Getting Octo4a to work (or charging while being connected)

by lars on 12/01/2022

Getting Octo4a to work is actually ridiculously easy. It’s getting the phone to charge and be connected to the printer at the same time. I first tried with my old Samsung Galaxy 7 Edge, which only has micro-usb. I had to give up on that, after buying 3 different cables and even trying to charge wirelessly while connected to the printer. The wireless solution was impractical, so I gave up on that as well.

I then rummaged through my drawer again, and found the last phone I used: A Samsung Note 9 – that has usb-c so I was almost sure I would get it to work. I had an old usb-c dongle that had usb-a, hdmi and rj45 (networking). This acted very strange – I could get the phone to charge, but it would run out of juice, even when I used my beefy Samsung charger (a big one that can fast wireless charge a phone and a watch at the same time).

In desperation, and because I thought that my old dongle didn’t support PD (power delivery) over usb-c, I went and bought another cheap dongle (that specifically supported PD) and tried again. It didn’t work. But I knew it should, so I brought out a real usb-c charger (a 65 watt one, that I bought for my soldering iron, a Pinecil). IT WORKED!

Afterwards I also checked the old dongle, and that also worked.

TL;DR:

  • Use a phone with usb-c that supports OTG
  • Enable USB debugging in android
  • Get a usb-c dongle that has usb-a and usb-c and supports PD (power delivery) over usb-c
  • Get a (high wattage) charger that has usb-c and supports PD
  • Connect the dongle to the phone, then the charger to the dongle (and verify that the phone charges) and THEN the printer to the dongle

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Zen Phase 001 Office/Gaming Chair Review

by lars on 22/03/2021

Back in the early 00’s I purchased a Herman Miller Aeron chair. For years I’ve had the joy of sitting in this chair. I’ve gone through a couple of lumbar supports and broken a bolt on the armrest, which I fixed. The mesh on the seat is worn (the seat can be replaced). However, I decided to try a new chair. I looked at a lot of chairs, including the Autonomous ergonomic chairs and a few others, but finally settled on the Zen Phase 001.

Zen Phase 001

Zen Phase 001

The chair is comfortable, and if I’d only ever sat in a cheap office or gaming chair, I’d probably be thrilled with this chair. But having been spoiled with a truly excellent chair for so long, I am hard to convince! ;)

Here are a few observations.

Pros:

  • The backrest, along with the lumbar support is excellent. (My colleague has the same chair, and he doesn’t like it at all, so he removed it from his chair.)
  • The headrest is excellent and feels wonderful. It is also easy to adjust.
  • The chair leans very far back, and with the headrest it just feels amazing. You can adjust the tension of the leaning mechanism, and it’s fine.
  • The seat can be set to move forward as you lean back. I’m still not sure if I like it or not. I use it on and off.
  • The mesh feels sort of the same as on the Aeron – but we’ll have to see if it is as durable as the Aeron’s.
  • It has a button, so that when you lean back, the seat slides forward (see cons).

Cons:

  • The Aeron’s seat is so wide (even the size B – the medium), that you don’t feel the frame of the chair – you feel it on the Phase 001.
  • On the Aeron the armrests are static and don’t move when you lean back. On the Phase 001 they tilt with you as you lean back. This makes it uncomfortable to use the mouse while you are leaned back. You can sort of fix this by pulling the arm rest towards your body, but then you have to move the armrest again, when you stop leaning back.
  • The Aeron feels much more bouncy on the seat. On the Phase 001 there is hardly any bounce – it feels closer to sitting on a wooden chair. I like the bounce of the Aeron.
  • The armrests feel cheap. The top is plastic. The Aeron’s have very comfortable leather cushions on them.
  • When you activate the mechanism, so that the seat slides forward when you lean back, your shirt sticks to the mesh, and your lower back gets exposed. A little annoying.
  • The mesh sticks a bit more to you than the mesh on the Aeron.
  • The back tilting does not provide enough resistance – you can adjust it, but just not enough – it might not be too bad if you are of a smaller stature ;)

If you’re considering the Zen Phase 001, then perhaps take a look at Herman Miller’s newer offerings. They’re more expensive, but they’re amazing. There are often second hand Herman Miller chairs to be had cheaper than the Phase 001 at new.

As for the Zen Phase 001 – yes, it’s a nice enough chair. It just isn’t a Herman Miller. The Aeron is just in another league. Much more comfortable.

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“True” spread of Coronavirus

by lars on 18/03/2020

I’ve been wondering about the spread of the coronavirus. We can only test so many, and we can’t test fast enough.
That led me to think. The mortality rate of the coronavirus can only be estimated, and has indeed been estimated from 0.25% all the way to crazy 20% (which I don’t believe). The latest numbers I’ve seen that make sense is the CDC estimating 0.9% mortality rate.

The average incubation time of the virus seems to be 10 days. For the fatal cases, people seem to succumb to the virus and die on average 10 days after symptoms show. This means that there is a 20 day delay. From that we can calculate the likely number of infected up to 20 days ago. For example: If the mortality rate was 1% and 1 person died, that must mean that approximately 20 days ago 100 people were infected.

