"Francisco Franco is still dead." (IFYKYK)

Helene is shaping up to kick Florida right in the crotch as a major hurricane. But, "What, me worry?" (IFYKYK)

That's right, Florida's insurance market is up for the challenge! In the immortal words of that fearless leader Dubya, "Bring it on!"

Lawmakers and the industry credit reforms they passed that made it harder to sue insurers. It also could be simply because the state’s recent hurricanes made landfall in rural parts of the state

Yeah, let's see how much post-hurricane media coverage is about policy holders not being able to collect on their policy, and unable to sue their providers! Florida's Republican legislature enacted "reforms" that amount to little more than, "Heads I win, tails you lose," for the insurance industry.

Yes, you can get insurance, so you can get a mortgage. It'll be when uninhabitable homes get foreclosed on and the mortgage industry is left with a lot of unsellable inventory blighting the landscape that we'll see real reform.

There's a lot of needless pain and suffering left between here and there, though.

You read it here first folks.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:53 Wednesday, 25 September 2024

Did a virtual visit with my doctor. That was another exercise in frustration. I've installed Sequoia on my iMac, and iOS 18 on my phone, and neither would allow the web app to access the camera or microphone. They texted the link to Mitzi and she was able to open it on her computer. She hasn't updated.

Anyway, Paxlovid is prescribed. Hopefully, that'll get this resolved quickly. Still have an incredibly runny nose, cough, fever/chills and, today, my teeth hurt.

Still nothing heard from Swytch on the cable harness. Even checking the Junk folder. Crickets. It's not that important since I figured it out, but it remains something of a disappointment. It's also disappointing that today is a very nice day and I'd love to be out riding the bike.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:44 Tuesday, 24 September 2024

Just because I feel like crap and I can't think of a more productive way to spend my time, I thought I'd share another "surprise and delight" moment with MacOS this morning.

I noticed that iStat Menus claimed I had "four days remaining." I only bought iStat Menus back in June. Apparently a new version 7.x has been released since then. Well, I didn't want to fork over another $15 so soon. I went to the web site but didn't find anything about "upgrade" pricing, or "If you bought it in the last x-number of days, it's free."

Disappointing, but I guess the guy has to make a living. No problem. Delete version 7 and reinstall version 6. There was even a helpful download link.

Downloaded v6, went to the Downloads folder and planned to just drag it over into the Applications folder in the sidebar.

Wait... Where's the sidebar?

I've noticed this before. From time to time, after restarts, (Hell, maybe all the time for all I know.) Finder opens its windows without the sidebar. What's up with that?

No problem, I thought. Just go up to View and select Show Sidebar. Except... It's grayed out!

What the actual fuck? Tried to open a new window. Same thing. Went to Force Quit and re-launched Finder. Same thing.

Check Finder preferences. Check System Settings (as if anyone could actually find anything useful in there). No joy.

At some point, something happened and Show Sidebar was restored to the menu. I don't know what it was, whether I did it, or Finder just decided it was done fucking with me for today ("Don't anthropomorphize computers, they hate that.")

I've got a screenshot with it grayed out, but I'm too lazy to drag it into Photos to run the automation that posts images here.

I should make a list; but then, why should I have to?

"It just works."

Not anymore.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 18:55 Monday, 23 September 2024

And it's kinda kickin' my ass. After feeling pretty good this morning, things started going south this afternoon. Fatigue, then muscle aches, chills, now fever again.

Called my "care team" to inquire about Paxlovid. The telephone receptionist said she'd pass my message along to the doctor and someone would get back to me.

When?

Not today, I guess.

In other news, Swytch hasn't responded to my cable harness issue.

So I'm sweating here with the ceiling fan on because I'm sick of lying in bed sweating, and figured I'd bitch about some stuff.

I'm old. I've been using MacOS for 30+ years. I know less about how it works today than I did when I started out back in the 90s.

And it's infuriating.

So, "stupid user tricks." I wasn't feeling great yesterday, and I didn't take care to close Tinderbox 10 on my M3 MBP, so I wouldn't wind up with the chaos that is iCloud.

This morning, I started up the iMac, and it automatically launched Tinderbox 9, as it was instructed to do. (That's in "Login Items" under "General" for those of you, like me, who can't remember where this shit gets set.)

It launched Tinderbox 9, and loaded the post Cleanup from the 18th as the most recent post.

Ok, here we go again.

I quit Tinderbox 9, launched Tinderbox 10 and tried to open the marmot. Same thing, last post the 18th. So, maybe I'll try this "Versions" thing again. This is another feature I have no idea how it is intended to work, or indeed, how it does work.

I get the Spinning Pinwheel of Infinite Futility, as per usual, and wait what feels like an eternity ("infinite," right?) and then many windows appear with the current, non-viable version on the left, and the latest version I wrote on the MBP on the right.

So I click on "Restore" or something (Because I can't memorize what these UIs look like, and their appearance seemingly has little to do with their function. Yeah, I get the whole "Lifestream" thing, but that's not how it works. Watch...)

There's some animation where the version I want slides over to the left, and I'm thinking, "Cool."

And every single other version opens up as well!

What the actual fuck?

So now I have to figure out how to get rid of all these other windows, which are presumably files of some kind. I click the close button and I get that dialog that's been around for some time now that is incredibly unhelpful. There is no "Close without saving," it's some kind of "Revert changes." But I just "reverted"! Am I reverting my reversion?

Unsure if the throbbing vein in my temple is from the COVID or from Saint Timothy and the Apple he has made.

I clicked the "Revert changes" button and hoped for the best, because that's all you can do today. Fortunately, all those unwanted versions disappeared. I have no idea where, nor do I care or want to know.

Made my little check-in post and went on about my day.

(It was shortly after that when I received an email from one of my classmates, which said that he tested positive for COVID. So I took the test myself. Six drops, no more no less. 15 seconds in your nose. Both nostrils. Came up unambiguously positive in less than 10 minutes. So much for the Moderna vaccine. Fuckers.)

Anyway, here I am, back at my desk and what the fuck? Apparently the iMac restarted, because Tinderbox 9 was now running. My posts were gone. And I'm cursing Saint Timothy Cook and Apple and all those motherfuckers who make excuses for it. (Pardon my French. I'm feeling pretty salty.)

