U.S. Passport Online Renewal

My U.S. passport was nearing its 10-year expiration, and I was dreading the renewal process. The last time I renewed, I recall filling out a paper form, jumping through hoops to obtain an “official” passport photo, sending the form and old passport via certified mail, and waiting anxiously for my new passport to arrive while at the same time fretting over the slim possibility that my precious passport could get lost in the mail.

I’m pleased to say that in 2024, the process is much simpler because the U.S. Department of State allows you to renew your passport online if you meet the requirements including:

• You are age 25 or older
• The passport you are renewing is or was valid for 10 years
• The passport you are renewing is either expiring within one year or has expired less than five years ago
• You do not need to expedite your renewal (routine service takes 4-6 weeks)
• You can upload a digital passport photo
• Various other requirements (see link above)

Filling out the online renewal form was easy, and the only information I had to look up were the details related to my current passport (e.g., passport ID and issue date). I was most pleased with the ability to upload a digital passport photo because that was the biggest time-saver in comparison to passport renewal in the old days when we had to provide 2 hardcopy prints that conformed to numerous dimensions as pictured below. Even with my photography skills, the photo requirements were usually too cumbersome for me to bother with, and I’d just pay for passport photo services to make sure they got the dimensions right.

But now you can simply upload your digital photo, and the U.S. Department of State provides a step-by-step overview on its website and accompanies it with a YouTube video. The photo requirements are much simpler now: use a white background, don’t do something stupid (e.g., close your eyes, look away from the camera, open your mouth) and save your original color photo in JPG file format. After uploading your photo, the website will apply conformance checks, automatically crop your photo to a square, and allow you to adjust the cropping if desired. No need to leave your home, print hardcopies, or pay someone to do something that you can easily do with the tiny little supercomputer in your pocket.

Another improvement in the passport renewal process is that you no longer have to mail in your old passport. It is stated, however, that upon submitting your renewal application, your existing passport becomes void and cannot be used for international travel so make sure you plan ahead. After paying the processing fee (which was $130 for a passport book at the time of this writing) and submitting my passport renewal application, I received an email confirmation and was also given the option to sign up for additional notifications about the status of my application. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

Apple Image Playground First Impression

A new Apple application called Image Playground was introduced in macOS Sequoia 15.2. According to its App Store description, “Image Playground, powered by Apple Intelligence, lets you turn descriptions, concepts or people from your photo library into original, fun images in unique styles.” It is one of many new features introduced to macOS that is powered by Apple Intelligence.

I’ve found 2 potential use cases for Image Playground. First, you can simply describe an image and have Image Playground draw that image for you. From my limited experience, DALL·E from OpenAI does a better job of adding the context from a written description into an image. DALL·E is built into ChatGPT and Microsoft Copilot, and I will probably continue to use those application to generate complex images. That being said, I will consider using Image Playground if I want to generate images that are simple or cartoonish.

The other use case for Image Playground is to generate caricatures of real people. Simply drag and drop a photo onto Image Playground and it will generate several cartoonish variations of your photo. Further customize the image by typing other descriptive text. For example, here is an original photo of me, along with Image Playground’s original interpretation of the photo, and a refined version of me playing ping pong.

What other use cases have you discovered for Image Playground, and how do you think it performs relative to other similar image-based generative artificial intelligence applications?

AirPods Pro 2 Hearing Aid Impression

The AirPods Pro 2 comes with a brand new hearing aid feature that has been FDA-approved as an over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aid software device. Because both of my parents have hearing loss, and one of my parents has had mixed results with a variety of prescription and OTC hearing aids, I decided to put the AirPods Pro 2 hearing aid feature to the test. After contending with a packaging fiasco which I describe here and here, the AirPods Pro 2 finally landed under my parents’ Christmas tree, and we tested it out.

