I Probably Shouldn't Have Bought The AirPods Pro Max

I'm starting to hate my Airpods Pro Max USB-C headset.

Most of the time, when I need it, I can't get a good connection.  It's buggy as hell.  I'm so tired of having to reset the headset, only to still have connectivity issues.  I shouldn't have to remove the ear cups from the head harness just to clean the connections EVERY TIME I NEED THEM.

And when I do get a connection, it's like it's a half connection.  When this happens, I can't enable ANC or adjust the volume.

And the ear cushions are a pain in the ass, too.  They need to be cleaned.  A LOT.  If you don't clean them, they start smelling funky.  In fact, I bought a new set (from a non-Apple Amazon seller), as the smell wouldn't come out of the original cushions.

I've also been seeing a lot of moisture inside the ear cups, under the ear cushions.  I'm not sure if that's causing the connectivity issues, but usually remove the cushions and wipe the insides with a Kleenex - the internals are sometimes moist enough to where the Kleenex is soaked.

I'm on the edge of deciding to ask for warranty support (I've not owned them a year yet, and I've AC+).

After they fix it, I think I'm going to sell them and get something nice but non-Apple.

It's a pity, because, when they work, they're outstanding.  WHEN THEY WORK.  They're more broken than used.  So many folks complain on subreddits about the exact same issues.

This is disappointing, because prior to this, I'd bought a set of Beats Studio Pros...they had durability issues - they just started falling apart, but at least they never failed to work.  I still have them, too...last I checked, they were still working.

If you're thinking of buying a Max headset, DON'T DO IT. 

Added Cockpit to Ubuntu 25.10 on the Pi 500+

Today, I wanted to add Cockpit to the Pi 500+ Ubuntu install, but I didn't want to sit at the desk where I'd placed the keyboard.

When I tried to ssh into the Pi, I kept getting connection refusals, which I thought was odd.  I ended up having to spend some time at the Pi keyboard, investigating why I couldn't connect to it on port 22.

I found out that I'd never installed ssh!  I could've sworn I did, but maybe it was the Pi OS install that I installed it.

So, after I installed it, I installed Cockpit (I wanted to try it instead of using WebMin).  I then found that, after the install, when logged into Cockpit, it was only allowing my user limited administrator access.  It gave the option to gain full admin privileges, but when I clicked it, it gave an error that sudo couldn't be leveraged to escalate privileges.  When I googled that error, I found that one of the suggested fixes was to add your user to the wheel group.  My Pi didn't have a wheel group, so I had to create one.  Once I created the wheel group, I had to add my user to that group.  

I then double-checked my research and found a link to a Cockpit bug report of this exact issue back in October 2025.  The issue was that sudo was recently redeveloped in Rust code, and apparently does not support the --askpass flag, which is used by Cockpit.  The fix is to run the following (it's the non-Rust sudo implementation, which is still available):  

# update-alternatives --set sudo /usr/bin/sudo.ws

Now, I've Ubuntu all over the house on various machines, most of them running Cockpit.  I've not seen this issue before, and I've done a bunch of recent installs of Ubuntu 25.10.  In fact, I installed Cockpit on my docker container host, today.  It didn't exhibit this issue/bug.  I'm wondering why I'm only now seeing it.  I'm glad there's a workaround, though.

Google Search Console - Requirements Overkill!

I've always had a not-so-good experience with Google's Search Console.  

I get it - they're trying to ensure that web content is meaningful.  

I get it, but damn, every single page object appears to have arcane criteria, otherwise Google will not crawl the page.

This is problematic for me, because I don't want to end up being a slave to the process of having Google process my website because, in my opinion, they go overboard with things. 

For example, there's a 40% chance that I'll include an embedded video when I submit a new post to my Wordpress-powered web page.  I've always wondered why my videos aren't being indexed by Google.  I'm now discovering that the videos won't be processed if they don't reside on a "watch page".  A blog post that reviews an embedded video will not be indexed because the video is complementary to the rest of the content on the page.  This means that I've to create a dedicate video landing page.  WTF.

That's one of many examples.  I've a large batch of pages that aren't being indexed because of the ridiculous criteria that Google requires.

The act of creating a video landing page within Wordpress isn't difficult.  Me having to walk backward to obtain all the posts that contain embedded videos so that I can add them to a watch page -- that's a lot of work. And then what?  Do I have to make the prior posts with embedded videos link to the newly built landing page's videos?

Bureaucracy overkill, that's what this is.

What I'll do is create the new watch page and add a few videos a day.  Maybe I'll be done in 6 months?  I'm certainly not going to let this overburden me. 

I Just Set Up a Web Server to Use an SSL Cert, Using Let's Encrypt!

Yesterday, I was bored and had been contemplating setting up one of my public web sites to use an SSL certificate.

