My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on September 29, 2013

Category: Apple, Blogs, Software | No Comments »
Tags: app, apple, blogging, livewriter, pixelpumper

Posted By RichC on September 28, 2013

This past week I flew up to Williston, North Dakota to help my son Taylor move into his new apartment. My expectation were low and so the brand new apartment with easy access to everything made for a very positive first impression. Taylor drove his late grandfather’s “loaner vehicle,” a Chevy Trailblazer, from Cincinnati to North Dakota with the U-Haul trailer a few days prior to the arrival of his “slave labor” (aka, me). He also enjoyed a couple days in Minneapolis with a friend from high school and his cousin Justin and family. The drive was long and he (we) really appreciated their hospitality as a way to break up his trip.

Taylor and I unloaded in no time and headed out to eat and off to the Walmart to pick up a few forgotten items; there are a few more forgotten items being shipped up in a care package from mom as off today. We spend the next day making a few phone calls, setting up his Fedex box and exploring a bit of the area. We also drove 20 miles on both newly paved roads and questionable gravel roads  to Lake Sakakawea and Lewis and Clark State Park. The weather couldn’t have been nicer for a bit of hiking around the lake and exploring the shoreline; we even collected some sands and a couple rock for Brenda (she collects samples when possible from everywhere we go). The lake is big, the third largest manmade lake in the U.S. and is formed by the earth-filled Garrison Dam on the Missouri River (map). It’s a nice recreation area … although a bit desolate.

By the time it was time to go, we had pretty much covered all there is to see in Williston. I got the chance to meet a few of the people he will be working with in the Williams County Planning and Zoning department, but unfortunately not his boss (he was away at a meeting down-state). Everybody I talked with was very nice and besides the remote location, I think Taylor will learn a lot and enjoy his first “real job.”

Leaving was actually more challenging for me that I thought since Taylor has always been independent and regularly been away from home. In junior high he was a student ambassador and traveled for a month in Europe. He has taken mission trips to Romania and spent a summer at Norwich University in Vermont at a leadership camp. Throughout college he’s lived away from home and we’ve gone for months without seeing him … but for some reason, North Dakota felt different. It probably has something to do with the distance and the fact he is moving their alone. I’m sure it will seem challenging for him at first too, but knowing his social nature, it won’t be long before he makes a few new friends.

Here are a few photos downloaded from my phone.

Category: Archive, Personal, Photos | 2 Comments »
Tags: career, north dakota, taylor, williston

Posted By RichC on September 27, 2013

If there was more time in the day I would have updated a bit more about my trip to North Dakota and moving Taylor into his new apartment … but that will have to be for another day. Currently I’m contemplating a move to Digital Ocean for at least one of the websites I manage and might give it a try first with my blog (we’ll see?) I hate making moves while everything is running smoothly, but the ease of management and cost of the service is pretty attractive. Any users currently care to chime in?

EDIT: Set up my first Droplet and of course there is a referral program … so if you are interested, click here then let me know. Thanks.

Category: Cloud, Computer, Technology | 1 Comment »
Tags: cloud, digital ocean, techfriday, webhosting

Posted By RichC on September 25, 2013

A shocker to be sure — I had given up on America’s Cup Team Oracle and declare New Zealand the sure winner a week ago. I was convince that after the first few races that the U.S. team was over matched and in an inferior boat; they just couldn’t keep up tack for tack. Oracle’s 72-foot catamaran had a serious problem when sailing upwind and New Zealand demonstrated a clear advantage by at least a knot and a half.

But, they didn’t give up and continued to make changes to their boat deep into the competition … and just as in business … Larry Ellison’s team, and deep pockets, found a way to make up the deficit. “It just doesn’t make sense they’re faster than us upwind, we finally broke the code.” Ellison commented. “You know what 8-to-1 is? 8-1 is motivated.”

Congratulations to Team Oracle for defending the Cup in an impressive comeback.

Category: News, Sailing, Sports | 1 Comment »
Tags: cup, new zealand, oracle, san Francisco

Posted By RichC on September 24, 2013

While dropping voice calls on Sprint heading thru Dayton, I was surprised by the 4G LTE indication. It looks like we are one step closer to switching on Sprint LTE service in Ohio.

Category: Misc | 2 Comments »
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Posted By RichC on September 23, 2013

Killing a few minutes at the Minneapolis St. Paul (MSP) airport checking email with a large cup of “bold” Caribou Coffee (free wifi). I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed the brew as it has been a while. The beautiful weather is perfect for flying, but the sardine cans my $1000 RT trip requires have a lot to be desired (FYI: used frequent flyer miles). There must be a better way to travel around the country? (perhaps my first leg sitting next to a 300+ guy had something to do with my attitude?)

Category: Misc | 3 Comments »
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Posted By RichC on September 22, 2013

The Cleveland Clinic is a bright spot in medical care for those of us living in Ohio and for people from around the country (and world) who need some of the best medical care available. The Clinic was even touted as a role model of health care by President Obama when pushing for his Affordable Care Act in 2009. Now that ObamaCare is law and nearing the 2014 implementation date, the Cleveland Clinic announced that it is being forced to cut $330 million from its budget (5-6%) due to the new healthcare law. As Northeast Ohio’s largest employer with 42,000 employees, the cuts being announced will be felt by the entire region and has everybody on edge.

According to a spokesperson for the Clinic, the cuts are necessary as we “prepare for increased costs and decreased revenue under the health care reform law.” Some of the changes will included offering early retirement to approximately 3,000 employees and reducing operational costs … but the final step will be employee layoffs as needed.

