My Desultory Blog

Posted By RichC on September 30, 2009

While traveling  a couple hundred miles from home today the battery in my 2006 Honda Pilot just died. No warning, no instrument panel lights, no discolored “eye” (still green) and NO juice. Fortunately I live in “middle America” where people are still friendly and motorist even stop to help each other out. Although I had my tool bag, my portable jump starter was sitting worthlessly in my garage at home — real bright Rich! Thankfully the good Samaritan had a set of jumper cables and I was off and amazingly still on time (early actually)  for my appointment in Akron. As I drove, I pondered … and yes Twittered … wondering  just what the best course of action should be.  I looked at the clock, I figured I could spare about 20 minutes to pick up a battery at service center. After checking my Sprint Navigation GPS app on my Palm Pre for nearby stores, I settled on a Walmart where a new battery set me back $75 plus a $9 refundable core charge. Thankfully the Honda Pilot has a simple battery bracket, decent cable clamps and made the swap a 15 minute deal — my only gripe is that my deep sockets are at home — and I still made my appointment with less than clean hands.

Hopefully it is ‘just the battery,’ … tomorrow may tell?

Cooler Fall weather has arrived – Columbus Ohio 9/30/2009

Category: Automotive | No Comments »
Tags: battery, honda, walmart

Posted By RichC on September 29, 2009

I waited until I arrived home today before risking the update to webOS 1.2 on my Palm Pre. It’s not that I’m overly paranoid, but I’m no longer comfortable taking that chance, having to swap phones last week — thank you Sprint. The download took about 5 minutes though the broadband connection and installation another five. After rebooting, I noticed my two bluetooth headsets didn’t pair — so add another couple minutes — but they were still registered (BT was off after the update too).

The feature I, and other Palm Pre users, have been waiting for was the web browser ‘cut and paste’ … and it was well worth it since it works great. Holding down the orange options key while swiping the text is all that is need to highlight, then touch the gestures area and ‘c’ (copy) key saves the text. Multi-task over to an email, appointment or memo and then touch gesture area with a ‘v’ (paste) inserts the text as easy as pie. As with text ‘copy and paste’ improvement, images can be saved to the phone or ‘shared’ (emailed) as well. Holding down the orange option key while touching the image on the screen brings up the menu to “share or save.” It also works great — well done Palm!

The update also adds more social networking synchronization with one’s LinkedIn profile, similar to the Pre’s sync with Facebook and Google. For developers of apps, they now support paying for third-party software on the App Catalog. For business users, the update improves support for Exchange security policies.

The webOS 1.2 update improves the calendar by permitting dialing phone numbers straight from the calendar application … I’m still waiting for a search feature (something I sorely miss that my Treo did). For people who use voicemail in an email … or voice memos, the update allows email users directly play WAV files that are attached. Personally it would be nice to have support for a few other audio files, especially the compress formats used by some voice to email services.

For music lovers, the Pre can now download music from Amazon online music stores, but will not permit syncing with Apple’s iTunes software. Hmm?

So far this is a good update … hopefully more to come every couple of months.

Click for TwitPic “shared” photo

Category: Cellphone | 4 Comments »
Tags: Cellphone, palm, smartphone, webos

Posted By RichC on September 29, 2009

Here’s a safety tip that came from a “Dear Heloise” clipping set to me by none other than my mom;  no matter how old I am she never stops being a mom.  Actually I don’t think she was really thinking about me, but most likely my son and daughter …  so I’ll forward them the newspaper clipping ‘as instructed’ when I’m done posting.

The lesson I learned years ago about “not putting you home address on luggage tags” is a practice that might be a good idea to apply to some of our electronic devices too. Just as hotel and airline luggage  may signal an unscrupulous character that someone is  away from home,  a cellphone or portable GPS unit can do the same and  make it pretty easy to locate HOME if such a waypoint is stored in memory.

I’ve listened to ‘mom’ when it comes to my luggage tags by including only my office address on all of our family’s luggage, but I haven’t been quite as careful with my cell phone database and definitely haven’t given much thought to precisely locating “HOME” in our GPS devices.

BTW, happy Birthday Mom.

Category: Cellphone, Misc, Technology, Travel | 2 Comments »
Tags: advice, GPS, safety

Posted By RichC on September 28, 2009

You just gotta love a biodiesel powered car like Jay Leno’s “more money than brains ” (his words) EcoJet (previous post).  I’ll be anxious to get the full performance reports (with economy figures) and look forward to solutions to keep the EcoJet quiet — here’s a thought?

Category: Automotive, Aviation, Biodiesel | No Comments »
Tags: biodiesel, ecojet, jay leno

Posted By RichC on September 28, 2009

It has been frustrating for wannabe Volkswagen TDI buyers planning to purchase a new 2009 diesel late this summer or fall. Most have discovered that there are none to be had and that MSRP and sometimes above is required to get on a dealer list for a 2010 first off the boat (happening this week!) This time it’s not that VW isn’t making them (lapse for a couple years) or that $4.00 gasoline have sent people running to buy a fuel-sipper … no, it’s  that wonderful US govenment “Cash for Clunker” program.

“If you hear from dealers or customers complaining about where their Jetta [TDI] Sportwagen is or they can’t buy a Jetta[TDI] Sportwagen–because believe me we get these emails every day” Keys told Journalists, “(the cash for clunkers program) is what did it.”

According to Steve Keyes, over sixty-five percent of Volkswagens purchased through the clunker program were the high fuel mileage Jetta TDIs diesel. Not only did the “new car sale boosting program” take cars from customers that would have been full price non-taxpayer funded vehicles, but they also took away the Volkswagen cars that were selling the best.

