Geek

My love of Apple has been rabid at times. I love the “fit and finish” of Apple’s hardware and their contributions to a user’s lifestyle. With Apple Fitness+, Apple Card, Apple TV+, and the like, Apple has definitely pushed itself as a “lifestyle company” more than a technology company.

I think this is why my interest is waning a bit (again).

I’m still happy with my Apple hardware. My M1 Mac mini, originally purchased as my work computer, but moved to my the role of my main computer when work wanted us back on Windows laptops, is amazing. This M1 Mac mini is hands down the fastest desktop computer I’ve ever owned. It doesn’t even get warm, even with Zoom calls and the like going on. I’m thoroughly impressed.

There are bugs in MacOS Big Sur that I’m sure will endure into MacOS Monterey coming out before the end of the year.

Then there’s my 2018 iPad Pro. I have the larger version and I’ve tried on numerous occasions to make it my “main computer” by using it for as many of my computing tasks as possible.

It doesn’t quite fit the bill.

I don’t like the idea of everything being accessed one app at a time. I know iPadOS has “multitasking” capabilities by putting half screens next to each other, but handling things in this manner just doesn’t gel with the way my brain works. It’s probably because I’m an old computer geek, but I feel very confined when working on my iPad. I’m typing this blog entry on my iPad. It’s the only thing I can see. If I were to float a mail window or something off to one side of the app I’d feel virtually claustrophobic with my computing experience. I don’t like that.

Then there’s the bugs. A week or two ago, Apple released iOS 15 for the iPhone and iPadOS 15 for the iPad. They’re suppose to be the greatest iterations of the popular operating system. But there’s bugs. So many bugs.

For example, iPadOS Mail gives me two separate iterations of “All Inboxes”.

There’s no need for this. The “fit and finish” I loved from Apple is rapidly disappearing from their software catalog. The second “all Inboxes” should say “iCloud” and there’s only one email my iCloud inbox. Don’t even get me started on iCloud. I tried to search for a photo in the iCloud web interface to Photos and apparently there’s no way to do that. I can only search for a photo on my device. Ugh.

Then, there’s Apple Maps. This mapping service insists on calling Houghton Road here in Tucson as State Route 983. There are absolutely no road signs that say anything about State Route 983. The road was once considered to be labeled as State Route 983 but it never happened. The same with State Route 910 and State Route 810 here in Tucson. They never happened. They’re not marked. But Apple Maps has state route trailblazers all over the place on their maps. I’ve reported this too many times.

I thought perhaps the maps incident was limited to pockets of misinformation, but apparently not. Interstate 4 in Florida, which runs through the center of Orlando and provides the main access to Walt Disney World, is not marked as Interstate 4 anywhere in Apple Maps. Scroll in, scroll out, doesn’t matter. It’s marked as Florida State Route 400, which is an internal designation used by the Florida Department of Transportation.

With the Interstate system pretty much the backbone of the prosperity of the 20th century, you’d think Apple Maps would put Interstate markers on their maps. But no, it’s SR 400.

This weekend I powered down my Mac mini and powered up my Windows based gaming computer as part of my typical 30 day challenge. Has Windows come along far enough, and is Microsoft’s Surface line of computers nice enough, to meet my computing needs? When Chris’ Apple Mac Pro (trash can version) could no longer handle his graphic design needs, he opted for a high powered Windows machine that was a third of the price of a modern Apple Mac Pro and he has been delighted with the experience. His biggest struggle with the move has been the different keystrokes in familiar applications (like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Premiere). He even put the release candidate of Windows 11 on his primary machine and it’s been rock solid. He has no complaints and he doesn’t have to juggle between a productivity computer and a gaming computer.

I’m curious to see what the next 30 days bring for my desktop computing experience.

I had to give a software demo at work today. It was software written by me and the rest of the team, and the audience was sizable. The demo went well, I heard back great feedback, and I’d had a great rest of the day.

It’s a good feeling.

I’m sitting at my computer, writing code like a good little geek on a Monday morning at work and the oddest memory flashed across my brain.

Some time in 1982 or 1983 I must have been home from school due to being sick or something and I remembered a game show called “Sale of the Century” and the contestant that day won everything she could possibly win on the show. It was a big deal and all I remembered was that she looked like an older version of Lynda Carter’s Diana Prince (from “Wonder Woman”). I remember her winning everything the game show had to offer and she became a daytime record holder or something.

