This is a reminder that the KC8DNE.com Web site automatically transforms into a web-application type experience when viewed from an iPhoneTM, iPod touchTM, AndroidTM, or BlackBerry StormTM touch mobile device.
What that means is that when you visit this site with your computer’s browser you will see the normal presentation of the site. However, when you visit us using your Web enabled mobile device, you will see what looks like an application, rather than a small-scale replica of the normal pages.
We hope that this feature will make your experience visiting this site more pleasant and more productive.
While perusing the monthly logs for this Web site last night, I noticed some interesting facts. First, you folks are primarily Windows users. 94.31% of you browsed here under the power of Mr. Gates favorite operating system (70% under Windows XP), while only 3.91% of you used MacOS and 1.78% ran Linux.
What really raised my eyebrows almost to the top of my head was the information that some of you are using extremely elderly, unstable, unsuitable, and unsafe browsers. Because of all the recent security bulletins I have been considering running a post about how you should update your browser if you are still using Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6. I was aghast to see what was used by the visitors here over the last month. Someone out there is still running MSIE version 2.
Here ia a list of only the obsolete — and therefore dangerous to use — browser versions that have visited here recently. In all cases, there are newer versions available for free.
| BROWSER VERSION | PERCENT |
| Internet Explorer 6.0 | 7.84% |
| Internet Explorer 7.0 | 2.92% |
| Firefox 3.0 | 2.46% |
| Opera 8.0 | 1.64% |
| Firefox 2.0 | 0.47% |
| Internet Explorer 5.5 | 0.47% |
| Internet Explorer 2 | 0.35% |
| Internet Explorer 4.0 | 0.35% |
| Internet Explorer 3.0 | 0.23% |
| Internet Explorer 5.0 | 0.23% |
| Opera 7.5 | 0.23% |
| Firefox 1.5 | 0.12% |
| Internet Explorer 5.1 | 0.12% |
| Opera 6.0 | 0.12% |
| Opera 7.0 | 0.12% |
| Opera 7.1 | 0.12% |
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For the protection of your system and the data contained therein, you should install a current version of whatever browser you choose to use. Doing so will help keep nasty things like viruses, worms, bots, rootkits, etc. from finding a home on your system. Assuming, of course, that they have not done so already.
I just noticed that I have passed the seven hundred post mark here on the KC8DNE.com blog. The first was three years ago, back in the fall of 2006.
I sincerely hope you have enjoyed at least some of them and that you have found something to entertain, inform, mentally stimulate, or otherwise help you pass the time.
This site is a labor of love, as I have yet to make a dime from it and have received but a few — greatly appreciated — comments about the content through the years. I am not so cranky that I will not gladly consider any suggestions you may have about making the site more useful to you.
Drop me a private note via the contact page, or a public one in the comments following this post. Let me know what you like and don’t like. I really want to know your opinions.
In order to, hopefully, recover at least the cost of hosting this blog, the price of the software used to design it, not to mention my time in maintaining it, I am now including some commercial material on the site.
The first is an affiliate banner ad and links to 1and1 Web Hosting. I feel very comfortable in doing so because they have served as my host since they first started up here in the United States. As a mater of fact, I was one of their first customers. I can say that I have had no complaints with their service since. They offer both Linux and Windows hosting, special offers, and Domain Name Specials.
If you are in the market for site hosting, or domain name registration, please check out the offers made available by clicking the banner ad, or through these links. Doing so will allow me to receive a small payment from 1and1.
I trust that you will not find this action to be an inconvenience. If you do, I could substitute a “Tip Jar” to accept donations. Let me hear your opinions in the comments.
If you have a better idea, have got a pet peeve, want to see more (or, less) of something, or, just want to comment on this blog — please send me an e-mail. I also welcome recommendations for topics that you would like to see covered.
Without your input I do not have the information that I need to keep the blog interesting to you. And that is why I do it.
If you don’t like what you see here and quit reading the blog then I will be wasting my time and effort writing it. It does take considerable time and thought to keep this thing going.
So, ask yourself, “Do I appreciate the effort he puts into the blog?” I the answer is yes, then drop me an e-mail containing your thoughts, even if they are only in the form of a thank you.
I just happened to notice that there have been 600 posts published on this blog since I began it in September of 2006. The objective has always been to present as much information as possible that I think my friends would like, or need, to know. I sincerely hope that this effort has been worthwhile and that you have benefited from it in some way, or at least been entertained in the process.
If you have enjoyed the blog’s content and want me to continue to put forth the effort needed to maintain it, please let me know.
All you need to do to make me feel as if I have not been wasting my time here is to spend 2 minutes sending a note that you want to see more. That can be done simply be going to the Contact page and using the e-mail form. You can also leave a comment below.
Forbes magazine has named my fair city, Flint, Michigan, number two in their top ten of “America’s Downsized Cities”, as well as the U.S. city with the longest road to recovery from the economic recession. That’s what happens when you live in a company town and the company leaves.
You thought the city looked bad in Roger and Me? Much of what looked good in the film has been flattened by a wrecking ball in the years since R&M was first shown. For example, Buick could not sell its world headquarters building (photo at right) after they fled Flint, so they had it demolished, rather than pay taxes on it.
The New York Times reports, "By the time it is finished, G.M. expects to have only 38,000 union workers and 34 factories left in the United States, compared with 395,000 workers in more than 150 plants at its peak employment in 1970". These days remind me of the tough period of time covered in Roger and Me, when so many people were leaving Flint that there were no U-Haul trucks or trailers to be found. That was because no one was bringing any of them into town.
Gordon Young, who now lives in San Francisco, California, publishes a blog called Flint Expatriates. It is a repository of all things Flint. Posts and comments recall Flint’s qualities; the good, bad and sometimes the ugly, from the perspective of a former resident. It is worth reading even if you are still here. In an effort toward full disclosure I must note that Young has featured our daughter Erica, who is another Flint expatriate, in one of his posts.
This summer is the 40th Anniversary of the first “Wild Wednesday” rock concert at Sherwood Forest in Genesee County, Michigan. The exact date was June 21, 1969. That was two months before Woodstock made international headlines.
The date is very significant to those of us who were residents of southeastern Michigan at the time. It meant that Rock and Roll had come to the area in force. It arrived via an aligning of the planets and the efforts of local radio stations (most notably WTAC), as well as a cast of some very interesting characters. In the forefront was Peter C. Cavanaugh.
Peter C. was the morning jock at WTAC. You need to read about his exploits in his book Local DJ: A Rock ‘N Roll History, which has been optioned as a film project by Michael Moore and Kathleen Glynn.
I recently discovered that Cavanaugh, who is a grandfather many times over and is living in Oakhurst, California, also has a blog. You can read about some memorable times and events there.
The Comments module on this blog was broken for a while. It took me a bit longer to get around to repairing it than I had planned.
It is now back up and running as it should. Please, feel free to leave comments on the posts.
My apologies to anyone who might have been inconvenienced.
In case you have not noticed it, I recently added a new page translation widget to the sidebar of the blog. If English is not your native language, you can be shown a translated version of the page that you are currently reading.
Just click the appropriate flag to select your language. Please be patient while the translating and formatting takes place. It will take a few moments.
I should probably add this disclaimer: The translation and the service are provided by a third party. I have no responsibility for, nor control over, the accuracy of the translated text.
I hope it is useful to you. If it is not, please remember that it it is a free service.
My name is Bob, and I am a ham radio operator, freelance web developer and a retired commercial radio personality. It turns out that I also enjoy blogging...
