Tech Friday: It could be time to upgrade our home network?

| June 23, 2023

A couple of weeks ago, our our mostly flawless fiber service with AltaFiber (was Cincinnati Bell) was upgraded to a faster speed. Our Internet service has been as fast as we have needed and relatively stable for the last couple of years. Personally, nothing needs anything to change … except perhaps a lower monthly price? […]

Tech Friday: A now rare Internet connectivity issue & speedtest

| April 2, 2021

We have not had many Internet connectivity issues since switching to Cincinnati Bell Fioptic fiber and then added a mesh network instead of traditional router (although the Netgear Nighthawk was pretty good – we move it to the condo). Perhaps a lot has to do with companies building out the infrastructure with fewer buggy devices […]

Tech Friday: Raspberry Pi 3 webservers and a USB Power Brick

| December 4, 2020

Although I only have one address accessible IP at the house, I can split it up via “Port Forwarding” on the cheap Cincinnati Bell router, rather than the home “mesh” network. After a little tweaking (ok, A LOT), I do have a work-around solution using a variety of ports to access different devices. For the […]

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 […]

Tech Friday: Simple advice IF you must use a virtual assistant

| February 22, 2019

TechFriday advice for those of us who enjoy using virtual assistants like those from Google, Apple or Amazon: 1. Change the Default Password on Your Wi-Fi Router 2. Set the Voice Lock 3. Decide Whether You Want to Shop By Voice 4. Understand that Privacy Rights in the US Are on the Way – but […]

Tech Friday: What is all the 5G buzz about?

| 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 […]

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 […]

Following and being followed – the 2000 follow limit on Twitter

| September 25, 2015

Those who are social networking gurus know that each network establishes limits to reduce abuse and spam. It is also a way to manage an excessive number of unbalanced following. New users may not realize the limits until they bump up against them. A common limit on Twitter is the number of people being followed […]

Can $TWTR turn things around without being acquired?

| June 15, 2015

With the stock market opening off 150 points or so this Monday morning, the short sellers are having their way with the social networking stock of Twitter. TWTR is down 3.8% to $34.50 as of 11AM. What is it going to take to see this commercially and widely used service change direction … or will […]

Tech Friday: Fing and some terrific simple little hacks

| February 14, 2014

Fing is a great little network scanner app available on iOS and Android devices that helped when diagnosing a network printer problem this week. It not really necessary, but is so convenient that I wanted to share it with others. If you are overwhelm with devices, ip and mac addresses and odd names showing up […]

Why is Facebook losing teens?

| August 12, 2013

A few years ago Facebook rocketed to popularity as a social network for the .EDU college crowd … or .edu to be net savvy (lc). This emerging adult crowd was the envy of every high school teen and "wanna be older" pre-high student and having a Facebook account was a coming of age milestone. Parents […]

Facebook settings can confuse even a Zuckerberg

| December 26, 2012

If you are confused over the privacy settings on social networking sites, particularly Facebook, you are not alone. Short suggestion: Assume everything you post is public … because it can certainly end up that way … just ask Randi Zuckerberg. As networks grow and friends connect to other friends, eventually the images and comments you […]

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