Not to be deterred by this completely random memory, a quick search via Google revealed that yes, this did happen, it happened in 1983, and the record holder was Barbara Phillips.

The magic of the Internet and other folks like me that remember the craziest things. Hat tip to Hell Yeah! $ale of the Century.

I type for a living. A lot of people type for a living, and in this day and age in the 21st century one should know how to type. A few years ago I saw a fellow co-worker typing out code on their laptop and they did it with two fingers. I don’t know how they typed for a living. I often think of how lucky I am that my mother taught me how to type when I was in fifth grade. “If you’re going to use this typewriter, you should use the right fingers”. So my mother taught me how to type and 40+ years later I can still type between 90 and 110 words per minute, depending on my stamina and the keyboard.

Because I’m what I’ll call a “legacy geek”, I like keyboards with a lot of hefty and a confident response. I’m not a fan of the mushy membrane keyboards that tend to come with PC setups or laptop docking stations these days. And I’m really not a fan of many keyboards found on PC laptops. Interestingly, I never had an issue with the very flawed-by-design Apple “butterfly” keyboards they abandoned a year or two ago; I can fly right along on my husband’s MacBook Pro from that era and he’s never had a hardware failure from a speck of dust falling into the keyboard or something.

A requirement of a keyboard that shall be graced with my fingers is that it has to have a full sized function key row, or at the very least, a decently sized Escape key. As mentioned, I’m a “legacy geek”. In my day to day workflow I still use an editor called vim, which uses what are now considered archaic keystrokes to navigate and otherwise do things in a text editor. It’s not rare to see a document I’ve typed with wwwwww or jjjjjjjj accidentally typed in the code. The “w” in vi or vim is used to move the cursor by word, the j key moves down a line.

Here’s an eight minute tutorial of how vim or vi works

Back to the keyboard.

In addition to having a confident feel and response, I prefer a keyboard that does not have a numeric keypad. I don’t type numbers that much but more importantly, I don’t like reaching over the extra couple of inches to get to my mouse. I like my mouse to be close at hand so I’m not reaching around on my desk. Plus, I just don’t like giving up the desk real estate for the bigger keyboard. So I go with “tenkeyless” keyboards. Except once in a while I want a small keyboard where I can use a numeric keypad.

Enter the Havit Mechanical Wired keyboard. (Link to Amazon). This keyboard features red switches, has a fantastic response feel to it, but more importantly, incorporates a numeric keypad where the usual other navigation keys are located. The keypad layout uses the original IBM PC layout of home-end-insert-del, so it hearkens back to my teenage years and using an IBM PC in the high school business office. I have it on one of my Linux computers and I am thoroughly enjoying the typing experience. It’s still a little loud (the switches are mechanical, after all), but it’s not as loud as my Velocifire keyboards with Brown Switches. Yet, people still know when I’m typing. I don’t know if the neighbors can hear me or not, but the rest of the family definitely knows when I’m typing and sounding productive.

I recommend this keyboard for enthusiasts who like a smaller footprint, but still need a numeric keypad. It’s clicky, but I find it a delight to use.

Today, four civilians plan to launch into orbit aboard a SpaceX capsule. This will be the first all civilian space flight in history. They will orbit Mother Earth for three days before returning home.

This is awesome.

Here’s a link to their website.

Inspiration4 is the world’s first all-civilian mission to orbit. The mission will be commanded by Jared Isaacman, the 38-year-old founder and Chief Executive Officer of Shift4 Payments and an accomplished pilot and adventurer. Named in recognition of the four-person crew that will raise awareness and funds for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, this milestone represents a new era for human spaceflight and exploration.

I decided one of my art deco school clocks would look better in my office, so I cleaned it up, hooked it up, and hung it up. The other clock was quite nice but I like the art deco look of this clock much more. It feels more “me”.

After a week of testing my little Raspberry Pi standing in for a grandfather clock sized master clock, I pulled wire through my office wall and properly installed this 1939 Standard Electric Time Company school clock. The clock never missed one click the entire week. This makes me happy.

We have insulation in every wall of the house. I will not be pulling wire through many more walls and instead will come up with a different plan for the placement of each clock.

A small accomplishment. I am pleased.