Using my phone as a computer speaker
I am aiming to have a productive day today. I have a to task list and everything. But there are also audio files on my computer I want to listen to and rather than go through the trouble of transferring that file to my phone, I thought it would be cool to be able to pipe my computer's audio over the network to my phone. That way as I move room to room I can stay tuned to the audio.
Enter AudioRelay, a windows freeware, and a free Android app. I installed both and they synced and it works seamlessly.
I don't know how often I'll use it, but in this case it is a good solution for me.
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The electric cardboard cutter is a heavy favorite for gadget of the year in my household. I truly cannot fathom going back to a life without one.
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Of Arthur and Pictures
I ended up taking advantage of a Black Friday deal for a new personal laptop. I've been using one I got from Costco for a few years, but there are a few issues with it (predominately relating to the keyboard) which has run fine (mostly) and so with the new job and a deal on Wirecutter's top recommended laptop - it was time.
Enter: Arthur.
I ended up going for a Lenovo Yoga laptop and after a short outing this morning, I've collected it from Best Buy and am back home where it is currently installing updates. I'm writing this via the older laptop, for likely the last entry on the blog from this computer.
Though it likely isn't the end for this machine. Since most of its issues are laptop based, I think it's possible that this laptop gets repurposed as some technology tool in the house.
After the recent family gathering, we were again struck by a need for a centralized family photo archive. As of last night, while sitting in the airport on our way home, my proposed solution would be to stand up an instance of Immich for the family to use. I could make use of this laptop for that purpose. However, there are issues with this idea as the laptop also has an issue that I hadn't found a good Linux compatibility early on when I bought it, and I'd need it running Ubuntu (preferably.)
The ultimate goal is a tool that the family can and will use, preferably one of low tech know-how requirements for the rest of the family. I don't want them to have to copy photos to the computer and then upload in the browser. In an ideal solution, it's an automatic backup on mobile phones, etc.
Also, this morning, I came up with a new feature idea which I don't think any existing tool can support, even Google Photos, supports - I want the ability to have not just text comments but also video comments so we can record people talking about these pictures. Whether audio or video, but an easy way to record and capture these stories for future generations. I am sad to be thinking of this now, after so many of my family's elders are gone, but that also helps me feel the urgency in this idea more clearly than I did when I was younger.
For now though, I'll focus on getting my new laptop set up and then I'll put more focus on solving the photo archive need.
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A New Wrist Gizmo
This past weekend I replaced my Samsung Galaxy 4 watch with a refurbished (or, technically, Amazon listed it as 'refreshed') Samsung Galaxy 6. I had originally gotten my 4 from a Woot deal in 2022, and greatly enjoyed it.
Truthfully the most important thing for me with the watch is that I can leave my phone on silent and rely on my watch to share notifications via vibration.
The replacement was triggered because the Galaxy 4 watch battery had gotten to the point where it couldn't hold a day's charge. So we've put the 4 aside and moved onto the new watch. There aren't any life changing differences between my old and new watches, the tech is basically just better on every axis but there are no major new features. I briefly considered making the jump straight to the Galaxy 7, the newest model, but the price difference - even with trade-in - on my Galaxy 4 watch didn't make it worth it to me over getting the refurbished 6.
As it is, I'm enjoying the new watch - and, added bonus, I now have two chargers for my watch so I can keep one by my recliner in the evenings, and one at my desk or something.
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When I work from home I used to just open the window blinds to give me better light, but now that Duke has discovered he can come in and see the outside world so he has to bark and scare it - I have had to acquire a ring light from IKEA of all places.
It's very barebones and I suspect it will work in the short term but it will only further my acceptance of a need for a better ring light for calls.
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My personal laptop is out of commission until Monday. The power cable has been dealing with a bad kink and it's been getting worse. A few months ago I wrapped some tape around it to try and protect it. Yesterday morning, as I picked the laptop up I heard crackling and looked at the tape on the cable abd saw sparks. Needless to say, the cable was immediately unplugged.
I ordered a replacement with same-day delivery but sadly when it arrived it turns out I had ordered the wrong replacement. I've ordered another one, which is slated to arrive tomorrow. I'll have to survive until then.
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Reading, Writing and The New Phone
I'm five days into using my S24+ as my daily driver and it's largely fantastic. It's clear how many small things I had come to accept with the Duo 2, and eye opening to realize those things aren't requirements for my daily life anymore.
I also have come to realize I just generally like the process of moving into a new technology device, whether computer, or phone. Looking for new apps, re-examining what I've had installed, etc. I almost didn't transfer apps and such over from the Duo 2 to the new phone at all, but relented out of laziness and not wanting to have to constantly check which app I had been using on the old phone.
