My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on April 17, 2012

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Posted By RichC on April 17, 2012

It is still quite remarkable to see NASA haul around a giant space shuttle piggybacked on a modified Boeing747, this time it is Discovery heading to its final Washington DC Smithsonian home. For those of us who grew up with the entire space program it is indeed a sad end to an adventurous and exciting time of exploration. Here’s hoping we will return again … maybe through the private sector and experimental aviation?

Personal reflection regarding space exploration has me remembering a few key moments from my past. Like watching the moon landing on our tiny black and white TV with my family in 1969, or meeting the astronaut John Glenn in our backyard at age 13 (he was campaigning). Pretty memorable stuff for a kid growing up. Then there was my attempt to watch a shuttle launch in January of 1986, with Brenda 5 months pregnant with Katelyn … but after waiting in the cold, the launch was scrubbed because there was ice. Sadly, an attempt was made the next day to launch Challenger resulting in the loss of ship and crew … shaking NASA to the core. Who can forget Houston Control issuing the “Challenger, go with throttle up” and Commander Dick Scobee replying, “Roger, go with throttle up.” It still gives me chills.

Challenger, go wirh throttle up – Jan. 28, 1986

NASA and the country regrouped and improved on their mistakes and flaws stringing an impressive decade plus of flights and triumphs in building the space station, telescopes, launching satellites and performing experiments. Enough so that after touring Kennedy Space Center on our family vacation my daughter Katelyn headed to space camp in Huntsville Alabama.

Unfortunately confidence grew and flaws were missed or under calculated and the space shuttle Columbia incinerated on reentry spreading parts over south and south central United States. Again, the nation mourned the loss of shuttle and crew.

Since my daughter was interested in NASA and space, the local Cincinnati television station interviewed her regarding her thoughts. She continued her interest in space (buying a telescope with her own money), science and medicine …. eventually deciding she wanted to be a flight surgeon for NASA. Great aspirations. Her high school physics teacher noted this and nominated her for a NASA Sharp internship at the University of New Mexico after her junior year of high school. She worked on biomedical research and even had her name added to an scientific paper on immunosensors (remember SARS). Along with the work, she gained confidence in living away from home and had opportunities to visit places like the  labs of the White Sands Test Facilities.

But today is about the Space Shuttle Discovery … thought the arrival was capture quite well by photographers and a Washington Post writer …

Discovery made its first pass over Dulles 10 minutes ahead of schedule, spurring stragglers to run up the stairs to the parking deck roof, where 400 people gathered from as far as Pittsburgh and North Carolina.

“Awe-inspiring, just amazing,” said Kathy Hertz Kinter, 35, of Clifton after Discovery, its modified 747 carrier and a white dart of a NASA T-38 chase plane winged over Dulles and turned right to head toward the District.

“It was just like, ‘whoosh,’ and it went right over our heads,” said Hertz Kinter, who brought her son Sam, 9. “Maybe this will propel Sam to be an astronaut.”

Photographers on the parking deck roof perched atop coolers and chairs as Discovery returned 45 minutes later, easing down runway 1R for a second pass before circling the airport and finally flaring to a landing.

“There it is!” someone yelled as the 747’s landing lights appeared to the west and the crowd began to clap.

Weathered, battered and beat-up looking, Discovery’s scuffed side panels told the story of its 39 trips to space.

Category: Aviation, Education, History, Personal, Space | 1 Comment »
Tags: challenger, columbia, discovery, katelyn, nasa, shuttle, space

Posted By RichC on April 15, 2012

Well maybe the above math may not be as simple as it looks … but it computes in the case of Katelyn and Drew. Ready or not, it is time for this dad to let go of his daughter. Drew Oostra has asked my daughter Katelyn to marry him and she replied “yes” … although I might have to edit the answer since I’m unsure “yes” was her exact word?

The inside story: My future son-in-law secretly asked me to breakfast a couple weeks ago in Columbus. At that time he informed me of his intention to propose to Katelyn and asked for my permission. Humbled to have been so respectfully asked, my answer was of course in the affirmative (with conditions).

