Posted By RichC on September 24, 2006
Entering a quick personal weekend update from my Treo smartphone with an attached sunset photo as I ride with my son driving a few practice hours before he takes his driving test later this fall. It was a nice weekend after a cooler and rainy start on Saturday. The Friday night high school football game went surprisingly well as our local team recorded its 3rd win in a row as Lakota East beat Fairfield 21 – 0, although next weeks game against Colerain is one to be feared. Saturday night was movie night as we rented United 93 … a sobering movie reminding us of the evil that exists in this world. And then today was full of luck as the Cincinnati Bengals took advantages of the gift of 5 turnovers offered up by last year much despised Pittsburgh Steelers to win the game 28 – 20. And … as a ready to post this from our Caribou coffee stop, our favorite ‘chatterbox’ at the coffee shop, Joe, will be moving on. I think will miss his enjoyable conversation as he was part of the reason we always stopped for an evening cup of coffee here.
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Posted By RichC on September 23, 2006
The folks over at Treonauts forum sleuthed some new photos of the much talked about antenna-less Treo 750. The phone itself is said to reflect the desire for a sleeker full feature PDA/Phone and will be first introduced running the Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system, hopefully followed by Palm OS. The network will be initially Cingular which is GSM and should be available soon. (September 2006 release we’ve been told) The screen is 240×240 pixels the same as the Treo 700w , but slightly lower than the 320×320 on the Treo 700p. (Palm OS) The 750 sports a thumb-board and touchscreen like all the Treos and has 60MB of built in memory with a miniSD slot available in the side of the phone. (see previous photos) The processor is a Samsung 300 MHz similar to all newer Treos and the connections offer 3G networking speeds in areas where it is supported. (384 kbps) The camera is a 1.3 megapixel with video capability which is unfortunately still not acceptable quality in my opinion. According to GSMArena the standard 1200 mAh Li-Ion battery should offer up to 240 hours of standby time and 4-1/2 hours of talk. No matter which way Treo lovers look at this new offering … its only a baby step.
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Posted By RichC on September 22, 2006
Since there are a few VW owners reading these posts, I told my nephew I would give hime a hand in selling a set of 4 Dropzone Suspension springs he purchased for his 2000 VW A4 Jetta. (click for large photo) He has since sold the car and purchased a minivan after never getting around to installing the lowering and stiffer replacement springs. If you are interested send me an email or leave a comment. The asking price is $100 and will save you about $50 and if you are around Cincinnati will save on the shipping. First come first serve. (note: they are brand new and from what I can tell have never been out of the plastic packing.)
Never thought I would be putting something for sale on
my blog … definitely in keeping with the title of “Desultory!”
🙂
Category: Misc |
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Posted By RichC on September 22, 2006
The Hezbollah rabble-rouser gave an inperson speech today in southern Beirut in a rally celebrating a ‘victory’ over Israel. One has to wonder if 1) he is a target in such a large gathering, 2) if his speaking will inspire more terror and/or 3) will make the United Nations/Lebanon’s job of disarming Hezbollah and preventing further violence? Today’s ‘in-person’ appearance seems to be a surprise to many. It will be interesting to follow what transpires as there is a significant crowd of pro-Hezbollah gathering … at this time the rally doesn’t seem to be out of hand but is doing little to promote a peaceful existence.
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Posted By RichC on September 21, 2006
Heads must have turned as the World Solar Rally made it way through the cities and countrysides of Taiwan this past week. As regular readers know, I’ve been following the Rally through the eyes of Team UNM University of Minnesota and their vehicle Borealis III. The team managed to perform well the final few days of the rally, and improving on their starting position, after a ‘flat‘ start. (pun intended) The final standing for the rally have been posted and they were able to inch their way from a day 1 start of 8th to a final place 5th overall. Despite a motor controller issue late in the final day, all went well with their masterful work of engineering. I look forward to the continued advancements in what is possible in harnessing the nearly limitless power of the sun. Now as the team packs up their gear and spends the final day as tourists, those of us enjoying their experience via the Internet want to convey our thanks and appreciation for a job well done. Stay in touch.
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Posted By RichC on September 21, 2006
In an early morning landing today the Shuttle Atlantis returned safety to Florida at 6:21 EST. The “in the dark” landing was near perfect and as many pilots can confirm, clear morning landings on a lit paved runways are no more difficult than daylight landings. This STS-115 mission marked NASA’s official entry back into the space-station construction business, a task put on a four-year hiatus due to upgrades and test flights made after the Columbia accident. Commander Brent Jett and his five crewmates – pilot Chris Ferguson, flight engineer Dan Burbank, Canada’s Steve MacLean, Joe Tanner and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper – delivered and installed a $372 million solar power system during a complex series of robotic maneuvers and three spacewalks.