I’ll spare details and jump straight to the conclusion. The AirPods Pro 2 should mainly be considered as a hearing aid for people who have experience with using bluetooth audio devices on their iPhones. The only exception that I can think of is if the individual is fairly tech-savvy. Both of my parents had significant challenges understanding how to switch between iPhone audio, speaker mode, and bluetooth audio and in fact could not even recognize which audio mode the phone was using. From my perspective, the test results about the quality of the hearing aid feature were inconclusive.

Lee Family 2024 Year In Review

It’s hard to believe that the Lee Family 2024 Year in Review newsletter is our 20th edition! We hope you enjoy reading it, and we look forward to connecting with friends and family during the holidays and into the new year.

All 20 editions of our Year In Review newsletters are hosted on Dropbox, and the 2014 edition and beyond have associated blog entries. Our home movies are available on Victor’s YouTube channel where you can see footage of our Big Island vacation, extended GoPro footage of our manta ray excursion, the “Great American Eclipse” on April 8, and Victor’s visit to Indiana Dunes National Park—all from 2024.

3D Model Repositories

If you’re a 3D printing hobbyist like me, you might enjoy downloading and printing 3D models that other people have painstakingly created. Whether your 3D prints have practical applications (e.g., containers, GoPro mounts, phone holders), are used for decorative display (e.g., art sculptures, HueForge prints, figurines), provide entertainment (e.g., games, puzzles), or other reasons, there is a chance that somebody has created a model that meets your criteria. There are many repositories where 3D models can be sold or even downloaded for free. Here are my 3 favorite model repositories.

Thingiverse is one of the early pioneers of open source 3D models and is one of my favorite repositories. It has a long history and is currently owned by a 3D printer manufacturer called Ultimaker. Ultimaker is also the developer of an open source slicer called Cura, and while Thingiverse features an “Open in Cura” button in its model download page, that is currently the full extent of its workflow integration with a slicer. However, I like Thingiverse because it features one of the largest libraries of 3D models around, and everything that you see on Thingiverse can be downloaded for free. Designers who upload 3D models to Thingiverse can connect their accounts to one of several donation platforms (PayPal, Ko-fi, Github, Patreon, or BuyMeACoffee) to accept tips, but beyond a relatively inconspicuous “Tip designer” button on each 3D model’s page, the central focus of Thingiverse is around sharing open source models rather than commerce.

MakerWorld is a newer 3d model repository that is owned by 3D printer manufacturer Bambu Lab. MakerWorld is another one of my favorite repositories because it has a very active designer community that uploads an extensive assortment of 3D models. All models in MakerWorld are free, and there is an unobtrusive incentive system for designers to earn points that can be redeemed for Bambu Lab merchandise. It features workflow integration with Bambu Labs’ default slicer, Bambu Studio, in the form of print profiles. Any 3D model may be linked with 1 or more print profiles which includes slicer settings such as layer height, wall loops, infill density, or other slicer settings that are uploaded by the original designer or other users who have downloaded and successfully printed the same 3D model. Simply clicking on a print profile on the MakerWorld website results in launching and loading the model into Bambu Studio, along with the relevant slicer settings in the chosen print profile. Despite this tight integration with the Bambu Lab ecosystem, models can be downloaded and sliced in other slicers and printed with 3D printers other than Bambu Lab.

Printables is owned by Prusa Research, the same company that manufactures open source Prusa 3D printers and develops PrusaSlicer. Most models in Printables are free, although Printables features a separate Store where designers can sell their models as well. I appreciate how the free models are shown by default, and a user must navigate to the Store section of the website to browse and purchase models that are sold for a fee. There is a reward system where designers and visitors can collect points in exchange for filament or other rewards. Models can be downloaded or opened in PrusaSlicer, although there do not appear to be any print profiles that accompany the model files.

In addition to my 3 favorite model repositories above, there are some honorable mentions that I’ll briefly discuss.

Creality Cloud is owned by—you guessed it—Creality. There are free and paid models mixed together, and there is print profile integration with Creality 3D printers. This appears to be a recent development, but I have not been able to test it because I no longer have a Creality printer. Much of the user experience centers around 3D model sales, so I generally don’t visit this repository regularly.

