Doug Mejia

Imagine walking into your local big box store to buy a $500 gift card. You try to redeem it to pay for your iCloud storage, but the card number gets declined. To make matters worse, Apple flags your account for fraud. Suddenly, they lock your entire account. Now, you are completely shut out. Your iCloud account, photos, music, and every other Apple service you subscribe to are now inaccessible.

Everyone always talks about using long and complex passwords and two-factor authentication to keep hackers out. But what if the company you entrust with your data is the one that locks you out? What is the recourse? What if they don’t see the problem the way you do? They might simply say you violated a policy, never tell you the specifics, and leave you with no access.

taking pictures or recording video with an iPhone and having it automatically back up to the cloud is incredibly convenient. I am not going to stop doing that anytime soon, and neither are most of you. However, we really need to think about situations like the one I described above because this isn’t just a hypothetical scenario; it actually happened to, Paris Buttfield-Addison, a user in Australia. As of this writing, I don’t believe he has resolved the issue. Apple reportedly won’t tell him exactly why they locked his account, at least not with enough detail for him to fix it. You can read all about his nightmare situation on his blog.

Do you have a backup of all your data in case that happens to you?

I wrote about a possible solution a little while ago using an app called Parachute. This tool connects to my iCloud account, downloads all the synchronized pictures and videos, and backs them up to my NAS at home. I also have another instance running that downloads my pictures onto an external hard drive or SSD at a different location. The app even lets you download your iCloud Drive files, which I have opted to do as well. Just in case.

If you don’t have a plan yet, I suggest you start thinking about your exit strategy. Just like it happened to that gentleman in Australia, it could happen to any of us. The folks at MacBreak Weekly did a great job explaining the problem and discussing solutions, so check them out in the video below, too.

#DataBackup #iCloud

12 Days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge ❄️

Sittin’ by the fire 🎶

#MicroBlog #WinterWonderPhotoChallenge2025 #WWPC2025

12 Days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge ❄️

Nothing better than a mug of hot cocoa to make you feel nice and cozy inside.

#MicroBlog #WinterWonderPhotoChallenge2025 #WWPC2025

Despite starting late in the year, I set a goal to read/listen to 15 books this year. Not sure if I will make it, but I am still trying.

12 Days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge ❄️

“Frosty” is as close to frost as we get around here.

#MicroBlog #WinterWonderPhotoChallenge2025 #WWPC2025

I am excited for the 12 days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge. With all of the time commitements during this time of the year, I am not sure if I will be able to post every day, but I want to at least give it a shot.

Here are the daily prompts…

• Dec 15 - Frost
• Dec 16 - Cozy
• Dec 17 - Firelight
• Dec 18 - Evergreen
• Dec 19 - Beard
• Dec 20 - Sparkle
• Dec 21 - Solstice
• Dec 22 - Grinch
• Dec 23 - Baking
• Dec 24 - Travel
• Dec 25 - Feast
• Dec 26 - Home

#MicroBlog #WinterWonderPhotoChallenge2025 #WWPC2025

One day, out of the blue, I decided to start a blog… this blog… using Micro.blog. At first, I was super excited to post just about anything. Then I tried to make it more formal and managed to sustain a streak of over 100 days without skipping a beat.

Towards the end, though, I felt a bit stressed. It felt like I had to post something, even if I wasn’t feeling up to it. Honestly, it started to feel like a chore. It bothered me because I truly enjoy writing and posting.

I finally decided it was okay to miss a day after I was forced to skip one due to a power outage. One day turned into three. Now I’m okay posting whenever I really have something to say, rather than hunting for content just to hit publish.

Apparently, I’m not the only one who feels this way. I found an article by Matt Webb that discusses 15 different rules he came up with for his personal blog. Although most of his rules are excellent, some resonated with me more than others. I recommend you check out his whole article and keep reading to see what stood out for me.

• Three posts a week, more or less.
• One idea per post.
• If I’m getting in a twist about a sentence, take it out.
• Give up on saying anything new.
• Give up on trying to be popular.
• Give up on trying to be interesting… just say what I think about whatever I’m thinking about.
• Only write what’s in my head at that exact moment. It’s 10x faster.
• If it’s taking too long to write, stop.
• Don’t use a post just to link to something elsewhere. If there’s a point to make, start with that.
• Titles should be descriptive and have the flavour of the post. And rewrite the lede once the post is done so the whole thing gets to the point faster.
• It’s okay not to blog if it feels like a chore.

I plan to follow these rules in whole or in part to make my blog more authentic and compelling to read, while keeping it fun for myself.

#Blogging #Writing #MicroBlog

I wanted to try embedding some video from a site other than YouTube, so I am trying it out here. The primary goal, therefore, is not the content of the video, but whether I can embed it successfully and have it play reliably.

It is a short video I found from 2023, where I was participating in ARRL’s Field Day event at the local ham radio club. If you are a ham, you can appreciate the video and know how exciting it can get when you are working a pile up. This was probably late into the night, so things are a bit slower and more relaxed. If you are not a ham, and this sort of thing seems interesting to you, go check out your local ham radio club. People in those clubs are generally extremely welcoming and willing to take the time to show you the ropes and teach you a thing or two about communications around the world. It’s great!

I love watching Pewter McKinnon’s videos. He is always so pumped, funny and makes great content, to boot. Check out his gift guide (for yourself) below.

Xiegu recently introduced the GPA-100 amplifier. I have the previous version of this amp, and it’s great. Yeah, the tuner isn’t wonderful, but I try to use resonant antennas whenever possible. The other thing I didn’t like about it was having to manually change bands. That’s not an issue when you’re just “parking and barking” on a frequency, calling CQ, and working a pileup. On the other hand, if you’re spinning the dial and hunting around for contacts, it becomes tedious.

This new version uses Bluetooth and pairs seamlessly with the Icom IC-705. Every time you change the band on the radio, the amplifier follows automatically. If you’re using CAT control via software like WSJT-X, it sends a command to the radio to change bands or frequencies, and the radio relays that signal to the amplifier via Bluetooth. That feature alone makes this little amplifier worth considering.

So why am I probably not going to buy it? Even though it’s on sale for an “early bird” price of $429, it may not be for me. The amplifier itself is great, but I already have one (albeit the previous version). Also, I want to keep my 705 for QRP work, which I only discovered after I bought that other amp. Turns out I prefer using my Icom IC-7300 in the field when I’m looking for 100W. Otherwise, it’s the 705 for QRP work and portability.

Now, if I didn’t already have another amplifier or an IC-7300, this would definitely be enticing. $400 is still $400, but that’s on the cheaper side of things if you’re at all familiar with ham radio gear. If I were coming into this part of the hobby for the first time, I would definitely buy it and pair it with my IC-705. Anything that makes ham radio easier is good to go in my book. God knows there’s enough difficulty and tinkering going on already.

Temporarily Offline does a great job, showing you how it works with the IC-705 in his video below