My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on August 2, 2018

I have, and do, support a few crowd funded projects — I’ve placied preorders taking on risk and see it as taking a small scale venture capital risk (without much reward). A couple bigger investments have been Elio and MagFast. The latter posts weekly, and relatively personal updates via YouTube video, on how the process is going> Since I supported the previous ThingCharger and saw their first company struggle with growing pains and eventual failure, I feel that I’m part of the family business.

Seymour Segnet shared a little bit of his history (including the failure) and an updated "best guess" timeline for their newest Magfast Charging system project. This is something I wish Elio Motors would be better at doing (below is his long winded, but worthwhile for me since I’ve been onboard since 2013, presentation as to the past and current timeline.)

Category: Automotive, Business, Cellphone, Computer, Innovation, Technology, Video | No Comments »
Tags: capital, crowdfunding, elio, funding, magfast, motors, segnet, seymour, thingcharger, update, venture, youtube

Posted By RichC on August 1, 2018

Brenda and I had a good time talking to our millennial son Taylor and his girlfriend Megan last weekend. In contrast to our usually politically deteriorating topics of conversation (like his dad, Taylor loves to debate), it was a very enjoyable time. He picked up some shrimp and brought over the ingredients to make us dinner which was probably the best tasting meal I’ve had all year — what a great cook (and it was pretty much ALL Taylor!)

Most of our conversation was around house-hunting as he has been looking at interesting properties and pondering buying his first house. I’m hoping he doesn’t feel forced into buying “just anything” since besides the unrealistic pressure of age and doing what peers are doing,  he is feeling as if the prices and bidding battles on listed properties  makes  houses more attractive than they are — the “if someone else wants it, I better bid on it too” competition. I know he wants to buy and own a house in the high taxed and higher price urban Cincinnati area, but since he is “the county planner” for Clermont County just east of Cincinnati, I think his smartest move would be to use that knowledge to make a smart buy where he knows all the players. We discussed his desire to get into property development and conversation with a respected older (70 year old) developer about how he started in the business and what his advice might be. Very smart.

The fun conversation ended with Taylor telling me that he things he may have found a fun “side hustle.” I’ve bugged him about doing something that makes money in his free time rather than spending it or sitting around playing video games. He was excited to share giving the new Bird scooter business a try — very exciting and at least fun. Who knows, might even generated some spending money?

Bird electric scooters ruffle city officials’ feathers with surprise launch

With no advance notice, flocks of Bird electric scooters appeared on Cincinnati sidewalks Thursday morning, according to The Enquirer.

(more…)

Category: Personal, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: bird, cincinnati, cooking, family, homes, houses, megan, property, real estate, scooter, side-hustle, taylor

Posted By RichC on July 31, 2018

I’ve mentioned GroupBibleStudy.com before as a website I work on and have helped develop for my friend Pastor Keith Thomas, but didn’t realize I’ve been doing it for 7 years — shocker. It is now time to hand it over to a new volunteer … and I’m finding it difficult to relinquish control, but also know Keith would love to keep his life’s work “in the family” — his daughter will be helping him.

His millennial and tech savvy daughter Anna has volunteered to give the site a makeover and politely argued her point that the “current WordPress CMS site was not up to modern mobile web design standards” (all true). Keith and I often chat about a refreshed look that would be more mobile friendly, but likely because we are both older and set in our ways, we hated the current “Google-forced” look without everything on the front page and at our fingertips.

Time will tell if the new look will pass muster with readers around the world … comments and analytics. No matter, I ‘m glad to have fresh and younger blood wanting to share the Gospel and am hoping Keith’s daughter enjoys helping her dad continue to share the Word while learning web design as a possible career? 

Category: Blogs, Computer, Faith, Idioms | No Comments »
Tags: Faith, gospel, groupbiblestudy, hosting, keith thomas, webdesign, website

Posted By RichC on July 30, 2018

This content is restricted.

Category: Human Interest, Music, Tidbits, Video | No Comments »
Tags: angel of the morning, angelina jolie, chip taylor, evie sands, jon voight, juice newton, kendal carson, merrilee rush, mp3, music monday, musicmonday, siriusxm, wild thing, youtube

Posted By RichC on July 29, 2018

Whew … I was worried on Friday while driving the old 1982 Mercedes Benz for a reasonably close business call as I noticed oil leaking everywhere. My first concern was for an engine seal or gasket since there was so much oil dripping under the car. As a babied the car home, I feared the worst but was hoping it might just be an ill-fitting valve cover gasket, it was hard to tell when looking under the hood — oil was everywhere.

After a little more digging, I was relieved to figure out what was wrong. It seems the epoxy blob that I thought was added to the valve cover by a previous owner was not added to “just” hold on a small square of carpet to keep the engine from touching the rod that hold up the insulation under the hood … but was actually patching a worn hole in the aluminum valve cover. As the epoxy heated and cooled over the years it aged and eventually cracked loose, allowing oil to leak from the valve cover.

