Posts about hardware, software, or the tech industry itself
I received my new MacBook Air on Friday, and finished migrating my configuration to it a few hours later. This 2025 model replaces the 2020 version I’ve been using happily as my primary ‘browsing’ computer. And so far at least I’m happy with the upgrade.
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I’ve got a few ‘plans’ over the next couple of years where having a cargo trailer would be a benefit. I am at the point where I’m pricing out options and starting to read/watch videos on towing.
This video is extremely helpful and very educational…
But I think I’ve figured out a few other things as well about my wants.
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I have been completing a few technology upgrades around the house this year. The latest activity is replacing my aging NetGear Orbi quasi-mesh (3rd node was a low-end TP-Link WiFi hub) with something a bit more capable.
The change-over went very smoothly but produced a few ‘old man’ moments as I considered the hardware itself. Size isn’t everything, but sometimes bigger is… if not better, at least necessary.
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My new Mac Mini arrived earlier this week as I had hoped and has been set up in my somewhat re-organized office. I’ve had a bit of time to play with the new computer and have a few observations to make.
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Irene and I have three Roombas in our house, two of which are in working order. I spend a fair bit of time and money maintaining these bots, but maintenance on these machines is generally a rather satisfying process for reasons I’ll get into.
This was true until very recently, when our s9+ started throwing ‘uneven surface’ errors and stopping mid-clean pretty much every time it ran. If you have ever owned a robotic vacuum, you probably know that a big reason for having these machines is to magically and automatically keep the floor tidy. Failing on nearly every clean is not a happy situation.
This post is about the problems I had with our s9+, the great service I ultimately got from iRobot support, and some suggestions for the future
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Back in 2013 I began paying attention to my health metrics a bit when I started wearing a Fitbit Flex. I found I enjoyed ‘keeping track’ of basic data and I upgraded that to a Fitbit Charge HR in 2015 to add my heart rate to what I was collecting. None of this particularly encouraged me to ‘improve’ my health, but at least I was able to keep an eye on some basics. Along the way I started looking at the Apple Watch, but the Fitbit was working well enough for my purpose so I held off.
I started to notice some hiccups with my Charge HR this year: the battery wasn’t holding its charge very well, and there were some cracks appearing in the display. Nothing serious- it was still working fine. But I decided I’d take this as an opportunity to upgrade to the ‘next’ version of the Apple Watch. Apple shipped the Apple Watch 7 on October 15, and I got mine delivered on October 22. Now I’m drowning in data: my first impressions follow.
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I have a lot of computer equipment: some of it is even useful. My network gear has grown in sophistication over the years, but has never been housed particularly well.
That has changed: say hello to my new infrastructure rack (image above).
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I have been uncomfortable in my office chair for a year or so. It was a perfectly nice ‘executive style’ chair, but not long after the warranty ran out a couple of years ago it started to ‘list’ to one side by about 10 degrees. This abnormal sitting position was accompanied by a ‘rocking’ from side to side: I looked at the mechanism, and found that a bearing hole in a metal plate that was supposed to be round had become oblong due to wear.
So I started looking around for a replacement. After some trepidation, I decided to opt for a ‘gaming’ chair: yes, I’m a gamer, but I’m not a tech-bro “Gamer”, so choosing one of the iconic clique-indicators of this tribe for my home seemed a bit wrong. Specifically I started looking at the products made by Secretlab, and specifically their Titan model.
I have had an interesting year or so for me in terms of health. Strange pains and fear of tumours culminating in discovery of damage from a couple ’silent strokes’, tiredness and increased depression leading to a finding of extremely low testosterone: aging sucks.
My testosterone treatments have been helping a lot with my low energy, but when my doctor asked I had to admit to still feeling exhausted most days. This led to a sleep apnea test, and discovery that I have a rather severe problem with, well, breathing rather poorly while I sleep.
Bane: he has some breathing problems too
Many years ago, in my late 20s, I briefly had the habit of carrying a pocket knife. It wasn’t a very good knife to be honest: I’m not sure where I got it from. But I liked having it- it was handy, particularly given the fact that I was living a somewhat ‘rural’ life at the time. But I got out of the habit, and misplaced the knife.
Several instances recently convinced me that it would be good to start carrying a pocket knife again. This time, though, I did some research. I probably bought more knife than I really need: say hello to the DPx HEAT/F Titanium.
