Kelson Reviews Stuff - Page 31

I wanted to like this keyboard. The other Fossify apps have worked out well, and unlike, say, GBoard, I know nothing’s leaving my device. And it does support multiple languages, which helps when I’m practicing Spanish in Duolingo. Not many, and it only supports Latin, Cyrillic, Greek and Hebrew alphabets, but it does feature specific layouts for some of the major ones.

But it only supports tapping, not swipe gestures or auto suggest, and I just can’t seem to type reliably that way.

The problem is that I have a lot of trouble tapping the right letters with my thumbs. (I swear this has gotten worse over time – I’d assume my hands had just gotten clumsier, but I’ve gotten better at touch typing on a real keyboard in the same timeframe.) That’s been mildly annoying with GBoard, but GBoard also supports swiping gestures, and autosuggest usually includes the word I wanted if I’m a little bit off. And I think the hit boxes might be a bit bigger, or adjust based on what autocomplete thinks is more likely.

So with Fossify Keyboard, I frequently end up with severalbwordsblumpedntogethrt because I keep hitting “b” or “n” instead of space, and then I have to go back and fix it (which of course is a pain on a touchscreen).

It seems to work better for me with a tablet, where I can sort of touch type or hunt and peck.

The test screen is helpful, though: each line features a different input mode, so you can easily try out typing with text, numeric, password-masked, or password-masked incognito modes.

I gave it about three weeks on my phone, during which I used it for all the usual text messaging, social networking, email, and so on. I’ve since switched back to GBoard, though I’m giving HeliBoard a try now.

Good coffee, pastries and sandwiches, maybe a bit expensive. They also sell artisan honey and beeswax products.

Lots of tables inside, though it has a bit of a cafeteria feel as far as hanging out goes. The large patio with covered tables is better for that. Ocean breezes tend to come right up the street, which is nice in summer.

Not a bad spot to bring your laptop and work away from home/the office, at least for a short day (they close at 4pm). Free WiFi and a few power outlets in the dining area. Though the afternoon sun can be a problem with glossy displays.

Small parking lot plus street parking. Restroom door is outside.

Is it better than stopping by the bank every other week for more rolls of quarters? Maaaaaybe. It was during the 2020 covid-lockdown coin shortage, but now?

It means doing my laundry depends not just on the washer and dryer working, but on the control box working, the control box’s internet connection working, my phone being charged, my phone’s internet connection working, and the CSC online servers working.

I can’t remember the last time the washer or dryer broke down. But there’ve been plenty of times when the app couldn’t find them, or couldn’t find my account.

On the plus side, it is nice to be able to check whether a machine is available before going to the laundry room. And sometimes it alerts me when a cycle is done. (It’s supposed to always, but it doesn’t.)

But that’s a lot of extra points of failure for not much improvement.

Update August 2024: They’ve started sending me ads through system push notifications, which I consider an abuse of notifications. So I’ve turned off notifications from the app entirely and lowered my rating. The only alerts a laundry app should be sending you are “your cycle finished” or “the machine you were waiting for is available.” And that never worked reliably to begin with.

An extremely lightweight Linux distribution that still packs a lot of modern capabilities into it, including smooth package installation, removal and updates. I use it for small (1GB RAM) cloud servers because of its low resource requirements and smaller attack profile on installation. It would also be a good choice for old hardware or low-powered physical machines like a Raspberry Pi or a Pine Star64: it supports ARM (both 32-bit and aarch64) and RISC-V, and still supports older architectures like PowerPC and 32-bit x86 in addition to the more common x86_64.

Desktop environments work smoothly, though it does take a little effort to set one up.

The main things that have tripped me up:

• Remembering which set of commands I need to manage daemons. (openrc vs. system vs. systemctl vs…)*
• Remembering that apk uses add instead of install.
• Occasional compatibility issues when building (or trying to run precompiled) third-party software that doesn’t work well with musl.

On the last one, the two that stick in my mind are a bug where super-long threads crashed Snac on musl systems (the dev ended up adding a configurable limit to how far back it would try to fetch) and being unable to run Servo on a desktop VM I’ve been using for testing.

This is serious coffee.

They don’t even have WiFi – you come here for the coffee and food (and maybe to hang out), not to park your laptop for the day. The hours are a bit short (they mainly serve breakfast and lunch, and close by mid-afternoon), but they make up for it in quality.

Two Guns brought the Flat White here from New Zealand in 2011, long before Starbucks started serving it – and the authentic version is not to be missed! Their mocha is the perfect balance of coffee and chocolate (most places are too heavy one way or the other), with just enough sweetness and no more. Even their chai lattes are just sweet enough.

On the rare occasions I’m there for breakfast or lunch, I usually go for the Stanwich, but the veggie burrito is really good too.

The original Manhattan Beach location on PCH was one of my regular stops for years before the shopping center closed down to make way for new construction at the end of 2022. Thankfully they’d already expanded to a small chain in that time, and all the locations I’ve been to have been just as good as the original.

Locations

El Segundo: Lots of indoor seating and a good-sized patio across from the Civic Center. Next door to Rinaldi’s, which is a good sandwich place, though Two Guns has a full breakfast/lunch menu here. Lots of Pokémon Go stops and gyms in the area too. (321 Main St. / map)

Manhattan Beach Blvd: Mostly pickup only, though sometimes they put out one small table in front. (There isn’t room for any more than that!) A good place to stop while walking to or from Downtown Manhattan Beach from PCH. Street parking only. (875 Manhattan Beach Blvd, between Poinsettia and the Urgent Care / map)

Manhattan Beach/Highland I’ve never been to this one. (3516 Highland, just south of Rosecrans / map)