My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on September 14, 2013

Brenda and her mom are participating in a “sponsored walk” this Saturday morning to benefit the American Heart Association with a few of Brenda’s co-workers. It is a beautiful morning for it and from the temperatures the  first day of fall … brr! I’m still refusing the thought of cooler weather and challenging the temps by wearing shorts and a t-shirt … but am sitting in the garage “with the door close” at the moment.

Besides a little more sanding on the Mercedes rocker panels, it does look like I’m going to have to get into some body colored paint – something I was trying to avoid. This might cue up an air brush attempt in trying to just paint the repaired rust/bubbled paint areas (I’ve never worked much with blending and buffing)  ? We’ll see how that goes?

2013 Middletown Area Heart Walk

Category: Misc, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: brenda, momh

Posted By RichC on September 13, 2013

After hearing about the Curiyo browser add-on from Walt Mossberg on AllThingsD, I figured I would give the “pop-up window” lookup app a try. My first concern was bloat. In years past, adding plug-in and add-ons has been nothing but problems for those of us wanting to try the latest and greatest widgets, for lack of a better word. I swore off installing anything browser related for the longest time as my notebook computer found its RAM and processor taxed. With even a minimal number of additions to any browser (but particularly for me, Firefox), I could not keep things running smooth. Add to that Microsoft’s Window OS the inability to keep the itself running at a fresh install speed, it made a frown cross my face every time I booted my “old” computer or returned to Firefox, my preferred browser at the time (pretty much adopted Chrome as my default nowadays).

Anyway, back to Curiyo. It’s a browser app that bring information to a pop-up window within whatever page you are reading … be it a dictionary term, Wikipedia article, social comment, etc. I can’t say I’m instinctively using it yet, but clicking on one of the lightly underlined term or holding the mouse button down over a word makes looking something up a breeze. No more opening a new tab or window and then Googling the copied text – its all right in a pop up box with buttons for different websites (using the “Map” was really handy. ie image to the right).

So far I’m only a couple days into using Curiyo and have no plans to uninstall it from Chrome unless it starts to bog things down. That’s sort of an endorsement.

Category: Computer, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: add-on, browser, curiyo, techfriday

Posted By RichC on September 13, 2013

Short and sweet. As one would expect from the 140 character social networking company.

— MT @Twitter We’ve confidentially submitted an S-1 to the SEC for a planned IPO.

But here are a few more tweets collected by the Associated Press.

— #FunFact: In the first hour of @Twitter sending that IPO announcement tweet, 7,872 people retweeted the message.

— According to @APStylebook: “The verb is to tweet, tweeted. A Twitter message is known as a tweet.”

— The company was founded 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Their handles: @Jack, @Biz and @Ev

— First tweet by @Jack was “just setting up my twttr” on March 21, 2006, at 3:50 p.m.

— Dorsey went on to create @Square, a system for paying for coffee, goods through phones.

— Twitter soared to popularity in 2007 at the South By Southwest Interactive festival in Austin, Texas. #sxswinteractive #Austin #BBQ

— Three years, two months and one day: The time it took from the first tweet to the billionth tweet. #CoolStat

— Users on @Twitter: More than 200 million. @Facebook has 1.16 billion. That’s nearly six times as many. #QuickMath

— A billion tweets are sent every two and a half days. Put another way, that’s three for every man, woman and child in the U.S. via @smfrogers

— The public offering comes at a time of heightened investor interest in the IPO market — 131 IPOs have priced so far this year.

— Is @Twitter trying to avoid @Facebook’s May 2012 IPO #fail? Well, company is keeping details secret for now. #TwitterIPO

— The company hasn’t said if it makes a profit or how much revenue it takes in. #FadOrFuture? Wonder if @WarrenBuffett will buy stock.

— Most of Twitter’s revenue comes from advertising. @eMarketer estimates $582.8 million this year, up from $288.3 million in 2012.

— Compare: In latest quarter, Facebook had $1.6 billion in ad revenue. By 2015, Twitter’s annual ad revenue is expected to hit $1.3 billion.

Category: Financial, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: twit, twitter

Posted By RichC on September 12, 2013

Abby and Brittany live a life that is worth admiring. Kudos to their parents, friends, etc!

Category: Misc, Video | 2 Comments »
Tags: amazing, bbc, life

Posted By RichC on September 12, 2013

For my small part in handling the finances for the TDIClub.com, Fred sent me a carry-on bag in appreciating for a very successful TDIFest 2013 in Maine (photos & great TDI history breakfast presentation-PDF). Also below the break is a video uploaded by TooRoundTDI of a roof cam look at climbing Mt. Washington in VW TDIs. Nice!

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Misc, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: tdiclub, tdifest

Posted By RichC on September 11, 2013

Besides flying our flag at half staff for Patriot Day, I’ve been looking for something besides posting a photo as way to remember the attack on our country 12 years ago. Here is a story written by Chris Moody about Ed Hewitt who was surfing in Sandy Hook, New Jersey.

