-
iOS Shortcut for the Reddit Blackout
I threw together this quick iOS Shortcut Automation for respecting the Reddit blackout: Any time my muscle memory kicks in and tries to open Apollo on June 12 or 13, my phone will redirect me to a certain YouTube video instead. There doesn’t seem to be a way to share automations in Shortcuts, but you…
-
Setting up a Mastodon RSS Bot with Home Assistant
I recently created @arborwiki_changes@a2mi.social, a Mastodon bot that posts changes to ArborWiki (a wiki for Ann Arbor, MI and nearby communities). I had a few ideas for how to build it. If there was a Glitch bot template I would have probably just grabbed that and set up a cron job to try to trigger…
-
Why you should know about 3d printing even if you don’t ever want to 3d print something
I dropped my Vornado fan. One of the fan blades broke in the fall. I couldn’t find a replacement blade for it, so it’s next stop should be the landfill. But. A person on Thingiverse had the same thing happen to the exact same fan and was able to design a replacement part. I tried…
-
How to verify your WordPress site on Mastodon
If you prefer this in video form, I’ve created a screencast that shows the steps to get verified on Mastodon: When you look at someone’s profile on Mastodon, you might see that they have a green check mark next to their links: That means Mastodon has confirmed that the link is controlled by the person…
-
Mastodon is the new Google Reader
I’m optimistic about Mastodon, the open-source federated Twitter clone, but even more optimistic about ActivityPub. Together, they can bring back the heyday of Google Reader. Your friend tells you to join Mastodon and you’re like “ok where do I sign up?” and then your friend sends you a manifesto about things like “federation” instead of…
-
Two Things All Weather Apps Get Wrong
I haven’t tried all the weather apps, but all the ones I’ve tried get these two things wrong. I’ve been trying to find or come up with a term for the first one, “Cold Front Day” is probably the best I’ve found and it helps to have a name for it. While we’re on the…
-
RSS in 2022
My friend Adam recently asked me about the RSS feeds I consume, so I thought it was a good time to do the equivalent of a 2022 blogroll post. The orange RSS icons in this post link directly to RSS feeds you can subscribe to. If you don’t have a way to follow RSS feeds,…
-
Let me tell you about my solar panels
Just in time for the shortest day of the year (in the northern hemisphere), my solar panels are live! First off, solar panels make financial sense right now. I would see solar panels on people’s houses and wonder how much more people are spending just to lower their “carbon footprint” (a term made up by…
-
A thing about my sabbatical and sleep
I am back to work, after three months of paid sabbatical. I should probably write more about it at some point, but until then here’s something I noticed early on. I have a thing where I wake up overnight and ruminate, often about work. I worry about something from the day before or the next…
-
Scooter
We had to say goodbye to Scooter on Friday. He was 13. It was a rough week. We euthanized Yoshi in our home on Monday. That day Scooter started limping. It wasn’t anything new. He was part Shar-Pei and would get Shar-Pei fever from time to time. It would clear up in 24-36 hours and…