[adinserter block=”5″]

I could have shopped for a new valve cover or taken the old one off and welded some new metal in, but instead use some JB Weld SteelStik to make the repair. I still need to keep an eye on the “now padded” rod that is under the hood, but at least I know what the previous owners repair was there for now. Crisis averted.

Previous leftover old epoxy on the left and rod under the hood with oil saturation on right

EDIT: After buffing and waxing on Sunday afternoon, the “old girl” is looking pretty good.

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Mercedes | No Comments »
Tags: 300d, epoxy, gasket, jb weld, leak, mercedes, oil, repair, steelstick, steelstik

Posted By RichC on July 28, 2018

As a fan of Mike Rowe‘s The Way I Heard It podcasts, his praise for medical doctors highlights the debate of earning the "title" of doctor and being addressed as ‘Dr.’ based on "what you want to be called" or receiving honorary degrees.

As Mike Rowe comments on Twitter, "according to my producer, this brand new #episode is going to "ruffle a few feathers." I hope so. A little "feather-ruffling" is just the thing to keep the conversation lively." (podcast link)
 

Category: Audio, Health, Human Interest, Misc, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: audio, degrees, doctor, interesting, medical, mike rowe, podcast

Posted By RichC on July 27, 2018

If you have any vested interest in the stock market, Thursday’s huge drop for social networking’s behemoth Facebook ($FB), demonstrated what go up, can come down … and can come down fast! The "biggest ever one-day loss in market value for a U.S. listed company" happened yesterday and saw investors in $FB (or any pension fund, mutual fund or ETF holding shares) losing a whole lot of the gains they have seen this year.

The hugely successful tech company lost nearly $120 BILLION in market value in one day as shares of $FB fell 19% to close at $176.26 on Thursday. As the Wall Street Journal pointed out, "technology stocks have ripped higher, outpacing the broader market" all year and were the place to be invested for 2018. At some point the optimism for growth never-ending was bound to change and DID after Facebook reported slower than expected revenue growth was reported on Wednesday after market close; those paying attention knew Thursday was going to be an ugly day. Perhaps the question for many after Netflix’s miss Q2 miss a week ago and now Facebook’s tumble … is whether the FAANG stocks are now out of favor?

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Category: Financial, Social Media, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: FAANG, facebook, fb, investing, netflix, nflx, stocks, tech friday, trading, wsj

Posted By RichC on July 26, 2018

We been enjoying summer and mostly great weather around the house and yard so far this year in 2018 and Brenda’s growing landscape mounds are all flowering and looking really nice (she has been working on them although her current Grand Jury duty is cutting into her free time). The last few days of slightly cooler weather has given way to sunshine and hotter weather now and so was finally able to get the backyard cut again. It is unusual to still have the lawn so green this late in July.

I’ve been outside each evening that the sky has been clear viewing planets and the larger than usual Mars. Last night, I was hoping to get a glimpse of the International Space Station (ISS) as it might have been possible to see it for about 10 minutes as it arced across the west-northwestern sky (red arc below), but unfortunately the high level clouds or perhaps lack of sun reflecting off of it kept me from seeing it. BUT … Venus and Jupiter were brilliant.

Photo left was edited to highlight, where photo on right is straight from my iPhone

Category: Archive, Personal, Photography, Space | No Comments »
Tags: court, duty, flowers, grand jury, grass, iss, mounds, pool, skywatching, venus, yard

Posted By RichC on July 25, 2018

While doing a bit of server housekeeping on the CPP servers and preparing for the eventual push to make all websites secure for users, I ran across a helpful Qualys SSL Labs site to check on certificates, etc. If you are working to get websites updated and compliant for the day ALL site will need to be secure, check out their free scan.

Since I also run a couple WordPress sites (including this blog), I’m looking at a few simple plug-ins, including WP Hide & Security Enhancer to see if it might be worthwhile in adding an additional layer of simple security for clients … although have not tried it yet (only researching).

NEARLY TWO YEARS ago, Google made a pledge: It would name and shame websites with unencrypted connections, a strategy designed to spur web developers to embrace HTTPS encryption. On Tuesday, it finally is following through.

(more…)

Category: Blogs, Business, Software, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: browser, chrome, consolidated, cpp, cppnet.com, google, plugin, qualys, servers, wordpress, wp hide

Posted By RichC on July 24, 2018

Having owned a several pairs of different branded sandals and flip-flops over the years (decades), I’ve settled on my boatshoe brand of choice, the Sperry brand, as the flip-flops I prefer. Some of the more inexpensive brands wear out too quick, others, like the ones I really like from Eddie Bauer, are slick when the surface or your foot is wet (including Crocs) …  and others like my toe protective and durable Keens are just less comfortable (they also continue to click).

I leave my current favorite Sperry flip-flop sandals, the Baitfish in Florida, so really needed a new pair for home … and will try a new lighter duty Wahoo flip-flop first at home to see how they hold up. So far I like them. (more…)

Category: Advice, Archive, Misc, Sailing, Shopping | No Comments »
Tags: amazon, baitfish, boatshoe, boatshoes, ceramic, flip-flops, footwear, keen, kitchen, knife, sharpener, shoes, sperry, topsider, topsiders, wahoo