So I did the "Revert to" thing again. Same fucking drill, and here we are.

I've removed Tinderbox 9 from Login Items, added Tinderbox 10. I have no idea what to do about the MacBook Pro, sleeping on the floor with Tinderbox 10 open and a version of the marmot minus these two posts. I know I'll have to do something about it before this goes on too long.

I'm embedded in Apple's ecosystem like a tick on a hound, and there's no way out without losing a lot. But I hate it. I used to enjoy computers. I do enjoy the little Apple //c and the Apple IIe in the garage. But Macs today are overwrought with security bullshit, inexplicable "features" that solve problems that nobody has, "discoverability" is long forgotten as a tenet of good UI design. Why does Photos on every one of my devices believe I have a different number of images in iCloud? Inspires confidence.

They change the UI for the sake of changing things, so employees can justify their paychecks. Just fix the bugs. Make it more discoverable, "friendlier," and keep improving those things instead of adding half-assed bullshit features.

I guess my criticism will be dismissed as the ravings of a grumpy old man. It wasn't that long ago that I recommended "Just get a Mac," to people. Not anymore. I don't know what a better solution is, but Apple sucks as much as Windows. If anything, I should warn people not to get embedded in Apple's ecosystem. It's a roach motel. Full of bugs.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 17:03 Monday, 23 September 2024

And we're back in Florida.

Busy weekend, a lot of fun. But I seemed to contract something. I suppose it was inevitable. I think this was the largest gathering I've been part of since before COVID. There have been bigger crowds, but I hadn't been interacting with so many people.

Cough, fever, chills, body aches, runny nose, the usual stuff. I did get the current flu shot, along with the updated COVID vaccine, but who knows?

Last night was rough, but I'm up and functioning at about 60% this morning. Hoping Mitzi doesn't come down with it.

Anyway, just checking in. I'll post some thoughts later on when I'm feeling better and my nose isn't running.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:07 Monday, 23 September 2024

We're in Annapolis.

Before we left yesterday, I went outside to look at the compressor for the heat pump to try and see how a bird might get into it.

Well, it can. Down at the bottom where the refrigerant lines enter and exit, there's enough room for a bird to get in there. We have several doves often feeding on our paver patio. I guess they're eating the little ants that inhabit the seams between pavers. I suspect one may have been feeding and simply followed its way into the compressor enclosure and couldn't make its way back out.

I once found a bird trapped in our fire pit. It has a screened top that contains flying embers, and the top had a hole rusted through it. A small warbler had managed to land inside the fire pit, but couldn't fly back out through the hole. It was still alive and well when I discovered it, and flew off when I removed the top. I inverted it after that. Not sure what I'm going to do about the compressor.

Unpleasant surprise at Jax airport yesterday. Several hundred parking places at the daily lot have been lost due to construction of a new terminal. We'd planned to park in the parking garage, or, failing that, daily surface. Closer to the terminal, no waiting for a shuttle.

Well, they re-directed all traffic back to economy. There was no heads-up that I noticed on the way in that the daily lots were full. There were the usual electronic signs indicating "Full" as you approached daily parking, after you'd passed the economy lots.

Fortunately, we'd left in plenty of time, the shuttle was waiting for us right as we parked, and filled to capacity immediately, so it didn't make a circuit of the lot. The driver then gave a long spiel about what had happened and how long it was likely to affect airport travel. Years.

Mitzi is our travel agent, and arranges all the car rentals. She'd booked a Budget "Fast Break," where she got a text that told us what zone in the parking area we should look, and pick any car in that zone.

To make a long story short, it was a disaster. No cars. We eventually got one, a Kia EV of some kind, looks brand new. Managed to suss out how to operate it, and then tried to exit the lot. Long, very slow, line at the exit booth, where we were supposed to show Mitzi's phone with a QR code displayed. Nope. License and key.

Car didn't come with a full battery, supposedly don't have to return it with one either. First car we looked at was an EV, and it had some woman's Florida driver's license in it. We were about to take it back to the check-in counter when a woman drove up who we thought was an employee. Nope, it was the owner of the license. Apparently decided against the EV, selected another car but left her license in the first one.

Weird.

Hotel has a charging station. Supposed to only park there while charging. It was open when we got there and after a lot of time searching (found it online) we found the charging port and plugged it in. Free charging, if not free parking. We let it charge for a couple of hours and then came back down to go to dinner. It'd only added 20 miles to the range! I guess that's Level 2?

When we came back from dinner, it was still open, so we plugged it in again and left it charging. I didn't go down to check on it last night, but I assume it's fully charged now. There's a level indicator next to the charging port, so presumably it was showing that it was being charged for several hours until late into the night. I wasn't going to go move it after midnight.

Anyway, probably going to go onto the Academy campus today and look around. There's supposed to be someplace where I can pick up a packet, I need to review all that information about where and when. We're checking out from this hotel and meeting up with some of my company-mates at an Airbnb for the rest of the weekend. I'm optimistic we'll have plenty of range on the EV and won't need to charge again before we return it.

Tonight is a get-together at a classmate's house. Tomorrow is alumni stuff that I have only a little interest in, but I'll probably attend. Friday night is a buffet dinner that we are attending because I hope to see some of my classmates from the Ocean Engineering group. Saturday is a tailgater event where I expect to see one of my roommates from Surface Warfare Officers School. A great guy who went on to become a career Navy SEAL. Haven't seen him in many, many years.

Sunday we head home.

I still haven't heard from Swytch about the cable issue, so add that to the disappointment. It doesn't matter because I figured it out, but it does say something about the level of support you might expect from the company.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:35 Thursday, 19 September 2024

Went out yesterday to finally address the cable issue on my bike, and clean up the residue (chiefly a lot of cardboard and clipped remains of zip-ties).

I will give Swytch props for packaging. There were two bits of foam in the box that surrounded the axle of the wheel. Otherwise, all cardboard. Well designed, well laid out, easy to recycle.

