My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on January 24, 2010

After spending a few enjoyable hours watching football Sunday afternoon,  it was exciting to find out who would go to Miami and conclude the 2009 NFL football season: the AFC champion Indianapolis Colt and NFC New Orleans Saints. After watching our Cincinnati Bengals lose two weeks in a row to an strong New York Jets team, I was wondering if the mechanical veteran offense of the Colts would be able to pick apart the Jets solid defense. After a close first half, Payton Manning seemed to study the photos and exploit even the smallest weakness as his rapid paced machine outscored the New York Jets in the second half. For the AFC, few will disagree that the best team will be going to Superbowl 44.

For the NFC, the sentimental part of me was rooting for the ‘old man,’ Brett Favre, to continue the magic, but the other part wanted to see the ‘bag over the head’ fans finally being heading to a Superbowl. After a hard fought championship game, the Vikings mistakes (5 turnovers) gave the game to the Saints and Minnesota’s season – and perhaps Brett Favre’s career – came to an end.

The February 7, 2010  Superbowl is set … the technically near perfect offense of the Colts against the high powered scoring offense of the Saints. It may come down to who’s defense can stop slow the other team?

Category: Sports | 2 Comments »
Tags: archive, colts, football, nfl, saints, superbowl

Posted By RichC on January 23, 2010

NASA’s Puffin electric-powered, super-quiet personal VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) aircraft concept is ideal for those wanting a quick commute to work on a traffic congested morning … particularly if you’ve got a charging station on your buildings helipad  … and who doesn’t?

The USMC V-22 Osprey looking aircraft could offer a bit more promise than jetpacks or “Sky Cycles” for those of us dreaming of personal flight without the need for clear runways. Nevertheless, by the time this concept is ready for test flights, it is going to require a new kind of pilot … most like one with the skills and backbone of Orville and Wibur Wright — belly flying (video below).

Category: Aviation, Technology, Video | 4 Comments »
Tags: aircraft, aviation, concept, flying, nasa, wright

Posted By RichC on January 22, 2010

After President Obama, and most of the U.S. Congress (the Democrats), wasted a year on massive health care legislation, many are suggesting our nations’ leaders may finally be getting the message: Focus on jobs and the economy before spending money we don’t have on taking over health care. The current bills, according to some, will unlikely go further and if … and when … they do, may included a few voices of reason when considering some reform of health care. If “deader than a doornail” is too extreme, perhaps a USAToday reference to a more ironic description is appropriate?

Critical condition. Life support. Code Blue.

Any kind of medical cliche can be used to describe the state of President Obama’s health care initiative.

The election of Republican Scott Brown to the Senate gives the GOP the power to block a final health care bill, so the Obama White House and the Democrats are scrambling to figure out what they can do — if anything.

Category: News, Politics | 6 Comments »
Tags: economy, government, healthcare, obama

Posted By RichC on January 22, 2010

Category: Automotive, Volkswagen | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on January 21, 2010

The irritated O’Brien continued his feud with NBC and Jay Leno as he finishes his short career hosting The Tonight Show (article). For those not familiar with late night TV talk shows, Jay Leno left The Tonight Show for his own show at 10PM on NBC seven months ago. Conan O’Brien was given The Tonight Show from his later time slot. The Leno show hasn’t been very successful, likely do to being on at 10PM, so NBC decided to move Jay Leno back to the later time slot and told O’Brien he can push The Tonight Show back a half hour. O’Brien isn’t happy and is walking … and spending NBC dollars on the way out (video below).

Category: Entertainment, Video-TV | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on January 20, 2010