Even before the clunker program, Volkswagen was selling the new ‘clean diesel’ version of their Jetta and Sportwagen at a fast clip. In fact, VW expected about a third of Jetta TDI sedans sold would have Volkswagen’s “clean diesel” and about half of the Jetta Sportwagens. They were wrong, says Steve Keyes, sales of Jetta TDI sedans ran about forty percent, and over the past couple of months over eighty percent with the Jetta Sportwagen TDI.

“The good news is,” continued Keys, “we just started shipping the 2010 models, and particularly the Jetta Sportwagen.”

Category: Automotive, Biodiesel, Volkswagen | 8 Comments »
Tags: diesel, sportwagen, tdi, vw

Posted By RichC on September 27, 2009

The second part of the this post’s subject line makes very little sense unless you’ve been paying attention to the weather in much of Ohio in recent days. We’ve had so much dampness and rain that we might as well be living in Seattle … evidence by my daughter’s cellphone at the OSU/Illinois game on Saturday — her Palm Centro is currently DOA but ‘drying out’ with limited hope for resuscitation.

On the other hand, the game was well suited for the rain seeing the Buckeyes run up 30 points to the Illini’s 0, making it the second shutout in a row after losing to USC two weeks ago (win over Toledo last week). Illinois quarterback Juice Williams was quoted as describing his team’s offense as a “nightmare.” That said, the rain didn’t help build confidence in Ohio State’s passing game, as they instead moved the ball on the ground running 236 yards on 46 carries, a 5.1-yard average.

For Buckeye fans there is still concern over passing the football, but it’s a definite good to see opponents will need to defend against the run. Without question, credit must go to a solid defensive which gave no mercy to the Illini and shut down any passing game that was in the playbook. If you’re a fan of the scarlet and gray — a true Buckeye — then you’re at least glad to see wins and scoring.

Katelyn and Drew enjoy the win amidst the rain
–

Category: Cellphone, Personal, Photos, Sports | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on September 26, 2009

After a few days of autumn rain, the yard was heavy with moisture and air was think with a hazy fog this Saturday morning. I headed out to pick up the paper and decided to take the camera along. Fifteen minutes later I had a few photos (click any photo for larger images).

Since we have been planting trees in our yard this year, I also though I would include a photo record of at least one of the trees planting date. Although most of the species are a variety of native Ohio trees, I wanted to try a more unique tree  … one that is considered “critically endangered” — a Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides). Although I really don’t see many in this area of Ohio, I’m hoping this Redwood will survive and that my kids with be around to see it reach a majestic height.

Dawn Redwood (largest image)

Category: Personal, Photos | 2 Comments »
Tags: dew, Personal, Photos, redwood, spider, trees, yard

Posted By RichC on September 25, 2009

Since I’m becoming more and more anti-YouTube (partially my own doing), I’ve been tinkering with a couple other online video sharing sites. Vidly.com (or the shortened Vid.ly) is easy to use and has both a simple Twitter interface for phones, and an easy uploader tool while using the computer. Editing and organizing (tags, notes, etc) could be improved, but its by far the easiest site to share video up to 20 minutes with Twitter users; it doesn’t get much faster. If you’re looking for a video sharing option for Twitter, or a easy way to embed a clip on a blog, give Vidly.com a try.

My “test” video is a Twitter shared repost of the “Mmm, mmm, mmm” indoctrination clip which is in the news today. According to Michelle Malkin, the video that has an elementary school in New Jersey singing praises about our President, was originally posted in June and taken down.  Showing respect for President Obama by not saying “You lie” is one thing — but teaching kids in school to sing this is indoctrination.

_

Category: Politics, Social Media, Video | No Comments »
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Posted By RichC on September 24, 2009

Wired Magazine‘s Streeter Seidell offered a bit of tech humor with the 10 Best Things We’ll say to Our Grandkids, with an illustration by Nishant Choksi (well I probably won’t say it … but perhaps my kids will).
😕

1. Back in my day, we only needed 140 characters.

2. There used to be so much snow up here, you could strap a board to your feet and slide all the way down.

3. Televised contests gave cash prizes to whoever could store the most data in their head.

4. Well, the screens were bigger, but they only showed the movies at certain times of day.

5. We all had one, but nobody actually used it. Come to think of it, I bet my LinkedIn profile is still out there on the Web somewhere.

6. *

7. Our bodies were made of meat and supported by little sticks of calcium.

8. You used to keep files right on your computer, and you had to go back to that same computer to access them!

9. Is that the new iPhone 27G? Got multitasking yet?

10. I just can’t get used to this darn vat-grown steak. Texture ain’t right.

* Translation: “English used to be the dominant language. Crazy, huh?”

Category: Humor | No Comments »
Tags: Humor, top ten list

Posted By RichC on September 23, 2009

Although I’m not one to read books (especially 728 pages) on a web browser, I did notice that Ghost Wars by Steve Coll is available as a scanned and imaged book on Google. So far I’m finding the history lesson intriguing and fitting with one of my favorite movies, Charlie Wilson’s War. If you’re interested in detailed account of how our intelligence agencies operate from spies to budget procedures, Mr. Coll provides plenty of information. From the collapse of the Soviet Union to the rise of Osama Bin Laden and attempt to covertly eliminate him, the inter-working of the CIA in Afghanistan is most intriguing. Although the information in this 2004 book is history, it is timely considering President Obama will soon be deciding on escalating troop numbers in Afghanistan.

Category: Books | No Comments »
Tags: book, ghost war, google