While most business websites use SSL certificates, SSL certs aren't really mandatory for use in just serving web content for reading purposes.  I've been using Apache to serve web pages a LONG time and never felt the need to enable HTTPS, as it wasn't required.  That changed when I found that I wanted my website to be more noticeable within search engine results.  To place higher within search engine results, HTTPS is required to be used on the web server that is serving the content.

As I host my own server, my options were to set up my own SSL certificate or to buy an SSL certificate for use with my server.  I decided to set up and deploy my own.

I used this link's instructions (I used CertBot, which uses Let's Encrypt, which I'll reference as LE) to set everything up.  Keep in mind that I'm using Ubuntu 25.10 to host my server, using Linode as a server.

After I built the certificates, I had a difficult time determining how to leverage them.  I initially tried using a WordPress plugin to import the certificate, but I tried like 5 different plugins and neither worked.  I then pivoted and tried a different method - I'm running Apache to serve Wordpress, so I set up the Apache config file to use HTTPS and pointed Apache to the LE certs.  I then used an SSL checker to check that everything was working.  It was.

Afterward, I then set up a cron job to renew the certs automatically.

Now, when I check the browser for indications that the website is using SSL, there's no lock icon that I can see, but I researched and saw that I also had to ensure the website's prior content wasn't using HTTP links to intneral server content, so I used some Wordpress tools to search and change HTTP links pointing to my web server to use HTTPS.  I also saw that a lot of my plugins and themes are using HTTP links that that's supposed to be a no-no for HTTPS compliance - I can't control how plugin providers construct their plugins, so I'm not sure what to do with that.

I think I'm going to enable SSL with with my other domain, as well (unixfool.us).

Eventually, I plan to replace my Wordpress website with a docker instance.  I'd need to research how to use SSL certs within a docker compose YML file.  I'm thinking it should be pretty straight-forward.  The only thing I can think of that might be an issue is the automatic renewal bit (the bit where I added a cron job to renew the certificate).

UPDATE (1/20/2026):  I just checked again and I can now see that the web page (https://wigglit.com) is showing as secure!  

Rasberry Pi OS, Begone!

Last night, I tried to use a docker container on the new Pi system that I've been able to use on other systems without issue.

This experience was pretty much a nightmare.

I was able to install Docker without issue and the 'hello world' container worked fine.

When I tried to run a Wordpress container, there were cascading issues.  Granted, I know that the Pi runs on the ARM chipset, so I did have to make adjustments for that, which wasn't all that difficult.

The main issue I had related to the Pi OS misconfiguring things.  There were things being blocked by the OS due to bad routing.

While I was able to get the Worpdress container to run, I couldn't connect to it initially.  In fact, I couldn't reach the internet, using curl or any other browser client.  Apparently, curl is kinda weird on the Pi OS, as it requires usage of port 80 and I'd tried to use port 80 as the Wordpress service port.  Since I wasn't using port 80 or any other service that was configured to use port 80, I initially felt it was safe to use port 80 for the Wordpress container.  NOPE!  When I did, it broke some things relating to curl and routing.  After ChatGPT informed me that it's best to not use port 80 for the Wordpress container, I changed the port to 8888 with no success.   It ended up taking me like 6 hours to determine the issue.  ChatGPT kept repeating repair steps that weren't working, until I forced it to look for other issues.

At 4 AM this morning, I finally was able to reach the container using curl, Chromium, and Firefox, but was still experiencing connection drops when trying to use Duckduckgo.  I also noticed several other connection drops (some Wordpress plugins requires backend callbacks to 'home' using curl - those started breaking again.

The fix was to remove some default routes that were associated with the containers.  I also had to remove some rules from IPTables.  I also had to remove some IP links, and also had to add additional config context to the wp.config.php and compose.yml files.

Later in the day, I checked the container again and noticed that the problem routes that I'd removed had been re-added by Pi OS, reverting my work.

I got fed up and decided to start from scratch with another OS.  

I chose Ubuntu, since I'm already familiar with it.  The only wildcard is that this Pi system is still powered by ARM, so I might still run into some things that are currently unknown to me...I'll just have to be prepared for any chipset-related issues that may occur, but I trust Ubuntu more than Pi OS at this point.

Ubuntu 25.10 is now installed on the system's internal SSD.  I used the Pi boot options to reinstall the OS...that's a cool option, but I wish it would also give the option to use wireless connections instead of ethernet, as I had to jump through hoops to ensure I could use the ethernet where the Pi system is currently located.

As well, I wasn't prepared for the new OS install to take 45 minutes.

As frustrated as I was, it's all a learning experience for me.  As well, there's less frustration in reinstalling when I'm using a Pi.

I'd post some of my ChatGPT session, but it was messy and an hours-long chat.

I'll keep you all updated on my progress with Ubuntu on the Pi.