There's a large bit of text on the box that suggests it should not be stored in the vertical position, but laid flat. Of course nobody notices that. It was left on my doorstep vertically, and I left it vertical when I brought it inside. It wasn't until I put it in the garage that I laid it flat and noticed the advisory or warning. Unsure why that was important, but pretty sure nobody is paying attention to it.

I used some heat shrink tubing to kind of cleverly seal up the two mystery connectors. I didn't have a piece large enough to enclose both connectors, so I used two pieces then stuck a piece, bent like a U over the two ends of now shrunk tubing and shrank that. Not pretty, but I think it'll keep water out. Maybe they should have capped the connectors you're not supposed to use?????

(The unnecessary cap didn't fit either of the other connectors.)

Found my flashlight.

Bike's black, cables are black, heat shrink is black. A lot of cables, but they're not super-noticeable. I pulled the 20mph stickers off both sides of the battery. (19.6 mph, "actually.")

Put a label on the charger so someone besides myself will know what it goes to, because there's nothing on the charger that suggests what it's for.

And, as of this writing, I still have not heard from switch regarding my support issue.

But it works.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:01 Wednesday, 18 September 2024

Updated the iMac to MacOS 15, Sequoia, the last official major OS update this 2019 iMac will ever see, apparently. I guess five years is a good run these days.

Appears to have gone smoothly. I do appreciate the gigabit speed of fiber. The vast majority of the time was spent by the computer doing whatever it does installing the new underpinnings and restarting.

I went to update my iPhone 13 to iOS 18 just now, and it's not being reported as available. Do I have to update to 17.7 first? Beats me. I restarted it. We'll see what happens.

Anyway, the beat goes on...

Update: Restarting installed iOS 17.7. iOS 18 remains MIA.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:53 Wednesday, 18 September 2024

I'm afraid "weird" may have been hijacked by politics, but we heard a weird noise coming from the compressor for our heat pump last night. Incredibly loud banging as if something inside had come apart and was bouncing around off the fan blades or something.

We had had two previous episodes of a singular bang, one Mitzi heard and one that I heard. I thought it was a hard start, perhaps indicative of a failing capacitor, but one occurred at the end of a cycle.

Last night's episode seemed to go on forever, perhaps over a minute. Time enough for me to go outside with a flashlight and try and see what the hell was going on. I couldn't make anything out. The fan was spinning smoothly, but something was undoubted inside getting knocked about violently.

After it shut off, I went out and looked again.

Er, something had died in there.

I think it may have been a bird. How anything could get inside that machine is a mystery to me, but I'll look again this morning after the sun comes up.

There were "remains" of something clinging to the interior of the northwest corner of the top of the enclosure. They had been there for some time, and appeared to be kind of glued there. I saw stuff that may have resembled feathers and bird feet. Pretty gross.

I got a screwdriver and knocked the largest bit remaining off the enclosure, and it fell into the interior somewhere.

Then I noticed other bits of dried ick around the entire interior circumference of the of the top.

Weird.

Of course we're leaving town this morning.

We raised the thermostat to 78° to minimize the operation of the heat pump and spent a warm night.

This morning, it's come on twice since I've been up and no banging. Hopefully, problem solved.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:38 Wednesday, 18 September 2024

Mitzi's hosting a brunch here in a couple of hours and I'll have to make myself scarce. I'll be taking the Comcast/XFinity cable box back and cancelling cable. No more local evening news, or network national news, or the Wheel ("Now featuring Ryan Seacrest!") or Jeopardy!.

Last night I sat in the recliner in my office and played old video games on my Apple //c instead! Made it to level 3 in Lode Runner. I'm very out of practice, but also surprised that the "patterns" you have to run to evade the Bungeling Empire guards remain somewhat embedded in my muscle memory. Had to adjust the joystick because it was biased slightly upward so whenever I ran past a ladder, my guy would start climbing it.

Played some Choplifter, and I'm horrible at that now. The plane keeps shooting me down!

Played a mission in Star Fleet 1, which I wasn't sure would work. The original required you to entire a word from a specific page in the (very thick) manual. I only played the training mission, so maybe that kicks in on the higher levels. I hope not. It's a text-based, elaborate expansion on the classic Star Trek game. Well regarded, back in the day.

The IIe is looking pretty good. Got the motherboard cleaned up. Installed the "new" (modern tech) 8MB memory card in the Aux Slot and discovered that I had ordered the wrong card. Well, not really, I didn't know at the time when I was ordering it that I'd be receiving a Rev A Apple IIe. They're relatively scarce in the marketplace, since only a few thousand were produced.

The developer of the board offered to flash it for me to disable the double hi-res graphics feature, which makes it incompatible with the Rev A, but I went ahead and ordered another card because they're fairly inexpensive and I may "upgrade" this machine to a Rev B someday. The disk drive I tested worked, so the controller card works.

It's nice when I feel like I got a really good deal, and this IIe was. I paid $320 for it, which might seem high, but it was a package deal with a number of items that are very pricey bought separately. I went looking for the monitor stand and they mostly seem to be going north of $100! So I'm very happy it survived shipping. Likewise the CH Mach 3 Joystick. There are three up on the auction site right now at $75 a piece and one bargain unit at $45 (plus $15 shipping). The Monitor III is also mostly well north of $100. The Kensington System Saver external fan/surge suppressor is listing between $65 and $100. So, just those accessories would run about what I paid for the whole thing.

We're out of town again starting tomorrow. Headed up to Annapolis for my 45th class reunion. I'm kind of tired of traveling, but it's just a long weekend. I booked the Wednesday flight because of weather uncertainty to give us a recovery day on Thursday if we couldn't get out. Doesn't look like it'll be a problem, but you never know in September in Florida.

When we get back on Sunday, we'll have about five weeks at home before we head up to Georgia for a wedding and another family event with Mitzi's siblings.

Then we have to figure out whether or not we're going to New York in November. I rather expect we are, because it's an opportunity for Mitzi to visit her daughter in DC, where we spend the night since we'll be driving. I'm kind of interested in seeing how the house is doing, sitting empty. I may buy and install a flood sensor as well.

Anyway, staying busy. The beat goes on...

