Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

Well, now that we have Hyperbackup working again, it’s time to make some fixes to the Synology volumes. In many ways, Synology is not super obvious how to work because they have their Control Panel and their applications and they spray various settings all over the place. Synology Working with the interface: Maximize windows The…

Well, for nearly a decade I had a single pair of Sidi cycling shoes and they lasted amazingly well. And to that, I used two sets of SpeedPlay X2 (steel) and X1 (titanium spindles) and I still use these today after 20 years which is kind of incredible when you think about it. And over…

OK, here is what they don’t tell you about pairing an AnnePro v2. The manual says that you should press the FN2 and then either the numerals 1, 2, 3 or 4 to get up to four bluetooth connections to any keyboard, but they are super unclear how to get it to work. From Reddit,…

ARgh, I somehow lost my Garmin 1030 bike computer in the haze of the COVID pandemic, it’s in a box somewhere, so what I have left is my Garmin 520 Plus and an old Garmin 800. I’ve actually gotten the 520 Plus to work pretty well, it doesn’t have a touch screen and because it’s…

Ok, I’ve been using Synology Hyperbackup for nearly a year now to end-to-end encrypt and backup all my personal photos to Google Drive. This is slow but a low cost way to have archival backup done. However in the last month, suddenly the backup started to fail so I tried to do another oauth to…

OK, if you have been moving things around your world, sometimes, you will do a ssh myserver and you will get a public key does not match, could be a man-in-the-middle attack. Well, this could be it or it could be that you’ve just rebuilt your network. If so, then you need to remove the…

OK, now that I’ve gotten Unifi up and running, here are some more minor details that have taken me a while to get right. The first is how you can refer to devices in your local network with a nice text name rather than an IP address, there are two mechanisms for this using the…

OK, if you have an old burglar alarm, it is probably throwing all kinds of false alarms and everything, so time to get an updated one. Before I had recommended Simplisafe as a low-cost alarm system with a low monitoring fee, but when you’ve used it for a while, it’s pretty clear that a better…

Well, I’ve been using various NiMH batteries in the AA (aka LF-91) and AAA (aka LF-92) form factors for over a decade now. They are a great way to save the environment and they are cheaper too. We have the LaCrosse chargers and there are really two limitations to them: If you don’t get the…

Argh, one of the bad things about me is that I’m always pushing software. In this case, we’ve had such a good experience with Ubiquiti Unifi, that it’s now in four locations (going to six in my informal support network). Except for the Unifi OS v1.0.9 hang, the Network application (as they now call their…

Ok wish me luck trying another slow bbq with hickory chips. Pork shoulder with a little moisture like ribs and tented with foil  target temperature is 250F and roast to 190F See how it goes. As an aside using Share My Cook so you can can see it live. They use Sumo so it can…

Ok, I’ve been using this Homebridge extensions for a while and they have been actually pretty useful, there are whole variety of these and it confusing what is good or not, but here are the three that I use with some tips and tricks: It is confusing, but your homebridge goes into a location which…

Well, time to get out that BBQ Guru and try another recipe, this time it is Pork Shoulder. Serious Eats recommends 250F degrees and an eight hour cook time, letting it rest for 15 minutes and then crisping the skin at 500F by rotating it every 5 minutes for 20. If you want something more…

Strava. The social application for sharing your rides ($60/year) TrainingPeaks. Lots of graphs and charts like Training Stress Scores, TSS, as well as heart rate and power analysis and for communicating with e-coaches ($120/year) with extra fees for workouts TrainerRoad. For getting workouts ($190/year). Garmin Connect. This is actually a free cloud service, but it…

Well, now is not a bad time to get bike shoes, its the end of the season and a good time to take advantage of model changes. Here are some that are good choices (Cycling Week and Bike Rumor and Outdoor Gear Labs too): Giro Empire SLX. This is a specialty shoes, they are old…

I was really sad when wahoo ate up Speedplay pedals in 2019. I’ve been using Speedplay X1 pedals for years. They are super lightweight lollipops with just 160 grams of mass and lots of float. But, it turns out wahoo has simplified them back in a new and improved (and expensive!) form. So you can…

OK, this has been super annoying, but the last time I got a VO2 max rating from my Apple Watch was a year ago. Despite doing the resets and everything, deleting the calibration data and then doing a 20 minute walk nothing worked. But sometimes the definition of insanity is trying it again, so off…

You know you are growing up when you start asking for ordinary but necessary things. For instance, a great rice cooker or a good apartment vacuum cleaner is just what a Calvin could need. So, what are some high-quality, post-dorm-room things that you might hope to get? Vacuum Cleaners You can definitely spend a lot…

Ok, so I’m starting to ride outside (yikes!) again, I literally have forgotten how to ride a bicycle outside and more importantly, when you are on a trainer, there are a zillion little things that you need to do to get ready for the outside. Firmware updates galore Well, the first and crazy thing, is…

Wow, trying the latest BBQ gizmo for a Kamada Joe egg barbecue, a Wifi connected, temperature controlled blower and it works incredibly well. This thing is expensive, but it is basically a pit temperature probe and then three food probes. You connect it all up, then put a plate on it and a 10 Cfm…

Ok, I’ve been using a literally 10 year old Apple airport express to connect Apple devices to a stereo. But with airplay 2 out, one of the big features is that you can hang multiple airplay 2 devices together. So off to buy the way too expensive $99 airplay 2 compatible connector. This thing is…

Mini LED 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro production begins https://appleinsider.com/articles/21/08/09/mini-led-14-inch-and-16-inch-macbook-pro-production-begins And, series 7 watch for those of us with series 3 and an eight hour battery life 🙂

We’ve just loved the Magic Keyboard on the iPad Pro 12.9”. The thing is incredibly expensive ($349 for the 5th generation version and $199 for the 4th generation one), but it really works super well particularly with the touchpad support in iPadOS. So, now that we have it, it’s important that it remain protected and…

The Apple TV can send audio directly to your AirPods, AirPods Pro, or AirPods Max wireless headphones, letting you watch videos, play games, or work out with Apple Fitness+ without disturbing anyone else in the room. Here’s how. I never thought I’d need this but it is super handy. Supposedly you hold the Play button…

OK, quick ethnic happiness, I’ve been using a tried and true family recipe for BBQ ribs for a while. It’s not complicated, dump some Coca Cola, soy sauce, vinegar and honey into an aluminum foiled wrapped ribs and slow roast. But I decided to actually read up and am trying the New York Times recipe.…

OK, particularly with the pandemic, I’ve been just horrible with my wallet. When the iPhone 12 came out, I immediately got the MagSafe Wallet and since there were not many around back then, I got the way overprice Apple one. When you combine it with a clear MagSafe case, it works pretty well particularly because…

OK, this is a bit mysterious, but if you are trying to do data recording from the Mac, it is super convenient to be able have a GPS log with time stamps along with your video. While the Mac does capture time super well, what about location. Here is one way to do it (note…

OK I get this about three weeks or so on our new DigitalOcean Droplet running WordPress. The good news is the JetPack does inform you when it dies. On Bluehost, this basically has never happened. A restart of the droplet seems to help, but it would be good to figure out what is going on.…

OK, you are seeing a bunch of posts here that were accidentally put on my unused WordPress hosted blog. The problem is that the really great WordPress editor by default goes to their sites only. You can’t set a custom site (probably because they want to promote their own hosted system). Copy HTML to move…

The Markdown elements outlined in John Gruber’s design document. Two quick tips: If you are using the WordPress on an IOS device, it has two very different ways to integrate. If you choose the share button, then from the text actions, you can pick “Save as draft”. This let’s you simply bookmark things and then…