My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on April 8, 2018

Seeing images of the children in Douma, a town near Damascus Syria dead or struggling to breath not only makes me sick to my stomach, but inflames my anger with a maddening desire for vengeance against the Assad regime. He and his supporters continue the brutal dictatorship against the Syrian people, this time using a chemical weapon dropped from a helicopter that has killed at least 42 — at least 500 are injured and suffering, according to news reports.

Last year the Assad government forces used Sarin gas that killed nearly 100 people, triggering a cruise missile strike from President Trump against the airfield where the strike came. Obviously a deterrent, but obviously not painful enough to prevent the government from using chemical weapons again. If unanswered strongly enough, one can only assume Assad will order more.

Once again we find ourselves policing the world in an attempt to prevent mass genocide where dictators are willing to kill women and children, strike hospitals and the elderly in a brutal attempt to maintain control and stay in power. What is doubly sad is that Assad is not alone, but supported by both the Iranians and Russians. Where is their humanity?

What is it going to take for the world to unite against such atrocities?

Poisonous gas was unleashed from a barrel bomb dropped by a government helicopter, according to the White Helmets, a Syrian paramedic group. Victims showed symptoms of poisoning by chlorine and nerve agents, doctors said.

Mr. Trump, on Twitter, condemned Sunday what he called a “mindless CHEMICAL attack,” adding: “President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price… …to pay.”

LINK

Category: News | No Comments »
Tags: assad, chemical weapons, children, News, sarin, syria, war

Posted By RichC on April 7, 2018

After an exchange of text messages with my cousin regarding old 35mm slides that her father and my father had taken through their lifetime (all YEARS ago), I mentioned I might try to digitize them someday and that if she wanted me to keep them I would.

That triggered the back up and archiving bug in me … time to secure some files and back up databases and update a few systems. Even my WordPress version is now up to date!

Category: Blogs | No Comments »
Tags: archive, backup, saving, wordpress

Posted By RichC on April 6, 2018

Since my desktop computer has always been an Apple Macintosh (too many to count since the Mac SE), it is interesting how the trend has changed. In those early days, having something upgradeable was a big deal, but nowadays who really does their own upgrades?

A bit less than three in a hundred users even installed RAM on their own, and on top of that, about six in a hundred users paid somebody else to do it. So, rounding up, one in 10 users of the total user base between 1998 and 2010 did their own upgrades.

LINK

Category: Apple, Computer | No Comments »
Tags: apple, Computer, mac, upgrade

Posted By RichC on April 5, 2018

From the inside I have watched the disruption in healthcare for decades now. Early on it was Brenda and our somewhat laughable attempt in thinking we could start an independent mail order pharmacy, this was in the early 1990s. We looked at leasing property and duplicating existing “store” pharmacy components of a drugstore and at the time using the mail and phone technology as our customer interface (remember this was pre-Internet).  Brenda was a pharmacist and I was growing a printing and publishing business focused primarily the repeat printing of catalogs and monthly newsletters. “Mail order” was the “disruptor” of the day in retail and was successfully biting off chunks of the retail business by keeping overhead lower. Of course there were a few hurdles with our poorly thought out plan and thankfully we didn’t sign a lease or “mortgage the farm.”

Not long after though, Revco the local drugstore chain Brenda worked for DID decide to offer mail order and had signed up several larger companies. Brenda was picked (we lived local) to run this “mail order pharmacy” in  a corporate  warehouse.

To expand Brenda worked with consultants who were still learning the business as well.  I was included in meeting with them (free dinners!) and was able to help out with several areas including facility design (my Master’s thesis), programming, imaging and barcoding totes for order tracking. The concept was profitable, but the industry was rapidly changing with established and bigger companies starting to make inroads into the business. I can still remember finding out that several of my spreadsheets and data gathering processes were used by the consultants when they were hired by others (hmm?).  Thankfully this new knowledge and multiple Rx licenses in different states, help Brenda stand out as mail order pharmacies rapidly expanded and opened the door to opportunity. Strange as it seems, when the dot-com era exploded, this early on experience helped her get back in the workforce after taking some time off. It gave her an exciting opportunity to on the ground floor of the first Internet Pharmacy … eventually purchased by CVS.com. I can remember the Seattle founder of Soma, Tom Pigott, talking highly of Jeff Bezo and his vision for Amazon back then … when it was an expanding online bookstore.

Now in 2018, decades after the earlier disruption, there are some major changes in healthcare by the “bigs getting bigger” (ie. CVS acquiring Aetna) … although it has really never slowed down – we’re just not directly impacted or involved.

BUT … my daughter, her husband and his family may be a bit more involved …

The WSJ ran an article on April 2, 2018 quoting Randy Oostra, president and CEO of ProMedica in Toledo, Ohio regarding mega-mergers such as Walmart and Humana.

Walmart would join an increasingly crowded field of competitors poised to siphon patients and revenue from ProMedica’s outpatient business, which Mr. Oostra said helps to subsidize money-losing hospital services.

“What worries us is death by a thousand cuts,” he said. “Another deal and another deal.”

ProMedica, which operates 13 hospitals in Ohio and Michigan, is looking to diversify its revenue with international expansion and new businesses, he said.

Article LINK

Category: Business, Health, Memories, Productivity, TBT, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: $CVS, aetna, brenda, dotcom, hospitals, humana, insurance, promedica, randy oostra, revco, soma, TBT, walmart

Posted By RichC on April 4, 2018

Having owned Mercedes Benzes for years now (first was our 87 MB 560 SEL –  reminder that I need a photo) and using several resources for buying and maintaining, some of the best advice for for the, W123 which I’m particularly fond of, (my current 1982 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbodiesel) comes from Kent Bergsma, of the online site Mercedessource.com. He and his daughter produce YouTube videos as well as sell tools and parts that I’ve mentioned before, but this one is particularly helpful if you are new to old diesels … and in particular older Mercedes diesels know for their “million mile engines,” although probably not something you want to take to the bank.