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:45 Tuesday, 17 September 2024

Technically, it won't be "super" until 2246 tonight. It was hanging above the western horizon this morning and so I figured, "Why not?" Haven't seen one for a while. Olympus E-M1X with the 100-400mm, handheld high-res shot. Edited, hastily, in Photos.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:42 Tuesday, 17 September 2024

The coolest morning here in a very long time - 70°F! And little to no wind.

I found the settings screen for the controller and set everything to English units, just because. Found the speed adjustment and the max is 30kph (even with "miles" set, the settings use kilometers), or 18.6mph. So I set it for 30kph, found my lights and got on the road at 0520.

I forgot to start the Fitness app in the driveway, remembered a little more than a quarter mile away, so I only recorded 5.84 miles. Well, average speed was 14.7mph, max was 17.3. I had to maneuver around some construction and deal with getting out of the back gate, but if you leave all that out, the ride was mostly around 17-18mph.

With the gearing on my little three speed, 18mph is me pedaling about as fast as my stubby legs can go, and it is essentially effortless. That was on level 3 assistance. Maybe I could get to 18.6 if I went to level 4 or 5. The point is, I never got going fast enough for the motor to cut out, which is a better experience, I think.

So I'll have to extend my ride to get more of a workout on non-windy days. Average HR was only 112bpm, and I only expended 160 calories.

It is kind of fun though. I did have the feeling of "speed" this morning. I suppose I'll get used to it eventually, but I did feel like I was going very fast. I see kids on ebikes around here, and I think they're mostly on American bikes with more powerful motors and throttles, because they're usually zipping along and not even peddling!

Still have to figure out the cable management, and I don't know if I should take this thing to the store and park it. The battery is only held on with velcro straps. There's a locking kit, but it added quite a bit to the price. It'd probably be ok. We'll see.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:11 Tuesday, 17 September 2024

So here it is. I just noticed the battery has a huge sticker on it that says "20mph." So I guess I can get this thing to go faster.

The battery is actually pressing down on the water bottle holder, so I suppose I'll have to remove that. Don't think the other location will be any less useless. Fortunately, I seldom ride far enough to have to worry about hydration.

I haven't completely zip-tied everything, because it's hard to know exactly what the neatest configuration might be. I just put enough on there for now to take it for a ride.

I need to get my light mounted and the little tool bag back on there, but it's basically done. I also need to get everything put away, and try and find my little flashlight.

Did you notice the front wheel was silver? Neither did I.

Still bugs me.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 15:46 Monday, 16 September 2024

Well, ynto yt anyway.

I enjoy riding my bike, but not always. There are two times when I will forego riding. One is when it's hot and muggy, the other when it is windy. (Or wyndy?)

Wind is perhaps worse than heat. The heat thing is mostly that I'm soaking wet whenever I get where I'm going. Wind is just discouraging. You're pedaling hard and going nowhere. Well, almost nowhere. I don't know what the thermodynamic efficiency comparison is between riding into the wind and walking, but, subjectively, walking is less unpleasant.

Today is "windy." I don't know what the threshold for me is, but it's definitely below the 12mph we're seeing right now. I would normally not ride my bike today, so it was a good day to test out this conversion.

I have a Priority Classic, 3-speed, very upright riding posture. It's not "built for speed," and neither am I. Looking over the Fitness app, I didn't ride at all in July. Unsurprising, we were gone for much of the month and it's one of the hottest in Florida. My average figures for June were 5.8 miles at 11.7 mph, for 29m 43s expending 213 calories.

My best "workout" rides were between 28m 30s and 29m 31s, 6.03 miles and my best speed was 12.7 mph. Average HR was in the 140s, and calories expended were >290 calories.

The test ride this afternoon was not a workout ride. So I was faster, and expended fewer calories. Despite not being intended to be a workout ride, I nevertheless still had a workout. 136 bpm average HR is right up there with my "Nordic walking" workouts with the polls (though they expend far more calories). And I'm feeling it in my legs. So I was making an effort of some kind, mostly to see how fast I could go.

I don't recall what level of assistance I was in, I think it was 3 (out of 5). I'm still unfamiliar with the control and the display. The speed tops out at 25kph, or 15.5 mph. That's the limit in Britain, faster than that and it's no longer a "bike" and you need a license and registration. We don't have that limit here, and I think there's a setting in the controller where I can bump that up a bit. I'd be happy with 20mph, because that'd let me keep up with the golf carts, mostly. Except for the ones that have been modified for "street use." (I think they go up to 35mph, and good luck to you if you have an accident.)

But I could definitely feel the assistance, particularly in starting out. Normally I have to start out in first gear, but the motor kicks in really quickly and I'm able to start out in 3rd gear as easily as I could in first. The sensation of speed was less pronounced. My maximum recorded in the Fitness app was 16.9mph with the wind. And when I started getting up there around 25kph, you could feel the motor cut out. Much of the trip was into the wind, so the feeling of speed wasn't really present, but I could hear the wind roaring in my helmet (probably 25mph relative wind). My helmet is more of a skateboard helmet than a bike helmet. I look stupid in either kind, and don't normally wear one at all. I think there'd be less wind noise with a bike helmet because it doesn't cover your ears.

The big takeaway for me was that today was not a day I'd normally choose to ride, but now I know I can.

Overall, I'm largely satisfied with the device. It leaves a lot to be desired from an appearance standpoint, and the company's support in terms of assembly is unacceptable. But if you can overcome that, you do have a bike that will expand your capabilities in terms of biking significantly.

It's a tough call in terms of the value proposition. To receive the wrong wheel, have to struggle through inadequate and misleading documentation, and be left with something that looks kind of jury-rigged, I certainly wouldn't spend more than $509. If the documentation had been first-rate, I'd say it was a reasonable price, and I'd have had a less frustrating experience.

I'd like to say everyone should go out and get one, but I can't. If you really want to convert an existing bike, this does have everything you need to do so. Be prepared to "figure it out" on your own, though. I don't know if there are better kits on the market, with clearer instructions. Swytch came with good reviews, but I'm disappointed with the company, and the experience up to the point of getting it on the road has been unpleasant.

