My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on June 28, 2016

I’m not sure how the whole "drone" future is going to turn out, but it is exciting to watch the improvements over a short period of time. The ease of flying, improvements in batteries and quality of video have really advanced. It will not be long before we’re "jumping" around town in a quadrotor. I still worry about safety and drones being used by terrorists, but the US needs to be on the cutting edge when it comes to innovation and amateur experimentation (just as will my EAA = Experimental Aircraft Association)

My son-in-law, Drew brought his older quadrotor to our house last summer, but recently upgraded to a more advanced model. He has sent me some amazing footage over their house. Hopefully later this year when we visit them in Wayzata, MN I’ll get a chance to play with his new quadrotor. It gives a whole new meaning to being an "armchair pilot."

Click for larger video or here for full screen ==>

Category: Aviation, Innovation, Personal, Technology, Video | 2 Comments »
Tags: drew, drone, family, katelyn, quadcopter, quadrotor, video, wayzata

Posted By RichC on June 27, 2016

Here are a few phrases that you may not have realized were born in the days of sailing ships posted on the American Sailing Association site.

“A clean bill of health”
According to dictionary.com this phrase derives from the days when the crew of ocean going ships might be a little less than hygienic, so they needed to present a certificate, carried by a ship, attesting to the presence or absence of infectious diseases among the ship’s crew and at the port from which it has come.

“Feeling Blue”
How often do you hear people talking about feeling blue or have the blues? An entire genre of music comes from this phrase. Who knew that came from the world of sailing? See-the-sea.org explains the popular phrase comes from a custom that was practiced when a ship lost its captain during a voyage. The ship would fly blue flags and have a blue band painted along her hull when she returned to port.

“Pipe down”
Parents have been screaming “pipe down” to their kids forever, but where does that actually come from? Apparently, Pipe Down was the last signal from the Bosun’s pipe each day, which meant lights-out, quiet down, time to go to bed.

“Over a barrel”
We all know when someone has you “over a barrel” things aren’t going well. This saying is used all the time these days to indicate being severely compromised, but it began in the most literal way. Sailor crew would sometimes be punished for their misgivings and that involved being tied over a cannon barrel and whipped. It’s no wonder that one stuck around. Yikes.

“Toe the line”
Perhaps you’ve been at work and your boss has scowled at you and said, “toe the line, or you’re gone”. If this has happened to you, we are sorry, that sounds like a horrible work environment. But, if you were wondering about the origins of his demand, it’s an old naval expression that refers to a ship’s crew who would be called to gather and form a line with their toes all touching a given seam (or line) of the deck planking.

“By and Large”
Folks say this one all the time to refer to the big picture. “By and large, ASA is the most awesome organization in existence”… something like that. This term got started on a sailboat with the word “by” meaning into the wind and “large” meaning off the wind. So sailors would say: “By and large this ship handles quite nicely.”

“Loose cannon”
Everyone has known a few people who are loose cannons – unpredictable and dangerous on some level. Not surprisingly the term comes from when a ship’s cannon would come loose from it’s lashing. The big dangerous thing would be sliding all over the place making for some uncomfortable time on deck trying to get that bad boy back in its spot.

“A square meal”
People often talk about getting three “square meals” a day…what the hell is a square meal? It’s actually quite simple – the wooden plates back in the days of tall ships were square.

“Hand over fist”
These days this phrase usually refers to making a bunch of money, although it can refer to anything happening fast and in abundance. It comes from a more literal origin – sailors would be tugging at lines as fast as they could, hand over fist, to trim sheets and raise sails.

“Son of a gun”
It’s amazing that this phrase has lasted so long. Back in the day, as you might imagine, sailors were often less than virtuous and every once in a while a “lady friend” of a crewman might give birth to a child on the ship. A good spot for this sort of thing was between the guns on the gun deck. Now let’s say this little rascal isn’t claimed by any of the aforementioned sleazy sailors, this little grommet would sometimes be called a “son of a gun”.

Category: Misc, Sailing | No Comments »
Tags: nautical, phrases, Sailing Friends

Posted By RichC on June 27, 2016

Whew … luckily no injuries.

Category: Automotive, Video | No Comments »
Tags: cnbc, garage, jay leno, racing, youtube

Posted By RichC on June 26, 2016

It has been a much longer process to get our BMW X5 35d back to road worthy than I initially thought. When I bought the used diesel SUV last year, I knew there were a few things I needed to repair, as well as a few items I wanted to tweak. After tinking on our previous Volkswagen TDI diesels (1 & 2), I knew what could be done to enhance this diesel’s performance. Several months and nearly $4000 in upgrades later (including a $$$ BMW service call), I’m feeling like it is finally a decent SUV.

One of my recent updates was the addition of a dark window tint (click for larger), something I’ve added to almost all my recent vehicles over the last 20 years … likely due to using my vehicles as mobile offices while in sales. I prefer the cooler interior in summer and ease on the eyes when the sun is bright, although I don’t mind the look either.

