Blog

The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.

Using a Stream Deck for Productivity

Categories Technology, Work
Steam deck mini on a desk next to a keyboard

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 →

2021: Year In Review

Categories Life

😬 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 →

Tweets for 2021

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life

These are my tweets for 2021 (sans replies and retweets). All the URLs are still Twitter's 't.co' ones, as the Twitter API doesn't spit out the original URL text.

… Read more →

Console Purchasing Wars: Xbox Series X

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Rants, Technology

Last week, I finally got an Xbox Series X! I say 'finally' because despite working for a Microsoft company (I even have a Microsoft employee ID and email address), I have no special access (or pricing) to any Microsoft hardware.

Like everyone else desperately trying to find one, I've had to watch Twitter stock alert accounts, ring around tonnes of stores, and do everything else to try and secure a console ahead of scalpers. Even though the scalping price on eBay isn't too exorbitant—roughly about 25-30% above the retail price—I've refused out of principle to take that easy way … Read more →

Using a Cheap(ish) Android Tablet as a Digital Photo Frame

Categories Life, Technology

Like any regular family, we've taken a fair bit (probably too many) of digital photos over the years, especially since the kids came along.

I've dutifully put them all in organised folders on our home NAS, and of course, made sure that it is all backed up.

However, when do we actually look at our photos? Hardly ever, unless some special occasion prompts us to have a look back in time.

So, I thought I'd look into getting a digital photo frame that we could put in our living room and would randomly display photos directly from our … Read more →

2 Years Post-Transplant

Categories Life

This past Thursday marked 2 years since I had my liver transplant. It's been interesting living out this past year in our new-COVID-era world, but to be honest, I think it's made it easier.

I've never been the most social person, so an iron clad excuse to keep my heavily-immune-suppressed-self indoors and away from strangers is definitely welcome! It's now more than ever that I appreciate being able to work in a fully remote job.

Des and I also had the second dose of the Pfizer COVID vaccine yesterday. Despite not expecting much of an immune reaction because recent studies … Read more →

But He’s Got a New Hat!

Categories Life
Smithers exclaiming "But she's got a new hat!"

People have gotten into some strange stuff during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns, and I was no exception. My newish thing is baseball hats, which is a bit weird considering that going outside is not really a thing you can do in a lockdown.

Nevertheless, sun safety is a big thing for me, especially because I am at increased risk of skin cancer as a result of the immune-suppressants I am on following my liver transplant. I need a hat whenever I go outside to protect my significant—and I believe this is a medical term—chrome dome.

I started off just wanting to … Read more →

2020: Year in Review

Categories Life

This quote is from the end of my 'Year in Review' post for 2019:

Needless to say, 2020 and the entire 2020s are looking a whole lot more brighter for us after the events of 2019.

Although that was still accurate for me personally; for the wider world... not so much. 😅

2020 was a strange year for the whole world. I can't think of something (at least in my lifetime) that has affected nearly every person on the planet like the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has. 🦠

The year started off ok. I attended linux.conf.au 2020 at the Gold … Read more →

Tweets for 2020

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life

These are my tweets for 2020 (sans replies and retweets). All the URLs are still Twitter's 't.co' ones, as the Twitter API doesn't spit out the original URL text.

… Read more →

Converting my Flash Intros to HTML5

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life

Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia (RIP 😢) Flash) was once a staple of the web, but for various reasons (security issues, unnecessary software, etc.), it has almost been completely banished from the internet, with HTML5 animations now largely filling the gap.

Adobe is stopping maintenance of Flash at the end of this year, and this is definitely a good thing.

This site used a fair bit of Flash in the Web 1.0 days. The initial version even used Flash for the navigation buttons! 😱 However, the biggest (and most fun) use of Flash was when I made 'intro' animations for my … Read more →