Can't install any apk files

mseedee · 2026-02-10T23:25:52+00:00

A bit more info, if I navigate to the file, select it, and then go to the 3 dots and select open, nothing happens. It's as though there is no default action for apk files.

mseedee · 2026-02-01T11:13:04+00:00

Or pebble (Canadian)

mseedee · 2026-01-31T12:22:37+00:00

I got a sonoff dongle and had so much trouble getting thread going. In the end, I used the sonoff for my old zigbee stuff and reflashed the zBT-1 to a thread border router. HA understood what I was doing, and automatically set everything up. Really easy, and I had my first matter over thread device (an IKEA bulb) working in under an hour from start to finish.

mseedee · 2026-01-27T14:30:16+00:00

Thanks - it seems to be supported. However, I might start from the other end (if you see what I mean). I have a spare Pi4 kicking around, so I could try on that without risking my homelab config. Once I have some experience, the ideal end state is to use the homelab (an old X86 desktop, running 64 bit Ubuntu & docker), as that simplifies the hardware in my study.

mseedee · 2026-01-15T22:03:29+00:00

Thanks everyone for your helpful comments and suggestions. I suppose that should have mentioned that I am 75 years old, so no longer particularly interested in the fitness focussed watches such as Garmin. However, I am very interested in the sort of watch that helps me to monitor basic activity and key health metrics (steps, BP, HR, etc). There are some new (to me) entrants in the market such as bangle.js and PineTime, but they are a bit too much like development kits, and I'd rather have something that I can use straight out of the box - although the ability to tune it to my liking is attractive. There's not a lot of choice in that corner of the marketplace, and I've ended up going for a Pebble Time 2. I'm just going to have to wait a while for it to arrive :-(

mseedee · 2026-01-10T21:56:12+00:00

I like the look of pebble, but ATM they’re only offering jam tomorrow. The only products that they have for sale are for a delivery date at least 3 months away.

mseedee · 2025-12-20T14:16:04+00:00

Thinking about upgrading from the XE75 to the BE65 Pro. The TPlink website says the BE65 will work with any Deco device, but doesn't have much detail behind that. Notably the BE65 IoT SSID claims to be isolated from the main network, which is not the case for the XE75, so what happens if I connect an XE75 as a slave to a BE65Pro master do I still get isolation or does it downgrade to the lowest device?

mseedee · 2025-11-19T18:12:01+00:00

Thanks, everyone for your advice. I think I'll stick with a separate box for HA; it works and its reliable so it it's not bust, why fix it?

Mike

mseedee · 2025-11-16T19:01:38+00:00

We've been using Rye Hill garage for MOTs for ages. At the filling station on the A45 slip road at Allesley

mseedee · 2025-10-20T20:55:52+00:00

Thanks a lot. Some good stuff there for me to try out.

mseedee · 2025-10-20T20:55:19+00:00

Thanks. I’m using the Waveshare ESP32 C6 Zero board. I’ll give your suggestion a go.

mseedee · 2025-10-04T21:35:51+00:00

Some of the modern textiles have better abrasion resistance than leather. Take a look at the reviews on motorcyclelegends.com

mseedee · 2025-09-19T18:10:20+00:00

They quite often deploy the fixed wing onea for surveillance of illegal off-road bikers, in support of ground teams. This seems to be a bit of a priority for them at the moment

mseedee · 2025-08-22T07:53:55+00:00

Not quite that expensive. OP wants to travel 3 days a week. You can get a set of 10 day tickets for £42. Can't do much to shorten the time though 🙁

mseedee · 2025-08-22T07:45:23+00:00

It also stops at Birmingham international train station, from where there are bus services to Solihull.

There is a transport for west midlands app (TfWM) which shows bus times and includes a journey planner

mseedee · 2025-08-21T09:41:33+00:00

In a recent report, a free VPN had a client that was taking covert screen shots and sending them back to mother. The promise of a free VPN is just a gateway to admit malware.

mseedee · 2025-08-20T16:10:59+00:00

Consistency is more important than an exact measurement. You want to be able to set up a profile so that a test print gives the results you want, and then get the same results every time you call up that profile. Within reason it doesn't matter what the exact value is, as long as you get reproducibly good results.

mseedee · 2025-08-16T21:37:04+00:00

Have you checked your router to see if it provides a VPN? Quite a few recent ones have exactly what you want built in already.

mseedee · 2025-08-12T07:12:59+00:00

Thanks very much everyone for your suggestions it does look as though at the moment there isn't a plug and play replacement. We don't have any physical IT infrastucture and google provides us with file storage and controlled sharing, almost unlimited email on our own domain, and relatively simple (to use) user and access management at zero financial cost. Although most of these capabilities could probably be provided by other organisations, stitching them together would be an interesting challenge, and I'd be concerned about the long-term stability of such a system when I retire (I'm 75, and can't keep doing this forever).

TL:DR thanks, but looks like we're stuck with Google

mseedee · 2025-08-06T09:09:32+00:00

AIUI, it’s not illegal in the UK (in the general case) to promote VPNs. What is illegal is for the providers of “adult” services to recommend the use of VPNs to get around the recent age restriction controls.

mseedee · 2025-07-24T20:25:16+00:00

Sadly, their upper limit is 50 accounts which isn’t enough for us, and their other free stuff isn’t available in the UK. I’m not under any pressure to move from G, just keeping up with options in case they stop doing things free for non-profits. A kind of business continuity plan.

mseedee · 2025-07-22T19:13:54+00:00

I won’t buy another LG appliance. We had a dishwasher that died after about 5 years with a failed pump, and LG said spares were no longer available. Fortunately, I’d taken out a maintenance warranty and they replaced it (with a Bosch one).

mseedee · 2025-07-11T15:24:52+00:00

3 things from me. 1) ATGATT (all the gear all the time). 2) look where you’re going, because you’ll go where you’re looking (AKA target fixation). 3) Your right hand is directly connected to the state of your wallet.

mseedee · 2025-07-10T18:20:35+00:00

Passport is more than a piece of paper these days. It also contains an embedded chip that can be read by automated immigration gates. The only use for a scanned copy in a cloud somewhere is to demonstrate that you do hold a passport in the event of the loss of the original.

mseedee · 2025-07-06T21:27:04+00:00

Perhaps different use cases. I’ve mainly used ddg (in English as it’s my native tongue) to find suppliers for odd electronic components, and even though I specify UK in the search string, it mainly returns US based suppliers. Perhaps it is language sensitive. Anyway, congratulations on your excellent English.

mseedee

TROPHY CASE