A Music Monday Two-fer – but still out of the 1970s
Posted By RichC on March 20, 2017
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Simple hack for cleaning the gutters
Posted By RichC on March 19, 2017
Although using a leaf blower may be more fun in cleaning the gutters, it can make a mess of everything below. I generally use rubber gloves, but in the end always slice them up and end up with a bare hand anyway.
Here’s a great idea: Cut an anti-freeze or similar shaped plastic gallon jug in the shape of a scoop and dump the debris into a bucket or plasitc garbage bag.
Forgotten and leftover from Christmas 2016
Posted By RichC on March 19, 2017
My son Taylor is geography and map kind of guy so I gave him a mag-lift spinning globe for his desk for Christmas 2016. His interests and innate sense of direction is probably why he pursued “Urban Planning and now coordinates development for Clermont County Ohio as a county planner. Anyway, I had forgotten that I make a test video prior to wrapping this globe and figured I would post and archive it before I forget again.
Annalyn makes iPad and iPhone Wallpaper updates everyday
Posted By RichC on March 18, 2017
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Our 2010 BMW X5 35d is now officially a great road trip vehicle
Posted By RichC on March 18, 2017
We’ve taken a enough longer road trips in the 2010 BMW X5 35d now to officially declare it an outstanding road car … no surprise really. 
The driving characteristics of this 5000+ pound SUV are enjoyable since the handling is tight, interior space excellent, ride comfort “so-so” and highway power substantial. I don’t really want to admit this, but driving through Wisconsin there were stretches where I was comfortably cruising along at 100 mph … until commonsense kicked in and told me grandfathers are suppose to be wiser than that … so 90 mph became my limit.
Previous long highway trips in warmer weather, and slower speeds, returned 25 mpg easily, but at these higher speeds and colder weather, it was closer to 23 mpg. Still, few full-size, 338/HP/542 lb-ft of torque, SUVs are consistently returning fuel efficiency in the 20s and giving up a couple miles per gallon in the winter is normal anyway. Here’s a recent Fuelly.com chart with the 3/17 fills reflecting our latest Minnesota trip.
Click for larger
Hammock time on a sailboat from Sailing Britaly
Posted By RichC on March 17, 2017
TechFriday: Use an iPhone as a magnifying glass
Posted By RichC on March 17, 2017
The Magnifier is a simple but overlooked feature on an iPhone.
The setting is found in Settings > General > Accessibility. Turn “Magnifier” on. Then simply press the home button three times anywhere on the iPhone — either on the lock screen, the home screen, or in an app.
Cute video of Annalyn with a little bit of snow
Posted By RichC on March 16, 2017
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It is never too early for Annalyn to start reading a GOOD book
Posted By RichC on March 15, 2017
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US Customs Border Protection airport search powers
Posted By RichC on March 14, 2017
This story has been updated to add that Customs and Border Protection agents must have probable cause of wrongdoing to make stops outside the 100-mile border zone within which they have broad search powers.
A NASA scientist heading home to the U.S. said he was detained in January at a Houston airport, where Customs and Border Protection officers pressured him for access to his work phone and its potentially sensitive contents.
Last month, CBP agents checked the identification of passengers leaving a domestic flight at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport during a search for an immigrant with a deportation order.
And in October, border agents seized phones and other work-related material from a Canadian photojournalist. They blocked him from entering the U.S. after he refused to unlock the phones, citing his obligation to protect his sources.These and other recent incidents have revived confusion and alarm over what powers border officials actually have and, perhaps more importantly, how to know when they are overstepping their authority.
The unsettling fact is that border officials have long had broad powers — many people just don’t know about them. Border officials, for instance, have search powers that extend 100 air miles inland from any external boundary of the U.S. That means border agents can stop and question people at fixed checkpoints dozens of miles from U.S. borders. They can also pull over motorists whom they suspect of a crime as part of “roving” border patrol operations.Sowing even more uneasiness, ambiguity around the agency’s search powers — especially over electronic devices — has persisted for years as courts nationwide address legal challenges raised by travelers, privacy advocates and civil-rights groups.
We’ve dug out answers about the current state-of-play when it comes to border searches, along with links to more detailed resources.
Doesn’t the Fourth Amendment protect us from “unreasonable searches and seizures”?
Yes. The Fourth Amendment to the Constitution articulates the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” However, those protections are lessened when entering the country at international terminals at airports, other ports of entry and subsequently any location that falls within 100 air miles of an external U.S. boundary.
Read full text at Business Insider: What US Customs Border Protection can and can’t do at the airport
Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee
- lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
- digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.