The Double 11 haul has been arriving bit by bit, so it’s finally time for a share.
Xiaomi Smart Socket
- Specs: Smart Socket 2 Bluetooth Gateway Edition
- Price: ¥39-20%
One day early this semester I came across an article about Wake-on-LAN online and, on a whim, dreamed up something fun: after class, walk back to the dorm, place my phone on an NFC tag on the desk; the phone senses the tag and runs a pre-set shortcut that sends a WoL packet to the dorm router to wake my PC via its MAC address.
Sounds cool, right? That same night I impulsively bought a few blank NFC tags on Taobao and even stayed up making a pretty cover in Photoshop (very Apple-flavored, though both the source file and the export are gone now). Everything was ready—except the NFC tags themselves.
When the tags arrived, two big problems killed the plan. First, my phone’s automation doesn’t support NFC triggers; a search told me you need an Xr or newer, and my 8P obviously lacks such “advanced” features. Second, my laptop doesn’t support WoL at all. The idea was dead on arrival—was there really no way?
In early November Taobao pushed smart sockets to me. I suddenly realized I could set the PC to power-on boot, then give the socket a geofence so it turns on when I’m near the dorm. Not as flashy, but it achieves the goal. I grabbed a Xiaomi smart socket during the pre-Double-11 sale. In the Mi Home app I can see real-time power usage and, most importantly, toggle the socket remotely.
Mi Home app screenshot
After using it for a while, the biggest perk is no longer babysitting the PC when Windows 10 decides to update overnight. The geofence part is… tricky: Mi Home needs always-on location permission, yet successful pre-boots are rare. Lately I’ve been tinkering with using OpenCV on a microcontroller camera to recognize my face when I open the dorm door and then turn on the socket—after all, I’m an EE student XD.
working on it.jpg
2022 Cloud-a-Day Calendar
- Specs: 2022 Cloud-a-Day
- Price: ¥89.12-25%
This calendar had been sitting in my cart forever; I finally grabbed it on sale. Before ordering I saw reviews complaining that the packaging arrived battered, so I worried during the wait—Double 11 parcels get thrown around even more. When the box showed up intact, I breathed a sigh of relief. The calendar is loose pages that sit on the included stand. Each page has a different cloud photo and blank space for notes; every sheet can be used as a postcard.
The coolest extra is the “sky blueness” gauge—perfect for someone like me who zones out staring at clouds outside the window XD.
Of course there are minor drawbacks: the paper is a slick matte type (?), and under direct light the surface grains reflect so much that text can become hard to read. Still, the flaws don’t outweigh the charm; anyone interested might want to check it out.
Apple Watch Band
- Specs: Silicone / Black
- Price: ¥19.9-33%
My wrist is rather slender skinny; even on the tightest hole the original band lets the watch slide down, so I’m constantly pushing it back up—super annoying. I later bought a magnetic metal band, but after a few days the magnet edges kept pinching me, so I switched to this adjustable silicone band and the problem is finally solved.
Genshin Impact Illustration Collection Vol.1
- Specs: Pre-order
- Price: ¥142.62-9%
It’s a pre-order that won’t ship until mid-January 2022, so no review yet.