Geek

Simplicity.

I enjoy writing on my Lenovo ThinkPad T460s. The ThinkPad series, even in its IBM days, had some of the best keyboards I’ve ever used and this particular laptop continues the tradition.

I bought this laptop a couple of years ago on a whim; it was on sale at a refurbished computer place online, had decent specs, and I thought it would make a great second computer to have in the lab. It runs Debian Linux and has done so for quite a while. To avoid distractions in my home office during work hours, this laptop sits on the other desk in my office, away from my way work area, and is the only computer allowed in the room (other than my work laptop). I find if I have my Mac or iPad at hand I tend to be a little distracted, especially when the news is blowing up.

The news has been blowing up a lot the last month or so.

I decided to look up the age of this computer and was delighted to learn it’s eight years old. When the computer arrived a few years ago it was running Windows 10, which of course is no longer supported by Microsoft. The processor is decent; it has an i7-6600u CPU with 16GB RAM. For web browsing, writing with Obsidian, and doing stuff on the terminal, it does its job very well and I don’t see this machine being retired anytime soon.

As society moves further and further away from sustainability by following the lead of corporations and their planned obsolescence (I’m looking at you Microsoft and Apple), it’s good to breathe new life into these older computers. There’s no reason to fill landfills prematurely.

I know a few folks with Chromebooks lying around that have probably been dumped in the support department by Google. Again, here’s another opportunity to put a lightweight Linux on these machines and keep these older computers out of the landfill.

When Apple stops supporting the M2 chip in my MacBook Air, I’ll probably either convert it to a Linux box or donate it to someone. Aside from my multimedia production work, I don’t have a reliance on the Apple ecosystem anymore, and that’s a great feeling.

I know I’ve been rather “anti-Apple” for the past month, which has been in concert with the explosion of ridiculous news. I’ve come to the realisation that Apple is doing what they have to do in this new economical mindset. It’s the economical mindset that the most unfortunate, but it’s also unfortunate that the FAANG1 bros are perpetuating a legitimacy of this mindset by playing along.

I just want to keep things out of our landfills for as long as possible.

1 Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google

Workspace.

I have a cheap webcam on the Mac mini M2 Pro I use for video editing. I decided to take a snap while I was messing around with the new grip I have for my iPhone 16 Pro.

The new grip is from Freewell. My iPhone case if from Freewell as well, and you’ll notice it has a magnetic bit around the camera lenses. I have filters I can attach to make things look a little more real-camera-like when I’m snapping photos and recording video.

More about the Freewell Sherpa Kit for iPhone here.

In Flux.

Fellow blogger Chris recently wrote about his attempts at “Moving Away from Apple…Again“. Like Chris, I haven’t liked where Apple has been headed for the past couple of years, and since the change of administration in D.C., I am becoming increasingly concerned with any sort of tech corporation, but especially one headed up by a donor (ahem, Tim Cook) to the Trump administration.

My eighth grade English teacher would have said that previous sentence was a run on sentence and then I would have been forced to diagram the sentence. Do they still diagram sentences?

Now, before folks get worked up that I’m picking on Tim Cook, I know that we now live with a government that is basically “pay for play”. I know Tim had to do what he had to do; it still doesn’t make me feel more comfortable about the situation. Plus, Apple has had some less than stellar showings lately, like defaulting Apple Intelligence to “opt out” instead of “opt in”. I don’t like things like this.

I recently wrote up some thoughts around my computing leanings in a quasi-manifesto type format.

I. Computing Platforms

  • Lowest friction is always ideal
  • Focused applications somewhat avoid ADHD fiddling
  • Linux to embrace my privacy concerns, geekiness, and existing hardware. Linux distro of choice is Debian based, and the simplest path for me right now is Linux Mint.
  • Mac for creative projects due to existing hardware and financial investment, while researching other options. At this point my video production relies on Final Cut Pro.
  • iOS for mobile because I feel it’s more secure than stock Android, and I have new hardware

