Category Archives: Geeking around

GoPayment Vs. Square – One More Thing, One Less Thing…

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Ric Bretschneider

I signed up for Intuit’s new GoPayment card system yesterday. Thought I’d share a few thoughts. GoPayment is a way for regular folks to take credit card payments from other regular folks using your cell phone or tablet.  It’s advertised … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Geeking around, Personal, Random thoughts, Software, Technology, Thoughts, Uncategorized | 17 Comments

QuickTechThought: Our Red Toaster

Posted on January 13, 2012 by Ric Bretschneider

Our pretty red toaster died this week. Sunbeam Oster. It wasn’t even three years old.  I know, I know, they don’t make things like they used to.  But it’s just a toaster, it’s supposed to be pretty fundamentally simple.   … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Food and drink, Geeking around, Home and Family, SciFi Fantasy, Technology, Thoughts, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

How Facebook Will (May Have Already) F#@k You Up

Posted on December 11, 2011 by Ric Bretschneider

Really, I’m not doing much here.  Just trying to draw your attention to someone else’s work on how Facebook’s recent bout of ill-conceived changes continue to mess with your privacy, your communications, and your ability to actually use the system … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Geeking around, Home and Family, Media, Organizations, Personal, Random thoughts, Technology | Leave a comment

Nest Learning Thermostat

Posted on December 6, 2011 by Ric Bretschneider

Last Friday I installed a new thermostat in the house, the first one since we moved in. Now the prior thermostat was programmable, hourly and daily you could configure it to heat and cool as you like.  It made a … Continue reading →

Posted in Design, Geeking around, Health, Home and Family, Personal, Random thoughts, Technology, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

This Just In: Microsoft Fails to Get the Macintosh – or just good installation practices…

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Ric Bretschneider

Just got notified that there’s a Silverlight update for the Mac. OK, I’ll update, what’s the… Wow. The instructions are so dense with unnecessary text, and eventually tell you to first uninstall any previous version, which necessitates removing half-a-dozen files … Continue reading →

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My iOS 5 Update on iPad

Posted on October 13, 2011 by Ric Bretschneider

Just finished the iOS 5 update on my iPad 2. Man, what a marathon. It basically needs to back up your data, reset the device, update the OS, then restore your data. So plan for a few hours to completion. … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Design, Geeking around, Random thoughts, Software, Technology | Tagged , | 1 Comment

And about that moon…

Posted on January 13, 2011 by Ric Bretschneider

Sometimes you just do things for fun. For the last four years I’ve produced a weekly podcast and occasionally written articles for a web site called Fanboy Planet. There’s no money in this, but usually it gets you into conventions, … Continue reading →

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Why does this appeal to me so?

Posted on June 15, 2010 by Ric Bretschneider

There’s something magic about retro tech. Continue reading →

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Fanboy

Posted on August 31, 2006 by Ric Bretschneider

 I’ve been helping out some friends with their Podcast, mostly moving them from a hand-held memo recorder to some more serious sound recording equipment.  Yesterday I contributed a somewhat fragmented WorldCon report.  I’m mostly quiet during the comics discussion, they … Continue reading →

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Q3.0

Posted on June 9, 2006 by Ric Bretschneider

More coolness.   http://www.minixm.com lets me listen to XMRadio through the Q.  Not sure if that will work if you don’t have a subscription already.  According to QUsers there’s a similar capability for Sirius radio, but that involved a zip … Continue reading →

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Q

Posted on June 8, 2006 by Ric Bretschneider

Bought a Motorola Q Smartphone this week.  I’d been writing a couple of messages daily to friends also interested in the phone, just letting them know my experiences and discoveries.  Today I realized that I was blogging it through mail … Continue reading →

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DS

Posted on May 2, 2006 by Ric Bretschneider

Thursday Nintendo announces availability and pricing for the US release of the DS Lite.   How twisted is the market when we get an announcement about when the availability of the product price and avalibility is going to happen?  How satisfying … Continue reading →

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Podcast

Posted on April 2, 2006 by Ric Bretschneider

My friend Doug Garrett is getting to be quite the name in the boardgaming geek-o-sphere.  He’s the boardgame coordinator for KublaCon, one of the best gaming conventions out there, and now a regular on the Board Game Speak podcast from … Continue reading →

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Window

Posted on February 12, 2006 by Ric Bretschneider

When you do any kind of design for a living, unless you’re some kind of a poser, you really love all design. You gain an appreciation for the how and why of other people’s work and the problems they were … Continue reading →

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Headphones

Posted on July 22, 2005 by Ric Bretschneider

eVen at an eBay bargain price, even though they were new in box, spending $300 for a pair of headphones sounds pretty crazy at first.  But when you hear new stuff in every song you have in your collection, when … Continue reading →

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Monitors

Posted on July 13, 2005 by Ric Bretschneider

Recently got ahold of a semi-free 10" flat-panel display.  What to do with it?  Hey, my video card supports two monitors…   Now I’ve got some place to put all that cool Konfabulator stuff that clutters my standard desktop!

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Shakespeare?

Posted on July 5, 2005 by Ric Bretschneider

We’re leaving Bend Oregon this morning on our way to Myrtle Creek Oregon by way of Ashland.  Heard of Ashland? (You certainly haven’t heard of Myrtle Creek!) Yes, Ashland – home to The Oregon Shakespeare Festival.  (http://www.orshakes.org/).    But it’s … Continue reading →

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Herbie

Posted on June 29, 2005 by Ric Bretschneider

My friend Chuck Farnham is an eccentric.  Certifiable, he made a living and reputation off being eccentric for about a decade. Now it’s just a hobby.  I may get back to that history some day, but let’s talk about last night.   Chuck most … Continue reading →

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Cat

Posted on June 27, 2005 by Ric Bretschneider

Even if you’ve visited, you may not be aware that we have a cat. Shadow is notorious for not being around when strangers are in the house. This morning she was actually being friendly and let me take a picture … Continue reading →

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Humans

Posted on June 24, 2005 by Ric Bretschneider

Justin and I have been playing "Destroy All Humans" video game some evenings.  He’s recently finished the epic rpg Fable, and is basically sitting nearby as I manipulate the small alien giving me advice like "what happens when you jump … Continue reading →

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