Tag Archives: Akismet WP plug-in

2014/05/04 (N) Northwest Winds

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The weather yesterday was mostly cloudy with occasional light rain and the winds came up strong starting in the afternoon.  They tapered off by bedtime but resumed a hard blow this morning with low, puffy, white clouds streaming in from the northwest and making the trees dance.  It was a brighter morning than we have had most of the week as the sun played hide-n-seek with the clouds.  The temperature remained cool, making for a brisk day, but it was a nice change from the cool, overcast dreariness of the past week.  Except for Thursday, when the high temperature is supposed to hit 80, the daily high temps will be around 60 all week.

Linda made her scrumptious blueberry pancakes for breakfast and then went for a walk.  She had barely left the house when she returned, very excited, to tell me she had just seen a young albino deer running through our yard.  By the time I got outside it had moved on to the woods west of our property.  We often see the same deer day-after-day as they travel their circuit, so I also hope to see this one someday.

After checking in on the blogs I follow using the Feedly app on my iPad2 I made a couple of corrections to a recent blog post, approved a comment from our daughter-in-law (the first one has to be approved), and deleted the 59 spam comments that the Akismet plug-in/service trapped since last night.  I put a load of laundry in the washer and then spent some time looking online for a padded case for my new laptop computer and a replacement for one of our APC SmartUPS units that has failed.

With the move to tablet computers, the choice of laptops is diminishing, especially those with larger screens, and along with that fewer choices for accessories such as cases.  In the past 14 years I have always purchased larger roller cases, with separate cases for the computer that fit inside, as my laptop traveled with me every day everywhere I went.  I had the most recent of these cases with us in Florida and, after getting the computer/case and accessories out of it, I stored it in a closet (where it tended to be in the way).  The next time I touched it was when I unloaded it from the bus to bring back into the house.

It was clear from that experience that I do not need another roller case.  I do, however, want something that will protect my new laptop computer.  I think I have narrowed the choice down to the Everki Advanced or the Everki Lunar, both available through Amazon Prime.  The Advanced is very reasonably priced at under $40 and has generally favorable reviews, mentioning the ASUS “Republic of Gamers” (ROG) models in particular.  The Lunar has more storage space, and also has generally favorable reviews, but is over three times the price at just under $130.  Posts on the ASUS ROG Forum seem to favor one of the Everki backpack models, but I do not want a backpack style case.

Our failed APC uninterruptible power supply is a Smart-UPS SUA1000.  By trading it in on a SMT1000 we can save $75 off the retail price.  I need to confirm that the discounted price includes return shipping; the SUA1000 weighs 48 pounds.

I revised the RVillage Quick Start doc I created for the GLCC, CCO, and FTH RV clubs, making it generic for use by Bus Conversion Magazine or anyone else.  I then uploaded it to a new RVillage page on our website and revised a couple of other pages to link to the new one.  I then uploaded blog posts for the last three days.  I set up my new laptop in my office and installed seven more updates.

At breakfast yesterday I got a tip from Paul (N8BHT) on a used tower.  He e-mailed me the owner’s contact information later.  I called the owner, Wayne (KD8H), this afternoon and got a little more information about the tower.  It is an aluminum Heights Tower, 80 feet, with Fold-Over Kit (FOK) including the drive motor, a rotator and antenna mounting plate.  It is already on the ground and disassembled into sections.  Wayne is retired and I will likely go look at the tower tomorrow afternoon.  I e-mailed Paul (N8BHT), Mike (W8XH), and Steve (N8AR) to see if they were available to go with me.