II. Sharing Platforms

  • Meta is absolutely untrustworthy but unfortunately embraced by too many. I maintain an account, though my activity has been drastically reduced. Meta products like Facebook and Instagram shall always be used in a container and through a VPN. “Shallow” personal data only. Access limited to once a day. No promotion of creativity on Meta products. Bring the audience to you through more trusted channels.
  • “Deeper” personal data is mine and mine alone. No ad supported platforms allowed. Google Drive, Google Photos absolute no deal. iCloud is mostly untrustworthy and my remaining trust is declining. Anything that is in a corporate cloud will probably have an open backdoor or backend by the end of 2025.
  • Twitter is absolutely untrustworthy and is in the same bucket as “truth social”. No use.
  • WordPress and Automattic are untrustworthy. Leadership is too unstable. Need to move away from this platform.
  • Bluesky is there for some things, especially aviation and storm chasing. Monetary contributions indicate a for-profit status probably in the future
  • Mastodon is there for most things. The community is strong and I enjoy maintaining my own instance, as well as pushing blog posts to the Fediverse.
  • Instagram is part of Meta and falls into the same privacy/data mining/etc concern.
  • Pixelfed is there for most things, though friction is rather high. I’m not pleased with the iOS app at all, opting for Impressia instead. Leadership and the developer of the official Pixelfed client is moderately unstable. Not overly impressed. Just sharing this content on my blog is probably the best way to go.
  • YouTube is used for creative output, minimal scholarly consumption, and mindless consumption. It’s Google. Watch Google very, very carefully. Implement plugins to eliminate the cruft.
  • ActivityPub wherever possible. Fediverse wherever possible.
  • Need to reseach PeerTube

III. Trusted Companies

  • Apple is deemed trustworthy to a point, however, it is falling fairly fast on my trust scale. To be fair, Apple, appears to be more trustworthy than the rest of FAANG (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google)
  • OmniGroup is deemed trusted, but use friction is high and fiddly and data is proprietary locked to a platform. Plus, no Windows client for mandatory Windows 11 work computer. Web interface is lacking critical features. Out of the running.
  • Same with CulturedCode and Things. Proprietary locked.
  • Obsidian is deemed trusted, available on all platforms. Sync seems solid and mostly safe.
  • Bitwarden is deemed trusted, available on all platforms. Sync seems solid and mostly safe.
  • Not pleased with Proton’s stance around the Trump administration, looking at other options like Fastmail for email, in concert with self hosting.
  • Mullvad seems to be good on most fronts for VPN.

IV. File Storage

  • Personal data in stored locally and backed up separately on a nightly basis
  • Personal data is backed up locally
  • iCloud is for cautious use. Minimal personal data.
  • Dropbox is being weeded out of my personal ecosystem, down to a handful of bash scripts
  • Dropbox is sandboxed to one internal server in the house and one laptop
  • Google Drive is not trusted for use on any machine
  • Local NAS solutions are optimal. The WD PR4100s have been bumped up to 16GB RAM

V. Recap

  • I’m taking a “must be accessible from the terminal” approach to all of my data
  • Proprietary lock-in is avoided, including less than full functionality web interfaces for the data
  • End-to-end encryption wherever possible

These are just a few points of where my head is at with my personal computing habits. The rest of the family is mostly on Macs and iOS/iPadOS devices, and compatibility across the board is important. I have no expectations that anyone in the house will move to Linux and that’s fine. I’m comfortable enough with Apple to not fret about it at this time.

I’m Back?

The webhost we’ve used since the late 2000s was recently purchased by a Canadian company and they’ve moved all our services to a new server. I’ve been making the necessary configuration adjustments on my side, but sometimes these things to time.

Let’s hope someone can see this entry!

Geek.

As I was going through my photos the other night, looking for the shot of the 765kv powerlines in Upstate New York, I stumbled across this photo. I had forgotten about it but once I saw it I remembered it.

Taken during COVID, when Earl and I were out for many drives in the Illinois countryside to the southwest of Chicago, I stood under this 345kv line. ComEd in Illinois seems to use what I call the “Cat Ears” towers, as the supports for the Earth Wire to assist with lightning control out on the prairie.

I was always a fan of the prairies to the west of busy Chicago. I found such beauty out in all that open space.

Especially if there were interesting powerlines marching across the cornfields here and there.

My Thoughts on Meta.

