It all started with some downtime at home (Thanks worldwide pandemic!) and a reddit post by Al Swiegart, author of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python saying his Udemy course was free. I went ahead and "Purchased" it, and got started. It's a pretty solid course, but it's really more geared toward "I want to automate this office task" than "I want to learn to code and build things". I went in search of another course and landed on Andrei Neagoie's "Complete Python in 2020: Zero to Mastery", also on Udemy, and went for it. 

I seriously cannot recommend it enough, Andrei is an excellent instructor and really does cover damn near every part of Python, at least to the degree that you will know what to google and how to find information (which I'm quickly learning is basically the gist of programming). 

I decided to use my new found Python knowledge for a practical application; a maintenance tracker for the rental fleet. It only took me a day or so to build out a working CLI version. Command line isn't super intuitive though, so I decided I needed a GUI. I looked around and the most straightforward way seemed to be using the PySimpleGUI Library. It took a hell of a lot more time, but after a week or so of tinkering and sometimes lots of cussing, I did manage to get a working GUI version. 

In the process, I've totally fallen in love with programming, so I'm already looking around for the next thing I want to do, either with Python or maybe with another language. Daisy bought me a Pi Zero W for my birthday, so I think my immediate project is going to be to port the FleetManager app to flask/webapp so I can run it on a local server and access it from any computer on the network. Sounds like a good idea right? Anyway, here's a short little demo for the GUI version of the fleet maintenance app. Feel free to check me out on GitHub too. 

I’ve been wanting to go back to a laptop for a long ass time, but I’m been put off by the fact that I absolutely hate Windows and Apple’s laptop keyboards have been pure, unadulterated AIDS since the introduction of the butterfly keyboard in the 2015 MacBook 12”.  Well Apple have finally woken up and decided to go back to a scissor switch keyboard on their laptops, starting with the 16” Pro a few months ago. 

I just got an email that said “Don’t forget about media mod!”, foolishly I assumed that meant that it was finally available for order, since it’s said “Preorder in December” since the launch of the Hero 8. Not only is it not available to preorder, it now says “Preorder in January”. I want to stab everything.

So, as literally everyone ever may have noticed, I'm a total rube when it comes to buying all the shiny tech things. I also absolutely LOVE the idea of anything that makes my travel setup lighter and more streamlined (even though I don't travel very much at all anymore). This checks both of those boxes. 

My Hero 8 Black (Affiliate link) has become one of my most used cameras. It's small, portable, charges over USB-C, and has pretty damn good video and audio quality. It's perfect for vlogging. I have a variety of mounts and grips for it, and this week I added a new one to my collection. 

I have to admit, this was a total impulse purchase. As you might imagine, I drive a lot of different cars. Most everything I buy from the auction gets driven home at least once before it's put up for sale. I don't like selling a car only for the buyer to discover some little issue that I could have easily repaired had I noticed it. 

Anyway, because of that, and my addiction to podcasts, I REQUIRE a good bluetooth to Aux adapter. Something I can throw in any car with an aux in and have music and podcasts from my phone. I have been using the Anker Roav F0 since May, and while it does have some benefits (mainly it has an FM transmitter in case I buy something without an aux port), it's been acting weird lately. It seems like it's not making a good bluetooth connection even though it's like 24" away from the phone. I'll be driving and suddenly my podcast or music will start to sound like a phone call when you're down to one bar, breaking up and losing half of the audio at random. It's infuriating!

I figured I would post this because it's super rare these days that a company actually does the right thing. A couple of weeks ago I powered on my Rode Wireless Go mic setup to shoot a video, and the receiver wouldn't power on. I figured the battery had died and plugged it into power. It showed that it was fully charged, but the power button did nothing. It wouldn't power it on. I started a warranty claim with Rode, and though they took about a week to get back to me, they did send me a prepaid shipping label. I sent the mic setup to them, didn't hear a damn thing for like two weeks, and yesterday a whole new mic setup was delivered. 

Not great at communication but hey, they came through and replaced a defective product. Yay! 

If you've been following my recent posts, you already know I picked up a Hero 8 Black through GoPro's trade in program. I've determined that it's a nice little package, especially when paired with GoPro Plus to store all your pictures and videos and also half price on most accessories.  Since I could get it for half price, I went ahead and ordered this sleeve with lanyard.

One of the duties I'm using the GoPro for is auctions. I go to at least three auctions a week and take lots of pics and videos to determine what I'm going to bid on, how much, etc. 