I am also re-set upping (I know, that's not a real phrase, but I choose it regardless,) my online reading ecosystem on the new phone. This entails a few things:
- Re-enabling my Wallabag app to pull from my selfhosted instance for my "read it later" reading
- Re-enabling an RSS reader, currently it is Readrop, which is an app which syncs with my FreshRSS instance, though I am reconsidering if I should instead have a mobile-only solution (more on that later.)
- Setting up for posting here from my phone.
Wallabag is the easiest of these to set up. Readrop was nearly as simple, though I forgot FreshRSS required an api specific password and so I kept trying it with the traditional password. Oops.
I have not yet cracked #3 in a satisfying way other than opening the editor for the blog in the phone's browser. Which is fine, but I really need to solve for a way to add my blog's api to the Share menu in Android. I've tried it a few ways through Tasker, but haven't managed it reliably yet. I'll get it eventually.
And before anyone comes with app recommendations. For things like this, I heavily value self-hosting and FOSS apps, over subscription or heavy marketing apps. Though I will always listen to recommendations.
As to the above note regarding my RSS reader, the core issue is that my RSS feeds are currently curated for "maximilism." I am a heavy consumer and as such I have many feeds which share overlaps, which is fine when I'm churning through them on the desktop, but for phone reading I don't want to churn through a lot of these.
The easiest solution is to curate for my phone differently, but doing that would then make my desktop reading potentially worse as it would potentially still contain items I have processed on my phone since they would be pulling from different sources.
We'll see. I need to think on a solution more.
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Farewell Sweet Prince
The time has finally come to stop using my Samsung Duo 2 as my daily driver. I'm now using a Samsung Galaxy S24+ with the minimalist Niagara launcher.
Quite the gear shift. I'm still deciding if the Duo is abandoned or if it's relegated to be more of a tablet style device.
We'll see.
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EDC Gadgets Which Inspired Adam Smith
Pocket watches are well known, but as the article states, there were more than just those. Here's the one which was most interesting to Smith:
The coolest of all pocket gadgets were what antiquarians call etuis and Smith referred to as "tweezer cases." A typical 18th century etui looks like a slightly oversized cigarette lighter covered in shagreen, a textured rawhide made from shark or ray skin. The lid opens up to reveal an assortment of miniature tools, each fitting into an appropriately shaped slot. Today's crossword puzzle clues often describe etuis as sewing or needle cases, but that was only one of many varieties. An etui might contain drawing instruments—a compass, ruler, pencil, and set of pen nibs. It could hold surgeon's tools or tiny perfume bottles. Many offered a tool set handy for travelers: a tiny knife, two-pronged fork, and snuff spoon; scissors, tweezers, a razor, and an earwax scraper; a pencil holder and pen nib; perhaps a ruler or bodkin. The cap of a cylindrical etui might separate into a spyglass.
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Mark Rober on drone deliveries
What a cool bit of technology in this video. I loved seeing how Zipline does it in Rwanda, and while I'm more dubious of the technology for home deliveries in urban and suburban environments - I still think the technology is awesome.
Also, I appreciate him making sure to delve into Rwanda more as a country.
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Technology built to last
I spent some time this morning relaxing and watching this video by my friend Marshall. In it, he services a Rolex watch that its owner had worn daily for 53 years before it stopped running. And as I watch it, I look over at my Galaxy 4 watch charging next to me. I greatly enjoy and use it, but I also realize I'll be lucky to get a tenth of that life time out of it.
Obviously, a big problem is the continual climb of technology.
Analog watches hit a relative plateau decades ago, where the innovations (largely speaking) stopped and so the differentiating factors became build quality and life. We are still far from that as far as digital technology goes with data, wireless, screens, processors, all continuing to improve and change.
There is little reason to build a computer, or a smart watch, to last 50 years outside of industrial and governmental uses. Especially for an accessory like a watch, it will always rely on another service to provide updates, screens, applications, etc. It would require an incredible feat of engineering to future proof a smart watch such that it would be able to easily be ported to any future platform. Not impossible, but certainly difficult.
That said, if someone came along and sold a smartwatch able to last fifty years with a robust futureproofing documentation, and it satisfied my needs for its functionality as well as aesthetics, I'd heavily consider purchasing it almost regardless of price.
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I just want a dumb TV
Katie and I have had a flat screen TV which we bought shortly after moving to Seattle, a bit over ten years ago. I snagged it as a really good deal from Sam's Club and, overall, it has been fantastic except for one thing. For much of the past ten years, it has had an annoying issue where, randomly, it pop up on screen and say a new connection has been detected and ask if we want to switch to it. This should be a handy feature, right? Except, it's not. We aren't making a new connection. It is detecting ghost signals. Nothing is plugged into the port it believes have a new connection.
