Category: Random

Quinces

~ Veselin ~ 6 Comments

Geo Milev, Sofia. Hard to find pretty things outside these days so here’s something that I didn’t expect to keep hanging. Felt like seeing creepy dolls.

Prisoner of Tehran by Marina Nemat, Book Review

~ Veselin ~ 10 Comments

Prisoner of Tehran is an autobiography by Marina Nemat about the abrupt end of her childhood. She was arrested by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard at the age of 16, imprisoned, tortured, and sentenced to death without trial. Some of her friends and schoolmates were executed and she escaped death by accepting a forced marriage to her interrogator.

Marina is quite calm and angelic in the book. She tries to do what’s best to never hurt anyone other than herself. What happens to her and her friends, however, triggers more rage than the top five X influencers combined.

I rated it 5*/5 despite the anger the book induces. Knowledge sometimes hurts. This book is a painful read. I need a book by Janet Evanovich next to flush my brain, to forgive and forget.

Agaete

~ Veselin ~ 11 Comments

I visited Agaete to meet a team I work with. The place is charming even off season. The wifi was good. The two co-working spaces we used were convenient. And they make their own coffee in Agaete, which the local guide advertised as the best EU-made coffee.

These coffee beans are drying. Need to be cleaned and roasted and will be ready for consumption. We were given some beans to try, and they were edible 🙂

Team meetups might not be the best reason to work with us but in any case, Automattic is hiring.

Charging Cables

~ Veselin ~ 14 Comments

I’ve not cracked the charging issue yet. My kids run through cables very quickly because they charge their numerous devices while playing games. They twist them, bend them, and use lots of power. We also need to maintain a collection of chargers with cables at the grandparents where they’re used by the niblings as well. The devices and chargers vary greatly and I’m always in the look for improvements.

10 days ago I bought a beautifully looking Energizer cable. 2m long, 100w, looked very, very solid. It stopped working after charging my computer and phone 5-6-ish times each with an Apple’s 45-watt charger.

I was sure something in that cable was fake and decided to slice and dice it to see proof of deception. Nope. You can pull a car with it. But you can’t charge a phone.

Took me significant effort with the pliers to cut through the outside. So I guess, just another brand that wasn’t meant to be.

So what somewhat worked:

  • The Apple’s Lightning and USB-C cables tend to last months to a year with our usage. The downside is that they’re bland, look dirty, subject to dry rot and twisting. I’ve stopped buying these as they are the highest price, lowest joy level, and medium durability for our use case.
  • Vivanco’s 1m cable is my personal favorite for a durable lightning cable. It doesn’t twist as much and is thicker. My kids have destroyed some of these while playing Minecraft but I’ve personally never broken one. It’s short and ugly, so it’s far from ideal.
  • XMart’s cables with textile braid look great, probably best in term of looks from what we use. They are also 1.2m long, which is better. I have an USB-C braided cable at one of my work spots, working with a 100-watt charger, and it’s fine after a few years of use. However, those cables with multiple ends my family likes? Not so much. I don’t know why we keep buying them.
  • Cellularline’s braided USB-C cable would be my top choice. The one I got is 2.5 meters long, about 1 meter longer than it should be, and just works. However, it’s never been put through the real Minecraft test because it’s USB-C and the kids use Lightning.

UPDATE (2025-01-25) Cellularline’s Lightning cable I bought to my kids failed after less than 10 days of use using a 65 watt Cellularline charger: Not ideal.

What do you use?