Disclaimer! I am not a medical professional or statistician or anything like that. I was just interested in the numbers. The numbers are purely based on actual reported deaths and the information that I have gathered. I might even have made mistakes in my calculations, so please correct me, if that is the case.

Here is a graph showing estimated spread in South Korea from January 26th up until February 26th based on an estimated mortality rate of 0.9%

Estimated spread vs. positive tests, South Korea

Note how few was actually tested positive vs. the estimated number of infected. Total estimated infected as of Feb. 26th: 9,000

Here is Italy:

Note how few were tested vs. estimated infected. Number of positive tests hardly registers on the graph. Total estimated infected as of Feb. 26th: 278,111

Here is the USA:

Estimated spread vs. positive tests, USA

Again, the tested hardly registers on the graph. Total estimated infected as of Feb. 26th: 12,111

Based on a 0.9% mortality rate, the current number of dead – 8,790 would mean that 20 days ago around 976,667 people were infected.

It looks scary. Now if the fatality rate is high, that means there is less infected, but the number cannot be too high, since that would mean number of positive tests exceeds the number of infections. Here is the South Korea graph with a mortality rate of 6.4%:

South Korea graph with an adjusted mortality rate of 6.4%

To me this means that the actual mortality rate must be a good deal lower than 6.4%.

As I said. This was for my own morbid curiosity (excuse the pun). Take it as you will.

Also, bear in mind that this is a look, at most, 20 days into the past.

Stay safe, people!

Oh, and if you are in need of hand sanitizer/disinfectant, e-liquid-recipes.com has a page that will help you follow the WHO-recipe for hand sanitizer :)

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(A) Pinnacle of First World Convenience?

by lars on 25/05/2019

I just fell over a review by coffee dude, James Hoffmann, of the Ember Smart Mug. A bluetooth enabled smart mug. That you have to do firmware upgrades on, once in a while. This seems like such a ridiculous and unnecessary product, and yet I want to own one. Now I haven’t bought it, but I am sooooo tempted.

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Samsung Galaxy Watch 46mm 2018 Review

by lars on 4/10/2018

This is my short review on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 46mm.

Read the rest of this article »

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iCloud-integration i Windows med Outlook 365

by lars on 20/04/2018

Har du fået en ny Windows 10 computer, installeret Office 365 og har en iPhone, vil du sikkert gerne have din kalender osv på din maskine. Min kollega, som bruger en iPhone, havde problemet, med at når han forsøgte at tilføje sin iCloud-konto i Windows, gav den ham en fuldstændig meningsløs besked: “Indstillingen kan ikke fortsætte, fordi Outlook ikke er konfigureret til en standardbeskrivelse. Kontroller Outlook-indstillingerne og prøv igen.” – Den oprindelige, engelske, beskrivelse er lidt mere sigende: “Setup can’t continue because Outlook isn’t configured to have a default profile. Check your Outlook settings and try again.”.

Den er meget svær at knække, men min kollega faldt over en post der løser problemet, som kræver at man bruger PowerShell til at fyre nogle kommandoer af.

iCloud error: Outlook isn’t configured to have a default profile

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Leonardo: Sketching and drawing for Windows

by lars on 10/04/2018

I found a very cool little drawing app for Windows. It’s made by a Swedish guy under the name Xade Software and it’s called Leonardo. So if you’re into drawing/sketching check it out!

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LetsEncrypt certbot DNS-challenge

by lars on 29/03/2018

If you have ever tried to get some LetsEncrypt SSL-certificates by using the DNS-challenge, you might have been frustrated that the challenge is different each time you run it, so you have to leave it until the DNS has propagated. That means you might lose the connection to the server you are doing it on. There is a simple work-around: Let’s say you are requesting 3 certificates (or challenges), go through to the last one, do your DNS changes, then press CTRL+C to abort the certbot. Now you can wait comfortably until the DNS has propagated. When it has, simply start the certbot again using the same command, and the challenges are the same.

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Hvad koster det, hvis man skal have én af hver i IKEA?

by lars on 16/03/2018

Det var et sjovt spørgsmål jeg faldt over på Twitterhjerne‘s feed: Hvad koster det, hvis man skal have én af hver i IKEA? Klokken var mange, og jeg sumpede lidt foran computeren, så jeg tænkte at det ville jeg da finde ud af. Jeg startede med at se, om der var et sted hvor man kunne se alle deres produkter. Det var der ikke, men der var et sted hvor man kan se alle kategorierne, og på undersiderne er alle produkterne så.

Resultatet kom efter et par minutter: Der er 11.462 produkter. Det billigste koster 1,- og det dyreste 21.299,- … Den samlede pris for én af hver er 11.252.939,- Gennemsnitsprisen for et IKEA-produkt er kr 981,76 :-)

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High Sierra and ssh: publickey denied

by lars on 6/10/2017

Turns out Apple stopped supporting 1024-bit keys, so you should create new keys. While you do that, you can still access your SSH-hosts with your old key. Add this to ~/.ssh/config :

Host *
    PubkeyAcceptedKeyTypes +ssh-dss

You should then be able to git/ssh to your sites again. But do remember to upgrade, as your old 1024-bit key is vulnerable to the logjam-attack.

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