UPDATE (1/2/2026):  Yeah, I already deployed a docker instance of Wordpress in Ubuntu, on the Pi.  I had none of the issues I had last night with deploying the same .yml file on the Pi OS, beyond another issue with changing code so that the images being pulled supported ARM.  The two install experiences were very different.

UPDATE (1/3/2026):  I've still not noticed any issues.  All is well, I think!

UPDATE (1/10/2026):  One issue I've noticed - I've lost sound (thru HDMI connection).  I'm not able to hear system sounds or anything like Youtube audio or music streaming using Audacious.  I've been working on getting it to work but have yet to see success.  With Audacious, I can actually see the music playing, but can't hear it at all (the audio devices are showing as up).  UPDATE to this update (3/11/2026):  The sound issue is related to the monitors;  I've been trying different monitors and some have speakers while others do not.

Christmas Day 2025 - Received Rasberry Pi 500+ As A Gift!

Good day, all!

My family opened Christmas presents last night at 12 AM (most of us didn't want to wake up early to open presents).

I received a Rasberry Pi 500+ for Christmas - it was a gift from my daughter.

What spurred this interest?  I mean, I was never really curious about Rasberry Pi devices, as I've always had very robust computer systems in my household.  Only now am I hating all the systems sprawled about within my basement.  

My son received a Rasberry Pi 5 from my daughter in November and I got to see it (I'd never held or seen them prior to that).  He was able to configure it as a media server pretty much immediately after he got it.  I loved the small form factor, which spurred my interest.

Once I saw his, I went to Rasberry Pi to see the things they had.  I was immediately curious about the 500+ and had planned to get it on my own, but as my family uses Elfster.com to gift each other, I added it to my wish list.

The keyboard is NICE!  I love how it soft-clicks (it's a mechanical keyboard)...I've a Royal Kludge S98 and that thing is noisy AF compared to this.  I also love the 500+'s RGB setup of preconfigured keyboard configs.

This Pi seems to be powerful enough to where I'm considering using it as my main docker host, but my current docker host is an Alienware M17X R3, which I do not think the 500+ can match across the performance spectrum, but it is a great second choice.  The thing about the Alienware is that it is a laptop and has a functional battery, so if power hiccups or if I lose power, I can gracefully shut down that system.  Plus, that system is quite antiquated for a gaming system, so hosting docker containers is a good use for it.  

Where does this leave me with the 500+?  It means that I can shut down one of my older and less capable systems, which will declutter my office/lab.  

I can actually envision buying several of these to replace old systems.

Everything resides within the keyboard, which is why it is thick.  Actually, the SoC is small AF, though, so I'm not sure why the keyboard is so thick.  The system has a heatsink to dissipate heat - there are no fans, so the system stays quiet.

As this system comes with a 256 GB SSD drive, I did not have to muck with micro SD cards, although I've the option if I feel the need.  The SSD drive is preconfigured with the Rasberry Pi OS.  The SSD drive can also be replaced with something bigger - SSD drive replacements would need to use the M.2 NVMe format.

The system is BT- and Wifi-capable.  It has two mini-HDMI ports, and three USB-A ports (2 x v3 and 1 x v2).  It also has an ethernet port and 16 GB of memory.

I'll be sure to share my Pi journey here.

Containerized Nextcloud & Owncloud

I've been using Nextcloud for several years.  I prefer Owncloud but Owncloud, IMO, is pretty arcane.  The con for Nextcloud is that it feels heavy and is slow.

Nextcloud is a PITA to maintain via snaps in Ubuntu.  Something is always breaking or not working properly and most of those issues tend to be related to snaps.

I decided to try Nextcloud via containers.  I am very surprised - it feels light and quick in comparison to installing natively on HDD.  The host system has an SSD.  I deployed it via Portainer, but I had to butcher someone  else's docker compose YML file.  The file looks ugly but I've a running system.  This is my second attempt at deploying Nextcloud as a container - the first attempt had DB access issues that I was having a difficult time sorting.

Even when importing files (videos, pictures, and music) into Nextcloud, there was less of a system load.

For now, I'll monitor the system while using it with a small subset of data (it currently has 40 GB of files).  I don't want to spend the effort of moving a massive amount of files only for the instance to die (I do have persistent volumes enabled for the container, though).  The app container is consuming 4 GB of memory, though - that's a bit high, IMO...not sure if it's experiencing a memory leak, as it's using 4 GB while idle.

UPDATE (11/14/2025):

I decided to try to deploy a containerized Owncloud instance.  The compose YML file was a bit more beefy.  It was copied from the Owncloud documentation.  

I had to deploy this one from CLI, for now...I ran into an issue that I need to sort out - once I sort it out, I'll redeploy using Portainer.

