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.
✍️ Reply by emailFLX 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.
✍️ Reply by emailBurdett 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.
✍️ Reply by emailReminder 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.
✍️ Reply by emailFlorida: 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.
✍️ Reply by emailVisitors
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.
✍️ Reply by emailTake 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...
✍️ Reply by emailRant (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...
✍️ Reply by emailMilky 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.
✍️ Reply by emailYet 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
✍️ Reply by emailTest 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.
✍️ Reply by emailFrom 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.
✍️ Reply by emailNew 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.
✍️ Reply by emailThat 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.
✍️ Reply by emailThe 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...
✍️ Reply by emailFlorida 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.
✍️ Reply by emailCloud
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.
✍️ Reply by emailHere'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.
✍️ Reply by emailApple 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.
✍️ Reply by emailDoes 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.
✍️ Reply by emailWe 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.
✍️ Reply by emailSunday 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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