Apple

I didn’t lose an hour of sleep but I sure did lose a precious hour of weekend daytime activities.

The iOS Parcel app doesn’t write expected delivery dates to an iCloud calendar but only to a local calendar. So I just created a Shortcut Automation that runs at 9am daily, copying Parcel created events to an iCloud calendar (shared with my wife). No way to share Personal Automations so here’s a screenshot.

A screen capture of a  shortcut that copies Parcel events to an iOS Shared Calendar.

The iOS Parcel app doesn’t write expected delivery dates to an iCloud calendar but only to a local calendar. So I just created a Shortcut Automation that runs at 9am daily, copying Parcel created events to an iCloud calendar (shared with my wife). No way to share Personal Automations so here’s a screenshot.

a screen shot showing a shortcut that copies events from the Parcel Calendar to a iCloud Shipments calendar. It checks for duplicates, too.

macOS Ventura settings and notifications (STILL getting unfixable log-in item notifications repeatedly) are a pitiful, frustrating mess but Windows, which I use at work, is still awful everywhere and missing key features I rely on in macOS so 🤷‍♂️ #macOS

I hate the MacOS login items notification that when clicked doesn’t tell me jack and furthermore the app it claims has added itself is disabled on that infernal system settings screen. I cannot figure out how to get Citrix to stop even with CleanMyMac X. 😤

screen shot of the notification

A few “better” photos of last night’s brief snow around 1 am last night in Orland, CA. Around 1:15 am it went back to rain but points further north like Redding continued to get snow.

A red car with a little bit of fresh snow on it in front of a street and some houses.A classic photo of snow on palm tree leaves against the dark, cloudy background.

Just flying an A340-600 from San Francisco International into Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International Airport. #XPlane #FlightSim #AvGeek

A340-600 on approach to KSJC 30L, just passing over downtown San Jose at night. The freeway is all lit up and the runways are visible. It's a dark night.

I updated my iOS/macO Shortcut that takes a photo with geotag & date (preferably with timezone) from the Sharesheet and loads @flightradar24@mastodon.world playback. You’ll need a FlightRadar24 sub for beyond 7 days. It is now better at UTC conversion & URL formatting Get Shortcut

Here’s a quick & dirty iOS Shortcut that takes a photo with full geotag, date metadata (preferably with timezone) from the Sharesheet and loads @flightradar24@mastodon.world playback. Get Shortcut #AppleShortcuts #iOS

Black-necked Stilt near the City of Burlingame Shorebird Sanctuary. What a pose! Black-necked stilt facing the camera with its legs nearly crossed. It has a white belly, chest, and neck. It’s black long beak, forehead, eyes, and rear feathers is stark against the calm low tide bay waters

Emirates A380 preparing to take off from SFO to Dubai on 1/20/2023 during golden hour #avgeek #planespotting #A380 #fujifilm Face on with an Emirates Airbus 380 across a shallow bay at SFO during the golden hour where everything has a golden tint. Oakland hills are in the background on a hazy day.

Here’s an Emirates A380 turning right onto SFO runway 28R on January 20, 2023. I’m fully impressed with my X-T5 and the Fujifilm 70-300mm lens. Those 40 Megapixels really help with the details and cropping to “zoom.” An Airbus A380 is nearly facing directly to the camera on a strip of land with a calm bay in front of it, The plane is turning left onto SFO’s 28R.  A smaller Delta plans is on the adjacent runway 28L, preparing for takeoff.

What luck today. Photographed a juvenile Bald Eagle (second year?) at the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge. #birds #BaldEagle #Fujifilm

A juvenile Bald Eagle perched up high.  It is mostly brown with a developing, and so mottled,  white neck and headBald eagle soaring off. Its white head and neck are clearer.

My partner only looked at cat, bird, and wildfire posts on Twitter using Tweetbot. Its permanent chronical timeline was key. Now that Tweetbot appears to be banned, that’s it. No more Twitter. Fortunately Mastodon is maturing quickly.

