Reunion

06:35 Thursday, 19 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 72.16°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 0mph
Words: 872

We're in Annapolis.

Before we left yesterday, I went outside to look at the compressor for the heat pump to try and see how a bird might get into it.

Well, it can. Down at the bottom where the refrigerant lines enter and exit, there's enough room for a bird to get in there. We have several doves often feeding on our paver patio. I guess they're eating the little ants that inhabit the seams between pavers. I suspect one may have been feeding and simply followed its way into the compressor enclosure and couldn't make its way back out.

I once found a bird trapped in our fire pit. It has a screened top that contains flying embers, and the top had a hole rusted through it. A small warbler had managed to land inside the fire pit, but couldn't fly back out through the hole. It was still alive and well when I discovered it, and flew off when I removed the top. I inverted it after that. Not sure what I'm going to do about the compressor.

Unpleasant surprise at Jax airport yesterday. Several hundred parking places at the daily lot have been lost due to construction of a new terminal. We'd planned to park in the parking garage, or, failing that, daily surface. Closer to the terminal, no waiting for a shuttle.

Well, they re-directed all traffic back to economy. There was no heads-up that I noticed on the way in that the daily lots were full. There were the usual electronic signs indicating "Full" as you approached daily parking, after you'd passed the economy lots.

Fortunately, we'd left in plenty of time, the shuttle was waiting for us right as we parked, and filled to capacity immediately, so it didn't make a circuit of the lot. The driver then gave a long spiel about what had happened and how long it was likely to affect airport travel. Years.

Mitzi is our travel agent, and arranges all the car rentals. She'd booked a Budget "Fast Break," where she got a text that told us what zone in the parking area we should look, and pick any car in that zone.

To make a long story short, it was a disaster. No cars. We eventually got one, a Kia EV of some kind, looks brand new. Managed to suss out how to operate it, and then tried to exit the lot. Long, very slow, line at the exit booth, where we were supposed to show Mitzi's phone with a QR code displayed. Nope. License and key.

Car didn't come with a full battery, supposedly don't have to return it with one either. First car we looked at was an EV, and it had some woman's Florida driver's license in it. We were about to take it back to the check-in counter when a woman drove up who we thought was an employee. Nope, it was the owner of the license. Apparently decided against the EV, selected another car but left her license in the first one.

Weird.

Hotel has a charging station. Supposed to only park there while charging. It was open when we got there and after a lot of time searching (found it online) we found the charging port and plugged it in. Free charging, if not free parking. We let it charge for a couple of hours and then came back down to go to dinner. It'd only added 20 miles to the range! I guess that's Level 2?

When we came back from dinner, it was still open, so we plugged it in again and left it charging. I didn't go down to check on it last night, but I assume it's fully charged now. There's a level indicator next to the charging port, so presumably it was showing that it was being charged for several hours until late into the night. I wasn't going to go move it after midnight.

Anyway, probably going to go onto the Academy campus today and look around. There's supposed to be someplace where I can pick up a packet, I need to review all that information about where and when. We're checking out from this hotel and meeting up with some of my company-mates at an Airbnb for the rest of the weekend. I'm optimistic we'll have plenty of range on the EV and won't need to charge again before we return it.

Tonight is a get-together at a classmate's house. Tomorrow is alumni stuff that I have only a little interest in, but I'll probably attend. Friday night is a buffet dinner that we are attending because I hope to see some of my classmates from the Ocean Engineering group. Saturday is a tailgater event where I expect to see one of my roommates from Surface Warfare Officers School. A great guy who went on to become a career Navy SEAL. Haven't seen him in many, many years.

Sunday we head home.

I still haven't heard from Swytch about the cable issue, so add that to the disappointment. It doesn't matter because I figured it out, but it does say something about the level of support you might expect from the company.

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Cleanup

06:01 Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 73°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 0mph
Words: 304

Went out yesterday to finally address the cable issue on my bike, and clean up the residue (chiefly a lot of cardboard and clipped remains of zip-ties).

I will give Swytch props for packaging. There were two bits of foam in the box that surrounded the axle of the wheel. Otherwise, all cardboard. Well designed, well laid out, easy to recycle.

There's a large bit of text on the box that suggests it should not be stored in the vertical position, but laid flat. Of course nobody notices that. It was left on my doorstep vertically, and I left it vertical when I brought it inside. It wasn't until I put it in the garage that I laid it flat and noticed the advisory or warning. Unsure why that was important, but pretty sure nobody is paying attention to it.

I used some heat shrink tubing to kind of cleverly seal up the two mystery connectors. I didn't have a piece large enough to enclose both connectors, so I used two pieces then stuck a piece, bent like a U over the two ends of now shrunk tubing and shrank that. Not pretty, but I think it'll keep water out. Maybe they should have capped the connectors you're not supposed to use?????

(The unnecessary cap didn't fit either of the other connectors.)

Found my flashlight.

Bike's black, cables are black, heat shrink is black. A lot of cables, but they're not super-noticeable. I pulled the 20mph stickers off both sides of the battery. (19.6 mph, "actually.")

Put a label on the charger so someone besides myself will know what it goes to, because there's nothing on the charger that suggests what it's for.

And, as of this writing, I still have not heard from switch regarding my support issue.

But it works.

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Updates

05:53 Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 73.02°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 0mph
Words: 114

Updated the iMac to MacOS 15, Sequoia, the last official major OS update this 2019 iMac will ever see, apparently. I guess five years is a good run these days.

Appears to have gone smoothly. I do appreciate the gigabit speed of fiber. The vast majority of the time was spent by the computer doing whatever it does installing the new underpinnings and restarting.

I went to update my iPhone 13 to iOS 18 just now, and it's not being reported as available. Do I have to update to 17.7 first? Beats me. I restarted it. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, the beat goes on...

Update: Restarting installed iOS 17.7. iOS 18 remains MIA.

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Weird

05:38 Wednesday, 18 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 73.02°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 0mph
Words: 311

I'm afraid "weird" may have been hijacked by politics, but we heard a weird noise coming from the compressor for our heat pump last night. Incredibly loud banging as if something inside had come apart and was bouncing around off the fan blades or something.

We had had two previous episodes of a singular bang, one Mitzi heard and one that I heard. I thought it was a hard start, perhaps indicative of a failing capacitor, but one occurred at the end of a cycle.

Last night's episode seemed to go on forever, perhaps over a minute. Time enough for me to go outside with a flashlight and try and see what the hell was going on. I couldn't make anything out. The fan was spinning smoothly, but something was undoubtedly inside getting knocked about violently.

After it shut off, I went out and looked again.

Er, something had died in there.

I think it may have been a bird. How anything could get inside that machine is a mystery to me, but I'll look again this morning after the sun comes up.

There were "remains" of something clinging to the interior of the northwest corner of the top of the enclosure. They had been there for some time, and appeared to be kind of glued there. I saw stuff that may have resembled feathers and bird feet. Pretty gross.

I got a screwdriver and knocked the largest bit remaining off the enclosure, and it fell into the interior somewhere.

Then I noticed other bits of dried ick around the entire interior circumference of the of the top.

Weird.

Of course we're leaving town this morning.

We raised the thermostat to 78° to minimize the operation of the heat pump and spent a warm night.

This morning, it's come on twice since I've been up and no banging. Hopefully, problem solved.

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Miscellaneous

07:45 Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 67.66°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 636

Mitzi's hosting a brunch here in a couple of hours and I'll have to make myself scarce. I'll be taking the Comcast/XFinity cable box back and cancelling cable. No more local evening news, or network national news, or the Wheel ("Now featuring Ryan Seacrest!") or Jeopardy!.

Last night I sat in the recliner in my office and played old video games on my Apple //c instead! Made it to level 3 in Lode Runner. I'm very out of practice, but also surprised that the "patterns" you have to run to evade the Bungeling Empire guards remain somewhat embedded in my muscle memory. Had to adjust the joystick because it was biased slightly upward so whenever I ran past a ladder, my guy would start climbing it.

Played some Choplifter, and I'm horrible at that now. The plane keeps shooting me down!

Played a mission in Star Fleet 1, which I wasn't sure would work. The original required you to entire a word from a specific page in the (very thick) manual. I only played the training mission, so maybe that kicks in on the higher levels. I hope not. It's a text-based, elaborate expansion on the classic Star Trek game. Well regarded, back in the day.

The IIe is looking pretty good. Got the motherboard cleaned up. Installed the "new" (modern tech) 8MB memory card in the Aux Slot and discovered that I had ordered the wrong card. Well, not really, I didn't know at the time when I was ordering it that I'd be receiving a Rev A Apple IIe. They're relatively scarce in the marketplace, since only a few thousand were produced.

The developer of the board offered to flash it for me to disable the double hi-res graphics feature, which makes it incompatible with the Rev A, but I went ahead and ordered another card because they're fairly inexpensive and I may "upgrade" this machine to a Rev B someday. The disk drive I tested worked, so the controller card works.

It's nice when I feel like I got a really good deal, and this IIe was. I paid $320 for it, which might seem high, but it was a package deal with a number of items that are very pricey bought separately. I went looking for the monitor stand and they mostly seem to be going north of $100! So I'm very happy it survived shipping. Likewise the CH Mach 3 Joystick. There are three up on the auction site right now at $75 a piece and one bargain unit at $45 (plus $15 shipping). The Monitor III is also mostly well north of $100. The Kensington System Saver external fan/surge suppressor is listing between $65 and $100. So, just those accessories would run about what I paid for the whole thing.

We're out of town again starting tomorrow. Headed up to Annapolis for my 45th class reunion. I'm kind of tired of traveling, but it's just a long weekend. I booked the Wednesday flight because of weather uncertainty to give us a recovery day on Thursday if we couldn't get out. Doesn't look like it'll be a problem, but you never know in September in Florida.

When we get back on Sunday, we'll have about five weeks at home before we head up to Georgia for a wedding and another family event with Mitzi's siblings.

Then we have to figure out whether or not we're going to New York in November. I rather expect we are, because it's an opportunity for Mitzi to visit her daughter in DC, where we spend the night since we'll be driving. I'm kind of interested in seeing how the house is doing, sitting empty. I may buy and install a flood sensor as well.

Anyway, staying busy. The beat goes on...

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Almost Super

07:42 Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 67.66°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 58

Technically, it won't be "super" until 2246 tonight. It was hanging above the western horizon this morning and so I figured, "Why not?" Haven't seen one for a while. Olympus E-M1X with the 100-400mm, handheld high-res shot. Edited, hastily, in Photos.

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Effortless

06:11 Tuesday, 17 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 68.4°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 94% Wind: 0mph
Words: 341

The coolest morning here in a very long time - 70°F! And little to no wind.

I found the settings screen for the controller and set everything to English units, just because. Found the speed adjustment and the max is 30kph (even with "miles" set, the settings use kilometers), or 18.6mph. So I set it for 30kph, found my lights and got on the road at 0520.

I forgot to start the Fitness app in the driveway, remembered a little more than a quarter mile away, so I only recorded 5.84 miles. Well, average speed was 14.7mph, max was 17.3. I had to maneuver around some construction and deal with getting out of the back gate, but if you leave all that out, the ride was mostly around 17-18mph.

With the gearing on my little three speed, 18mph is me pedaling about as fast as my stubby legs can go, and it is essentially effortless. That was on level 3 assistance. Maybe I could get to 18.6 if I went to level 4 or 5. The point is, I never got going fast enough for the motor to cut out, which is a better experience, I think.

So I'll have to extend my ride to get more of a workout on non-windy days. Average HR was only 112bpm, and I only expended 160 calories.

It is kind of fun though. I did have the feeling of "speed" this morning. I suppose I'll get used to it eventually, but I did feel like I was going very fast. I see kids on ebikes around here, and I think they're mostly on American bikes with more powerful motors and throttles, because they're usually zipping along and not even peddling!

Still have to figure out the cable management, and I don't know if I should take this thing to the store and park it. The battery is only held on with velcro straps. There's a locking kit, but it added quite a bit to the price. It'd probably be ok. We'll see.

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The Byke

15:46 Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 78.03°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 164

So here it is. I just noticed the battery has a huge sticker on it that says "20mph." So I guess I can get this thing to go faster.

The battery is actually pressing down on the water bottle holder, so I suppose I'll have to remove that. Don't think the other location will be any less useless. Fortunately, I seldom ride far enough to have to worry about hydration.

I haven't completely zip-tied everything, because it's hard to know exactly what the neatest configuration might be. I just put enough on there for now to take it for a ride.

I need to get my light mounted and the little tool bag back on there, but it's basically done. I also need to get everything put away, and try and find my little flashlight.

Did you notice the front wheel was silver? Neither did I.

Still bugs me.

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Ryde Lyke the Wynd

14:40 Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 79.14°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 831

Well, ynto yt anyway.

I enjoy riding my bike, but not always. There are two times when I will forego riding. One is when it's hot and muggy, the other when it is windy. (Or wyndy?)

Wind is perhaps worse than heat. The heat thing is mostly that I'm soaking wet whenever I get where I'm going. Wind is just discouraging. You're pedaling hard and going nowhere. Well, almost nowhere. I don't know what the thermodynamic efficiency comparison is between riding into the wind and walking, but, subjectively, walking is less unpleasant.

Today is "windy." I don't know what the threshold for me is, but it's definitely below the 12mph we're seeing right now. I would normally not ride my bike today, so it was a good day to test out this conversion.

I have a Priority Classic, 3-speed, very upright riding posture. It's not "built for speed," and neither am I. Looking over the Fitness app, I didn't ride at all in July. Unsurprising, we were gone for much of the month and it's one of the hottest in Florida. My average figures for June were 5.8 miles at 11.7 mph, for 29m 43s expending 213 calories.

My best "workout" rides were between 28m 30s and 29m 31s, 6.03 miles and my best speed was 12.7 mph. Average HR was in the 140s, and calories expended were >290 calories.

The test ride this afternoon was not a workout ride. So I was faster, and expended fewer calories. Despite not being intended to be a workout ride, I nevertheless still had a workout. 136 bpm average HR is right up there with my "Nordic walking" workouts with the polls (though they expend far more calories). And I'm feeling it in my legs. So I was making an effort of some kind, mostly to see how fast I could go.

I don't recall what level of assistance I was in, I think it was 3 (out of 5). I'm still unfamiliar with the control and the display. The speed tops out at 25kph, or 15.5 mph. That's the limit in Britain, faster than that and it's no longer a "bike" and you need a license and registration. We don't have that limit here, and I think there's a setting in the controller where I can bump that up a bit. I'd be happy with 20mph, because that'd let me keep up with the golf carts, mostly. Except for the ones that have been modified for "street use." (I think they go up to 35mph, and good luck to you if you have an accident.)

But I could definitely feel the assistance, particularly in starting out. Normally I have to start out in first gear, but the motor kicks in really quickly and I'm able to start out in 3rd gear as easily as I could in first. The sensation of speed was less pronounced. My maximum recorded in the Fitness app was 16.9mph with the wind. And when I started getting up there around 25kph, you could feel the motor cut out. Much of the trip was into the wind, so the feeling of speed wasn't really present, but I could hear the wind roaring in my helmet (probably 25mph relative wind). My helmet is more of a skateboard helmet than a bike helmet. I look stupid in either kind, and don't normally wear one at all. I think there'd be less wind noise with a bike helmet because it doesn't cover your ears.

The big takeaway for me was that today was not a day I'd normally choose to ride, but now I know I can.

Overall, I'm largely satisfied with the device. It leaves a lot to be desired from an appearance standpoint, and the company's support in terms of assembly is unacceptable. But if you can overcome that, you do have a bike that will expand your capabilities in terms of biking significantly.

It's a tough call in terms of the value proposition. To receive the wrong wheel, have to struggle through inadequate and misleading documentation, and be left with something that looks kind of jury-rigged, I certainly wouldn't spend more than $509. If the documentation had been first-rate, I'd say it was a reasonable price, and I'd have had a less frustrating experience.

