Category Archives: My Thoughts

Royal Blue Grocery

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I happened to be walking on Congress Ave and just as I passed the Hideout I could hear very faint oldies Bollywood song “Chalte Chalte”. I was so taken back that I had to turn around and find where it was coming from. Turns out it was coming from this grocery store.

– manzoor

My Apple AirPods

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OK, I finally got my Airpods and have been using them for over a week now.

I am still not happy that I had to try so hard to get them. But I am more disappointed that they don’t work nearly as well as Apple had promoted.

  1. They don’t switch between my Mac (Laptop / Mac Mini / iMac) and my iPhone or Apple Watch
  2. They don’t switch from my iPhone to my Apple Watch when I am on WiFi
  3. They do not get picked up by my iPhone everytime

Let me elaborate.

3. They Airpods do not always get paired automatically to my iPhone when I put them “on”. I have to Pair them manually probably 30% of the time. Maybe less, but it definitely feels like I am having to do it way too more frequently than I ought to be.

2. When I have the Airpods paired to my iPhone and am listening to Music from my iPhone or on a Call (yes, I do make / receive phone calls on my iPhone) and am walking around without my iPhone on me but my wearing Apple Watch – I will get disconnected 100% of the time if I walk far enough from my iPhone but am still in WiFi range. It seems to matter not if I initiate the music / phone call from my iPhone or Apple Watch. But I need to try this a bit more. Most of my use has been playing music / initiating the Phone call from my iPhone.

1. This was the primary feature in my mind why I spent so much (time / energy / money) in getting the Airpods in the first place – to be able to seamlessly switch between my Mac(s) (Laptop / Mac Mini / iMac) and my iPhone / Apple Watch. This fails 100% of the time.

OK, time for some positives.

  • The charge stays on for a good amount of time. Also, it seems to do a good job of going into power save mode when not actively being used.
  • Feels the same to me (sound quality and physically in my ears) as the regular Apple Headphones.
  • Pauses Music / Movie if I take off either (or both) of the Airpods. And also resumes soon as I put them back on.

And some neither positive or negative comments.

  • They are super expensive. But to their credit – they said how much they were long before they were even available.
  • Supply is still very lacking.
  • It does seem likely that I will loose them before long 😦

– manzoor

My Equipments:

  • Apple iPhone 6 running iOS 10.3 (beta)
  • Mac
    • MacBook Pro 13″ (Retina, Early 2015) running macOS Sierra
    • Mac Mini (Late 2014) running macOS Sierra
    • iMac running macOS Sierra
  • Apple Watch running watchOS v3.1.3

You & I can Disagree

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But we still must be able to talk to each other, respect each other. Not only can we disagree, we ought to disagree. Only when we disagree can we learn from each other.

I saw & read this article that was shared on Facebook – “The “Other Side” Is Not Dumb” by Sean Blanda. And my immediate reaction was – I need to let everyone know that I do NOT think you are not intelligent just because we don’t agree. I recall (though am unable to find it right now) once writing about “Agree to Disagree vs Disagree to Agree” (or something very much in that line) and the point I was trying to make is that we ought to be able to agree that we disagree about an issue / topic without any feeling of animosity towards each other. Whereas if we “disagree” to agree, we are assuming that we ought to be “agreeing”. That does not seem like a good place to begin.

– manzoor

P.S. there might be other reason(s) that will cause me to think that you are “dumb”, but our disagreeing will not be the reason. I hope the same from you towards me.

Links:

Battery Replament

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Recently (day before yesterday) my home security system started beeping and had the “Trouble” state turned on. A quick google and a call to the number on the Alarm Monitor panel led to the possible conclusion that “battery” that is the backup in case of a power failure is probably in need of replacement.

Since it has been a while (the house was built in late ’97), the conclusion seemed very plausible and even a desired one (as opposed to whatever else it could have been).

The challenge now was:

  1. Where is the said “battery”
  2. Where do you find a replacement of the “battery”
    1. The only batteries I am familiar with are the AA, AAA, D, 9v. Watches and other special devices have custom batteries but I have not really had a need to do anything with them because I simply take those devices to someone to have it replaced. This time I was somewhat of “in a jam” 😦
  3. How to replace the “battery”

Well . . . . it turns out the customer service person (with whom I don’t even have a service with) was very helpful and was able to give me enough clues as to where it “might” be. And it was. All I needed was a screw driver to open the panel and voila.

On the battery itself I was able to find the details of the battery and was quickly able to google where to possibly find a replacement. Most were on-line offers but I remembered “Batteries Plus” (funny that google did not show me that solution). I called them up yesterday and was able to confirm that they indeed had them in stock and was able to pick one up during “lunch”.

In my googling I already knew that the batter comes in 2 size terminals. Unfortunately I did not spend the extra time / effort to confirm exactly what size I would be needing. When I mentioned the terminal size he shrugged off and said that I could simply expand the pin that connects to use on the one he was selling me. Needless to say – he was wrong.

I found out about the wrong terminal size the hard way – by opening the panel and attempting to replace the battery. The good news here was that I knew there was another “Batteries Plus” close by and that they all were open till 8pm.

A quick run the store – again. Got the right battery with the right terminal size.

– manzoor

Raising Children

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As a parent I find myself struggling with the idea of raising my children. OK, “struggling” might be a bit to hard – I find myself asking “am I doing it right?” Of course, I don’t even know what right is. I do try to talk to other’s but often end up arguing with people who are so sure of their methods that I find it difficult to actually have a conversation. the best conversation I have are with people who are open to other thoughts / ideas / possibilities. This is not just limited to conversation about raising children but conversations about almost any topic.

Anyway, a friend of mine once mentioned a couple of things that really stuck with me and I wanted to be sure to capture them before I forget. His first comment was:

Raising your children has 3 stages.

  1. Age 1-4 foundation
  2. Age 5-12 discipline instilling
  3. Age 12-18 consulting

He also mentioned that he had 3 goals in raising his children.

  1. That they (his kids) have their own authentic friendship with God
  2. That they treat others with respect and compassion
  3. That they really enjoy their own existence.

– manzoor