Riding has been another story. Time will tell if this has been a good purchase.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 14:40 Monday, 16 September 2024

So here's how my day has been going.

I've been trying to assemble my Swytch ebike conversion kit. It has not gone well, despite all the glowing YouTube videos about how easy it is.

It is not.

The first disappointment was that the wheel in the box wasn't black, it was silver. I was pretty sure I'd ordered the black rim. The first confirmation email didn't mention what color the rim was, and I didn't think anything of it.

The second confirmation email mentioned that the order included a silver rim, but I missed it.

They sent a third notification, on September 7, while we were in NY and I wasn't paying close attention to email, also disclosed they were sending me a silver wheel. I wasn't expecting the kit until October, so it wasn't high on my agenda in terms of paying attention as we were trying to get the new place set up.

As mentioned, I'm pretty sure I ordered a black rim. But my last long-term bike was a bit of a franken-bike with a fork from another bike of a different color. I'm not that bent out of shape about it, but it was a disappointment.

No printed manual is included. So I was using my iPad in the garage. I tried to download the pdf manual, but for whatever reason, all I ever received was the cover page. There's an "interactive" web thing that purports to step you through everything. It sucks. Out loud. Once again, a company has opted for glitzy web effects, transitions, etc, rather than clear illustrations and straightforward text.

Everything is black, and things have to fit into slots and holes and it's hard to see. If you buy one of these things, you should probably wear a headlamp to see what you're doing. I took both of my headlamps to New York. I don't know why.

I muddled my way through nearly everything, over about three hours. I was at the last step of connecting the wiring harness, and I was stuck.

These connections are supposedly "color coded." That's just a cruel joke.

I couldn't figure out what cable was supposed to connect to the handlebar controller. Do they tell you what each of those connections is for? No. Because why would they do that? It'd just confuse the user! It's color coded!

I went to the support web site, thinking maybe there'd be some document or something that elaborated on the harness, or, failing that, some "chat" support. Well, no elaboration, and chat is with an extremely lame bot.

More disappointment.

So I filled out a support request. Unclear when I'll get a response. This wasn't encouraging:

Our team is committed to addressing your request as quickly as possible. While we typically respond within 48 hours, it may take a bit longer during this busy period. Please know that your request is important to us, and we are carefully reviewing each one.

Well, I wanted to ride my ebike. See that cable that's capped? Why is it capped? I don't know and Swytch ain't sayin'. Bastards.

I figured it was covered on purpose, like "do not mess with this cable." Then I figured, "Screw that, I'm pulling this thing off."

There was my connection!

What a bunch of bullshit.

So I got everything wired up. The two mystery connectors remain... mysterious. I picked the bike up, turned the pedals and the front wheel spun!

Then I did my best to cable tie the miles of excess wiring and took it for a spin.

It works!

I'll do another post about the riding experience later. I just want to conclude this one about the assembly experience.

The documentation and web support is horrible. Swytch has invested far more effort in making the web site "pretty" than they have in good documentation. The YouTube videos are all misleading. I'm a bike "rider." I take it to the shop to have a spoke replaced. About all I can do is put air in the tires. I replaced the inner tubes on Mitzi's bike and managed to put one of the tires on "backward." Since when could you do that???

If you see a bike stand in a YouTube video, then treat all claims of "simple" and "easy" with a significant amount of skepticism. It's doable, but it's not easy.

Work in a well-lighted area. Our garage has a two-bulb fluorescent overhead light and it's just plain dark in there. I have to keep the garage door closed because Florida. So have a couple of flashlights handy. A couple, because you will constantly lose track of where you put one of them.

The nuts on the wheel are 19mm. My largest wrench was 16mm. I don't work on bikes, obviously. 11/16s works almost as well and better than an adjustable wrench, IMHO. The instructions for mounting the sensor to the peddle arm are confusing if they're not outright wrong, and I'm pretty certain they just plain outright wrong.

There's a tiny nut and bolt thing that holds the arm to the sensor disk, and you are almost certain to drop that little nut and lose it, so be extremely careful.

All in all, assembly is a horrible experience, because the instructions are incomplete, misleading and sometimes wrong.

But if you persevere and don't just give up and demand to return it, you do get an ebike. Looks kind of goofy. The battery is big and basically makes the water bottle holder useless. There are miles of cables everywhere.

But it'll make your ride a lot easier.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 11:20 Monday, 16 September 2024

Spent some time in the garage this afternoon with the IIe. One of the nice parts of this purchase was that a Hayes Mach 3 joystick was included. It looked pretty disgusting, and I wasn't sure how well it would work. Before doing anything else, I fired up the IIe, connected the joystick and entered a little routine to check it out.

Amazingly, it came up pretty damn near centered and responded with the full range from 0 to 255. The other joystick I bought (Apple branded, but likely from the same manufacturer who made the Hayes joysticks), needed some adjustment and didn't seem to want to offer the full range. Close enough for Choplifter and Lode Runner though!

Since this is a relatively early IIe (as a Rev A), it's in a painted case. Later, Apple went to all-plastic cases that will yellow over time. The more time I spend with this machine, the better I'm liking it. I'll probably open it up tomorrow and remove the case. I may not remove the motherboard, but I'll clear the dust somehow. Then I'll install a disk controller so I can load some software, and the memory expansion card. I'll run a utility and verify that it performs properly as an Aux Slot memory expansion card.

The biggest challenge is going to be finding a place to put it. I've had a little inspiration that may allow me to do what I want without removing the recliner. I'll need to play with the tape measure and see.

Here's a little video I made after I cleaned up the joystick and ran another test to make sure it still worked.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 15:25 Saturday, 14 September 2024

Well, I needn't have worried about the installation and transition to IQ Fiber. Very smooth. Tech was friendly, knowledgeable and ready to help.

They have an app to control your network and I was able to rename the default network to our previously existing network (SSID and password), which saved an enormous amount of effort in terms of getting all the "smart" devices back online.

Haven't done any really significant streaming, though I just uploaded a brief video to Vimeo and that seemed to go pretty quickly. They have to do their thing once it gets to their servers, so I'm waiting on that.

