At the moment, the Mac Mini is unique in that it spans three processor architectures (although this is very likely to be matched by the iMac).
Apple Product Ranges and Processor Architectures
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Raspberry Pi 4 Minecraft Server
The new(ish) Raspberry Pi 4 makes a great little Minecraft Server, especially if you only have a handful of users. Daniel Lemire’s blog post is my go-to guide for getting it working.
My Pebble Watchface – gWatch
After some trial and error (and leaning heavily on the tutorials and sample code available online) I have built a Pebble watchface (named gWatch for obvious and boring reasons). It’s fairly basic – see the screenshot below.
Pebble Development in 2020
After a fair amount of trial and error I now have the Pebble SDK working on my Mac (macOS 10.15.4 Catalina). I was working from the guide here. I can now create, build and deploy programs and watch faces to my Pebble watch.
Firstly I had problems with the virtualenv command:
cd ~/pebble-dev/pebble-sdk-4.3-mac
virtualenv --no-site-packages .env
source .env/bin/activate
CFLAGS="" pip install -r requirements.txt
deactivateIt turns out the –no-site-packages flag is not required and should be omitted (see here for details).
I then had issues with no SDK being installed (and the scripts trying in vain to locate the SDK on the Internet). After trying:
pebble new-project testingI was greeted with:
No SDK installed; installing the latest one...Consulting Google yielded:
The key part of the reddit post is path to the SDK. I used the following to successfully install the SDK:
pebble sdk install https://github.com/aveao/PebbleArchive/raw/master/SDKCores/sdk-core-4.3.tar.bz2The last fix was disabling the analytics tracking by creating a NO_TRACKING file in the SDK directory.
iPad Keyboards
After using the Logitech K380 Bluetooth Keyboard with my 6th Generation iPad for a while (as mentioned in my previous post), I spotted a second-hand Brydge keyboard online for $50. This was a great deal, worked well and cemented my love of Brydge keyboards.
Fast forward a few months and Brydge have the Brydge 9.7 on sale for $99, another great deal I quickly snapped up. This seems to be a later version (Model BRY1012) to the second-hand one I was using (Model BRY1001A) – it has extra keys on the trip right hand corner (Battery/Bluetooth/Power) which are a great addition to an already fantastic design.
I even typed this blog post up using it 🙂
Recently Read: Every Tool’s a Hammer by Adam Savage
I have just finished reading Adam Savage’s book “Every Tool’s a Hammer” (ISBN 9781471186004). It was a thoroughly entertaining and informative read and I highly recommend it.
The section on lists particularly resonated with me. I use a similar system at work: an empty box indicates a yet to be started task, a box with a line through it a task that has been started in some form and a filled in box indicates a completed task.
However my favourite part was a new word I learned – ferroequinologist!
Planes I have flown in (updated to include A330 and Dash 8)
- Fokker 100 (Alliance Airlines, Network Aviation);
- Boeing 737-400 (Qantas/QantasLink);
- Boeing 737-800 (Qantas, Virgin Australia);
- British Aerospace 146 (QantasLink);
- Boeing 717-200 (QantasLink);
- Embraer E-Jets E-190 (Virgin Australia);
- Embraer EMB 120 Brasilia (Network Aviation);
- Fokker F70LR (Network Aviation);
- Airbus A320 (Virgin Australia);
- Saab 340 (Regional Express Airlines);
- Airbus A330-200 (Qantas);
- Dash 8 300 (QantasLink);
- Dash 8 400 (QantasLink).
2020 Birding Targets
In no particular order, my 2020 targets are:
- Sooty Tern
- Malleefowl
- Black-eared Cuckoo
- Southern Scrub-robin
- Gilbert’s Whistler
- Australian Owlet-nightjar
- Barn Swallow (suspect I will need to upgrade my ID skills a bit for this)
- Shy Heathwren
- Rufous Fieldwren
- Noisy Scrub-bird (will need a trip to Cheynes Beach for this)
- Western Whipbird (as above)
- Eastern Yellow Wagtail
TempMonHTTP
For a while I’ve been tinkering around with a simple project – an Arduino-based temperature (and humidity) monitor that outputs a webpage on my home LAN. The Arduino I used was the Freetronics EtherTen, a quality product.
Check out the code at https://github.com/gjhmac/TempMonHTTP.
Australian Birds known to be kept in captivity in Perth
I’m going to compile and maintain this list to assist in distinguishing aviary escapees from over-travelling legitimate wild birds (relative to the Perth metro area).
- Rainbow Lorikeet
- Red-Collared Lorikeet
- Princess Parrot
- Scarlet-chested Parrot
- Bourkes Parrot
- Budgerigar
- Cockatiel
- Emerald Dove
- Diamond Dove
- Zebra Finch
- Double-barred Finch
- Painted Finch
- Masked Lapwing
- Banded Lapwing
- King Quail
- Brown Quail
- Stubble Quail