As it turns out - this is a known issue when I search the model online and no one has found a solution. So, we just have gotten used to it as a minor annoyance and inconvenience.
However, while we have come to be used to it, I am also embarrassed by it when we have friends over. Like if my car were to keep randomly backfiring while I was giving a friend a ride. They're my friends, they aren't judging me economically or in any way by the TV's annoying interstitial screen, but still... I hate it.
So, with some Christmas money burning a hole in my pocket, I have decided it's time we replace this TV.
But, now I am faced with a new growing frustration: finding a reliable & high quality dumb TV. That is, one which doesn't have its own Internet connection and report the hours I binge and threaten to show me even more ads. As it turns out, these are not prolific in the market.
It is the sad state of the world that TV companies have realized they can derive even more revenue by doing this. In my searches the only "dumb" TV I could find which fit my price range and size specs was from the "Sceptre" brand which is reviewed poorly online.
I could go to Craigslist or FB marketplace, but I fear scammers and buying a bad TV and having no recourse to recoup my money.
Ultimately, I have conceded defeat: finding a new dumb TV is a losing battle. I've accepted that we'll be getting some sort of smart TV, and that I'll simply not use its built in features and I'll leave it offline. This ensures that it can't be fed new ads or share usage data, etc.
Or does it? I fear about the next step for these devices, which would be the now nearly omnipresent Xfinity wifi. What if the manufacturer has worked out a deal that it can always reliably connect to Xfinity regardless of whether I initiate it or not? The discussions I've seen online don't seem to have anyone confirming this sort of thing happening, but it isn't a major leap to guess that it could arrive one day.
I guess we'll cross that bridge when it arrives. But this is an area, like right to repair, I wish we'd get some real champions in Congress and the Senate to push legislation which protects consumers and pushes back on the corporations.
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The history of the USB thumb drive
I remember floppy disks. I remember ZIP disks. I remember burnable CDs, as well as rewritable CD ROM disks. All were means of transferring data between machines. And all were summarily taken behind the barn and shot in 2000 with the arrival of USB thumb drives.
Who invented the thumb drive? Well, it turns out, it came from Singapore. Or, as the article goes on to delve into, did it?
From the intro:
In 2000, at a trade fair in Germany, an obscure Singapore company called Trek 2000 unveiled a solid-state memory chip encased in plastic and attached to a Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector. The gadget, roughly the size of a pack of chewing gum, held 8 megabytes of data and required no external power source, drawing power directly from a computer when connected. It was called the ThumbDrive.
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Later that year, Trek went public on the Singapore stock exchange, and in four months—from April through July 2000—it manufactured and sold more than 100,000 ThumbDrives under its own label.
But then:
In April 1999, the Israeli company M-Systems filed a patent application titled "Architecture for a Universal Serial Bus-based PC flash disk." This was granted to Amir Ban, Dov Moran, and Oron Ogdan in November 2000. In 2000, IBM began selling M-Systems' 8-MB storage devices in the United States under the less-than-memorable name DiskOnKey. IBM has its own claim to the invention of an aspect of the device, based on a year-2000 confidential internal report written by one of its employees, Shimon Shmueli. Somewhat less credibly, inventors in Malaysia and China have also claimed to be the first to come up with the thumb drive.
I encourage you to read the full article as it is an interesting look into that era of technology and how taking original credit for something can be difficult.
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Schmetz on TV
My household has two Raspberry Pis.
One, 'Klopp,' runs our home automation, spam blocking, etc. The other, 'Schmetz,' had been a little dev machine but I've since stopped using that (at least for the time being.) So it's been sitting largely idle for a while.
After acquiring a mini-HDMI to HDMI cable, Schmetz has been relocated to the TV. As I explained on Mastodon, primarily to easily enable some streaming to the TV (Twitch which cannot stream on Roku, thanks Amazon.)
It will also prove useful on days where I need to stream multiple games of soccer, etc.
Now I need to update our Harmony remote to properly handle inputs.
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Today's Amazon delivery:
- Bluetooth keyboard that I can use with my Duo 2 (and other devices, potentially, but primarily for the phone.)
- Eyeglass wipes to get rid of the smudges, dust, and dead skin which continuously collect on my eyeglasses.
- 3M anti-slip material so I can apply some small bits to my trackball which has a propensity for sliding off my laptop when I transition it from my lap to the table next to me.
