Tech Friday: Trying Perplexity.AI for better assistance

| June 14, 2024

After chatting with Brenda’s sisters and brother-in-laws about booking flights for a trip together, I mentioned that I was partial to Southwest Airlines. My brother-in-laws are both Delta fliers … and have a long history of booking business travel with the major airlines — I did feel as if I were ruffling feathers (text updates […]

One year plus a few weeks using MarsEdit for blogging #TBT

| February 8, 2024

This probably should be a Tech Friday post, but since a year has passed since starting to use MarsEdit 5 instead of Open Live Writer on MyDesultoryBlog, but I’m making this a ThrowBack Thursday #TBT post.  After initially tinkering with the trial in January of 2023, I purchased a license and started using in full […]

Blog stats and a humorous Iceland tourist article

| September 16, 2023

It’s interesting to see the changes in how people access Internet content over the years … or at least access information on MyDesultoryBlog.com. Microsoft Windows was once dominate, but Mac, Linux and Chrome OS computers are gaining ground. Perhaps the biggest change since starting the blog in 2005 is just how dominate iOS and Android […]

How Steve Jobs saved Apple with the iMac 25 years ago

| May 7, 2023

Memories: We had two of them — The original iMac in 1998 On May 6, 1998, Steve Jobs announced the iMac, and we wouldn’t now have the iPhone, the Apple Store, or even Apple itself, if it hadn’t been such a success. If there’s ever any doubt that the iMac is a phenomenal success, just try to […]

Hopefully Peak Design will still repair my aging messenger bag?

| May 4, 2023

Several years ago Drew and Katelyn gave me a premium everyday carry messenger bag for Christmas (2016). It has been a fantastic bag  or briefcase like bag for my notebook computer, iPad, books, etc and a lot of tech gear (originally used for my Lumix camera). Unfortunately after years of travel and admitted overloading, it […]

Bought an external 1TB SSD for the new MacBook Air M2

| March 18, 2023

Even though the new MacBook Air M2 is cloud connected and semi-backing up (to iCloud, gDrive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc) … it is still uncomfortable to be loading up and using a new notebook computer for traveling without physically backing up files. In particular, setting up the built in Apple TimeMachine software in case the computer needs […]

Embracing Change: How to Thrive in an Ever-Changing World

| March 12, 2023

This past week my son Taylor and I had a father-son dinner together at Chili’s and enjoyed some “desultory” conversation … from the Ukraine-Russia war to ChatGPT. Eventually he commented, “Dad, you should let the AI system write or rewrite your blog posts.”   Hm … how about I just ask the Chatbot to write […]

Tech Friday: Will I regret buying an openbox MacBook Air M2?

| March 10, 2023

It has been quite a few years that I’ve been struggling with what to do when it comes to purchasing a new “travel” computer and I have contemplated doing something a number of times. The aging Lenovo still works, but I do struggle with not having everything with me that is part of my “Apple […]

Reworking my old corner computer desk for the home office

| May 25, 2022

Now that the desk and hardwood floors are complete, and floor finish has cured enough in my home office, it is time to tackle the trim painting, putting the closet and bookshelves back. Another project I’ve been contemplating is to revitalize my older well-worn corner computer desk. Having used it for a couple of decades […]

Tech Friday: Keyboard Shortcuts You Should Know (WIRED)

| July 23, 2021

Occasionally I still get calls from people asking me about shortcut key combinations. Most of the shortcuts are second nature to people who grew up using computers, but then again … what you don’t use, you forget. How about a refresher from Wired? Tip: Learn as many keyboard shortcuts as your brain can store. You […]

Tech Friday: Check the password scheme you are using

| May 21, 2021

It is easy to get complacent in securing your online and computer lives, so use last weeks Colonial Pipeline cyberattack and the Statista image of “The Most Popular Passwords Around the World” as a reminder. Longer nonsensical combinations of characters help, but two-factor authentication when available is better. Oh, and stop using the same password […]

Tech Friday: A powerful Copy and Paste app for the Macintosh

| April 16, 2021

If you use a computer for any length of time (my “go-to” is an aging 2012 Apple iMac), you’ll find yourself cut, copy and pasting things on a regular basis. Security experts do not recommend using the cut/copy feature for secure items like user names and passwords, but that doesn’t prevent the habit of using […]

Handy IFitIt tools for gadgets and Spring 2021 family photos

| March 13, 2021

This content is restricted.

