating end of year scrabble to get my iPhone 7 battery replaced under the Apple “program” after their throttling older iPhones was disclosed in 2017. 
My battery was still holding up, but who wants a phone with only 85% “Maximum Capacity” or hidden software artificially slowing down my now older iPhone 7 plus?
So I scheduled my appointment with Apple by phone, drove 30 minutes to the Apple store at my appointed time on 12/31/2017, only to have them tell me they didn’t have any batteries for my phone. Hm, for a company that prides themselves on accuracy and efficiency from their customer service, this was disappointing … as well as inconvenient.
Thankfully, they at least honored the warranty and took care of me after the program expired in 2019 … free of charge (well, I do have AppleCare on my iPhone 7 Plus). I know this model is no longer the latest and greatest, or as fast as a new iPhone XR, but frankly I’m not interested in buying an overpriced new phone. So now with the new battery in my older phone, I should be able to stretch this one until 5G is widespread and supported by Apple – at least that’s the plan!
To-Do and old photos from history – Machu Picchu from 1911
Posted By RichC on January 9, 2019
Photo from history website pulled from Reddit
Machu Picchu, an ancient Inca settlement in Peru, wasn’t discovered by someone with a camera until 1911. American archeologist Hiram Bingham took the first known photo when he visited in 1911. Bingham arrived in Peru with a small team of explorers to search for the famous “lost” cities of the Incas. It is now one of the top tourist destinations in the world.
I’m adding a new category to the MyDesultoryBlog for 2019 — To-Do. It will be a place to post things to do as well as places to go.
How hot is too hot for a Late 2012 Apple iMac 3.4GHz Core i7?
Posted By RichC on January 8, 2019
No matter who you talk to, running the processor at water’s boiling point is too hot and not healthy for a computer chips. After replacing my iMac’s power supply board … and 
hard drive … I thought my problems were over, but probably not. It looks like I’m going to have to clean the old thermal paste off the chips and heatsink, then carefully bed this time?
The temps on the left are pushing the iMac about has hard as I’ve ever tried … lots of video processing using both iMovie and Handbrake. I was interested to know just how hard I could push the processing and probably should have 
stopped before going this far? (normal temps in graph at right)
I’m now starting to wonder if 
having temps this high when I first started having problems and monitoring was what overtaxed the power supply in the first place?
Thankfully I’m still running with temporary tape in place … thinking I might need to open the iMac up again. It looks like it will come apart one more time.
Music Monday: Starting with a change for 2019 – Kenny Chesney
Posted By RichC on January 7, 2019
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Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.