There are still a few plastic molding parts under the hood to search for as well as a spot or two of rust to repair underneath before I bolt the skidplates back on, but for the most part it is drivable … except for this nagging "high temperature" code that keeps showing up on my Carly for BMW app? (click) I’ll keep plugging away at it. Although the X5  has added a few pounds with the new hitch, it has shed quite a few overall — that’s a lot of parts!

Category: Automotive, BMW, Diesel | No Comments »
Tags: BMW, solartint, tinting, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on June 25, 2016

In rounding out and connecting the dots in a couple previous posts, I’ll summarize with a short post and what happened.

When reinstalling the brake caliper slides the other day on the BMW X5 35d, I snapped off my Craftsman branded hex socket when tightening down the slide. It was careless on my part as I’ve grown use to using "wobble extensions" and was putting undue side pressure on the hardened steel hex bit. So … the tip snapped off "inside" the slide bolt and it was of course fully tightened. No amount of finagling could get the broken tip to come out. Even after tearing the protective rubber boot off the slide and gripping with small lock-jaw pliers it would not loosen. So eventually I ground a slot big enough to either use a flat bladed screwdriver … or as it would turn out, rattle out the tip of the hex bit with a little "picking" with my late father-in-law’s dental tool — thank you DadH!

Now all was good … except that left me with needing a new slide bolt and rubber boot (so I ordered from Amazon with Prime like a millennial would).
 
No problem anyway because I attempted to "cheap out" and not purchase a new Front Brake Pad Sensor and instead carefully removed the "still good" old sensor.
Tip: That is a bad idea, because the Carly for BMW app I used to reset the computer requires a new sensor before resetting the ECU service monitor.  Ugh!

Category: Automotive, BMW, Diesel, Shopping, Tools | No Comments »
Tags: amazon, BMW, brakes, diesel, parts, tools, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on June 24, 2016

Customer Service.

Sailrite does it right. Thank you … and many returns and referrals from me.

Category: Business | No Comments »
Tags: Business, customer service, sailrite

Posted By RichC on June 24, 2016

Financial markets around the globe are reeling Friday morning from yesterday’s historic BREXIT vote in the UK as the people have chosen to exit the EU. Big picture is that life has not improved for citizens of Britain under the real or perceived central control — some suggesting it is "their" Independence Day. Even though most probably recognized there would be at minimum short term pain due to such a change and exit from the European Union, the status quo was not acceptable anymore either. The people have instead chosen to bear the cost of having their own "say" as to what happens with trade deals, environmental regulation and immigration were all in the minds of voters (Muslim refugee crisis and the terrorism threat was likely a scale tipper in the end). Like his brash arrogance, rhetoric, mindset, solutions or not, Donald Trump does have his finger on the pulse of ordinary people.

As the WSJ stories says Brexit Vote Wreaks Havoc in Markets: It was the surprise direction considering most expected that even with all the debate and frustration that both the poll and mindset was that the UK would stay the EU course and not head off in a new direction — the were wrong.

Britain’s surprise vote to leave the European Union battered the British pound by more than 11%, sent European and Japanese stocks on their steepest fall in years and broke records in government-bond yields as the world’s financial markets braced for an uncertain future for the politics and economies of Europe.

It was a historic drubbing for investors who had stacked up bets that the U.K. would choose to stay.

MORE

Category: Financial, News, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: brexit, britain, cameron, markets, uk, vote, wsj

Posted By RichC on June 24, 2016

I’m behind on my BMW X5 35d updates as the hitch installation happened over Father’s Day weekend and I failed to get the photos to my computer.

The process started by peeling off the body moldings which have every combination of plastic locking tab. Suffice to say, I broke a few trying to figure out how they work. As the extra structural components came off, the process started to make a little more commonsense, although if I were ordering a car new, I’d order it with the factory hitch package already included.  After all was said and done though, I’m happy with the results and will now be able to tow a trailer once the Honda Pilot give up the ghost.

Category: Automotive, BMW, Diesel, Tidbits | 4 Comments »
Tags: BMW, diesel, hitch, install, trailer, x5 35d

Posted By RichC on June 23, 2016

Volkswagen AG has agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle claims from U.S. owners of diesel-powered vehicles affected by the German auto maker’s emissions-cheating scandal, said people familiar with the matter.The $10 billion-plus deal would address owners of nearly 500,000 diesel-powered vehicles with two-liter engines that contain software capable of duping government emissions tests, the people said.

Source: Volkswagen to Pay More Than $10 Billion to Settle Emissions Claims – WSJ

Category: Automotive, Diesel, News, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: emission, scandal, vw, wsj

Posted By RichC on June 23, 2016

Follow up to previous post:

Here’s the beef (long-ish winded) — I have a bunch of Craftsman tools and have always appreciated their "fair" quality and knowing that Sears stood behind them (and "use to be" in every town). As times change, Sears is no longer what it once was and the convenience factor as pretty much given way to Amazon and ordering things online. That aside, I broke an metric Allen socket rather than order a full new set of "junkier" sockets, wanted to see if Sears would replace only the one socket.

