Geek

So, this is typewriter mode on IA Writer on my iPad Pro. The editor is clean and simple and best enjoyed with some breezy, easy music in noise cancelling headphones while one is composing their latest missive.

Is that the correct word, missive?

I like idea of a digital typewriter, especially when paired with a mechanical keyboard reminiscent of the 1980s IBM Model M keyboard or something equally poundy.

The only issue with my Velocifire mechanical keyboard is the spacebar has a certain rattle that I don’t enjoy. I need to figure that out. Or, I need to buy a new keyboard, something that would not please my husband. He doesn’t understand these things.

I’m typing away and acting like this is going to be a blog entry. It’s more exciting than “Hello, World”. And it’s much more exciting than typing out the script for an American test of the Emergency Alert System. I can do that by memory, you know, because 30 years ago it was my voice that recorded that for the group of radio stations I worked at. My claim to fame.

I really miss dot matrix printers, especially in the retail world. When we purchased our new vehicle last weekend, the finance manager processed all the paper work using pre-printed forms fed through a dot matrix printer designed for that sort of thing. It was earlier technology magic that has no need for replacement; it does what it needs to do it and it does it well.

Restaurants still use dot matrix printers as well because the thermal printed tickets would be rendered useless by the heat of your typical kitchen. When you place your order at the counter of a fast food restaurant, to hear it print out on a printer in the kitchen is music to my ears.

Can you imagine if retail establishments still had to use dot matrix printers today? No longer would CVS receipts be measured in feet with useless marketing messages. Kohl’s cashiers couldn’t write on the receipts with their fingernails. We wouldn’t be bombarded with surveys and coupons and the like.

It’s worth the screech of the dot matrix printhead and the challenge of threading a roll of receipt paper between the ribbon cartridge and the platen.

It’s a rainy Saturday morning so of course I am settled in on the couch to watch an episode of “Shazam!”, the first half of the “The Shazam/Isis Hour” from 1975. I never missed an episode when I was a youngster.

Today’s episode was from season two, episode two, and probably the first episode featuring John Davey as Captain Marvel. Jackson Bostwick played Captain Marvel in season one and in the first episode of season two, but was released from the production when he didn’t come in for filming. It was later revealed he was dealing with an injury from a stunt the day before, as he did all his own stunts as Captain Marvel.

I always preferred John Davey in role, probably because of his strong jaw and handsome good looks. Plus, he had a fairly heavy beard (even though he was clean shaven) and even at age 7 I found that quite handsome.

The episode “Debbie” included a moral review tag at the end of the show, like all episodes of “Shazam” and “The Secrets Of Isis”. In “Debbie” we learn that sometimes our parents exert their authority as an expression of their love. The moral tags were definitely a strong contributor to my moral foundation.

I’ve mentioned before that as part of my focused interest in “all things connected”, I find power lines to be absolutely fascinating. Like many things modern, the steel “unipole” designs we see being erected in the 21st century don’t interest me as much as the high voltage installations from the early 20th century.

I believe these 115kv pylons date to the early 20th century, probably before 1925. Larger than newer counterparts, this particular design can only be found in the former Niagara-Mohawk Power Corporation region of New York State, specifically in the area around the eastern shore of Lake Ontario and the northern suburbs of Syracuse.

While making my way through the workday today I decided to throw on a Youtube video or two. I’ve been in a nostalgic mood lately. I ended up dialing up a 1947 film which was basically a 30 minute infomercial for an electric range by Westinghouse.

In this film, a couple has invited their rich uncle over to convince him to help pay for their daughter’s tuition at the community college. They’re dependent on cooking the perfect meal for him, and when their old oven door blows off, their neighbor comes to the rescue with her new electric range by Westinghouse.

A special nod to the uncle’s nurse play by Margaret Hamilton, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West.

I really enjoy these old presentations. People dressed nicer, folks seemed friendlier, and the appliances they’re showing off are built to last a generation. And the knobs on the stove are real knobs with a color indicator as to the heat setting for the burner! What will they think of next!

You can be sure … if it’s a Westinghouse.

So it’s been 10 days since my friend Chris gave me a computer he was intending on sending off to the recycling center. The computer in question is a Microsoft Surface Laptop 2. The specs on this machine are impressive. I’ve been running Ubuntu Linux 22.04.3 LTS since obtaining the laptop. The experience has been very good, in fact, it’s been an unexpected pleasure.

Now, because of my history with Apple products I tend to compare today’s computer hardware to that released by Apple. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 is dang close to the MacBook Air experience. The hardware is light to carry, the display is gorgeous, and I really like the fabric covered keyboard area.

