Unlimited Test Email Addresses

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

A silly tip that has saved me tons of hours and make clients happy is having an Email domain that has “catch-all” routing on it.

Basically this is having a domain that any address that you use with it automatically routes to a central email address, mine is the “energywins.co.uk” domain, anything you send to that domain ends up at my main address, be it “clientTest1@energywins.co.uk” or “fakeUser200@energywins.co.uk”, this did not used to be that useful when all apps were internal, but in the world of cloud apps and PARTICULARLY with the Salesforce/Pardot world that only allows an email to be registered once it is invaluable and helps you to keep clients separated (they also love to have you use emails address that are specific to them ie “MicrosoftTEST@energywins.co.uk”

This can be done easily with just about any email provider, but I use Gmail for domains as it is easy, fast and cheap1.

Strangely the Gmail for Domain instructions keep changing, are oddly poor for Google and the setting is buried REALLY deep which I assume means they don’t really want you to do it. so if things change, just search for “Gmail Catch All” in the meantime:

  • From your inbox, Click on the little cog on the right-hand side and select “Manage this Domain”

  • Then select “Apps”

  • Then select “G Suite”

  • Then select “Gmail”

  • Then scroll down to the bottom and select “Advanced Settings”

  • Then scroll nearly down to the bottom and under “Routing” you will see the setting for “Email routing”, change the radio button for “Unknown mailbox account messages” to “Route to catch-all address”, and put in your main email address for this domain.

That’s it, for most people this is not a suitable setting because it just slightly increases your spam content, but for me and anyone who needs a constant stream of individual email address and to not lose track of old ones used one 6 months ago, it’s invaluable.

  1. Some of my colleges use temp email domains such as http://www.throwawaymail.com but I have found that such things have a habit of being needed again in 6 months when the client comes back for more work.[↩]

A Change Of Headphones

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

Anyone who knows me will find the idea of me not wearing headphones at all times a strange one. For the last 6+ years, I’ve been a faithful purchaser of the Sennheiser PXC series, gently working my way through the range from the 360 to the 550. However, when it came time to buy a spare battery (after repeatedly losing the devils), I discovered that the familiar style I’d grown accustomed to had changed.
This wasn’t initially a problem, designs evolve, after all, so I thought I’d simply buy the new version. But I quickly realized the updated design featured angled ear cups, and that’s a deal-breaker for me. Angled cups mean I can’t wear them the wrong way around, which I prefer when positioning the cable or buttons on a certain side or addressing Bluetooth signal issues caused by my head. Moreover, angled cups prevent me from comfortably tucking one cup behind my ear, a necessity when I’m onsite with a client. Nothing leads to a headphone ban quicker than managers being unable to call you whenever they want.

Requirements:

  • Over-ear design.
  • Bluetooth and wired connectivity.
  • Standard ports: I absolutely despise proprietary ports designed to squeeze more money from me for replacement accessories.
  • Vertical alignment: Headphones must be vertically aligned, not tilted.
  • No noise limiters: I’m not a child, and I prefer my music loud.

The Choice:

I initially considered the new Sennheiser PXC, but they failed due to the aforementioned tilt issue. Sennheiser’s other suitable models tipped too far into hipster territory for my taste. Bose headphones were too expensive and didn’t feel sturdy enough to withstand my lifestyle. Plantronics models were simply too large and tended to fall off my head. Enter an unexpected outsider in headphones but a venerable name in music: Marshall and their Monitor Bluetooth headphones.




The Good:

  • Strong Bluetooth: The Bluetooth connection is significantly stronger than Sennheiser’s. I can leave my phone on my desk and comfortably move around my flat without any signal issues—a massive improvement.
  • Snug fit: These headphones fit tightly and snugly, which may be too tight for some (like my wife), but it’s a definite plus for me.
  • Sound Quality: The audio is richer, fuller, and significantly louder than the Sennheisers, a major upgrade.
  • Dual Input: While working, I often use the Pomodoro timer from my phone via Bluetooth but remain wired in for calls and other audio needs simultaneously. The Marshall headphones handle both connections effortlessly, a pleasant surprise.

