Home from the Bahamas!
Just got home from Charleston where Amy and I left the Carnival Ecstasy behind. Now, we have to rememeber how to procure and prepare our own food. Let’s hope we haven’t forgotten how to look after ourselves.
So, it’s back to work. The calendar is full for the next week or so, but I can work things in if you’re in a bind. 😎
Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller
When I installed my Rachio Irrigation controller, I rather expected something different. I thought it would be cool to command the sprinklers to spring to life using Amazon Alexa.
What I did not realize was that the Raggio could be told to query local airport weather data online and then, automatically, decide not to water your lawn because it's raining or has rained recently. Setting up this feature was as simple as clicking a check box in the app. It’s been raining for days and my Rachio just sends me a notification that it’s skipping the cycle because rainfall has exceeded the amount that I had set.
Wow. No rain sensor needed. No moisture probes in the ground. Just the internet.
Not all of my home automation experimenets have been all that useful. This one is a ten out of ten. Got some smart lights coming in the mail. Stay Tuned.
Snippets. They grow on you.
Here’s an interesting little snippet. Yeah, a snippet. Using TextExpander from Smile Software, you can create snippets, text you use all the time and don’t want to type over and over. For example, to get this:
“Moisture infiltration inside glass panels was observed in the ——. Insulated glass panels tend to fog up or trap visible moisture when the desiccant seal between the panes becomes saturated. Replacement of affected panels is recommended."
I type an arcane code: “qig” and it just pops into place like magic. The q is the first letter of most of my snippets since piling letters on to it rarely results in an actual word.
TextExpander works beautifully on a Mac or PC, but is less useful on iOS. You can use the Text Replacement function to do a lot of the same things, though. Go to Settings/Keyboard/Text Replacement and fool around.
Cool stuff.
For more on (heh heh…. you said…. Moron.) But seriously. For more on TextExpander, go here: textexpander
Inspectors Log
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I just got this from a recent customer! I love comments like this, though I wonder if the reference to a TV inspector is really a compliment. ;-)
