VW Rabbit-Golf facelift through the years #GIF
Posted By RichC on January 21, 2016
Thousands Apply to U.S. to Forgive Their Student Loans
Posted By RichC on January 20, 2016
Americans are flooding the government with appeals to have their student loans forgiven on the grounds that schools deceived them with false promises of a well-paying career.
Source: Thousands Apply to U.S. to Forgive Their Student Loans, Saying Schools Defrauded Them
So when is it overkill to be worried about infectious disease?
Posted By RichC on January 18, 2016
Do you really need to put toilet paper on the seat like mom taught you?
"If it makes you feel better," says Melissa Hawkins, director of the public health scholars program at American University, who’s an expert in biostatistics, behavioral health and community health. "The toilet seats are not a vehicle for the transmission of any infectious agents, though."
It’s better to use a paper towel to cover up your contact with the faucet handles and bathroom doorknob, she says.
— Source: U.S.News – Health
Archiving a photo of my nephew and son hanging out together
Posted By RichC on January 17, 2016
Archiving a January 2016 photo of my nephew Jaben and my son Taylor before the Bengals demise last week. They decided to get together in Cincinnati and watch the playoff game together – from all accounts, they had a good time.
I’m sure my brother feels the same way … it is nice to see our sons choosing to hang out together for a football game, despite their age difference. One thing I have found … an age difference as teenagers mean diddly-squat as you grow older.
Family is family … it is good to see this.
Using a photo to read the tiny print on an Apple USB charger
Posted By RichC on January 16, 2016
This is probably something I should have known, but the small Apple device chargers have such small printing that I’ve never eyeballed them close enough. The are only a 1A charging device so they do not power the Raspberry Pi computers approrpriately (just in case you needed to know). Instead, you’ll need to be looking for a 2A – 5 volt USB device … like the ones sold for this purpose or many others. Too bad since I was really hoping to used this tiny device with a short USB to micro USB cable for the Raspberry Pi when I mount it in the detached garage. (click photo if you have aging eyes too)
Computer, the Cloud and Blog updates and clean up
Posted By RichC on January 16, 2016
My cluttered desktop was overdue for a good clean-up and at least a little bit of organizing. After recently adding a second monitor to my iMac dedicated to virtual Windows 10 there ended up being more room to spreadout and clutter. Besides there is a 3rd monitor running after plugging in the new Raspberry Pi to the old Mac Mini ViewSonic DVI monitor (with a HDMI to DIV-D adapter from Monoprice) … and 4th and 5th if you add my antique Gateway notebook and iPad that get move here and there (and let’s not call the iPhone a monitor even though it sits nearby and glows!)
Once I started, there wasn’t any stopping so “I started” in with the external harddrives and Cloud storage. At some point I need to consolidate since I know longer remember what is on Amazon’s Cloud, my several Cubbies, Dropbox, Google Drive, iCloud or One Drive. I haven’t toss of those clould service “yet,” but need to improve my efficiency rather than focusing on redundancy. Meh, it all just housekeeping.
Setting up the Raspberry Pi as a security monitor
Posted By RichC on January 15, 2016
We’ve had a professional security system in the house for years, but I’ve always thought it would be nice to make a homemade version for the detached 
garage/pool house – might be a perfect Raspberry Pi project?
The first step was to see just what kind of wifi signal was there, considering the tiny $10 USB wifi dongle — obviously not much of an antenna (little nub at top of the device in the photo above).
Next was to boot up out in the garage and run the Wavemon program from the Linux command line and check the link quality and signal level (readout in photo above) while walking around on my extension cord leash. A useable connection in most areas toward the front; not so good in the area back near the workbench, woodstove or pool pump equipment room … but that’s okay since I’m probably going to use a Pi camera module mounted up high in the front window anyway. I’ll plan on pointing the lens at the driveway and if that works, I might try the Pi Noir infrared camera pointing at the inside of my garage shop for night monitoring (although would probably need to make a multiplexer or add a second Raspberry Pi unless one of the cameras is set up using a USB port … not to mention some infra-red LEDs for illumnation? Better get the first camera working)
Anyway … it looks like I’ll have enough bandwidth to be able to access the Raspberry Pi and camera feed from my network and even be able to monitor in real time … sort of like the uStream.tv Gazbo cam I set up several years ago.
First nasty winter drive of 2016 was not too bad
Posted By RichC on January 14, 2016
This weeks trip back and forth from SW Ohio to NE Ohio was the first with slippery road and winter snow in 2016. There are sure to be a few more winter days this year, but glad to already be into mid-January.
This drive was also the first winter driving for the BMW X5 35d. Although the road never really were challenging, the European diesel SUV handled the slick interstates without a problems. I’m starting to feel comfortable behind the wheel and have found 4 hour stints behind the wheel fairly easy. My biggest “squawk” is the systems management computer detecting glitches “requiring a trip to a BMW service center” or so it says. Everything from detecting a low “run flat” tire pressure (they are all fine — cold weather related) to a “no-start” warning that in 999 miles the vehicle will not start due to requiring blue-def exhaust emission fluid. Grr! I miss just having a couple lights on the dash.
Before there were Harley-Davidson Hogs …
Posted By RichC on January 13, 2016
William Harley and Arthur Davidson, founders of Harley-Davidson, with their motorcycles in 1914.
FYI … HOG = Harley Owners Group: http://www.hog.com
Origin of “Hog” nickname
Beginning in 1920, a team of farm boys, including Ray Weishaar, who became known as the “hog boys,” consistently won races. The group had a hog, or pig as their mascot. Following a win, they would put the pig (a real one) on their Harley and take a victory lap. In 1983, the Motor Company formed a club for owners of its product taking advantage of the long-standing nickname by turning “hog” into the acronym H.O.G., for Harley Owners Group. Harley-Davidson attempted to trademark “hog”, but lost a case against an independent Harley-Davidson specialist, The Hog Farm of West Seneca, NY, in 1999 when the appellate panel ruled that “hog” had become a generic term for large motorcycles and was therefore unprotectable as a trademark.
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.