Katelyn has known Drew since 2004 when the two started their undergraduate schooling together at Kent/NEOUCOM; they continued to be close friends and dated throughout medical school and their residencies. My daughter selected Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus partially (probably mostly) because Drew was at OSU Medical Center and they spend most of what little free time residents have together (although both do other things too). In thinking about Drew, I have never met a young man who is as kind, polite, gentlemanly, has the heart of a servant and loves Katelyn. As a bonus, he is also afflicted with a blindness towards Katelyn’s foibles – how perfect is that? [that’s a joke, dear daughter, you are of course perfect in every way!]  Whatever the Oostra’s parenting secret, it should be patterned by all of us; their son is a wonderful man – and if I were 25 or so years younger, I would have wanted Drew as a best friend.

After meeting with Drew for breakfast, I tried to keep my lips sealed about his intent. I unfortunately failed … and shared our covert breakfast meeting with my wife and son (partially hoping it might help him in the future) … and of course tweeted it to the world (no, no … just kidding). Anyway I’m glad to see the proposal sooner rather than later as it was challenging to keep this from my “inquiring daughter” … she is a “nosy” one (even Drew knows this, the reason he suggested a morning breakfast meeting rather than an evening dinner).

From what I’ve gathered, Saturday’s proposal was disguised with a going away get-together for a close friend in the Akron area. They drove up and detoured for a picnic at a park with a small lake … the place where they had their first official date years ago. The thought was very much appreciated by Katelyn, as was the ring. According to my wife, it was a ring that Katelyn had pointed out in a magazine at one point – hmm,  to get the exact ring is pretty special and from the photo (below) it certainly is. Congratulations, with love to the both of you.

Category: Personal, Photos | 4 Comments »
Tags: drew, engagement, family, fiance, katelyn, marriage, ring

Posted By RichC on April 14, 2012

I noticed a spike in my normal web traffic the other day as a weekend post was mentioned on a high traffic website. As someone who posts to a tiny personal blog, it still amazes me how many clicks and visitors My Desultory Blog generates.

Over the years I have also noticed that viewers are much more savvy to ads (those below my posts) and are far less likely to click on them. In other words, pageviews are up, but revenues are down a bit from the past (I’m glad not to be blogging for the money).

Category: Blogs, Business, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: advertising, blogs, website

Posted By RichC on April 13, 2012

There are a number of news reading and article assembling type apps available for computer, phone and tablet platforms. I’ve looked at a few, but tend to shy away since they collect too many articles.

Zite is a free one for the iPad (and iPhone) that I’m starting to like … probably because I’m only using it for a  narrowed interest area (see “Sections” in screen image below). So far its make for an easy once a day look and makes for an easy way to pick a few articles that can be read (who has the time?) or socially shared. Give Zite a try if you’re using the iPad.

Category: Productivity, Social Media, Tablet | No Comments »
Tags: app, ipad, magazine, zite

Posted By RichC on April 12, 2012

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to rent a diesel car at car rental companies … never have been successful. Occasionally I’ll rent a hybrid (Prius) or a Volkswagen Jetta (gasser), but haven’t been able to find a TDI. Hopefully we’ll see a few more airport locations offer the TDI at a fair rental rate, but we’ll see? At least Hertz will have me asking.

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Volkswagen | No Comments »
Tags: diesel, hertz, jetta, tdi, volkswagen

Posted By RichC on April 11, 2012

A: I’d say bring it to the U.S. please … it would definitely attract my attention.

According to a post over at Autoblog, Mazda expected to sell just 1,000 CX-5s a month in Japan, but it instead sold 8 times that number –  8,000 in February – and over 70% of them were diesel (and this isn’t Europe!)

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Mazda | No Comments »
Tags: cuv, diesel, mazda

Posted By RichC on April 10, 2012

It looks like the contest is about over for the GOP candidates … although the smart money has been on Governor Romney for a few months now … but it has been difficult for Mitt Romney to land a knockout blow, as challengers seemed to tag-team against him for the last year.

Yet in the last few weeks, the field has thinned as heavy weight Newt Gingrich seems to be surrendering to the middle-of-the-road weight Mitt Romney. After some soul searching today, the number two GOP contender Rick Santorum decided to suspend his campaign without an immediate endorsement of Romney.