I wish everything would go as smoothly as this did.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 15:12 Saturday, 14 September 2024

One surprise on the front porch Thursday evening was the box from Swytch, the b-bike conversion from England. That was supposed to arrive in October. But, hey, I don't mind. There were three boxes from the auction site.

One was the "Apple IIc disk drive," (which included an entire Apple IIc and some manuals). The other two were an Apple IIe and an old Monitor III that were all part of one purchase.

Opening the IIc box was a disappointment familiar to many buyers from the auction site. Poor packaging. The external disk drive beat up the keyboard in transit. Several keys were broken and one switch was broken. The disk drive door was also broken. I can get replacements for the keys, but it's still disappointing. (Pack the IIc keyboard side down on some foam.) The good news is that it is otherwise fully functional. It was pretty dirty, but cleaned up well and seemed less yellowed than the other IIc I have. This was a 4000 model, which lacks the memory expansion connector on the motherboard. But it was one with an Alps keyboard (Which made the damage even more painful.)

The IIe was packaged even worse but, remarkably, arrived undamaged. The cpu was packaged with the two Disk ][ disk drives which are like Thor's hammer in terms of the amount of damage they can do. It even had the original monitor stand that Apple sold to support a Monitor III (designed for the Apple III) on top of an Apple II. Those things almost never survive.

The seller used 12-pack soda boxes (a first), and styrofoam peanuts, which I despise, as filler material. Some brown craft paper. None of which completely filled the empty volume in the box, and I don't know how everything made it here in one piece, but I'm grateful for small miracles. The Monitor III was in a separate box, similarly ill-packaged, but likewise intact.

After cleaning up the IIc and getting an inventory of keys I'll have to replace (Space bar may be a problem, there may be a piece missing.) I turned my attention to the Monitor III since that seemed like the thing that was least likely to actually work.

I plugged the IIe and the monitor in, expected the magic smoke and turned everything on. No smoke. After waiting a suitable interval for the monitor to warm up, an image appeared. Some fiddling with the controls got it stable and the damn thing works. Built in November, 1982. Image is a little biased to the left, but it works.

The Monitor III had a fabric anti-glare screen. It also had a bunch of crud on it. I used a toothbrush and warm soapy water to try and clean it. Failed. Watched a video of a guy opening one up to remove the screen and decided it was simpler to just use an Exacto knife. Screen was filthy under it, though it cleaned up pretty well; but there are still blemishes from some liquid that evidently got onto the glass. Not noticeable when the monitor is on. It's not "museum grade," but it's still pretty cool.

The IIe was intended to be an update to the ][+ that reduced costs and added modest improvements, presumably to make it more appealing for schools. It had 64K on the motherboard, while the ][+ was shipping with a max of 48K at the end of its run. You had to put a 16K "Language Card" in slot 0 to get 64K. The Language Card was developed to support Pascal as another operating system/programming language for the Apple ][.

People figured out how to bank-switch that 16K, and were creating RAM disks and expanded memory for Visicalc with it.

The Apple ][+ also shipped with 40-column uppercase only text. To get 80 columns, then the standard for "serious" computing, you had to install a video card in slot 3. The IIe added support for lower case text, and a low cost video card for 80 column text as an option. Further, that low cost 80 column card could also come with an additional 64K of memory onboard, for a total of 128K! Whoa!

When the IIe came out, I'd already sunk a bunch of money into my ][+. We're talking 80s dollars here. I bought a ][+ with one disk drive for $2500, which is north of $7k in today's money. On top of that, I put a Videx 80 column card in slot 3, bought a second disk drive, a Monitor III, and that funky plastic stand, all so I could use PIE: Writer as my word processor. So I was probably over $10k in today's dollars by the time I was done and the Apple IIe was announced. (I hesitate to consider what $5k invested in 1982 would be worth today. I could probably afford a house in the Finger Lakes.)

ChatGPT isn't so reluctant, though it does qualify everything:

Calculating the exact amount that $5,000 invested in a NASDAQ index fund in 1980 would be worth today is quite complex and would require specific data on the fund's performance, including dividends and stock splits, over the past 40+ years. However, as a rough estimate, we can consider that the NASDAQ Composite has grown from around 200 points in 1980 to over 14,000 points in 2021. This is a 70-fold increase. Applying this increase to a $5,000 investment would result in a value of approximately $350,000.

So, yeah, a house in the Finger Lakes.

While I was impressed with the expanded memory of the IIe, I didn't feel as though the additional capability really added anything to what I already had in my ][+.

Well, and this remains unclear to me even today, at some point the engineers at Apple realized they could make some relatively modest modifications to the motherboard involving the video timing signals, and they could use that 64K expansion card to increase the resolution and colors of Apple's "high resolution" graphics.

The original Apple IIe, the so-called "Rev A," shipped without those motherboard modifications, and is incapable of displaying double hi-res graphics. You're stuck with the original 280x192 in monochrome (though some fancy bit-twiddling in programming could make it appear as though the horizontal resolution was 560 pixels), and six colors (eight if you count two whites and two blacks), with the limitations of adjacent colors due to the NTSC artifacts Woz relied on to create color.

It was the addition of double hi-res graphics that made me decide I needed to get an Apple IIe. So my first IIe was a Rev B, and I bought it as a package from one of my neighbors who worked at a computer retailer. Prices had come way down, of course. I got the 128K IIe, two disk drives, and a Monitor II for $1595. I sold my ][+ setup for $900 to a co-worker. (I had that //e for probably over a decade, though I can't recall exactly what happened to it anymore. I eventually got a IIgs and used that for many years before we finally switch to a Mac with the much maligned Performa 6200CD.

I don't know how many Rev A models shipped, but they were supposedly only in the thousands; and Apple offered motherboard swaps for early buyers, so many of those were upgraded to Rev B motherboards.

Well, this IIe in my garage is a Rev A.

Wild.

It boots up with "Apple ][" at the top of the screen. When you "enhance" an Apple IIe ("enhanced" was supposedly what the originally stood for), you get a 65C02 processor, new ROMs and a new video character set that includes "Mouse Text" (for drawing GUI elements in text) and the screen shows Apple //e when you boot up.

