J.P.

Brave.

The vast majority of users of the software we write for work use a Windows computer. Our applications are all web based; the “casual” users tend to use Google Chrome as their web browser, the more technically minded users tend to use something else, mostly Firefox but once in a while we’ll get hit by a one-off like Opera or Microsoft Edge.

Microsoft recently announced the impending end of support for Internet Explorer 11. Our applications haven’t worked on IE 11 in years, it’s just too weird of a browser, but we’ll occasionally get hit by a user that has IE set as their default. They’ll see weird results from our applications if they see the application at all. We usually steer them towards Google Chrome.

Microsoft is going to redirect their IE 11 users to Microsoft Edge, their web browser that is based on the same code base as Google Chrome. For the most part, if it works in Google Chrome, it works on Microsoft Edge.

I develop software on a Mac. Apple wants me to use the built in Safari web browser. While this is a very nice experience, it does not replicate what the typical user experiences. I have Firefox on my work Mac to make sure things I write work well in that arena, but I was hesitant to install Google Chrome on my Mac.

A quick aside, I did install Microsoft Edge but did not perform as well as I had hoped it would.

Enter Brave.

Brave uses the same codebase as Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge to render web pages, so if it works on Chrome, it works on Brave. But the better thing is, Brave is focused on privacy. It has an Ad-blocker built in. It let’s you select your search engine of choose at installation (rather than digging through preferences panes). I always opt to use DuckDuckGo.

So far Brave has performed as expected and then some for my web development and surfing needs at work. If you want something that behaves like Google Chrome but better, I recommend checking out Brave.

25 May 2021 by J.P. Geek 2

Industrial Artistry.

I liked the way the sunset, powerlines, and trees came together for this shot. Taken on Irvington Rd. on the east side of Tucson.

24 May 2021 by J.P. Desert Life. 0

20.

Twenty years ago today was the final episode of “Star Trek: Voyager”, the episode “Endgame”.

Captain Janeway has always been my favorite captain in the entire Star Trek experience. “Endgame”, while seemingly cut short at the very end, is probably one of my favorite final episodes of any of the series.

23 May 2021 by J.P. Geek 0

Caturday.

Someone has become very comfortable in our new home. I can’t believe it’s been two months since we moved to Tucson! Truman feels just as comfortable on an end table as he does walking along the ridge that flanks the staircase.

22 May 2021 by J.P. He's A Feline. 0

21.

9:21 PM

It is the 21st minute

of the 21st hour

of the 21st day

in the 21st week

of the 21st year

of the 21st century

21 May 2021 by J.P. Fun and Games Dept 0

Continuance.

The saga with my newest HomePod Mini continues. After spending over an hour on the phone with Apple Support, and resetting every device within nearly a half mile of my home office, my HomePod Mini still will not complete its setup.

The Apple support technician promised someone from the next tier up would give me a call, but they missed their appointment time and I am having a hard time regaining interest in the endeavor.

There are many things that Apple does well. I maintain that Apple devices are still the safest and most reliable computing devices available to the average consumer. Unfortunately their prices are above average but what’s even more disappointing is there’s too many things that Apple has let slide to the wayside. Home Automation, or “HomeKit” is one of them.

When my HomePod Mini is stuck on “Configuring…” for hours, after taking nearly a dozen attempts to get the thing connected at all, and the HomePod team can’t figure out the problem, the world’s largest technology company needs to step back and take a look at what the heck their doing.

Luckily, we mostly rely on Alexa for home automation. I’m not super comfortable with this scenario, but at this point I want something that works. And while Alexa may be snooping on us, at least she’s doing it with much more reliability.

Anyone want to buy a HomePod Mini?

20 May 2021 by J.P. Apple. 0

Technology.

I admired this refrigerator at Home Depot. The refrigerator at home is probably the weakest link in our otherwise very well appointed kitchen; being the geek I am I would really love to see our kitchen have a state of the art refrigerator with a touchscreen.

The rest of the family is not on board, especially with the extra expense.

What’s the purpose of having a touchscreen in the kitchen? Well, with all of the automated gadgetry we have spread throughout our new home, having a centralized location to control all this stuff, without having to scream at the nearest Alexa or Siri device, or whip out our phone, would be nice. In every incarnation I’ve seen of “fully automated homes of the future”, touchscreens are everywhere. Touchscreens are a natural way to interact with various devices of technology, and with all the open space on a refrigerator door, this location makes sense.