The once convenient Sears Hardware is no long around in my area, so decided to zip to the Sears store at the mall one evening in order to replace … and not to waste a trip, took two other broken tools: a 1/2" drive ratchet and 17mm "Professional Grade" open/box end polished wrench (which became the problem tool). I was sad to see the Sears store so dead, but it did make working with the tool guy easy. He looked at the tools, replaced a socket with a similar one (so much for the matching set) and took my 1/2" drive into the backroom to repair; I guess that is a normal fix?

This left me with a broken 17mm wrench that he didn’t have a replacement for … said they didn’t carry the professional "polished" grade like mine in the stores and to check online — no big deal … right?

So … over lunch I decided to use the "chat feature" on Sears.com. Five minutes into the chat I knew it was not going well. The first Craftsman number 800-832-7494  remain busy for the hours of the chat … I’m still not sure it works? The automated attendant on the second number 800-469-4663 routed me and then dropped the call when it transferred. Again I tried the number but remained persistent … "representative, Representative, REPRESENTATIVE" … until a person picked up. Of course it wasn’t a person who could assist and she transferred over and over eventually to a 4th person who told me I needed to take this issue up with a store manager (all of this over a single wrench — and you wonder why Sears days are numbered???)

It gets better …

All this while, the chat person Alfie remained on the online chat (while I ate my lunch) and eventually handed me off to the supervisor "Daley" … a far less tolerant person (obviously tested by customers like me over time). In frustration to my returning persistence, I think she and I knew that we were not going to solve the "how to replace a broken Sears Craftsman wrench" via chat — her eventual answer to get me off the chat was to "call the number again after 2 hours" (ie. go away Rich!) … for my part it was "can you have someone contact me?" (ie. my time is important too — but it obviously is not!).
 

Alfie (15:49:03 GMT) : Good morning!
Pleasure to have you on this chat!
Alfie (15:49:08 GMT) : Can I have your name please?
Visitor (15:49:51 GMT) : Rich is my name. I have a "professional grade" wrench that I purchased at a Sear Hardware that has been closed. Was to the Sear Mall store and they can’t replace that grade of tool. What should I do.
Alfie (15:50:24 GMT) : I am really sorry to hear that.

… blah, blah, blah for an hour …

Visitor (16:54:25 GMT) : Craftsman number still busy … over the last hour i’ve called ever few minutes.
Daley (16:54:55 GMT) : I request you to call the number after 2 hours.
Visitor (16:55:33 GMT) : 2 hours?
Daley (16:56:01 GMT) : Yes, please call after sometime.
Daley (16:56:57 GMT) : Are we all set?
Daley (16:57:54 GMT) : I have not received a response yet. Would you like to continue chatting with me?
Visitor (16:57:59 GMT) : not really … but if you say you can’t help, can’t have someone contact me or say I need to wait 2 hours to call again, then I guess we are ?
Daley (16:58:43 GMT) : Yes, please call after sometime to get the replacement.
Visitor (16:59:02 GMT) : Ok … you guys don’t make this easy.
Daley (16:59:39 GMT) : Sorry that this we don’t have any other option.
Daley (17:00:30 GMT) : It was a pleasure chatting with you. We welcome your feedback. 

Conclusion:  I just needed to replace a broken 17mm wrench. Instead Sears customer service took an hour to irritate a long … long time customer (my dad bought Craftsman tools, I own tons of them and I bought them for my son). There must be a better way to run a company who’s reputation was one time great and who still claims a "Guaranteed Forever" claim on their tools.  Why else would customers pay a premium for Craftsman brand rather than running to Harbor Freight? (I’ll probably give up and just go to Harbor Freight for their $8.99 set below just to replace my 17mm wrench. Why put a customer through this???)

Item # 00945964000P  CRAFTSMAN PROFESSIONAL 13 PC. METRIC 12 PT. FULL POLISH COMBINATION WRENCH SET

Regular Price $99.00 – Sale Price $69.99

SPECIFICATIONS
Dimensions and Weight:   
Item Weight (lbs.)    3.55
Length (in.)    5.36 in.|5.73 in.|6.11 in.|6.52in.|7.23 in.|7.67 in.|8.06 in.|8.68 in.|9.08 in.|9.49 in.|10.07 in.|10.5 in.|11 in.
Metric Opening Size    9 mm
SAE Opening Size    Metric or Torx
Torx Opening Size    SAE or Metric
Product Overview:   
Quantity in Set    13
Number Of Points    12
Case Included    No
Wrench Sizing    Metric
Package Quantity    13
Color/Finish    Full polish finish
Set    Set
Ratcheting Wrench    No
Material    Alloy Steel
Length    Standard
Handle Type    Offset
Flex Head    No
Warranties & Coverage:   
General Warranty    Guaranteed forever

— VS —

— OR —

Category: Business, Misc, Shopping, Tools | No Comments »
Tags: craftsman, customer service, guaranteed, harbor freight, sears, warranty