Author: dougpete

The content of this blog is generated by whatever strikes my fancy at any given point. It might be computers, weather, political, or something else in nature. I experiment and comment a lot on things so don't take anything here too seriously; I might change my mind a day later but what you read is my thought and opinion at the time I wrote it! My personal website is at: http://www.dougpeterson.ca Follow me on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dougpete I'm bookmarking things at: http://www.diigo.com/user/dougpete

Little help please?


I guess this is a plea for a little bit of help from my learned followers. From 5-6 in the morning, I devote my time to coffee, cereal, and some reading. (Except on Friday mornings)

My go-to reading involves a couple of local news sources and then I’m off to see what’s new in a variety of scenarios. My app for that has been Flipboard where I have over 170 categories that have caught my interest over time. The top group sits on top of the screen.

You can see that I’ve customized it over the years for my interests. There’s a big list that’s available from a waffle menu and “For You” seems to pull top stories from there.

Of course, I enjoy reading stories from all over the world but do try to focus on things Canadian and from Ontario. (One of the other categories not show here included Windsor / Essex County)

I’m nothing, if not fickle, at times.

I recently upgraded the Firefox web browser and once again it was promoting Pocket which it has acquired. It’s got an interesting integration right into the new tab of Firefox.

And to its credit, it does pull some interesting stories but I found that it’s important to check the date as they’re not all recent. I’d like to have some control over what appears, notably Canadian content. I’m hoping that it will learn when I pick Canadian stories so that it will show more of them to me. I hope that they’re random and interesting but from Canada.

How to find those Canadian stories is the next step. There is an option to Explore content and an interesting assortment is provided.

I’m not particularly fond of more of the “C” word that it offers. These topics aren’t selectable permanently; clicking opens a page of content related to the topic. I like that.

But, I’d also like to add the option of giving me Canadian and Ontario stuff. I can’t find it; and to me, that’s a show stopper for making this a permanent place for morning reading.

Now, I’m honest enough to let you know that I’ll accept humility if someone could come forward and tell me how to configure it for what I’m looking for. I like the integration into the browser but to be honest, I still have a tab open and devoted to Flipboard for my daily motivation.

Little help here?

OTR Links 11/23/2020


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

My Week Ending 2020-11-22


Here’s a summary of some of the things I learned and published this week.

Readings 

You can follow my daily readings as they happen here.  Below are a selected few, with commentary, from the past week.

Sunday

  • Some tips here to get rid of your information on Google. Of course, the moment you do anything else Googley, you’re adding it back.
  • There are those that are concerned about Jarod and Ivanka’s return to high society in New York. That may be a challenge and should get sympathy; they had plenty of time to not spread the speaking points of her father.

Monday

  • Apparently, the recent storm made for some good surfing in Toronto until they ran into trouble
  • The article talks about the new Toronto Maple Leafs retro reverse jerseys but that inspired me to find the Canadiens’ ones

Tuesday

  • There was big news about speculation that the Christmas Break in Ontario might be extended ala Quebec. It was squashed later in the week
  • Great tips and examples about how to create your own Flipboard text book. I can think of one university prof that gave us reams and reams of paper handouts. This would have been so much better

Wednesday

  • News of performance gains in Google Chrome led me to an interesting back and forth with an educator
  • I’m unlikely to use these Danish words in real conversations but it’s interesting to see how they came into use during COVID times

Thursday

  • Tough times call for tough actions but using uncertified teachers?
  • A lot of people are doing things outside the school buildings these days and it’s paying off

Friday

  • Is there such a thing as a bad pizza? Windsor and Essex County has the best but people from New York City would disagree
  • This was kind of a big deal around here when a couple of Canadian radio stations changed format and a Detroit station changed and jumped into the void left by one of them

Saturday

  • If this picture of a doctor doesn’t rip your heart out, you just don’t have any feelings
  • Trump continues to play hard ball about not supporting Biden in the transition so Biden’s team is using Google resources to build their security team

Blog Posts on
doug … off the record

My daily contributions to this blog are linked below. If you’re looking for a week in review for doug–off the record, you came to the right place.

