My Desultory Blog

Tech Friday: Canceled OneDrive and was planning to cancel iDrive

RichC — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 10:33:09 +0000

I have spent part of 2026 evaluating all the subscription services we use and am trying to slowly wean our family accounts off as many as possible — it is a challenge. I did finally cut my dependence and long time use of Microsoft’s products, especially OneDrive, not because there was anything wrong, but because […]

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For Sale: 1982 Mercedes-Benz 300D Turbodiesel – listed this time

RichC — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 10:20:26 +0000

Back in July, I considered selling our 1982 Mercedes-Benz 300D Turbodiesel since it wasn’t being driven as much as in the past … and even transferred my amateur radio vanity plates to the Tesla (stay tuned for a story). I also need to start consolidating my garage space and lifetime accumulation of stuff. Part of […]

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True or exaggerated? 95% of Ocean Plastic from 10 Rivers

RichC — Wed, 19 Aug 2026 10:03:58 +0000

Have you seen this map of the 10 rivers in Asia and Africa that are responsible for 95% of the plastic polluting the world’s oceans … and is it true? The claim comes from a real 2017 study (Schmidt et al.). Researchers estimated that rivers carry 0.4–4 million tons of plastic to the sea each […]

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A short weekend 2019 Tesla Model 3 range test and lunch!

RichC — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 10:35:08 +0000

The summer storms keep coming again and again! One hundred dollar hamburger lunches are done in small planes (a “staying current” aviation tease), but Brenda and I sort of did the same this past weekend. Instead of hamburgers at airports, we drove “her” 2019 Tesla Model 3 to Fazoli’s and back on Sunday afternoon … […]

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Music Monday: Seals and Crofts – “Get Closer” (1976 recording)

RichC — Mon, 17 Aug 2026 16:33:59 +0000

I can’t believe it … I didn’t realize that Seals and Crofts and ”Get Closer” was mentioned on Music Monday before 7 years ago. Nevertheless, they were one of my favorites harmony groups back on the 1970s … but yes I did include their 1973 Summer Breeze Live version and 1972 Summer Breeze recorded version […]

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Anthropic’s Claude, and likely others, will begin rolling out watermarking artificial intelligence generated content

RichC — Sun, 16 Aug 2026 10:25:03 +0000

Anthropic recently confirmed that Claude AI will now embed invisible watermarks into AI-generated text, in order to comply with the EU AI Act’s transparency rules that took effect August 2. The watermark travels with the text even after copying and light editing, and doesn’t affect readability — you’d never spot it by eye. Here’s how […]

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The WNBA seems to have both a race and women problem

RichC — Sat, 15 Aug 2026 10:33:54 +0000

Ever since the women’s basketball phenom Caitlin Clark entered the WNBA, there has been increasing attention to a sport that has gone unnoticed by much of America. Now the talk on sports radio, social media and conservative television isn’t about Clark’s dominating performance, but more about her being targeted (above – some think jealousy and […]

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Tech Friday: PHP 8.3.33 updates and Linux server contemplation

RichC — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:39:40 +0000

Nothing really earth shattering regarding a WordPress plug-in glitch requiring a PHP update earlier this week, but it did force me to tweak my “smallish” Digital Ocean server that really is in need of more RAM. But, since I offload image serving for the most part to a separate server and audio/video streaming to AWS […]

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Commentary: “It’s the Economic Performance” – TheHustings

RichC — Thu, 13 Aug 2026 10:37:41 +0000

My commentary was published in the “Gray Area” of TheHustings in response to Stephen Macaulay’s right column, so saving it to the blog’s archive. AUGUST 11, 2026 — There’s an important distinction missing here: Wage growth is not the same thing as economic performance. [“So, About Those Manufacturing Numbers” by Stephen Macaulay, right column.] The […]

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Happy Birthday to Brenda … and it was a “happy time” after some summertime fun with our granddaughters

RichC — Wed, 12 Aug 2026 13:33:58 +0000

This content is restricted.

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Investing, the economy and the future: Shifting Market Winds

RichC — Tue, 11 Aug 2026 10:40:56 +0000

For much of the post-Global Financial Crisis era, equity investors enjoyed a structural tailwind. Low interest rates, subdued inflation and steady growth created a favorable liquidity and supply/demand backdrop. Companies borrowed cheaply, bought back shares aggressively, and pursued takeovers that further reduced the public float, according to Interactive Brokers trader insight. The net supply of […]

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Test Post After PHP upgrade: August 10, 2026

RichC — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 15:34:07 +0000

After the PHP upgrade. Testing a few items.

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Music Monday: “Twist and Shout” by The Beatles

RichC — Mon, 10 Aug 2026 10:33:09 +0000

The recording of “Twist and Shout” is legendary for being performed in a single take by The Beatles in 1963. John Lennon delivered a raucous, throat-shredding vocal performance while suffering from a cold. Producer George Martin scheduled the track as the final song of the session to preserve Lennon’s voice, noting it as “arguably the […]

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Annie Jacobsen book contest: Signed 1st Edition of “Area 51”

RichC — Sun, 09 Aug 2026 10:46:29 +0000

Sometimes it is the small things in life that get one excited. That happened for me as a fan of books by Annie Jacobsen last month and finding out I was the winner of a signed 1st Edition of her 2011 book “Area 51: An Uncensored History of America’s Top Secret Military Base” Yes, I’ve […]

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