I absolutely love my Duo 2, but for doing any writing beyond quick notes or social media posts, I simply find the typing experience on screen untenable. This Logitech keyboard has a trough for the devices to sit in, and it can be used to connect to up to 3 different devices thanks to the toggle.
So, the idea is that when I am at work on lunch, or out somewhere else with my daily bag, the keyboard unlocks the Duo 2 as a full computer-esque replacement.
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There was an experimental keyboard for Android called 8pen. I can't help if it was ahead of its time, as I feel like it could form a useable keyboard for Wear OS.
It was definitely a weird keyboard concept, but it was an interesting cursive-like experience. As of now, there is no way for me to type on my watch (which makes perfect sense), but I do wonder if this could be a concept that gets rebooted.
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As I posted last night, I got a Samsung Galaxy Watch 4. There was a sale on Woot last week and I pulled the trigger. We'll see how it goes. It arrived with a completely dead battery that had to be charged. Also I had to do four sequential system updates (and each of those require the battery be at at least 30% to do, which when fighting to charge a dead battery took quite a while.)
It's too early to really judge. I did wear it sleeping last night, so I'll be curious to see how it does in tracking my sleep. I like the idea of wearing it while I sleep to see how I do, but also given the need to keep it charged, I'm not sure exactly how to best balance that.
The answer might be a charger on my desk at work so I can charge it during the day for a while. Not sure. I'll need to see how the battery actually fares once fully charged. I'm at least gratified to see that it won't cost me an arm and a leg to get additional chargers for it if I need them.
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How I Use the Surface Duo 2
Overall, a very good review of someone who has really used and put the Duo 2 through its paces. I will say, the issues he complains about regarding Bluetooth and his car is something I have not dealt with. My car (Honda Pilot) and the Duo 2 work fantastically.
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Samsung Galaxy Smart Watch 4 - $180 - Deal on Woot.com
I had been waiting for the Pixel watch, but - well - the deal got me and so we pulled the trigger. This matches the lowest price for the watch on Amazon (back in April.) I love my Surface Duo 2, but the closed screen form factor really inhibits me getting notifications.
I had tried a smartwatch before and found it unnecessary because I lived with my old phones in hand. With the Duo 2, I think it will be a big benefit to allow me some quick actions without having to open the phone up.
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Volo as my DMing Aid
(Reminder, I work for Wizards of the Coast, maker of Dungeons & Dragons.)
Tonight I used my Surface Duo 2 as my primary device for DMing. I ended up having my laptop open because I needed to call a remote friend into the game via Discord and I ended up using it for ease of following dice rolls by the group on D&D Beyond, but I didn't strictly need it. I have the D&D Beyond app and could alternate it on screen with notes to follow the rolls.
I am really happy with it and it is definitely going to be my default setup moving forward for DMing.
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Volo's New Jacket
I received my cover for Volo (my Duo 2) today. It was needed so I could make use of the Surface thin pen stylus. I immediately put it on the device and have begun using the pen. I won't say yet it is my default input, I'm still figuring out how best to use it. I do like that OneNote can immediately switch to written input when the stylus is near the screen.
I will also note, I wasn't sure how secure the stylus would feel sticking to Volo. I'm not sure it will stay attached when they are both in my pocket, but I have absolutely no concern that it might come loose when I'm just carrying it and walking around.
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Volo (Duo 2) Update
I'm officially a fan of the Duo 2. Ever since getting Volo up and running, I have only turned my previous phone on to transfer my 2fa code authorizations over. Other than that, I have not turned that phone on.
I love the two screen dynamic. I almost never use the phone in single screen mode, basically only when making a phone call. Other than that, I leave it open with both screens accessible. I'm still finding my ideal workflows and screen layout, but what it currently amounts to is the left (or top, depending on phone orientation) is the video for consuming information. Watching videos, reading books, reading articles, etc. The right (or bottom) screen is for acting. Taking notes, multi tasking, messaging, etc.
Taking notes particular has caused me to rethink my system. I am a big fan of Notion, but I am also keenly aware that I am now locked into their platform. If they go bust, or if they get bought out and then the new owner decides to strip it for parts, I'm going to have a hard time porting what is already in there over to a new platform. As such, I am trying to make a hard pivot to Obsidian. Obsidian uses text files, formatted with Markdown, so they are entirely portable and will live forever, even if the Obsidian app dies somewhere along the way.
Given the work I had to go through to import my tweets into a MySQL database, I am loathe to really delve into another similar platform trap.
Additionally, my note taking is hampered by the lack of use of the pen stylus. The case which will unlock that functionality will arrive on Thursday, and I find out then if it is that big of an upgrade for me or not. I will say, having it require the case (because I don't have another means of charging it since this is my own Surface device) is one of the bigger negatives I have about it all so far.
That said, I spent over an hour this evening reading with an ebook open on my left screen, and a Notion tab open on the other, to capture my highlighted passages and a few small associated notes. Perhaps fittingly I'm currently reading a book titled 'How To Take Smart Notes" by Sönke Ahrens, which is a book repeatedly cited by people online relating to note taking and organization. Here are a few of my highlights from the book:
- Writing is not what follows research, learning or studying, it is the medium of all this work. And maybe that is the reason why we rarely think about this writing, the everyday writing, the note-taking and draft-making. Like breathing, it is vital to what we do, but because we do it constantly, it escapes our attention.
- Every task that is interesting, meaningful and well-defined will be done, because there is no conflict between long- and short-term interests. Having a meaningful and well-defined task beats willpower every time. Not having willpower, but not having to use willpower indicates that you set yourself up for success.
- Studies on highly successful people have proven again and again that success is not the result of strong willpower and the ability to overcome resistance, but rather the result of smart working environments that avoid resistance in the first place (cf. Neal et al. 2012; Painter et al. 2002; Hearn et al. 1998).
All quotes captured on Volo as I sat in my recliner. I look forward to improving and expanding this system and as I use the device.
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Meeting Volo
Two days ago my trusty and beloved Note 9's screen began to flicker and threaten to die on me. As someone who relies on a mobile device very heavily, that meant there was no delay and it was time for an upgrade.
In my mind, and after my research, there were two options: Samsung's S22 Ultra, their latest flagship, as well as the dark horse candidate, Microsoft's Surface Duo 2. The S22 was the obvious choice. I was already in the Samsung ecosystem and it was a slick phone. We went to Best Buy hoping I could get a hands on with the phone, only to find that their display model had been stolen and thus I wasn't able to.
I'd been watching and reading reviews. The Surface Duo 2 was largely panned when it initially released due to lots of bugs in the software. Since it's release it sounded like Microsoft had cleaned up and fixed the majority of the issues. I had also been infatuated with the double screens as I saw the interface as a possible tool in my minimal setting for DMing D&D. I could have my session prep notes on the left and active notes or combat tracking or maps, etc. on the right screen.
So, without having actually held it, I bought one. It is expensive, but when I consider that it's two screens, the price difference over other major phones is a little easier to swallow. A little.
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Having had the phone for a bit over 18 hours, I can say, overall, I am quite enjoying it. The double screen functionality feels very much like the first time I used a computer with two monitors and I realized the potential of extra screen real estate. So far, I have almost exclusively used it without having an app span both screens. When I have experimented with the spanning, it's worked fine overall, you have work around the gap between the two monitors, or have it be an app that is set up to utilize both screens.
One of the insights that someone shared with me about the Duo is that, the form factor and design, does not facilitate quick use. It's hard to use one handed, thankfully for hands my size it is mostly usable with one hand (assuming it's already folded open into one-hand mode.) But if it's a closed book, then it's tricky. Even more than the one-handed difficulties, it is a little different and "slower."
For example, the ease of snapping a quick photo on most smartphones is extremely quick and easy. With the Duo 2, you have to fold it open to use. So if you're a parent of a young child needing to snap a photo of the moment they take their first steps you might miss it if you aren't prepared. While yes, I am sure the relative slowness to snap photos will be an issue, it isn't a primary use case for me and my phone.
Along with the phone, I also bought their stylus. However, as I have since learned, to utilize the stylus with the phone, I need a specific cover for it - One which appears to be sold out everywhere. These are all sold separately, which is frustrating. I get it, the stylus is also designed to be used with other Surface devices, so it doesn't need to be bundled with the case, but it's still frustrating as now I have to wait to find the cover somewhere before I can make use of it. Such is the modern times, it is ultimately a small frustration.
So far, I have no problems with the phone. I'm still figuring out how to do things or figuring out my preferred workflows. The ability to pair apps and have them open on both screens is cool. I purposefully didn't transfer over all my previous apps, opting to start this phone fresh and re-install only what I actively use. Right now, I am attempting to use Obsidian as my mobile phone organizer. I'm just trying to find the best syncing solution. I'll share more once I figure it all out.
Lastly, the name. why am I calling it Volo? Well, it's a double naming. The first meaning is for Ukraine and recognizing their president during the invasion from Russia. Secondly, Volo is also a character in D&D Lore. He's notable for being a writer of numerous books and tomes on topics. Seemed a fitting fictional namesake.
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