An (Imperfect) Solution for USB-C Devices Without PD
You Know, Those Who Need USB-A on the Other End
I just listened to the latest episode of the Upgrade podcast. It was Myke Hurley’s first episode after his parental leave – and as someone who got my first child less than a week ago, the episode obviously resonated with me.
I intend to write a bit about some baby tech – but here I just wanted to throw out a quick recommendation for an annoyance Myke brought up.
(Click here to jump straight to the solution!)
USB-C is great – but also a lie
The good thing about “everything” being USB-C, is that every cable fits into every socket. However, the problem is that you suddenly don’t always know if things will work. For instance, what’s the maximum amount of charging a cable can give? And when do you need a Thunderbolt cable? And how can you tell what a cable is?
In the Upgrade episode, Myke mentioned another issue: If the USB-C device doesn’t include everything that’s needed for USB-C Power Delivery, the USB-C cable might need to be USB-A on the other end.
For instance, this is the case with the, otherwise great, Anbernic RG35XX_ 🖇️ retro hand-held. If I connect it to my 140W charger, with a powerful USB-C to USB-C cable, it gets “scared” (because it doesn’t have the smarts to ask for less power), and doesn’t want to charge. However, if it senses a USB-A on the other end, it knows that it can’t draw too much power, so it “dares” to charge.1
This is nothing but poor design from the device maker, as giving it the necessary smarts is both cheap and easy – but it’s still something one encounters from time to time.
The most obvious solution …
… is to simply buy a USB-A charger that you then use for those specific devices. And this is what Myke said he had done, for the multiple baby tech devices needing special treatment. But then you need to both have a custom cable for these devices and a custom charger. (By “charger” I mean the actual charging brick, not including the cable.)
There’s a (slightly) better way!
Making My Phone More Boring
Not More Dumb
There are numerous reviews of the new Light Phone III going around – and this has invigorated discussions about having a dumber phone. There are also Android e-ink devices going around, with 🖇️ or without 🖇️ a SIM slot, which are cool. A friend of mine is considering how far he can get with the combination of an Apple Watch with a SIM and a Boox Palma. 👌🏻
I’m 100% in the category of too dependent on my phone. However, I don’t think having a dumber phone is the solution for me. I want one that’s more boring.
The problem with out phones isn’t that they’re too useful. It’s that they’re “too fun”. And by that I mean “too fun” like how junk food is “too good” for our own good.
Because, things like being able to buy transit tickets, pre-heat my car, and control my lights are not issues for me. And neither is easy access to a camera, calculator, music, weather forecasts, etc.
I do have some issues with my phone, though…
I have ADHD – and also a history (and not only a history) of anxiety and depression. So I really struggle with being uncomfortable with my mind wandering and being left to its own devices. This has led to me “needing” to fill every void with … something.
I want to try to work on this – especially as we’re expecting a baby next month.
Before mentioning what I have done to my phone: One thing I’m choosing not to tackle at the moment, is my over-usage of podcasts. Not listening to anything makes me uneasy. And often music isn’t even enough, and I require something like a podcast. That’s because the latter demands more of my mind. To put it a bit exaggerated: I want to listen to a podcast while going out with the rubbish. I intend to think more about this – but at the moment, I haven’t deleted Overcast or anything.
I do want to try to have it be more quiet around me, though – or at least “only” have music. (However, I know that will make things less quiet on the inside…) So, I’ve deleted the YouTube app from my phone. I don’t want to never use my phone for video, though – but maybe more intentional TV shows, etc. instead.
I also have an issue where I want to fill every little sliver of free time (like waiting a minute for something to load) with reading something quick – often in Mona (Mastodon) or Narwhal (Reddit). So, I’ve deleted all social media apps like this. I’ve kept Lire, my RSS reader, for now. I’ve also loaded up my phone with some ebooks.
I Had to Expand the External Storage on My Secondary Mac Mini
I first wrote about this Mac and its setup here — and then I have an update here. However, quite quickly, I learned that the 2 TB of storage I had purchased wasn’t enough.
The main culprit is Time Machine — and while I could probably do something to minimise the usage, backing up my wife’s MacBook Air (512 GB) and my MacBook Pro (512 GB) currently takes up about 1.1 TB.
I was considering upgrading the internal storage on the Mac, as more and more options for this gets released. However, none of my use-cases for storage benefits from being internal — so I did something else.
New hardware
So, I previously only had a 2 TB SSD 🖇️ in a Satechi Thunderbolt enclosure 🖇️. And here’s what I did:
- I purchased a (cheaper and slower) Satechi USB-C enclosure 🖇️, and a 4 TB SSD 🖇️.
- Then I moved the old 2 TB SSD over to the slower USB-C enclosure,
- and slipped the new 4 TB drive into the faster Thunderbolt enclosure.
