In late July we traveled from NYC to Croatia to see my family. Upon arrival, we quarantined for two weeks and decided to get tested. Unfortunately, I spent hours trying to confirm simple info about locations and whether I can bike to a drive-in testing center. Thankfully, we tested negative, but I was concerned about the difficulty of finding basic info, especially with the large number of tourists in Croatia.

My IBM Model M keyboard came with an integrated PC speaker, but it wasn’t obvious what it’s meant to be used for. I came across it when doing the restoration, but didn’t think much of it.

At my day job our team manages a lot of laptops, some of which are Macbooks. Since the Macs account for a fairly small share, we never implemented an MDM solution like Jamf, so we largely depend on using scripts to deploy software, and we manually adjust settings. As a mostly Microsoft shop, we use on premise Active Directory, and our Macs use LDAP to bind to the AD domain.

A few weeks ago I posted about going back to repairing old electronics as a means of distraction and coping during quarantine. I’ve spent the past ten days out in the street protesting, but working on this 1993 IBM Model M keyboard has been a good way to recenter myself at home. This was originally published as a Twitter thread.

This is a pretty all over the place post about the quarantine in NYC, budget cuts and E-Waste recycling, old Macbooks, RSS feeds and the history of podcasting. If this sounds fun, please read on. It was originally published as a Twitter thread.

On May 1st, I biked to Manhattan and left Brooklyn for the first time in 50 days.

Note: This article was written before the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. If you are able to, please donate to Make the Road NY, one of NYC’s largest community organizations serving the working class, immigrants and people of color across the city. Make the Road NY’s Mutual Aid Bike Brigade is providing food pantry delivery to at-risk, elderly, or immunocompromised neighbors in Brooklyn and Queens. 2019 was an incredibly difficult

Coney Island Polar Bear Plunge, January 1 2020

On Tuesday evening, July 30th, NYC DOT presented the plan for safety improvements and dedicated bus lanes on Church Avenue to the members of Brooklyn Community Board 14 and the interested public. Church Avenue has been in the news recently due to two deadly crashes, and it’s known to be perpetually blocked due to traffic and double parked cars. The event was hosted at Beth Shalom v’Emeth Reform Temple on Church Avenue, a fact that became a significant factor in the Q&A discussion that ensued following the presentation.