Monday, May 31, 2021
It has been a busy week, and I am almost happy the national holiday is about to come to a close.
My activities included:
- An assortment of visitors including relatives from out of town.
- Meal preparations
- Eating
- Shopping (new espresso machine, groceries, household staples), stores included: Costco, Safeway, Food Lion and Walmart online
- Gathered items for the dump, brother helped with delivery
- Plants, housekeeping chores...
- Article on patch.com about my high school alumni group
- Header bidding updates and maintenance, Google AdManager and Unified Ad Marketplace
- Website updates
- Season finale of "Mare of Easttown"
Other photos taken over the last week, first set (below) - meal preparation.
Some of the meals prepared...
Last week, my espresso machine decided to call it quits, so I ordered a new one. In addition, I hit almost every market in the area in preparation for the week's meals.
One relative stopped by on Thursday. Photos of me taken after the visit.
I have been meaning to get to my hair, simply cannot find the time. Hope you are having a nice holiday. Are you planning to catch the concert on PBS?
Tuesday, May 25, 2021
While researching data tables (FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), I thought would be useful for different areas of WiredPages, I noticed an interesting statistic about nationwide personal income and savings over the period March 2020 through March 2021.
This period of course, encompasses the upheaval to business, employment, and life in general across the U.S., and the world, due to the COVID-19 crisis.
What is interesting? According to the numbers, U.S. personal income rose and so did the percentage of disposable income that was held in savings.
The graphs shown above were charted using data from the partial spreadsheet shown below (click on the illustration for the entire data set):
My personal financial situation over the same time period? My personal income was slightly higher along with the amount I held in savings.
Tuesday, May 18, 2021
In late 2004, I converted my local news service, MarylandWired to WiredPages which offered more in the way of national/international news and services.
I wanted to showcase my custom software solutions and felt a news service would be the perfect vehicle to highlight what could be done with software to enhance any online presence.
Recently, because of security and cost issues related to the online installation of new tools and interfaces for WiredPages, I have sought less costly development avenues using economic data provided through the Federal Reserve FRED resource.
Two of the latest FRED interfaces will be showcased on the WiredPages Business & Markets page and are illustrated below.
A potential client of QiSoftware may inquire- if you cannot afford to install your software online, why can I? Reference the following link while going through the list below.
- I host my software on two sites, qisoftware.com and hosting-q.com. There is already a lot of software running, more than a normal personal or small business site, simply because my business is software.
- Software security, I noticed long ago my custom databases were being hacked. The celebrity birthday database is one example. I keep a master copy of the MySQL database offline for development purposes. I also have the CIA World Factbook database. Both databases are very popular. My servers at this time, are not as secure as I would like and I cannot afford to install software that others can access and decompile. Why is DOJ/FBI not on this? I am not sure of the answer to this.
- Cost to run tools like Alexa Site Rank, Google Places (replaces the eventful tool on the WiredPages Style & Events page), real time market data, etc., cost.
- Tools like the Youtube Music Video Search and FatSecret were installed a long time ago, however although the software is ready for installation, are not installed. This is because, even though I believe I grandfathered in with Youtube API services, once installed online, this status may change. The old Youtube interface was rewritten to handle updates to the API service.
- The NPR offering, was complicated to implement. I want a secure server.
Someone once advised, look into hosting your own sites and perhaps think about employing your own expensive security team. Did I think they were kidding? No. I can afford to do neither of these things.
He felt my two biggest expenses should have been, hosting my sites and a personal security team. T1 lines are very expensive. In any case, why on earth would I need personal security? What I can say, I have seen some pretty amazing things since the mid 90s. I used to ask why me. At the time, I had not developed the custom solutions, I have today. Part of the legal case, provides that my business is being interfered with. I did not start my business until 2004.
What happened to me-- insofar as a legal case, could be worth a lot. As a matter of fact, I am told my legal "worth" is considerable. My actual worth? One other factor. When I am out, people do suggest they understand that part of the equation. What do you think?
I get a lot of offshore partnership requests. In response to these requests, I provide, because of ongoing legal issues I cannot afford to partner with anyone. I have to be able to account for anything I do as related to business or my personal activities. Sometimes other business organizations do not see the problems that might happen. I can assure you, problems exist.
FBI/DOJ, problems you see and hear. I said no. I cannot afford my own security. The front door was smashed in, August 2018. I said no. Hard heads are not listening.
Sunday, May 09, 2021
Happy Mother's Day. I have been working different projects over the last week, in preparation for Mother's Day. I ordered online, however did stop by a garden center on Friday, for a hosta plant and marigolds for the planters on the deck.
In our area it has been a bit overcast over the last 3 or 4 days, including today. The weather? That is another project I have been working. A new interface (Java Servlet) using the WeatherAPI resource.
The illustration below shows a side by side comparison of the Yahoo Weather interface used on WiredPages and the new WeatherAPI interface.
Most of the work for the new weather interface is complete. There are minor cosmetic changes I may implement, however, since I have no plans to install the new interface online, will probably hold off.
Sunday, May 02, 2021
In early April 2020, repairs to the main bathroom on the upper level were an important preoccupation along with the many concerns relating to COVID-19.
A trip to Lowes for fixtures and tools needed for the repair- provided the opportunity to purchase a new plant, the snake plant shown below.
The two illustrations below, show a photo of the plant, taken yesterday and the set of photos taken when I first replanted the Mother-in-Law's Tongue (Snake Plant) in April 2020.
When I left home after college, my parents gave me a snake plant for my first place. I never had a problem. I hate to admit, I almost killed the new plant, over-watering.
With all of the other plants I maintain around the house, I thought I could water as often as I did the others. Big mistake. I am pleased I realized my mistake before it was too late.
Other recent photos...
- Strawberry season, so I buy strawberries... I love strawberry shortcake.
- Love buttermilk pancakes --recipe
- Yellow irises in the backyard are in bloom
- Cascading petunias for the front porch
- Scenes from the den, including the same snake plant photo
- Purple irises on the side of the house not yet in bloom
- Alternanthera Purple Prince - a perennial ground cover
- Hosta plant on the back deck
There were many changes over the past year, however we made it. So did the Dracaena Trifasciata (mother-in-law's tongue).