Tech Friday: Increased memory cheat on a smallish web server

| January 15, 2021

Years ago when RAM was expensive, it was common to set up a SWAP space file for additional memory on computers and servers with plenty of fast hard drive space … especially when speed was not as important as preventing crashes. As applications get a little more demanding and server traffic increases, memory use steadily […]

Tech Friday: A “Groovy Gorilla” Linux 20.10 server update

| January 1, 2021

After the previous challenging server update from years on Ubuntu Linux 12, 14 and 16 to a questionable 18 upgrade … I’ve been hesitant to upgrade the server to  “Focal Fossa” 20.04 in the spring and summer … so I didn’t. But now that we are at the end of the year (actually by the […]

Tech Friday: A Lifewire tip for Apple’s Bluetooth Magic Mouse

| November 13, 2020

Recently I have been having problems with the Magic Mouse on my aging Apple iMac. The Bluetooth mouse once steadily held it’s connection until the AA batteries were getting weaker. I’ve cleaned the contacts with electrical cleaner and a Scotch-Brite pad but continue to have issue. A quick check on the Internet indicated that I’m […]

Tech Friday: Playing with HUGO, a fast static site generator (SSG)

| October 30, 2020

While doing some “self” tech-oriented education this past week, I ended up distracted after a friend tweeted and shared some information on “static site generators (SSGs)” .. so off down the “HUGO” rabbit hole I went (thanks A LOT Scott, #sarcasm – LINK to his Hugo powered Bilik.Family website).     I’ve never really worked with any […]

Tech Friday: Apple Mac OS Catalina desktop window tip

| July 10, 2020

As an Apple Macintosh user for nearly forever, I learned a new tip from a Verge article this past month that has not been widely talked about. It happened to come up when I was offering advice on how I rotate through and set up about 5-7 desktops and the second monitor Parallels Window side […]

TechFriday: Dropbox paid cloud storage is tough to justify

| June 26, 2020

Besides Google’s less intuitive cloud storage, Dropbox was the first cloud service that I gravitated to “back in the day.”  I’ve posted about them before on TechFriday (2015 comparison) and they are still one of the best cloud storage services for the way I work on computers and devices. Unfortunately over the last few years […]

Tech Friday: A webserver update and a budget retirement RV

| May 8, 2020

Actually this is just a filler post while working on server upgrades. Hopefully when finished, the new server will be fully up-to-date with Linux (Ubuntu Bionic Beaver 18.04), PHP 7.2 and a current LAMP stack set-up. WordPress will finally be able to be updated to 5.4.1 and maybe eventually bring back a cache to speed […]

Experiencing website issues – an update is planned

| May 6, 2020

Today’s post serves as a test … since I’m having a few webserver and database problems. If you are a regular reader, this will also be a notice that this blog will likely be sporadic until it is fixed. Once my business sites are updated, then I’ll address my long-in-the-tooth (see below) Quickdex project site and […]

Tech Friday: Word processor WordStar in 1980 for the Apple II

| April 3, 2020

Above is a graphic sent by a friend, who knows of my long time Apple addiction … and it had me pondering the Steve Jobs vs Steve Wozniak struggle when trying to grow Apple Computer back in the early days (watch the Danny Boyle movie called Steve Jobs). One of the founders was an advocated […]

TechFriday: VPN yay or VPN nay? Free or paid? Which service?

| February 21, 2020

If you’ve been on the Internet for any length of time (post from 2007), you have likely used, or been marketed VPN services, as a way to secure your Wi-Fi connection (especially public hotspots) away from the office or home network. I’ve pitched them as a security precaution to my customers and use them when […]

