Recent Tech Tweaks and Fixes

In the name of the continuing path of progress, I’m managing my “away-from-the-mainstream” tech usage with cheery abandon and aplomb. Here are some recent changes for your delectation.

• The old headphones were retired, in favour of some cheap-end Q20i headphones, made by Anker under their Soundcore brand. The bass zone isn’t quite as good, but while I thought it might be cool to venture into the noise-cancelling era, I am actually enjoying the “Transparency” mode much more. Being able to hear sounds around you, and your own voice during calls, is quite comforting. Connecting to my phone as a second “fallback” device is also a nice feature. (As is not having your ears full of flakey padding at the end of the day.)
  
• My Linux-friendly laptop from Entroware is now 6.5 years old, and showing a few signs of age. I’ve already replaced the PSU, and nothing (touch a lot of wood) has blow up yet. I’ve been getting a lot of screen blackouts for a while though, as if a cable gets dislodged momentarily. Not been able to fix it through hardware, but hibernating and resuming brings it back.
  
  However, I’ve now got a keyboard shortcut in Gnome which resets the screens for me. Hitting a magic key combo runs the following script:

#!/bin/bash

if [ $(xrandr | grep -c "HDMI-2 connected") -eq 1 ]; then
    /usr/bin/xrandr --output eDP-1 --auto --output HDMI-2 --primary --above eDP-1;
else
    /usr/bin/xrandr --output eDP-1 --primary;
fi

This checks to see if a second screen is attached and restarts everything if needed, with the added bonus of automatically placing the external screen above the laptop one (not to the side, like Gnome defaults to). It’s not a long-term fix, but saves me a few minutes every time it happens.

• A few extensions have been causing hassle recently. Quickmove for Thunderbird has had problems under Wayland, so I’ve been reverting back to x11. And the Bitwarden password manager plugin for Firefox is having problems for autofilling. Looks like they’re working on a solution so fingers crossed. In the meantime, a quick extension restart does do the job, but I hate relying on all these short term fixes.
  
• On the plus side, I upgraded the laptop to Ubuntu 24, Noble Numbat, and while I was secretly hoping the screen issue might be magically fixed, everything else has largely worked (touches more wood). I think I had to reinstall the syncthing-indicator for Gnome, which is essential as I pretty much rely on syncthing internally these days, but all good since then.
  
• I’m still running off 2 android accounts, and must write up how things are going. In short, it’s slightly confusing – but I’m maybe adapting to the confusion, and even seeing it as part of the greater notion of “deliberate friction”. So much to unpack there though.

That’s all for now anyway. Hope you’re all enjoying your capitalist innovation cycles equally muchly.