I don't like carrying around multiple phones, and I don't like filling my iPhone's camera roll with endless pictures of cars, most of which I don't even end up buying for one reason or another. The Hero 8 with GoPro plus is perfect. I take pictures and videos all willy-nilly like I just don't even care about storage, then connect the GoPro to power and it automagically uploads them all. I can pull down the ones I need for sharing or my records and just leave the rest alone. I can format my SD card with reckless abandon since everything is backed up in full resolution on GoPro's cloud. 

Anyway, I figured this sleeve + lanyard would be great for that. I can have it around my neck instead of taking up pocket space, it's always close at hand, and I'm less worried about my dumb ass leaving the camera in a car at the auction. It seems like it will be perfect for that. As you would expect from a first party accessory it feels well made, and everything lines up correctly. The lanyard is long enough to put around your neck but has an adjustable little clasp on it should you want to use it as a wrist strap while shooting, which I imagine will come in handy for the more precarious shots GoPros are subjected to. It has a window in the bottom so your mounting prongs can still flip out. It also comes in a variety of colors. 

The only downside I have found is that there's no concession for charging. If you want to charge your camera, you have to take it off and put it back on again. It's not difficult to get in and out, but I am worried about stretching over time, as I take it out every single time I need to charge or transfer photos via cable or anything that requires I access the battery, power port, or SD card. 

Having said that, I don't actually know how it could include charging access given that the new design uses an entire side of the camera for a battery door. I'm still pretty happy with it for $9, and honestly it will probably last a year at which point I will likely upgrade anyway. Here are some pics so you can get an idea of how this thing looks and fits. 

I've been messing around with the Hero 8 Black some more. I had initially left the stabilization on High, today I tried it on Boost, and I definitely prefer boost. I'm shooting in 4k30fps in Linear mode. Here's the video. 

Looks pretty damn solid to me, and the crop isn't even noticeable since the field of view is so large anyway. I think I'm gonna stick with these settings for a while. I have a few mounts and other accessories on the way, I'll post pics and my thoughts on them as they arrive. 

I also took a few still photos, mostly trying out the HDR. I don't think this is ever going to be my primary stills camera, but it's honestly pretty solid and actually great for the auctions. The wide angle lens allows me to get the whole car in the shot even if it's close to another car or I'm trying to get a shot of the interior or something that most cameras wouldn't be able to capture. It's definitely coming with me to auctions. 

Maybe I'm just still in the honeymoon period, but I REALLY like this camera. The improvements over the Hero 7 Black seem minor on paper but really do add up to an overall better experience. I'm really looking forward to the media mod, I'll be preordering that when it's available. 

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So like I mentioned before, I bought the Hero 8 Black via GoPro's trade in program. It showed up on a Monday, which happens to be my day off, so I decided to take a bunch of sample video with it. Before we get to that, let's look at the new Hero 8 as a physical object. 

The main difference in the 8 vs the few previous GoPros is the mounting tabs being moved to the camera itself from the "cage". This sounds like a small difference, but actually makes quite a difference in how small it feels and how easily it travels. It's one less thing in your bag and it gives the camera a smaller footprint in a way that seems to defy the story the physical dimensions tell.

The other new change is not as nice, the battery door is now on the side. This is cool in some ways, as you no longer have to remove the camera from a mount to swap the battery, but on the downside, there's now very little holding the battery in with the door open or removed, and you have to remove it or open it to use the camera while connected to power, for say, a long time warp video of a road trip. I'm hoping GoPro's mods, specifically the Media Mod, will basically solve this problem. It will replace the battery door and includes a power connector as well as cold shoes and a shotgun mic. I signed up to get notified when preorders are available, so I'll follow up once I have on in my hands. 

Speaking of Microphones, the Hero 8 now has a front facing mic which sounds really damn good for a built in mic. I'm very pleased with it. I will still totally buy the mod with the shotgun mic, but I don't even think a lot of people will really need it, and that shotgun mic is gonna have to be REALLY good to make it worth it over the already very good built in mic. 

The new GoPro includes new views like linear mode when shooting in 4k. I like that a lot. I feel like the linear mode is best for most non-sports stuff because it greatly reduces lens distortion. The Hero 8 Black is fast and the video quality is pretty good. I still wish they would bump up the sensor size for better low light performance, but it is first and foremost an action camera, despite their recent pivot to appeal to the vlogging world. 

GoPro's ecosystem does work pretty damn well for vlogging (have I mentioned I hate that word? I really do.), especially with GoPro Plus. GoPro plus enables auto uploads to their cloud service when you plug it in and you're near wifi. They are stored in full res and you can pull them down to edit or share, then delete them from local storage and just leave them there. It does a lot to solve my storage anxiety, and it works really well with an iPad Pro. 

I'll stop rambling now and let you just look at the footage, watch it on youtube and turn the quality up as high as it will go. 

