I needed a spreadsheet formula for a duration calculation and since I tend to suck at those I thought “hey, let’s have AI do it”. So I asked ChatGPT
- First answer was invalid so I told it why and it said “you’re right that won’t work, try this”
- Second answer was also invalid so the “you’re right…” scenario again
- Third answer also invalid, I gave up

Back to using my brain. AI fails so easily and even worse pretends it know the answer.

My daughter told me this morning our Cyberpower UPS started beeping last night and she muted it. The error code in the manual just said to contact support. Cynical me was like “trying getting support from a UPS company is a waste of time.” But I tried.

Well shame on me. They responded in less than an hour and we exchanged a couple of completely on-point email in quick succession. I’m impressed.

Enjoying some aroma therapy - printing Gentleman’s Gray PLA 😉

Based on the specs ICOM’s IC-7300 MK2 has most of the enhancements I’ve been wanting on my stock 7300. But I haven’t found any pricing yet.

dx-world.net/the-new-icom-ic-7

Our recent nearby lightning strike has claimed another victim. The upstairs AppleTV, which initially only had its ethernet port killed, started overheating today. It did this repeatedly before I was informed. When I checked it’s case temperature it was over 300ºF! Immediately unplugged it - permanently.⚡️

Printable has added the ability to publish articles/blogs on its site to “share detailed build logs, tutorials, and project stories on Printables, even without a 3D model”. I don’t know if I’ll make much use of it but since I was in the middle of a multi-day project I decided to create an article on the shelves and drawers I'm creating:
printables.com/article/small-c

Annnnnd - just got a notification another 8 port gigabit switch died. 😖 To get by I had to steal a 5 port switch from a less important part of the house.

The one other time we had lightning damage I remember devices slowly died over the next 48 hours. But I can hope no more do, or at least nothing expensive.

None of the surge protectors tripped. Ingress is a bit a mystery.

Whilst in the middle of an intense Gloomhaven scenario a strong but brief storm blew through and dumped .75” of rain in 15 minutes. We had two lightning strikes out the windows less than 100 yards away. No sirens so no houses hit but it took down cellular for a while. Also discovered later it fried an 8 port gigabit switch and the ethernet port on an Apple TV. Proverbial “could have been worse”. ⛈️

Feeling strongly tempted to install the iPad OS public beta to give the new windowing a try. Not something I typically do.

Meanwhile watching the live stream of NISAR launch from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

It finally dawned on me today I could stream a PC Steam game to my Steam Deck. In the past I tried Steam Link with my iPad and it was too laggy. Works great with the SD just have to put up with a smaller screen.

Why not just install the game on the Steam Deck? In my case it is mods. I don’t want to be saddled with managing mods on both the PC and SD.

More wildlife, this time an armadillo hunting food alongside the exercise trail. I hadn’t seen one in over a year and was missing them.

I have never been so close to a wild deer in my life. Quite the start of our morning hike.🥾

Seriously excited by Ghost of Yotei and this video doesn’t change my mind.

youtu.be/cgM6poO2JmY?si=MeXMjA

Got my invitation to buy a Nintendo Switch 2 today, if anyone is keeping score. I’m going to pass on it. None of the games are compelling enough to me to warrant the cost and we just built a PC for about the same cost.

Built my second ever PC with my son today after building one with our daughter 5 years ago. Tomorrow will be a marathon of software updates and installs. Being weird I kinda enjoy that sort of thing.

I have this itch to build a PC for basic gaming connected to the TV (to free up the Steam deck).

If I’m being honest mostly just to do the build.

But man GPU prices are in a crazy place. And I’m too lazy to filter through used parts.

Guess it is time for some anti-itch creme.

Does anyone have a caliper brand they really like? I’m more than frustrated as I wasted about half a day on dimensional issues due to my Reed caliper deciding to start measuring wrong.

I have a Hauti which I dislike for several reasons (one of which being the analog scale measures wrong).
😖

I was this many years old when I learned XKCD has a “What If?” Video channel. Pure gold

youtube.com/@xkcd_whatif?si=7E

Today I designed a simple stand for my M4 Mac mini. The mini has two USB-C ports on the front and I didn’t like having the cables running off to the side. The stand has two cable recesses front-to-back and is designed not to interfere with the bottom cooling of the mini. I’m pleased with the clean look.
printables.com/model/1324315-m

I’m more satisfied with my Logitech MX Vertical mouse since discovering that if I want to move it on my desk I can simply tilt it and slide rather than needing to pick it up. With the slightest tilt, which is easy to do, the mouse doesn’t register the move.

The transition to the M4 Mac mini was completely trouble-free. I was surprised to find that even some command line hacks I did on the previous Mac worked straight away.

The only app that needed special treatment was tQSL which I knew ahead of time. Easy enough - if you know you know. In a quick test while the bands allowed I made 14 QSO including a couple of POTA.

Apparently I decided I need a headache.

I am replacing my M2 Mac Mini with a M4 Mac Mini. Many things transfer auto-magically but from past experience I know there are hoops to jump through for certain settings and for apps like tQSL.

I will still somehow enjoy the process. Masochist eh?

Is anyone using the Surf Social beta? I got an invite but I’m a bit lost on finding what to follow since I am averse to all the “fashionable” topics.

I used the NanoVNA app to sweep the bands on my EFHW after installing the antenna switch yesterday. Results were nominal vs pre-switch.

Then I put my 20m hamstick on a tripod in the backyard connected via the switch. A bit of tuning resulted in great SWR. Today the best results were with the whip relatively short and only 2 radials. Couldn’t test actual operation since thunderstorms decided to interfere.

Discovered the hard way that ants had nested in the housing of the balun😖

I stopped my procrastinating and installed an antenna switch in the backyard and moved the EFHW to port 1. Happily the SWR worked out. I wanted a convenient way to experiment with other antennas so the switch would be handy. Of course I did this today not knowing the bands were going to be crap tomorrow so testing is basically a no-go.