#FollowFriday – November 20, 2020

https://wke.lt/w/s/QUeqUZ

voicEd Radio

On this week’s show, Stephen Hurley and I chatted about wellness advice, walking, assessment, self-care, and running.

The show is available here: https://voiced.ca/podcast_episode_post/walking-and-running-through-covid19/

Gonul Turkdogan – @turkdogan_gonul
Lisa Corbett – @LisaCorbett0261
Diana Maliszewski – @MzMollyTL
Deb Weston – @DPAWestonPhD
Rob Ridley – @RangerRidley

Intro Song:

All of the podcasts are archived here. The show is broadcast LIVE almost every Wednesday morning at 9:15 on voicEd Radio.

Technology Troubleshooting

If you read my blog post this morning, you’ll have read a bit of a side story about air pressure. All my life, I’d lived in the world of Pounds per Square Inch.

But, my wife’s Renegade which a friend tells me is based on Fiat came with tire pressure in Bars. I still live in a world where the air pressure pumps are in PSI.

Fortunately, there are online converters!

https://www.convertunits.com/from/bar/to/psi

Video of the Week

Schools are open

Photo of the Week

We were out and about again this week. This time, it was to Colchester Harbour where the wind was strong and coming from the south, crashing on the pier.


Thanks for reading.

Please join me daily for something new and, hopefully, interesting for you. I honestly and truthfully appreciate your few moments reading my thoughts. Time willing, this summary appears every Sunday afternoon.

Be safe.

dp

This blog post was originally posted at:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com/

If you find it anywhere else, it’s not original.

Whatever happened to …


… metal valve stem caps?

It got really cold here this past week. That was before it got really warm again and today it’s back on its way down. It isn’t difficult to get a cold in Essex County.

Anyway, as a result of the weather, the low tire pressure light came on on my wife’s Renegade. It said that the right rear tire was at 2.1 Bar and it should be inflated to 2.4 Bar.

She was on her way home and there was no air pump on the route so we agreed that it didn’t seem like it was down to much so just limp home and we’d get to the gas station tomorrow. Someone should blog about “Whatever happened to … free air”?

In the morning, we went into town for a coffee and some air. The air was almost as expensive as coffee. Think about that for a moment. As we pulled up to the pump, I wasn’t worried about the most serious thing, I was wondering if I could get the valve stem cap off. As a child, I remember a problem with the metal cap fusing to the value stem and I remember having to use a pair of vise grips to remove it.

Anyway, I got to the pump, paid my $1.50 and went to the tire and noted that the cap was, in fact, plastic. It still took a firm twist but off it came and I started to fill the tire. The pump had a gauge on it and that was when I realized what I should have been wondering about all the time – what the heck is a Bar? The gauge measured in PSI. Well, every tire I think I ever owned used 35 PSI so I went for that. After all, the clock was ticking on the air machine. I got the job done, we were back on the road and the display said we were at 2.5, 2.5, 2.4, 2.6. Filling tires isn’t an exact science here. But at least the warning light went off.

After the panic, I looked at the sidewall of the tire and it did recommend 35 PSI. Whew!

Then, I started thinking about that metal cap. In fact, I started to think that maybe the last time I actually had a metal one was with an old bicycle as a kid. Everything had been plastic since then. Maybe it was to overcome this problem that had me worried.

So, for a Sunday morning, what are your thoughts?

  • without running out to your garage, are your caps plastic or metal?
  • why would the industry switch from metal to plastic?
  • my old one had a little notch in it at the top that I used faithfully. What was it for? Why don’t we have to worry about that these days?
  • have you checked your tires for winter air pressure yet? Shouldn’t you?

If you’re interested, you can still buy them and they appeared to be all dressed up to match those metal wheel covers.

As always, I’d be most interested in your thoughts in the comments below.

This post comes from:

https://dougpete.wordpress.com

If it comes from anywhere else, it’s not the original.

OTR Links 11/22/2020


Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.