This page collates all 'micro-posts' written either directly on this portal or via social-readers. Responses and/or other interactions to posts shared on external social networks [Micro.blog, Twitter, Mastodon etc.] are back-fed to the corresponding posts. Thanks Indieweb!
OpenAPS
TIL about OpenAPS [Open Artificial Pancreatic System Project]. A fascinating take on owning medical data related to ones’ sugar levels and automating insulin intake for folks with Type1Diabetes. I never knew managing T1D was so complicated until I read Graham Jenson’s post. My uncle had a close call recently with super low sugar levels. Can’t imagine people having to deal with this every single day!
Also need to lookup SDR radio’s one of these days!
Bridged
After a good one year away from Whatsapp, I’m back on it . This time however, on better terms. All thanks to the Mautrix bridge and the Matrix protocol. Essentially, I can access my whatsapp account data on my regular phone or desktop using Elements’ pretty robust app system. Note that the whatsapp app however is either running on a Virtual Machine or in my case an old phone fronted with a VPN. Since whatsapp only needs the primary phone to connect with their servers once every two weeks, it’s pretty much just sitting there turned off while all the group and individual messages show up on the bridged element app.
There’s tremendous benefit to this approach:
- The metadata that whatsapp is known to generously absorb from your ecosystem is heavily reduced
- You still get to stay in touch with folks who’re pure lazy to install another communications app
- You get to be in the ecosystem and nudge people out
- This works not just with Whatsapp, but telegram, iMessage, FB messenger and other messaging apps.
Setting this up took me barely 30 minutes – thanks to this exceptionally well documented ansible playbook . Sounds and reads terse but it is super straightforward to follow through. At this point, calls are not bridged. It otherwise works absolutely seamless. Not quite sure how long I’d use this. It started off more from the perspective of testing out matrix and the surrounding ecosystem and it’s been a fun ride so far.
Walk over that bridge. Will ya? Now, if you do not want to set this all up yourselves, you could for a small price, use the service provided by either element or Beeper . I think they offer it at at a fantastic price-point.
Dawn Catch
These fishermen in their catamarans were slowly yet gleefully making their way back to the coastline early AM. Likely a terrific catch that they could sell back on land? Or was it just another day in the waters making ends meet, doing what they love and loving what they do?
Wills and plans
I used the Tomorrow app to set one up for my family a few years ago. Also last year, I setup an End Plan Document to help them pick the loose ends. Honestly, it’s helped me document things better.
Coach R
Yet another terrific early AM outing to the beach. S and V joined Coach R’s group for an athletics workout session. As one of his junior coaches guided the kids on the beach sand drills, I took this opportunity to chat up with this cheerful 75+(?) year old gentleman. Quite a humbling personality and a treasure trove of information. A couple hours swiftly breezed by. I could tell his memory was slowly failing him and only wish someone documents his wisdom. Some people leave that impeccable impression on you…