Posted By RichC on December 16, 2023
NASA’s Perseverance rover continues on its Mars exploration 
mission that I’ve followed from the start. The Twitter feed along with the geology exploration and rock sample collection is space science at its best. For those not following the mission as closely, a YahooNews/CNN story last week that summarized the 1000 days of “roving” and of Ingenuity flights (the rover’s helicopter companion) is a quick way to catch up (link to PDF saved version).
Martian rocks tell a story
Scientists believe that Jezero Crater formed when an asteroid slammed into Mars 4 billion years ago. Perseverance began its mission by studying and sampling the crater floor soon after landing. The rover’s detective work helped scientists determine that the crater floor is made of volcanic rock that formed either due to magma that bubbled up to the surface or volcanic activity on the Martian surface.
As Perseverance rolled along, the rover came across examples of sandstone and mudstone, suggesting that a river flowed into the crater millions of years after it formed. A top layer of mudstones rich with salt is all that remains to signify that a shallow lake filled the crater, reaching 22 miles (35 kilometers) wide and 100 feet (30 meters) deep, before some climatic shift caused the lake to evaporate.
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Category: Science, Space |
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Tags: cnn, explorationm, geology, helicopter, ingenuity, mars, pdf, perseverance, rover, space, yahoo
Posted By RichC on December 15, 2023
Just a little light “rumor reading” to close out the year when it comes to future Apple iPhones. Not that it makes any difference to most users, but it is possible the “side by side” camera lens (see below photo with my iPhone 7 Plus) could go vertical again (iPhone X thru 12)? Recent ones have been diagonally configured … change for the sake of change?
See MacWorld’s “Leaked iPhone 16 prototypes” article:
The vertical lenses are the most immediately obvious design change coming in the 16-generation iPhones, but they’re not the only one. MacRumors says Apple also plans to revamp the hardware buttons. The haptic-enabled unified volume button, which was developed for the iPhone 15 Pro but eventually canceled, still isn’t going to happen on the iPhone 16. But we are getting two new capacitive buttons: the Action button, which did make it into the 15 Pro but will be standardized across the range in 2024, and a completely new Capture button with an unknown purpose, which appears in only some of the prototypes and may not make the final design.
As MacRumors says, these are early prototypes and may not match the eventual shipped product. To keep up with the latest news and rumors, check our regularly updated iPhone 16 superguide.
Category: Apple, Cellphone, Technology |
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Tags: apple, camera, iphone16, rumors, tech friday, techfriday
Posted By RichC on December 14, 2023
Since I was a heavy phone booth user as a sales guy back in the day (usually drive up style) … hence #TBT post … I couldn’t help finding humor in this social media meme.
Category: Humor, TBT |
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Tags: Humor, phone booth, TBT
Posted By RichC on December 13, 2023
This content is restricted.
Category: Archive, Personal, Photos, Video |
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Tags: annalyn, christmas, drew, ellerie, facetime, family, homebuilding, katelyn, whitehouse
Posted By RichC on December 12, 2023
As someone who enjoys birds and birdwatching, I found this Red-Tail Hawk (left) vs Bald Eagle (right) X.com video worth sharing.
Category: Nature, Social Media, Video |
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Tags: eagle, hawk, twitter, video, x.com
Posted By RichC on December 11, 2023
The song “Best Of My Love” by The Emotions was a song that I only listened on the radio to when it was released in 1977 (it was not in my music collection), but over the years I do enjoy how it reminds me of being “back in my younger days.” Hm, perhaps Don Williams should have a future Music Monday song?
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“Best Of My Love”
The Emotions | 1977 |
As for today’s song, “Best of My Love” reached Number 1 on the Billboard Pop and R&B charts and won a Grammy for Best R&B Performance by a duo or group with vocals. It also won the American Music Award for Favorite Soul/R&B Single and has been certified Platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA).
Category: Music |
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Tags: best of my love, don williams, music monday, musicmonday, the emotions
Posted By RichC on December 10, 2023
It has been a few years since we entertained the idea of “cutting the cord” when it comes to cable TV. I’m once again inching closer as Altafiber (acquired Cincinnati Bell and Fioptics) has bumped up prices and forced an equipment update on us. It is both good and bad … since I’m not really ready for change.
