Summary for May, 2023

Huge progress this evening on my universal remote project. I now am able to use a TiVo Slide Pro remote over RF, interpret every single button press, and dispatch the actions automatically to different devices on my network based upon context and state. I can’t try it out fully yet, because I’m at my desert property, but theoretically it should work! I even have the ability to handle “long press” events for things like volume.

Loving my Kobo Libra 2, especially that it runs Linux. I now have SSH enabled, have some custom menu items using NickelMenu, and built my own integration to automatically send ePubs to the Kobo from Calibre Web via email.

I continue to pine for a native app that brings together all of my social/feeds into one place. Like https://alltogethernow.io, but native on macOS and iOS, and with support for the Fediverse, BlueSky, and Micro.blog.

For many, the Twitter experience *was* Tweetbot, Twitterific, or whatever app they loved. No surprise that many Tweetbot users fled to Mastodon when Ivory came out. I think there’s a big opportunity for an app maker to own “open social.”

“How to foolishly enable a sociopath in spite of knowing full well that they’re a sociopath,” by Amy Chozick of the NYT.

I’m not even through the first episode of Silo, and I’m absolutely over the moon. Adapting a great book, especially a great spec fic book, is damn near impossible. This is remarkable. Absolutely remarkable.

Oh no not Heather 😢 Dooce was a breakthrough for personal blogging, and I felt like I knew her. Rest in peace.

I am in Las Vegas with the family for my daughter’s cheer competition. I hate Vegas, but there are ways to make it work. Notably, eat some great food and see a show or two. Had a great dinner last night and saw the Beatles Cirque show tonight.

Miami crushing it in the portal this off-season has me lying to myself again. Off-season champs once again, baby!

Well, the big cheer performance by my daughter’s team went flawlessly. Zero deductions and a fabulous performance. I’ll tolerate Vegas for a smiling daughter!

The new Zelda is decently playable on the Steam Deck. Quite impressive! Curious to compare to playing on our OLED Switch. I prefer playing this series emulated, honestly. I apply some light modding to make it more enjoyable 🤪

I know its annoying to see my test posts, but it looks like I have rudimentary cross-posting from my website to Bluesky working. Only for simple posts at the moment, but I already have embedding working for long-form posts, and hopefully I can add photos as I learn the protocol. Progress!

For what its worth, I am pretty sure I also got things working with my Micropub endpoint, which makes life a heck of a lot easier for future projects with the AT protocol. Looking forward to being a better citizen of the new social web. I am still navigating the complexities of embedding content vs. linking to it, etc., but I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Now I have to decide if I want to catch up on TV or play Tears of the Kingdom. I could just stop sleeping for the next few months… I mean, someone needs to torture the Koroks!

Taskmaster is the gift that keeps on giving. Such a great show, consistently creative and absolutely hilarious.

Passed out on the couch playing TotK last night, AMA.

I returned from Vegas on Monday night, and I am still feeling it. The dry air and pervasive second hand smoke always do a number on me.

Woot, I have image posts syndicating from my website to Bluesky! Still lots to learn, but happy with the progress. I need to add one or two more minor things, and then the big remaining piece will be sending interactions back to my site.

A cultural difference I am noticing between Bluesky and Mastodon is that Bluesky is a place that people come to be outraged by current events, to make fun of “the other side,” etc. This definitely makes it a better *replacement* for Twitter, but it doesn’t really make it better *than* Twitter.

So far I’ve been very pleased with the adaptation of Silo on Apple TV+. There are certainly deviations from the source material, but they’re adding background and character depth.

If Apple uses the term “metaverse” unironically at WWDC, I’ll eat my hat.

Doing a three hour braise on five pounds of short rib tonight in preparation for dinner tomorrow. Letting the ribs rest overnight is going to make them so so good!

Again feeling the desire to build a new open source social website platform that natively supports feeds, ActivityPub, ATProto, with an integrated reader and mobile client. Oh yeah, I don’t have any time for that and there isn’t a market for it 🤓

My entire house is currently blanketed in the aroma of braised meat. 🤤

Finding a half-eaten Eggo waffle and syrup in your bathtub is the definition of #parenting.

TotK observations of the day: (1) Ultrahand? Hell yes! Build ALL THE THINGS. (2) I want to attach Addison the incompetent sign man to a Korok and a jet pack and launch him into an active blood moon.

