tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83914134148855271102026-02-24T14:17:01.977-08:00A few things I came acrossKlaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comBlogger407125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-55225488798154260162024-09-09T18:14:00.000-07:002024-09-09T18:17:51.986-07:00

 James Earl Jones passed away today. He was never onscreen for his most famous role of Darth Vader, so that's not what I remember first... instead, it was his depiction of Admiral James Greer in the Tom Clancy movies Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, and Clear and Present Danger. I learned just now that he also had a role in Dr. Strangelove, one of the best movies

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-84432835657662385802022-07-31T13:33:00.001-07:002022-07-31T13:34:46.726-07:00

Nichelle Nichols passed away today, aged 89, which generates this post here after a long silence on the Blog. I don't remember when I first saw her in Star Trek, probably sometime in the seventies, and at this time the significance of the role was very likely lost on me. But that's probably just right. 

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-48075517401629015102020-06-19T09:41:00.001-07:002020-06-19T09:41:33.454-07:00

Ian Holm passed away earlier today, prompting me to revive the blog with another entry in this category. He showed up as an often humble character with depth in many movies that I really enjoyed and remember, most notable for me Alien and The Fifth Element. Then there are the Tolkien movies, and gems like Time Bandits and Brazil, and many more. He'll be missed. The picture is from 1979s Alien.

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-62892704696151270142017-09-16T20:54:00.000-07:002017-09-16T20:54:26.592-07:00

I just learned that Harry Dean Stanton passed away yesterday, aged 91. He was showing up in many movies, and it is tough to tell which of these would be most significant. For me personally, these three are standing out: Obviously Alien, where he was one of the early victims. And then there is the underappreciated Repo Man and - yes - Escape from New York.

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-16508141696567888932017-07-16T19:31:00.001-07:002017-07-16T19:31:19.013-07:00

Yesterday Martin Landau passed away, at 89. He showed up in a great many movies, I remember X-Files and certainly City Of Ember, a movie that is totally underappreciated.  But my memory will stick with Space: 1999. I don't think I saw the original airing called "Mondbasis Alpha 1" sometime in the nineteen-seventies, but I still remember him from that show.

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-55587311076158378012017-07-10T09:41:00.000-07:002017-07-10T09:42:27.984-07:00

Here are two videos and a bunch of pictures from the visit to Fiesta Island last weekend. Kira, Skylar and I got there by 7 AM, and due to an event, there was nearly no parking anymore. But that was managed eventually, and as a benefit, the beaches have been nearly empty. This was Kira's third time at Fiesta Island, and she is doing great. Good recall, and no fear of the water. She does not

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-83047551261851420262017-04-17T12:48:00.002-07:002017-04-17T12:48:28.055-07:00

Well, all good things have to end eventually... a few weeks back I "Divorced from Cable", and today I took the pains and canceled my last TiVo subscription.  To complain about the cancellation process, TiVo is one of those offenders who make it easy to subscribe online but require calling in to cancel. That's annoying. But the call was somewhat OK, a two-minute wait, about 10 questions, but

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-53545596232884210642017-04-14T16:28:00.001-07:002017-04-14T16:28:26.320-07:00

Our Dobermans are learning agility... specifically jumping. There are a few videos on my YouTube Channel, but I wanted to showcase this one here as well. The point of the video is obviously to see the same jump from two angles. The side view is against the sun, so that's a flaw, but it's interesting nevertheless, IMHO. The video was produced with two iPhone 6 cameras using Slowmotion,&

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-82549657783965943032017-04-11T08:37:00.000-07:002017-04-11T08:37:51.811-07:00

Perhaps it is time to share a few pictures from the garden. These pictures below are done with the 100mm Macro lens on my aging but capable Sony Alpha 55. You may find more at Christina's OrganicGardenDreams.

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-52869586230257313792017-04-06T11:00:00.000-07:002017-04-06T11:00:00.881-07:00

Another hidden hobby of mine is baking... it started with watching the Great British Bake Off and the realization of the lack of proper gluten-free bakeware in retail. I usually browse the Internet for something to produce, and then do it. Here is the recent result: a bunch of scones (not gluten-free, though). Staying British, these are to be treated with clotted cream and jam. After that

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-30330616021750124532017-04-05T14:25:00.004-07:002017-04-05T14:26:25.340-07:00

As I am spending more time on LinkedIn in these days, I just published my first article there... it's about setting up a private Gitlab server. In fact, I do have a setup of Gitlab in my garage. It's of course somewhat geeky, but there is a lot that can be learned and experimented with. Gitlab (and other offers) offer pretty complex services, and it's amazing that the open source community

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-58661346288381266412017-03-31T07:00:00.000-07:002017-03-31T09:03:49.606-07:00

The three most recent posts had nothing to do with our family Dobermans. But many things happened, and here are a few pictures from our Agility Training with Kira, under the supervision of Behave!. The training was for Kira only, to avoid distraction. Skylar is actually the better jumper, more about that at another time. I also created a video for Behave! using the YouTube

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-40387643849428209372017-03-30T14:52:00.003-07:002017-03-30T17:09:42.365-07:00