I released the latest episode to my YouTube channel this evening. While the main purpose of the episode is to highlight my hike to Hope Camp in Saguaro National Park here in Tucson, I also talk about my feelings around the content moderation changes/elimination at Meta, which will affect Facebook, Instagram, and Threads.

I left Threads about a month ago when the place went crazy with bots and MAGA folks. While I’m not abandoning Facebook and Instagram, they have been removed from my phone and I have decided to no longer promote my YouTube channel releases on Meta owned platforms. If you’re curious as to my reasoning, see the first 90 seconds or so of my latest episode.

I’ll probably write more about it this week. I’m in a mood.

Thrifty Rebel.

I’ve mentioned before that as of late, Apple has been disappointing me a little more than usual. Not only is the new iPhone 16 Pro kind of ‘meh’, but their latest version of MacOS seems to be a bit more buggy than other recent releases. Yes, the camera on my iPhone 16 Pro is amazing but otherwise the phone feels like the previous two iPhones I’ve owned. And iOS 18 doesn’t really blow my skirt up.

Tim Cook’s recent donation to the Trump Inauguration Fund rubbed me the wrong way as well. I know he did it in Apple’s best interest, and plenty of other tech moguls have done the same, but if there was ever a tech company to have a rebellious streak, it’s Apple.

I am keeping a close eye on Apple’s progression through the 2020s. When the time comes for me to buy a new laptop, which let’s face it, is going to be a couple of years since my M2 MacBook Air is still pretty new and snappy, I’ll be considering all options. I’ve always been a fan of Linux, but I don’t know that Linux can do what I want it to do in the creative space. It’s something I’m exploring right now.

But I’m not going to get rid of my current setup just to make a point. Not only would it be expensive, it would also contribute to this endless cycle of buying the shiny things to keep the American Dream alive.

I am writing this blog entry on my M1 iPad Pro, which I purchased a number of years ago. It’s still quite snappy and does everything I want it to do. I’ve even edited video on it.

I don’t know that I’ll ever get another iPad Pro, but this one continues to purr along, even with a chunk missing on the corner of the screen.

I’m a bit of a rebel, but as I get older I’m trying to be a thrifty rebel.

Smarthome Smartlove.

There are some home designs that I just absolutely love. Throw on some smart technology and I’m enthralled.

I think I’ve found something to spend my trust fund on.

SkyAware.

One of my Christmas gifts this past holiday was a “PiAware SkyAware”. For those unfamiliar, for the past several years, most aircraft have what is known as “ADS-B”, the acronym for Automatic Dependent Surveillance – Broadcast. It’s a groovy way for airplanes to digitally talk to each other and talk to ground stations. Popular websites like FlightRadar, FlightAware, and ADS-B Exchange feature moving maps of air traffic all over the world and I’ve found it quite nifty.

As a nerd that likes to do my own thing, the PiAware SkyAware is a homemade solution for monitoring ADS-B signals from the comfort of my own home. The kit comes just about ready to go, you just have to assemble a couple of parts and find a spot with a clear view of the sky to place the antenna. This was a nifty little Christmas present and I had it installed by the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

This past weekend I bought a little touchscreen monitor to accompany my newest Raspberry Pi 5, and now I have a moving map sitting on my office desk showing me the air traffic in the area.

Yes, I could just monitor one of the commercial sites for the same thing, but what fun is that? Knowing I’m pulling real live data from the airspace within 200 miles of our home is pretty awesome in my book.

Laundry.

As a young lad I was fascinated by washing machines. I don’t know what prompted me to be fascinated by washing machines, but back in the day I could identify several different models of washing machines made by General Electric, Westinghouse, and Whirlpool. I recall finding Maytag washers boring for some reason.

Like most technology of the time, I find modern washing machines to be rather boring with their lights, touchscreens, and suggestions of water being spritzed on clothes.

When out and about on a trip I check the hotel laundry room for guests to see if the location is using old school washers or something a bit more modern.

This Holiday Inn Express has just one washer and dryer, and they’re made by Whirlpool. The inside looks pretty old school. It’s a shame the controls don’t have a mechanical timer. I like the clickty-clack. Whirlpool washers were push the dial to start back in the day, while most other brands were pull to start.