Tong Family

Well, if emojis weren’t enough there is a whole new category of symbols so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ is a great well happy or smug shrug and in fact iOS 15 will replace the word shrug with this set. It’s called a Kaomoji or face mark because it uses the kanji characters in concert with a great imagination….

Well if you headed off to Montreal it’s going to be very cold. It’s typically -5 C highs and -13 C so you really need a warm coat. Particularly when the cold winds move in. Or just use the Underground City to get around. But there are some good choices from Outdoor Gear Labs with…

For a long time I’ve mainly been trying to get lighter helmets but the latest trend is going aerodynamic. This really matters at higher speeds. Like over 45 Kph. The road bike aero helmet have really evolved and best ones are wind tunnel tested now. This is really important for triathlons where aero is key….

Ok a big problem has been there are so many ways to do scripting and cd/CI pipelines. There are basically three different approaches: Stuff everything into GitHub actions. With Act you can actually run GitHub action locally. So when you combine this with pre-commit you can have a single method for controlling things. The main…

Ok we have way too many HomePods and recently two really started to act up. One kept on setting off timers and then when we tried to turn them off it would say that none existed. Another kept playing music and when you ask it to stop it would say nothing was playing. Finally and…

What an annoying beeping and an inscrutable message. Our other alarms beep constantly which I just hate. But this little plug-in co2 system dumps this strange code L6. It should be flashing alternately with the ‘0’ with a short beep every 15 seconds. The indication is to replace the 9v battery. And every 10 years…

With sales of vegan foods on the rise, check the environmental impact of plant-based milks. We’ve been wondering which of the many variants of milk are better Turns out that diary milk is pretty polluting so buying different milk and eating plant base proteins are the way to go. Macadamia milk and oat milk are…

Wow, it is just crazy how non standard and different and difficult HomeKit pairing is. Some like Wemo won’t pair with their native apps but with work. Others like satechi pair fine but do jot connect reliably to 2.4Ghz. Same with the Wemo. The Aqara did pair fine with the M1S hub with the native…

You wouldn’t think you should ever have to really shop for these but I’ve had a few over the years. The Bike Rumors and Bicycling reviews are pretty accurate: SILCA Pista Plus. This costs a fortune (more than some bikes at $165) but you are buying a piece of history. The design is nearly 60…

OK, I bit the bullet today and did the iOS 15 upgrade. It actually went quite well. The new iPad catchup to iOS 14 is nice. Having widgets on the Home Screen is great. Also getting iCloud+ is nice, if a little buried, you need to go to Settings > User Name > iCloud >…