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mashby

The personal blog of Michael Ashby

Author / Michael Ashby

Everything Old Is New Again

Went down a little rabbit hole over the past couple of weeks and thought I’d share.

I’ve been sitting back watching Twitter slowly fall apart as a spectator and rather enjoying it becasue it didn’t affect me directly. All the outrage seemed to be focused on those that used the default client app or web site. Not me. As soon as there were 3rd party clients available back-in-the-day (has it been 16 YEARS?!?), I’ve used them. First with Twitterrific and then I migrated to Tweetbot, which I’ve been using since around 2011. I’ve never had ads, promoted Tweets or timeline shenanigans, so I was immune to all the fuss. That all changed last week.

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reCAPTCHA Installed

Like many WordPress users, I’ve been plagued with SPAM comments. I’ve tried disabling comments and a few other things but logging into my blog to find over 100 comments that are clearly SPAM is disheartening to say the least.

So today I setup Google’s reCAPTCHA service using the plugin Google Captcha (reCAPTCHA) by BestWebSoft because I don’t have the time to implement it by hand. I used reCAPTCHA back in the day when this blog was using MovableType but Google has taken over the project and it’s much more elegant.

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Making Progress

It’s been about a month since Gracie passed and things are getting a little better. Our friends and family have been very supportive in helping either by checking in on us, or not when we’re slow to respond. Personally, I’ve found it very difficult to return phone calls for some reason.

Overall, we’ve gotten through the worst of the grief and gratitude is starting to return. We’re grateful that she’s not suffering, even though it means she can’t be with us, and we’re grateful that she wasn’t in any pain.

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Say Goodnight Gracie

On Friday, December 8th at 10:30am, our dog Gracie passed away from congestive heart failure. She was one-in-a-million and blessed our lives for over 14 and-a-half years. We couldn’t have asked for a better dog and we were sorry to see her go but it was her time and, thankfully, she went peacefully.

She was born with a heart murmur and we knew that, in time, it would probably present a major issue as she grew older. Although she had overcome a tumor on her stomach over 3-years ago, we learned early this summer that her murmur had become a major issue. Thanks to the overwhelming support and stellar care provided by Dr. Courtney Merrow, DVM at PedMed and the staff at Blue Pearl we did everything we could to prolong her life as long as possible. Unfortunately, her body stopped responding to the diuretics, as we were told they would, and the fluid build-up became too much. With no more remaining options, we put her to sleep.

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Waterfield Rough Rider Messenger Bag

The One That Got Away

Back in 2014, Waterfield made a messenger bag called the “Rough Rider“. It was expensive, around $350, so I put off buying it. I figured I’d save a little a purchase one later. That time never came and Waterfield stopped making them and the “Maverick” took it’s place. The Maverick is a nice bag but […]

Apple TV

Umm… What He Said

I’ve been a fan of the AppleTV since it debuted and I’m currently on my 3rd one. It’s a great device and one of the reasons we “cut the cord” – 99% of what we watch is done through it. That being said, it’s not a perfect device and there is plenty of room for […]

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Speaking Of RSS

One of the blogs that I follow, MacSparky.com, had a post today about RSS entitled The Case For RSS. Of course it’s not a direct answer to my post, Does Anyone Use RSS Anymore, but it does answer the question nicely. In his article, David Sparks says that he’s still a big fan of RSS […]

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My iMac Is Now Obsolete

Just a few weeks ago I wrote about how my 27″ iMac was still going strong and running the latest build of macOS. I’m still impressed by how long this computer has held up and continues to perform. Well, I learned today that Apple has declared it to be obsolete. 🙁

All this means is that Apple won’t offer repairs and replacement parts, which really isn’t that big of a deal since I would go to a 3rd party repair place or do the repair myself. Once the Apple care warranty expires, going direct to Apple is my last resort.

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RSS

Does Anyone Use RSS Anymore?

Back-in-the-day, RSS or News Feeds were all the rage. I, for one, have been using them since the early 2000’s and it’s my daily source of news via Fever. It’s the app I I switched to it back in 20131 when Google killed it Reeder service. With the #1 feed reader dead, it seems like […]

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