✉️ How, and Why, I Use Micro.blog
A friend of mine, Simen (who has a nice, Norwegian blog), asked me about Micro.blog. That’s where this blog is hosted, and is also a social medium of sorts.
His questions
First, I want to give quick answers to the questions he had – and then go into more detail on how I’ve set things up.
1) “Which tier do you use, and why?"
Micro.blog has several tiers:
When I signed up, they only had the $5/month and $10/month plans. And I don’t quite remember what made me require the Premium plan – but things has been restructured now, so I could probably make do with one plan lower. If my friend wants to move to Micro.blog, we could go for a Family plan. 🫶🏻
I don’t find any value in things like notes and bookmarking, as I’d much rather use dedicated tools for this. I also don’t really use the newsletter feature – so I can’t really comment on that.
2) “Which features do you appreciate the most?"
I like the cross-posting features and robust ActivityPub support. For instance, the comment feature here is neat:
I also like that there are great option for third-party apps for publishing, like Ulysses, Drafts, and MarsEdit.
And I find that the platform has a good balance between being easy enough to use, while also being powerful and flexible enough to form into what I need. An example of the contrary was how I couldn’t find a way to have WordPress have a front-page with the start of my blog posts like I have now. (I’ll go into how I’m doing that later.)
3) “How is it different from the alternatives?"
Before I tried WordPress, my blog was on Write.as. However, that was too simple, and not expandable enough. With Micro.blog I can freely add features via Javascript, for instance. (Examples below.) And it also has a plug-in system (even though it’s far from as powerful as WordPress in that regard).
I know that Simen uses Quartz, which I also use for my band’s website. This is a nice static site generator where you, for instance, can simply “push” an Obsidian vault. However, this doesn’t have integrated newsletter support, doesn’t support ActivityPub, and doesn’t have cross-posting (among other things).
4) What’s missing? Or is too clunky?
One thing Quartz is better suited for, though, is digital gardens. Micro.blog is absolutely built around traditional, chronological blogging.
I also find uploads to be very clunky, when I don’t do it through Shortcuts. I can only upload one file at the time – and there’s no way, even in the … menu, to copy just the URL to the file. (I have to carve it out from the HTML or Markdown.) 👇🏻
The ActivityPub posts that Micro.blog push, for the long-form posts, are also very lacklustre, IMO. Just the title, and link to the post:
And I don’t like the social media part of the service – which I’ll get into next.
However, I’m generally delighted with the place I’ve gotten this blog!
My use, and how I got there
Quick Recommendation #8: Initial D
Drifting Anime, That Drips With Style
I’m not the biggest car-guy, even though I do enjoy a bit of car-YouTube from time to time.1 But I just love the anime Initial D.
The cars they drive remind me of my first real racing game: Gran Turismo on the first Playstation. And it has cemented owning a car with pop-up headlights on my bucket list.
The show has lots of intense racing scenes, backed up by an insane eurobeat soundtrack. Trust me – it works.
Here’s the basic setting:
Takumi Fujiwara is a teenager that works part-time for his father’s Tofu shop – making deliveries in the early morning. His father, Bunta, is an old street racer, and while Takumi hasn’t inherited his interest, he has inherited his talent. And being a lazy teenager, who wants to get done quickly with his work, he simply started driving faster and faster.
He drives an old, but well-tuned, Toyota Corolla – and him getting laughed at for driving a car like that, with the name of the tofu shop on the side, is part of the charm.
How to watch
Milestone Achieved: Linked to on a Podcast I Like
And a Guide to Pronunciation of My Name
One of my favourite tech podcasts, is Comfort Zone. It’s hosted by Christopher Lawley, Niléane Dorffer, and Matt Birchler, and is simply a pretty chill time with neat people.
Last week they asked for listener input, so I sent them a relevant blog post – and I got a little shoutout. ☺️
I’m thoroughly in the writing into the void phase of blogging. So every share, mention, and email really means a lot.1
My name(s)
Matt made a valiant effort to pronounce my weird Norwegian name – but obviously failed spectacularly. So I thought I’d use this occasion to provide a little guide!
My name is Erlend. The d is always silent – but for some Norwegian dialects, the r is silent as well. And for English speakers, this is my recommendation.
Then you pronounce it like the name “Allen”, but slower: Alen
However, if you have r’s like me, or the French, you can pronounce it like this: Erlend
Oh, and then there’s my blog. The name Havn is Norwegian for harbour. The a is like the a in “car”: Havn
Go and give the podcast a listen! The banter is good, and they have interesting challenges every week.
Furthermore: Share and/or email a small blogger this week. 🫶🏻 It’s lovely when the void answers – and many of us don’t get any help from algorithms.