My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on September 28, 2010

So far I’m not convinced drivers are big fans of the new complex intersections being constructed on many of today roads and highways – referred to as Superstreets. The handful of completed projects that I’ve traveled on recently seem overly complex and tailored to create accidents. A couple of examples that come to mind would be the new intersection at Monroe Ohio’s I-75/Route 63 and new junction at Austin Pike and Route 741 near Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport (MGY) in Springboro. If you’ve driven on them, imagine navigating for the first time on a dark, rainy night with headlights glaring in every direction – and an out of date GPS to mix things up even more.

Today while in Fairfield Ohio the Route 4 Bypass was under full construction. The  clearing for all phase of the widening project have added significant width to the highway. When checking as to why so large, the comment I heard was that it was going to be a ‘Superstreet’ project requiring added width. Is it really going to make traffic better?

Try following the illustrations, maps and video clips on the City of Fairfield’s website, or just look at a video for one of the junctions below — Tylersville/Rt4 Bypass junction video.

Category: Automotive, Local, Photos, Productivity, Video | 5 Comments »
Tags: fairfield, highway, ohio, roads, traffic

Posted By RichC on September 27, 2010

How do you keep all of your online passwords safe and secure? I’ll admit, I wasn’t all that smart about managing mine.

About a month or so ago, a technology friend of mine shared his method of using the stand alone KeyPass Password Safe on his PC and explained how he then plop the encrypted file into his Dropbox account so he could access across multiple PCs. Hmm, this looked interesting, but required me to manually enter all my passwords or create new ones then enter them into the KeyPass software application on my PC … but the real glitch was that there wasn’t a version for the Mac.

Thankfully there is LastPass: I gave the free version of LastPass a try and have been using it for a couple of weeks now and been pretty satisfied. I liked the random strong password generation, encrypted form fill and ability to add secure and encrypted notes often required for person to person customer service phone conversations. It was easy to set up and because the files are encrypted before saving them off-site, it offers a doubly good way to archive all of your web passwords. LastPass now remembers passwords each time I visit a site no matter how complex and  it can create even more random strong passwords for me. It can even import all of my existing browser based passwords that may have been saved in Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome browsers and works great on the MacOS too.

Give it a try if you are still looking for a better way to incorporate more secure passwords and then remember them without the risk of leaving them in an unencrypted database or address book.

Category: Computer, Software, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: computers, passwords, security, Software

Posted By RichC on September 26, 2010

After digging into the dry rot that has plagued our garage utility door for a number of years, it was determined that although the steel door was still good (as was much of the surrounding frame), that repairing the frame was out of the question. So I as my demolition ergs took over … I spent Saturday removing the door and founda a new replacement. Unfortunately that left Sunday afternoon to close things up before the predicted Monday rain. Along with replacing the door and frame, I added a couple better pressure treated boards to the cement foundation in hopes to curtail rot IF water finds a way to blow into the caulking next to the brick.  Next weekend … priming, painting and caulking.

Here a photo of the ‘roughed in’ door. I tweaked it with something just for fun… can you tell what I did? (click for larger image)

Category: Personal, Photos | No Comments »
Tags: door, home, repair

Posted By RichC on September 25, 2010

We live in a changing area, not as much in 2009 or 2010 as a few years ago, pre-recession, but growth is still happening. I’ve been pondering the idea of including an occasional archived photo or two from the West Chester/Liberty Township Ohio area. The thinking is that it might be nice to have a before demolition and after construction photo posted to the blog as the area changes. Above is another new Walgreens going up in Liberty Township (Jericho) at corner of Princeton Road and Cincinnati-Dayton Road.

Category: Archive, Local | 2 Comments »
Tags: archive, liberty township, maps

Posted By RichC on September 24, 2010

Although I may offend some of my hardcore conservative Tea Party friends, I’m in agreement with Charles Krauthammer and enjoy his his columns and commentary (“offend” – in reference to his comments regarding Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell) 

I appreciate his bright and intelligent arguments … from a conservative point of view … and was in complete agreement with his thoughts pertaining to congress and how they are, or are not, handling the expiration of the 10 year tax cuts. The comments he makes only reinforced my post a couple weeks ago.

Here’s what he said Friday evening while talking on Special Report with Brett Baier:

Category: Politics, Video-TV | No Comments »
Tags: congress, foxnews, krauthammer, mp4, News, taxes

Posted By RichC on September 24, 2010

I was somewhat irritated to hear that comedian Steven Colbert was invited to speak to a congressional subcommittee… in character… about illegal aliens living, working, committing crimes and and basically leeching off US citizens. It did sound like a ridiculous way to spend taxpayer dollars (estimated at $125,000/hr), but in retrospect might be an effective way to get congress to focus on their job of securing our borders? If Washington makes progress in this area and deals with the over 10 million who have illegally immigrated to the United States, it may not have been the worst idea they have wasted time on this year.

