My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on July 14, 2017

This past week while in Florida to do a little boat work, as well as a repair item at the Delray Beach condo, I noticed several new residents – hm?  We have always had itty-bitty chameleons, but never the big lizards (or perhaps “medium” sized ones). This was a new surprise for me as I walked around to take a look at the back screens. I startled them, and they did the same to me. I can’t say I’m a fan of reptiles of any skin – NO to alligators, crocodiles, lizards or snakes (here’s one that slithered back to the canal a few years ago).

For now, I think I’ll make sure all the screens stay hole free and will remind everybody to keep the doors to their car and to the condo closed.

Category: Environment, Personal, Photos, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: condo, condo1718, delray beach, florida, lizards, snakes

Posted By RichC on July 13, 2017

Having a CCW license is just one more expiration to creep up on you if you are not paying attention. I’m not sure how I remembered, but glanced at my 35 day past expiration on my Ohio Concealed Carry license are realized it has already been 5 years. Wow, it seems like just the other day?

Anyway, I made my appointment down at the Butler County Sheriff’s office after filling out the renewal application and was thankfully within the 120 day grace period for renewing. What I did find out is that the Ohio CCW license has a 30 day past expiration date for legal carry … which broached the subject of reciprocity with my Florida CCW. In my unanswered question to the office, I’ve concluded it is a grey area … since the non-resident Florida may not be quite as welcome without having a resident license? I really never received a straight answer from the department charged with taking photos and fingerprints. Nevertheless, I feel a little better having both the 10 years FL license and five more 5 years of a new Ohio CCW … a A WHOLE LOT better than living where civilian gun ownership is thwarted at every bureaucratic turn. At least the two licenses that I carry pretty much covers my travels. (USA Carry)

Category: Advice, Misc, Personal, Travel | No Comments »
Tags: butler county, ccw, concealed carry, firearms, florida, handgun, ohio

Posted By RichC on July 12, 2017

From a shareholder perspective we know investors seem to like Ned Segal – share price is up significantly after the announcement. From a Twitter USER perspective, we don’t even know him – Segal isn’t active on Twitter.

Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) confirmed Tuesday the appointment of Ned Segal as the company’s next chief financial officer. He will replace Twitter’s Chief Operating Officer Anthony Noto who has been assuming the duties of both CFO and COO.

Segal brings more than 20 years of finance and capital market experience to the table along with expertise in the technology sector, JMP’s Ronald Josey commented in a report. He most recently served as senior vice president of finance for the small business group at Intuit Inc. (NASDAQ: INTU), where he led financial and strategic planning for the $2.5 billion division.

Prior to his employment at Intuit, Segal spent 17 years at Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS), where he was a managing director and head of global software investment banking.

Ironically, Segal isn’t active on Twitter’s social media platform with a total 13 Tweets from 2015 through 2017.

Category: Financial, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: $TWTR, cfo, investing, ned segal, stock, trading, twitter

Posted By RichC on July 12, 2017

The United States is healthy enough to absorb further gradual rate increases and the slow wind down of the massive bond portfolio accumulated by the Federal Reserve during the financial crisis, Fed Chair Janet Yellen said in prepared testimony to be delivered to Congress Wednesday morning.

Source: Fed’s Yellen says economy steady enough for more hikes, bond wind down

Category: Business, Financial, News | No Comments »
Tags: federal reserve, inflation, janet yellen, reuters

Posted By RichC on July 11, 2017

Question:
Why do Swedish warships have bar codes on their sides?

Answer:
So when the ships return to port, they can Scan-di-navi-an.

(Merriam-Webster: Scan·di·na·vian \ˌskan-də-ˈnā-vē-ən, -vyən\ ) 

Category: Blogs, Humor | No Comments »
Tags: bar codes, ddj, filler, funny, Humor, joke, photoshop, scandinavian, ship, sweden, swedish

Posted By RichC on July 10, 2017

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Category: Audio, Entertainment, Local, Music | 1 Comment »
Tags: 1974, freebird, lynyrd skynyrd, mp3, music monday, musicmonday

Posted By RichC on July 9, 2017

The new iPhone7 Plus is a bit too large for my taste at the moment, especially coming from the iPhone5. I like the speed and the bigger screen, but not the bulk, especially with the new protective case. So … I ordered thinner case (maybe too thin) that should be in this week, but since I purchased Applecare “insurance,” perhaps a light-duty case will be fine?