High CalendarAgent CPU use on Apple MacOS Catalina 10.15.3

| February 12, 2020

Here’s a tech tidbit for those noticing a high CalendarAgent CPU demand on your Apple Macintosh computer. For me, the process cranked up the CPU to 60-70% trigging high fan speeds and this process continued without finishing. I noticed slightly sluggish behavior AFTER a recent MacOS software update, although might have happened prior to that? […]

Replaced my iPad Air with iPad 7th Gen and Brydge Keyboard

| February 9, 2020

It has been a struggle to make a decision on updating my favorite tech gadget, but after the first generation Brydge Keyboard finally would not charge, I had to do something. I thought about going all out and moving to the iPad Pro series, but realized that all the functions that I appreciate are already […]

Tech Friday: The subscription models and the 180K threshold

| January 17, 2020

Back in the late 1980s when I was starting in the commercial printing and eventually ‘small time’ publishing business (Consolidated Printing and Publishing Co), I didn’t realize how far ahead of the game we were when focusing on the subscription model. Early on we were able to capitalize on few people in the printing industry […]

Music Monday: Wasted Days and Wasted Nights – iMac OS update

| January 13, 2020

This content is restricted.

Tech Friday: How is your Cyber Awareness?

| November 22, 2019

So … you’ve survived pretty much unscathed after a couple decades of identity theft, credit card fraud and everything moving online … but at some point, you realize that you’ve been lucky. Most of us are pretty lax when it comes to locking down our data, securing our digital access points and devices. So perhaps […]

A little Computer Mouse history … and then some #TBT

| November 21, 2019

Hello World! It is frightening to think that I’ve been using computers for FORTY years and have used and have seen the slow evolution in input devices clustered around a device called the Computer Mouse. So for ThrowBack Thursday #TBT this week, the above is a photo of the original “mouse” in 1964 by Douglas […]

Tech Friday: Quantum computing and cryptography

| July 26, 2019

The race for quantum computing superiority has been on my mind and in my discussions lately. State actors like China, North Korea and Russia are all running projects sponsored by their governments to be the first to harness such computing power that will make today’s encryption nearly worthless. Here in the US, our biggest tech […]

Children are online A LOT, so how do we protect them?

| July 10, 2019

Oh for the good ol’ days when we read cereal boxes in the morning and just wanted the trinket inside or collected box tops while learning “delayed gratification.”   Kids online: ”81% of the world’s children and 92% of US children now have an online presence before they turn 2. In the US, 95% of […]

Tech Friday: Your photo apps are making a lot of “facetile” images

| May 31, 2019

If you are using Apple’s Photos app, you’ve probably noticed the software attempts to identify faces of people (not just Apple either). This can be helpful for “you” to sift through photos, but also seems a bit nosy when the app also builds a pile of “facetile” photos on its own. Most people likely will […]

Tech Friday: ZombieLoad Flaw in Intel Chips $INTC

| May 17, 2019

Intel chips are presenting a huge problem for nearly every computer user with chips since 2011. These Intel chips have vulnerabilities that if exploited can be used to steal sensitive information directly from the processor. According to published articles from security experts, "the bugs are reminiscent of Meltdown and Spectre, which exploited a weakness in […]

How hot is too hot for a Late 2012 Apple iMac 3.4GHz Core i7?

| January 8, 2019

No matter who you talk to, running the processor at water’s boiling point is too hot and not healthy for a computer chips. After replacing my iMac’s power supply board … and hard drive … I thought my problems were over, but probably not. It looks like I’m going to have to clean the old […]

Tech Friday: Are Windows registry cleaners hokum?

| December 28, 2018

Those of us who manage our own computers likely do our share of “desktop” cleaning and are regularly warned by our anti-virus software that we need to do more than prevent viruses and hackers from accessing our computers. The current “free” anti-virus companies all push to sell their paid software … and regularly highlight registry […]

Christmas prep and my iMac is still recovering from surgery

| December 15, 2018

Although Brenda and I are making steady progress in getting things ready for Christmas, the iMac surgery mentioned yesterday did not go as smoothly as planned, but at least I do have backups to rebuild things from. Currently the “way too many” cloud services that I’m using are working overtime as my Time Machine archive […]

