A collection of things I tinker with during my free time.
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Listen to this post: I have not been using sayoutloud , the Firefox addon from my TTS setup , as much as I expected to when I built it. It requires too many clicks, is too hidden in right-click menus. Also, browser add-ons are not getting much love from browser vendors these days, and I would rather avoid them when possible.
Listen to this post: During a stay at a relative's house, we noticed Toddler's interest in an old-school radio with volume and tuning dials. It was easy to operate and ludique : the sound changes when you turn the things! Unfortunately, radio stations are not super kid-friendly (lots of ads trying to sell lawyer services, talk shows, and very few Disney songs). So I decided to build my own, with…
Listen to this post: Turning this blog into a podcast was fun… But long form articles from other people are actually the ones I want to listen to on my commute.
Listen to this post: Each post in this hugo powered blog already has its own audio version . It only made sense to turn it into a podcast! I added the following template to the blog's hugo blueprint: Gist view gist {{ $style := resources .Get "xsl/style.xsl" | resources .ExecuteAsTemplate "podcast-style.xsl" ( dict "Site" .Site "IsPodcast" true ) }} {{ printf "<?xml-stylesheet type=\"text/xsl\"…
Listen to this post: We speak English , Portuguese and French at home, and learning the alphabet can be tricky when it gets to letter examples: "G as in Grapefruit ", but that's Pamplemousse in French and Toranja in Portuguese, so the correspondence doesn't work in other languages and can lead to confusion.
Listen to this post: Earlier this week, my yearly Claude Pro subscription auto-renewed. This seems to have triggered a "service improvement", making me subject to weekly limits . I had heard of these, but had until then only been subject to the 5h session limits.
Listen to this post: The gym I go to requires you to scan a small key tag with a barcode, to check in. I don't like bulky keychains, so I keep taking it off and tend to forget it when I need it.
Listen to this post: I have a Dreame L40 Ultra to vacuum and mop around my home. The Dreame app requires the robot to have internet access to receive commands, send status information, or modify scheduling. Not being a fan of audio-video recording devices roaming freely in my home, I keep it offline. Unfortunately, this means no Home Assistant integration possibilities, and painful schedule…
Listen to this post: My two cats recently acquired a Litter-Robot 4 , and are now using it mostly full time after a few weeks of transition. Apart from promising to save precious manual scooping energy, shielding from the smell of the cats expertly timing their bowel movements with dinner time, the Litter-Robot 4 boasts a "SmartScale®" .
Listen to this post: For the past few years, I have been keeping track of most of the books I read. It gives me some feeling of accomplishment and progress, adding a notch to the reading log, but also helps me keep track of what I've read, and where I am in the backlog of prolific authors or book series .
![](https://wip.tf/posts/turn-your-favorite-rss-feeds-into-podcasts/"images/ars-pod-list.png#hmedium")
![](https://wip.tf/posts/building-a-trilingual-kid-alphabet/"images/final-physical-thumb.jpg")