The Bad:

  • No lateral movement: Given their classic design, I didn’t expect lateral movement, and the lack of additional joints certainly enhances structural integrity. However, without lateral flexibility, I feel extra pressure when tucking one ear cup behind my ear.
  • Control knob: This is an annoying gimmick—it’s actually a mini joystick rather than a knob, making it fiddly and unintuitive. Changing volume should involve turning a knob, not nudging a joystick.

The Unexpected:

  • Replaceable headphone pads: My beard and stubble tend to shred headphone pads, leading to frequent replacements. The Sennheiser pads were always a pain to change, whereas Marshall’s magnetic pads are refreshingly easy to swap out.
  • Retro feel: These headphones gave me a nostalgic flashback to my dad’s old Pioneer SE-205 headphones, a set I adored years ago, a delightful retro touch.

The Conclusion:

It’s still early days, and the Marshall headphones aren’t quite as gentle on my ears as the Sennheisers. However, the substantial upgrades in nearly every other aspect make them a clear winner. Recommended.

Salesforce and Third Party Calls

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

This is just a post to help other Salesforce devs who have to face the same repeat question time and time again and the same disbelief in the answer, So they can prove to the client that they are telling the truth.

Dear Sir/Madam
If you are reading this then someone has sent you to this post because you have asked about linking to a third parties data “on the fly” or “in Real time” or “before it opens” on Salesforce and wanting for such data to arrive before showing the page to your users…

the simple answer is this

Salesforce will never make the speed of their website dependent on anyone else!!!

It will never wait for anyone else before opening a page
It will never wait for anyone else before saving a page
It will never wait for anyone else to do ANYTHING

Yes, you can call just about anything with Salesforce, but it will do this asynchronously, so it will make the call to the Third Party, then get on with its own stuff without waiting for an answer.

You just have to write your Salesforce code/page/whatever to deal with the result when it comes back from the Third Party, it’s well documented, there are lots of ways to deal with it: Batch runs, Ajax etc and plenty of neat solutions.. but none of them is “can’t it just wait”

Fin.

Omnicharge

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

The Omnicharge is the second “mains supply” battery backup that I have backed on kickstarter what seems years ago, and the second one to turn on in the last month

Heralded as far more advanced and adaptable compared to its competitors such as the ChargeTech Plug but it has a far lower output wattage (100Watt), so will it still be any use to me with my monster laptops?

⇑ The Omnicharge comes in a very nice compact box, minimal packing that survived the air trip perfectly.

The Omnicharge accessories match the amazing build quality of the main unit, with the adaptor tip being of especially high quality for some reason (not that im complaining)




One thing that bit me slightly is that if you are outside of the US you can’t order the accessories afterward so if you were dumb like me and did not order the DC cable or looked at the dirt magnet that is the case with its raised power button and realised a case is a mandatory requirement then poot to you.

When the Omnicharge arrived, I did not have a 90Watt power supply at hand, so I plugged my 130Watt in to see how it handled the extra load expecting a polite cut off message, but NOOOO, everything just worked, I glared at the info screen to see what was going on to discover that the giant power adaptor was ACTUALLY only drawing about 39Watts, let’s hear it for modern adaptive power supplies, this means I can use my P50 with the Omnicharge and my normal charger, sweet!!!, after a bit of experimentation, I found could make the Omnicharge peek at about 81 Watts (4 VM’s running, with me working in 1 of them) this is perfectly usable, I suppose I could have popped the limit if I have done something like video encoding, but that is not the goal.

⇓ The part of the Omincharge that sets it apart is that it will accept a very very wide range on its input charge, from USB solar panels up to monster power supplies (4.5V to 36V), if this circuit and it matching detailed control screen was built into actual laptops it would be a HUGE game changer but I will take it in any form at the moment.




⇓ The Omnicharge is only 20.4K mAh, about the size of my laptop battery, meaning it would only add about 2 hours to my battery life, then I had a realisation that I could charge the Omnicharge with the big Anka USB battery I normally carry at the same time it is providing power to the laptop, which should mean it should charge my laptop about 40% longer than it should on its own (on average my laptop takes about 40 Watts).




