Posted By RichC on November 19, 2016
This is only a test post … but of a painting I like. It depicts Oliver Hazard Perry, of "Don’t give up the ship" fame, and the September 10, 1813 Battle Of Lake Erie.
If you are ever touring the islands of Lake Erie’s western basin, be sure to visit Put-in-Bay and Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial (US National Park).
Posted By RichC on November 18, 2016
My son Taylor and his buddy Cam heading off this Friday morning on a trip to Hawaii. They have been planning a backpacking trip after locking up permits to hike the Kalalau Trail on the Na Pali Coast on Kauai since spring. One of their college friends works and lives in Honolulu so they have a place to stay before the three of them puddle-jump to Kauai for their hiking trip. I can’t wait to hear and see a few photos … likely I’ll add a few to the blog if the trip goes as planned.
EDIT: So far, all sounds great and woke up to a “double rainbow” on Saturday morning. Can’t ask for a more “promising” start to a vacation!
Double Rainbow in Hawaii on Saturday morning Nov 19, 2016
Posted By RichC on November 17, 2016
You might want to use that old wire line phone number or better yet, a Google Voice number for “all things” requiring a phone number.
A mobile number can be even more valuable than a Social Security number, since it’s tied to so many databases and connected to a device you carry with you.
Source: A 10-Digit Key Code to Your Private Life: Your Cellphone Number
Posted By RichC on November 16, 2016
The autumn Supermoon of 2016 has certainly been a beautiful sight in the night sky these past few days. The last couple of evening I’ve enjoyed the view and "attempting" to capture the using only my iPhone 5s since my son has my DSLR for an upcoming trip to Hawaii; I’m hoping he will practiced with it and send some photos home (my "tweaked" photo on left).
Nevertheless, if you didn’t pay attention, the "Beaver Moon" was at its closest distance in 69 years … at "only" 221,524 miles away (on Nov 14, 2016 at 6:15AM). The last time it was that close was in 1948! If you missed it, and are young enough, you will get another chance in 2034. 
In case you are counting, we have had 3 Supermoons in the last 3 months of 2016.
Not my photo … this one is from the Slooh Community Observatory (click for larger)
Posted By RichC on November 15, 2016
My good friend and old college buddy lives in an apartment which as been visited by the fire department — they tagged his door regarding the grill on his patio. Bad for him, good for me. All I had to do was go pick it up … glad I put the hitch on the BMW X5 35d! (Thanks Jeff)
His commercial quality grill was a bit more “used” than I had thought when he gave me first dibs knowing our ancient grill is barely working. The burners of his cosmetic yet commercial grade stainless steel grill needs some TLC. The four burners are beyond cleaning as are most of the guts in a older grill. They can be replaced and since I’ll be converting it from propane to natural gas, that is no big deal. Of bigger concern is the inside rust through in a couple spots. Of course it was free- “beggars can’t be choosers“ (a John Heywood 1546 epigram). I gutted and cleaned it with degreaser and a steel brush to knock off the surface rust and the next step is to order new burners, deoxit the rust and paint. I’m pretty sure I can get a few more years out of it, although not sure about welding in a 
little bit of new metal???
Posted By RichC on November 14, 2016
As part of getting a handle on the Amazon S3 costs, it is finally time to move into the 21st century and eliminate the old-school audio player on MyDesultoryBlog. I attempted to go with an HTML5 player a few years ago, but struggled with using it especially with different browsers. A few years later, everything seems to be working with HTML5 a bit better and so I’m testing this new Compact Audio Plugin because it nearly matches the “look” of the old one I’ve used for over a decade on the blog and will start to convert old pages and posts that contain audio. Below is an Amazon S3 .mp3 audio test using “up-audio-shortcode” as a test.
