Today being Father’s Day has me reflecting on the two fathers in my life. They are both terrific dads and are great examples for me, as well as their grandsons. Shamefully for me, we didn’t prioritized getting together with them this year as we have in the past. Normally we are together for an annual Cincinnati Father’s Day weekend, but it has been usurped by other family activities (not all ours) — in our case my wife and son are both working and my daughter is diligently studying for her M2 medical boards this Friday — a big deal if you are familiar with these things.
My normal reply would be ...”there’s always next year,” but then … this morning my wife mentioned morbidly that this could be the last Father’s Day for her dad (Gulp … this was not like her); perhaps we should have driven to New York to be with him ( a little late now)? Although I don’t say this kind of thing out loud, I do think about it. Now my brother on the other hand, is a bit different. One year he did a calculation of how many times ‘we’ would statistically see dad based on life the average expectancy and the number of visits we average with him per year — now that’s just disturbing.
Anyway … Happy Father’s Day to all the dads reading this and ignore my brother’s calculations.
Belated post. It’s an interesting photo included for my Audubon ‘birding’ friends. Yes it is a tweaked photo.
😆 I’m dating it as a Saturday entry which I missed this week.
Great tip from Paul Thurrott of winsupersite.com about shopping with Microsoft’s new bing.com websearch tool. Besides being a Google challenging search tool, it can also save/make you some money. You’ll need to sign up for ‘cashback’ using a Windows ID email (ie. live.com), but by using the impressive search website and associated vendors (huge list), you’ll be able to have cashback plunked right into your Paypal account. Give it a try.
Our local VW TDI group is working on a ‘welcome bag’ item for this year’s TDIFest 2009 near Washington DC (Herndon, Virginia).CinciTDI.com group, which hosted the TDIFest OH8 last year, has decided to offer up something for the registrants. Initially we though about a small canvas portfolio bag, a 12 LED flashlight (still pretty pricey), a small tool kit (cheap-ish Chinese tools) and now a small Jotter (below) that could be used at the TDIFest or even afterwards in the car. Thoughts from those of you that are reading this from CinciTDI?
This was suppose to have posted from the Palm Pre to my blog … obviously my test and photo didn’t post. (I’ll have to look into it) Anyway … after a long rain delay early in the game, the Red were able to finish on top with solid pitching and hitting fromLaynce Nix. See Story
After a week slipping my new Palm Pre smartphone in my front pants pocket, I’ve decided it really needs a little protection if it is going to last a few years. Since the ‘cute’ little pouch that comes packaged with the Pre is not well suited for daily pocket use, in my opinion … I’ve opted to recycle a “lost but found”Blackberry slipcover case.
The slightly wider case actually works very well and the phone is easy to access, but doesn’t readily fall out. I’m hoping that the case will also offer just enough protection if dropped and still make it easy to access the phone. Other Palm Pre owners who prefer carrying their phone in a pocket might want to consider this option until a premium slip case is fitted for your expense phone.
Now if only the little cut that is on the left were on the right (photo below), the tiny Pre speaker would be easier to hear.
Here’s an excellent video from the World Air Games in Turin, Italy showing a test flight flown by Space Shuttle astronaut (STS-75) Maurizo Cheli in the electrically powered SkySpark Single “Motor” Land aircraft (a lame attempt at aviation humor on py part). What makes this flight unique is that it has achieved an airspeed record of 155mph (250km/h) for an 8-minute long battery powered flight. The project plane, a Pioneer Alpi 300, is capable of 186 mph straight and level flight so expect to hear more record breaking flights. (long time blog readers might recall that my current Sonex project plane was electrically powered two years ago – link)
The engineering firm is Digisky along with Turin Polytechnic University and they have worked with both fuel cell and battery powered project. This aircraft is powered by a liquid-cooled 75 kW Valentino synchronous motor by Sicme Motori that weighs in at 55 lbs (25 kg) with energy provided by lithium polymer batteries. The team plans on focusing on a “hydrogen fuel cells powered engine” project.
While I’m in the “picture taking” mode, here are a couple spider webs taken while leaving the house this morning. The fog was heavy through the night after the thunderstorms on Sunday afternoon.
Click photos for larger versions or here for largerst. Photo with Canon XTi & Tamron AF17-50mm.
Spending a busy weekend away from the computer, but found time to catch up on some tech updates on my Palm Pre. Really I’d prefer watching video on a big screen, but I was impress at how well I was able to watch a couple YouTube videos and episodes of Cali Lewis on Geekbrief.tv. Very nice.
The automatic upgrade feature in newer versions of WordPress software makes upgrading far easier than just a few version ago. I remember putting off the chore for months not wanted to hassle with backups and FTP uploads. Currently the step by step ‘semi-wizard’ approach works well and the switch to WordPress 2.8 last evening the same. I really appreciated the backup approach to databases before implementing the upgrade. After the 5 to 10 minute of clicking and reading explanations the chore was done.
As for major changes, I haven’t noticed them yet, but then again who reallywants a complete redesign???
Today being Father’s Day has me reflecting on the two fathers in my life. They are both terrific dads and are great examples for me, as well as their grandsons. Shamefully for me, we didn’t prioritized getting together with them this year as we have in the past. Normally we are together for an annual Cincinnati Father’s Day weekend, but it has been usurped by other family activities (not all ours) — in our case my wife and son are both working and my daughter is diligently studying for her M2 medical boards this Friday — a big deal if you are familiar with these things.
Great tip from Paul Thurrott of 