⇓ As you can see it works, but as you can also see the temp is rather on the high side, indeed its only 3 degrees short of the cut off temp with its little fan going for all its worth

conclusion The Omnicharge is truly a very smart bit of kit, by far the cleverest battery I have ever owned, again if a laptop provider incorporated this tech into their laptops it would be a massive game changer, but for the time being it is an essential bit of kit… just don’t forget to buy your accessories…

ChargeTech Plug

Posted on by Mark Myers Leave a comment

Kickstarter/Indiegogo projects seem to fail rather a lot, but I have long wanted a battery I could charge a monster laptop from and so I could not resist the ChargeTech as they promised a 250 Watt output, which would handle the 130-170 Watt power supplies that nearly all my laptops have. after the delays that are now run of the mill with the outsourced production that is common on Kickstarter projects, they did actually deliver, my wonderful monster battery came in a very smart box and inside the battery in all its glory but with a huge yellow label on it1

The Plug its self has the size and feel of an extremely bottom heavy hardback book, it has a quality feel about it.



The business end of the Plug, I have used a lot of these universal sockets, they often feel fragile and like they are going the break if I push the plug in hard, these, however, feel just perfect. the blue LEDs on the USB are a tad on the bright side, there is also a usb-c and a barrel charge port on the left-hand side.

The accessories you get are basic but expected, I also got a car charger (not shown), I will talk about the charger later, the bag is perfectly satisfactory if a bit tight but in a nice touch it has a hole on the side so you can charge the Plug while it is still in the Bag

Usage

Using the Plug is logical and simple, turn it on at the front and get shown a little LED % readout, and then there is a separate switch to turn on the AC power, the % indicator remains on during use, I plugged in my laptop and then every USB port, and it just took it like a champ, happily worked on it for a few hours till the % readout read 00 and then it turned off,I unplugged my stuff and then plugged in the included charger, the % counter then slowly counted back up till it read 99 then FF (for full)…… don’t know what I expected but it behaved perfectly.

Notes

  • Not for Planes : Now this thing is not to be taken on a plane either in hand luggage on checked in, it’s well over the limit (which I think is 27,000Mah), but that is OK, there are plenty of battery packs that handle that area of the market (ChargeTech themselves makes one, and I have the omnicharge from another Kickstarter coming soon anyway <looks guilty>

Niggles

Even though the Plug is a product from an existing company and not just a Kickstarter newbie it does have a couple of bits that are not perfect

  • Charger The charger that comes with the the Plug is a basic off the shelf job and it shows, particularly in contrast to the build quality of the Plug its self, it’s a 43W charger in the case of 75W/90W charger and this is a special crime in a product that is designed to be portable, however all is not lost, the plug uses the most common barrel power connector and I suspected it uses the same charge circuit as their other AC power products which will accept an input voltage of between 19.5v and 24v according to their manuals, this was supported by the fact that the AC charger provided is 24v but the car charger is 20v, a brief dig around in the old cables box unearthed an old 40Watt Lenovo charger that worked perfectly was better build quality and was a fraction of the size, for shame ChargeTech, for shame!!

  • Charge Levels The charge % on the front has a couple of numbers it seems a bit fond of, mine, in particular, seems very fond of 9% and 64% I don’t know why, but the first couple of times using it I actually thought it was broken.
  • Power Low After a week in my bag, I took the Plug out and checked the % …. it was at 70%, WTF!!! … after a minor panic, I realised that because the on/off button is a raised one on the front, it was simply getting turned on in my backpack, so I will have to get a couple of small rubber glue on feet to stick either side of the button to prevent this, perhaps make this button recessed in a future release.

Conclusion

I like the Plug, it’s a slightly strange beast, it has the feeling of something that was designed and build by Techs, then finished off by accountants, the 250 Watt outage is done perfectly and will make a real difference to my remote working, though I wish you could do a trickle charge off USB-C or some other method.

The sheer size of the 54,000mah battery was a joy, taking a few hours of my Lenovo P50 running flat out plus all the USB ports in use to kill it, it fills a gap in the battery market that has been open for a long time and I am glad I now have one.

  1. This worried me for a second but it just turned out to be a REALLY pushy registration card….. so frankly it can get stuffed…[↩]