My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on December 8, 2017

For those planning ahead and thinking about replacing their aging (1 or 2 years old! HA!) iPhone, there are rumors already floating around as to what Apple might have up their sleeve for 2018. Perhaps the most interesting "rumor" is that the iPhoneX may come in a 6.1" TFT-LCD with 320-330 PPI  AND an aluminum or stainless steel frame (NIKKEI Asian Review).

The other bit of rumor news is that it is possible that ALL iPhones will completely abandon Touch ID in favor of Face ID. Hm?

Category: Apple, Cellphone, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: apple, faceid, iphone, iphonex, nikkei, rumor, tech friday, touchid

Posted By RichC on December 7, 2017

We remember December 7th, 1941 to honor those who perished and as a reminder of what lead up to Japan’s 1920’s ambition to dominate the Pacific Basin believing it was their manifest destiny (see series Pearl Harbor – Then and Now on the Defense Media Network).

The unprovoked surprise attack on Hawaii in the early Sunday morning, crippled the US Navy’s battleship fleet and prevented the United States from quickly responding or intervening against Japanese occupation in the Pacific. The attack remains the most decisive air strike against the US, but failed in strategic long term military planning by "waking the sleeping giant" and uniting the American people against Japan.

Never Again, Again! The Legacy of Pearl Harbor

Seven decades and a Cold War away, Pearl Harbor likely seems little more than a movie event to young people whose parents were not even born when the Japanese attacked. However, the multiple terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, are a reminder of the real legacy of the attack on Hawaii, and what was the end of a six-decade hiatus of significant attacks on American soil. Today the nation lives in a time of new dangers and threats, and unlike 1941, the metrics are more difficult to understand and quantify. For many Americans, the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor may seem to offer few connections for today. First and foremost, the attack on Pearl Harbor was an attack by military forces against military forces, while the Sept. 11 victims of terrorist attacks were overwhelmingly civilian. In many ways, however, Dec. 7, 1941, and Sept. 11, 2001, share a mutual place in American history, along with common causes.

MORE

Category: History, Millitary, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: hawaii, japan, pearl harbor, remembrance, war, ww2

Posted By RichC on December 6, 2017

So much for using Bitcoin as a cryptocurrency? How does one set prices for products and services "in Bitcoins" when there isn’t any stability of value? So much for using it as currency … more like gambling or speculating on artwork as these bits of invisible computer cyber bytes continue to find pyramid scheme buyers.

On Wednesday, bitcoin rocketed higher crossing the $14,000 mark on at least one exchange less than 24 hours after topping $12,000.

The landmark happened on the Coinbase exchange just before 6 p.m. ET, and it traded as high as $14,344.22 on that platform. That said, there are often significant price differentials on different bitcoin exchanges. CoinDesk, a widely regarded industry site, said as of 6:16 p.m. ET that its average of prices across leading exchanges showed a high point of $13,810.72 for the cryptocurrency.

More at CNBC

Category: Financial, News | No Comments »
Tags: bitcoin, bubble, coinbase, coindesk, Financial, gambling, risk, speculation

Posted By RichC on December 6, 2017

Now if I were to be true to myself, I’d be driving a station wagon like this Buick Special Estate Wagon, Model 49 mentioned in Hemmigs. As posted previously, my first car was almost a 1958 Buick Special, but after my stint with wagons in the 1980s (Volvo DL245, Chevrolet Caprice Wagon and Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser), I have a soft spot for one that puts them all into one classy (classic) vehicle.

Just FYI, that "soft spot" isn’t really soft enough for me to give up my BMW X5 35d diesel SUV … and "yes I know" the Griswold Family Truckster was a 1979 Ford LTD Country Squire based station wagon (below).

Category: Automotive, History, Memories, Movies | No Comments »
Tags: BMW, buick, classic, griswold, hemmings, special, station wagon, truckster, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on December 5, 2017

When mixing a small batch of epoxy for a repair, I’m always looking for a secondary project that needs some adhesion. I’ve finally decided that my go-to project is to apply additional "wear bars" to the heels of my favorite Sperry Topsiders.

I’ve done this before and besides the slightly annoying "clicking" sound, the epoxy wears well and hasn’t failed. I’m sure dedicated shoe glue would be a more appropriate product, but leftover epoxy works great too!

