My Blogs
Welcome!
Welcome to my website. I have created this site in order that you may have the opportunity to learn more about me and how I can be a positive part-time asset to your organization. I am not actively seeking full-time employment at this time. I have a great job with what I believe to be a great future, but I certainly wouldn’t say no to some part-time work to help fill my retirement coffers.
The content I have posted here is a sampling of my writing over the last 5 years or so, on a number of different topics. These pieces originally appeared in places like MyMac, LinkedIn, Just Jazz Guitar, Grinnell Family Association, and the Palm Beach Business websites.
I have resumed writing sporadically at this site on topics that interest me, and maybe they might even interest you.
Thanks for dropping by.
Book Reviews
Stealing Ali: A Book Review
Imagine if you will that you are newly married — to a wonderful woman who had two daughters from previous marriages. Imagine that your new spouse’s ex-husband, of Lebanese descent, kidnapped the younger of the two daughters and took her back to his ancestral home in Lebanon, leaving her with his family while he went on to work elsewhere in the Middle East. Imagine that your new wife traveled to Lebanon to find and retrieve the kidnapped daughter. Imagine that a few months later, he did it again. this time, taking her to Bahrain, a small island in the Persian Gulf! [Read more...]
Music
Andy Nelson, the Later Years
Andy Nelson with his Epiphone Deluxe - ca. 1972
I was reminded of my uncle, the late Andy Nelson, after receiving an email from the son of the couple who bought Andy’s palatial log house in Lake George, NY, back in the early 1970s. I’m not sure of the whys and wherefores, but it was decided that the buyers of the house make a small down payment, and then proceed to make monthly payments directly to Andy. The papers were drawn up and it turned out to be a fortuitous event as you, dear reader, will see further on. [Read more...]
Transportation
Diesel Delights
2010-11 VW Jetta TDI Sportwagen
I love my diesel car! There. I’ve said it. Yes, those slow, smoky, stinky diesels with the filthy gas pumps, and the warnings from service station attendants (cashiers) who sometimes run outside to caution me not to put diesel fuel in my car—that’s only for trucks! Well, maybe that was yesterday’s diesel. Today’s diesel cars have come a long way, baby. Modern diesel-powered cars, usually supplied with turbochargers, can really push you back in your seat if you understand the limitations (more later). [Read more...]
Tech and General Computing
Physician, Heal Thyself
Web server. Head Crash. No Backup. Doh!
You’d think I’d learned my lesson about backing up critical data, but nope, not me. In an extreme case of overconfidence and hubris, I let a Mac mini that I had set up in my house as a web server for a genealogically oriented family association go without a full backup … for almost seven years! Yeah, yeah… I had planned on doing something when I had a little free time on my hands, but that time never came.
This server was running several specialized web applications, including the genealogy of the Grinnell family, configured in such a fashion that it is very difficult to start over from scratch. Oh, and did I mention the main membership database? Yup. Also gone. At least for that one, I think I’ve got a backup of that file somewhere, and because it’s membership renewal time, the membership chair had just made printouts of critical member information. Not that this should in anyway excuse what has happened. [Read more...]
Print and Publishing
I Learned About Desktop Publishing From That
How I wo
und up as a professional technogeek is a long and semi-interesting tale. It involves multiple computing platforms, multiple job shifts, and a whole lotta dumb luck.
After getting out of the US Air Force in 1982 after a nine year stint as a radio technician, I immediately began working for a huge Midwest-based communications equipment manufacturer, at their paging and commercial two-way radio manufacturing and R&D facility in south Florida. I worked in the manufacturing engineering organization as a bench technician, but had many of the responsibilities of a full-fledged engineer but for a whole lot less money (it was, however, double what I was making in the Air Force). I began playing with HP desktop computers and calculators writing simple programs in HPL (high-performance language) and HP Basic, controlling arrays of test equipment over their GPIB (general purpose interface bus). [Read more...]
Home Theater Technology
The Continuing Saga of My Media Center
Since I last talked about my media center adventures, I still had a Panasonic 50-inch DLP HDTV and was toying with several media center software solutions. Well, that was February, 2009, and two weeks after I was laid off from a job I had for 27 years, my house was robbed. The 50-inch Panasonic? Gone. The 32-inch LG LCD HDTV in the bedroom? Gone.
Fortunately, my homeowner’s insurance helped out quite a bit. I got an adequate 32-inch Vizio HDTV and used the balance of the settlement to get a good, monitored alarm system, vowing I’d get a bigger and better HDTV someday.
I was only out of work for five months, when I landed a wonderful job with a small maker of high-tech goodies, working in the field where I started in 1987, technical writing. 2009 and the early part of 2010 were very good for my new employer and while things were especially good, we got some very respectable bonuses. One of them was earmarked for a new, killer HDTV. CompUSA was having a sale, and I wound up with a 52-inch Sony LCD, though not one of the fancy new LED backlit models… It’s still a great set and the centerpiece of my new media center. 30 months later, I am still very much in like with it. As for the rest? Read on. [Read more...]
Apple/Mac Musings
Goodbye, Old Friend
Mophie Juice Pack
A couple of days ago, I noticed my Mophie (no, I’m not trying to talk dirty!) had failed. To answer the eternal question, what’s a Mophie, here’s my story.
In the beginning, there was the Apple iPhone, and it was good. It was so good that users just couldn’t put them down, causing battery life to become a real problem. For many email addicts, such as myself, the internal battery on my iPhone 4 was registering as low as 30% remaining capacity before 3PM. My kid brother, another unrepentant Mac fanboy, bought a really interesting device, a Mophie, for his iPhone 3GS a few years ago. I remembered that and sought one out. [Read more...]
Genealogy
Genealogy on the Macintosh Computer
Try as I might, I just can’t be 100% business on my Mac—either at work, or in this column (not that my media center articles had a whole lot to do with business….). Like many of us, I have a number of hobbies. Some (especially members of my family) say I have too many, but today I’ll focus on just one of them: genealogy. [Read more...]
Larry Rants
I Learned About Radio From That
Disclaimer: Most of the names have been omitted for their (and my) protection. Please note, too, that this tale is based on my own observations and recollections of events as they unfolded. They might not always be completely accurate. If they aren’t, my apologies in advance.
And so it begins…
First, a little about my background. I got involved in South Florida radio in high school by joining a Junior Achievement company operating at 1000 watt WFTL AM 1400 in Fort Lauderdale. We produced a one-hour radio show on Saturday mornings, and sold advertising time for it. In the three years I was involved in Junior Achievement, I was the top salesman for Broward County (it helped to have a relatively expensive product–radio advertising) every year. [Read more...]