Fees increases ends my Freedompop LTE MiFi endorsement

| November 27, 2018

This may be the end for Freedompop, the low cost wireless "backup" hotspot service I’ve been using for years — at least it probably is for me (started with the Photon back in 2010). For the most part their hotspot service has been a decent value for me while traveling and giving me LTE connectivity […]

Fighting back my desire to participate in the Apple upgrade cycle

| October 31, 2018

It is a favorite time of year for those who enjoy seeing the new product coming online from Apple. iPhones in September,new iPads and Apple Air notebooks this week and even a new Apple Mac Mini (used an older Mini for my desktop next to a Windows machine for years). This year it seems even […]

Tech Friday: Rumors buzzed about a new Apple Macbook Air

| August 24, 2018

What’s new with the popular and well loved Apple MacBook Air? Nothing yet, but this week heated up with rumors that 8-year old Air is getting a big makeover for the end of 2018 (2017 CNET review of last years Macbook Air). First on the "hope for rumors HAS" list is that the device remains […]

Tech Friday: What is going to be new in Apple iOS12

| June 22, 2018

It has been a while since posting on “what’s new” with Apple. As we approach the convergence of mobile operation systems and desktop, the maturing lightweight phone OS on all platforms is growing in power, size and use. The writing is on the wall. Microsoft has announced Windows 10 will be the last Windows operating […]

Tech Friday: Adding security and privacy with a VPN

| June 15, 2018

My good friend Jeff works in IT and has been programming and running networks for 30 years; after attending a cyber security conference a few weeks ago to help hardening his company’s network and systems, he asked me what VPN service I was using? “Online privacy experts such as privacytools.io recommend staying away from VPN providers based […]

Tech Friday flashback: A technology blog post from 12 years ago

| May 25, 2018

Noticed a blog post from 12 years ago discussing “portable” computing and how things have changed. In 2006 the average laptop weighed about 7 pounds with batteries, compared to 20 years prior where my Compaq was 28 pounds … and required 110VAC power. LINK to post Now an iPhone or iPad can run circles around […]

Tech Friday: How important is an upgradable computer anymore?

| April 6, 2018

Since my desktop computer has always been an Apple Macintosh (too many to count since the Mac SE), it is interesting how the trend has changed. In those early days, having something upgradeable was a big deal, but nowadays who really does their own upgrades? A bit less than three in a hundred users even […]

The Apple Mac and Parallels virtual Windows 10 nightmare

| February 28, 2018

What a pain. I had a major crash on my iMac and wiped out my Parallels install (corrupted the virtual hard drive).  One would think this would be an easy fix, but it wasn’t. I spent about 6 hours attempting fix after fix to restore a back up version of the virtual disk (Apple’s Time […]

Tech Friday: Twitter shortcuts when using a computer

| November 24, 2017

Although most of use probably use Twitter on our phones or tablets, there are times users check out the latest Tweets on "the bigger screen." If you use Twitter as your news (or "fakenews" feed), try a few of these power-user shortcuts.

Tech Friday: Am I out of my mind upgrading to High Sierra?

| November 17, 2017

I have a perfectly functioning iMac and against my better judgement spent this morning upgrading the OS to macOS High Sierra (release about 1-1/2 months ago). Hopefully that was enough time for quick fixes because I’ve upgraded Macs too many times over the years and have often regretted the decision. Usually software and hardware requires upgrading […]

Tech Friday: Making power adapters last longer

| October 20, 2017

Here’s a short tip for making power adapter wires last longer when traveling or packing them in a computer bag: When winding the cord, don’t wrap the first loop too tight. The usual fail points when cords are coiled over and over are where the wires enter the power block or the plug, so allow […]

The Apollo 14 mission and a long distance technical support call

| September 3, 2017

What a great story told by YouTuber Scott Manley about the early days of NASA, their Apollo 14 computing problem and a "tech support call" to a programmer (video below). The story is longish and likely only of interest for those on the geeky side who work with computer or are programmers — it would […]

