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Background images in Google Docs
Well this is a little silly Google Docs does not allows an image to be in the background, you can have it inline or it can break text, but not in the background. The hacky solution is to create a drawing and this does support layers. Doesn’t work for multipage, but not bad for titles…
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Route53 and naked domain redirects
Ok, here’s the issue, it would be awesomely nice to have tongfamily.com point to www.tongfamily.com but AWS Route53 does not allow this, you have to have a hard address A record for this. Bluehost and Digital Ocean handle this magic, but not Amazon. So what’s the work around? If you just use a CNAME alias, you can…
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Understanding AWS root and IAM
Wow this is a pretty complicated topic. It seems like every organization has a different view of how the world works. Sometimes, on GitHub for instance, it is all tied to email names, you create an organization as a separate thing and then just have a list of emails names that are that organization. In…
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A shoutout to responsible hiking
OK, I do it all the time, but just to review some of the key rules for hiking (Courtesy of allcampgrounds.com. Most folks feel like there is a trade off between safety and enjoying the woods. The truth is that you can be safe and you will still feel untethered from modern society. It is…
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Argh do not just update your Shimano Di2
Don’t be as dumb as me. Do not ever update your Shimano Di2 from a phone that is low power mode. If you do and the lock screen comes on, then the Bluetooth LE connection gets interrupted and the Shimano Di2 shifting system hangs. It won’t even shift or respond. This is a super common…
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Ebikes are everywhere
Well electrification is happening to bikes and that’s a good thing. It’s going to solve two big problems: 1. Riding with a group. Riding is fun but if you fall off the back or on a hill, it’s joy great. An ebike let’s you keep up by shaving the soul sucking peak wattage. Most of…
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Modesta m4, M3 and m2 and Sonax for your car
m.youtube.com/watch We got this Modesta ceramic coating and it is like your car is waxed all the time. It really look amazing but to maintain it, is a bit complicated. But fun to know. Here are some tips: Do this when cool and not in the sun. You don’t the car drying in the heat!…
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From Bluehost to AWS Route 53 Decoder Ring
Ok nerdy topic, but we’ve been gradually going to a Tri-mode system where I use Bluehost for casual stuff, DigitalOcean for stuff I care about like tongfamily.com and AWS for the big boy pants work. Part of that transition is moving from Bluehost DNS services to AWS services. This is called Route53 and is quite…
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Books and Relationships
Well, it’s been 18 months into an experiment, reigniting old friendships and getting in touch with colleagues, some from 20 years ago!). One of the great outputs has been learning so much about so many things. And Bill wondered if there was a way to share it. Right now I have a book queue of…
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Vuescan of Black and White Negatives
I wrote a post nearly eight years ago on how to use Vuescan with a Minolta Dimage 5400 to get amazingly good scans of old images, but this doesn’t quite work for Black and White mainly because the Filter Infrared is off for Black and White scanning. So if your images are pretty clean then…
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Wow the Touch Bar might have a use with pock
Well, what do you know there might actually be a use for that Touch Bar thing. I barely ever use it. Mainly to change the volume or brighten the screen, but if I know that it has the Dock, then it gives a reason to use it. Really an interesting idea, but when you are…
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Buying a Watch: Two ends of a spectrum
Well there are bunch of different choices with watches now. Overall, there are a few choices, but increasingly they are moving to opposite ends of the spectrum, so some recommendations: Apple Watch Well, I wouldn’t actually buy a Series 4 right now, it has the ECG thingy, but the upcoming watch is rumored to have…
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Saving Disk Space on your Mac from Photos
OK, I have a Mac with a relatively small 256GB drive and right now 82GB are taken up by two caches in the system: ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.ScreenSaver.iLife-Slideshow-Extension/Data/Library/Caches. Stackoverflow shows that this is really a cache of JPEG files that are converted from all your HEIC files. It let’s normal application run Insert Photo without having to know…
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Dr. Dave is famous
Nice quotes on using telemedicine to diagnose strokes in remote locations. Good job Dave! www.vidyo.com/wp-content/uploads/Case-Studies/vidyo_case_study_SUTTER.pdf And watch him on TV: youtu.be/Yp6AaPtzdT8
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Amazon Prime Day and Computer Monitors
I can’t quite believe how much pricing for UHD televisions have fallen. Now you can get a 43″ UHD TV that is a terrific monitor for you home computer for just $249. 4k.com has a great list of smaller monitors. I What you need to make it work? Divvy I’ve used both 40″ and 43″…
