You have to make allowances for the fact that many people are working from home (where maybe it's harder to test code and you certainly can't do hallway usability testing). Things also improved somewhat with the October patch. But Android 11 was a Windows ME level disaster. Google says that they dropped the desserts to make Android 'more accessible to a global audience' but I think it's probably because they know that new updates are no longer sweet.
Multi-tasking is completely broken. In pandemic mode I'm on video calls all day, and dodging the 2-3 video calls that are usually going on elsewhere in my house. Being able to have Teams and notes running at the same time is pretty important right now and with 11 it's not possible.
Other than conference calls and Kindle the other main use I have for my phone is podcasts. Android 11 improved the media controls by moving them to the quick settings area of the notification shade, providing easy switching between playback devices and allowing you to swipe through recent playback apps. All good, except that none of it works. The controls are there but do nothing so I have to run the app to pause. Also, there is a weird ghost of a previous media playback that shows up and then disappears when pulling down the notification shade. And as for dismissing previous sessions that seems to require a reboot.
Multi-tasking and media were fixed in the most recent patch, but there is also some new notification system to separate out conversations. In practice this seems to mean I get multiple groups of Gmail and Teams notifications instead of a single cluster per app. This isn't what I want, gives me more work to do and so far I haven't found a way to turn it off. Notifications have steadily improved over the last few major Android releases so it's upsetting to see them becoming worse.
This is all on a Pixel 4XL which you would assume would get some level of testing love. It used to be that the main advantage of a Pixel was getting new versions of Android quickly. With 11 I'm for the first time wishing I was waiting a few months while the kinks were worked out.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Android 11 Gripes #etc #google #android I'm not a fan of Android 11 notifications, media controls or multi-tasking. )
The Google Earth screenshot above is a composite of all of our Coronavirus hikes from March to October. We have thrashed the sidewalk around our neighborhood, discovered some new favorites and gone from hyper-local to a more normal regime. I'm not going to track these specifically any more and will return to blogging new hikes that you'd do even if not forced to by circumstances.
(Hike Map)
(Published to the Fediverse as: Coronavirus Hikes: Done #hike #coronavirus Final map of many coronavirus hikes in and around our neighborhood. Have discovered some pretty good out of the front door routes. )
Please vote for Biden. Do it as early as you can so Trump is crushed on election day and we don't have to suffer through weeks or months of uncertainty and possible election stealing.
I'm endorsing Biden because of these 923 reasons (and counting) and the 20,055 lies (and counting). Trump has likely killed tens of thousands of Americans, possibly hundreds of thousands before he leaves office. I wasn't a fan before the pandemic either.
Voting in the presidential election from California sucks. While the largest state burns, Climate Change is #32 on on Biden's list of policies. He's against the Green New Deal (the one that would pay for itself). Our broken electoral system means that the best possible outcome is a milquetoast centrist caretaker who probably won't do too much harm until it's someone else's turn. But make no mistake, it is the best possible outcome so I'll suck it up and vote.
Here's my list from January:
"I'd go Warren, Sanders, Kloubuchar, Biden, Yang, Buttigeg, Steyer, Bloomberg and (sorry again) Gabbard. Although, full disclosure, if it would get rid of Trump I'd vote for a McConnell/Graham ticket."
So at least it isn't McConnell.
We need a National Popular Vote, a representative Congress and more than two viable parties. But before that, we need Biden.
(Previously: I'm with Her)
(Published to the Fediverse as: I'm with Him #politics #election #biden #trump ##resist ITHCWY endorses Joe Biden for President in the 2020 election. )
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A timelapse combining the mid-August storm and the 'day without a sunrise' on September 9, 2020 in San Francisco (lightning from the storm contributed to the wildfires that blocked the sun).
(Published to the Fediverse as: Cause and Effect, or Strange Skies over San Francisco #timelapse #sanfrancisco #video #smoke #storm Time lapse of the day without a sunrise in San Francisco and the storm that caused the fires that blocked the sun. )
Autumn starts now (September 22, 13:31 UTC) north of the Equator, Spring to the south. Rendered in Catfood Earth.
(Previously: Autumnal Equinox 2019)
(Published to the Fediverse as: Autumnal Equinox 2020 #code #catfood #earth #equinox #autumnal The exact moment of Autumnal Equinox 2020 as rendered in Catfood Earth. )
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A red-tailed hawk catches a gopher at Crissy Field.
(Previously: Red-Tailed Hawk)
Updated 2020-10-20 17:40:
Another day, possibly the same hawk, for sure not the same gopher.
(Published to the Fediverse as: Red-Tailed Hawk vs Gopher #photo #hawk #crissyfield Red-Tailed Hawk catches and eats a gopher at Crissy Field in San Francisco, California. )
Hike starts at: 37.742189, -122.471394. View in Google Earth.
(Hike Map)
(Published to the Fediverse as: Coronavirus Hikes: July 2020 #hike #coronavirus #map Lockdown hikes around San Francisco for July 2020. )
This doesn't work any more as Purple is charging for their API. Sorry.
This post is updated hourly with a PM2.5 (2.5 micrometer or smaller particulate matter) map of San Francisco.
The video below shows the past 48 hours at six frames per second.
The PM2.5 data comes from the Purple Air API. The map uses one hour average readings from outdoor sensors and interpolates each point in San Francisco based on the inverse of the distance to the four closest sensors. The color scale is green to yellow (0-50), yellow to orange (50-100), orange to red (100-150) and red to purple (150-200+). San Francisco is plotted using elevation contours from DataSF.
Updated 2022-06-11 12:28:
The map is currently broken. The URL I use to download sensor data started returning a 500 error code at the end of may (Error: Server Error / The server encountered an error and could not complete your request. Please try again in 30 seconds.). This seemed like something Purple would need to fix. On closer inspection the error occurs after a redirect to https://purpleair-over-quota-2.appspot.com/ which sounds like too many requests (a 4xx error surely). With even more digging it turns out the download link is no longer supported (410 maybe then?) and so I'll need to migrate to the REST API to get this working again. I'm currently trying to get an API key and will get this fixed as soon as I can.
Updated 2022-06-13 17:28:
Purple Air were kind enough to issue me with an API key so the map is back to updating hourly.
Updated 2023-11-08 00:26:
And it's broken again. Purple have decided to start charging for their API. This is a shame, and I don't think I can pay for this just to keep this post running. I'm going to try moving to the AirNow system for some use cases, but it's not going to work for a detailed map of San Francisco as there is only one official sensor here.
Does closing the Great Highway cause an increase in traffic accidents?
Export Google Fit Daily Steps, Weight and Distance to a Google Sheet
Accessing Printer Press ESC to cancel
Download a Sharepoint File with GraphServiceClient (Microsoft Graph API)
Monitor page index status with Google Sheets, Apps Script and the Google Search Console API
Enable GZIP compression for Amazon S3 hosted website in CloudFront
Scanning from the ADF using WIA in C#
Is it safe to open securedoc.html (Cisco Registered Envelope)?