TechFriday: Lenovo Yoga 710, my everyday carry notebook

| April 14, 2017

Last week someone asked me about my large screened notebook, the 15.6″ Lenovo Yoga 710 with an Intel i5-7200U CPU (2.50GHz), 8 GB memory and a rather smallish 256GB SSD. The question was whether I would recommend it. The answer is yes … if you can live with a couple small nits that I have […]

Passwords and protecting your digital data

| March 29, 2017

We all struggle with ease of use and security when using a computer and online services … what’s the best way? That’s likely a debatable question since we want easy access, but don’t want our data compromised – "how easy is too easy?" What we do know is that a simple or "no" password is […]

TechFriday: Still experimenting with computers and relays

| January 27, 2017

After a previous simple $20 relay component test, my friend Jeff and I realized that there were a few shortcomings in using it for a future project — enter the cheaper eBay $3.99 higher powered solid state relay module.  This smallish sized relay component can be wired into a 40 amp circuit and switched with […]

TechFriday: New to me IoT High-Power 110 volt AC Relay

| January 20, 2017

A friend of mine has been brainstorming the components and options for a project that I’m tinkering on for both the sailboat and improving my back up power at the house. Basically the idea is to use a minimalist single board computer like the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, Pine64 or maybe just the new IoT Photon. […]

TechFriday: Spending a few hours installing old software

| November 25, 2016

It is easy to forget just how much software one ends up with after 9 years using a computer. There was everything from odd ball utilities to a variety of outdated Adobe Creative Suite design software that I occasionally need. These were all versions installed from CD and are not openly supported anymore. Unlike my […]

Tinkering with a new Lenovo Windows 10 notebook computer

| November 19, 2016

I just couldn’t pass up burning my $280 Best Buy credit on a new mid-level Windows  10 Lenovo Yoga notebook computer. It is going to take some time tweaking it before I’m comfortable with it, but I decided that a new MacBook Pro was not in the cards for me (too expensive and missing so […]

Phone scams, Do-not-call lists and IRS fraud

| October 4, 2016

Mail fraud and phone scams are ongoing problems if you live in the U.S. unless you are lucky enough to exist under a rock. Throughout the years I’ve been targeted by shady hoodlums looking to make a quick buck using fraud and deceit as a way to access money or more information. Likely these criminals […]

My Kickstarter Pine64 single board computer finally arrived

| July 15, 2016

It has been a long time in coming, but the PineA64 Kickstarter project that I backed in January finally arrived. As start-ups, this one was not as smooth as it could have been. The team promised deliveries in March, then April and finally no later than May. Eventually June and finally July for the last […]

A short post to set up OLW on a new ASUS notebook

| July 1, 2016

This is a quick test for a new computer running Open Live Writer. I’m retiring my 9 year old Gateway notebook computer and forging ahead with a low powered and low cost Microsoft Window 10 notebook. More to come on my recent addition in a future post, but after the Gateway overheated and cooked itself […]

The Raspberry Pi 3 is up and running with a LAMP stack

| April 6, 2016

After buying a new 64GB Samsung EVO+ microSD card and imaging Raspian on it, I started the Raspberry Pi 3 in my home office.  It is now time to start installing software and updating it to make it a proper "micro" webserver … although I already have WordPress and American Pi running on it (even […]

What could you do with a 64-bit $15 computer?

| January 27, 2016

This little “toy” will be fun! (should receive mine in March) Specs: CPU: 1.2 Ghz Quad-Core ARM Cortex A53 64-Bit Processor. It has 64 and 32 Bit execution states for scalable high performance power – including a NEON Multimedia processing engine. I/O EXPANSION: Two I/O Expansion slots – the Pi-2 Expansion and Euler box – […]

Computer, the Cloud and Blog updates and clean up

| January 16, 2016

My cluttered desktop was overdue for a good clean-up and at least a little bit of organizing. After recently adding a second monitor to my iMac dedicated to virtual Windows 10 there ended up being more room to spreadout and clutter. Besides there is a 3rd monitor running after plugging in the new Raspberry Pi […]

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog