Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

Well now that we seem to be getting back to traveling again. Calvin asked what’s a good set of carry on luggage to get. Well I’ve had lots of carry ins over the years and here are some observations: You get what you pay for. Yes you can get $50 luggage but most likely it…

OK, so one of the great things about Android is how many attachments there are via the USB C port. There are not a lot of real choices here the two big ones are FLIR and Seek according to Digital Camera World and Industrial Reviews as well as TEquipment on Youtube Seek Thermal CompactPRO. This…

Well we use Silicon Valley Bank for most of our company banking. It’s a habit because they’ve been so good to us over the years. But, their business account system is pretty hard to navigate. The user interface is deep and there are menus after menus, so here are some notes on some common things…

For a long time, I’ve kept all my tools in various horrible places and they are stacked everywhere. I’ve always wanted a real pro tool cabinet where everything can be in one place. These things are super heavy if they are good, so it’s a good idea to get them locally and find a car…

Man it’s just about impossible to figure out what syncs with what and it is always changing what works with what, but the basic problem is that I have no less than six different main places where I’m tracking my workouts and it is so confusing which are and the syncing sort of works, but…

Wow, I can’t believe Universal Control actually works and it is remarkable. First of all the setup is pretty complicated. Here is what you need to do to get this to work: Update iPadOS 15.4 and MacOS 12.4. This means go to System Preferences in MacOS and choose update and Settings/About for iPadOS. Then you…

Back two years ago, I was trying to use hashdeep to make sure that my files particularly JPEGs were not bit rotting. I’ve had dozens of JPEGs die in the past because of bit rot. I had a bad RAID controller 10 years ago that killed a bunch of JPEGs, so I’ve been obsessed with…

Well this was some work, but we have the 1.2Gbe/35Mbps and I wanted to figure out a way to do this with my existing hardware, it turns out with some tricks to getting this to work right, but if you want to do something similar here are key tricks. I could have also gotten a…

Ok some truly miscellaneous things on our Amazon shopping list: Shop vac replacement cartridge filter and bags We have shop vac 6 gallon vacuum and it works great, but the filter is completely shot because we used it to vacuum 10 pounds of baking soda that was soaking up mineral oil (a long story!), so…

Ok, so we’ve been using Apple Home and the underlying Homekit for the last two years. Given the privacy benefits, we ended up turning off Amazon Alexa, Ring and Google Home as well. The main issue is that there only a limited number of manufacturers who support Homekit natively. So for instance Eufy does a…

It does seem like so many applications want access to the Accessibility settings of MacOS. In looking at my own login, I see no less than 12 applications that want access to it. Why and what does it mean and should I be concerned? Well, the core of it is that it is not really…

Well, Steve asked me what’s the best way to document your bike tour. He and Deb are going on an awesome ride across America to raise awareness for stroke. So what are the tools you need for the road: Helmet and Bicycle Cameras There are quite a few action cameras with bicycle mounts that you…

OK, well there is always a bridge too far. In this case, I go the Keychron K6 hot-swappable which is a really nice Bluetooth keyboard that costs just $85 from Amazon but the next step is to actually take the thing apart and stick foam and tape into it. Long story short, it turns out…

OK, this post is long involved and very specific, but a few things, with Comcast really dropping the year long contract price of the 1.2Gbps to $90/month plus $30/month for unlimited data, that’s quite an incredible deal, when you realize this is just $5 more than the 900Mbps and $10 more than 600Mbps. So in…

Well, it’s that time of year again, so after the 2020 list of really great olive oils that are also available on this Amazon list, its time in 2021 and we’ve settle on some favorites, but its a good time to read Best Olive Oils from the NY Competition to see what’s wonder (gold medals galore) and available generally (eg Amazon) so…

OK, this took a while to figure out. But, I’ve had a Rega P3 turntable that is plugged into a Rega Phono Mini that suddenly stopped working. It was strange the LED looked on but no sound came out. Finally, the hint for debugging is that a phono preamp amplifies the low signal generated by…

OK, time for my annual, I really don’t like Comcast. They just love to raise prices without much notification and then you always have to go back and sign up for a new annual plan. So today, the issues are that I was on a $80/month plan for 400Mbps (and a lowly 10Mbps up but…

Well, this replication stuff sure does work, so now from a Synology, here is a backup strategy that is pretty good for me: Synology Redundancy and UPS Well, this isn’t really back up, but to increase the reliability of any disks, you really want them RAID protected. That is when you write to the disk…

OK, one maddening thing that happened is one of my MacBooks has a tiny, as in 256GB hard drive. This is just too small for most uses particularly if you have lots of iCloud Photos or big github repos. I have both, so what are some solutions? Slim down the random files Well, if you…

OK, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do with the new payment scheme where rebate sites like Topcashback.com and legal settlements give you this tiny amount of prepaid Visa and Mastercards. Other sites just let you put in a Paypal account or give you an Amazon card directly. The problem is that you…

Well, I’ve been using Synology for more than six years now and I have to say what started as a small shell on top of base Linux has become a really nice easy to use interface. Note that these notes are for the older DSM6, I haven’t had time to upgrade to the new DSM7…

We were introduced to these amazing morsels called Calissons while in Provence. It’s from Aix en Provence and doesn’t take too long to make the main ingredients are very simple. The nice thing is that you can make them dairy-free as well. Old Fashioned and Manhattens Ok, I was suddenly in charge of making drinks…

Well, six years ago we got our Anova Sous Vide and it worked pretty well, but with the pandemic, we got it out again and one thing we didn’t do well got a vacuum sealer, so the bags would just leak. Turns out there are a huge number of these sealers around now, but ironically…

Well, we ended up getting two of these and beside deciding whether to get AppleCare or not (you probably should particularly for the steel version) Aluminum vs Steel Well, there is a huge markup if you decide to go steel, but it is shiny and looks really nice. Net, net I would say go with…

Now that the dry spell for Thunderbolt 4 docking stations seems to be ending, I will say the Razer TB4 that I got late last year is good, but it has relatively few ports and there is an issue with my LG C9 and it is not quite syncing when the MacBook goes to sleep.…

Well, I’ve used lots of different mouse pads during the pandemic and I have to say after of that there are two kinds which are wireless qi charger enabled and right now I don’t have a recommendation for them: Corsair MM1000. This is actually my favorite mouse pad but it is currently unavailable. The main…

OK, hold the comment that the best flip flops are the Dollar store kind, if you really want a comfortable set then I’ve tried lots of different styles and I think Outdoor Gear Labs has it right. Olukai really does have an amazing collection of nice flip-flops. I tried the Olukai Hokua and they are…

Well we got a bunch of nedrelow accessories for Christmas and I have to say that while expensive, they are just awesome; Magic Sleeve Duo. This basically is very simple, it’s felt with magnets sewn around the side, so you can stick your ipad in it and then it folds open as a really nice…

If you have an iPhone with MagSafe, you should really get a MagSafe car mount. This includes magnets that hold the phone and then you don’t even need to plug it in each time. I’ve tried the ESR haloLock mainly because if was only $35 and it works well. The magnets are strong enough and…

Man, this is a really fast moving world, but basically both Amex and Chase have been raising the prices of their premium cards a lot so you have to really keep base with the deals to make them worth it: Walmart+. You can get the monthly Walmart+ members costing $12.95/month for free with the Amex…