I'd like to say everyone should go out and get one, but I can't. If you really want to convert an existing bike, this does have everything you need to do so. Be prepared to "figure it out" on your own, though. I don't know if there are better kits on the market, with clearer instructions. Swytch came with good reviews, but I'm disappointed with the company, and the experience up to the point of getting it on the road has been unpleasant.

Riding has been another story. Time will tell if this has been a good purchase.

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Swytch Disappointment

11:20 Monday, 16 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 76.42°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 88% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 953

So here's how my day has been going.

I've been trying to assemble my Swytch ebike conversion kit. It has not gone well, despite all the glowing YouTube videos about how easy it is.

It is not.

The first disappointment was that the wheel in the box wasn't black, it was silver. I was pretty sure I'd ordered the black rim. The first confirmation email didn't mention what color the rim was, and I didn't think anything of it.

The second confirmation email mentioned that the order included a silver rim, but I missed it.

They sent a third notification, on September 7, while we were in NY and I wasn't paying close attention to email, also disclosed they were sending me a silver wheel. I wasn't expecting the kit until October, so it wasn't high on my agenda in terms of paying attention as we were trying to get the new place set up.

As mentioned, I'm pretty sure I ordered a black rim. But my last long-term bike was a bit of a franken-bike with a fork from another bike of a different color. I'm not that bent out of shape about it, but it was a disappointment.

No printed manual is included. So I was using my iPad in the garage. I tried to download the pdf manual, but for whatever reason, all I ever received was the cover page. There's an "interactive" web thing that purports to step you through everything. It sucks. Out loud. Once again, a company has opted for glitzy web effects, transitions, etc, rather than clear illustrations and straightforward text.

Everything is black, and things have to fit into slots and holes and it's hard to see. If you buy one of these things, you should probably wear a headlamp to see what you're doing. I took both of my headlamps to New York. I don't know why.

I muddled my way through nearly everything, over about three hours. I was at the last step of connecting the wiring harness, and I was stuck.

These connections are supposedly "color coded." That's just a cruel joke.

I couldn't figure out what cable was supposed to connect to the handlebar controller. Do they tell you what each of those connections is for? No. Because why would they do that? It'd just confuse the user! It's color coded!

I went to the support web site, thinking maybe there'd be some document or something that elaborated on the harness, or, failing that, some "chat" support. Well, no elaboration, and chat is with an extremely lame bot.

More disappointment.

So I filled out a support request. Unclear when I'll get a response. This wasn't encouraging:

Our team is committed to addressing your request as quickly as possible. While we typically respond within 48 hours, it may take a bit longer during this busy period. Please know that your request is important to us, and we are carefully reviewing each one.

Well, I wanted to ride my ebike. See that cable that's capped? Why is it capped? I don't know and Swytch ain't sayin'. Bastards.

I figured it was covered on purpose, like "do not mess with this cable." Then I figured, "Screw that, I'm pulling this thing off."

There was my connection!

What a bunch of bullshit.

So I got everything wired up. The two mystery connectors remain... mysterious. I picked the bike up, turned the pedals and the front wheel spun!

Then I did my best to cable tie the miles of excess wiring and took it for a spin.

It works!

I'll do another post about the riding experience later. I just want to conclude this one about the assembly experience.

The documentation and web support is horrible. Swytch has invested far more effort in making the web site "pretty" than they have in good documentation. The YouTube videos are all misleading. I'm a bike "rider." I take it to the shop to have a spoke replaced. About all I can do is put air in the tires. I replaced the inner tubes on Mitzi's bike and managed to put one of the tires on "backward." Since when could you do that???

If you see a bike stand in a YouTube video, then treat all claims of "simple" and "easy" with a significant amount of skepticism. It's doable, but it's not easy.

Work in a well-lighted area. Our garage has a two-bulb fluorescent overhead light and it's just plain dark in there. I have to keep the garage door closed because Florida. So have a couple of flashlights handy. A couple, because you will constantly lose track of where you put one of them.

The nuts on the wheel are 19mm 17mm. My largest wrench was 16mm. I don't work on bikes, obviously. 11/16s works almost as well and better than an adjustable wrench, IMHO. The instructions for mounting the sensor to the peddle arm are confusing if they're not outright wrong, and I'm pretty certain they just plain outright wrong.

There's a tiny nut and bolt thing that holds the arm to the sensor disk, and you are almost certain to drop that little nut and lose it, so be extremely careful.

All in all, assembly is a horrible experience, because the instructions are incomplete, misleading and sometimes wrong.

But if you persevere and don't just give up and demand to return it, you do get an ebike. Looks kind of goofy. The battery is big and basically makes the water bottle holder useless. There are miles of cables everywhere.

But it'll make your ride a lot easier.

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IIe (Rev A)

15:25 Saturday, 14 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 82.8°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 81% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 300

Spent some time in the garage this afternoon with the IIe. One of the nice parts of this purchase was that a Hayes Mach 3 joystick was included. It looked pretty disgusting, and I wasn't sure how well it would work. Before doing anything else, I fired up the IIe, connected the joystick and entered a little routine to check it out.

Amazingly, it came up pretty damn near centered and responded with the full range from 0 to 255. The other joystick I bought (Apple branded, but likely from the same manufacturer who made the Hayes joysticks), needed some adjustment and didn't seem to want to offer the full range. Close enough for Choplifter and Lode Runner though!

Since this is a relatively early IIe (as a Rev A), it's in a painted case. Later, Apple went to all-plastic cases that will yellow over time. The more time I spend with this machine, the better I'm liking it. I'll probably open it up tomorrow and remove the case. I may not remove the motherboard, but I'll clear the dust somehow. Then I'll install a disk controller so I can load some software, and the memory expansion card. I'll run a utility and verify that it performs properly as an Aux Slot memory expansion card.

The biggest challenge is going to be finding a place to put it. I've had a little inspiration that may allow me to do what I want without removing the recliner. I'll need to play with the tape measure and see.

Here's a little video I made after I cleaned up the joystick and ran another test to make sure it still worked.

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More Fiber

15:12 Saturday, 14 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 82.53°F Pressure: 1012hPa Humidity: 82% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 114

Well, I needn't have worried about the installation and transition to IQ Fiber. Very smooth. Tech was friendly, knowledgeable and ready to help.

They have an app to control your network and I was able to rename the default network to our previously existing network (SSID and password), which saved an enormous amount of effort in terms of getting all the "smart" devices back online.

Haven't done any really significant streaming, though I just uploaded a brief video to Vimeo and that seemed to go pretty quickly. They have to do their thing once it gets to their servers, so I'm waiting on that.

I wish everything would go as smoothly as this did.

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Packages

05:29 Saturday, 14 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.83°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 1817

One surprise on the front porch Thursday evening was the box from Swytch, the e-bike conversion from England. That was supposed to arrive in October. But, hey, I don't mind. There were three boxes from the auction site.

One was the "Apple IIc disk drive," (which included an entire Apple IIc and some manuals). The other two were an Apple IIe and an old Monitor III that were all part of one purchase.

Opening the IIc box was a disappointment familiar to many buyers from the auction site. Poor packaging. The external disk drive beat up the keyboard in transit. Several keys were broken and one switch was broken. The disk drive door was also broken. I can get replacements for the keys, but it's still disappointing. (Pack the IIc keyboard side down on some foam.) The good news is that it is otherwise fully functional. It was pretty dirty, but cleaned up well and seemed less yellowed than the other IIc I have. This was a 4000 model, which lacks the memory expansion connector on the motherboard. But it was one with an Alps keyboard (Which made the damage even more painful.)

The IIe was packaged even worse but, remarkably, arrived undamaged. The cpu was packaged with the two Disk ][ disk drives which are like Thor's hammer in terms of the amount of damage they can do. It even had the original monitor stand that Apple sold to support a Monitor III (designed for the Apple III) on top of an Apple II. Those things almost never survive.

The seller used 12-pack soda boxes (a first), and styrofoam peanuts, which I despise, as filler material. Some brown craft paper. None of which completely filled the empty volume in the box, and I don't know how everything made it here in one piece, but I'm grateful for small miracles. The Monitor III was in a separate box, similarly ill-packaged, but likewise intact.

