Red tape, to say the least

Preamble I believe many other Singaporean families are in a similar situation, and I’m publishing this story not to name and shame anyone, but to raise awareness and perhaps kickstart an honest-to-goodness conversation about the red tape we’ve encountered thus far. Email #1 My family wrote in to complain feedback about our inability to select a date – any entry date, for that matter – when applying for our incoming domestic helper to serve her stay home notice.

Kites and the moon at Marina Barrage

COVID-19-related lockdowns, have, to say the least, put a damper on spirits. I’m going to (try to) post more frequently, not necessarily technical topics that no one will read, probably random photos, or media I’m stealing from Reddit – with a credit whenever possible. Here’s the 1st one, a shot of the sky at Marina Barrage, a popular kite-flying venue, and if you’ll squint a bit, you can even see the moon:

Combining multiple PDFs using pdftk

Previously, I needed to extract multiple ranges from a big PDF. Now I want to use pdftk to combine two PDFs into a single file in order to support a claim, and this worked for me: pdftk A=foo.pdf B=bar.pdf cat A1 B3 output baz.pdf

Apple One More Thing Event

YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AwdkGKmZ0I. M1 is an SoC - system on a chip with a unified memory architecture: 8-core CPU: 4 performance/efficiency cores each: This performance gulf seems to be the case for graphics as well, with an (up to) 8-core GPU. Also, there’s a 16-core Neural Engine. On security: Universal App: x86_64 and arm64 binaries in a single .app/, falling back to use Rosetta 2 if there is no compatible binary.

How to create a bootable USB drive for macOS X El Capitan

Following How to create a bootable USB drive for macOS X El Capitan: $ sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/UBUNTU\ 20_0 --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app Password: Ready to start. To continue we need to erase the disk at /Volumes/UBUNTU 20_0. If you wish to continue type (Y) then press return: y Erasing Disk: 0%... 10%... 20%... 30%...100%... Copying installer files to disk... Copy complete. Making disk bootable.

Apple Hi, Speed Event

YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KR0g-1hnQPA. HomePod Mini Amazing sound, but I can’t describe it with any technical depth. S5 processor, the same one used in Watch Series 5 and SE, for “computation audio”; e.g., optimize loudness, adjust dynamic range, and control the movement of its own internals. Multiple units can be placed throughout the house for synchronized output, or paired up when placed in the same room. Includes the U1 processor, so it’ll know to handoff to your iPhone when it’s close; e.