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Canyon under 6kg disc bike
Wow that’s pretty incredible. Super high price but now disc brake bikes are lighter than rim brakes. Had to happen. And this one is under the UCI weight limit. Pretty cool. bikerumor.com/2019/07/11/canyon-ultimate-cf-evo-disc-carbon-road-bike-goes-ultralight-under-6kg-complete/
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Managing Startup Documents cheaply with 1Password, GSuite and Docusign
If you are starting a company, it’s easy to get lost in a blizzard of paper and email attachments. Resist the temptation not to worry too much about it, because this is one case where a few simple procedures will make life way, way, way easier later. Everyone is going to forget things and here’s…
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Adding 860W of solar to your car
Wow it would be ugly but adding 860W from an on car solar array would be pretty awesome. It won’t get you far but 860W x 8 hours is 6.4kWh or about 8% of a Model 3 AWD. And 8% is 24 miles so not nothing. Hat tip to hackaday.com/2019/07/10/using-super-efficient-solar-cells-to-keep-your-electric-cars-battery-topped-up/
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Aerodynamics socks
bikerumor.com/2019/07/09/defeet-evo-disruptor-wind-tunnel-tested-most-aero-cycling-sock-ever/ Now I’ve heard everything. Saving 8 watts by wearing special stippled socks. Way easier than getting 5% fitter đ
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Tuning A Better Route Planner with TeslaFi
Well, most of the time range in a EV doesn’t matter, but if you are planning a road trip where chargers are scare or where you are being aggressive. Or you are just a plain nerd, here’s a way to ping pong between Teslafi.com and Abetterrouteplanner.com to figure out what your actually consumption is. If…
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Printing Advice of Laser printers and more
Here’s some retro advice that Mark reminded me about. It’s been tempting to get a cheap inkjet like the OfficeJet from Costco. But most of the time it doesn’t make sense. First the cost of consumables is outrageous. It’s a razor blade business. You can try to use off brand or refilled ink cartridges but…
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Ugh pairing Garmins are too hard!
If you are a most cyclists, I’d really suggest sticking with Wahoo bike computers. Garmin are nice hardware but just too complicated to have it pair it. The biggest reason still to get one is because their Radar is just really cool and important if there is lots of traffic. That being said if you…
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Update: Staying Private no the Internet
Well it’s gotten way more complicated, but here’s the 2019 update on what to do. Now this won’t for everything and it will break some sites, but some good recommendations (with notes on issues) are: Cloak your DNS. Believe it or not ISPs do track what requests you are making. This is pretty simple thing…
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Road trip model x estimate right, model 3 way off
Ok just did the first part of a trip. We were off because of the rain by a little bit the model 3 was way off. The 265wh/ mi was way off as an estimate. We got that on the mainly flat super highway but with more load it was wrong and rain and then…
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What are the Differences Between Arc’teryx Jackets?
These are awesome jackets but the codes are bizarre. They have literally a n x m matrix of names. But here is what I’ve learned. They have product likes like Alpha and then a two character designation like these for hard shells: SL for super light. FL for fast and light. I don’t know what…
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Managing Python installations for reproducibility
Wow this is a complicated topic, but learning from Sam, one of the unsung cores to good software development is reproducibility. On any machine, you should be able to run and not have dependencies in software get you. But, there is a cost to full reproducibility. At the limit having to set up an entire…
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Bluehost do not delete domain addon if you have mail
Oh be careful, in the course of getting things right, I unassigned a domain. If you do this and your domain has email accounts, then all those account disappear from cpanel. You can get them back, phew, just by assigning again, but don’t be confused.
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Credit cards for new graduates and college students
Having a long credit history is super important for things like mortgages. Fortunately, there are some easy ways to get started. Here are some tips, assuming that you are a responsible person and will not go crazy, this is just for building credit, not for actually using them. For College There are two cards that…
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Hiking socks
Well it’s time of year. Also know as the REI 4th of July sale for the get ready for the heart of summer sales. If you are in the market, there are quite a few consumable to get. As usual Outdoor Gearlabs is a great source. For true hiking socks, the Darn Tough Hiker Full…
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Argh backup batteries do eventually fail
Ok, so I’ve had a UPS on my main computer and also for the network box and the burglar alarm. We also have a smaller backup battery set for the alarm itself. But as with all things, they do seem to give out. It really does want make me want to just get a PowerWall…