Hopefully more information will be gleaned on the black colored UFOs spotted by cameras on the Atlantis prior to entry … stay tuned. (UFO = unidentified space junk .. most likely coming from the space shuttle itself considering the orbits were similar)
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Posted By RichC on September 20, 2006
I filled up this morning at a Sunoco station in central Ohio that offers clean alternate fuel to travelers on Interstate I-71 between Columbus and Cleveland. This station, as of September 2006, offers corn-based ethanol – E85 – and soy-based Biodiesel in three blends: B2 (2%), B5 (5%) and B20 (20%). Pricing is competitive with petroleum fuel and is one of a very few stations I’ve seen offering so many choices.
The proximity to Interstate 71 at exit 151 just east of Mount Gilead Ohio makes it an ideal stop for many who find the other renewable fuel filling stations inconvenient. I personally appreciated the pay at the pump credit card option as it makes the stop quick … besides, it is just a few yards west of the interstate exit — truly a no-hassle ‘pit stop.’ If you have a flex-fuel vehicle, or drive a diesel, be sure to support Ohio farmers growing clean fuel made in America.
There is a significant amount of information available on both biodiesel and ethanol. Here are a couple things to keep in mind: First, E85 is the government designated term for motor fuel blends of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline. Ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline, is a domestic renewable fuel grown by farmers and what we currently use is processed in the US. Its not only better for the environment, but is good for the American economy by keeping the dollars circulating at home — BUT be sure your vehicle is E85 compatible before filling up. (see list of vehicles)
Biodiesel, on the other hand, is generally a soybean based fuel in the United States, although can be made from anything from recycled cooking oil to algae. It runs without vehicle modification as a replacement for petroleum diesel fuel and is clean, domestically produced will run at 100% (B100) or in any blended percentage. I’ve been running biodiesl in two TDI (diesel) Volkswagens for several years without an issue, although those desiring to run at high percentages should be aware of warranty and cold weather issues. Here is a quick FAQ on Biodiesel. At any rate, those looking for a ‘great’ place to purchase renewable fuels in Ohio should definitely mark this station on your maps.
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Posted By RichC on September 19, 2006
As usual, Microsoft (for which I reluctantly am still a shareholder), continues to maintain its lead in technology ‘copycatting.’ I will forever remain mystified as to how this company ever was able to capture the lions share in operating systems and software business in operating the way it does? Perhaps the ‘Walmart-ish’ operating strategy and financially crushing power has much to do with it … but its obviously not their technology, at least in recent memory. In a press statement today, Rob Bennett, general manager of MSN’s entertainment and video services, announced that Microsoft would begin beta testing its own YouTube-like Internet video service called Soapbox.
YouTube is the undisputed leader of user supplied online video at this moment … followed by Google, Yahoo, Time Warner Inc.’s AOL unit and News Corp.’s social networking site MySpace and Sony’s newly acquired video-sharing site Grouper.com. Microsoft have offered considerable owned content through its partnerships, but this will be their push into user video. It will be interesting to see how this crowded bandwidth intensive and costly online segment pans out.
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Posted By RichC on September 18, 2006
Considering I’m behind in getting up today’s post and haven’t posted a video clip recently … today’s post will be a clip served up over at Google Videos (at bottom). Besides including of one of my favorite sea mammals, the Orca or Killer Whale (I worked with Shamu at Sea World many years ago), the extraordinary animals are powerful but usually gentle around humans in the Pacific northwest. The one below is definitely powerful … but perhaps not as gentle as watchers are use to?
Common misunderstanding: The orca is the sole species in the genus Orcinus, and is of the Oceanic dolphin family and not a “whale” as often thought. Oceanic dolphins are the members of the Delphinidae family of cetaceans.
Video was deleted
Category: Environment, Video |
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Tags: orca
Posted By RichC on September 17, 2006
A physically painful win for some of the Cincinnati Bengal players against the underdawged Cleveland Browns. The final score of 34-17 doesn’t tell the whole story, as several key Cincinnati players suffered injuries in a hard played game. The bright spot for Cincinnati, in their second win of the season, is that Carson Palmer looked reminiscent of last year; he played very well completing 24 of 40 with 2 touchdowns for 352 yards. (unfortunately he also had two interceptions) There is no indication that his knee is any worse considering the severity of the season ending injury during the playoff game against the Pittsburgh Steelers last year. The next game should be interesting since it will be in Pittsburgh!
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