After cleaning up the IIc and getting an inventory of keys I'll have to replace (Space bar may be a problem, there may be a piece missing.) I turned my attention to the Monitor III since that seemed like the thing that was least likely to actually work.

I plugged the IIe and the monitor in, expected the magic smoke and turned everything on. No smoke. After waiting a suitable interval for the monitor to warm up, an image appeared. Some fiddling with the controls got it stable and the damn thing works. Built in November, 1982. Image is a little biased to the left, but it works.

The Monitor III had a fabric anti-glare screen. It also had a bunch of crud on it. I used a toothbrush and warm soapy water to try and clean it. Failed. Watched a video of a guy opening one up to remove the screen and decided it was simpler to just use an Exacto knife. Screen was filthy under it, though it cleaned up pretty well; but there are still blemishes from some liquid that evidently got onto the glass. Not noticeable when the monitor is on. It's not "museum grade," but it's still pretty cool.

The IIe was intended to be an update to the ][+ that reduced costs and added modest improvements, presumably to make it more appealing for schools. It had 64K on the motherboard, while the ][+ was shipping with a max of 48K at the end of its run. You had to put a 16K "Language Card" in slot 0 to get 64K. The Language Card was developed to support Pascal as another operating system/programming language for the Apple ][.

People figured out how to bank-switch that 16K, and were creating RAM disks and expanded memory for Visicalc with it.

The Apple ][+ also shipped with 40-column uppercase only text. To get 80 columns, then the standard for "serious" computing, you had to install a video card in slot 3. The IIe added support for lower case text, and a low cost video card for 80 column text as an option. Further, that low cost 80 column card could also come with an additional 64K of memory onboard, for a total of 128K! Whoa!

When the IIe came out, I'd already sunk a bunch of money into my ][+. We're talking 80s dollars here. I bought a ][+ with one disk drive for $2500, which is north of $7k in today's money. On top of that, I put a Videx 80 column card in slot 3, bought a second disk drive, a Monitor III, and that funky plastic stand, all so I could use PIE: Writer as my word processor. So I was probably over $10k in today's dollars by the time I was done and the Apple IIe was announced. (I hesitate to consider what $5k invested in 1982 would be worth today. I could probably afford a house in the Finger Lakes.)

ChatGPT isn't so reluctant, though it does qualify everything:

Calculating the exact amount that $5,000 invested in a NASDAQ index fund in 1980 would be worth today is quite complex and would require specific data on the fund's performance, including dividends and stock splits, over the past 40+ years. However, as a rough estimate, we can consider that the NASDAQ Composite has grown from around 200 points in 1980 to over 14,000 points in 2021. This is a 70-fold increase. Applying this increase to a $5,000 investment would result in a value of approximately $350,000.

So, yeah, a house in the Finger Lakes.

While I was impressed with the expanded memory of the IIe, I didn't feel as though the additional capability really added anything to what I already had in my ][+.

Well, and this remains unclear to me even today, at some point the engineers at Apple realized they could make some relatively modest modifications to the motherboard involving the video timing signals, and they could use that 64K expansion card to increase the resolution and colors of Apple's "high resolution" graphics.

The original Apple IIe, the so-called "Rev A," shipped without those motherboard modifications, and is incapable of displaying double hi-res graphics. You're stuck with the original 280x192 in monochrome (though some fancy bit-twiddling in programming could make it appear as though the horizontal resolution was 560 pixels), and six colors (eight if you count two whites and two blacks), with the limitations of adjacent colors due to the NTSC artifacts Woz relied on to create color.

It was the addition of double hi-res graphics that made me decide I needed to get an Apple IIe. So my first IIe was a Rev B, and I bought it as a package from one of my neighbors who worked at a computer retailer. Prices had come way down, of course. I got the 128K IIe, two disk drives, and a Monitor II for $1595. I sold my ][+ setup for $900 to a co-worker. (I had that //e for probably over a decade, though I can't recall exactly what happened to it anymore. I eventually got a IIgs and used that for many years before we finally switch to a Mac with the much maligned Performa 6200CD.

I don't know how many Rev A models shipped, but they were supposedly only in the thousands; and Apple offered motherboard swaps for early buyers, so many of those were upgraded to Rev B motherboards.

Well, this IIe in my garage is a Rev A.

Wild.

It boots up with "Apple ][" at the top of the screen. When you "enhance" an Apple IIe ("enhanced" was supposedly what the originally stood for), you get a 65C02 processor, new ROMs and a new video character set that includes "Mouse Text" (for drawing GUI elements in text) and the screen shows Apple //e when you boot up.

I'm not exactly sure what I want to do about that yet, if anything at all. Presumably, I can still use the Aux Slot for memory expansion, and I could install the "enhancement" kit with the 65C02 and new ROMs. There's no real support for double hi-res graphics built into the ROM, you have to do everything in your own software but there are plenty of packages that do it for you.

I think I'm going to keep it as a Rev A machine, though I will install the 65C02. I can get the ROMxe for it, which allows you to switch in any number of ROM variations.

Anyway, seller didn't think it worked. It works. Came with two modem cards, a parallel printer interface card, a 64K aux slot card, and a disk controller card. I removed all the cards to boot it up. The RIFA caps in the power supply didn't pop, so no "magic smoke." At some point I'll have to open the power supply and deal with that. I think I still have some spares I didn't give away because I forgot I had them.

So why get a IIe if I already have two //c computers? Well, the IIe has more access to the real world. The joystick port is a 16-pin DIP connector with additional channels for game controllers, buttons and an annunciator. The cassette tape jacks are repurpose-able and absent on the //c. The memory is more readily expandable than the //c, I have to wait for someone to build a new card for it, which happens from time to time. I've already got a 4MB expansion card from Garrett's Workshop for the IIe.

If you want to play with Apple Pascal, the best way to do that is with a large RAM disk, so you're not always waiting for the editor, compiler, or filer to load from disk. I had a setup I really liked with a Transwarp accelerator card in that SUV-load of stuff I gave away. At the moment, I'm thinking that the IIe is going to be more about programming and real-world interfacing and less about game playing or graphics.

The "new" //c is a 4000 model. I'm thinking of getting another ROMXc, then seeing if I can "ROMify" Jef Raskin's "Swyftware" application. (Should be doable. It was originally available in a ROM on a peripheral card.) Then that //c could be kind of a Canon Cat. Might be fun. I'll need to see if it can talk to blank disk images on a FloppyEMU. It uses its own disk format, and the entire disk is one "file."

In the interim, there's still a lot of cleaning to do. I spent much of yesterday afternoon scrubbing nicotine off the Monitor III. The IIe is probably just as bad, and the motherboard is very dusty. Then I have to figure out where all this stuff is going to live. I need to significantly alter my "office," I'm even considering getting rid of the recliner.

Horrors!

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Back In the Swamp

04:59 Saturday, 14 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.9°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 95% Wind: 0mph
Words: 643

We buttoned up the place in the Finger Lakes and headed for Syracuse at 0700 on Thursday. Easy drive, and beautiful, but a bit of a hike. Flights were all on time, some turbulence coming into Jax. There were two Delta flights arriving from JFK on Thursday, and apparently we went to the wrong baggage carrousel. A purple bag, very similar, if not identical, to Mitzi's circled the carrousel three or four times, while Mitzi's never appeared.

By the time it stopped, we were convinced the owner of that purple bag had mistakenly taken Mitzi's. Seconds after I'd called the number on the tag and left a voicemail firmly asserting she'd taken the wrong bag, she appeared to collect her bag. She'd gone to get her car rental first.

D'oh!

There was an air tag in Mitzi's bag and it indicated it was within the margin of error to be "with" us. Went to the baggage claim office to investigate and I spotted Mitzi's bag as she was talking to the agent at the counter, where she learned that our flight's baggage was at that carrousel.

Weird.

Ride home was wet and we got on Philips Highway at rush-hour where there's a well known backup at Racetrack Road, which added at least 15 minutes to the ride home. Doesn't sound like much, but it adds about 30% to the travel time, and most of it is standing still, creeping forward, standing still, creeping forward... I tipped the driver an extra $20 for the aggravation. (He's our regular driver and a good one.)