We have moved from a hardware based whole-house DVR with tons of storage that we’ve used for years … to a cloud-based TiVo system (love TiVo systems years ago). After the switch, I can say it is an improvement … so that does half justify the bump up in cost. That said, I’m not sure we really need cable TV, but the convenience is nice?
EDIT: Altafiber “enticed me” with lowering my bill for another 12 
months to the 2023 rates … so we’ll stay and pay … and pretend to be happy another year.
Category: Financial, Streaming, Technology |
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Tags: altafiber, cable, cord cutting, streaming, television, tivo, tv
Posted By RichC on December 9, 2023
This would be a great photo of Brenda and Taylor, but for being a blurry selfie (click to see larger). Oh well, I enjoyed seeing the two of them out for their annual mother and son Christmas shopping and evening dinner. I hope they were successful?
While they were out, I did my annual the tree searching thing … which is becoming more and more frustrating each year (receipt:$$$). This year, the selection was slimmer and prices were “inflated” … as I has already beenwarned and expected. Buying a “real” tree shouldn’t be so expensive, perhaps it is time to cut a few of our Charlie Brown looking trees down in our backyard?
But too late for this year as the credit card has been dinged again, the tree was shaken, then wrapped and tossed into my utility trailer. I assume those without a pickup truck or a trailer do not buy an 11-12 foot tree as there’s no way to put it … and keep it … safely on the roof (even if I had a roof rack).
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Category: Financial, Holiday, Personal, Photos, Shopping |
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Tags: brenda, christmas, dinner, inflation, Shopping, taylor, tree
Posted By RichC on December 8, 2023
While doing a little tech reading this week, it doesn’t look as if Apple is planning more than incremental updates for the MacBooks and iPads for spring … although they do like to surprise us?
Apple plans to refresh the MacBook Air around March 2024, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman said today in a report on Apple’s future iPad and Mac plans. Updated 13-inch and 15-inch MacBook Pro models are in the works.
As Apple overhauled the MacBook Air ‘s design in 2022 and then introduced a larger model in 2023, no design changes are planned for the 2024 models. The focus will instead be on new internal hardware, including the updated M3 chip.
LINK
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Apple’s 2024 iPad Pro models will feature OLED displays, a first for the iPad lineup. Apple has been using OLED technology for the iPhone and the Apple Watch, but larger OLED screens are more expensive. Compared to LED or mini-LED, OLED brings deeper blacks and more vivid colors. OLED displays will be a Pro-only feature, with the iPad Air to continue to use standard displays.
LINK
I’m not in the market for anything new when it comes to computers or tablets at this point anyway, but am planning to “try” to self-replace the battery in my older iPhone 7 Plus since it is drained by afternoon. I also read that software in iOS slows down the phone to preserve battery power when it detects a “struggling battery.”
So … I’ve placed an order with a seller on Amazon that has a few more reviews than other sellers (unfortunately not all reviews are positive … but who knows when batteries are all made in China and people are self replacing?)
Category: Apple, Cellphone, Shopping |
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Tags: amazon, apple, battery, ipad, iphone7plus, macbook air
Posted By RichC on December 7, 2023
About a month ago, I stumbled across a photo that I think was used as a header for the CinciTDI website at some point after Katelyn and I sold our VW Jetta TDIs, but I had to smile noticing the Volkswagen in the header photo was once Taylor’s GTI. Very good memories for sure (and what really makes me smile is that both Katelyn and Taylor drive Volkswagens today – click for 2019 photo).
After sending the photo to Taylor to get his reaction, I thought it might make for a good Throwback Thursday #TBT memory post … and am adding a leftover screen shot of our club’s How-To videos in the camcorder (pre-smartphone) and early Internet video pre-YouTube days.
Shockingly the donation link still seems to work?
Category: Automotive, Memories, TBT, Volkswagen |
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Tags: 2004, cincitdi, clips, gti, how to, katelyn, taylor, TBT, tdi, volkswagen