Category: Advice, How-To, Misc, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: boat, boatshoe, boatshoes, epoxy, glue, shoe, sperry, topsider, topsiders, wear-bar

Posted By RichC on December 4, 2017

It is hard to believe, but I finally winterized the pool and in the same weekend brought home a Christmas tree, put the wreathes up and modified the lighting we use on the house in December. The first years we used 150 watt incandescent floods (also had halogens at some point), then I switched to compact florescent floods for the last decade which cut back the wattage and this year switched to some super bright LED floods that only draw 17 watts each (shockingly little).

The new LEDs fit the standard fixtures, but are priced high enough to make me wonder. In hopes of making them last, I’m adding an additional o-ring to the base in hope to keep the rain out. We’ll see?

On a side "techy" note, I put my Particle Photon to work with a high amperage 110 volt relay in order to control the lights for the detached garage/poolhouse. It works great using my iPhone as a controller with the Blynk app.

Category: Energy, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: christmas, closing, flood, house, led, lights, pool

Posted By RichC on December 3, 2017

This content is restricted.

Category: Archive, Personal, Photos, Science, Space | No Comments »
Tags: annalyn, astronomy, drew, family, katelyn, night, sky, supermoon

Posted By RichC on December 2, 2017

After updating my iMac to the latest High Sierra MacOS, a root log in security flaw was discovered and had users scrambling for a temporary fix. I followed the advice on 9to5Mac, but Apple quickly sent out a security update. Safe again?

Another install has been a major update for Mozilla and their popular Firefox browser. It is suppose to be much faster than competitors and claims to be more compatible with more of what we use on the web. Since I always have two browsers running on my desktop, I was happy to update and wanted it to work with all that I normally use, but quickly found out that their new Firefox Quantum 57.0.1 is still not able to use the Google Hangouts communication tool built into Gmail. Bummer. 

Category: Apple, Computer, Software | No Comments »
Tags: apple, browser, firefox, high sierra, macos, mozilla

Posted By RichC on December 1, 2017

Most Apple iPhone users (as well as Android users) have been using a smartphone as a flashlight for years with only a few innovations. The simple swipe up and click on has been relatively straight forward until the addition of brightness levels.

With iOS11, the text description has been eliminated (???) but the brightness level now has 4 settings plus an off. To control brightness, access the flashlight app and press firmly to bring up the level control, then chose your brightness level.

<– previous iOS | New iOS 11 –>

Category: Apple, Cellphone, How-To, Technology, Tidbits | No Comments »
Tags: apple, brightness, flashlight, ios11, iphone, tech friday, techfriday

Posted By RichC on November 30, 2017

As someone who had an early interest in cryptocurrency as a replacement for product and services exchange, the recent rise of Bitcoin is nothing more than frightening. Supply and demand obviously has traders of this public ledger block chain protected transaction “currency” excited and like all manias, is concerning since eventually trading profits will be too attractive for speculative traders not want to cash in.

Who knows when the bubble will burst … but even as someone who likes the idea of a stable and secure world cryptocurrency … this is currently just ridiculous gambling.

Some suggest it is on par with the dot-com boom and crash, which maybe true, but personally I’d go back a few more centuries to ‘Tulipmania.’

Tulipmania was the first major financial bubble. Investors began to madly purchase tulips, pushing their prices to unprecedented highs; the average price of a single flower exceeded the annual income of a skilled worker. Tulips sold for over 4000 florins, the currency of the Netherlands at the time. As prices drastically collapsed over the course of a week, many tulip holders instantly went bankrupt.

Tulipmania reflects the general cycle of a bubble: investors lose track of rational expectations, psychological biases lead to a massive upswing in the price of an asset or sector, a positive-feedback cycle continues to inflate prices, investors realize that they are merely holding a tulip that they sold their houses for, prices collapse due to a massive sell off and many go bankrupt.

EDIT 11/29 afternoon: Since I wrote this early Wednesday morning, I figured it would at least be appropriate to show what happened in the afternoon. If you own Bitcoins, you need a strong stomach.

Category: Business, Financial, History | 1 Comment »
Tags: bitcoin, bubble, cryptocurrency, currency, dotcom, mania, trading, tulipmania, tulips