I did run into an environment setting issue.  OWNCLOUD_TRUSTED_DOMAINS needed an IP value (IP of the server itself) - the documentation is vague on this and I found the answer from within a bug report.

I thought that a containerized Nextcloud instance was quick - this server is even quicker than a containerized Nextcloud instance.

I will have a bake-off of these two instances, but I suspect I'll be again adopting Owncloud as a docker cloud app.

UPDATE (11/17/2025):

One thing that is super weird is that Owncloud won't allow uploading of directories.  To upload a directory of MP3s, for example, I've to create a folder named, "MP3s" and then upload all the files within the MP3 directory.  WTF?!  

Note that I can move folders if I use the Owncloud client software.  I'm not wanting to install the client software on every system I have.  It's like they're actively fighting to not have a directory upload feature.  With Nextcloud (and Google Drive, and OneDrive), I just have to select the folder and the whole folder is treated as an object (meaning, the the directory and it's contents will be uploaded/downloaded).  It's damned silly not to include it.  

I think I ran into the same issue years ago when I used Owncloud (like 7+ years ago!).  I researched and someone said, well it works with Google...blame the browser creators (double-WTF?!)  Nah...I'm blaming Owncloud because things like that are silly and if they're doing things like this, what else are they doing within the code?  It looks like Owncloud decided for me which to use (and it's not Owncloud).  

I'm glad I didn't manually install it, only to see the lack of directory uploading.  

Containers Update

I posted awhile back that I was having issues with a containerized deployment of Pihole.

I also posted not long ago that I decided to use Portainer to manage my deployment container stacks.

I thought I could fix the original Pihole container, but after seeing it die again, I immediately began work on using a different system as a host for the containers.  

I have three laptops that weren't being used.  Each was running Window desktop OS variants.  I wanted to install Linux on each.

The three candidate replacement systems were:

Dell Latitude E5530:  This system is a very old system that I bought used for $100 - 4 GB of RAM; i5-3380 CPU

Alienware 15 R2:  This system is also an older system, but not quite as old as the E5530 system mentioned above.  This was used by my daughter.  We initially thought the system was broken but I couldn't find anything wrong with it.  It has 8 GB of RAM and uses the i5-6300 CPU.  It has a 1 TB HDD.  It also has a small (256 GB) SSD.

Alienware M17x R3:  This system is also an older system but has the best specs of the three candidate systems:  12 GB RAM, i7-2760QM CPU; 750 GB SSD

I installed Ubuntu 24.04 onto each of the three systems, testing to determine how well that Ubuntu version would operate on those hardware platforms (while also keeping in mind that they were laptops).

I found that the Alienware M17x system was the most robust and ran Ubuntu without issues.  The other two systems run Ubuntu well enough, but I noticed they were under higher load when idle.

As the systems already had Ubuntu, it was pretty easy for me to install the prerequisite packages for Docker.  It was super easy to get my containers up and running again on the new host.

On top of that, I installed Portainer not long after getting the new host sorted.  I then had to duplicate the Pihole container from within Portainer so that Portainer would have full control over it.  Until I did that, I had limited control over Pihole using Portainer.  Note that I've already posted about Portainer.

I've been monitoring the new host and redeployed hosts.  I've noticed no issues.

I also kept the original system running (a Dell XPS 8930 with an i5-8400 CPU, 8 GB RAM, and 1 TB HDD).  A Pihole container is still running on that host and it hasn't thrown errors since I moved to a new hosting system, oddly enough.  

About the only thing that I had to enable as a requirement was for the M17x system to not sleep/hibernate when I closed the lid.  I found a way to disable hibernation on that host.

As a server, the M17x runs like a champ, especially when Linux is used.

I'd still be using that system if it weren't for the fact that it tends to eat GPUs.  It's been through two Nvidia GeForce 580M GPUs and those weren't cheap.  I think it was the 580Ms that were fragile.

In fact, all of those Dell systems responded extremely well to Linux, especially the Alienware 15 R2, as Windows was choking it...this was why my daughter stopped using it.  It was running Windows 10 when she stopped using it and while I couldn't find anything wrong with the system, when I was troubleshooting, I saw that the HDD appeared to be what was choking the system. Drive resources were constantly pegged when monitoring Task Manager.  That all stopped when I installed Ubuntu.  That's the power of Linux right there!

I'll update the blog if I see anything bad, but I've been monitoring the new host for almost 2 months and I've not seen any issues.

Which Mac Will Be My Next System?

I've always been curious about the Mac Studio and I'd initially had that on my list of must-have systems until the new Mac Mini M4s came out.

I now have tentative plans to buy the Mac Mini M4.  I want to use that system to heavy-lift creation of my videos, as well as to maybe utilize it for housing of my Docker containers.