After years of resisting the thought of using ‘my kids’ preferred social networking site Facebook, I’m starting get the urge to check my “wall” (or “walls” plural – explained below) once in a while. Usually this occurs after being send a link, or receiving an email invite from someone I might, or might not, know. When Katelyn and Taylor were home from college over Christmas, I mentioned my reservation of being connected with them and their friends through Facebook, seeing that connection as something only “helicopter parents” might do? They though I was a bit nutty and proceeded to give me a Facebook primer and even enjoyed looking up a few of my wife’s ex-boyfriends.
😉
Then a couple days ago Jerry Moody, my college roommate for all 4 of my undergrad years, sent me a Facebook invite to connect with him —we hadn’t talked since the 1980’s! I thought he must have dropped off the face of the earth after moving to Idaho, somewhat like my best friend from high school (aka: Kamakaz) … I should probably look him up someday? As I began to accept the invite, I realize he had found me on an alias Facebook account. To my “walls plural comment above, in my ‘Internet’ wisdom (or lack thereof) I had set up three different Facebook accounts over the years … who knows why … but for those who know me well, this multiple account thing is a known issue. It doesn’t seem to matter what ‘it’ is, but I’m addicted to having a back-up whether a phone number, 800 phone number, Google voice number or Google, Yahoo, Live or whatever account, overseas SIM card when traveling, email account (who knows how many), domain name, web servers, hard drives, flash cards, computers, every possible log-in … or in this case Facebook accounts – Main, Backup & Backup of back up. (Perhaps I should check with my daughter who has just finished her medical school Psychiatry rotation?)

Back to Facebook and connecting with my old college roommate; it was great to hear from him and know that he and his family are fine. Jerry has one getting married, another in college, a son in the Navy and one in junior high school. Interestingly his reasoning for Facebook was to connect with his son being deployed for 300 days – that a long first stretch to be away from home. Good luck staying connected and hope for good Skype connections – check out a “convoluted way to connect.”
😉

Category: Personal, Social Media | No Comments »
Tags: college, facebook, friends, skype, Social Networking

Posted By RichC on January 19, 2010

Category: Misc | 2 Comments »
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Posted By RichC on January 18, 2010

Not my idea, but I’d be interested to know how many regular travelers have secured their computer, camera or regular luggage  by flying with a “weapon?” I might toss my Orion 12ga. flare gun in a bag and give it a try next flight.  (A weapon in a bag keeps the bag secure since the TSA doesn’t want these items to get lost or misplaced … although I wonder if passengers get delayed on the receiving end?)

A “weapons” is defined as a rifle, shotgun, pistol, airgun, and STARTER PISTOL. Yes, starter pistols – those little guns that fire blanks at track and swim meets – are considered weapons…and do NOT have to be registered in any state in the United States.

I have a starter pistol for all my cases. All I have to do upon check-in is tell the airline ticket agent that I have a weapon to declare…I’m given a little card to sign, the card is put in the case, the case is given to a TSA official who takes my key and locks the case, and gives my key back to me.

That’s the procedure. The case is extra-tracked…TSA does not want to lose a weapons case. This reduces the chance of the case being lost to virtually zero.

It’s a great way to travel with camera gear…I’ve been doing this since Dec 2001 and have had no problems whatsoever.

Category: Travel | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on January 18, 2010

There was a day when we didn’t watch much TV, but nowadays that wouldn’t be true. Besides too much football and cable news, my wife and I have become addicted to a few weekly programs … one which had its 2010 season premiere Sunday evening: 24. As usual, it was exciting and left me hanging in anticipation for the next episode … thankfully it will be Monday night.

HULU Video deleted

But that’s not the point. In the season premiere one of the new CTU agents was hanging up her cellphone when I noticed it was a Sprint Palm Pre. I promptly snapped the photo and Twittered to Twitpic … what a geekly thing to do (below). The program does tend to highlight many of the latest tech gadgets and often has them doing much more than is realistic … in this case it was just a phone call, although it looked as if the agent used the slider feature to hang the call up (it doesn’t do that).
😉

Edit: Adding a couple more photos from February 2010 episodes below
– taken with my Palm Pre off television screen (click for larger).

Category: Cellphone, Entertainment, Social Media, Technology | No Comments »
Tags: 24, jack bauer, palm, television, tv, twitter

Posted By RichC on January 17, 2010

If you have a need to send a large file, such as a video, compressed archives or entire directories, or other large digital files where the size is too large for email or normal FTP file sharing services which limit file sizes (often around 400MB), then give Load2All.com a try. This free (but advertising buggy — so be warned) site receives your uploaded file and will even split the file into ‘parts’ that are loaded to multiple sites. Once uploaded, a link can be emailed automatically (or copied and directly shared) to the person who needs the large file. Personally I’m not fond of the excessive ‘in your face’ advertising associated with these websites and mirrored websites, but the service is free and can help to send large files. I tested this with both and large video file and a PDF, although prefer using something like Sugarsync, Carbonite or Dropbox … even the subscription versions.

Category: Computer | No Comments »
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