In 2023 so far, I’ve sent 1.55 MWh back to the grid from my home in Palm Desert. We have a Rivian R1S on order to replace my wife’s car in early 2024. I just handed in my beloved Alfa and am going without a car for a while.

I do want to get another car later this year, but have been waiting for an EV that suits me. If I had to buy today, I would probably get an Audi e-Tron GT. I so wish Alfa Romeo had an electric Giulia!

Yeah, that short rib turned out to be absolutely wonderful. Loosely based on this recipe: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/red-wine-braised-short-ribs Leftovers will be shredded and added to home made pappardelle pasta, along with a little of the sauce and a touch of cream and parmesan.

I need to take a break from TotK, it’s absolutely *vast* and has a way of grabbing my attention and sapping it for hours. Absolutely adore the game, but it’s time to establish a time quota 😁

The new Dungeons & Dragons movie is better than the last five Marvel movies. Fun, great storyline, strong cast, and a great tribute to the source material. Recommended!

I am only okay allowing this to be the last season of #Barry if we get four seasons of NoHo Hank vs. The Raven out of it.

Received a preview of the new Miami collection from Homefield Apparel that is dropping on Friday... bye bye all my money.

Tina Turner passed away today, which is sad. A bit of social media platform data - I saw a single post about it on Mastodon, and many posts about it on BlueSky. This continues to reinforce how I think of these platforms.

After a short and pleasant drive, we are back in the desert through the weekend. My happy place! Weather is perfect, and the pool is nice and warm. 🤗🌵

If I could only go to one #F1 GP, it’d be Monaco. I’m not sure it’d be great to watch the race live, but the environment would be electric. Crossing my fingers for Charles this weekend. I don’t think he has the car, but at some point he’s going to put it all together and win his home race.

I think I am perhaps the only person in the world that wants an Amazon CodeWhisperer plugin for vim. Putting positive vibes into the universe. #AWS #AI

Wild qualifying session in Monaco! My boys in red had what looked like a reasonable quali until Charles got a penalty. Extremely hard to win from P6, but a podium is possible with some luck. Carlos has been quick all weekend, and has a shot. #F1 #Spoilers

Took my daughter to see Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 today. I really enjoyed it, though there were parts that were really challenging to watch as an animal lover. Emotional.

Finally catching up on The Dresden Files thanks to my new Kobo e-reader. Man, I’ve missed Harry Dresden. Not the best in the series so far, but “Peace Talks” feels like home. Jim Butcher is such a gifted guy.

Oh, and yes, I’m reading at 1 AM, in the pool, listening to Pink Martini, and sipping on a bourbon. Life is good.

Meet the new Ferrari, same as the old Ferrari. Sigh. #F1

It sure seems like Bluesky is determined to willfully ignore the lessons of every other social media platform when it comes to moderation, and just re-learn them slowly and painfully. The shine has totally come off of Bluesky.

The #Barry finale was a bit underwhelming.

People were saying that the Heat were doomed because they only won 57% of their games up to the beginning of the East Finals. You do know that 57% of 7 games is 4, right? This team is hot and cold, but they know how to do just enough to win a series. It’s been fun to watch. #NBA

I grew up in Miami watching the Heat, so I’m happy. But, the Celtics are a customer of mine, and are a remarkable organization. Working with their CTO to leverage AWS to win games with analytics is awesome. They’re amazing and I would have been happy for them to win too. #NBA

The Ted Lasso finale will be easy to criticize. It was predictable, cheesy, and packed with fan service. None of that matters. It was also true to itself in every way, without shame. I adored every minute. I’ll miss AFC Richmond and its entire cast of characters. What a show. ❤️

My universal remote project continues to improve. Thx to the devs of PyATV I'm now able to use the keyboard on my TiVo Slide remote with my Apple TV. I've also added support for macros and RF/IR control of devices without network connectivity. Take that, Harmony Remotes!

In other news, I am getting a super low cost upgrade to 2G symmetrical fiber for my home internet. When you have to buy a new switch and upgrade other LAN equipment to take advantage of your internet bandwidth, life is goooood.

Well so much for the 2G internet excitement. It turns out that my top of the line Eero Pro 6E only has a single 2.5 GbE port. So, I can connect it to the upstream at full speed, but everything wired downstream will be limited to 1 GbE speeds. Lame.