I usually stick to LTS, or Long Term Support, releases of Ubuntu because it’s usually the most stable. 22.04.3 LTS has not disappointed in any way. I needed to do a couple of things to modify the experience, but that mostly based on personal preferences. For example, I like my “dock” to be along the right hand of the screen, regardless of the operating system I’m working with. If I can change the default fonts of the interface I usually change it to something like “GE Inspira“.

This experience thus far has been flawless and I’m enjoying the computer very much. Not bad for a computer destined for the recycling center.

If you’re looking to give new life to old equipment, I highly recommend Linux, especially Ubuntu Linux. It’s not overly fiddly and the paradigm presented for the user experience feels familiar.

I recently picked up an analog wall clock from a school in North Dakota. It’s rare for these clocks to be on ebay these days, because the Lathem Time Clock Company didn’t make their “Airtime” line of clocks for very long. These clocks are controlled wirelessly from a little master clock I have elsewhere in the house. The master clock pulls in the clock signal from the Atomic Clock in Colorado and rebroadcasts the correct time to all compatible clocks. As far as I can tell, only Lathem Airtime clocks are compatible with this particular system.

Lathem had a few different styles of clocks available in the series, including a digital clock that I had hanging in this space prior to today, and a solar powered model that boosted its battery power by ambient light in a room.

The whole thing is very clever. And my family is happy I haven’t pulled wires through all the walls to power an older style clock system.

I’ve been working on rebuilding my Flight Simulator rig this weekend. Using monitors that were destined for the recycle bin, I decided to configure everything into a bit more of a panoramic flight experience.

My flight simulator software of choice is X-Plane 12. In the past I’ve run this on my Linux gaming desktop, but Linux didn’t play well with so many monitors. Instead of diving into why that was turning out to be such a pain, I decided to just put Windows 11 back on the computer. Things are now configured and working well.

I have a monitor stand coming for the monitor on the left as shown in the photo below. This will bring it up to the same level as the other two main monitors. I’m working on tweaking X-Plane 12 to get things just the way I like them and then I’ll start my flights this week.

Generally I don’t really enjoy flight simulators, as I’m always trying to figure out what makes them tick. However, it’s good to practice instrument approaches and get a feel for airports I’m not familiar with. I look forward to plenty of hours on this new setup.

My friend Chris offered me a Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 that he had destined for the recycle bin. Apparently the unit had an issue with Windows and he thought I might have fun installing Linux on it to give it a whirl.

Giving devices a second lease on life is right up my alley.

The laptop arrived today and I have successfully installed Ubuntu Linux 22.04 LTS (Long Term Support) on the device. One would think it wouldn’t be an easy thing installing Linux on a device made by Microsoft but the experience was mostly painless.

I’m writing this blog entry on the laptop.

This is my first time messing around with a Surface Laptop. The build quality is very reminiscent of Apple’s MacBook Air line. I like the cloth-like covering of the keyboard and dare I say it, the keyboard on this Surface Laptop exceeds the keyboard on my M2 MacBook Air.

It was very kind of Chris to offer me this machine for tinkering. It keeps my geek juices going, and that keeps me in my happy place.

You’ll notice the display is quite reflective.

Over the weekend I used a little bit of saved up money to purchase a new watch band for my Apple Watch. I’ve had my eye on the Braided Solo Loop and decided to make the purchase while we were in Las Vegas.

I asked the kind Apple store representative if the band would stretch over time. She said for the most part it shouldn’t stretch, but it might stretch a little bit after putting it on for the first time. Apple has one try bands of this type on for size before making a purchase, so we went through a couple of bands for sizing and I found a band that felt comfortable.

Two days later I’m not really enjoying this band that much. After 40 hours or so of wear my watch already feels loose. It’s not going to fall off or anything, but it does feel like the watch is sliding around a bit more than I enjoy. I switched back to one of my older bands this morning and things feel a bit more normal. Perhaps I’ll try the new band again over the weekend or something.

I’ve been on the fence about how I feel about my Apple Watch in general for the past several weeks. It’s starting to feel extraneous to me. I have purposely shut off the vast majority of notifications because they’re just annoying. I work around some of this by using Apple’s “Focus” modes baked into their infrastructure.

I’m likely going to continue using my Apple Watch until it is no longer a viable gadget but I don’t know that I’m going to buy another Apple Watch to replace it when that day comes. I miss the look of a classic wrist watch and I definitely don’t need the constant stream of data coming to my wrist that I once thought I needed.

I just don’t know if I’m going to use that new band I purchased. We’ll see if it gets too stretchy over time.