I'm not exactly sure what I want to do about that yet, if anything at all. Presumably, I can still use the Aux Slot for memory expansion, and I could install the "enhancement" kit with the 65C02 and new ROMs. There's no real support for double hi-res graphics built into the ROM, you have to do everything in your own software but there are plenty of packages that do it for you.

I think I'm going to keep it as a Rev A machine, though I will install the 65C02. I can get the ROMxe for it, which allows you to switch in any number of ROM variations.

Anyway, seller didn't think it worked. It works. Came with two modem cards, a parallel printer interface card, a 64K aux slot card, and a disk controller card. I removed all the cards to boot it up. The RIFA caps in the power supply didn't pop, so no "magic smoke." At some point I'll have to open the power supply and deal with that. I think I still have some spares I didn't give away because I forgot I had them.

So why get a IIe if I already have two //c computers? Well, the IIe has more access to the real world. The joystick port is a 16-pin DIP connector with additional channels for game controllers, buttons and an annunciator. The cassette tape jacks repurpose-able and absent on the //c. The memory is more readily expandable than the //c, I have to wait for someone to build a new card for it, which happens from time to time. I've already got a 4MB expansion card from Garrett's Workshop.

If you want to play with Apple Pascal, the best way to do that is with a large RAM disk, so you're not always waiting for the editor, compiler, or filer to load from disk. I had a setup I really liked with a Transwarp accelerator card in that SUV-load of stuff I gave away. At the moment, I'm thinking that the IIe is going to be more about programming and real-world interfacing and less about game playing or graphics.

The "new" //c is a 4000 model. I'm thinking of getting another ROMXc, then seeing if I can "ROMify" Jef Raskin's "Swyftware" application. (Should be doable. It was originally available in a ROM on a peripheral card.) Then that //c could be kind of a Canon Cat. Might be fun. I'll need to see if it can talk to blank disk images on a FloppyEMU. It uses its own disk format, and the entire disk is one "file."

In the interim, there's still a lot of cleaning to do. I spent much of yesterday afternoon scrubbing nicotine off the Monitor III. The IIe is probably just as bad, and the motherboard is very dusty. Then I have to figure out where all this stuff is going to live. I need to significantly alter my "office," I'm even considering getting rid of the recliner.

Horrors!

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 05:29 Saturday, 14 September 2024

We buttoned up the place in the Finger Lakes and headed for Syracuse at 0700 on Thursday. Easy drive, and beautiful, but a bit of a hike. Flights were all on time, some turbulence coming into Jax. There were two Delta flights arriving from JFK on Thursday, and apparently we went to the wrong baggage carrousel. A purple bag, very similar, if not identical, to Mitzi's circled the carrousel three or four times, while Mitzi's never appeared.

By the time it stopped, we were convinced the owner of that purple bag had mistakenly taken Mitzi's. Seconds after I'd called the number on the tag and left a voicemail firmly asserting she'd taken the wrong bag, she appeared to collect her bag. She'd gone to get her car rental first.

D'oh!

There was an air tag in Mitzi's bag and it indicated it was within the margin of error to be "with" us. Went to the baggage claim office to investigate and I spotted Mitzi's bag as she was talking to the agent at the counter, where she learned that our flight's baggage was at that carrousel.

Weird.

Ride home was wet and we got on Philips Highway at rush-hour where there's a well known backup at Racetrack Road, which added at least 15 minutes to the ride home. Doesn't sound like much, but it adds about 30% to the travel time, and most of it is standing still, creeping forward, standing still, creeping forward... I tipped the driver an extra $20 for the aggravation. (He's our regular driver and a good one.)

It'd rained nearly every day we were gone. A lot. Neighbor said there were snakes in the road, including cottonmouths. Many reports of flooding around the area. Not the kind due to rivers overflowing, the kind due to living at sea level and having no place for the water to go when the ground is saturated. Neighborhoods were putting up "No Wake Zone" signs because the streets were flooded but people would drive through them fast enough to leave wakes that would put water into homes and businesses that might otherwise have remained dry. Folks couldn't use their bathrooms because their septic tanks were full.

And the humidity? Oy. It's wet. Florida. The whole idea needs to be seriously reconsidered.

I miss New York so much already.

We were pretty much exhausted when we got home. Mitzi had a full schedule yesterday, getting the yard done (just before it rained again), pitching a new client, and returning some items we couldn't use in New York. I had a number of packages arrive that I needed to unpack and put away someplace, so a pretty busy day that felt a lot more like Monday than Friday. The HOA sent us a nice letter that our grass was overgrown and that there were weeds in our pavers. One of the things about HOAs is it empowers people to be little nazis. They don't send around an employee to inspect for standards. Nope, it's a zealous neighbor who rides around on a golf cart, snapping photos with his phone. And the association encourages that. Gotta maintain those "property values." (Because we're in an over-55 community and we're all going to be dead soon and all we have to leave our kids is our "property values.") People wonder why I never go to the neighborhood socials.

(FWIW, Mitzi hadn't mowed, which she does pretty regularly, because she'd just put down new sod to replace the sod killed by the guy she hired to mow the grass while we were away this summer. Landscapers suck.)

IQ Fiber is supposed to be here this morning, so I anticipate we may be offline temporarily at some point. Hopefully this will go smoothly, but recent experience suggests otherwise.

It's not clear exactly when the rain will stop.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 04:59 Saturday, 14 September 2024

I watched the "Glow" thing, and I don't know what the "glow" was about. I'm tired of the prerecorded videos. Tired of the repetitive, hyperbolic, self-praising rhetoric. It sounds like a Trump rally, minus the crazy.

I fell asleep during it a couple of times. I'm in the market for a new phone, I'm still on a 13. I don't know if there are any "pro" features that might make me consider getting one of those. I'll probably just get a "regular," "amateur" iPhone 16 with the A18.

I'm not enthusiastic about iPhones anymore. I'm kind of dependent on Apple Maps in CarPlay. I'm embedded in their content ecosystem. I'll get a 16, but I won't be waxing rhapsodic about how great it is.

It's a double-edged sword sort, or an avoidance-avoidance conflict. I don't want to learn a new platform, I don't want to give up all the stuff I already know how to do, but then Apple keeps changing the damn things, just for the sake of change, making it harder to use, and destroying the single greatest value proposition in the platform.

