One of the issues we found when replacing our roof last month was a wobbly chimney chase for the fireplace in the house. The original fireplace has a stainless steel chimney that extends from the first floor through the second floor, the trusses and then the “chimney chase” on the roof. The builder must not […]
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 […]
After getting a chance to play with a quad copter last week, I’ve been a little more intrigued with the advancements in “drones.” Who knows, this innovation may find its way into the first realistic personal transportation device someday? Sony’s Aerosense drone that takes off and lands vertically but during flight gets most of its […]
As with baby birds in previous years, the same tree is being used by the robins … with a new nest … again. This is the second brood for this pair of robins for 2015. They do have ugly chicks … and this guy is pretty weak (watch him flop below).
Out of sight, out of mind. Unlike a hard copy book sitting on my reading table, ebooks are easy to forget about … that’s one of the disadvantages of receiving the gift of an ebook (as is having multiple e-reading apps). My friend Jeff gave me David McCullough’s new book The Wright Brothers for my […]
I watched several broadcasts from the new iOS app introduced this past week called Periscope. It enables iPhone/iPad users to broadcast live video to other “socially networked” viewers (Twitter) just as with the early competitor app MeerKat. Periscope differs slightly as it saves an archive for 24 hours or until deleted (not possible with MeerKat) […]
I spent a few minutes updating and cleaning up some of the tags on MyDesultoryBlog this past weekend … more of a maintenance thing than anything essential. Part of the reason was that I am still learning about Blogsy as a blog writing and editing tool, but also just to clean things up. I realized […]
The Overdrive app on my iPad is one of my favorite reading and “listening” apps on any of my devices (previously commented). It is super for those who would love to spend more time going to the public libraries but have trouble finding the time to go. Have a “FREE” way to borrow from libraries […]
I picked up a book, The Rape Of Nanking: The Forgotten Holocaust Of World War II, published in 1997 and written by the late Iris Chang. I decided to read it after a bit of Twitter sparring with CBJapan1 and his/her “allegation of lying” about the book and movie Unbroken, as well as how America […]
With the “Elio upgrade Holiday Promotion” that will help lock in my “SIL” (Spot in line) and 50% bonus offer on an Elio … and a need to spend money on Black Friday without going to the stores [/sarcasm], I’ve upgraded my “ALL IN” status making a true commitment to this new car company. Paint […]
Slowly but sure I’m corralling my carry and travel computing gadgets and getting a handle on wasteful monthly expenses associated with keeping them connected. Those who have followed my blog from a technology perspective have probably detected my economizing while still “trying” to remain in current century computing. This year our grown children are on […]
Since moving away from Sprint and finally down to two cellphones in the family …except for a couple of spare emergency “burner” phones (grin) –one with my overseas travel SIM and the other a Samsung Galaxy S2 total free wireless plan on Freedompop. The point is that we were able to travel comfortably with our […]
I posted a question on a Facebook group today for liveaboard sailors regarding sailing knives using Giphy.com’s animated GIF to Facebook posting. I’m not sure how many other GIF hosting services are out there for Facebook but Giphy worked well. There are times on a rolling sailboat where using both hands to open a folding […]
While sorting and tossing some old “paper” magazines last weekend, I stumbled across an article about New Zealand’s Duke Engines in a September 2011 issue of Sport Aviation (PDF of article) that peaked my interest. I’ve posted on engine design ideas before as they relate to aviation and automotive, but thought this design has some […]
The newest BMW X5 diesel will be making its debut at the 2014 Frankfurt Motor Show in a few weeks and will turn a few heads; it is the most powerful X5 diesel BMW has ever built. The M50d is not planned for the U.S. but will make its 546 lb-ft of torque and 381 […]
I found an excuse to use the Apple iOS Passbook app on the iPhone 5 yesterday while adding tickets to a Romney Ryan Real Recovery Road Rally being held tonight just north of Cincinnati in my hometown of West Chester Ohio. The ticket distribution site EventBrite makes easy checkout and automatically adds the QR coded […]
Although I’ve used a few different online dictionaries over the years, I’ve concluded that using a program called WordWeb is better than all the cookies, flash cookies and beacons. According to a WSJ article this summer, sites like Dictionary.com were pretty intrusive. More than half of the sites examined by the Journal installed 23 or […]
Here’s a last minute Tech Friday idea; a website that creates your own newspaper from Twitter connections. Paper.li is a service that assembles a newspaper-like page with links, photos and media from Twitter users, lists or #keywords. Within a minute you can publish and share a randomly composed page of interesting, or not so interesting, […]
It’s been on the list of things to do, but since my personal blog isn’t necessarily a ‘must read’ for people, I’ve been slow to adopt a better commenting methods or in this case “discussion” method — Disqus = dis·cuss • d?-sk?s’. After reviewing and listening to the opinions of tech savvy friends, I’ve opted […]
How do you keep all of your online passwords safe and secure? I’ll admit, I wasn’t all that smart about managing mine. About a month or so ago, a technology friend of mine shared his method of using the stand alone KeyPass Password Safe on his PC and explained how he then plop the encrypted […]
I’ve used Mozilla’s Thunderbird email client for quite a few years now and as it is with most software, it all in what one get use to using. Recent upgrades have required me to make adjustments to my set-up and I grumbled a bit … but for the most part upgrading to 3.1.3 has been […]
I’ve waited a few weeks in order to fairly judge the NetTalk phone service and it’s associated smallish hardware device which promises “Unlimited Local and Long Distance Calling in the US and Canada.” The VOIP service is similar to other marketed services and devices that transform broadband Internet connections into something that resembles traditional landline […]