Linda made lentil loaf for dinner with baked yams and fresh asparagus.  After dinner I drove to South Lyon for the May meeting of the South Lyon Area Amateur Radio Club.  SLAARC usually meets on the 2nd Sunday of the month but pulls the May meetings forward a week to avoid Mother’s Day.  Our topic of discussion this evening was the upcoming ARRL Field Day operating event, which takes place the last full weekend in June.  We had a couple of new hams at the meeting and afterwards several of the guys helped Christine, KD8VEA, get the PL tone set correctly on her radio so she was able to participate in a group QSO with Steve (N8AR), Mike (W8XH), Fred (AC8VL), and myself on the drive home.  In spite of what many people think, including some older/former hams, amateur radio is alive and well in the North America and all over the world.

 

2014/04/24 (R) WBCCI

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We stayed at the RV park today to relax and work on “at home” things.  Linda worked on her counted cross-stitch and did a load of laundry.  I dumped our waste tanks and filled our fresh water tank and then worked on our blog, and checked e-mail, and RVillage.  We are now getting about 70 spam comments on our blog every 24 hours and so far the Akismet plug-in/service has been 100% accurate in trapping them while allowing legitimate comments through for moderation or posting if previously approved.  We learned about this plug-in from Chris and Cherie of Technomadia when we stopped to visit them in Billings, Montana in late July, 2013.

Linda reading in the shade of our rig at CCRVCG.

Linda reading in the shade of our rig at CCRVCG.

We decided to extend our stay at CCRVCG another day and Linda took care of that with the office.  We are definitely leaving on Saturday morning.  Our current plan is to continue on I-65 into Indiana and spend the night somewhere near Columbus.  We researched places to stay but did not make any decisions.  We will move to an RV park near Coldwater, Michigan for Sunday evening, and arrive home on Monday with empty holding tanks.

Sometimes staying in the RV park leads to interesting things.  When we got back to Cave Country RV Campground yesterday we noticed several Airstream trailers parked together near the activities building at the end of our row.  Linda commented at the time that it looked like they might be early arrivals for an Airstream rally.  That turned out to almost be correct.  As the day progressed a steady flow of Airstream trailers came into the park, along with three Airstream motorhomes; two class A’s and a Sprinter-based class B.  By dinner time there were 26 Airstream RV’s in the campground.  Other RV’s had also arrived and the campground was almost full.  Linda learned (while doing laundry) that 25 of the Airstreams, including the three motorhomes, were participating in a 21-day caravan of Kentucky organized by the Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI).

We watched as the participants walked down to the activities building for what we presumed was a kickoff dinner meeting and I took that as an opportunity to photograph their rigs in the late afternoon light.  I have put a selection of photos in a separate gallery post.  We learned in conversation that the caravan was a highly planned, all inclusive, and pre-paid experience.  All RV park registrations and fees, all entrance fees, and all meals were included in the price.  Participating rigs each received a 3-ring binder containing all of the information they needed for the duration of the caravan.  Just follow the Airstream in front of you and park where you are assigned and everything else is handled.  We also figured out on our own that each caravan appears to have a special decal.  I saw a woman putting a bright yellow cutout of the profile of a running horse on the back of her trailer shortly after it was parked and set up.  While walking the campground after dinner we noticed that most of the Airstreams had added this same decal to their collection, which was different for each rig.

Our female cat, Juniper, in the sunlight.

Our female cat, Juniper, in the sunlight.

There is a Fleetwood Discovery motorhome parked opposite our site and the owner came over to chat for a while.  He turned out to be a recently semi-retired tugboat captain who had spent many years working ships in and out of the Crystal River, Florida powerplant.  If you hang around the campground and stay outside where folks can see you, they will stop and say “hi” and you will likely meet someone interesting.  Yesterday we had someone knock on the door.  He was a fellow ham (amateur radio operator) who saw the Amateur Radio vanity license plate on our car while walking the campground and stopped to chat.

At 8:30 PM CDT we connected to a live video chat on blogging for RVers that Technomadia (Chris Dunphy and Cherie Ve Ard) was doing with assistance from the Snowmads (Jason and Kristin Snow).  Our WiFi connection was sufficient to connect to their low-resolution video with good audio transmission.