Last night an RV and car caught fire behind us. As far as I know, no one was injured. Here are better photos of the action. There was a really nice full moon last night, too, though thin clouds fuzzed it up a bit. #fujifilm

A wide angle view of the RV and car on fire, in front of an overpass. Two fire trucks are parked in front of the blaze on a gravel lot with some ponding.Night time photo of the front half of an RV on fire along with a car parked right next to it. Flames are roaring out th front of both vehicles. An Orland Fire Department truck sits in front of it all.

Fire fighter in full respirator equipment with a hose flooding the interior of the car that's on fire. Burning fluids drop below the car, like lava. The car is extremely charred.

Sparks fly as a fire fighter cuts open the hood in efforts to make the burning vehicle safe.

Nothing but a full moon and its glow. The darker seas of the moon are easily visible.

The Fujifilm X-T5 can output to HIEF (.HIF) with 10-bit color. That gives more room for minor adjustments. But Apple Photos can’t load the .HIF, just its low-res preview. So I used Raw Power for edits and saved to JPEG. Now Photos can load the high resolution versions #fujifilm

While bird watching yesterday, a M5.3 earthquake occurred south of Rio Dell. My RaspberryShake felt it but I sure didn’t https://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eventpage/nc73827571/executive #RaspberryShake #earthquakeSeismograph of the M5.3 earthquake on 1/1/2023 south of Rio Dellclose up of the M5.3 seismograph

Okay I’m glad the brunt of the atmospheric river missed the North Sacramento Valley. Geez.

Gerry Díaz :sutro: (@geravitywave@sfba.social) sfba.social/@geravity…

Our thrice delayed trip to Germany has this year’s three of my top four aviation photos — from SFO and FRA. And then one for a trip back from Montana (the two 787s, the only one taken with an iPhone 11 Pro). #2022Top4AviationScores #Fujifilm #X100V

Some flyover photos from 12/24: United 777-200 LHR-SFO at 37,000 ft; Emirates A380-800 DXB-SFO at 39,000 ft; Qatar A350-1000 DOH-SFO 41,000 ft; SW 737 OAK-BLI (Bellingham) at 38,000 ft. #Fujifilm X-T5 at 300mm (35mm equiv is 450mm). I’m impressed

United 777-200 flyover with contrailsEmirates 380-800 flyover with contrailsQatar A350-1000 flyover with contrailsSouthwest flyover with contrails

Almost done making the caramel. Just needs to hit 250°F

a candy thermometer in a 4 qt sauce pan of almost done caramel colored caramel. At about 230°F

My RaspberryShake detected the M6.4 earthquake in Ferndale, CA. Sounds like a lot of important infrastructure damage, like the main bridge into town is cracked and closed, but not injuries. I didn’t feel it. #RaspberryShake #earthquake

earthquake signal

Black Butte peak and Black Butte butte. Mostly greenstone/metabasalt at the snowy peak and basalt at the buttes around Black Butte Lake.

a distant snowy peak on the left and a vertical butte on the right. multiple power lines cross the view.

Relatively rare morning where my car door was slightly stuck due to frost.

I am super excited to now have the XF70-300mm telephoto lens. I’ll no longer feel crazy constrained taking pictures of birds and aircraft (mainly). Bonus that it is rather good at close range for macro.

Rain in California. You got to love it after months of hazy blue sky.

Rain drops dripping from an awning and a grape vine with dark, almost black, dessicated grapes. Vibrant native vegetation is slightly blurred in the background.

#Caturday

Standing black & white tuxedo cat, head tilted down but eyes looking up in a super serious pose.

Extremely interesting to watch KSFO operations with a stiff wind from the south. All the approaches look bonkers landing at opposite ends of runways from normal. Like this WN904 flight-- they even had to do a Take Off/Go Around!

My account on mastodon.sdf.org straight up vanished during their database upgrades that were meant to increase performance. Lots of people losing accounts, posts, and follows. I’ll put this mildly: screw that. But I hope they can resurrect all those accounts and data.

Close up of the pea sized hail and frost. The hail didn’t melt overnight!

pea sized hail on bark with a frosty seedling. A finger for scale.