Tong Family (richtong.org sync)

No I don’t mean the automatic kind, I mean the simple net with a pole, you wouldn’t think it would take so much work to get a simple thing, but even with Fakespot and reading reviews, things are getting past all these systems Do not get the POOLWhale despite the 5 star reviews Again, thanks…

Well, I discarded the keyboard as not usable because it doesn’t have arrow keys like the wired 60% keyboard and it didn’t have arrow keys like the dedicated keys on the Keychron V2. But, it turns out I was wrong about this and didn’t understand how it works. Net, net, while inconvenient as a daily…

OK, I think that this Homekit stuff is pretty deep and much of this doesn’t have a guide, but three quick things: Homebridge insights are that this thing actually works really well. It’s a simple node application and using a $50 Raspberry Pi is really the right approach from a simplicity and isolation point of…

OK, I confess, in our organizations, we typically have a single organization zoom account since there are not enough meetings to justify everyone having a paid account. This leads to all kinds of issues because of different defaults, but the short note is that you want Zoom meetings security to be set to the passcode…

OK, this thing actually works pretty well, here are some notes: Wow, it is way more dynamic than fixed watering so as the temperature shift here (Seattle is pretty unprecedented, in the old days, getting into the 80s was warm, but it’s been 109F and next week it will be 94F), but basically, it takes…

Wow, things are about to change alot in the communications business. There are two big things happening: Wifi 6E at 1GHhz at 6GHz. Ok, this has a horrible name, but basically, the US is about to open up 1GHz worth of spectrum in the 6GHz range. The implications of this are just awesome. Right now…

Well, in the never-ending quest to be efficient, one this that is a pain is that in normal vi, if you want to say change things inside a set of quotes, you have to go backward to the first quote with F” and then change to the next quote with ct” which means Find backward…

Well, I’ve always had good luck keeping Mac hardware going. In fact our MacBook 2008s still run (they are just so slow it’s not really worth it), but I encountered my first real hardware failure where it would not even boot into recovery mode. But if you get these symptoms, here are the things to…

Ok, getting down to the last licks on HomeKit devices, but here is the next batch. RainMachine is great, HomeKit glitch First of all, we’ve been using the RainMachine over the weekend and I have to say I’m impressed, it automagically works remotely without having to do a sign on and it is really cool…

Well, it’s iPad Pro (3rd Generation) since 2018 and have just loved it. There have been improvements with cameras and performance, but since this is mainly a read the Internet and research papers machines it has been great, even three years later. Smart Folio Keyboard good but not great When I got the Smart Folio…

OK, we are in the heart of the summer and I’ve always wanted to really smoke. Just to define terms, what most people call a BBQ is actually a grill since it applies lots of direct heat, then there is a real barbecue which is low temperate heat for a long time and finally a…

Well, time once again for the bi-monthly update on home automation. The main things are that we now have four different houses laid out with Apple Homekit as a base and here is what is working, some tips, tricks, and some traps that cover how to handle multiple homes, multiple users and gives a list…

Ok, in trying to finish gracetong.com, I’ve had a lot of little glitches with the template that is Wowchemy. This is a really nice quick and dirty way to get a resume up, but one big thing you give up when going to WordPerfect to Hugo is that many of the nice tools are not…

OK, I made a big error the other day, I’ve been using Wowchemy Academic and working with the sample site. The problem is that I wanted the latest fixes to the sample site but I had made lots of edits. Here are the big lessons on to avoid a 350 commit rebase! To keep something…

About the only time I ever print anything anymore are for government forms (they still need lots of paper) and passport photos. I seem to never even do print photos anymore, so as a result, literally, our printers seem to be “bit rotting away.” So here are some notes if you have these old printers:…

OK, time once again to look at the cost of cellular, last week, we had visited with Pete and Dave, so it a good time to review the cost of cellular plans. About five years ago, we switched from Verizon to T-Mobile. Thanks again, Mike for the “join discount” which was 20% or so as…

So, in an era, where there are widespread semiconductor part shortages, what should you do if you have a house like Dave’s that doesn’t have any Ethernet and gets uneven coverage from a single Access Point. And where there is *a lot* of interference from neighbors that makes it hard to get a clean signal.…

It is really hard to get any additional credits with apple.com or Best Buy for that matter, here’s one interesting hack:. The big issue is that with most rebate items there are lots of exclusions. Everything from electronics to anything well useful American Express has a promotion with Rakuten. If you sign up and spend…

OK, I’ve tried to stay away from SSH and doing command line stuff with Unifi, but this latest release (they used to call it the Unifi Controller which in the olden days was a piece of software that was written in Java and ran on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and you can imagine how fragile…

Dean asked me how I think about working with early-stage companies. This is a great question because there is a long way distance between being a full-time employee and having a coffee with a CEO. So here are the different stages you can think about engaging with a startup depending on your financial motivation. Is…

There are a sea of different Kensington Hubs as Thunderbolt 4 is coming out and it’s pretty hard to figure out what to use for what, but if you have: Older MacBook’s with Thunderbolt 3 Want to get new M1 MacBooks with Thunderbolt 4, but which are currently limited to a single monitor Be ready…

Geez, did I not write this down? At least, I remember fixing Dave’s PC but not how I did it. I’m sure I stuff it into tongfamily.com, but from the 6,000 plus posts I have, I can figure out how to find it. But, basically, a few years ago, Dave’s PC died. I thought it…

OK, this is a little strange, but it really is a problem on the Obins AnnePro 2 if you use the tilde (~) key, the problem is that while there are some amazing things like a quick click of the right SHIFT key and FN1 and FN2 and Ctrl will give you the arrow keys…

Well, I’m an idiot, there is no doubt. I’ve been pushing the envelope of the system pretty unknowingly and I had not seen a comprehensive, here’s how you bulletproof your system and what are the best practices. So first, what to do if you are an idiot and then how to keep it from happening…

Wow, it is really raining Homekit Smart Plugs and Extension cords. Really, I’m wondering, why given the relatively low cost, you wouldn’t just get all your new extension cords and multiple outlet adapters as HomeKit devices now, so some things to think about: Upgrading an old S-Video TV with an Apple TV is not crazy…

OK, this was a strange problem I hit today, suddenly, when using WordPress, JetPack could no longer see the custom site. Even running the diagnostics led to an unknown error. I saw a fleeting message about invalid SSL certificate but this never appeared again. But when I went to Safari and click on the lock icon for…

OK, as a poor man’s burglar alarm, we’ve been trying to figure out how to use HomeKit Secure Video and also have night lights go on in various vacation and summer homes across an extended family. It turns out that it is pretty tricky to do (and we have one outstanding issue), but here are…

We went crabbing yesterday and I was reminded how nice automatic inflatable life vests are. They are way less bulky that and don’t smell like rentals. There are lots available and the big things to figure out is whether you want an automatic inflatable (that is when you hit the water, they just inflate, which…

Well, we are about halfway through getting Dishy McFlatface to work and here are some notes. First of all getting it at all: To get it, you got to https://starlink.com throw in your address and pay the $99 deposit It then estimates when you can get it. Right now, for rural areas it’s pretty easy…

OK, I’ve had some pretty bad luck with third party USB C adapters. For some like the Satechi, they don’t connect reliably, but for the Geddie which thankfully is unavailable, but I’m sure it is just being used by a new low cost manufacturer somewhere. These are things that take a single USB C connection…