I love my current M1 Mini but it is a base model and I'm somewhat limited in the above-mentioned use cases.  While I can crunch video footage, I usually have to kill all other resource-intensive running processes when doing that.  I've not even tried to use Docker containers on that system, since running multiple containers usually requires a somewhat robust system (plus there's some system overhead since Docker can't natively run on Mac systems).

The real difference between the Studio and Mini would be ports and connectivity to peripherals, which would be extremely beneficial.  

As well, you can better spec out a Studio, as the platform is designed to be more open-ended as it relates to performance.  UPDATE:  Nope!!  I was wrong - I can spec out more RAM and undercut the price (drastically) of a somewhat similarly spec'd Studio.

So, my dilemma is, which one would be better for me, a high spec (lots of memory) Mini or a decently spec'd Studio?

I'm Now Managing My Docker Containers Using Portainer

Every once in awhile, I end up breaking my container setups because I sometimes get confused with all the layers and config settings (and I don't even have all that many containers), so I began to investigate management alternatives.

Of course, I'm still leveraging a locally managed Linux system (Ubuntu) to run my containers.  I've not tried to install containers on Mac hosts and I'm not even going to try with Windows.  From what I understand, I've to use a VM to run Linux on a Mac host, or use Docker Desktop.  I'd rather just use native Linux since I'm a Linux power user...anything else appears to drastically add complications, plus it's kind of stupid to install Linux on a VM when I've a bunch of Linux hosts that I can immediately leverage.

I decided to try Portainer after watching some usage videos.  It was super-simple to get it running (it's containerized) and it was super easy to shut down my existing containers and run them on Portainer - I just copied each compose.yml into Portainer to set them up as containers.  While I could see the pre-Portainer container (before I'd shut them down), they were only partially manageable with Portainer.  Building them under Portainer gave me full control, though.

As well, I found where Portainer keeps it's underlying files so that I could leverage them (if need be).  I also keep copies of my compose.yml files (I do not use Git or GitHub for my files - yet).

I'm currently using five containers (three for Wordpress, one for Pi-hole, and one for Portainer), which allows me to use Portainer's community license setup, but I've also found that I can manage the currently running containers (all five) from Portainer, without licensing agents.

Portainer is something I'm going to be using as much as possible.  I haven't even tried the other solutions but Portainer gives me a more comprehensive method of managing my containers and I'm less confused with it than via CLI; I don't even need to experiment with the other solutions.  Yes, I can manage the containers natively, via CLI (as I was doing prior to using Portainer), but I'd rather not, especially as I run more stacks (I've recently started using Nextcloud and Owncloud containers - a bake-off).  I'm finding as I manage more containers, I sometimes get lost in the thick of them.  With Portainer, I'm less lost.

iPhone 13 PM sent to Verizon for Trade-in

Well, I've sent my 13 PM to Verizon to complete the trade-in process.  

I didn't really want to send it back, but the trade-in value ($1100) needs to go toward financing the 17 PM.  

I'm locked in now...LOL!  Seriously, though, I'm enjoying the 17 PM.

UPDATE (10/12/2025):  Verizon received my trade-in on 10/10.  They assessed it yesterday, and I  received the full proposed value of the phone, which was $1100!  For those folks who are sceptical, there it is - Verizon provided me the full trade-in value of the phone.  Keep in mind that my trade-in was relatively pristine.  It's used, yes - there was indication of normal usage across three years of ownership, such as some patina around the USB-C port.  The phone was in a silicon case during the three years of usage, but it was, considering that timeframe of usage, pretty clean.  It's all relative.  This was a great way to obtain a 1-TB iPhone, in my opinion...was the first time I've ever attempted to leap upward.  Maybe next time I'll go 2-TB.

Airpods Max - Repair of Connection Loss Issues

For the past 2 months, I've been experiencing connection issues with my Airpods Max headset.  At first, I though I was going to need to visit the Apple Store but I then decided to see if this was a common issue.

The headset would normally disconnect it's wireless connection whenever I moved the headset while it was on my head.  When loosing connectivity, I'd hear a lot of static and popping within the ear cups.  While I could always reconnect, the disconnects would frequently recur, sometimes within minutes of the last disconnect.  It was highly annoying.

I searched on the following keywords:  airpods max keep dropping connection.

I ended up watching the below video, which was super helpful!

I was able to remove the ear cups.  The connections were filthy.  I cleaned them and also used a Q-tip to clean the female connections.  Removing the cups wasn't difficult but also wasn't exactly easy.  Fortunately, I had a SIM card removal tool (although the tip of a paper clip can also be used).

