A little this & that Feb 23

Bowl containing our first harvest of Scotch Bonnet peppers

Since the last update there have been a few changes and some small wins

Musings

Daft Punk split/retired 😢😭

This group was there for most of my musical life to-date with them running from 1993 to 2018 I will miss their occasional releases of outstanding music. Thankfully they did take the time to make us a goodbye message in the form of this video, which to me looks like it was recorded at the time of their last music video but even if it wasn’t they made it fit the continuity.

Nails in the road

One of my friends in Spain got an unrepairable nail in his tire and that got me thinking I wish there was a way to tag everything that made it into a truck, van, or trailer (we have RFID today) and then the tire shop could bill the, umm jerks (I used another word in our chat), that let stuff fall out for each tire. Then of course regular car insurance could help with the bills so if someone made the occasional mistakes it'd be an uncomfortable reminder $20-50, but if they did this all the time they'd get dropped by their carrier and be responsible for today’s multi-hundred-dollar tires. This would also offer protection if they had a crash where cargo spilled, the police report and insurance would protect them from that load getting them canceled. This is a pipe dream but it’s a shame that innocent people must pay the price for a bunch of careless jerks in a rush. Thankfully, the place I buy my tires includes road-hazard insurance with each tire sold, I’ve had to use it twice now and it was fairly painless. I did buy coverage for the tires on the Model X immediately when we bought it when we did the paint protection film, ceramic coating, and the ceramic coating of the interior.

Small Business and European Google/Bing maps:

We then thought of solutions for non-techie small businesses that can’t be bothered to keep their schedules and even if you call ahead, they might still not be there by the time you arrive. We thought about wireless smart buttons next to the open close sign at the front door, or on the light switch for their parking lot sign that would update their website and Google & Bing Maps to show the place as currently closed along with their listed business hours. I like being able to come and go but yeah you should be there when you say you are, I get that stuff comes up with small business. My next adjustment for the ultra lazy or careless/forgetful proprietors/employees was to link the status to the alarm or key cylinder on the front (customer) door that updates the maps, this would be awesome!

 Work

I had some successes wrangling and securing a rowdy IIS and .Net application and we left off trying to get its particular SAML situation working while I troubleshoot certificates on another SAML app that uses ADFS.

Food

Luna has been working out our new popcorn machine, it’s super quick, easy to use and easy to cleanup. We liked it so much that we added it to our Amazon Store

Luna made the chili this week with Scotch Bonnets from one of our hydroponics gardens, she was afraid it would be too spicy but since my mom’s side of the family is from Jamaicia that wasn’t the case, it smelled like some family meals and the temperature was definitely turned up but I found it manageable. The chili was just as delicious as usual, I did have to clear the empty bowl quicker than normal as it smelled like fire 😅.

Fitness

I missed two days of squats because my knees were acting up but have managed to hit the crunches and pushups the whole time. I’m down .2 pounds and up .2% bodyfat, and down .1% muscle mass.

I haven’t been getting enough sleep, several days saw me going to bed a few hours before sunrise, and depending on if the next day was a workday was whether I got a restful sleep or not, even if the sleep was restful the quantity was insufficient so that has been adding up unfortunately. Mini goal, start going to bed by roughly midnight at the latest for a while.

Rode Wireless Go II

Rode released their Wireless Go II system this morning, all the new features had me ready to click the buy it now button, I’ll be waiting to see some reviews and for some more income to come in. I’m sure the reviews will be fine

Videos:

We’re well on our way to meeting the two videos per week goal, here are most of the videos published since the last blog entry, I skipped the shorter smaller duplicate of one video (posted to see how the shorts shelf treats 360 videos, weirdly but very well, next time I’ll try just rotating it 90 degrees)

Tesla Dashcam USB Setup 2021 - No Computer needed!

For 2021 setting up your Tesla Dashcam aka TeslaCam is now easier than ever as Tesla has made it a one button process! First you'll need a USB 3.0 Drive (USB3 Thumbdrive/Flash Drive) or an Endurance SD Card and adapter or an SSD (Solid State Drive).

 I use the Vectotech 512 GB SSD https://amzn.to/3sdOGBK

Next, you'll plug it in near your cupholders (Model S& Model X prior to 2021 with MCU2), or under your phone charger (Model 3 and Model Y prior to 2021), or in your Glovebox 2021 and newer models.

 Then you'll open the controls menu (The icon of your car in the lower menu bar)

and go to Safety & Security menu, then there'll be a format USB button under the Dashcam section of the menu. This will erase the drive by reformatting, and it'll name the volume and create the required folders.

 *If your drive is partitioned with music or something else on another partition, DO NOT USE THIS METHOD* as it will erase your custom partitions and use the whole drive for Tesla cam.

 While I'm in here I make sure the save clips on honk is enabled as I remember to hit the horn in my adrenaline fog but I've forgot to click the little icon or hit my 3rd party dashcam's save button several times, never failed to hit the horn.

 If you drive is full of Sentry Mode clips and you've saved everything you need this is a great way to erase everything and start fresh with your drive.

