whatever grabs my attention
TL;DR: The Lutron Claro (or Diva if you want dimming) Smart Switch is the best HomeKit compatible wall switch there is, period. I’ve been playing with smart home devices since x10 came out in the 1990s. And every house I’ve had since 2005 has had a few smart switches hard-wired into my walls. I’ve tried …
Continue reading “The one good HomeKit-capable wall switch you should get”
Piggy backing on my last post here, as I was trying to get my weird android tablet with a huge plastic bezel and odd mounts to look better in the Rivian, I thought about how much smoother and better my experience would be if it was a real iPad mini instead of a shady Android …
Continue reading “Apple should sell the iPad mini as a wireless CarPlay monitor”
I am a fan of Apple’s CarPlay. I think it can make driving safer while keeping you informed of new calls and texts, and entertained with podcasts and music, all without having to take your eyes off the road or ever feel the need to pick up your phone while driving. It’s pretty good software, …
A couple years ago, I started seeing ads for “cell phone booster” antennas for cars and trucks around the off-roading/4×4 world as a way to stay connected while out in the middle of nowhere, but I was deeply skeptical. How much better could your phone signal be after paying a few hundred bucks for a …
Continue reading “Surprisingly good tech: The weBoost Drive Reach cell signal booster”
All the best photos from the Artemis I unmanned mission around the moon are in an album on Flickr here.
I spent close to seven years in a marketing department on a content team as I wrote blog posts, ebooks, tweets, podcast episodes, magazine pieces, and slide decks among other things. Based on all that experience, I wanted to share some lessons I learned from my time there, and this is the first: Try not …
Continue reading “How to be a writer on a marketing team without sounding like a jerk”
Last week, I wrote a gentle intro to Mastodon for the Zapier* blog. I aimed it at regular people that hadn’t yet delved into everything it takes to leave Twitter for the federated network, offering tips on how it works and how to get started using it. After writing the piece, I realized it could …
Continue reading “Every Mastodon iOS app scratches an itch: a brief tour of various clients”
I am pretty sure I first found out about these little reusable wire tie things from an interview at Cool Tools where someone mentioned how much they loved them. I bought a set solely based on the strength of recommendations made on that site. Once I got them, I started using them. And using them. …
Continue reading “The best stocking stuffer is these little wire ties”
The best lesson I ever learned was interviewing for my first job after grad school at a place where I heard from former students employed there that they had problems with life/work balance so I asked about the expected hours of working and the CEO guy’s face turned red and he started yelling at me. …
Since my house is all-in on Apple’s HomeKit for controlling lights and cameras and devices, I got the latest and greatest new AppleTV so I could add support for Thread, a new home automation communication protocol. Upgrading to a newer AppleTVs is getting easier, but still has major hiccups. Like Jason Snell found at Six …
A Whole Lotta Nothing 