I conducted a quick test and didn't notice any loss of connectivity.  I'll be on the lookout for any issues and if it happens within the next 2-3 days, I'll remove the cups again and reclean them.  Note:  I didn't use IPA to clean the connection points...I just wiped the connections with a paper towel.  At least I now know how to tear down the headset and clean the proper areas, though.

iPhone - Standby Mode

Since first purchasing an Pro iPhone (13 PM), I've been using an app called Fliqlo.  It's an always-on clock app that I use when sleeping in bed.  I enable it and it shows a flip-style clock.  I can control how bright the numbers are displayed.  I can use it in portrait and landscape mode.  As my bedside charger stand only allows charging while the phone is upright, I use Fliqlo in portrait mode.

iOS 26 has a new mode that's called Standby.  It works similar to Fliqlo, but only works when the phone is plugged into a power source and when the phone is on it's side.  I'd love to use this native feature instead of Fliqlo, but I'm not about to buy a new stand just to use it.  IMO, it would be better if Apple allows it to be used in portrait mode, so I sent Apple a feature request asking them to expand on Standby so that it can be used in portrait mode.

As well, I've been reading about a bunch of bugs with Standby, so I'll just wait for those to be sorted.

I'm not sure if iPads have Standby functionality - if so, that would make for an excellent bedside clock display (I've a Mini that can be used in that manner)...I'll test if I can use Standby with the Mini.

17 Pro Max Received, but I'm Experiencing the Dreaded iMessages Activation Unsuccessful Issue

If you're not aware, there's an issue with iMessages and/or FaceTime where your apps won't activate.

I just received the phone today and wasn't even aware this was an issue until my wife said she sent a text and that I didn't reply.  When I looked at my phone, I saw nothing.  I asked her to send another while she was like 10 feet away from me.  She did - I saw and heard nothing.  I then asked her to call me - the phone rang (it was her).  I then grabbed my work phone and did some testing with it (it's an iPhone 15 Pro).

Now my work phone is running iOS26.  The new 17 Pro Max is running iOS26.  My 13 Pro Max is also running iOS26.  Only the 17 PM is having the issue, though.  As well, I can no longer test my 13 PM because I factory-reset it earlier today, but it was fine before I wiped it.

When I use the 15 PM to text to the 17 PM, the 17 receives the text.  When I reply back, the 15 received that text, but the text isn't coming from the phone's number - it is coming from my email address that's tied to the iCloud account, which is odd.

I tried to reach out to schedule an appointment at the local Genius Bar but they screened the issue and refused to allow me to make an appointment.  They did suggest that I log a support ticket but said that they'd reach out to me later - I took that to mean that they actually wouldn't reach out.

I then went to the MacRumors.com forums and searched - sure enough, I saw some folks complaining about it but only saw one person with a solution...that solution didn't work for me.

I then checked Reddit and saw a BUNCH of complaints, as well as several remedies that works for some folks (but not for me).

Someone also said that he tried both Verizon (which is my carrier too) and Apple and neither were helpful.

Lastly, several folks said that they waited (some waited without opening a support ticket and some opened support cases) 24+ hours and the issue auto-fixed itself.

I'm still not sure where the exact problem lies.  It's either iOS26, iMessage, or eSIM (although there are folks with non-e SIM cards and running iOS26 that are experiencing the issue).  Maybe it's a combination of a bug in iOS26 and/or a bug in SIM technology.

Lesson:  never run the latest version of iOS.

So, I'm waiting.  I'll update if/when this is resolved.

UPDATE (9/27/2025):  As of 1 PM EST, the issue appears to have been resolved.  I checked at 6 AM and it was still an issue, but by 1 PM, the issue was gone.  I still don't know what was done to fix it.  I'm assuming Apple did something on their end in reaction to my support request.  Now I can truly enjoy the phone!

UPDATE (10/2/2025):  I updated my phone to 26.0.1.  Before I did, I saw an update note saying that this patch version fixes an issue with phone activation.  So, this was a firmware issue related to phone activation.

iPhone 17 Pro Max Preordered!

I've been holding onto my iPhone 13 Pro Max because it's been adequate.  It's still running on the original battery, as well.

I've never preordered a smartphone before (or any product, for that matter).  I'd been thinking of upgrading but was not interested in the 14 PM, 15 PM, or 16 PM.  The 17 PM did get my attention, though.

I've been mulling over if I should upgraded to the 17 Pro Max.  I watched a few videos to try to make an informed decision and liked what I saw.  

Last night, I decided to consider the 17 PM, but the next issue was deciding whether to trade in my current phone.  I was thinking on keeping it but the 17 PM isn't a cheap phone, so I looked at what my carrier (Verizon) would offer me if I opted to trade in the 13 PM in addition to buying the 17 PM.  I found that Verizon offers $1100 for my 256-GB iPhone 13 Pro Max!  That's a huge sum to apply to the 17 PM.