EDIT: Replaced video clip, with full CSPAN archived video clip below:

Category: Humor, Politics, Video-TV | 4 Comments »
Tags: colbert, comedy, congress, illegal, immigration, Washington DC

Posted By RichC on September 23, 2010

Nothing like a union lunch break – see video below.

Let me get this straight — American automakers were bailed out by taxpayers and President Obama endorsed the workers at this Chrysler plant … yet the still overpaid union American workers aren’t appreciative enough to put in a decent day’s work?

Instead according to this undercover video some workers day after day they head to a park for some drinking and smoking toking … over lunch! I don’t know about you, but I’m not these guys inspire me to buy a “proudly built in America” UAW union built car. (if it were up to me, they would be fired without unemployment eligibility or any benefits)

If you see/hear a follow up on what Chrysler management and the UAW says and does about this … comment below.

EDIT: Original video was removed from YouTube, but an updated story link with Chrysler and UAW response along with video is at Detroit’s Channel 2 News.
 

Category: Automotive, Business, Financial, Politics, Video-TV | 4 Comments »
Tags: chrysler, uaw, unions

Posted By RichC on September 23, 2010

There comes a time when many of us are faced with the decision of whether to pull the plug on one’s … [pause] CAR. (admit it, you were thinking ‘spouse’)

Brenda and I have been struggling over this issue for some time now and have nursed a beloved first generation 1998 Toyota Rav4 for over 220,000 miles. I recently replace the brakes and rotors, but besides the normal rattles, shakes and questionable ride comfort associated with our well used diminutive SUV, this has been a solid and dependable vehicle. Unfortunately in recent months (years really) ours has been leaking oil at the rate of about one quart every 2 weeks with little sign of stopping, unless I quit adding oil. We no longer carry a spare quart of oil in the back of the car, but a spare 5 quart jug! Its to the point that cardboard needs to be put under the vehicle no matter where one parks … and the dripping of oil onto the hot exhaust manifold has had more than one bystander ponder getting a fire extinguisher. Don’t tell Al Gore, but I think Brenda parks over a storm drain at work so there isn’t a noticeable oil leak on the parking lot.

So last week after degreasing the mess under the hood, we had a trusted mechanic, Mr. Godwrench, look at the leak. Brenda and I picked a “go, no-go” number to make the decision easier prior to receiving the repair quote. After sharpening his pencil, Tim Ellison said he could replace the suspected seals for $640 … about $150 under our predetermined limit. After disassembly the number proved to be low as there were additional issues including a waterpump drip. Faced with the waterpump replacement and the fact that a timing belt was also overdue, we decided the time to do this was when it was apart. Great [sarcasm] … we’re now at $1000.

Finally earlier this week, the little beast was reassembled and low and behold … we still had an oil leak, but this time coming from the top. After disassembly, the camshaft had a groove worn into it and another new camshaft seal would not stop the leak. One again, more parts, a few more days and a couple hundred more dollars.

Final bill: $1194.95. We should have brought in an outside “death panel.”

Category: Automotive | 2 Comments »
Tags: Rav4, toyota

Posted By RichC on September 22, 2010

Category: Automotive, Diesel, Volkswagen | 2 Comments »
Tags:

Posted By RichC on September 22, 2010

Having worked with ink and paper for most of my working life, I pay attention to counterfeiting with a bit more interest than most. An article in the local Pulse Journal reported on businesses finding “washed” small denomination bills being counterfeited and passed as larger bills. These fake bills are often used in drug deals according to police, but some have recently been showing up at local businesses. The current fakes are said to be older $5 bills reprinted as 100 dollar bills. According to the article, the counterfeiter bleaches $1 and $5 bills until they are substantially faded, and then reprints the image of Benjamin Franklin and $100 on them. Since the paper is real, the commonly used counterfeit detection pens do not detect them as fakes. For these kinds of counterfeit bills, the solution is check well worn bills carefully and to look for the Franklin watermark.

According to the article, “Hamilton Detective Steve Rogers said in the past 10 days he has received four reports of counterfeit $100 bills passed at city businesses.” Butler County Sheriff Richard Jones indicated that he and the Hamilton police chief have contacted and are working with the U.S. Secret Service and that for now local businesses need to pay careful attention to the currency they handle.

Additional information on how to identify U.S. currency may be found at www.secretservice.gov.

Category: Financial, Local | No Comments »
Tags: butler, counterfeit, county, hamilton, money