I’m gonna go ahead and say right up front that I am not an audiophile at all. If you’re looking for a deep dive into the sonic properties of the new AirPods Pro, I am not your dude. Lack of expertise, however, has never stopped me before, so here are my thoughts.

Compared to the AirPod Amateurs, the Pros come in a case that’s wider, but not as tall. It’s almost like an elongated AirPod case turned sideways. Unless you have a pocket that JUST fits the regular airpods, the new Pros will likely fit about the same, they’re still very pocketable.

The earbuds themselves have traded the hard plastic of the originals for a rubber tip that fits snugly inside your ear holes and helps provide noise isolation. As an added benefit, they’re definitely more comfortable to me. The “stalks” are also shorter, so if you hated the look of the originals due to the stalks coming out of your ears, you may find these a bit more tolerable. I think they’re fine, and I do like that the shorter stalks are less likely to get caught on stuff like messenger bag straps, but I didn’t hate the originals either.

Noise cancellation is pretty solid. It doesn’t block out EVERYTHING but it does do a good job of blocking out the kind of noises that are super distracting, the humming from my old refrigerator’s compressor, the sound of my car at idle, my garage door opener, etc. It’s almost subtle after you’ve had them in your ears for a minute, but switching over to Transparency mode makes you very quickly realize just how much work the Noise Cancellation was doing.

I haven’t had them long enough to do any battery testing, but apple claims 4.5 hours per charge and enough charges in the case for 24 hours total. They are generally pretty accurate with their battery estimates, so I have no reason to doubt them this time. Everyone seems up in arms about the price, but it’s right in the ballpark for other wireless noise cancelling earbuds. Sony’s 1000-XM3’s are $229. I don’t find $249 to be out of range, especially given their integration in the apple ecosystem with automatic pairing to all iCloud devices and all.

​The sound quality is good, at least in my opinion. It’s honestly hard to say how much of that is “better headphone” and how much of that is “noise reduction/less ambient noise” but everything sounds clearer. The one obvious improvement is higher perceived volume at the same volume setting, which is probably a very good thing for your ears. Bass seemed markedly improved over the old Airpods as well.

Overall I’m pretty impressed with the AirPods Pro, even though their name is terrible to write about.

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So naturally I ordered a pair. I don't really need them to be completely honest, but I do use my AirPods a lot. I'll  post my impressions tomorrow. Anyone want to buy a pair of Gen 2 AirPods with wireless charging case to subsidize my poor decisions? 

It took 6 days using their prepaid return label to for them to receive my trade in. It was delivered today around 2pm PST, let's see how long it takes them to ship my Hero 8 Black now. 

So, I use the Hero 7 Black pretty extensively, especially for car videos but it's a pretty solid blogging camera too. My current setup is the 7 Black with a SmallRig cage, a GoPro mic adapter, a GoPro shorty grip, and a Rode Wireless Go mic setup. It's a great setup for a variety of shots and it works really well, but it's also a little unwieldy.

The cage and mic adapter and all add a bunch of bulk to what is supposed to be a compact and ultra portable camera. Enter the Hero 8 Black. The new model includes a front mic built in and a (soon to be) available "Media Mod" which includes a shotgun mic that pops into the side and also includes a mic jack and two cold shoes. This should make my setup a lot more portable. I can use the shotgun mic most of the time and pop on the wireless go with no other adapters needed when I want to be heard when I'm not looking right at the camera. 

GoPro is also running a trade in deal where you can get $100 off with the trade in of damn near any camera. I happened to have an old base model hero that was selling on Swappa for...$100. Seems easier to just trade it in, so that's what I did. I put in my order last night around midnight and sent in my trade in today. I'll keep my website updated to see how long the trade in takes. 

In the meantime, anyone want to buy a really good Hero 7 Black setup? Email me if you do. 

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Let me start by saying this isn't really a "vs" kind of situation. There are some things that the Sony camera does that an iPhone just physically cannot, like having an optical 200mm equivalent zoom or full manual control over photo and video settings. I do however, feel like they will be used in much the same way most of the time. Most people that buy a point and shoot camera are going to shoot video in auto mode. Most people that buy an iPhone are going to launch the stock camera app, tap video, and start recording. 

As such, that's how I tested them. No manual mode on the Sony, no Filmic Pro or anything like that on the iPhone. I have to say, I didn't think the iPhone was going to look this good in comparison. If you're shooting mostly close up stuff, the iPhone is seriously as good or better in most situations, at least to my eye. It has me strongly considering selling my RX100 and buying something like the Sony A6400. 

This is by no means a definitive test, and I will definitely continue comparing them, but I am very impressed with the 11 Pro. 

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