From my perspective, it is difficult to see how reducing budgets, staff and medical care at the best run and most highly respected institutions … while attempting to covering 30+ million more American under the new government run insurance exchanges … is going to result in improved health care? Charles Krauthammer had and insightful 30 second comment this past week when pointing out how the Obama adminstration’s big government is improving life for you and me — “brilliant!”

Category: Audio, Health, News, Politics | No Comments »
Tags: cleveland, clinic, krauthammer, obamacare, ohio healthcare

Posted By RichC on September 21, 2013

Sleeping Porch: May 1916: A baby porch suspended a hundred feet above ground? What could possibly go wrong? As city populations grew, people grew concerned about raising young children in tight spaces. Inventors suggested the miniature sleeping porch, which could be installed outside any window. The device seemed sturdy enough — an iron brace enabled it to carry 500 pounds of weight, while anchors protected the porch from strong winds. The compartment’s barred windows and netting kept the baby from climbing out (and bugs from flying in), and as the image shows, it was roomy enough to hold a tiny carriage “so that the effort of the mother in taking the baby in and out is reduced to a minimum.”

http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2011-03/archive-gallery-popscis-daycare-horrors

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Posted By RichC on September 20, 2013

Taylor left at about 6AM this Friday morning with a U-haul trailer full of belonging to start his new job and make his mark on the world. The drive to Williston, North Dakota will take him to his halfway point in Minneapolis tonight where he will meet-up and stay with his long time friend Alicia Frost. I know he is looking forward to seeing her, but not necessarily leaving the many friends here in Cincinnati … that far northwest corner of North Dakota is a long way away (and a bit chilly already too!)

I’ll be heading up after a previously planned wedding on Saturday in order to help him unload and set up his apartment. I’m not necessarily looking forward to the trip and unloading (thought my days of being a mover were behind me?), but I am glad to be flying rather than driving and taking the Amtrak back … which was my original plan. Still, I had to burn way too many frequent flyer miles to cover a $1000 ticket; no matter which way you look at it, the flights to Williston and connections are not easy or cheap.

Brenda and I are finding it far more emotionally difficult that we expected to send him off by himself. It is surprising to me since he takes trips all the time, been overseas for extended periods as a student ambassador and for mission trips … and we never thought twice about sending him off to college? Maybe it’s the distance or just the remoteness?  I can only imagine what parents must feel to send a “child” on an overseas military deployment.

Taylor says goodbye to Tootsie (our “family” dog, but the two of them are buddies)

I know he’ll do fine and that his new “planning career” will benefit by working in a high growth area like Williams County, North Dakota. One thing is  for sure, he won’t be bored.  Drive safe Taylor … see you in a couple days.

 
As usual, click the photo for larger images

Category: Archive, Personal, Photos | 2 Comments »
Tags: career, nd, taylor, tootsie, williston

Posted By RichC on September 19, 2013

Evening: After struggling to download the over-the-air install of Apple’s new iOS on both iPhone and iPad (should have installed iOS7 with iTunes), the new mobile operating system is finally up and running. My first impression was my usual “oh I miss my old familiar look and feel … and I want it back.”  Now take this with a grain of salt since I’m a guy who still has one Mac desktop computer running Mac OS9 (1999); in other words, this is not unusual for me to resist change. That said, IF Apple was going for a clean, bright, flowing and sliding panel oriented look and feel, they have accomplished it. Personally, I didn’t need the extra space padded around text cells or jumping open and closed menu bars, etc. After the first hour I’m also finding the new message bubbles more difficult to read.

Lunch: Well par for the course … I fell asleep before finishing the post last night and will finalize with just a couple more quick observations. The new “cover-flow” feature (left) might make looking through open tabs on Safari easier for some, but I preferred the tiny tabs displayed all the time even if  they are piled up. As for typing, I complained about the loss of a physical keyboard when switching to an iPhone, but the old virtual one was easier  to look at and use in my opinion (below).

The older style iOS6 keyboard on the left and the newer iOS7 on the right.

As for glitches, well I’ve only stumbled a couple times when opening apps. The WSJ app crashed this morning and the Overdrive app for borrowing and reading library books continues to crash when trying to read books … although will allow me to checkout another (but it won’t download without crashing).

Another one of the continuing and more annoying quirks is the inability to “kill” all the apps that may have been opened at on time. I was hoping for a single “kill all” feature to be added, but instead Apple decided to make it even more difficult than before (use to have a whole line of icons). In iOS6, a double tap on the home button and holding down on one of the open app icons would allow one to rapidly tap of the “x” to kill open apps one at a time, but quickly.  Now, to kill an app, you need to swipe each one away (but up to 3 at a time) with only 3 of the opened apps appearing on the full screen. Something tells me someone at Apple isn’t listening to their users – I’m including a screen shot from the iPad below. (Maybe I’m missing something???)

I’m sure there will be more “learning” to adapt to a new mobile operating system, but my first impression is that I wish they would have kept the good things and given us a few more useful improvements like the handy “Control Center.” Swipe up and there’s a bunch of handy feature including the new flashlight, timer, world clock, calculator and AirDrop, along with quick on-off radio switching and music.

 
The Reminder app has excessing cell spacing (left), but Control Center (right) is nice!

Category: Apple, Cellphone, Computer, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: apple, ios7, ipad, iphone, mobile