I love exploring the backroads of the county. I took a little trek across the desert after work today and it was lovely.
J.P.
Absent.
Senator Kyrsten Sinema did not show for today’s Senate vote on the creation of a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 Insurrection at the Capitol Building. Earlier this week, she spoke about the importance of this commission but apparently she did not find it important enough to warrant her vote. She didn’t even show up for work today.
I’m new to Arizona politics, and of course I understand the wild west is much different than the solidly blue stomping grounds I used to inhabit. I’m good with that. I’m good with learning, understanding, and growing as an American.
I’m not good with supporting a Senator that is a no show. I’m not good with with supporting someone who chooses to not do their job. I’m not good with supporting a coward.
I tried contacting Senator Sinema’s office but my call would not go through. I ended up writing an email instead.
I hope the Arizona Democratic Party has a better option when Senator Sinema’s term comes to an end. Her theatrics and complete disregard for doing her job are really not worthy of my vote.
More information at azcentral.com (sorry for the paywall).
Monsoon.
I love the weather here in the Sonoran Desert. We have an abundance of sunshine, I have absolutely no breathing issues from stuffy air, and I find the warm wind, especially in the evening, particularly enjoyable. Granted, I’m not one for being in the sun, but I find my way to enjoy the outdoors and the sunshine safely and without sunburn at the end of the day.
A few folks have spoke about the upcoming monsoon season, and how spectacularly beautiful it is here in Tucson. I’m looking forward to experiencing this. In the meanwhile, he’s a video I found on YouTube, showing the Arizona Monsoon of 2019, in 4K HDR.
Enjoy.
I’m always saying how awesome and beautiful Mother Nature can be. Her mood here in the desert is much different than what I’ve experience all my life up north. I still find her moods completely spectacular.
“Searching for sanity…”
This is a rather long read but I found it very interesting and worth sharing. This is an essay addressing the increasing insanity in the world. It’s relatable and enlightening.
Friday essay: Searching for sanity in a world hell bent on destruction
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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?
