This post is about my setup of the popular MagicMirror2 application. I show the steps needed to set it up on a Raspberry Pi Zero W and connect it to a TV set. As a bonus, I share my thoughts on the Chuvash localization work.

MagicMirror2 is a DIY project and an open-source application, voted to number one of the best Raspberry Pi Projects. In essence, it shows information of your choice (weather, calendar, news) on a screen that is embedded in a mirror.

While importing images from my iPhone using Image Capture on my mac, I discovered that almost all pictures had corresponding videos. They had the same name, only the file extension was different:

• IMG_2829.JPG
• IMG_2829.MOV

For archiving I don’t to have live photo videos, that’s why I needed a script for that. I found a good start in an answer on SuperUser.stackexchange.com:

• OSX Command line Find Duplicate Filenames with different extensions

I altered it a bit to remove the corresponding .MOV-file (rm):

Github has changed a lot. While working mostly in Azure DevOps I haven’t followed all the development on Github. Now when I look at that, I am really amazed.

Private Repos for Free accounts

Well, for me it is not as interesting, because with my free account, I don’t see any harm having my labs public. But I know, some people used bitbucket for their smaller private repos.

Github Project

I suppose it is the Azure DevOps Project concept that was copied to Github, a place for planning and having multiple connected repos.

If you get an error while trying to update Regional Settings on your SharePoint Online Site, then PowerShell combination of PnP and CSOM are to the rescue.

The issue I got was that indexed columns were there. You can try to remove indexed columns and re-add them. But it is not the best solution. In my scenario, it was an indexed column that I couldn’t remove.

The reason why I use a combination of PnP and CSOM (Load, Update, ExecuteQuery), is that I have not found a way of updating RegionalSettings in PnP.

Svenskt gränssnitt i Office 365 är inte självklart. Här är en lista på översättningar som jag stött på som går att härleda, men som inte är helt etablerade i svenskan.

• Compliance - efterlevnad
• Policy - princip
• Retention - kvarhållning

Here is my list of repositories that provide examples of SPFx solutions.

• SharePoint/sp-dev-fx-webparts is a comprehensive collection of webparts and tutorials
• Puzzlepart/spfx-solutions is an intresting collection of spfx solutions, shared by Mikael Svenson.
• To be continued.

SwiftKey is a keyboard app for iOS and Android, it adds a new virtual keyboard and it provides the Chuvash one among others. Here is my review of Swiftkey from the perspective of a person who writes in Chuvash on the mobile.

Positive things

• The fact that it has the Chuvash keyboard map is awesome. There is no official Chuvash keyboard in iOS, Android, MacOS, Windows (well you can add Chuvash, but you won’t get the Chuvash letters). Only Linux has the built-in Chuvash keyboard.
• It has a built-in Chuvash dictionary, so that can provide suggestions. It also can learn from your typing. Although there is an issue  with the suggestions, see below.
• The Chuvash characters with diacritics are right: Unicode and Cyrillic, not their look-alikes from the Latin set. It is important: if people use the same characters, they can find more on Google.

Negative things

Actually I don’t want to call it negative things, many of them are just missing features. I hope with that review I can get in contact with the Swiftkey team and improve the app.

Ett litet projekt, ett experiment som jag håller på under min föräldralediga tid: Barnvagssolpanel. Jag har en liten solpanel på 10W som jag fäster på barnvagnen. Med den laddar jag mina batteripack, och med dem min mobil. Jag vill mäta hur mycket energi jag kan samla in under sommaren

Utrustning

Solpanel på 10W av märket Exibel köpt på Clas Ohlson. Den ska ge upp till 1,5A i direkt ljus. USB-doktorn. No-brand-produkt. Den visar spänning, ström, tid och kapacitet. USB-anslutningen är lite lös och kan glappa ibland. Den i sig förbrukar lite ström. Av någon anledning backar den flera mAh tillbaka efter man nått 3000 mAh varje gång man ansluter sladden igen. En svart powerbank från Clas Ohlson på 2600mAh = 9,62Wh. Blir laddad så fort solen skiner. I direkt solljus blir det 4,92v x 0,82A = 4W. En silverfärgad powerbank från Clas Ohlson på 3350mAh = 12,1Wh. Den fungerar mycket sämre, ofta laddar den inte alls, trots att den funkar från eluttaget. I skiftande strömförhållanden lägger den av. Är det på grund av någon elektronisk skyddspärr?

I have set up Raspberry Pi as a Dashboard Monitor a couple of times. Here I want to summarize my steps. In fact, it is nothing special, a raspberry pi that is used as a browser showing a web based dashboard in full screen, but there are some important configuration steps needed to make it as good as possible.

Install Raspbian

Raspbian is the best operating system for Raspberry Pi. Just stick with that.

I’ve got a Mac and one of my first questions was: How can I write in Chuvash on my Mac, obviously :) In this post I am going to tell how I created Chuvash Keyboard Layout. The solution and installation instructions are on Github: Chuvash Keyboard Layout for Mac

What the heck is Chuvash?

For those who don’t know yet: Chuvash are people who live in Chuvash Republic in Russian Federation, and abroad, as me. We are 1.5 million. Chuvash is also a language, an official language of the Republic, a minority language, that is completely different from the second official language Russian. Chuvash uses Cyrillic letters, all 33 Russian letters plus 4 additional letters: A breve (Ӑ), E breve (Ӗ), C cedilla (Ҫ) and U with double acute (Ӳ).