I then looked at the 17 PM offerings.  The color options are minimal, and I settled on the Cosmic Orange.  As well, I messed with the configuration to consider how much my monthly payment would change (factoring in the 13 PM trade-in).  Initially, I wanted the 512-GB version, but decided to check to see the monthly price difference between 512-GB and 1-TB - the difference was like $3.  So, I chose the 1-TB version.

I could've cut costs way down just by sticking with the 256-GB version, but I've had issues with storage space consumption and wanted to at LEAST go up to 512-GB.  I only chose 1-TB when I saw that my monthly payment would only go up a few dollars.

What I don't like is that Verizon forces you to upgrade to the highest tier of phone plan to buy the 17 PM.  I had to change my plan (from mid tier to top tier), but really, the payment didn't increase by much.

So, I preordered a 1-TB Cosmic Orange iPhone Pro Max today.  It will ship on 10/3.  While I wait, I'll also research cases for this phone. [UPDATE:  I ordered the clear TORRAS Q3 case.]

I'm really excited, as most of the time, to cut costs, I end up settling for my tech.  As well, when I buy phones, it's historically been between releases, so I'm always a very late adopter.  When I bought my 13 PM, it was already on the market close to 2 years.

If you're interested in the iPhone Pro models, more information is here.

UPDATE (9/22/2025):  One thing I've noticed that I don't especially like is that I ordered the 17 Pro Max on 9/13.  I looked at my order today (9/22) and saw that the trade-in 30 day deadline started when I preordered the 17PM.  By the time the phone has been delivered to me, I'll have like 2 weeks to evaluate the phone before the deadline is crossed.  WTF.  It gets worse if the preorder is delayed.  If it's delayed more than a few weeks, I'm screwed and will have to send my phone to them early (I've a spare LG V60 that'll work, but damn...) or cancel the order.

UPDATE (9/24/2025):  I got an email from FedEx that the preorder has shipped.  !!WOW!!  It appears that I'm going to receive the phone 9 days earlier than normal.  I'm definitely not complaining!  It should arrive in 2 days (Friday).

Sunnylife Hard Case for DJI Osmo Pocket 3

I've no idea why I never posted about the Sunnylife Hard Case.  

It's a hard case that works a LOT better than the OEM case in protecting the gimbal of the camera.

It protects more than just the gimbal, though.  It also protects the display screen (keeps it from rotating and protects it from scratches/impacts).

I've been using it for close to a year, traveling locally and internationally with it.

I decided to buy it because there were times when I was traveling with the camera, using the OEM case,  I'd open the camera bag and find that the gimbal had been pushed out of it's storage position.  When it's out of it's storage position, the camera lense can be scratched.

It absolutely locks down the camera's essential moving parts and protects the glass parts.

I highly recommend this protective case.

DJI Mini 3 - Strobe Light Works; Ordered External Remote ID Module

I did a bit of twilight flying last night.  It was fun, but I got eaten alive by mosquitos to the point that I was flinching a lot while trying to concentrate on flying and also watching the drone.

The strobe light works good but since it's on top of the drone, I don't see it (yeah, I get it...it's supposed to be for manned planes to spot).  I'm thinking of getting two more lights (red and green) and putting them on the front arms of the quad.

I thought the strobe light would affect handling dynamics of the quad, but I didn't notice any control issues.

I also found that Remote ID was broadcasting, although I couldn't see it within my phone's WiFi applet.  I did see an indication within the RC's menu, buried two levels into the menu.  You'd think this would be one level down at a max menu depth, or at least showing Remote ID status on screen somewhere.

Initially, I thought that the Plus battery wasn't activating the Remote ID broadcasting - it was, but it wasn't noticeably apparent.

I also bought an external Remote ID broadcast module because it was cheap ($30) and because it would enable me to use the non-Plus batteries, which I really don't want to sell.

With both the strobe light and the Remote ID module, the drone is somewhat weighed down...I'm not really sure about adding the additional two red/green lights, although I'm sure the Mini 3 can handle it.

I got some good pictures last night but only one 10 sec video.  I thought I had more video footage but I  found that one of the two files was corrupted.  I'll probably try again tomorrow, plus there's Labor Day weekend coming up, too!  I've also been adjusting EV settings in the photos and videos, too, although it's sometimes difficult to determine how much to adjust.  In one case, I dialed down EV for the one video I captured.  The sun was below the horizon but was still throwing out it's last light.  On the RC screen, it showed that some of the clouds were reflecting a lot of sunlight, showing the reflection as a "mask" of pixels.  I interpreted that to mean that I needed to dial down the EV and when I did, the "masking" disappeared!

I'll upload some screenshots to my server and will post the picture here (will do this tomorrow).

Although I love night flying, unless you've a specific focus, it gets boring really quick, as it's difficult to see things when there's a lack of ambient lighting.  

Status on Night Flying With My Mini 3 Drone

I've yet to fly the Mini 3 with it now being registered.  I received the Plus battery yesterday evening and it was raining here, so I'm currently in a hold pattern for flight.