So, it will be Romney wearing the red trunks who is unfortunately a few campaign dollars poorer, but perhaps in better fighting condition. He will of course be squaring off against the one term physically fit (he does pushups, but does he still smoke?) President Barrack Obama wearing the Dems signature blue. Fortunately or unfortunately each will have a substantial war chest in which to attack the other, so expect a bloody contest later this year (unfortunately it is starting already).
^{*** Yes I know, the “no holds barred” refers to wrestling, not boxing.}  

Category: News, Politics | 2 Comments »
Tags: campaign, dem, gingrich, gop, obama, president, romney, santorum

Posted By RichC on April 9, 2012

We spent Easter Sunday with Mom and Dad this year. Brenda packed up a nice and simple dinner along with a table cloth and candles (a nice touch) to lighten the chores for dad. We still unfortunately spent too much time discussing health issues, but it is what it is this year. Mom’s week was another one of pain, although her Good Friday doctor’s appointment did get her a change of pain medicine – so far it has been helpful.  If all goes well maybe she’ll have a few more good days without turning to a “zombie” as my dad refers to it. It is a challenging balancing act to get the pain medication correct. She is either in excruciating pain, acts a bit goofy, angry, wanting to sleep … or some days is somewhat comfortable and lucid. We experienced the later Sunday as Easter was good.

This coming week is also one of optimism in that we’ll be seeing a doctor about back reconstruction. We are hoping that she is a candidate for Kyphoplatsy (video link). We’ll see how it goes since traditional rods, plates and screw back surgery is out of the question – not necessarily attractive to think about anyway.

Some friends of ours posted this question by their grandson … thought it was interesting. I might have to look up the details myself. (Thanks Judy)

At the dinner table tonight, Sam asked the simple question, “Why is this day called Easter?” None of us had ever questioned the name, so we had to look this one up on the internet. What we found is that no one knows for sure, but there was a late seventh-century historian and scholar named Bede who said that Easter’s name comes from the Anglo-Saxon goddess Eostre. The literal translation of Eostre is East and she was the goddess of dawn (sun rises in the East). This goddess was the symbol of spring and fertility, thus the importance of eggs and bunnies and chicks. Somewhere along the line, the first Sunday after the full moon following the vernal equinox in the Northern Hemisphere was set as Easter Sunday.

Photo above: Katelyn’s rabbit — “Pumpy Umpy” — still alive and thumping.

Category: Faith, Holiday, Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: dadc, easter, momc, pumpy umpy, Rabbit

Posted By RichC on April 7, 2012

Here are a few more first impressions … well I suppose second impressions … as I start to incorporated the “new to me” Apple iPad 2 in my daily use. One of the additions wanted was a bluetooth keyboard and some kind of case, so added the Kensington KeyFolio Pro2 bluetooth keyboard and folio/case. The small but physical keys improves text entry by making it more netbook computer-like … although I have to admit, the virtual screen keyboard on the iPad has been growing on me (bigger virtual keys are better … as compared to phones). 

As a tablet and eReader, I don’t think I can say enough positive things about the Apple iPad; it is well designed, easy to use and surprisingly simple to learn to navigate. I’m sure that I’m not alone in that belated assessment. Coming from larger screened full functioning laptops and notebooks, a variety of Palm and webOS smartphones and having used my daughter’s first generation Nook reader, her TouchPad and my son’s iPad … the one thing that stood apart was the battery life – it is amazing! I can’t believe I can go a full day of regular use (as opposed to cautiously conservative use with a computer or even my Palm Pre) and still have plenty of juice left to read a few webpages, WSJ articles or saved ReaditLater items at 11PM in the evening. Then after an overnight charge I’m good for another full day … nice!

A few nit-picks …

The glossy reflective screen, the lack of multitasking "cards" (webOS multitasking) and less than optimal calendar app are deficiencies from other devices, but in a couple of days I sort of got use to it. I downloaded and deleted nearly 100 apps, many of which have advertising that isn’t all that appreciated and some that I regretfully paid a few bucks to purchase on whim and either toss away or organized to a “Not Used” folder.  Going forward I might be better limiting my "wants" to just those I "need" and use regularly?

As for the biggest limitation, it is going to be difficult to replace the notebook or desktop computer with a tablet when it comes to handling files used in my industry. Although the photo handling is impressive, the feature set is not what is found in Adobe Photoshop … and page layout for the commercial printing industry (or web design) is non-existent. Even fairly simple word processing isn’t as supported as I expected … a lack of a solid Microsoft Word app is challenging, although PDF handling is impressive.