The family is not buying it.

The touchscreen in question is basically a large Android touchpad. I don’t know a lot about it, though I’m planning on doing more research on how well it works, how it operates, and the added cost to the device.

We might end up with touchscreen mirrors instead.

The family is still not buying the idea of a touchscreen in the refrigerator. Yet.

19 May 2021 by J.P. Geek 0

Words.

I strive to choose my words carefully. I occasionally choose the wrong words when conveying thoughts; usually for emotional impact or as a result of personal heightened emotion. When using words with a sting, my voice is louder and higher in pitch, even when I’m sharing them via keyboard online.

I’m focused on using better words to help bring down the temperature of dialog. Everywhere. Online, in conversation, it doesn’t matter.

One of the things I most admired about my father was his capacity to keep calm and his discipline around language. I heard my Dad swear. Once. Maybe he just minded his language better around his children. I rarely heard him say something negative about someone. If he did, it was out of frustration.

Dr. Maya Angelou is on absolutely on target; words are “things”. Once we realize this, we understand what we’re putting out into the Universe through communication and language.

18 May 2021 by J.P. Spiritual Stuff. 0

80s Vibe.

I think I’ve mentioned before how much I enjoy the music of Anders Enger Jensen. As I type this blog entry (in between coding projects at work), I’m listening to the track “Thinking Of You” from his album “Retro Grooves Vol. 3”.

The entire album is magic. Here’s a link to the album on Bandcamp. It’s also available on Apple Music and the like.

17 May 2021 by J.P. Music. 0

Self Serve.

I decided we should probably check out the Wal*mart that’s just around the corner from our new home. From the outside it looks like a fairly new location. It’s not overly huge as it has only set of doors instead of two like found on the former “Supercenters”.

I’m not a huge fan of Wal*mart in general, but I am a fan of their use of technology. Anecdotes from employees indicate you can go an entire work shift at the store without ever talking to your supervisor or even another employee. The registers have been expanded to provide guidance on all aspects of the employment experience at Wal*mart and they are supplemented by apps on smartphones and the like. Plus, I’m pretty sure the chain runs on Linux.

Back to our local store. As expected, customer mask use is not as prevalent as seen in other stores in the Tucson area. I was not surprised by this and honestly I’m thankful to be fully vaccinated. The store is rather crowded and the selection of clothing in the Men’s Department was limited. Maybe I’m just the standard size of man in the Tucson population. I was able to find a couple of t-shirts for a decent price and my husband selected a couple of tank tops. We went to the front of the store to head through the checkouts.

This Wal*mart has a total of four checkout lanes. Four. The old Ames store in my hometown in Upstate New York had four registers for the first year of its existence when they realized the shopping population of the village of 2500 or so overwhelmed the number of registers in the store, so they added several more on the ends of the existing checkstands.

Zero of the four registers at this Wal*mart were populated by a store employee. All customers had to checkout through a self-checkout area, which was this large corral of self-service cash register being managed by two employees. Because this full service Wal*mart has groceries in addition to typical discount department store fare, there were carts everywhere, people using motorized buggies trying to navigate through this corral of relatively tightly packed shoppers trying to get through the self checkout process.

I am thankful for my vaccinated state.

Now, I’m torn when it comes to self-serve checkouts. On one hand, I like not having to interact with a cashier and being able to do things myself. On the other hand, I’m not paid by the corporation to do the work, I don’t see a drop in prices or an applied discount for doing the work myself, and I really don’t like the idea of taking a job away from someone trying to make ends meet by working at Wal*mart. I’m fine with self-serve checkouts when there’s a choice. It seems that Wal*mart is taking away the choice. I’m not a fan of that.

Overall I’m pleased that we experienced the Wal*mart closest to our home but I don’t feel the need to go back there again. If we’re in the mood for a Wal*mart experience there’s a Wal*mart Neighborhood Market down the way where we can buy snack food or something.

16 May 2021 by J.P. Tucson Why. 0

Brave.

Industrial Artistry.

20.

Caturday.

21.

Continuance.

Technology.

Words.

80s Vibe.

Self Serve.

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