It's like I'm being held hostage and tortured and tormented.

It's a frickin' nightmare.

I hate it.

Maybe that's the role of "Apple Intelligence." To abstract the UI away from the user. Just tell it what you want, and let it figure out how to do it. "Siri, remove this AppleTV from my Florida home."

"Siri, add this TV to my New York home."

"Siri, fix my email so it looks like a damn email client instead of whatever hot mess this is."

"Siri, this stupid camera doesn't permit dashes in passwords, go change all my passwords so I can use this stupid camera."

"Siri, figure out why Photos thinks I have a different number of photos in my library on every device that has Photos."

"Siri, why can't you identify a power line in a photo and automatically delete it. It's a straight frickin' line! And why do you keep changing "frickin'" to "friction"?!

This modern life. It's a trap.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 09:31 Wednesday, 11 September 2024

Show went on until the sun was below the horizon. This was with the little XZ-1, edited in Photos.

Watched the debate last night. Like most people, I think, it seemed to me that Harris dominated the debate. More importantly, Trump appeared old, unhinged and angry.

I tried to imagine how people who support Trump would view his performance, and I think most of them would be satisfied with it. He validated their grievances, their prejudice, their resentment and I think that's his greatest appeal for them. He's the vessel for their anger. These are not people who are "for" anything, they're just "against" everything.

It's still just remarkably depressing that nearly half the electorate views him as a credible candidate.

But I think Harris and her team have Trump's number and they know how to play him.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:51 Wednesday, 11 September 2024

This is kind of the payoff.

Productive day today, with some frustrations that I was able to overcome.

I got the secret to resetting the Kwikset lock from a lock-picking web site. Kwikset's helpline won't give it to you, but count on the hacker mentality to share valuable information. Our model wasn't listed on the page I found, but the procedure worked anyway. Factory reset achieved, new access code successfully installed.

The Ambient weather station is mounted on the shed instead of the garage. Too much overhang on the garage roof. Two trips to the lumber store for lag screws, first ones were too short. Used a satellite TV antenna mount. Lost one of the lock nuts getting it set up while on the ladder, but one should be adequate until I can get another nut.

Got two Aqara web cams installed and connected to HomeKit. Another exercise in frustration, and I couldn't tell you exactly how I did it, except to say it had little to do with what the instructions actually say. Took probably four times as long as it should have. And it's just another aggravation that one device defines what your whole network password can be. Had to change the password to omit certain characters for the cameras, which meant re-entering it on everything else.

This place has radiant heating in the slab, and an electric boiler of some kind. I read the manual and it's quite intimidating. It was long on installation instructions and short on actual operation. In the end, I just turned it on and hoped for the best. So far, nothing horrible has happened.

When we come up here for a longer stay, I'll try and get someone who installs these things to give me a tutorial on how to ensure it's working properly.

But the weather was gorgeous today, and Mitzi and I spent a couple of hours sitting on the porch just looking at the landscape. She's negotiated lawn mowing service with the seller's parents. A bit pricey, but it's two acres, so maybe it's reasonable.

I hope we can spend several months up here next year, from sometime in May to sometime in September.

Tomorrow's our last day. A few more preparations to complete. We're thinking of coming back up for Thanksgiving, but we've got two more trips coming up and we may be over traveling in November.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 20:03 Tuesday, 10 September 2024

We give our water away to corporations so they can sell it back to us in little plastic bottles that we have to dispose of somehow.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:56 Tuesday, 10 September 2024

I once heard a St Johns River Water Management District employee say that Florida will never have a water shortage. It's just a question of how much we want to pay for it.

Seems like that question may be more relevant sooner than we think.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 07:47 Tuesday, 10 September 2024

Spotted this family in the yard this morning. Just had the iPhone at hand. Neighbor says she sees them often. They were in a field across the road, though the fawn was still over here, apparently. We saw one of the does come from the field and then a fawn running up to her from the yard. Then a few more appeared, all standing in the road.

Then a car came and they all turned and ran. It took them longer than I expected, but they were well clear before the car went by.

In other news, my struggle with technology continues. Yesterday I posted the Milky Way shot with no difficulty using Tinderbox 10.0.1 and Sequoia 15.1. I tried posting this photo earlier, and it didn't seem to appear. Tried again, and watched closely. The script seemed to be running in Photos, went back to Tinderbox and didn't see the post.

Then I noticed it was at the bottom of the outline. Checked the September 2024 container, even though I didn't really need to because new posts had been sorting in reverse chronological order since I'd updated to 10.0.1. I toggled the "Reverse" checkbox on and off and all the posts sorted correctly.

I connected an antenna to the Samsung TV yesterday evening to see if we could receive any local stations. We brought two antennas with us since we don't use them at home. It was more difficult that it needed to be to attached the coaxial cable. The fetish for "thin" places the connector close to the back panel of the TV, parallel with it, so the cable isn't perpendicular to the TV if it's mounted to a wall. This makes it hard to get a grip on the connector, and it was a struggle to get it connected.

After all that, we got 7 digital channels from one non-affiliate station. Great if you like reruns of MASH, The Rifleman, old movies, reality courtroom and other crap.

I figured I'd try the other antenna and see if it fared any better.

Now, how do I rescan for channels?

Damned if I know. When I connected the first antenna, the TV prompted me to scan for channels. When I removed the first antenna and installed the second, it just used the channels it had already programmed into memory.

I tried looking in "settings" or whatever approximates that in this dog's breakfast of a Samsung smart TV UI. I couldn't find a way to rescan anywhere. Tried YouTube. Supposed to look for a "Broadcast" setting. Can't find one. Is there Help built into this thing? Nope. Of course it doesn't come with a manual.

I guess they want everyone to run streaming apps on their platform to gather user data. Make it hard to use an antenna. I refused to create a Samsung account. It's just a dumb monitor, as much as that is possible, for the AppleTV and a DVD player.

This civilization is done. This is why old people are cranky.

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Originally posted at Nice Marmot 06:57 Tuesday, 10 September 2024