Category Archives: Technology

Good News / Bad News for my Smart Phone

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I was starting to get worried that I would not be able to use my phone (that I’ve barely had for 3 and a half year) much longer. It has been my goal to use the smart phone for 5 years. So far, I have been able to use them for about 4 and a half in the past.

The good news – the device is just fine and the latest OS, v11.3, is working smoothly (so far).

So, the bad news is not so much about the device (i.e., hardware) but the content I’ve piled on it. More specifically – my 200K+ pix.

– manzoor

Imported Music not Showing Up on My Phone

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Steps I have taken so far.

To troubleshoot:

  • Check other devices with my account to see the imported music – PASS
  • Looked under the “Recently Added” section
  • Searched for the “Artist”

To fix:

  • Closed the app
  • Closed the App and closed the phone (did not shut / power it down)
  • Switched WiFi network
  • Turned WiFi Off and back On
  • Went to “other” WiFi network
  • Closed all Apps and left the Phone being Charged all night (from a little after 2 till about 6am)
  • Eventually power cycled the Phone (after having had tried all the above steps)

– manzoor

Cryptocurrency

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I have been paying more and more attention to both side of this “Cryptocurrency” – the technology (i.e., Blockchain) and the market (i.e., bitcoin).

But the market / bitcoin also has 2 sides – it’s application and the “market”.

Irrespective of all the various sides, I do feel the time has come to accept that this is something that we will be hearing more and more of and it will be something that we will use to do certain things.

Some examples of current goods / services I could pay for in Bitcoin if I wanted to.

DishNeworkBitcoinPayment

– manzoor

Google Docs Security Hack

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Yesterday I got an email from a friend, who I don’t usually get emails from, saying that he shared some “Google Docs” with me. Not surprisingly, many many people seem to have gotten the same, or at least similar, email.

A couple of things stood out for me:

  1. His email address
  2. I got 2 identical emails
  3. It was from someone that I have not been corresponding for a while now

By default I am fairly skeptical about any email that wants me to “do something”. We hardly use email at work, most of my ex-coworkers stay in touch via group emails. Needless to say, I was way to suspicious to actually click on the link or whatever it was that I was supposed to have clicked on and so far I have only gotten the email from that one friend of mine. Looks like most of my friends also did the right thing.

So, I don’t think I was going to write about this as it didn’t really seem like a significant issue. Just yet another attempt to get access to my online info. But this morning as I was driving to work and listening to On Point on the radio it seemed that they were doing a whole show on this. Which seemed a bit much to me. It was not that they were talking about security or privacy online but just the issue from yesterday. One of the point that really bothered me was when the question was raised that we should be more guarded about our activities online. To me that seems such an obvious thing.

– manzoor

kitchen test

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  1. bundle init – this will add a new file named “Gemfile”
  2. vim Gemfile
    1. Add test-kitchen
    2. Add kitchen-vagrant
    3. Add berkshelf
    4. Add librarian-chef
  3. bundle install
  4. kitchen init
  5. vim .kitchen.yml
    1. remove centos
    2. edit chef_solo to chef_zero
  6. bundle – unnecessary
  7. berks init
    1. resolve conflicts
      1. chefignore
      2. .kitchen.yml
  8. kitchen setup – not quite here
  9. edit .kitchen.yml
    1. add “verifier” (name = inspect, sudo = true)
  10. edit Gemfile
    1. add entry for “kitchen-inspec”
    2. bundle install
  11. Add test case – test/
  12. berks
  13. kitchen test

– 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