1st gen. HomePod is officially classified a “vintage” by Apple. I, for one, who benignly thought HomePod’s role in HomeKit is also depreciated, had to re-add the HomePod back to the home app. Symptoms When adding a HomePod to existing home in HomeKit, the app would produce “Setup Failed (401)” message after the login and…
The Mad Tea Party
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From How-to
Popular App Bartender Buy-out Raises Security Concerns
Probably the most unwanted surprise for many macOS users. The popular macOS app, Bartender, is indeed sold to an unknown third-party. Speculations seem to lead that the new owner is an iOS app publisher, but that is the least of our —or mine— concern. Not only Bartender already needed critical permissions to run, if you…
How to Set Time Machine Quota on NAS
I don’t recall Time Machine having a quota feature when it was originally announced back in OS X Leopard. Most users would use any hard drive lying around, and if needed, can set up a pseudo-quota by creating a volume in Disk Utility. Preface This method requires to setup a new destination. When I was…
How to Fix Erroneous Apple Music Geoblock Message
Being a music streaming platform, Apple Music isn’t free from geoblock. Or better yet, Apple Music and others are generally not from licensing disagreement often found in music industry. I personally find it odd that interested parties behind a streaming agreement would rather pull the song down, rather than keeping the fees on the balance…
How to Troubleshoot iRobot Roomba j7+ not Self-Emptying
iRobot Roomba lines —robot vacuums— are popular for its unusually powerful vacuums, but frankly lost its shine in recent years in convenience and smart departments. It’s late in the games with self-emptying, vacuum & mop combo, and self-cleaning or self-exchanging mop pads. But regardless, Roomba has its place as one of the finest robot vacuum…
Finding K-Pop Nyan Song
I was listening to Korean radio today. As a classical music fan, radio isn’t exactly my go-to for musics, but the radio was on nonetheless. Then it hit me like a freight truck. Or, like a tabby cat suddenly jumping on my laps so I chocked a little with some coffee in my mouth. It…
How to Band-Aid Fix SteamAPI Initialization Issue on macOS
I do want to make it clear that this isn’t the usual ‘how to fix’ tips post. Instead, I’m hoping to log what I’ve learned for indexing purposes. I do have a band-aid solution for the time being, but I wouldn’t call this an ideal fix. Perhaps someone will pick up where I left off,…
How to Setup VPN VLAN for Home
Not all countries run DPI, nor do all websites block people based off of region. I, for one, started building my own geoblock-proof setup since I moved to the new neighborhood about a decade ago. HomeDepot had this neighborhood IPs blocked. I don’t know what my ISP was thinking assigning blacklisted commercial IP to residential…
How to Fix Bose Speakers asking for AirPlay Passwords
Anyone remember the debacle behind Bose NCH 700? I was one of the “proud” owners who had the headset ruined after a botched firmware update, followed by Bose’s inability to narrow down the problem. What I’m trying to say is, Bose doesn’t have particularly good track records with softwares. Unlike its unfortunate counterparts, Bose speakers…
How to Fix Greyed Out Files and Folders on macOS Finder
This happens more often with network drives than physically attached ones, and I, for one, had this issues happening with Synology NAS. A file or a folder that is most likely not damaged and most likely was accessible previously, is now inaccessible on macOS Finder. The real odd ball is that other devices and apps…
How to Fix Time Machine Volume’s “Low Space” Warning on Synology NAS
Time Machine is a fascinating topic, so I’m back with more. One of the features Time Machine provide is its automated space management, i.e. delete older backups. Having a NAS doesn’t solve the physical limitation of any backup solutions; that is, it will always take up some space somewhere. On NAS side of the business,…
How to fix Time Machine “Disk Not Ejected Properly”: “Backups of [mac]”
Being a Mac user myself, one of the biggest features I recommend is Time Machine. Personally a well-designed backup system alone can make up enough reason to choose an OS for home use. I highly recommend using a Time Machine backup via NAS, for the benefit of traveling light and separating out a backup drives…
Universal Quicksaver for All v.MTP2023-07-02
Yes, I had to return with some updates on the script. Please do check out the previous post, as I will be keeping it up to date. As for why the separate post was made, I thought to share where some of the changes were made and why. If you are looking for the new…
Universal Quicksaver for All
Few years ago, I had several quicksaver scripts available on the Mad Tea Party, and I, in my hubris, said something along the lines of ‘after this housekeeping update, I doubt I need to maintain the script no more’. Oh, how wrong I was. Ladies and gents of gamers club, I proudly present rogue-like which…
How to Connect MTP Devices on macOS
Media Transfer Protocol, or MTP, is something Microsoft came up with in the days of PMPs and PMCs. If the history teaches us anything, it is that most of the remnants from MP3 eras were fragmented and chaotic patchwork of technologies to make that one proof of concept to just barely work. The significance of…