george kaplan

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george kaplan
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  • Twitter staff nearly decimated by Musk's 'extremely hardcore' demand

    george kaplangeorge kaplan
    Amazing how so many people who see this as a political exorcism can’t see the simple numbers. The staffing is maybe down to 900 people from about 4x that amount just weeks ago. Even if 30% of the original amount were superfluous, organizations don’t get gutted like this and still prosper. Witness the fact that some of those originally laid off had to be hired back because the reduction in headcount was overzealous and indiscriminate. And hiring skilled replacements is impossible when the workplace is publicly seen as unstable. 

    The core of the engineering team left yesterday, discouraged by the way Musk has handled the HR side of dealing with the employees, preferring a combative approach. If anything, this chapter in Musk’s career should put an end to the myth of Musk as a genius—he’s handling this like a moody teenager with scores to settle. 
    ronnmuthuk_vanalingamtdknoxwilliamlondonstompywatto_cobrablastdoorelijahgFileMakerFellertmay

  • Apple TV hardware will never be more than a hobby, unless Apple changes direction

    george kaplangeorge kaplan
    An argument in support of the ATV box:

    I can select a TV based upon picture quality alone. The OS of the TV is irrelevant to me, because ATV provides my switching and program selection. It is typically faster and more stable than the Roku interface we used previously, most likely due both to better coding and increased memory availability. One HDMI cable with eARC input and I have everything I need. 

    Also important to me: The financial calculation used by Samsung, LG, et al is to sell my viewing data as an income stream for them. Likewise Roku, which makes no bones about the fact they will monitor everything the viewer watches and sell that data to marketers. ATV does a much better job of maintaining my privacy. 

    So clean interface, fast response, better stability, and greater privacy—how is this product a disappointment?
    watto_cobraJP234

  • Chamberlain pulls the plug on its HomeKit smart home bridge

    george kaplangeorge kaplan
    I first tried the Meross unit, thinking I would both save money and have HomeKit control. I couldn’t get it working to save my life (my LiftMaster is a yellow button model).

    Then I got the MyQ unit for HomeKit. It took me a couple of reboots of both the bridge and the eero router, but it has worked with zero downtime for the past 8 months, and it still almost makes me cry when I’m two blocks from home and the CarPlay button appears on the screen, offering to raise the door.  One of my goals was to get the door-opener remote out of the car for security reasons, and the MyQ got me to that goal.  
    Alex1Nwatto_cobra

  • Lomi review: A great countertop composter -- if you've got the space for it

    george kaplangeorge kaplan
    We have one. Wife thought it would be a good idea, I resisted but we got one. I was wrong. It’s actually very useful. 

    Local regs now mandate food waste must go out in the green waste can with yard waste. We live in the inland deserts of SoCal, and leaving food in an outdoor can with 90-100 degree days isn’t an option. The food waste we formerly scraped into the kitchen trash or in the garbage disposal now goes into the Lomi. We have time-of-day electric rates, so we run it inexpensively at night after we go to bed. Eco Mode takes maybe 5 hours and the dried waste can go into the green waste can outside where it won’t stink in the heat. 

    The device is also stink-proof in the house. It doesn’t smell at all, even with some pretty rancid food waste deposited in there. 

    Side note: Grinding up waste in the sink garbage disposal is a poor option in many municipalities. Older sewer treatment systems were designed for human waste, but are challenged by the addition of large quantities of ground up food waste. Some areas separate the food byproduct and burn this waste, which is not good for environment, or use anerobic digestion which generates methane as a byproduct. Many cities would prefer we didn’t use sink disposers (NYC outright banned them for a few decades). Lomi is not for every use case, but has legitimate value for many. 
    dewmewilliamlondonmuthuk_vanalingam

  • Apple issues tvOS 15.6 to the public with under-the-hood improvements

    george kaplangeorge kaplan
    The last update, either for ATV or for HomePod, basically nuked all the HomePod audio reliability

    I have two pairs of old-school HomePods, each pair connected to a ATV 4K, and set to do stereo audio with Atmos where applicable. In the last few months, I have one or the other of the HomePods in each pair disconnecting, or playing audio uncontrolled by ATV remote, etc. It is a constant project restarting and resetting the HomePods and ATVs to get things in alignment again. None of them chime off the doorbell, either.
    FileMakerFellerwatto_cobra