{"id":8614,"date":"2024-01-20T17:24:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-20T17:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8614"},"modified":"2024-01-24T17:06:14","modified_gmt":"2024-01-24T17:06:14","slug":"weeknote-2024-03-missing-cyclocross-digitally-transforming-my-family-installing-ethernet-and-much-much-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markwilson.co.uk\/blog\/2024\/01\/weeknote-2024-03-missing-cyclocross-digitally-transforming-my-family-installing-ethernet-and-much-much-more.htm","title":{"rendered":"Weeknote 2024\/03: missing cyclocross; digitally transforming my family; installing Ethernet and much, much more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Another week has flown by – this time I kept notes to keep track of it all in the hope it would speed up the weeknote writing. It didn’t, so I need to work on the format. Anyway, this is how it looks this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My week at work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Understandably, I can’t write much about what I do in the day job. Suffice to say, it’s been busy, busy, busy. I’m preparing for a presentation to the Node4 Go To Market (GTM) team next week. This will be me, along with my colleague Bjoern, presenting to the entire salesforce and trying to convince them why they should be selling more of the services we’re responsible for. And, in parallel, I’m refreshing the collateral to support the sales of those same services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also spent some time on a call with one of our business partner this week, learning more about how they are developing their offers and how we can potentially do more work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My week in cycling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I know, this blog is supposed to be about tech, but I also have two very sporty teenagers that I’m very proud of. Their sports activities are a big part of my week (and my life in general).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last weekend, I should have been in Falkirk, supporting my eldest son, Matt, at the 2024 British National Cyclocross Championships<\/a>. As things transpired, that was not to be…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At 2023’s National Champs (Matt’s first senior year), Cameron Mason<\/a> was so dominant in the Elite\/U23 Men’s race that only 7 riders were permitted to finish the race (under the 80% rule<\/a>). It’s a big investment of time and money to travel the length of the country for a short race but we would have been there, if Matt felt he was ready for it. Unfortunately, after a challenging few weeks with a return to racing after spending the autumn leading cycle tours in Greece, he decided to end his cyclocross season early. Apart from podiums in the local Central Cyclocross League (CCXL), third place in the Central Regional CX Champs<\/a> was to be his only significant result this season. He’s preparing to build two new bikes for the 2024\/25 cyclocross season – and he has plans for the 2024 road season too. I’m sure those plans will end up in these weeknotes in due course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as a side note, after the demise of GCN Plus, it’s great to see BBC Scotland providing mainstream TV coverage<\/a> of the national champs!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My week in technology<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Adding AirPlay to an old Hi-Fi amplifier<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

With a bonus weekend at home, I got to finish up a tech project that’s been on the list for a while – adding AirPlay to my old 1990s Technics amplifier. When I moved in with my wife, my mid-range Hi-Fi stack was labelled \u201cblack loud crap\u201d. As a result, it was banished from the house, but still lives on in the Man Cave. Adding an old Raspberry Pi 2B running as an audio gateway has provided the necessary tech to cast audio, without needing to invest in more Sonos (or IKEA Symfonisk) as I have in the rest of the house. This is the guide I followed, at PiMyLifeUp<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s the odd stutter, which I think may be due to a weak 2.4MHz Wi-Fi signal. It could also be down to running on a relatively old Pi 2. It certainly beats connecting Spotify via Alexa which used my account and so only worked for me and not the whole family. Plus it also works with other apps, like Pocket Casts and Audible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wilson family digital transformation<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Late last year, I convinced Mrs W that we could use the family calendar on our iPhones to manage our busy family life. Previously, the paper calendar on the kitchen wall was the single source of the truth. That’s not too helpful when we’re not at home. This digital transformation of the Wilson family has been a huge success but it’s also shown me that people use calendars in different ways!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, our eldest son is currently away skiing. Is that one long appointment for 2 weeks? Or do we just need to know the dates he leaves and returns? And how do we record our youngest son’s Hockey training sessions? Is it the actual session times, or the times we leave the house and return? I’m trying not to be too “Mark” about this, but it’s an interesting insight into how other people think! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a related note, I also learned this week that not everyone sees pictures in their mind, like I do. I don’t know what they do “see”, but it explains why not everyone can visualise what something will look like when it’s finished!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AirTag all the the things<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

After a trial with an Apple AirTag<\/a> in my luggage (very useful when it wasn’t put on the plane at Stansted one holiday), I’ve been expanding our use of these devices. One use case that’s been particularly helpful is my youngest son’s keys… as he’s already had to replace at least one set that he lost before I tagged them. Now I regularly hear the “FindMy sound” as he searches for them before leaving the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On a similar note, for Christmas, my eldest son bought me an Apple FindMy-compatible tracker for my glasses<\/a>. It doesn’t have the Precision Finding feature of the AirTag, but it does tell me where they were last seen, and lets me play a sound. Now, when I leave them somewhere, I can listen for the chirp of the Orbit sensor. It’s a bit strange charging my glasses though, but this is relatively infrequent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other bits and pieces of tech<\/h4>\n\n\n\n