It'd rained nearly every day we were gone. A lot. Neighbor said there were snakes in the road, including cottonmouths. Many reports of flooding around the area. Not the kind due to rivers overflowing, the kind due to living at sea level and having no place for the water to go when the ground is saturated. Neighborhoods were putting up "No Wake Zone" signs because the streets were flooded but people would drive through them fast enough to leave wakes that would put water into homes and businesses that might otherwise have remained dry. Folks couldn't use their bathrooms because their septic tanks were full.

And the humidity? Oy. It's wet. Florida. The whole idea needs to be seriously reconsidered.

I miss New York so much already.

We were pretty much exhausted when we got home. Mitzi had a full schedule yesterday, getting the yard done (just before it rained again), pitching a new client, and returning some items we couldn't use in New York. I had a number of packages arrive that I needed to unpack and put away someplace, so a pretty busy day that felt a lot more like Monday than Friday. The HOA sent us a nice letter that our grass was overgrown and that there were weeds in our pavers. One of the things about HOAs is it empowers people to be little nazis. They don't send around an employee to inspect for standards. Nope, it's a zealous neighbor who rides around on a golf cart, snapping photos with his phone. And the association encourages that. Gotta maintain those "property values." (Because we're in an over-55 community and we're all going to be dead soon and all we have to leave our kids is our "property values.") People wonder why I never go to the neighborhood socials.

(FWIW, Mitzi hadn't mowed, which she does pretty regularly, because she'd just put down new sod to replace the sod killed by the guy she hired to mow the grass while we were away this summer. Landscapers suck.)

IQ Fiber is supposed to be here this morning, so I anticipate we may be offline temporarily at some point. Hopefully this will go smoothly, but recent experience suggests otherwise.

It's not clear exactly when the rain will stop.

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Apple

09:31 Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.76°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 13.8mph
Words: 349

I watched the "Glow" thing, and I don't know what the "glow" was about. I'm tired of the prerecorded videos. Tired of the repetitive, hyperbolic, self-praising rhetoric. It sounds like a Trump rally, minus the crazy.

I fell asleep during it a couple of times. I'm in the market for a new phone, I'm still on a 13. I don't know if there are any "pro" features that might make me consider getting one of those. I'll probably just get a "regular," "amateur" iPhone 16 with the A18.

I'm not enthusiastic about iPhones anymore. I'm kind of dependent on Apple Maps in CarPlay. I'm embedded in their content ecosystem. I'll get a 16, but I won't be waxing rhapsodic about how great it is.

It's a double-edged sword sort, or an avoidance-avoidance conflict. I don't want to learn a new platform, I don't want to give up all the stuff I already know how to do, but then Apple keeps changing the damn things, just for the sake of change, making it harder to use, and destroying the single greatest value proposition in the platform.

It's like I'm being held hostage and tortured and tormented.

It's a frickin' nightmare.

I hate it.

Maybe that's the role of "Apple Intelligence." To abstract the UI away from the user. Just tell it what you want, and let it figure out how to do it. "Siri, remove this AppleTV from my Florida home."

"Siri, add this TV to my New York home."

"Siri, fix my email so it looks like a damn email client instead of whatever hot mess this is."

"Siri, this stupid camera doesn't permit dashes in passwords, go change all my passwords so I can use this stupid camera."

"Siri, figure out why Photos thinks I have a different number of photos in my library on every device that has Photos."

"Siri, why can't you identify a power line in a photo and automatically delete it. It's a straight frickin' line! And why do you keep changing "frickin'" to "friction"?!

This modern life. It's a trap.

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FLX Sunset 9-10-24

08:51 Wednesday, 11 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.94°F Pressure: 1013hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 166

Show went on until the sun was below the horizon. This was with the little XZ-1, edited in Photos.

Watched the debate last night. Like most people, I think, it seemed to me that Harris dominated the debate. More importantly, Trump appeared old, unhinged and angry. (Also noticed he appeared to be sweating. That glisten above his upper lip.)

I tried to imagine how people who support Trump would view his performance, and I think most of them would be satisfied with it. He validated their grievances, their prejudice, their resentment and I think that's his greatest appeal for them. He's the vessel for their anger. These are not people who are "for" anything, they're just "against" everything.

It's still just remarkably depressing that nearly half the electorate views him as a credible candidate.

But I think Harris and her team have Trump's number and they know how to play him.

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Burdett Sunset

20:03 Tuesday, 10 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 80.26°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 89% Wind: 12.66mph
Words: 415

This is kind of the payoff.

Productive day today, with some frustrations that I was able to overcome.

I got the secret to resetting the Kwikset lock from a lock-picking web site. Kwikset's helpline won't give it to you, but count on the hacker mentality to share valuable information. Our model wasn't listed on the page I found, but the procedure worked anyway. Factory reset achieved, new access code successfully installed.

The Ambient weather station is mounted on the shed instead of the garage. Too much overhang on the garage roof. Two trips to the lumber store for lag screws, first ones were too short. Used a satellite TV antenna mount. Lost one of the lock nuts getting it set up while on the ladder, but one should be adequate until I can get another nut.

Got two Aqara web cams installed and connected to HomeKit. Another exercise in frustration, and I couldn't tell you exactly how I did it, except to say it had little to do with what the instructions actually say. Took probably four times as long as it should have. And it's just another aggravation that one device defines what your whole network password can be. Had to change the password to omit certain characters for the cameras, which meant re-entering it on everything else.

This place has radiant heating in the slab, and an electric boiler of some kind. I read the manual and it's quite intimidating. It was long on installation instructions and short on actual operation. In the end, I just turned it on and hoped for the best. So far, nothing horrible has happened.

When we come up here for a longer stay, I'll try and get someone who installs these things to give me a tutorial on how to ensure it's working properly.

But the weather was gorgeous today, and Mitzi and I spent a couple of hours sitting on the porch just looking at the landscape. She's negotiated lawn mowing service with the seller's parents. A bit pricey, but it's two acres, so maybe it's reasonable.

I hope we can spend several months up here next year, from sometime in May to sometime in September.

Tomorrow's our last day. A few more preparations to complete. We're thinking of coming back up for Thanksgiving, but we've got two more trips coming up and we may be over traveling in November.

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Reminder About Florida Water

07:56 Tuesday, 10 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 79.07°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 26

We give our water away to corporations so they can sell it back to us in little plastic bottles that we have to dispose of somehow.

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Florida: Water

07:47 Tuesday, 10 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 79.07°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 9.22mph
Words: 45

I once heard a St Johns River Water Management District employee say that Florida will never have a water shortage. It's just a question of how much we want to pay for it.

Seems like that question may be more relevant sooner than we think.

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Visitors

06:57 Tuesday, 10 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 78.49°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 87% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 519

Spotted this family in the yard this morning. Just had the iPhone at hand. Neighbor says she sees them often. They were in a field across the road, though the fawn was still over here, apparently. We saw one of the does come from the field and then a fawn running up to her from the yard. Then a few more appeared, all standing in the road.

Then a car came and they all turned and ran. It took them longer than I expected, but they were well clear before the car went by.

In other news, my struggle with technology continues. Yesterday I posted the Milky Way shot with no difficulty using Tinderbox 10.0.1 and Sequoia 15.1. I tried posting this photo earlier, and it didn't seem to appear. Tried again, and watched closely. The script seemed to be running in Photos, went back to Tinderbox and didn't see the post.

Then I noticed it was at the bottom of the outline. Checked the September 2024 container, even though I didn't really need to because new posts had been sorting in reverse chronological order since I'd updated to 10.0.1. I toggled the "Reverse" checkbox on and off and all the posts sorted correctly.

I connected an antenna to the Samsung TV yesterday evening to see if we could receive any local stations. We brought two antennas with us since we don't use them at home. It was more difficult that it needed to be to attached the coaxial cable. The fetish for "thin" places the connector close to the back panel of the TV, parallel with it, so the cable isn't perpendicular to the TV if it's mounted to a wall. This makes it hard to get a grip on the connector, and it was a struggle to get it connected.