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Idioms, Mercedes, Video | No Comments »
Tags: 300d, diesel, kent bergsma, mercedes, mercedessource.com, turbodiesel, W123, youtube

Posted By RichC on April 3, 2018

The other day I mentioned “selective focus” as a photography technique to my son … so I took advantage of the low light and ugly rainy weather to use the “longer x2 lens”on the iPhone7plus to hide the ugliness. The telephoto lens on any camera, especially in closer up photography), is that it is easy to use selective focus (blurring areas other than the subject). The low light also requires a wider/open aperture (smaller f-stop) and tightens the focal range even more, especially with the automatic exposure features of a smartphone.

The subject in this photo (click photo for full size) was Brenda’s 2008 Mother’s Day gift, a White Star Magnolia, which blooms each year without much greenery fairly early in the spring, some years earlier than others!

As for a more photogenic subject, my daughter Katelyn included a recent Annalyn “smile” for us … after her 1-year check up. She could not be parented more perfectly, although what else would one expect from Drew and “pediatrician” Katelyn! HA!
(more…)

Category: Advice, Apple, Cellphone, Photography, Photos, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: flowers, house, iphone7plus, landscaping, magnolia, photography, spring, yard

Posted By RichC on April 2, 2018

This content is restricted.

Category: Audio, Memories, Music | No Comments »
Tags: album, marshall tucker band, mbt, mp3, music monday, musicmonday

Posted By RichC on April 1, 2018

Happy Easter brothers and sisters in Christ!

        He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed.

This past week I’ve been listening to Alistair Begg speak on Life After Death recorded from Parkside Church and shared on the Truth For Life podcast. Ever since Katelyn and Drew gave me the Amazon Echo Dot for Christmas I have tried to start or end my day with a little from Alistair’s teaching. It might be easier to use my phone and play the audio on the "already" installed Truth For Life app or iTunes, but having to sit quietly near the Echo speaker and LISTEN is a little more contemplative on my part. 

The two parts on Total Transformation (Corinthians 15:51-57) focus on "death swallowed up in victory" through the resurrection of Jesus is the way Christians ponder death. The "sting of death" (sin) has been carried by Jesus for all who accept Him as their Savior … and through His resurrection on Easter, death is no more than "a passing shadow." How comforting for those of us who miss recently love ones, but know they are with the Lord.

As I write this, the most recent podcast from Truth For Life that I listened to had me pondering a ministry project that I work on with my friend Pastor Keith Thomas. We include a heat ClusterMap from countries that use GroupBibleStudy.com as a "measure" as to where there is a hunger to study The Word — hm? (…but it also helps in allocating donations to translate bible studies.)

Category: Audio, Faith, Holiday | No Comments »
Tags: bible, christianity, easter, Faith, groupbiblestudy, jesus, podcast, study, truth

Posted By RichC on March 31, 2018

I’ve been around long see banking change from daily dealing with a local banker that I knew by name … who also knew me (and my business) by name … to just a drive up teller window or ATM to the latest technology of snapping pics of checks and tapping on a smartphone. I sort of miss the friendly hello and invite into the bank manager’s office just to talk or ask if they could do anything to help me or my business? Times they have changed. 

For the most part I happy with doing banking online or rarely needing to stop at the local branch office. They few times in 2018 I’ve needed a semi-banking service has been for notarizing real estate documents … which two of my local banks refused to do based on corporate liability or some such thing? When I do stop, there are few people in the building reinforcing the trend to close branches and focus more on online services (one would think some innovative bank could offer other services and better utilized their offices … be it legal services, tax services, financial planning, etc? 

This week after scheduling a few online transactions myself, a forgotten handwritten IRA contribution check cleared before the ACH (Automatic Clearing House) transfer I had scheduled arrived into my account … who knew USPS & paper check could clear before an electronic transfer? Anyway, in praise of the Ohio based Huntington Bank, I thank them for offering the polite and friendly "24-Hour Grace Alert" reminiscent of local banking the way it use to be, minus the friendly phone call (although the text message was appreciated!) Thanks!

Talking about ACH, here’s a great NPR Planet Money episode:

We just need Amazon’s bank to send money electronically to a checking account at Chase bank. It’s just information traveling over wires. How long could it take: A minute? An hour?

It took five days.

Before the money could land in our bank account, it had to go through a 40-year-old program— the Automated Clearing House.

MORE

Category: Audio, Financial, Misc, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: ach, audio, bank, banking, huntington, mp3, npr, overdraft, planet money

Posted By RichC on March 30, 2018

Now that our home theater has seats again, we are able to enjoy movie watching … sort of. When Katelyn and Taylor were home last weekend, I realized our old LG Blu-Ray DVD player didn’t work(it was a remote issue without any button overrides on the box). That frustration was followed by an older home theater receiver/amp that only had one HDMI "in" port which meant I had to unplug and plug in gadget boxes – DVD, Roku or Fioptics TV box. Brenda asked, "don’t they make an extension hub" (she surprises me with her commonsense sometimes) … to which I shrugged UNTIL checking the Internet. Sure enough, they are relatively inexpensive and so opted to order one with yet another remote for switching input sources.

While I was at it, I read a few of the reviews on inexpensive Blu-Ray DVD players and decided the slightly older Sony BDPS3700 would be perfect … and that for only $55, was a fairly good WikiBuy … I do enjoy that shopping plugin BTW!

Category: Personal, Shopping, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: amazon, bluray, dvd, hdmi, home theater, tech friday, techfriday, wikibuy