Allister Jenks, Author at Podfeet Podcasts

Twelve South Book Arc and Book Arc Flex

For over 7 years, my working from home solution was to use the Citrix Workspace app on my Mac to remotely connect to a Windows 10 laptop that remained on my desk in the office. With the introduction of Windows 11 into the company in 2024, this was no longer allowed, and I needed to […]

Peak Design Capture

When I was purchasing my new Peak Design Everyday Backpack Zip, I made sure to add another Peak Design product to my cart. I’d seen it mentioned previously, but the product demo for the backpack explicitly mentioned its use on the backpack. The product is the Peak Design Capture. The problem it solves is how […]

Peak Design Everyday Backpack Zip

There’s a guy I work with who is known in our circles as the one who buys far too many jackets. I think I may soon be known as the one who buys far too many backpacks. There are two problems to be solved. First, to carry my camera gear, laptop, and more when travelling, […]

A product image of a Philips Hue Starter Kit. It shows a large black box with product imagery on the front. In front of the box are its contents. These include two bulbs, a dimmer knob, and a bridge.

Philips Hue Programming, Off the Charts (Part 3 of 3)

In the second instalment of this series, I left you with a couple of useful scripts — one to fetch the device ID of a light, given a name, and one to perform the conversion from RGB to CIE colour. I developed those two scripts as necessary parts of what comes next. I have demonstrated […]

NC #1006 Philips Hue Programming Parts 1 and 2, Espanso, Manta Sleep Masks, Re-usable Cable Ties and Cable Tags

Hi, this is Allister Jenks of the NosillaCast Apple Podcast, hosted at Podfeet.com, a technology geek podcast with an EVER so slight Apple bias. Today is Sunday, August 18, 2024, and this is show number 1006. mp3 download Articles Philips Hue Programming (Part 1 of 3) Tiny Tip – Re-usable Cable Ties Command Line Text […]

A product image showing the Manta SOUND Sleep Mask. It is a band of dark grey fabrics, wider in the front with an arch for the nose. There is a red Manta Sleep symbol — evocative of a Manta Ray — on the front, and a turquoise circle is visible on the near side which is the outer part of the Bluetooth speaker on that side. The mask is angled as if it is propped up at the back on a small box, however none is visible.

Manta Sleep Masks

I have lived in my current home for over 20 years. In that time I have often complained — usually to friends and family, but also to the local council — about the insufficient number of street lights on our street. Late last year we finally saw the installation of some additional lights. It has […]

A picture of bundles of plastic "zip tie" cable ties in red, green, yellow, orange, blue, white, and black. In front of the bundles is one of each colour looped into itself to show how they hold cables. The looped ones each have a written label on the large plastic tag.

Tiny Tip – Cable Tags

The instructions said, “Use ONLY the cable that came with the product.” I said, “Well then make it distinctive and not look like every other USB cable in my cable box!” I don’t know whether I believe my Manta Sleep Mask needs that exact USB cable to charge, but I do know that my Epson […]

Philips Hue Programming, Evolved (Part 2 of 3)

Device name selection In my previous instalment, I explained how to use the curl command to control Philips Hue lights. Part of the exercise involved dumping out a huge glop of JSON data and finding a long, gobbledegook of random alphanumeric characters that were the ID of a light we could control. I wanted to […]

A picture of a block of velcro-like straps, in black, green, blue, red, yellow, and white. There is also one of each colour strap shown looped on itself to show how they wrap cables.

Tiny Tip – Re-usable Cable Ties

The problem to be solved was a bewildering array of cables in a very large box. Step one separate boxes for each basic type: network cables, power cables, audio cables, and USB cables. The next problem to be solved was a bewildering array of USB cables in a large box. If we count USB-A, USB-A […]

A product image of three Philips Hue bulbs and a Hue Bridge. The bulbs are lined up on an angle receding from the viewer and to the left, towards the bridge in the background. The bulbs are mostly white, lit up in a purple colour. The bridge is white with a lit up blue ring.

Philips Hue Programming (Part 1 of 3)

A few years ago, I decided I needed to get some smart light bulbs. I need to be able to set very dim light in my study for the nights I am on call for my job. After trying some cheap no-name bulbs, I discovered the Nanoleaf Essentials range. These were affordable and also came […]

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