“He sat by himself, straddling his board as the nose bobbed in and out of the lonely water in front of him. The cloud grew larger, more menacing. A few moments later, he watched as boats loaded with people came speeding in his direction from Manhattan. Hundreds of people were fleeing the island. Many were bloodied and injured.”

Read the story here

Category: History, Misc | No Comments »
Tags: 9/11, remember, terrorism

Posted By RichC on September 11, 2013

With all the pre-event leaks and lackluster comments from technology journalists, it is difficult for even Apple fans to get wound up about the new “same sized” iPhones. The non-surprise by Apple was reflected in a 2% decline in $AAPL shares on Wall Street and many wonder if the magic is gone?

On the plus side, there are worthwhile improvements that need to be mentioned, at least in their top of the line iPhone 5s. The new 64 bit A7 chip is said to be very efficient and should keep Apple’s phone in the top tier when it comes to mobile computing performance. Apple also included the new "Touch ID finger print identity sensor" on the 5s (not the 5c) for unlocking the iPhone and for iTunes purchases. It sounds great, but like the facial security promoted by Android, one wonders how it will perform in everyday life?

The upgraded camera will shoot slow motion video, but keeps an 8 megapixel sensor even though it is larger. The lens is faster (bigger f2.2 aperture for more light) and it has a better flash to illuminate faces – a weakness of all phone cameras. I’ll be anxious to see a pixel to pixel sharpness test.  Sooner or later we’ll all be tossing at least our point and shoot cameras if we haven’t already. An oddity is the fitted "leather" case — I’m anxious to see that, but unless the battery life really improves I’m not sure I’d be without my Mophie case. (the claim is 10 hours LTE and WiFi, 10 hours talk time on 3G, 40 of music and 250 in standby)

Perhaps the improvement I’m most interested in knowing more about is iOS7 … the operating system. It will be made available to previous iPhone users at no cost; I’ll install it on my iPhone 5 at the end of this month.

The iPhone 5S will come in three models: 16 GB for $199, 32GB for $299 and 64GB for $399, with a contract. The phone will go on sale on September 20th.

The iPhone 5C will cost $99 for a 16GB model or $199 for a 32 GB model, with contracts. A colorful variety of cases will cost $29. The iPhone 5C will go on sale on September 20th, with pre-orders starting on September 13th.

Category: Apple, Cellphone, Financial, Technology | 3 Comments »
Tags: 5c, 5s, aapl, apple, event, iphone

Posted By RichC on September 10, 2013

Saw this in the Wall Street Journal personal section today and although I knew about the gum, I did not know about the string cheese (for the fun of it, I’m trying the iPhone’s Mobile OCR app to capture text).

Studies show two things people can chew to help ward off tooth decay. One, Dr. Cole says, is chewy cheese: String cheese will reduce the pH of bacterial plaque. One reason, says Dr. Cole, is that chewy things make you salivate, and proteins in your saliva will buffer acids. Also, naturally occurring chemicals in cheese “encourage the tooth to remineralize.” Dr. Cole suggests: “The pairing of wine with cheese is actually a good thing, because the cheese can counterbalance the acidity of the wine.”

Chewing sugarless gum is also a good option if you can’t get to your toothbrush. “Some studies have suggested that xylitol, which is the sweetening agent in gum, actually has anticariogenic characteristics.”

Category: Advice, Health, Misc | No Comments »
Tags: cavities, dentist, teeth, wsj

Posted By RichC on September 10, 2013

Taylor took a bold step toward his future by accepting a planning position in North Dakota. Since graduating from Miami University in May, the resumes and cover letters have been many, but openings in his field few. With the feedback always highlighting a desire for more experience, Taylor decided that starting his planning career in the rapidly growing northwest corner of North Dakota offered just that — in fact there are few parallels. With the oil boom and population growth, Williams Country is growing beyond their ability to service the population – talk about a busy planning office! So with a quick acceptance, he will move to Williston, North Dakota later this month (just in time for winter — grin) and learn by jumping in with both feet. Who knows, he might be so busy that he’ll forget how far he is from home? (see previous post)

I am excited and proud of him, but at the same time I’m going to miss having him an arms length away. For the past 24 years, we’ve never been more than a few hours apart and it has been easy to make up an excuse to get together. Now we’re talking 20 hours which means he’s not on my business travel route or an easy drive for a weekend visit; we’ll be lucky to see him on holidays, although nothing like what we ask of our military personnel serving overseas or on ships.

Taylor’s 9/9/2013 Facebook post:

Category: Personal, Photos, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: career, facebook, planning, taylor

Posted By RichC on September 9, 2013

Think twice before dangling your feet in the “mighty Mississippi!” LINK

Category: Misc | No Comments »
Tags: