Tech

My Concern

It’s not well known but I have a speech processing issue. I have a really hard time decyphering audio for voice communication. It’s so bad I rely on sub titles to watch video content with speech as well as read lips in meat space when with others.

My problem works like this: my hearing is good (I hear noises just fine) but I cannot hear people speak in terms of words. That seems odd, correct. I know a human is talking at me but all I hear is the sound of their voice, not words. It’s like hearing a guitar in a song, it’s noise but not words (speech).

Changelog

2023-02-18

Add note about device swaps and Android 13 upgrade issues

Update 2023-02-18

As of 2023-02-18 I no longer use a OnePlus 8T or Microsoft Surface Duo, both of which are described below. The OnePlus 8T received an Android 13 update that was so buggy for desktop mode, it was unusable. The Surface Duo received an Android 13 update that forced desktop mode to only allow using Remote Desktop for some kind of ‘convergence mode’ that isn’t officially announced or released as of this writing.

Table of Contents

Changelog

2025-03-03

Remove ‘Drawing’ from page in favor of a dedicated ‘Digital Drawing’ page. This page is now only about digital coloring. Also rewrote portions to be more topical and reflect my current setup(s).

Going Digital

Given I gave up on Analog coloring and drawing due to health and living space needs, I figured it was time to really commit to figuring out digital for coloring and drawing. Note I intentionally avoided making desktop or laptop computers a requirement for my setup. I want to have this whenever/wherever in it’s simplest form.

How I came to have a cyber deck that gets out of my way and allows me to focus on creation, not consumption

Prelude

For years I have seen posts about cyber decks and always wondered why people build them. I think I finally “Get It” while also not at all understanding why people build the decks I see posted online.

What Is IPFS?

IPFS (link) is a distributed filesystem. It’s basically a peer to peer, global storage engine that allows content to be stored and cached globally.

Think of a large website like Amazon that stores copies of their files in multiple locations all over the globe. IPFS does something similar and can be used by anyone, not just one of the largest companies on the planet. This allows your content to be served by a globally distributed network and without having to run a massive amount of your own server infrastructure.

Let’s Set The Mood

Lately I’ve been getting into more video games. I happen to prefer co-op video gaming with friends. I’m also a big fan of first person perspective games.

There is one game in particular that’s been nothing but problematic for myself and my core group of friends that play co-op games with each other. We do the whole ‘just a few of us who are in it for fun’ gaming and prefer to have something that doesn’t require a hell of a lot of thought.

Changelog

2024-01-06

• Added fill light information
• Added Zoom U-22
• Added Rhode mic adapter

Microphone, Camera, Headphones, ACTION!

Recently I actually had a need to put together a proper setup for remote work. Specifically I needed a web cam, microphone and decent headphones. Normally I’d just have used my HyperX Cloud Pro Gaming Headset. Unfortunately they have a strange problem where the microphone and headphone wires bleed signal so as I hear things the mic picks up the output and re-sends it as my own.

OK…

Lately I’ve been poking at updating and improving my usual offline mapping setup on Android. For the last few years or so I’ve been GPX tracking my outings, adventures and some other stuff. Mainly for photo geotagging but also because it can be neat to see where I was and when after a day trip.

When out and about I insist on purely offline maps too. I like being away from the modern world, notifications and distractions. So… my phone ends up in places without cell service or the SIM card removed.

[Editors note: this post was inspired by ‘Reach for Markdown, not LaTeX’ (link)]

Years and years ago I learned about a wonderful markup language called LaTeX. It was far more powerful than HTML, had many templates available, handled math correctly and generally ‘just worked’.

Having content and presentation generally separate was a freeing moment in my journey through markup languages.

Once I discovered this disconnect I became an instant and heavy user of markup languages. I’ve used many over the years and LaTeX always reigned supreme for me. It’s flexible, adept and works beautifully.