Do I wait for the VW TDI Alltrack?
Posted By RichC on May 1, 2012
The future for diesel powered cars in the U.S. is promising
Posted By RichC on April 30, 2012
Interesting article with perhaps a slightly bias option … but in an article today Bosch projects that by 2015 one in ten new cars sold in the U.S. will be powered by a diesel engine.
… data from CNW Research says that with greater awareness of new clean diesels, and a lower cost premium for diesel fuel against gasoline–unlike 2008, when gasoline soared to $4 but diesel passed $5 in some markets–public receptiveness to choosing diesels is at new highs.
The attractive features are fuel efficiency up to 30 percent higher, and the convenience of a driving range up to 700 miles. For owners who analyze total cost of ownership, diesels can also provide lower lifetime running costs despite their higher initial purchase price and more expensive fuel–due to their higher residual values.
Novus Fine Scratch Remover for headlights
Posted By RichC on April 29, 2012
Since my daughter is home this weekend, I did a few items of maintenance on her 2001 Volkswagen Jetta TDI. After replacing a headlight I thought I’d using a little plastic scratch remover on the yellow and hazy lenses. For $5.99 and a little elbow grease they polished up nicely — so much for the headlight restoration kits.
http://www.quadratec.com/products/91083_002.htm
Losing your smartphone, e-reader, tablet or notebook computer
Posted By RichC on April 28, 2012
Airlines say they are warehousing hundreds of iPads and other tablet computers and e-readers left behind by travelers. Carriers try to reunite the devices with their owners but are often thwarted by the lack of ID tags, password protection and Apple Inc.’s reluctance to track down owners based on serial numbers. — WSJ
Scott McCarthny’s WSJ “The Middle Seat” column this past week made me wonder what would happen if I lost my iPad or phone? I figured it was well past time to come up with a way to help a good Samaritan to return a lost device.
If you don’t lock your device, it might not be too difficult for someone to sift through your private information and eventually find a way to contact you … 
but for most of us, password protecting a computer, smartphone or tablet gives us at least “some” sense of data security (perhaps false?) The obvious and easiest answer is to engrave or attach a sticker to the back … or with devices with removable batteries, maybe inside the back cover (as I did with my Palm Pre
above).
One of the interesting features on the iPad is that the passcode lock still permits a person without the code to open the Photos app and display the “Camera Roll” by default as it is called by Apple. All your iPad photos are then shown in a slide show, but for a little more privacy, “one” album can be selected. Go through the Settings > Picture Frame > Albums > … then checkmark a particular album. In that album place a photo of your business card or get creative and offer a “Reward if found” photo. My thought was to include my “mug” thinking that someone might recognize me as I’m franticly searching for my lost iPad. Nevertheless, I figured it still my be a good idea to include an address, email address and phone number. 
(Thought: Unlike tablets, for a phone you might not want to use your cellphone number as the contact number).
Tech Friday: A test drive of Google Drive
Posted By RichC on April 27, 2012
Against my TOS reservations, I installed the PC version of Google Drive on my notebook computer. So far from what I can see – for storage — it’s not all that different from Sugarsync that I used for a couple years and my regularly used Dropbox installation (still preferred at this time). I had thought that the poorly marketed Skydrive by Microsoft could eventually dominate, but the sleeping giant continues to sit on it’s hands and let others delve into the cloud storage space. Personally I think both Microsoft … and Amazon, with their stellar S3 storage … could still easily take the lead in cloud storage and personal file backup space.
One of the glaring negatives that I noticed on week one of the Google Drive release is that they don’t’ support iOS devices on the initial release (the iPad for me). Dropbox is pretty OS neutral at this point and I suspect that their lead will keep their service the preferred 3rd party cloud storage … although pricing is pretty attractive with Google Drive – $4.99/mo. for 100GB.
One of the differences is that Google doing more than just storage. They are iintegrating what used to be called Google Docs into their Drive storage. 
This makes it a bit different than the “file storage only” companies and brings a app cloud computing platform to users. Since I do use this web-based computing platform to sharing documents, spreadsheets and work collaboratively on projects, it does interest me … but it really isn’t ready for the productive business world. I have found that apps work fine for clubs and organizations, or for personal and perhaps school papers where several people can work together and see real-time updates to their work. I use this regularly with my son who is in college and more recently to help review his internship applications, resume and cover letters.
So far I’ve backed up my Google Docs to my computer for offline access and stored a few photos and documents. More in a few days after using it …
First account of the sailing tragedy in San Francisco
Posted By RichC on April 26, 2012
Why it is dangerous to sail close to land, inlets and reefs in areas of strong currents, high winds and heavy swells. See article from a survivor of April 14th’s Full Crew Farallones Race.
http://tinyurl.com/Lat38-120424
The cost of eBay and Paypal for the less savvy
Posted By RichC on April 25, 2012
Family and friends say, “just sell it on eBay.” There was a day when I thought it might be easy, but by the time a person figures out what it takes to make a once in a while sale, it might be time to think twice.
I purchased a part that I ended up not needing and decided to re-list it back on eBay, since they encouraged me with a free listing. Granted there was no cost to list, but the 30 minute hassle to write a description of the part and take a photo seemed a waste … considering it didn’t sell (reserve too high). A couple months later, again a chance to list for free on Ebay. This time I decided not to put a high reserve and eventually sold the item for $160 minus the $4.94 i cost me to receive the money through eBay’s Paypal arm ($160 was $60 less than I paid) — live and learn.
Now the fun part: Communicating with a persnickety buyer who began warning me of his refusal to accept if it wasn’t package and insured just the way he expected it. So by the time I had it packaged and paid the $13.31 for an eBay shipping label, I still had to drive it to the post office. I was finally glad to get it off my workbench. My time loss was about an hour of time, plus a gallon of gas to the post office and back to complete this less than lucrative sale.
Today my invoice from eBay arrived indicating that although the eBay listed was free, I still owed the “Final Value Fee” of $13.50 and the “Final Value Fee on Shipping” of another 90 cents. My loss has now rise to $60 + $4.94 + 13.31 + 13.50 + .90. That’s a total of $92.65 to sell the part that cost me $220 (plus time, aggravation, etc). Perhaps I should be glad that I’m not regularly trying to sell higher dollar items on eBay?
CNET: Who owns your files on Google Drive?
Posted By RichC on April 25, 2012
Before jumping ship from Dropbox, Skydrive or Sugarsync for Google Drive, the new lower price cloud storage solution, be sure to read the TOS agreement.
A quick analysis of Google’s terms of service shows how the search company owns the files you upload the minute they are submitted, and can in effect do anything it wants to your files — and that’s final. — CNET
“Your Content in our Services: When you upload or otherwise submit content to our Services, you give Google (and those we work with) a worldwide license to use, host, store, reproduce, modify, create derivative works (such as those resulting from translations, adaptations or other changes that we make so that your content works better with our Services), communicate, publish, publicly perform, publicly display and distribute such content.
The rights that you grant in this license are for the limited purpose of operating, promoting and improving our Services, and to develop new ones. This license continues even if you stop using our Services (for example, for a business listing that you have added to Google Maps).”
Archive: Lunchtime update for our front porch project
Posted By RichC on April 24, 2012
I finished wire brushing, sanding and painting the black iron railing last night and greeted the masons over lunch to see how the progress of the thin pavers is coming along. Sort of glad I hired them and am not tackling this project myself. (I was actually was up on the roof yesterday – birds in the attic – and twisted my knee. Am I getting older or what?)
Gideon Sundback the zipper inventor celebrated on Google
Posted By RichC on April 24, 2012
Google’s latest doodle is a zipper down the center of the search engine’s homepage marking the birthday of Gideon Sundback, the Swedish-American electrical engineer creating the “zipper” which revolutionized the clothing industry. How many times have you “zipped” without thinking that some inventor created this.
Before Sundback’s intervention, the idea for a fastener based on interlocking teeth had circulated among engineers for more than 20 years but no one had perfected it.
His innovation was to place a dimple on the underside of each tooth and a nib on the top that would sit securely within the dimple of the tooth above it.
As a result, the join between two rows of teeth was then strong because no single tooth has enough room to move up or down and come apart. He also created the manufacturing machine for the new zipper.
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.