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The Pomodoro Technique is a time management method developed by
Francesco Cirillo in the late 1980s. It uses a kitchen timer to break
work into intervals, typically 25 minutes in length, separated by short
breaks. Each interval is known as a Pomodoro, from the Italian word for
tomato, after the tomato-shaped kitchen timer Cirillo used as a
university student.
The Timer
There are plenty of Pomodoro Apps I've tried using an app, but I
would often forget.
I wanted a physical device that was always on by desk and could grab
my attention.
I looked for a dedicated physical Pomodoro timer, but only found the
kitchen timers
I decided to make myself a timer using a Circuit Playground
Express
Circuit Playground Express
In my past episode about using a Pi pico to type passwords I
mentioned I owned a playground express.
The playground express is a micro controller with a lot of built ins
2 buttons
10 multi color LED
...
Runs circuit python with lots of libraries so it is easy to
program.
TDD
About once every other year I decided to start a project with as
much TDD as I can.
TDD Basics
Write a test BEFORE you write the code
Run the test - It will fail
Write the simplest code that will pass the test
Run the test and make sure it passes
Refactor/improve the code if needed.
TDD advantages
Code is easy to separate into discrete functions
Parts of the code can be rewritten without affecting the rest
confidence in rewrites
pomodoro.py
Circuit python looks for and runs a file named
code.py
A lot of the circuit Python code has to be run on the micro
controller
My Developers workstation does not have the LED's or buttons
I split the some code into a separate file based on if it could run
in "regular" python.
I used TDD as much as possible to test the functions in
pomodoro.py
I love the story-based games and experiences. Jade Empire is based in
the past in China or Japan, and you will be following this martial
artist searching for their kidnapped trainer.
In the podcast episode, I mention my HD restoration on archive.org,
however I found an even better restoration on YouTube at https://youtu.be/ZsbMXYigewI for those not allergic to
the platform.
I use an alias to create a log file with a date stamp
alias teelog='tee -a ~/logfiles/dump_`date +"%Y-%m-%d_%H%M%S"`.log'
git lfs install
git clone https://huggingface.co/rhasspy/piper-voices
# if you want to clone without large files – just their pointers
# prepend your git clone with the following env var:
GIT_LFS_SKIP_SMUDGE=1
Sample usage
echo 'Welcome to the world of speech synthesis!' | ./piper --model en_US-lessac-medium.onnx --output_file welcome.wav
I talk about my migration from Adobe Photoshop Elements to digiKam as
photo catalog software, or DAM Digital Asset Management as it often is
referred to nowadays.
My latest was release 14 which I bought 2015, which also was when I
migrated from Windows to macOS.
Photoshop Elements is without hesitation a good software. One major
drawback is that is a proprietary software from which I cannot export
data on my conditions.
After a few of years on release 14 the geotagging stopped working.
The error message told that this was caused by a change by Google. Adobe
Photoshop Elements had a fix for this error - but only incorporated in
the next release of the software. No fix was planned for my release. So
to get geotagging working again, I would have to buy a new release.
I also got problem that it now and then crashed and needed to be
restarted. Something needed to be done.
I considered if I should buy a new release of Photoshop Elements or
change to any other software. At the same time I also became more
attracted to Linux. I also became more interested in free and open
software.
A big drawback with changing to something else than Adobe is that I
most certainly will loose some of the work I have put into photos in
Photoshop Elements.
The Photo editing data and raw conversion settings for individual
photos will be lost. This is almost impossible to migrate between
software. What can be done is to save what I have edited as new photos.
I am fine with this, it will not stop me from changing
software.
Meta data is very important to me. Meta data contains not only
information about the shooting from the camera itself. But also my tags,
description texts and more I had added in Photoshop Elements. Meta data
also includes face tagging. This goes both for digital camera photos as
well as digitized analog photos.
Criteria for my new software:
Preferable free and open source
Available on multiple platforms, in particular available on macOS
and Linux
That meta data can be migrated including face tagging
The one that I found to best meet my criteria is digiKam.
DigiKam is mostly known for its catalog capabilities. But digiKam
also includes import and export functions as well as raw conversion and
photo editing.
My migration.
Photoshop Elements stores the data in a data base. It is possible to
export metadata to files and sidecars. But not all data. Face tagging
cannot be exported. The name of the person can be exported but not the
coordinates of the face tag which only is stored in the data base.
The data base itself cannot be read by other software, except by
Adobe software: Adobe Lightroom Classic can import the data from
Photoshop Elements data base into its own data base. This was very
important for my migration success. Lightroom can export also the face
tagging.
I discovered an issue with the time- and datestamps. In Photoshop
Elements it is possible to give incomplete date and time, for example
only state the year if I do not know all details. Already Lightroom had
problem to interpret this information correctly and I had to implement a
workaround with tags. In general, several time and date attributes exist
and it is something to understand what is what and how each of the is
defined, displayed and managed in the software.
From Lightroom Classic I exported meta data including face tags to
files and sidecars.
And migration to digiKam worked good enough. I still have access to
my Photoshop Elements database if I want to go back and check
anything.
My next step was to migrate from digiKam on macOS to digiKam on
Linux. This migration was relatively easy. My current settings in
digiKam is to always write data to sidecars, in addition to the digiKam
data bases. So I copied photo files and sidecars from macOS to Linux. I
took the opportunity to rearrange my folder structure. Then I imported
into digiKam and digiKam built new data bases in Linux based on photos
and sidecars.
This starts our look at Civilization III, which continued the
Civilization franchise and followed upon the Alpha Centauri game. This
game builds upon the concepts already a part of Civilization, but adds
some new features and advancements. Every new version of Civiliation has
pushed new concepts and developed the franchise further, and that is one
reason why each one has been a best-seller and an award winner.
Highly requested by the Bitwarden community, the new inline autofill
menu greatly enhances the user experience, enabling users to fill login
credentials faster than ever. Extensive third-party penetration testing
was conducted to identify security gaps prior to release.
Passkeys prevent the reuse of passwords across services or platforms
because they are created uniquely to each user and service. Thanks to
encrypted authentication protocols like WebAuthn, passkeys offer
protection against phishing attacks, one of the most common initiation
points for breaches and ransomware attacks.
Microwave Ovens contain lethal voltages and components within the
microwave oven can store lethal voltages for many hours after it is
unplugged. Please only attempt this if you are qualified to do so.
Show Notes:
As I explained in the episode the bulb within our microwave oven
failed after 10 years of use. It is surprising how difficult it is to
determine how well the food is cooked without illumination. I therefore
decided to have a go at replacing the internal light bulb.
Picture 1 shows the complete microwave Complete microwave Click the
thumbnail to see the full-sized image
Picture 2 shows the location and fitment of the faulty bulb in our
microwave oven Location and fitment of faulty bulb Click the thumbnail to see the full-sized
image
Picture 3 shows the faulty bulb removed Faulty bulb removed Click the
thumbnail to see the full-sized image
Markings found on the faulty bulb revealed it was rated at 230v 20w
bulb (I incorrectly stated in my podcast show that it was 30w).
Typing 230v 20w into google provided an amazon link for a replacement
universal microwave bulb from Poweka. Two were provided in the packet
though this wasn't clear from the description.