Springtime is here... and so it's time to rethink some things and clean up. One item on the list is this very blog. This blog was started in 2008, some nine years ago.  George W. Bush was still POTUS. There was a design change in 2010, and another one in 2011. That one remained in place until today, so we are looking at more than six years of the same. Admittedly, the blogging frequency

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-25099462817056050512017-02-21T11:23:00.000-08:002017-02-21T11:23:56.744-08:00

Today it happened: my household divorced from Cable TV. After observing that we only watched  Superbowl and the CNN coverage of the 2016 election on Cable TV over the last 12 month, I cleaned up my complex AV setup last week, removed quite a few devices, and returned equipment to the local provider Time Warner / Spectrum today. Internet Service remains at a ridiculous price, but we use that

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-59599121999178580282017-01-27T20:10:00.002-08:002017-01-27T20:10:31.977-08:00

Earlier today John Hurt passed away, aged 77. He was a very prolific actor with a wide range, but with a focus on quiet character roles. I immediately remember 1984, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Hellboy and Snowpiercer. But most of all, it was his part in Alien as the unfortunate crewmember Kane that made me notice him no less than 25 years ago, although his presence in the movie was short. He will

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-30280602389576387912017-01-01T08:11:00.004-08:002017-03-30T17:10:22.871-07:00

Happy New Year Everyone! The last year had quite a few surprises, and one of them was that we got the new family member Kira, a rescue Doberman girl. There have been two blog posts about Kira and her siblings. Originally named Lilly, she is now 9+ month old, and pretty much grown up. Here is a recent picture showing her with Skylar.  Kira's siblings Princess and Elsa found adopter families.

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-28194873237478616582016-05-16T09:19:00.000-07:002016-05-16T09:19:34.689-07:00

The three puppies grow up rapidly. They got their own WWW site to keep track of things, and they got friendly with Skylar the Doberman (and vice versa). Pictures from the weekend are below. Lilly    Princess  Princess (and Skylar)  Princess and Skylar Elsa and Lilly Elsa and Skylar Lilly

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-69617715570796588872016-05-06T19:35:00.000-07:002016-05-16T09:20:23.728-07:00

We took the step and volunteered for foster three Doberman puppies... these are three sweet girls, four weeks old, in the meantime five and a half. They are called Elsa (red), Princess and Lilly. While they are really adorable, there is a lot of work involved. So if you want to get a puppy, be sure to talk to people who have done it to know what you are getting yourself into. But enough of the

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-82228517928501067392016-01-14T16:36:00.000-08:002016-01-14T16:36:06.674-08:00

Alan Rickman passed away at age 69. His recent fame came with the Harry Potter movies, but my best memory will always be his role in Galaxy Quest, a grossly undervalued movie, where he joined a great cast. The famous quote, which he perhaps uttered a half dozen times with a wide range of meanings in the scenes context was "By Grabthar's hammer, by the suns of Worvan, you shall be avenged. " I saw

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-23922667714908695742016-01-11T11:56:00.000-08:002016-01-11T11:56:12.547-08:00

Just a short while ago it was announced that David Bowie passed away, at age 69. With no doubt, he was one of the most charismatic people out there. My early memory other than his music is actually associated to the movie Labyrinth from 1986, where he played the Goblin King. There is no need to list the music at this place - I will remember these for a long time to come.

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-3560123593537503022015-12-20T11:49:00.000-08:002015-12-20T11:49:08.093-08:00

We are now going to Fiesta Island from time to time, and Skylar the Doberman is happily going into the water, despite rather cold weather. Below is a video capture that shows him nearly swimming, I like to think that he lost touch to the ground for a second or two.   The YouTube video also features Google's new Donate card, it's popping up at supported devices around second 15. I picked

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-84342039850084675302015-09-27T20:00:00.000-07:002015-12-20T11:49:58.120-08:00

OK, it's a little fuzzy, but it is my very own Blood Moon Picture.

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-62235477549632920702015-08-17T21:29:00.000-07:002015-08-18T18:19:56.619-07:00

Another Skylar Video, this time about learning to overcome fear of water in the pool.  We placed a favorite toy in the mini-pool and while Skylar was hesitant in the beginning, he did go after the ball quite fast and without fear after a few attempts. Interesting side story: I was using the song "When Johnny Comes Marching Home" as music because of the Dr. Strangelove reference. The

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-79831102323432598002015-08-02T14:13:00.002-07:002015-08-03T11:00:59.194-07:00

We have been at the Harry Griffin Park for our weekly dog training session with Alexandra from Behave, and this time we started to work on Agility training. Two jump obstacles have been set up: and it started easy, and ended with a good jump through a ring. See the video below for the progression. The video was shot on an Alpha 55/SAL75300, and edited with Vegas Pro 13. Soundeffects and

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8391413414885527110.post-80952217363425807252015-05-26T10:18:00.004-07:002015-05-26T10:19:53.372-07:00

I was using RSS Graffiti to push Blogger posts to Facebook, actually since 2011. But RSS Graffiti stopped the service as of May 2015, due to not enough paying customers. Understandable, and let me say a big thanks to the trusted service, which worked great. So I need to switch to something else, likely trying IFTTT. IFTTT is also "free", but has the potential to become very much more. In

Klaus Hofrichterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04393994404390133523noreply@blogger.com