Geek

As part of my never ending quest for personal growth, I have maintained a personal journal for many years. I usually grab a snapshot of how I look for the day and write a paragraph or two of how the day went, where my mood was, that sort of thing. For this activity I’ve relied on Day One, available of Mac and iOS devices, to accomplish this feat. When I first started using Day One there was an option to sync using iCloud; later on they moved to a subscription based plan with encrypted storage on their own servers. I’ve gone with this subscription for the past year or two. I’m not a huge fan of subscription based software but I was pleased enough with Day One so I paid the yearly fee.

Today Day One announced they had been acquired by Automattic, the same company that owns WordPress (the software that powers this blog), Tumblr, and some other things. This acquisition gives me pause. I’ve been becoming less enamored with WordPress as time marches on. What was once a very fairly simple blogging experience has turned into something a little too convoluted for my taste. WordPress has thrown a lot of bells and whistles into the platform and the experience is starting to feel “bloated”. Plus, I’m really sure WordPress would preferred my hosting of the blog on their website instead of using the standalone version that I use today. I don’t want to trust my information to a third party like that. This blog turns 20 years old in August. That’s a lot of data. In fact, I’ve been looking for a different solution for the blog and hope to migrate to a faster, less cumbersome experience by the celebration of the aforementioned anniversary.

I’m a bit concerned WordPress will start to add bloat and unneeded “features” to the Day One app, so without an evidence of changes on the horizon I’ve started looking for a replacement. I’m currently looking at Diarly, which stores information in Apple’s iCloud instead of relying on yet another syncing service. This approach involves putting a lot of faith in iCloud, but if any tech company is worthy of my trust, it’s Apple. So I’m going to give Diarly a try for the next week and see if I enjoy it.

I wish Automattic all the success they seek with the acquisition of Day One. I’m just not sure I’ll be part of that success.

Lauren Tewes was very perky in her credits shot in the third “Love Boat” movie, the first to feature her character, as well as Gavin McLeod playing Captain Stubing.

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.

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.

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.

I was asked to not pull wire through all the walls for the school clock collection, so I took a different approach. I’m a bit obsessed with clock accuracy. I like all of the clocks top show the same time; the microwave, the oven, the wall clocks, everything, have to show the same time all the time. I’ve always been this way. Hence, my interest in these old school clock systems.

I wanted to put one of my clocks in the kitchen but no wires are allowed. The sturdy, all metal construction of these clocks from the first half of the 21st century prohibit the use of the Atomic clock radio controlled clocks that are popular today (the radio signal cannot get through the metal housing). I’m always hesitant to convert these clocks away from their electrical roots, but sometimes you do what you need to do.

This clock now has a battery quartz mechanism that synchronizes to our wifi network several times a day. I had the movement shipped from China and installed it today.

I don’t think it’s going to handle Arizona’s lack of Daylight Saving time very well but I’ll deal with that in November.

I’m pleased with the new hands that came with the movement; I needed to trim them back just a bit for the size of this clocks, but they look like they belong and probably other than my obsession, no one will even notice.

I’ll probably convert a couple more of the clocks I have in the collection. It’s not my ideal approach to maintaining these clocks but I enjoy the aesthetics very much so I’m pleased.

Time keeps marching on.

I have several geeky hobbies. Master-slave school clock systems from the first half of the 20th century. Computers of all sorts, especially older technology. Early point of sales systems. Roads. Washing machines.The list goes on and on.

For many years I thought I was the only one on the planet with this weird combination of hobbies. Ultimately it comes down to at the very least a passing interest in things that are networked, connected, and/or structured. With the advent of the Internet, especially the past 15 years or so, it turns out I am very much not alone with these interests. I find comfort in this.

Over 20 years ago I was contacted by my now good friend Tim in Cheyenne, Wyoming. His home is wired with a school clock system that worked very much like what we had when we lived in Upstate New York. Recently I was contacted by Nathan near Ottawa, Ontario. His interest in early point of sale systems very much mirrors my interest. We’ve since combined forces, so to speak, and are trying to figure out what cash registers Kmart Canada used in their stores up until the chain went out of business. They’re nothing like anything I’d ever seen in a Kmart in the states back in the day. We’ve seen a few hints and pictures but have never been able to find anything definitive. It’s a fun little challenge.

I’m curious about the sharing of these various hobbies with others. We all seem to be men of a certain age, and a certain sexuality. I find this fascinating. I’m curious as to what in our genetic wiring predisposes us in this direction.

As Mr. Spock says, “fascinating”.

PS. If you know what make and model cash register is pictured above, let me know.

Be still my geek heart. As an “Ancient Geek” by today’s standards, I still love me some command line fun. Here’s the current weather forecast displayed in all its Command Line glory. Shout out to wttr.in.

How awesome is it that we can watch the return of a crew from the International Space Station aboard a commercially built, autonomous spacecraft live from an application on our personal computer?

I sometimes forget we live in amazing times. We need to focus on the amazing.