Last Friday I got a call, supposedly from Publisher's Clearing House. Supposedly from Todd Floane at 516 543-6151. I googled him and he is a legit member of the Prize Patrol, but scammers use his name. I was the grand winner of $7.5 million and a Mercedes car! I thought it a scam, but decided to play along. They were going to deliver it all to me on Saturday, but I was away videoing at Rock to Bach all day. So we postponed things until Monday. In the meantime, I got this email:

Panasonic Electric Razor for Men, Electric Shaver, ARC6 Six-Blade Electric Razor with Pop-Up Trimmer, ES-LS8A-K

I have used of Panasonic electric shavers for decades. I finally decided to upgrade my Arc5 to an Arc6. It is a big investment, $400 when not on sale. So is it worth it??

This is my notepad for efforts to do this upgrade.

First install the upgrade_status module:
composer require 'drupal/upgrade_status:^4.3' 

Upgrade drush:
composer require drush/drush:^13

Keep exporting your database because installing any module can throw an unrecoverable error.

When you uninstall a module, first do it in the Extend/Uninstall menu, and then using composer remove drupal/module_name

Finally, Zurb_Foundation released a D11 patch, so I can go ahead and try the upgrade to D11.1. 

My new Pixel 9 Pro XL (P9XL) arrived today, replacing my Pixel8 Pro. With a trade-in and the Google Store credits, it cost me about $700 for the 1 GB storage model. NOTE: If you order this, you only see the 1 GB storage option if you select black. I regretted this when I ordered my Pixel8 Pro in pearl and thus only saw 512 MB available.

The whole may be less than the sum of its parts

I ordered my Lectric One ebike (L-1) on March 15, 2024 when it was announced. I finally received it on July 19. It was worth the long wait. Now I have ridden 600 miles on the L-1 and have refined my opinion on this ebike.

How to keep yourself safe in this online world

I gave this talk to the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary on February 28, 2024. It is updated from my 2023 talk, but covers fewer topics.

I gave this talk to the Oak Ridge Breakfast Rotary on February 28, 2024. It is updated from my 2023 talk, but cover fewer topics.

The Framework 16 Laptop

I have been waiting about a year to receive my pre-ordered Framework 16 laptop. It is not cheap—mine cost about $3000. But it will hopefully allow me to update it in the future. It also has the largest complement of SSDs (6 TB) that I have seen, and has slots for 6 ports which are hot-swappable and (mostly) interchangeable. It also comes with the AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS processor. While this is not the fastest processor available, it is fast enough, and very energy efficient.

Cell phones are now a necessity, and cash is dead

On a recent cruise around New Zealand, ending in Sydney, Australia, I finally realized that a cell phone is a necessity. 

Pixel8 Pro — Great phone, but has issues

The AI in this phone is stunning, especially for photos. The 3 50-megapixel cameras give great detail, and the motion of my shaky hands is removed. 

BUT, there are issues: