Outdoor Wi-Fi Outlet, Smart Plug

No surprise, I've done it again... I bought another Alexa controllable smart plug. But wait! This one is totally different. It's an outdoor plug - Oittm Outdoor Wi-Fi Outlet, Smart Plug Socket! I've got a string of lights around the porch on the back of my house. They aren't on a switch, so we have to plug them in every time we want to use them. It is fairly common to turn them on to get a little more light when we are grilling. Usually this means having our hands full when we go out there, so the voice control will be great. (I know first world problem - but first world solutions, too!)

FT8

OH: “I thought JT9 and JT65 were like fish in a barrel. FT8 is like fishing in a barrel with dynamite.”

— London Hackspace ARC (@m0hsl) January 24, 2018

Crosman DPMS SBR Full-Auto BB Air Rifle

Looks like fun...


Via Say Uncle

Switch Bot

Switch Bot allows you to retro-fit traditional switches for control via voice or an app. It is a little mechanical bot that will flip the switch for you. It is an interesting solution for all the legacy switches that are out there. It's not nearly as elegant as replacing the switch and being able to manipulate the physical world starts my Skynet red flags waving.

RH 770 Dual Band Antenna

K0NR has an antenna recommendation for a dual band handhelds.

Funny IT Tweets

Ouch.

DevOps: "load-balanced, auto-scaled, multi-region redundant services for maximum availability"
Also DevOps: "Slack is down, I can't do work"

— Liam O 🦆 (@liamosaur) November 1, 2017

“A distributed system is one in which the failure of a computer you didn’t even know existed can render your own computer unusable.” - Leslie Lamport

— Programming Wisdom (@CodeWisdom) December 3, 2017

Why can't we rate this app in the App Store?
- None of my friends are on it
- The notifications are annoying
- It's full of spam pic.twitter.com/D1KCkURCCs

— Chad Whitaker (@chadwhitaker) November 10, 2017

shamelessly stolen from reddit... but so appropriate... @nixcraft pic.twitter.com/Y9t9sGcPyx

— #Jed (@JedCavins) September 19, 2017

DCRainmaker Pro Cycling Ride Along

DCRainmaker is my go to resource for information on running watches and other, similar tech. He got to do a ride along with a pro cycling team in their support car. He talks about some of the radio problems and what looks like an Alinco DR-635 makes an appearance.

Color Printing

I like my monochrome Brother printer. It was cheap. It works well. It has wireless, so I can put it anywhere. I don't have to take out a loan when I buy more toner. It's a laser, so my infrequent printing doesn't result in the discovery of a dried up ink cartridge. This is a current model ($80) of what I bought a few years back.

I don't really need a color printer, but I'd be tempted by the Brother offering at $210. What's totally crazy about this printer is the Amazon Dash integration:

"Upon activation, the Amazon Dash Replenishment service measures the toner level and automatically orders toner from Amazon when low. This ensures that you never run out again."

CZ-75B

I'm a fan of the CZ-75 due to reports like this:

So this wraps up the CZ-75B Omega 2k round test. The gun was field-stripped and lubed with Lucas Extreme Duty Gun Oil on November the 6th, and has since fired 2,000 rounds, most of it filthy, steel-cased TulAmmo, with no further cleaning or lubrication. The gun has not once failed to go through the complete cycle of operation. The front sight's tritium vial leaked all its radioactive glow-y stuff, but there have otherwise been no parts breakages.

CZ posts.

Alexa Cannibalism

Interesting chart about what things are now being done with Alexa and her friends... I know we stream a lot of music (vs. doing it from our smart phones), so that fits. We stream WUOT (the local NPR station) on our phones. If WUOT added a skill for streaming, that would also move off our phones to the Echo Dot/Anker Eufy Genie. I'm not seeing that Alexa replaces much time with tablets, the TV, or our computers - other than doing some basic voice commands for lights, thermostat, etc.

See the article at Business Insider.