Cults 3D is an independent, self-financed site that is run by 4 guys in France who state in their “About” page that their advantage is they they not accountable to any investor or brand. Although there are both paid and free models, one thing I like about their search function is that the results page can be filtered to show only free models.

Thangs is registered to Physna, a company that advertises itself as providing the the world’s leading geometric search engine. It contains a lot of free models, and also has a marketplace for buying and selling models.

Are there other 3D model repositories that you like to use often? Feel free to leave a comment and describe your favorite 3D model repository.

3D Printing and Air Quality, Part 3

I previously discussed 3D printing air quality issues and mitigation approaches here and here. In this post, I’d like to highlight another informative resource—a YouTube video by Jonathan Levi whose screen name is The Next Layer. His video is called “I was DEAD WRONG about air quality” and can be viewed here:

He admits that he is not a scientist, and he also acknowledges that his video is sponsored by a company that makes a featured air circulation unit. That being said, his semi-scientific methods led him to some insightful conclusions. First of all, air filtration is an important approach to improving air quality, but air circulation (room ventilation) are just as important, and a multi-pronged approach may be needed to purify air in 3D printing workspaces. He also noted that despite a combination of filtration and circulation, it often took a long time (e.g., sometimes overnight) to bring air quality back to normal. He also pointed out that outside air can have its own impurities—namely particular matter—depending on where you live. But the impurities of outside air are likely to be particular matter and less likely to be volatile organic compounds, so air circulation would still likely be highly beneficial.

Check out the links in his video description for other informative resources.

Amazon Replacement and UPS Pickup

I previously wrote about Amazon shipping AirPods Pro 2 to me with a damaged box, as well as the process for getting the damaged product replaced. I began the process of returning the damaged product a couple days later, at which time I noticed that the return shipment required that I pay postage:

I called Amazon and stated that because they shipped a damaged product to me, I felt that I should not have to pay for shipping. They agreed and arranged instead for a next-day postage-paid UPS pickup. I asked if they could give me a UPS shipping label instead because it is more convenient for me to drop off a package at the UPS Store on my own time than to coordinate a pickup with a UPS driver. The Amazon representative apologized and stated that they were only authorized to provide a UPS pickup option at this time, but if they fail to pick up after 3 attempts, I could call Amazon again to make other arrangements. I was asked to provide either an email or phone number where I could be contacted, and I provided my cell phone number so that UPS could contact me in real time.

Amazon sent me an email with a link to instructions for the UPS pickup. It provided instructions on how to package the AirPods Pro 2. It provided me with a barcode which I was instructed to place inside my return package in case the shipping label was damaged, and a lithium battery hazmat label which was to be affixed to the outside of the return package.

The next day rolled around, and because I had not received any communication from UPS about a scheduled pickup, I called UPS. They confirmed that I was scheduled for a package pickup, and I was given a time window of 2-7 PM. I was home all day, except for a 45-minute period during which I had to pick up my daughter from school. I did not receive any communication from UPS by the late evening—no phone call, no knock on my door, and no note stating that they made delivery attempt #1 of 3.

I called UPS the following day, and I was told that UPS attempted a pickup the previous day, but I did not answer. I asked why they did not call me, and UPS stated that the drivers are not allowed to call customers. I stated that Amazon asked for my email or phone number for communication purposes, but I guess the Amazon representative was incorrect in stating that my phone number could be used for such communication. I then asked the UPS representative if instead of a pickup I could drop off the package at at a UPS Store, and he said yes—in fact, the bar code could be scanned at a UPS Store and converted into a shipping label.

The UPS driver did pick up my package on attempt #2 later that day, but the moral of the story is that if you are given a barcode for a UPS pickup, apparently you also have the option to drop off the package at a UPS Store, contrary to what the Amazon representative told me. I hope this helps someone in a similar situation.