A couple evenings ago thunderstorms moved through the area and left us with a beautiful evening sky. While I was out picking up branches and sticks up off the driveway,  I took the opportunity to compare the standard lens on the iPhone7+ to the “optical” telephoto. The photos below are the reduced size but untouched photos — standard on the left and the same scene with tele on the right.

While on the topic of a new phone, the new carrier VirginMobileUSA and InnerCircle $1 for a year service plan was working great, so I decided to try and move Brenda from Ting (which has been great for us) to VirginMobileUSA. I was able to persuade them add her “relatively new” iPhone7 to the $1 per year InnerCircle plan … even though she didn’t techincally buy a new phone through Virgin. That said, the overwhelmed customer service department is not up to speed on activating and messed up my existing number. Ugh! I ended up with a temporay  number for 24 hours while they tried to recover my old phone number. Thankfully I’m back in service again … and if all goes well, should have 2-lines of unlimited talk, text and data* for 12 months all for buying one new iPhone. Sweet deal if the service continues to be solid.

* I did lose the personal hotspot moving from Ting to VirginMobile, but can add it for $10/mo. I may give it a try on my next trip to the boat since we don’t have wifi at the condo and the marina wifi is pretty questionable at times. 

Category: Apple, Cellphone, Personal, Photos, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: camera, carrier, iphone7plus, speedtest, sunset, ting, virgin mobile

Posted By RichC on July 8, 2017

You’ll need a small hand with a good grip to change the daytime running light bulbs in the sardine like corners of a BMW X5 35D, and assume other models. That doesn’t mean you can wiggle around and tweak a tool or two to fix and assist, but smaller hands would make the process a bit easier. 

I ended up using a large adjustable wrench to help break the seal loose on the cap that covers the headlight compartment. Once open, the first bulb is the H8 daytime running light. Since I was not upgrading to brighter lights or a different color, an inexpensive $9.99 halogen replacement is fine.

I was able to twist the old bulb out, but the pigtail on the locking plug was not easy to hang onto while trying to unclip. I ended up wrapping the tip of my needle nose pliers with a little padding (electrical tape) and was able to hold onto the plug while snapping in the new bulb (don’t touch the new bulb with your hands). Once twisting the bayonet bulb back in place and resealing the cavity cover with a finger tight twist, pat yourself on the back because you just saved over $100 and a trip to the BMW dealership.

Category: Automotive, BMW, Diesel, How-To | No Comments »
Tags: BMW, daylight, driving, h835, headlight, How-To, replacement, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on July 7, 2017

Complaining is getting me nowhere … but those of us old school users of Yahoo and Google continue to be frustrated to see both companies going down the "design for smartphone – card look format" to their pages, even for large display computers.

YAHOO

A few weeks ago Yahoo Finance forced all users to give up their "classic view" portfolio pages that many including me have used for over a decade. The "new" view shuffles what is displayed on a "row" for each ticker AND adds white space and less information which is the trend for smaller screen smartphone use (lost "notes column" and others). This new portfolio eliminates what was "a nice full screen" of data for computer use and is now sluggish to scroll or quickly scan through "spreadsheet-like" amounts of tightly packed data. I complained (as did hundreds of others) and eventually stopped using Yahoo Finance and their portfolios.

GOOGLE

So, I rebuilt the portfolios using Google Sheets which takes far more management and is not nearly as workable as Yahoo’s "old" portfolios were. I opted for Google rather than a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet since I regularly used the Google News page. Now, Google has force switched users of their pages to their new format and is heading down the same design path. Their design team seems to be "pleased to announce" the "new UI having a clean and uncluttered look, designed for comfortable reading and browsing."

I disagree with their decision to give up function and ease of use for artistic and trendy looks. A quick glance at the above screenshots will illustrate how much less information (stories) can be displayed on a computer screen with out scrolling and jerking up constantly just to scan stories. I could not be more frustrated … as are a lot of other users.

As with Yahoo … I doubt complaining will get us anywhere. Time for changing again and looking finding both a new "news" and "portfolio" data aggregator — suggestions?

Category: Business, Computer, Financial, Marketing, News, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: complaint, design, finance, google, News, portfolio, smartphone, tech friday, techfriday, website, yahoo

Posted By RichC on July 6, 2017

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Category: Archive, Personal, Photos, Video | 1 Comment »
Tags: annalyn, drew, encore, family, house, katelyn, new, ohio, perrysburg, toledo, video, vimeo