Not-Summer Camping

tent autumn

This year my wife and I decided to try our hand at a few days of camping at the end of October, where in central New Jersey temperatures can be anywhere between below freezing and the 70s (°F). We got lucky with nights just above freezing and days in the 50s and negligible wind.

At the end of the first day, I had a thought. I’d make a terrible “Survivorman”. I literally hadn’t touched my camera yet. Not willing to purchase a “winter” tent, we pitched a 7×4′ tent inside of the 10×8′ tent. This idea actually worked too well. We woke up hot with the inside of the inner tent covered in condensation. We spent the following nights with the windows of the inner tent open.

One contrast I noticed with my usual summer camping was that I was unable sleep in. We timed the trip to end when daylight savings time did, but that didn’t stop us from being put to sleep by the darkness at 8. As I write this up at 1AM I wonder how my quality of life would be improved if I had more ambient lighting and less electrical lighting in my life.

Fire is fire any time of year; dry firewood helps. I was disappointed that the park’s maintenance crew had cleared many downed trees, forcing me to buy firewood rather than source a lot of it.

One of the biggest advantages not-summer camping has is that my cooler still had the same full bag of ice in it when we came home, which went back into the freezer and ended up in drinks.

The forecast for the day we were to leave called for heavy rain starting the night before. While I was confident the tent wouldn’t leak, I was also confident that I didn’t want to pack up a wet tent in the rain. We decided rather than leave a day early to pay the difference to try one of the cabins in the park.

cabin autumn

This turned out to be the right call, as the rain started at 6pm, and got serious by 10pm, which it remained until after we were home the next day. The cabin had a wood stove in it, so like our tents I was also able to make it too hot, but luckily they were of reasonably recent construction with properly functioning screened windows.

Oh, and a Prius weighed down with gear and constantly running AC because of the greenhouse effect while we were traveling around eastern Pennsylvania and the Pine Barrens gets pretty crappy milage.

milage

It’s not an iPad

There’s a lot of talk about the bigger iPhones maybe cannibalizing the iPad mini, but for now at least, that’s not going to happen. First, the App queue is so backed up that even apps that have submitted updates still aren’t available (this fact alone is almost making me regret being an early adopter). Second, 736×414 points on the big one is nowhere near the 1024×768 points on an iPad (but it’s pretty damn close to half of one… stay tuned for iPad multitasking?)

Pixels Don’t Matter Anymore

Update: a way better explanation from PaintCode

Auto Adjust iPhone 6+

click for full pixel size of iPhone 6+ screenshot

Is the iPhone 6+ 2208×1242 or 1920×1080? Turns out the answer is both. The iPhone 6+ renders 414×736 points @3X for an overall rendering context of 2208×1242 which it then scales to 1920×1080 to display on screen, just like “More Space” works on retina MacBook Pros, except there isn’t a “Pixel Perfect” option for the obsessive among us as far as I know. At the ridiculously high DPI of the display there is likely no perceivable effect.

I wonder which of two paths the iPhone 6S+/7 takes based on this information (and iPads for that matter). Do we start seeing a retina MacBook Pro like UI scaling feature in the preferences (not just text) or is this merely a stopgap while they figure out how to fit 2208×1242 on a 5.5″ screen at the same price as 1080p. I’m going to make the assumption that if they were truly targeting 1080p from the beginning for pixel perfect 1080p video then the iPhone 6 would have a 720p display and do similar scaling from a 667x375pt 1334×750@2X rendering context.

native on the left, downscaled on the right

native on the left, downscaled on the right

Either way, this scaling feature was going to be baked into the hardware/OS for better rending (i.e., not “nearest neighbor”) for apps that have not been updated for the new screen sizes, so it likely wasn’t the end of the world if this change in panels was made late in the game.

Eton FRX Emergency Products Review

FRX4Logo
After an announcement at CES and a few shipping delays, I did eventually receive my Eton FRX4 and FRX5, updates to their existing FRX2 and FRX3 emergency products. I intentionally skipped over purchasing the FRX1 as it does not include a USB port for phone charging but is otherwise an FRX2.

All four products contain at least

  • Handcrank
  • Solar panel
  • AM/FM/Weather radio
  • USB out for charging cellphones
  • USB in for charging themselves
  • Headphones
  • A built in speaker
  • Telescoping antenna
  • Flashlight

So any one of them and you technically will be somewhat better off than having no way to charge your phone or get the weather in an emergency. However, there is a huge difference in quality in the units that frustratingly isn’t a linear progression, so I’m going to break the review down by feature rather than unit.

FRX2 FRX3 FRX4 FRX5 under tree

As an AM/FM/Weather radio

The FRX2 not only has a dial tuner, it has crappy sound that is not improved by using headphones. I tried to listen to an AM broadcast of a football game and could barely follow it. The FRX3 FRX4 and FRX5 all have a digital tuner and much better built in speaker, although the FRX3 speaker is better than the smaller FRX4. The FRX5 uniquely has S.A.M.E. and weather alerts.

As a flashlight

The FRX3 has two standard LEDS while the FRX2 has three (and a better plastic focusing lens). This makes the FRX2 a better brighter and more directional flashlight. The FRX3 used the third LED spot for a very dim flashing red one.

The FRX4 and FRX5 use an adjustable ultra bright white LED that blows the other two out of the water in outdoor use at night. They are the same in both units. They both also have a pair of dim red LEDs that flash.

The FRX5 uniquely has a diffuse ambient “lantern” light that is also adjustable in brightness. This feature is nice if you don’t have a white wall or ceiling to bounce the flashlight beam off of to illuminate a whole room.

As a crank operated device

Assuming you’re starting from a dead battery, all four devices perform identical here, although the non-digital nature of the FRX2 means you don’t have to hit some minimal capacity to start using the flashlight immediately albeit dimly.

The FRX2/3 contain tiny NiCad batteries that do not hold enough charge to recharge a phone without simultaneously cranking, but do serve as a buffer to provide constant current.

As an alkaline device

The devices except the FRX 2 accept 3 AAA batteries to either power the unit itself or pass the charge along through the USB cable. As AAAs are still findable in an extended power outage (trust me) this is a cool feature, especially if other factors prevent hand crank use (age, RSI) or solar panels (weather, time of year). I personally think it’s wasteful to dump the charge into your phone and would rather save my AAAs for my 2AAA Maglite, but it’s comforting to have the option.

FRX solar panels

As a solar powered device

This is probably the coolest feature of the devices because it lets the device work for you while you’re busy doing something else, and depending on the nature of your situation, that can be a big deal.

As a solar radio

Depending on volume and sun intensity, you can practically break even using the radio all day long on all units.

As a solar phone charger

The FRX2 and FRX3 use NiCad batteries that only serve as a constant current buffer for hand crank charging. The solar panel at least makes sure your buffer is filled and ready for you or the unit is ready.

The FRX4 and FRX5 have much bigger Lithium batteries and much bigger panels to charge them. They CAN be used to collect solar energy during the day to dump into your phone at night. The FRX4 has a 1000mAH battery, while the FRX5 has double that. The iPhone 5S has a 1440mAH battery.

With tablets and larger phones those numbers are worrisomely small, and simply reduce the amount of hand cranking needed on a daily basis rather than eliminate it.
FRX4 water

So I should buy…?

That depends on the number of devices you’ll need to charge in an extended power outage. If you’re staying home during the power outage and not wasting your phone battery by using it for recreation, the cheap subsidized hand cranking of even the FRX2 should be plenty sufficient. If you still have to drive to work (and can get gas, of course) then you probably don’t need anything.

I put velcro on my FRX2 and FRX4 and keep them on the back shelf in the cars, solar panels in a kind of good direction since there is a roof over them. It may seem an odd product to keep in the car but one potential reason for getting stranded is a dead car battery, and if you choose to leave your perfectly functioning but stuck vehicle it’s not like you can take a car battery with you – especially the giant Prius battery that’s half the weight of the car.

Because it’s a better flashlight than anything else (and being the cheapest), I would recommend the FRX 2 for use in individual survival kits, to mostly be forgotten about until you actually need it.

The FRX3 is best suited for someone who doesn’t have a smartphone yet and will actually use it as a radio, emergency or not.

Each household should have one FRX5 mostly for the weather alerts. They’re more likely to make it to you than push notifications. It also has the best speaker. Each full time working adult beyond the first only needs an FRX4 though.

Here is a single affiliate link to Amazon if you would like to benefit me
Eton All-Purpose Weather Alert Radio, FRX4 (Gray)

You may be wondering why I didn’t include rival products, and the answer is they don’t necessarily do any one thing better than the Eton products, and often have a few less features (or just look plain ugly in my book). I did not receive review units from anyone.

If you think you only need a 24 hour solution, I highly recommend Jackery external batteries. The smallest size has 3 times the capacity of the FRX5 and can charge and be charged at the same time, but it’s just a battery. I personally prefer them to extended battery cases.

Why didn’t ebooks race to the bottom too?

Today ebooks still cost around $10, seem to be climbing even. Well, ones from publishers anyway. Indy ebooks are usually a few dollars. This is huge contrast to the App Store, where there aren’t really “publishers” in the same sense of literature. I’m not sure which direction I’d rather see things go in though, probably getting rid of publishers in the music and book business… democratizing content and all. We’ll have to find a different cure for the race to the bottom.

iPads and tablets are still pretty popular

I’m spending this week vacationing with my parents, siblings, and their families this week, and although a few MacBooks made the journey, and all the adults have iPhones, there are more tablets than people if you count the e-ink devices.

It turns out that other than people 5’6″ and under who aren’t nerds prefer the 10″ iPads for just about everything. The 10″ form factor is already “tweener” device for them: neither a phone nor 13″ MacBook.

When my parents use an iPhone to look up something, my dad takes his glasses off, my mother puts her non-prescription glasses on, and both hold it some “perfect” distance from their face. If Apple were to release a larger iPhone, their hope is that it’ll have the same number of points on screen as existing models.

This is not the case with the iPads, which they mostly use while in a reclined chair. The 10″ size seems to be a sweet spot for being able to see the iPad, then being able to see the TV or something else further away without having to switch anything or wait particularly long for their eyes to adjust.

Tablet devices get full websites; making the type of browsing to the types of websites that don’t get updating to responsive designs (or worse – those weird iPhone OS 1 type websites) a breeze.

About Arm MacBooks (again)

http://www.macrumors.com/2014/05/25/arm-mac-magic-trackpad/

In the past, I have said that Arm MacBooks would give us magical amounts of battery life and run cool. And while that may still be true, it’s also currently true of Intel’s offerings (which didn’t used to be the case). Apple’s longest lasting device is no longer the iPad, it’s the 13″ MacBook Air.

I’m officially changing my stance on these rumors to being real but fake “controlled leaks” to punish/scare Intel after they were presumably the weak link in Mac Pro production and the second gen retina MacBook Pros not being available at WWDC last year.

If Intel thinks Apple is serious about the 12″ retina MacBook Air being powered by ARM, Intel may be more willing to either fab ARM chips for iOS devices (which would put them a whole process ahead of Samsung and TSMC) or give Apple earlier processor access of x86 chips in exchange for keeping the Mac lineup entirely x86.

can you take a subcompact Prius c camping?

TL:DR Yes, 2 people, unless you’re one of those “brings the kitchen sink” types.
Prius c Camping

Here’s what I was able to fit into the “trunk” alone:

  • Two 10×8 Tarps
  • One 10×8 Tent
  • One 7×4 Tent*
  • Two Pillows
  • Two Fleece Sleeping Bags
  • Backpack with
    1. Real tent stakes
    2. Hammer
    3. Fishing Tackle + Rod
    4. Paracord
    5. Multitools
    6. Fire starters
    7. Water bottles
    8. Metal cups
    9. other miscellaneous basic survival gear

*the smaller tent fits into the larger tent for additional heat retention in case it’s 10°F colder than you packed for, or it’s too hot for the larger tent with tarps on and under it and you just need a bug-free space to sleep.

That’s pretty much all you’ll need for a typical trip at a state park where running water and fire pits with grills are provided, leaving the back seat available (folded up or down) for clothes and a cooler and whatever you choose to sleep on.

As far as sleeping IN the prius c. No. Regular Prius it’s very easy but the trunk and folded seats aren’t level in the c, and even then, their total combined length is insufficient for even someone as short as me. You can sleep in it as well as you can sleep in any car with reclining front seats, but you’re not getting a bed like you could with larger hatchbacks.

Panic’s Mac App Store Strawman

Panic has put up a whiny post detailing why Coda 2.5 won’t be on the Mac App Store because of growing pains with the sandbox.

That’s all well and good, except, well, read the “features” that need to break out of the sandbox. Namely, accessing files and folders on your local Mac you don’t have ownership over (have we forgotten how chown works?), its built in Terminal emulator (I’m on a fucking Mac, I have one of those already), and Get Info having chmod access to local files…

See a trend? It’s all regarding a bunch of local stuff I don’t need Panic to touch. Real world web development takes place on remote servers as much as locally. Even in the tightest sandbox, it’s not the end of the world to simply tell your local Mac to allow SSH and SFTP access to your web root. This, btw, is the only way to access your local mysql server in ANY app. You can’t just open its storage root and expect to update tables.

Panic, please stop whining about stupid features I don’t care about, and maybe try enhancing cool stuff, and maybe make the world’s first MSSQL client written in Cocoa and add value to your app instead of trying to blame Apple for wasting time on features I don’t need that you knew were going to be a problem.

Why did I call this a strawman? Because it sounds like they might be using sandboxing as justification for leaving the MAS when in reality it’s for economic reasons. That would be perfectly fine, just be honest about it.

/rant

Microsoft isn’t making Nintendo’s mistakes anymore

Microsoft announced it will support writing Android and iOS development right within visual studio. Sort Of. It’s using cross platform rather than native development. But still, this is quite different from the Microsoft of my youth, that outside of the Mac BU, simply didn’t acknowledge anything outside their own universe.

If you’ve looked into Azure, you might’ve noticed that one of your development choices is on a full LAMP stack; all 4 letters of LAMP, Linux, Apache, mysql, and php. It’s not php running through IIS on a Windows machine. The only Microsoft product involved is presumably Hyper-V at a layer outside your VM. Mac native apps Coda and Sequel Pro have no problem connecting.

Even Sharepoint 2013 “just works” on all modern browsers.

Office on iPad exists now.

Nintendo, by contrast, is still content to slowly bleed money on consoles that aren’t selling. Still content to live in the world of yesteryear where Nintendo is unquestionably vertical, rather than take advantage of the license to print money that official ports and emulators on other platforms could potentially bring them. They (sort of) seem to understand that graphics upgrades to their platinum titles every generation is what we want. They’re hit or miss on continuing those legacy titles with new games…