After all that, we got 7 digital channels from one non-affiliate station. Great if you like reruns of MASH, The Rifleman, old movies, reality courtroom and other crap.

I figured I'd try the other antenna and see if it fared any better.

Now, how do I rescan for channels?

Damned if I know. When I connected the first antenna, the TV prompted me to scan for channels. When I removed the first antenna and installed the second, it just used the channels it had already programmed into memory.

I tried looking in "settings" or whatever approximates that in this dog's breakfast of a Samsung smart TV UI. I couldn't find a way to rescan anywhere. Tried YouTube. Supposed to look for a "Broadcast" setting. Can't find one. Is there Help built into this thing? Nope. Of course it doesn't come with a manual.

I guess they want everyone to run streaming apps on their platform to gather user data. Make it hard to use an antenna. I refused to create a Samsung account. It's just a dumb monitor, as much as that is possible, for the AppleTV and a DVD player.

This civilization is done. This is why old people are cranky.

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Take Off and Nuke the Entire Site From Orbit

10:27 Monday, 9 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 78.04°F Pressure: 1017hPa Humidity: 91% Wind: 10.36mph
Words: 149

It's the only way to be sure.

More weirdness ensued. TVs appeared and disappeared in Florida and in different Home apps, iOS and MacOS.

Finally, just used Reset in the AppleTV, which paves over all the stored data and restores it to factory settings. Then set it up manually. ("Like an animal.") Everything went relatively smoothly from there, though I don't know how intuitive it is to set up HomeKit from Users instead of the AirPlay and HomeKit settings. But, "Minds greater than our own," and all that.

Now the AppleTV is where it is supposed to be, in New York. I'd be calling Kwikset now but the electrician is here doing some wiring for Mitzi's new range and the motion sensor switch in the utility closet.

I'm still just so over Apple, and technology more broadly. So much aggravation.

I'll probably still watch the iPhone event.

Le sigh...

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Rant (HomeKit)

09:07 Monday, 9 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 76.3°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 0mph
Words: 588

I brought an Apple TV (4K 3rd generation) to act as the HomeKit (or Apple Home?) hub. I originally set it up just to get our streaming services to the new TV in the living room, so I used the iPhone to set it up by NFC.

Well, that assigned it to our Home in Florida, because I hadn't created a new Home for NY.

This morning, I figured I'd get the Home app set up. Frustration and anger ensued.

At first, I figured I'd try to work from the MBP, bigger screen, I can switch around easier to Safari for help and so on.

How to add a new Home from the Mac app? Beats me. Nothing "discoverable" in the UI. Consult Help. No help in help. Because why would there be?

Consult the web, first hit from MacRumors says to use the iOS app in the phone. UI is different from when the article was written, because why not? Let's just keep screwing around with the UI. Gotta keep all those "designers" employed, right?

But I was finally able to find Add new home. Added Burdett.

Selected "Add accessory," figuring I'd add the Apple TV, right? Tried the NFC thing by holding it near the Apple TV. No joy.

After fumbling around and cursing Apple, I found out that this Apple TV was assigned to our Florida house because that's what it got from setup originally.

From Apple TV, in Settings, you can "delete this accessory" (or words to that effect, I'm not sitting in front of the TV.) "I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave. Try from the iOS app."

Went to the phone and I tried there. Sure enough, there were two Apple TVs. Both showed as paused. One had an Apple Music screen, the other was just dark. Went back to the TV and went to Settings, General to get the serial number of the Apple TV. Found the right one. Deleted it.

At least, that's what iOS says.

Still shows that it's in Florida on the Apple TV here. Tried deleting it again here. "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

Rebooted the Apple TV. Went to Airplay and HomeKit settings. TV didn't know where it was, but I got the spinning thing that shows that's thinking about how to screw with you again.

Popped back up in Florida.

Throbbing vein in the temple.

Apple just sucks. It sucks. It sucks. It sucks. Technology sucks. It's all bullshit.

I'm spending time doing this because the Kwikset help number doesn't go live until 10:00 a.m. Eastern time, and I can't reset the entry code on the lock. I was able to do a factory reset. I retrained the lock on which way the door opens. I was able to enter a Program Code (though it's nowhere evident where that's used for anything). Went to enter a new access code, error. Tried again, step by step... error.

Tried to factory reset again.

Error.

Took the batteries out and hit the "program button" to discharge any capacitor or anything.

Put the batteries back in and tried to do a factory reset.

Error.

Argh!!! Tried calling the help line. Monday through Friday only.

Let it set over night. Thought maybe it was timing out or something, maybe it would work after twelve hours of not screwing with it.

Error.

Called help line. "We're closed."

Okay, I'll work on getting HomeKit set up...

Now I just want to open a vein. These fuckers...

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Milky Way

07:09 Monday, 9 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 74.95°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 305

Clear sky last night and I was able to get this despite not knowing a damn thing about what I'm doing. I need to watch some more videos.

One thing I recall about New York but seldom experienced until now, is the low humidity. My skin dries out so fast up here. I don't know if it's because I'm adapted to Florida and it hasn't acclimated itself to the dryer air, or if everyone goes around feeling this way. Chapstick and lotion. It's amazing how slick your hands become when they're that dry. No "stiction" when you're handling small, plastic parts.

Making progress on getting the place set up. Seller's sister and brother-in-law came by with their kids yesterday evening. They're our nextdoor neighbors to the north. She brought brownies and we had a nice chat and got acquainted with each other. They're very nice and made us feel welcome.

Toilet runs, so I opened the tank. Oy! Should've done that at the inspection. Well water is very hard, and scale builds. I'll need to replace the guts soon, but for now a flapper valve should solve the issue. I'll turn the water off before we leave. It's not so much about the "waste," as the periodically running water builds scale on the parts. I don't know if having the water off will cause problems with the gasket between the tank and the bowl, but it seems like it shouldn't. Maybe ChatGPT will know.

Electrician's coming by today to look at wiring for an induction range. I'm going to ask him to put a motion sensor switch in the utility closet. I always forget to turn off the light, and it'd be nice for it to come on automatically.

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Yet Another Test

09:32 Sunday, 8 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 78.96°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 45

Checked to see if there was an update to Sequoia, and I'm on the latest beta of 15.1. Updated Tinderbox to 10.0.1. Let's see what happens...

Clicking Create Link dismisses the dialog and all appears well.

I'll have to wait until tonight to see what

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Test Post

09:24 Sunday, 8 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 78.93°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 6.91mph
Words: 85

Let's see if I can create a link after a reboot. This is the first article I read last night about coyotes, and it kind of captured my experience. (Looks better in "reader mode.")

The crashing issue remains. Will try to update Tinderbox. I've been using the version that I created Captain's Log with, since a subsequent version made some changes to date calculations and essentially broke Captain's Log. Not sure where we're at on that, but maybe it's time to just refactor Captain's Log.

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From Overhead

08:56 Sunday, 8 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 77.99°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 4.61mph
Words: 304

Got a bunch of stuff yesterday, including the SD-card adapter. This was shot Friday night after the movers had gone.

Yesterday, it rained or was cloudy until about noon, when it cleared up nicely. Our trip to Home Depot never materialized, we stopped after Target. Shopping is exhausting. We got a new TV for the living room, the seller left a 32" one mounted on the wall in the bedroom. The one in the living room is for the Apple TV HomeKit hub, a DVD player and a large collection of DVDs that mostly sit in a cabinet back in Florida.

We keep discovering little things we're missing, like a colander and mixing bowls, but it's livable as is.

I slept better last night, but not perfectly. I was wide awake at 0200, so I eventually figured I'd step outside and see if I could photograph the stars. I hadn't configured the camera before I went to bed, and trying to do it in the dark was an exercise in frustration. But I could see a lot of stars, and the Milky Way.

I also heard coyotes howling, and that's a spooky sound. When I came back in, I wasn't sleepy so I did some googling about coyotes. Here's a New York Department of Environmental Conservation page on coyotes.

Okay, have some weirdness with Tinderbox and creating links under Sequoia. Multiple crashes. Crash reports sent. Clicking the Create Link button in the dialog creates the link, (I then saved the file, or I wouldn't have had this one.) but it doesn't dismiss the dialog. It seemed to work in this file, under this version of Sequoia previously. I'm going to post this and reboot the computer.

