The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.
Today is my 40th birthday. Yay, I guess? 😆
When I started my 30s ten years ago, it was far from certain that I was going to make it to this milestone. So, two children, one new career, two jobs, three built computers, five mobile phones, and a replaced liver later, I'm glad to have made it.
The past decade has gone by quickly, but I'm also a much changed person from 10 years ago: like, literally; I don't even have all the same organs from then. It's been a ride. I've had some … Read more →
It's been a long time between computer builds. Actually, it's been the longest interval since I started building my own desktop computers in 2007. My now-previous computer, Tetrarch, was built in 2017, so it's a 6-year gap between that build and this new one.
Continuing with the number-themed names, I decided to name this build Pentium, as it's the fifth build that I've done. The 'Pentium' name has always resonated to me since our first Windows 95 computer was a first generation Pentium MMX. It's All About the Pentiums is also one of … Read more →
5 blog posts this year; a 25% improvement on the 4 I did last year! 😆😭
For me, 2022 carried on from where 2021 left off: COVID still dominating my non-work life, but despite my best efforts, the virus did eventually catch up with me in the middle of the year (shakes fist at children bringing things home).
Although I thankfully did not have serious complications immediately from the exposure, I did have gastro issues soon after, which saw me hospitalised twice. The Drs eventually found out why I've probably had ongoing stomach pain for the 18 months previous: ulcers … Read more →
These are my tweets for 2022 (sans replies and retweets).
With all of the Elon Musk Twitter craziness over the past few months, who know if this might be the last time I do this! (FYI: you can also find me on Mastodon here: https://hachyderm.io/@lucascosti)
All the URLs are still Twitter's 't.co' ones, as the Twitter API doesn't spit out the original URL text.
Every two years, I have a budget from work to buy a new phone. My Pixel 5 has been a great phone for my usage, and for the most part, I've been really happy with it.
The only criticism that I did have at the time was about the screen size:
But I do kinda wish it was a tiny bit bigger.
And this did come up with some multi-day hospital stays that I unfortunately had to endure this year. Watching movies and TV shows from my bed had me wishing for a phone that had a bit bigger screen.… Read more →
I've worn a Pebble Time on my wrist since 2015. That's over 7 years with the same device, and probably the longest for any 'mobile' device that I've owned. Even after the Pebble company's demise at the end of 2016, it was still the most usable smartwatch for what I needed. Only now that its battery life is going to roughly 3 days have I needed to replace it, and it was a somewhat begrudging replacement.
It took me so long because none of the 'new' smartwatches would be more functional than the … Read more →
It's coming up on 3+ years that I've been working on a MacBook Pro, so earlier this year I was due for a computer refresh. I was extremely critical of the hardware of the 13" 2018 MacBook Pro that I received last time around, so I was very much looking forward to a replacement that would hopefully be better.
This timed well with Apple's migration from Intel chips to their own 'Apple silicon', but I was pretty sceptical of the architecture change. I worked in support when Apple migrated architectures from IBM PowerPC to Intel way back in the mid-2000s, … Read more →
After almost all the restrictions for COVID were relaxed earlier this year, we tried our best to remain COVID-free. We wore masks everywhere, stayed away from large social gatherings, and disinfected and sanitised everything coming in to our house.
Toward the end of last month, I received my 5th dose of the COVID vaccine. Because I'm a transplant recipient on a lot of immune suppressants, as per the government medical advice, I had 3 vaccine doses for my primary course as well as two booster shots (one at 4 months, and another for winter).
Despite our best … Read more →
The Elgato Stream Deck is a series of products that are basically a board of buttons with little LCD screens on each one. As the name implies, its main target customers are streamers, who often need quick access to buttons to control cameras, overlays, sounds, lighting, or special effects.
I am no streamer (ANGTFT), but I recently bought a Stream Deck Mini for productivity.
I work 100% remotely, and spend a lot of time on Zoom calls. I got sick of hunting for the audio and camera toggle buttons with my mouse in each meeting, as well as … Read more →
😬 Only 4 blog posts for this year. A clear all-time low.
2021 was a bit nuts. The COVID-19 pandemic continued, and life rolled on. The first third of the year wasn't too bad: there were barely any cases in Queensland, and not many in Australia in general. Life seemed sorta normal in Brisbane.
That didn't—and was probably never going to—last.
In the past couple of weeks, after the great vaccination numbers in Queensland, the handbrakes have been taken off in terms of trying to keep the virus at bay. This is probably fine for regular vaccinated people, but for … Read more →