Pupdate

There’s been a bumper crop of raspberries this year, which has kept the boys entertained..

Berlin

Google’s I/O Connect event was in Berlin once again, which provided a good chance to catch up with various communities and some of the product folk.

I also took the chance to grab dinner with some local ex-pat friends. The food, drink, weather and company were all great :)

Computer sheds

The retro meetup group returned to Jim Austin’s Computer Sheds, this time for an extended visit, as Jim let us start at 11am. Even with the extra hours it still felt like we barely scratched the surface of the place.

I was very happy to find some T9000 Transputers.

Beacon Down

We ended up with something of a wine lake after hosting a party at a local restaurant, all picked by co-owner Alicia Sandeman. Every bottle has been great, but my favourite was Beacon Down‘s Blanc de Blancs 2017. So I planned on visiting the vineyard once tours were running again.

That time came around on midsummer’s day, and it was perfect day for seeing the vines (and beautiful surrounding countryside).

Co-owner Paul put on an amazing tour. Whenever I do these things it’s always great to meet people who are passionate and expert about their product. Paul takes it to another level. I don’t think I’ve met a geekier wine geek, and it also made clear why their wine tastes so good. The preparation and attention to detail come through in the glass.

The picnic was also excellent, and all the better for a glass of Riesling to wash it down.

BLE caberQU

When I first heard about the BLE caberQU USB-C cable tester I was gutted I’d missed the original Kickstarter campaign, but glad I was able to order one. I’ve accumulated a bunch of USB-C cables, and it’s hard to keep track of which is supposed to be able to do what.

Unfortunately when the tester arrived it was telling me that almost every cable I had was USB2 data and 15W for charging. Even the cables I regularly use for laptop charging, and others from reputable brands that claim to be 60W.

No E-Markers

It turned out that all except for two ‘fancy’ cables I have don’t have E-Markers, so the rest represent the minimal configuration of USB2 data (480Mbps) and 3A power delivery (60W). The caberQU can’t reliably measure the difference between (say) a 20W cable and a 60W cable, so the device errs on caution by stating 15W.

I reached out to the support email and creator Peter Traunmüller got back to me saying:

The 15W (5V@3A) rating means that there is no eMarker in the cable, but the cable has a good resistance and the necessary pins are connected. The standard calls for 60W (20V@3A), but there is no proper way to verify this without the eMarker confirming this and we’re airing on the side of safety.

After trying a debug firmware on my unit Peter also kindly sent me another tester.

Treedix tester

Meanwhile I read Terence Eden’s review of the Treedix USB Cable tester, and got one of those too. It has a wider selection of ports than the caberQU, but is otherwise less impressive. Anyway… it gave me the same results as before, for both the regular cables and my couple of fancy ones.

FlexiFone

I’m constantly frustrated by poor cell coverage. When walking to the station, or in town. On train rides to London, but also in many parts of London. Over the years I’ve tried all the networks (or at least MVNOs running on them); but what about all the networks at once? That’s what FlexiFone does.

It’s positioned as a backup solution, but I don’t use huge amounts of data, so I’ve been running their eSIM as my primary data plan with their 5GB for £8/mo tier.

It’s definitely a bit better on the train to London, but everywhere else it shows that the problem is terrible coverage from all the operators, and not just any one that I might be signed up to :(

There’s also the issue that their egress IPs don’t geolocate correctly, which can make some apps think you’re in foreign parts (and refuse to let you confirm an order – looking at you KFC :( ).

After a month I think I’m prepared to call this experiment a failure. But I’ll see how I get on in the Lake District next month, where data for mapping apps can be super important.

Solar diary

It’s been warm and generally dry, but not always sunny, so not the best June for Solar.