 The car will keep an hour loop of everything it sees while this drive is in and the recording isn't disabled, honking with the save on honk setting or pressing the save button on the top menu will keep the last 10 minutes for you while the rest of the unsaved, non-sentry footage is overwritten after it is aged by 59 minutes.

 As of the 2020 holiday update, if Sentry Mode has a panic event any you then insert a drive and (assuming it wasn't already setup as a TeslaCam drive) run this procedure the car's dashcam will save the event to the FSD computer or MCU and then move that recording to your newly available drive for you to give the footage to the police or your insurance company, or you can review it yourself or submit it to  @Wham Baam Teslacam   😘.

 Using this method for your Tesla Dashcam USB setup, isn't the only method but it is the easiest with a one button procedure and no need for a computer or phone.

Tesla Software Update 2021.4.6 - Deep Dive

This bug fix update to the 2020 Tesla Holiday Update bears version number 2021.4.6 and contains a few changes not listed in the release notes. Acceleration off stoplights and following a lead car varies from leisurely to adequate. Stoplight control beta performance with flashing yellow lights is mixed. Navigate on autopilot is back to another good release both in steering performance and the way that it plots a course.

 We try Navigate on Autopilot with compound onramps and off-ramps as well as with compound exits and entrances. This time autosteer is quite competent with curves handling them smoothly with no uncertainty, the same goes for the slight turn it used to dramatically exaggerate as if it were a tight turn merging onto I-95 North from Woodbridge.

 The interference with trucks I saw on the two Deep-Dive videos ago remains gone at all speeds. The vehicle is still willing to play chicken on lane changes to see if it make a move seeing if the person already in the lane will make way or close the gap.

 We try Smart Summon to target and then we use Smart Summon's Come to Me feature.

 This deep-dive saw no surprises that we noticed versus 2021.4.3 but we were looking at back to back updates with that one following the 2021.4.2 update by less than a day and this one a week later.

 We did hear of a few owners complaining that their HVAC would go out after this update and for some it came back with an MCU reboot and others that didn't bring back the climate control system.

 There were no visible signs of Holiday Update part 2.

 Tesla Software Update 2021.4.3 - Deep Dive

This bug fix update to the 2020 Tesla Holiday Update bears version number 2021.4.3 and contains a few changes not listed in the release notes. Acceleration off stoplights and following a lead car varies from leisurely to adequate. Stoplight control beta performance with flashing yellow lights is mixed. Navigate on autopilot is back to another good release both in steering performance and the way that it plots a course.

 We try Navigate on Autopilot with compound onramps and off-ramps as well as with compound exits and entrances. This time autosteer is quite competent with curves handling them smoothly with no uncertainty, the same goes for the slight turn it used to dramatically exaggerate as if it were a tight turn merging onto I-95 North from Woodbridge.

 The interference with trucks I saw on the last Deep-Dive is gone at all speeds.

 We try Smart Summon to target and then we use Smart Summon's Come to Me feature, the car is back to following the rules of the road rather than cutting across the parking lot it followed the aisles and went around correctly.

 This deep-dive saw more changes that we initially expected but we were looking at back to back updates with this one following the 2021.4.2 update by less than a day,

 There were no visible signs of Holiday Update part 2.

 This video's Smart Summon Testing was performed at Saratoga Shopping Center in front of Giant Food just past Starbucks.

 Tesla Autopark in 2021.4.3 - 8K 360º

Watch a Tesla Model X P100D Autopark in this 8K 360º video.

Several viewers have requested a view outside the car during a Tesla Autopilot, so during our testing for our Deep-Dive video on Tesla Software Update 2021.4.3 we tossed the 360º camera up in the air and captured this and it was long enough for a YouTube #Shorts so we ran a poll and our viewers demanded we release this video. The system continues to behave smoothly and get uncomfortably close to nearby cars. Getting the P to pop up and offer to Autopark the car was reasonable and didn't present too much difficulty and the car did not seem too choosy with spaces this time around.

Multi-Car Crash Florida - Merritt Island, outside Loggins Realty

My wife and I were returning from watching SpaceX launch the first Falcon Heavy Rocket launch one of the first Tesla Roadsters into space at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, we were to meet up with friends for pizza. This young driver made the mistake of failing to look left and right before entering the road and ensuring they had clear sightlines and drove out into the street causing a multi-car crash.

Just in front of Loggins Realty here is what we witnessed:

The red Corolla caused the multi car crash by striking the CR-V because they couldn't see it and cut out through the line of cars waiting for the light to change. The CR-V had the right-of-way and was already at speed when it collided with the passenger-side front fender launching it into the tan Sienna. I put the Tesla Model S 90D into reverse and stabbed the lightning 🌩 pedal for one beat to get some distance between the scene unfolding before us. Two people were taken by ambulance and a few more treated at the scene.

The police looked at the footage on my laptop but didn't have anything to store the footage, they said they'd call if they wanted it and give my contact info to the lawyers, but here we are 3 years later with no request.

That’s all for now, we’ll catch you on the flipside.