Life goes on.

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New York

08:02 Saturday, 7 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.15°F Pressure: 1011hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 0mph
Words: 727

Well, I'd planned to post a drone shot of the place in NY, but I forgot to bring an SD-card adapter for the micro-SD card in the mini 2. I thought for sure I put one in the bag. Easy fix, we have a number of things we need to pick up today.

Things went pretty smoothly from the time we left Florida, apart from Mitzi leaving her CPAP machine in the driveway. The airport was pretty quiet, I guess everyone being done with traveling last weekend. Landed in Syracuse after a brief stop at JFK, and there was no line at the rental car counter. Mitzi got the car while I picked up her bag.

From there it was straight to the place for the "final walk-through" her attorney insisted we make. Probably wise, but it was are third time through this 960 square foot place, once with a home inspector. Anyway, you really have to live in a place to discover all its quirks and foibles, as we have begun doing.

The seller's parents live next door. We'd met his dad when we did the inspection, we met mom on Thursday doing the walk-through. Very nice people.

From that it was on Ithaca to spend the night before closing. Mitzi was coordinating the arrival of the trailer with all our stuff and the movers who would unload it for us. She's great at that sort of thing. We had an air-tag in the toolbox in the truck, so we could kind of keep track of where it was. Cell coverage is spotty in places around here, but we knew roughly where it was.

Closing went pretty smoothly. Had some additional docs that needed to be recorded, codifying an easement for the neighbor's driveway. (It's on our property a tiny amount.) And one transferring the mineral (subterranean) rights which weren't part of the original deed.

Then it was off to Wegman's to grab groceries for the week. Wegman's is a pretty fancy, small grocery chain that people are kind of passionate about. We spent a little longer in there than we'd planned because we're unfamiliar with the layout. Olive oil, for instance, isn't among the oils, it's in the "international foods" section. Seriously? Ever heard of California olive oil? We bought store brand, so who knows where it's sourced from. But other than that, it's a pretty cool store.

The movers arrived early but didn't mind waiting around. While we were waiting for the trailer, we noticed a constant parade of classic cars going by the house. Our neighbor mentioned there was an event in Watkins Glen that morning that was going to close much of the town while they paraded the cars through. She didn't mention anything about them driving all the way out here. I worried they'd still be going by when the truck showed up, but I didn't need to.

The trailer arrived pretty close to when promised and the driver had little problem backing it up the driveway; didn't even bat an eye, just did it. The movers got everything off pretty quickly and even put the queen bed back together for us. Mitzi had bought it from Facebook marketplace and the seller took it apart to fit it in the RAV4, and it wasn't perhaps in the most logical order. They got it sorted pretty quickly, we thanked them and they were on their way.

Spent the rest of the afternoon into the evening getting unpacked and set up. Crashed about nine. Slept fitfully, back complaining most of the night. Weird dreams about spiders and frogs. Slept with the windows open and it was nice listening to the crickets chirp. They got pretty quiet when it started raining.

I got the Verizon home internet thing set up and bandwidth is pretty decent. 100mbps down, 10 up. Had some hiccups this morning getting the MBP online. A reboot seems to have resolved all the issues.

Weather was gorgeous yesterday, thankfully. Started raining last night and hasn't stopped yet. The recycling center is only open on Saturdays from 8 until noon, so we're going to pack all the boxes up and run them into town. Then it's on to Target and Home Depot for some things we forgot.

We're here until Wednesday, hopefully the weather will get nicer.

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That Worked

07:14 Wednesday, 4 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 78.28°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 8.05mph
Words: 282

For me, anyway.

What also seems to have worked is the Verizon 5G home internet. We went to a Verizon store yesterday to investigate and hopefully procure one of these devices to use in New York until such time as I can schedule fiber activation. They require two weeks notice to schedule, and we're going to be there tomorrow for a week.

Looks like I'm getting 100mbs down and 10-12mbs up from the box, which isn't far off what I'm getting from Comcast right now. Should be adequate for keeping tabs on the place while we're away.

It was a bit of a bear, getting the box. Because of recent data breaches, I'd frozen all my credit reports. I "unfroze" one while I was in the store, but it's apparently not an instantaneous thing, computers and the speed of light notwithstanding. Because why would it be? Bastards.

Anyway, we went to lunch at a Mediterranean restaurant and came back an hour later, hoping the "soft" credit check could be run, but no. We were the only people in the store, except for one woman who came in for some help putting her case on her phone. The guy who was helping us, Doug, was great. No high-pressure upsell, no fast talk. Very helpful and easy to work with.

He called his manager and he gave him a number to a guy who apparently had the cheat code to enable "God mode." Several minutes on the phone and we were all approved. Brought the box home, plugged it in and a few minutes later I was online.

It's bigger than I expected, but it'll fit in a suitcase. Good to go.

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The Print Shop

06:53 Wednesday, 4 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 78.12°F Pressure: 1018hPa Humidity: 92% Wind: 11.5mph
Words: 218

Just an experiment to see if I can post video. I have a Vimeo account I seldom use, but if this works perhaps that will change.

I received the box o' disks I'd bought from eBay. Very fastidious original owner, printing out the catalogs of each disk and sticking them to the disk sleeves. So I booted one of the generic DOS 3.3 disks to see if the drive in the //c worked. I hadn't wanted to risk the disks in Micro Dynamo. It booted right up.

There are original disks of The Print Shop and The Print Shop Companion. I knew the reverse side of the disk contained a program of some kind, but I thought it was a graphics demo. It's actually a promo for the program. I guess a retailer could have it running in a store. Anyway, it just keeps repeating and at some point I took out my phone and recorded it.

This is being displayed via HDMI, which I was able to improve somewhat by using the TV's "Direct" setting. I think it's still stretched a bit horizontally, but it looks better. Anyway, without further adieu, let's see if this works...

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Florida Man

09:55 Tuesday, 3 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 84.81°F Pressure: 1016hPa Humidity: 80% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 287

Normally a pejorative, this one's a hero. If it's behind a paywall, this is the guy who disclosed Governor DeSantis's plan to reward developers and concessionaires with a huge windfall by defiling Florida's state parks.

“This was going to be a complete bulldozing of all of that habitat,” Gaddis said. He recalls his hand, hovering over a computer mouse, shaking with anger and frustration as he was told to rush his maps from senior leadership. “The secrecy was totally confusing and very frustrating. No state agency should be behaving like this.”

They were trying to jam this thing through in about six weeks! Beginning on July 29th, when he was ordered to develop the maps to the 12th of September, when the whole thing would have been rubber-stamped by a committee of political appointees:

In his leaked memo, Gaddis said his office was to have all documents submitted to a group of appointees who vote on land changes, the Acquisition and Restoration Council, in time for its presumed approval in September. The agenda for the group’s Sept. 12 meeting doesn’t show any state parks issues will be discussed. The agenda also doesn’t mention anything about a secretive land swap, first reported by the Times, that would trade more than 300 acres of state forest land to a Hernando County golf course company. The deal still needs council approval.

The land swap deal is a separate controversy, but related in terms of its bullshit process.

The guy's a single dad to an 11-year-old daughter. He's looking to hire a lawyer to see if his termination is lawful. In the mean time, he'll need some help. His salary was only $49K/yr! He's got a GoFundMe.

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Cloud

07:50 Tuesday, 3 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 75.81°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 93% Wind: 0mph
Words: 335

Caitie came by yesterday for dinner and a movie. We watched the movie first, because she had to leave early. Mitzi tried a new recipe for egg plant parmesan and I liked it! Normally I find egg plant wet and squishy and unappetizing.

When we said goodbye, there was this relatively spectacular cloudscape going on. Long hugs and so on, I wasn't able to get the drone prepped for launch until the show was nearly over. The remnants are posted above.

I thought I'd be more clever and had the bird ready for launch this morning, but it was a nothing event. I experimented with video and learned that there's a lot more I have to figure out.

