RichC | 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 […]
RichC | November 3, 2023
For years I’ve been running Parallels on my iMac after switching from Bootcamp on the old Mac Mini. It has been a love -hate relationship, but I’ve sort of always needed to run Microsoft Windows. Since adding the MacBook Air M2 without Parallels or a Windows10 option, I’ve learned to function fairly well without “at […]
RichC | September 8, 2023
One of my social media contacts who knows that I’ve been using computers to monitor investments and trade for decades heard me mention that I switched to a tiny MacBook Air M2 from a 27” PC display (iMac with a second Thunderbolt Apple display running Windows 10 on Parallels). He asked how it was possible […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | March 25, 2023
Much of Friday was spend trying to recover tax oriented data that has been on the Windows virtual drive on my iMac computer. Earlier this year, I started taxes and had been slowly adding data and archiving items in a folder so I could file taxes this year. All the downloads were in place and […]
RichC | January 18, 2023
As the great Yogi Berra is credited with saying, “It’s déjà vu all over again.” It is once again time to contemplate my home office computer set-up … something I seem to do every year. The last time I updated my main computer was when I replaced an early Mac Mini with the current 2012 […]
RichC | June 10, 2022
A semi-disaster struck as my iMac choked on a Parallel 17 "virtual Windows" update on Thursday. It reminded me of the movie "Blackhawk Down" or perhaps "White House Down" … hence the subject line for Tech Friday. The virtual Windows 10 side of my computer booted, but everything from the connected drives to the display […]
RichC | April 21, 2022
As the slow progress on finishing my home office continues, I’ve set up a temporary office in the basement (below). It is surprisingly comfortable, but I do miss the daylight and looking out the windows. I can’t help but reminisce to make this a Throwback Thursday #TBT post after finally removing the painters tape from […]
RichC | July 9, 2021
For the last few years, I’ve been using Google’s Backup and Sync software on my iMac to back up mostly archival data to my free Google Drive space that was part of my legacy Miami University EDU teaching account. I haven’t taught in Oxford, Ohio for decades, but did spend a few dollars for Taylor’s […]
RichC | June 4, 2021
The Joanna Sterns review in the WSJ about the new Apple iMac highlighted a few plus and minus points last month … and started me thinking about a desktop computer replacement. It is difficult to imagine spending $2000 again to replace my aging late 2012 iMac 27” model, especially since I run a dual monitor […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | February 28, 2021
Just marking server and blog updates to end the month of February 2021. I’ve put this WordPress 5.6.2 update off a few weeks in order to be sure I had a full backup, etc. Note to self, check on the Seagate hard drive attached to the iMac as Time Machine backups have been regularly failing […]
RichC | April 13, 2020
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RichC | January 13, 2020
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RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | March 22, 2019
There is isn’t anything wrong with my current 2014 Apple iPad, it is just getting older as far as technology goes, and is a little sluggish (or so it seems). It is still the single most used tech device that I have … and the reason I’ll likely replace it with another when the time […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | December 14, 2018
"Hey Rich, should I wait for a 5G phone … and by the way, what is 5G?" One of these days I’m just going to say, "I don’t know," but until then, I bump along pretending I know more than I do … that is until I get in too deep to walk away. This […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | June 2, 2017
Who doesn’t love anticipating "the next big thing" when it comes to tech, especially the mobile tech we used everyday? I for one am ready to replace my iPhone5s with some new hardware — if for nothing else, a snappier interface (it just feels slow). The plan for about a year has been to wait […]
RichC | 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 […]
RichC | December 29, 2015
How do you control the brightness on Thunderbolt connected secondary monitor without any physical controls? This took me a few minutes to figure out … so its worth archiving as a tidbit. When your display desktop is at a premium, or you are running virtual operating systems, having a second monitor is a real plus. I added a secondhand 27″ Mac Thunderbolt […]
RichC | December 18, 2015
A couple improvement to our Internet connectivity at the house this past week as I quarreled with Time Warner Cable yet again about our service and our bill. Of course they once again wanted to schedule a tech to come out and look at things to determine why our paid for turbo speed was only […]
RichC | July 3, 2015
So much for “considering” Windows 10 on my iMac (Parallels). And here I was thinking that upgrading a couple of Windows machines wouldn’t be as expensive as in the past … with Microsofts FREE upgrad offer and all. (Parallels is working on a solution) Microsoft is making Windows 10 available as free upgrade for qualified […]
RichC | October 19, 2014
Against my better judgment I upgraded my iMac to Apple’s OS X Yosemite this weekend … bold move after my frustrations with iOS 8 and my older iPad2. So far all is well and it should be an easy to adopt upgrade … particularly since it was free. I’ve had my frustrations with both Apple […]
RichC | September 26, 2014
As a iPhone, iPad and iMac Apple customer, it is challenging to know what products to upgrade and at what time. As much as I would like an iPhone6 or 6plus, I’ve opted to stick with the current iPhone 5s (and 5) in order to save a few dollars on our cellphone plan as we […]
RichC | October 9, 2013
The U.K.’s Royal Observatory Greenwich and National Maritime Museum awarded Mark Gee’s photos showing the Milky Way galaxy as it lights the sky at Cape Palliser, New Zealand lighthouse this year. The photo (click for VERY large) was made by stitching together 20 individual images to create this panoramic photo which as the Space.com article […]
RichC | May 10, 2013
After almost throwing away my older version of the Blue Snowball microphone, I decided to plug the USB mic into my new iMac running OSX 10.8.3 … and to my surprise it worked great for a couple VOIP connections. For those of you familiar with this original USB mic, it was not supported with firmware […]
RichC | March 29, 2013
I’m still adapting to a new computer and trying not to burn out my eyes on this bright and large 27” monitor, but after the adjustment I think I’m going to enjoy using the new iMac for both OSX and Windows 7 chores (via Parallels Desktop 8). The new four cored 3.4 GHz Intel i7 […]
RichC | March 23, 2013
Taylor’s ceramic artwork “given to me” from 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th grade One would think that I would look forward to replacing a couple old computers, the pile of wires and CRT monitors with a new 27” iMac 3.4ghz i7 computer … well yes and no. It certainly is well past time to retire […]