2019s
I am really into For All Mankind.
Unearthed and powered up a Raspberry Pi 3. Took a bit of time to remember how I configured it for HomeBridge. Upgrading to Debian Stretch for the heck of it.
Cut down this years’ California fuchsias yesterday to encourage & release a new year of growth.
I’m pleased that MacOS 10.15’s Photos app reconstructs Live Photos from exported .heic and .mov pairs that I uploaded to my NAS via PhotoSync. 📱👍
I love Shortcuts. There goes a tedious repetitive task to oblivion!!📱
Side mirror view: tumbleweed on a front bumper.
Dancy Mandarins are so very close to perfect ripeness. Need to blush a bit more toward red.
A very good Mantis.
Never fails. This infernal badged Sys Prefs issue is so far the most annoying MacOS Catalina issue I’ve had. What services need iCloud to be logged back in? Why does MacOS forget so easily?
My favorite around-the-home power tool. Okay, besides my electric drill/driver.
An indoor aloe succulent growing a flower stalk.
A colorful sunrise and a fresh coat of snow on Snow Mountain, NorCal. I love my iPhone 11 Pro. No way my previous could have exposed these well enough for posting.
Color Stages of Caramel
I use Alton Brown’s dark caramel recipe with some minor modifications to suit taste. First, the mixture always gets to 230°F a few minutes faster than expected and it takes 10 minutes instead of 6 or 7 to get to 300°F. Then, I heat to 340°F instead of 350°F because that’s too burnt for friends. I combine the broken up butter with the cream in a Pyrex measure cup so all of that goes in at once – making it less stressful with one less step. Finally, for a softer caramel, I pour it out at 245°F. YMMV 😁🍴
Front yarden update: California Buckwheat’s dead flowers are showy red and the Blue Oak has decided it is winter. California fuchsias still have flowers for the hummingbirds. Front of the house illuminated by mostly bug friendly amber lights. 🐞🐝
To HomePod: “How’s the timer?” HomePod: “The timer is cancelled.” 🙀🤷♂️📱
The [iRobot Braava m6 has a threshold problem](https://homesupport.irobot.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/21012/kw/Threshold) and it is a bit frustrating but workable. In my case it can easily go from laminate (higher) to linoleum but not the other way. It’d perhaps take just a quick rev of the wheels to hop back over up to laminate.
Dear iPadOS notes: I’d love a default where a new single Notes window launches when I tap your springboard icon instead of the last split screen I used with 1Writer.
Nest Cam vs HomeKit Secure Video
There’s been some frustration with the current state of HomeKit Secure Video, but coming from a very pricey Nest Cam IQ Outdoor that basically is useless without another subscription (cancelled when they removed camera features), HomeKit Secure Video is a revelation. I’m using a Logitech Circle 2 with HomeKit Secure Video and its non-delayed, non-lagged, over the LAN, live video starts… every… single… time. Compare this behavior with always having to toggle the Nest Cam IQ Outdoor Cam off and on to get past the blue spinning wheel and get a several second delayed live video. So HomeKit Secure Video’s direct over the LAN live video coupled with video clips as a value add with an iCloud storage subscription, HomeKit Secure Video is great. But yes, be careful about those notifications and the sensitivity of people/animal/car detection. I’ve had people detected across the street, which frankly, is more impressive than annoying. And yes, you can only get one live stream at a time with the Circle 2. That’s workable.
Test from MarsEdit - does RichText convert to MarkDown? Does it bold? Who needs Italians when they steal arctic circle candy? Is underlining for chumps that know nothing of hyperlinks? All these answers and more… to come.
Sometimes my Sonos goes out of sync with the HomePod. The HomePod appears to then go through a process to resynchronize — maybe 75% successful. They’re within earshot of each other so makes since a HomePod might do some fancy sync.