I sent the mini 2 up to New York, one less thing to schlep when we go up there. But now I think I want to play around with video a bit, and it'll be nice to have it up there. I'll bring some cameras along with me this week to leave up there as well. Lenses are a different question, but I have a few I can leave up there and it's easier to carry lenses alone than body and lenses.

Called to get internet set up in New York and learned they require at least two weeks notice; so we're going to look at Verizon 5G home internet on a month-to-month basis until we can get fiber turned on. 500mbps symmetrical for $60/mo, all-inclusive. Pretty good deal, I think. Just wish I'd thought to call earlier. We need, well, we'd prefer to have internet access now so I can set up HomeKit and have some idea what's going on in the place while we're away. Plus I'll have the Ambient weather station set up, and I want to see what the weather's like. I could use NWS data, but I think it's cool to have my own.

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Here's Looking At You, Kid

10:02 Monday, 2 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 81.43°F Pressure: 1014hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 1.99mph
Words: 780

When I ran the script to post yesterday's photo, I thought something had failed. The post wasn't appearing in Tinderbox.

I keep the current month's archive open in its own tab, so all I see are this month's posts. I hadn't realized we'd turned the calendar and it was September already.

A couple of clicks in the tab bar, and there were two of yesterday's photo posts. Deleted one and carried on. It's nice to see all that automation happening seamlessly and without complaint.

I stepped outside this morning to check on my efforts at weed control on the back patio. (They're failing.) Spotted this guy and decided I needed to try and get a photo before a bird ate it. I thought it was dead at the time.

I grabbed the OM-1 and put the 60mm/f2.8 macro lens on it. I've tried using in-camera focus stacking with the TG-6 before, but I've never been satisfied with the results. It's not the camera's fault, it's the operator's. I've seen great images from the TG-6. But I figured I'd try with the OM-1 this time and see how it does.

I picked some settings out of the ether for number of shots and focus interval and let fly. Some more results are up on Flickr. It's not great macro photography, but it's just such a creepy, cool-ass bug that I had to share.

It wasn't dead, either. Flew off when I tried to get a profile shot from the other side. Kind of startled me.

Walked with the sticks this morning, after a lethargic weekend. 16'43" pace, 492 calories, 135 bpm average HR. Now I'm tired.

To upload images to Flickr, I export them from Photos to a folder on the desktop that the Flickr Uploader app watches. It automatically uploads them and 24 hours later, Hazel comes along and moves the images to the trash. Automations' grand.

Anyway, upload was pretty pokey this morning, but it won't be like that for much longer. We have IQ Fiber coming to the house when we get back from New York, and it'll be "Bye-bye, xfinity!" We'll lose access to local broadcast television, but there are some streaming services that offer it, which would still be saving us money compared to the cable company. I hate Comcast. It's not even a case of "love to hate," I just hate them, hate hating them, and wish I never had to think about them.

Kinda like how I feel about Trump.

Anyway, moving on.

Since all of my Makita tools are sitting up in Elmira, waiting for us to get to Burdett, I had to buy some replacements for here at home. This week is a sales tax holiday for tools, courtesy of the Florida legislature. I don't know what it might score on the equity scale, I tend to think it favors the upper-middle class more than low-income folks, because we can afford the more expensive purchases that yield the largest savings. But savings are savings.

So I went to Home Depot yesterday and splurged. The rules are that you can't spend more than $300 on any tool, or in any single purchase of power tools. I get a 10% veteran's discount with Home Depot and Florida sales tax is around 7% here. Using my NFCU cashback Visa (2% on any purchase at the moment), I could save 19% on a purchase. Pretty good deal.

It meant three trips to the parking lot and back to the store, but I got the drill/driver combo set with the 4 amp-hour batteries, which listed at $294. (A lot of my batteries are in New York too, naturally.) Then back to the store for the circular saw, finally another trip for the jigsaw. By the third trip in, the self-checkout manager was giving me a bit of the stink-eye, but the other people helping thought I was pretty clever. Of course, I did too.

When I got home, I wanted to see if they'd honor the sales tax holiday on the web site. It turns out, they will. Bought another Dremel cordless screwdriver. I got one for New York and I was pretty impressed with it. Like anything, there are people reporting they quit working after a month, but maybe I'll get lucky.

I saved a bunch of money, but I spent a lot too. So you can probably file this under "going broke saving money" too.

Hope you enjoy your Labor Day holiday. Thanks for dropping by.

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Apple II Forever

08:52 Sunday, 1 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 81.97°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 352

The joystick I bought from the auction site arrived yesterday. Works pretty well for being almost 40 years old. I suck at Choplifter, though I used to be pretty good at it, as I recall! I think you have to get as many hostages in the chopper as you can before you head back to headquarters, because the subsequent sorties invite all sorts of other bad guys.

I bought a VGA/HDMI video adapter for the //c, thinking I could use HDMI with my TCL TV. It works, but it doesn't seem to recognize the 4:3 aspect ratio, it stretches everything. I need to play with the TV's video settings and see if I can figure that out. The builder said that some TVs don't recognize the 4:3 aspect ratio of the signal.

I ordered a hardcopy of the Apple //c Technical Reference Manual from Call-A.P.P.L.E. and it arrived yesterday as well. It was only then that I realized this version doesn't have the ROM listings. I had a hardcopy of the //c TRF in my collection, alas. But the Internet Archive has the version I remember.

The Floppy Emu likes to have the files on the micro-SD card in contiguous blocks, and won't load a disk image that isn't contiguous. This involves basically copying everything off of the card and then back onto it. That's today's project, because a bunch of the games I stored on it won't load. Like Fortress, which is an amusing way to pass the time.

I'm still waiting for some software to arrive that'll include a number of 5.25" floppies I can use as scratch disks. I want to test the disk drive before I do anything "serious" with it, like play with Micro Dynamo.

I'm debating whether or not to "retro-bright" the case. It'll have to wait until we get back from New York in any case. That's probably when I'll open the thing up again to install the ROMxc anyway. Maybe I'll just disassemble the whole thing and try and get rid of the yellowing.

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Does Vance Have Mommy Issues?

08:29 Sunday, 1 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 81.3°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 85% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 244

I have to think that J.D. Vance's thinly veiled misogyny is due to his childhood. He's angry at his mother, angry at women who choose not to be mothers, and desperately trying to prove to someone that he's lovable and worthy of being loved. (Presumably he should have had that all sorted when he got married.)

This guy needs a lot of therapy, short of which his marriage isn't going to survive and he's going to be a miserable human being.

I think his personal ambition stems from the same source, to prove that he's "worthy" of being loved. It's this blindness that leads to miscalculations like agreeing to be Trump's running mate, because nobody is ever elevated through their association with Trump, except perhaps in the eyes of people that you wouldn't otherwise wish to associate. Maybe Pence, but no. Not really.

I thought about commenting on Trump's stunt at Arlington National Cemetery, but why bother? He's demonstrated repeatedly there is no norm of decorum that he won't violate for the sake of attention.

He does seem desperate now, and flagging in terms of the level of energy he can bring even to his unhinged rants. He's just an angry old man. I suppose that does make him somewhat dangerous, given his cult following. But he's rapidly becoming a husk, a caricature of himself.

I look forward to a day, hopefully soon, when I won't have to hear his name ever again.

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We Haven't Got a Clue

08:20 Sunday, 1 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 80.55°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 145

Apologies if this is behind a paywall, but I think you can read it. I know this is a "business journal," and they're talking to the CEO of a natural gas company, but it's as if nothing else is going on in the world. She throws the buzzword "resilient" in there, and they're using the word "reliable" as a counter to the threat that fossil fuels presents to the world. But it's just infuriating.

And then there’s distributed energy — all of the different, more modular approaches to natural gas. We’re focusing on how a hospital, for instance, can look at integrating natural gas into its sources of energy more than it does today for greater resilience. How can assisted living facilities evaluate commercial gas heat pumps to see how they might reduce air conditioning costs while adding more reliability?

We're not going to make it.

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Sunday Morning

08:15 Sunday, 1 September 2024
Current Wx: Temp: 80.55°F Pressure: 1015hPa Humidity: 86% Wind: 3.44mph
Words: 22

Has a CBS Sunday Morning kind of vibe.

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