I did test the Plus battery, though.  Mine is NOT a DJI branded Plus battery, but it still shows extended capacity.  One thing that threw me is that I was trying to determine if Remote ID was enabled and broadcasting.  I did notice that the Flight Checklist shows, "Remote ID functionality normal (code: 1B080003)" within the remote controller UI.  I also tested to see if that disappears when I use the normal batteries - it does.  Based on that, I'm assuming that the Remote ID is being broadcasted.

As well, I went ahead and bought a Remote ID broadcasting module so that I can use the non-Plus batteries.

I've noticed that it's clear skies right now and it's 5 PM EST, so it looks like I'll be able to conduct a dusk test flight today!

I'll Be Registering My Quad Drone with the FAA

Most folks don't care for registering drones.  I get it - folks don't believe in over-regulation.

For me, I don't want fines and there are times when Murphy's Law fucks with me, so I want to ensure that if a LEO visits me, I'm doing things legally.  I don't think the current regulations in the US are over-bearing and you won't catch me doing the stupid things that many non-licensed drone pilots do. (Flying beyond VLOS, flying in fog, flying at 1000 ft, harassing wildlife, etc...)

I want to fly at night.  I've seen videos of folks flying during fireworks displays, and the footage looks incredible.  Even non-fireworks night footage looks very crisp.  

I want to give night flying a shot.  The only thing is, to fly at night, I need a strobe.  After researching, the lightest strobes I can find are 6 grams.  My drone, a Mini 3, is 248 grams.  The legal limit for non-registered drones is 249 grams.  So, to fly at night, and because a strobe will but the drone over the 249g limit, I need to register the drone.

This isn't a huge deal to me.  Flying is a privilege, not a right.  I've no problem registering the drone.

Because I'm registering the drone, that means I can use the Plus (51 minute) rechargeable battery.  I'd been avoiding that battery because it would've put me over the weight limit, as it's heavier than the normal Mini 3 battery.  

So, I bought a strobe and a Plus battery.  The strobe is arriving tomorrow.  The battery is arriving Monday.  I can register the drone tonight and be flying with the strobe tomorrow night!

UPDATE (8/22/2025):  I've registered the drone (at the FAA Dronezone website).  It was a bit tricky, as I registered it before the Plus battery arrives (which is tomorrow), which meant the Remote ID on the RC display would not show.  Dronezone was asking for that bit of information.  Remember, the Remote ID is only activated when using the Plus battery.  DJI has RID support documentation that helped me get through the process.  This was more clear than any of the other (many) janky web pages that explained the process, as most of those pages were outdated with erroneous details.  I basically had to use the device's serial number when registering the drone with the FAA (the serial number IS the Remote ID).  I paid a $5 fee for 3 years of registration, which is the standard fee and duration.  I used a label maker to create a label that has the registration number; I stuck it to the side of the drone.  One thing, though:  I can no longer use the non-Plus batteries (they're not cheap, either), or buy an external RID module, which costs more than one battery.  I can sell the batteries to recoup funds from having to buy another two Plus batteries, I guess.

Mac Mini - USB/Mouse Issue?

Maybe two or three months ago, the mouse that I use with my Mac Mini stopped working when I unplugged it and plugged it into the Mac again.  It's a Corsair Dark Core RGB SE gaming mouse.  I've had it since the pandemic (not long, as far as mice go).

No matter what I did, the mouse wouldn't work.  I've a spare micro-USB to USB-A cable (that's what it uses), so I thought I'd try to see if swapping out the cable would fix the issue.  It did not.   I then tried other mice and they worked - these were just Dell wired mice.  When I tried the Corsair mouse again, it worked.

 Today, the Corsair stopped working again...same deal - I unplugged it and tried to plug it into a different USB-A outlet.  I tried all the same things and it eventually started working again.  Then I purposely unplugged it again.  It stopped working and will not activate again.

Right now, I'm using a wired EVGA X17 mouse as a temporary solution until I can get another Corsair.

Either my Corsair's battery (it's a wireless mouse that has wired capability) is dead or there's something internally wrong with it.  I'm leaning toward it being the battery - maybe it needs a charge to work, even when wired?  Batteries are finite items.

Maybe I won't get another Corsair wireless mouse, because if I do, this will happen again.  I also have a Corsair wireless mouse at my cubicle at work...it's the same age and it hasn't died.

I'm unsure what to do.  I don't want to use the Dell wired mice - those feel disposable.

UPDATE (8/22/2025):  I forgot that I've some cheaper but just-as-nice-as-Corsair mice.  One that I love is the Venus Pro RGB MMO wireless mouse.  They're cheap ($30) and have lots of buttons.  I just now ordered another one to replace the Corsair Dark Core.