I’ve struggled with Apple limiting iOS in other ways too … most likely for power preservation reasons. The biggest surprise limitation for me was the lack of an easy way to handle and write my daily blog posts? I had thought that by now, the WordPress app would be much more functional. Another learning curve is going to be figuring out how to organized files and understand all the cloud backups – more than just iCloud can be used in different options. There is iCloud, Dropbox, Amazon’s Kindle cloud space for some items, the Google Docs and OneNote app as well as the individual Notes, PDF, Evernotes app and variety of document editor and writer apps (I’m typing this on iaWriter). Then there’s the Apple store’s Books, iTunes and Newsstand app that I’ve not really figured out yet. So … I’m not overly happy with organizing data … oh, and I’ve not even tried to organized and backup photos, music and video!

Back to what I can offer up an opinion on … the new Kensington KeyFolio2 ($64). The “good” is that it works great with the iPad2. I had no problems in connecting with the very thin chiclet keyed bluetooth keyboard and haven’t charged the internal lithium cells all week. Even the keys feel and function like a full sized keyboard and I almost don’t notice the smaller keypad … except for the small right shift key (above – grr). I’m regularly hitting the "up arrow" and really would have preferred the much more expensive Clamcase ($149) below – notice it’s “shift” key. Perhaps the tiny key is a small price to pay (saved $80), as I’m sure eventually I’ll learn the finger positioning?

One of the beauties of this folio/case design is that the Moleskine looking book design (complete with the elastic strap) folds up rather compactly for carrying around. It’s extensive use of velcro is functional in changing the viewing angle of the landscape iPad. For some (and many apps), this might also be a bit of a problem since landscape is really the only option for this folio.

Another bonus feature is that the keyboard pops off the folio and his held in place by fairly strong magnets. It can then be used separately on a desk or where ever convenient. I’ve found myself popping off the keyboard and then attaching only the front magnets extending the keyboard 5-6 inches further from the iPad for a more comfortable typing position. On the downside, I end up using the iPad as a small netbook computer way too much instead of the tablet that it is … as the newness wears off, perhaps I’ll go back to typing documents on my notebook or desktop computer and just using the iPad for reading, organizing to-do lists, calendars, keeping contacts, etc?

Before I run down the list of my “initial” favorite apps, I’m going to make a comment that I left in Apple’s suggestion box. I’m happy to see the clock and time available in the menu bar on the iPad and even the option for 24 hour time, but it would seem to be a very easy addition to add the date display as well? From a quick look there doesn’t seem to be an option or an app/patch/utility that gives users that feature. How about a petition drive!

= = = = =

Here’s my current after two weeks “Top 50 apps” list ( “*” means I need to choose between these types of apps as they duplicate what the other does):

1. Maps
2. Safari
3. Mail
4. Contacts
5. Calendar (needs improving)
6. Reminders
7. Camera (although who really uses a HD camera on the iPad?)
8. LastPass (more a Safari plug-in would be helpful)
9. Twitter
10. Facebook
11. TeamViewer (connect to remote computers)
12. Dictionary
13. Dropbox
14. PDF Notes (notes on top of PDFs)
15. OneNote*
16. Evernote*
17. Simplenote*
18. iA Writer
19. WordPress (really needs improving)
20. WavePad (audio record and edit)
21. iPhoto*
22. PS Express*
23. Eye-Fi (transfers from EyeFi SD card in camera to iPad via wifi)
24. Facetime*
25. Skype*
26. Talkatone*
27. Weather (should be combined with Nightstand and MyRadar app)
28. Kayak
29. Yelp
30. ReaditLater
31. Bible360
32. WSJ
33. CNBC RT
34. CNET
35. Flipboard
36. iBook*
37. Nook*
38. Kindle*
39. Pandora
40. Netflix
41. NPR
42. iTunes
43. YouTube
44. 53 (sketchbook for doodling)
45. Speed Test
46. Find iPhone (can locate, lock and wipe clean iPad)
47. AppLaser Lite (QR codes)
48. Glympse
49. GPS Data
50. PrintCentral Pro* (I don’t have this app yet, but would like print to non-AirPrint printers. Using HP home&biz and Epson iPrint is limiting EXCEPT the over wifi link to the flatbed and document feeding scanner direct to iPad feature)

Category: Advice, Photos, Productivity, Tablet, Technology | 1 Comment »
Tags: apple, apps, Computer, ipad, kensington, keyfolio, palm, review, tablet