Wanderings

Here is a couple of shots that I took when Erica and I were walking around Rockland Lake last November.

I took some pictures of the bees today (which somehow were lost), but I found these images on the camera that I used. I don’t think that I’ve ever shown them.

Here is Erica and I cutting down a Christmas tree last year. I put up the video, but these are the stills that I took.

I own a bunch of domains like www.jt30.com and www.cthreepo.com. I make some money off of them, usually enough to pay for the domain registration. It doesn’t cost me much to host them because I have a hosting plan that doesn’t charge extra for extra domains. A domain costs me $15 a year for registration fees (I use a company called NameBargain.com – less of a bargain each year, but it works well). If I don’t make $15 on a domain, I drop the domain.

I have been getting rid of the domains that don’t pay for themselves a few at a time. I just went through them again and I will be dropping a couple of more.

I am dropping:
AstoundingScienceFiction.com (Love the name, but I can’t keep them all).
kpgraham.com (I still will have KeithGraham.com)
blogseyeview.com
gthread.com – used to be my idea testing site
jt-30.com – not jt30.com which makes money
harpamp.com – not harpampS.com with an s, which makes a little money
I am thinking about dropping
audiocd.com – cool name that makes no money
freenameastar.com – used to make some small change, but no more.
These last two are sentimental. AudioCD was the first domain I registered, and FreeNameAStar was just starting to catch on before International Star Registry threatened me with a law suit and I had to close it down.

This will save me about $100 a year.

I am not getting out of the domain business. I put in two bids on domains that are expiring. One is a microphone company that was big in the 40s and 50s, but is out of business. Its domain name is expiring, but I think the name recognition might fit in to my harmonica sites. Another domain is for a small time book seller site that had a very cool name and a loyal following. I would like to move my “promotional” kindle book search to the site and make it so authors and publishers can add their own books to the site – and I want to make it so the original owners can add books if they want.

I will know if I get the new domains around the end of September.

Another issue is that I need to get rid of CCBlues.com. I don’t want to host the site anymore, but the group running it now are non-technical and couldn’t manage the transfer.

Many years later, Larry and I would go down here. The airport was long gone, replaced with a dump and an amusement arcade.

A while back I was collecting dead Roombas and saving up to buy a programming interface. My idea was to equip the Roombas with a camera and let them loose in a museum so that people from around the world could virtually explore. (An added advantage is that the museums would be cleaned by the Roombas.) I gave up after a while because it was going to cost me a few thousand dollars and I didn’t see any way to make the money back, soon. I still have a pile of dead Roombas in my office. Some actually aren’t that dead and still work, although Roomba battery life is very limited.

Someone at the Tate Galleries in Britain had the same idea. They have four robots that you can control to explore the museum. The Tate in Washington D.C. is my favorite art museum, and I would love to explore the British Tate. Here is the link:
http://afterdark.tate.org.uk/

I saw this article about a device that you put around your cat’s neck and it searches for wifi connections in your neighborhood. You could then use this information to get free internet.

How to Use Your Cat to Hack Your Neighbor’s Wi-Fi

I have a bunch of cats but they are all pretty lazy and most don’t go more than 20 feet from the house.

I have a story about half written that was intended for this anthology. If I finish it, I want it to go into the next one. If this volume is not supported, there won’t be a next one, and my story will be an orphan. Please follow the link and pledge $10. The editor, J Alan Erwine is a great editor and bought my first story. For $10 you’ll get a copy of the book, and I am sure it will be a good read.

I saw this interesting story on Dinosaur evolution:

My chicken Sadie has always known that she was descended from vicious predators.