Posted By RichC on November 13, 2016
Surprise! At least that’s what I found out when I opened a couple virtual invoices from Amazon for my two AWS accounts (personal and business). After moving files for online web content to Amazon’s fast and reliable S3 cloud-based servers a couple years ago,
I’ve been happily adding content regularly since then as the cost has been relatively miniscule … until recently?
Much of the content I’m using Amazon S3 for is audio and video, where speed is helpful and transfers infrequent (especially older archival items). I’ve contemplating using their Glacier storage but have heard horror stories from people archiving data and then attempting to retrieve everything at one time (a no-no). It seems that uploading data and "parking it" is inexpensive, even for massive archives, BUT retrieving "more than the minimum per month" can be "bigly" expensive.
For me with the S3 storage, my last month invoice for both accounts jumped 200% in price … so I knew something wasn’t right. A quick ticket and reply indicated that access was way up, but no details. Unfortunately the "reports" are not intuitive or detailed enough for me and their advice was to check my "bucket" setting … which of course I have slowly opened up over time. Back to adding "Bucket Policies" and modifying "properties" again. Hopefully this will take care of things?
From Amazon Tech Assistance:
Thanks for following up with us regarding your issue with data transfer charges. I will keep your case locked to me, while you investigate, and will wait for further updates from you.
I’m sorry for the trouble this issue have caused you. In addition to the information that my colleague provided to you earlier, I wanted to mention some other resources, that I think you might find useful.
You can download usage reports from your billing console below to investigate, what kind of request may generate the traffic:
https://console.aws.amazon.com/billing/home#/reports/usage
You can select Amazon Simple Storage Service and download .csv hourly usage report for the previous billing cycle. By filtering the information, you can check which resource and which operation generates the most data transfer.
If you would like to prevent your instance from responding to requests, you may want to make sure your security groups are configured to block unsolicited inbound traffic to prevent unauthorized users from accessing your data. Here are
some tips for securing your instances against unwanted traffic:http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSEC2/latest/UserGuide/using-network-security.html
The issue with data transfer may happen if you grant permissions to your bucket to either "Everyone" (anyone on the Internet, even someone who doesn’t have AWS account) or "Any Authenticated AWS User" (anyone who has an AWS account). You may want to review the permissions that you set up for your buckets:
http://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/dev/manage-acls-using-console.html
I hope this helps, and I will look forward to hearing back from you.
Posted By RichC on November 12, 2016
Have you ever wondered what ammo and its components look like internally? If so, check out the interesting and educational photos below. During a bit of free time at FOG (Finger of God) Firearms and Cartridge Company, our staff cut in half six popular hunting,… More »
Source: Cartridges Cut in Half: A Unique Look at 6 Popular Rounds | OutdoorHub
Posted By RichC on November 11, 2016
A lot has changed in the 11 years that have passed since I posted on “First Man” Neil Armstrong … but after re-watching the 60 Minutes clip and pondering going “back to the moon and to Mars by 2018,” Armstrong would have been disappointed as a lot hasn’t changed.
Click for post from 11/11/2005
WHY the repost? I was reminded of this post partially due to looking at an old 2005 “Who is Max Peck” trivia post that has moved to the top ten in traffic for 2016. It is amazing to see old posts being resuscitated — who knows why … but maybe Bock is next … that’s a tease.)
Speaking of trivia, although I have never personally met Neil Armstrong (did meet John Glenn), I felt a kinship with him as he was a “local” boyhood hero. Instead of entertainers or sports starts, Neil Armstrong kept me at least a little more focus on school and developing an interest in aviation. We both grew up in western Ohio farm country, only a few towns apart, and eventually called Cincinnati home, his life was inspirational … of course every kid my age admired Apollo astronauts. But here’s the bit of trivia (in case my kids read it someday): I purchased my wife’s engagement ring from a jeweler who met me after business hours in the parking lot of the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio … although probably should have placed it on the moon rock before giving it to Brenda! (was going to try and incorporate some kind of “out of this world” wisecrack … but that would have just been corny).
