Aaron Parecki

oops didn't realize putting the air conditioner and TV in the "living room" group would mean saying "Alexa, turn on the living room" turns both on!

So far out of all the home automation devices I've connected to this Raspberry Pi, the most reliable ones have been 433mhz transmitters and ESP32s on wifi. I've been getting spotty performance of Bluetooth and Z-wave devices. Could be that the Pi isn't powerful enough, or could be because simpler is just better.

Signs you might be traveling too much:

You start measuring streaks not by the number of nights away from home, but by the number of nights you spend *at* home.

Something about Apple's decision to do "OAuth-but-not-quite" rubbed me the wrong way, but this is a great example of how it breaks down very concretely.

https://twitter.com/atomicbird/status/1163478833326108673

Over the past few weekends I've been overhauling my home automation systems. At the core, as I decide what to buy and how to configure it, there are three primary principles:

• Manual override: Everything automated has to still have the ability to be controlled manually
• Keep it at home: No "cloud" services unless absolutely necessary (e.g. push notifications to a phone)
• Open: Avoid vendor lock-in, use open source and open protocols where possible

So far, I've removed my Dropcam (acquired by Google/Nest), removed SmartThings (acquired by Samsung), and replaced everything with the best alternatives I can find, and making a few sensors myself as well.

It's been a fun experience for sure! Not something I would recommend as an "out of the box" solution, but I've learned a lot, and have a lot more ideas still! I'm planning on doing a full writeup once I get a few more things hooked up.

I need to start keeping track of the tail numbers of the planes I've flown in because I'm really curious how many times I've flown in the same plane.

A lot changes in 4 years. It used to be there was only one guy driving a taxi between Ontario and Redlands. Now there's a Lyft pickup location at the airport! Very glad I don't have to rent a car anymore!

Relatedly, I'm back at Esri HQ tomorrow for the first time in 4 years!

The problem with airline status is by the time you get it, you've flown so much that you don't really want to fly anymore.

You know those airplane seatbelts with an awkward amount of padding on one side? Apparently they are airbags!

I was sitting here waiting to take off and had to look that up. The reason for using them is also fascinating.

https://stuckattheairport.com/2011/09/15/your-airplane-seatbelt-may-also-be-an-airbag/

:sigh: another day, another website that hardcodes their @oauth_2 client secret in JavaScript 🤦‍♂️

Signs you might be traveling too much:

You find yourself increasingly often not knowing the answer when people ask "what city were you in last week?"

There’s nothing like sitting in on the #ietf TLS meeting to make you realize how little you actually know about how the internet works

Cannot believe it, but I made it with 15 minutes to spare, just enough time to drop my bags in my room and grab my nametag from registration!

Thanks @AirCanada for a smooth flight this morning!

#ietf105

The @ietf "105attendees" mailing list is like a slow motion version of a Slack channel with way too many people in it. #ietf105

Alright let's try this again. On a new flight from LaGuardia to Boston, and the rain has subsided. Still an active flash flood warning.

It looks like we're going to take off here, so far no mentions of delays.

If this works, I'm going to be getting in just an hour before the meeting in Montreal.

Shoutout to the very nice @United agent who spent an hour on the phone with me to bump me to this earlier flight and got me a ticket while it was boarding. Now departing 30m later than the original Air Canada flight, but it was then completely cancelled so I guess that's a win.

On my way to Montreal to talk about OAuth #ietf105! Crossing my fingers the connection at Newark goes well despite the impending thunderstorms.

I have some time free while I'm there this week, so if you're in the area and want to grab coffee let me know!

I've been home only 4 days this month.

I'm home for the weekend, and heading back out on Monday.

What happens if I just don't leave the house at all this weekend? Is that allowed?

my fingernails grew like an inch last night and it finally got to be too much to handle so I spent $2 on nail clippers at the airport and clipped my nails in the airport restroom and this is so much better now ask me anything