I was looking for a photo from my heavy blogging days and stumbled across this video from nine-ish years ago. It’s me dancing around the studio and doing some mixing on my Apple PowerBook G4.
Here’s the video that was featured on that post. The two songs in the mix:
“I’m Gonna Get You” by Lonnie Gordon
“Don’t You Love Me” by the 49ers (sampling Jody Watley)
I keep saying that someday I’m going to attend WWDC, or the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. This is a yearly event where developers for Apple’s various platforms get together and Apple shares with the developers as to why Apple has the greatest platform in the world to develop for. They have workshops, product announcements, platform upgrade announcements and sneak peeks and basically a great opportunity for software developers from all over the world to get together and geek out on Apple products together.
Yesterday Apple kicked off WWDC 2017 with their annual Special Event, in which they took the opportunity to announce a few new products and their planned upgrades to their operating systems (macOS for the Macintosh, iOS for iPhone and iPad, etc.)
As much as I wretch about Apple and their Quality Control practices of late, after exploring other options that are out there I’m still fully committed to the Apple line of products for a myriad of reasons. When compared to other platforms, I find that Apple’s approach to computing works best for my needs. The fit and finish of their devices meet my expectations (long gone are my days of using cheap, plastic technology that breaks down in less than a year). And, probably most importantly, Apple is not funded by ad revenue that is gleaned from my data. In the wide scope of things I don’t really care if Search Company X cares if brush my teeth with Colgate or Crest but I absolutely, positively despise advertising, especially ads embedded in software I’m trying to use. Forget about web pages that have dancing ads or autoplaying videos about Athlete’s Foot or whatever. I am always willing to pay that little bit extra to keep the ads out of my computing experience.
Apple’s experience is the best way to accomplish that task.
I totally get that there is a wide array of folks out there that absolutely despise Apple and everything that they stand for. I’ve heard everything from “they force you to upgrade every year” (they don’t, in fact, Apple’s MacBook Pro line usually lasts longer than anything belched out by one of the PC Notebook companies), “I shouldn’t have to pay for a grounded spaceship in the middle of Northern California” (honestly, I hope the new Apple Campus becomes a beacon of how environmentally friendly a company, and any person, should be these days) and “Pffff, who cares, Android has been doing that forever” (which I think is wonderful. I’ve used Android before, it feels like a second rate, kitchen-sink operating system to me that could fall apart at any given moment, but if it works for you, use it. I’m not going to evangelize why you shouldn’t use Android, that’s your business).
The Special Event yesterday has a bunch of announcements that pretty much followed the script predicted by the rumors that have been floating about. iPhone and iPads will get iOS 11. Macs will get macOS High Sierra, which sounds like it’s going to follow the same precedent that Mac OS X Leopard followed years ago when they added refinements and tweaks to Leopard to give us Snow Leopard. Getting totally geeky, macOS will get a new filesystem that will immensely speed up file operations on the hard drive and as a person that copies a lot of video that’s a very cool thing. Apple also announced the new HomePod (not completely a fan of the name) which brings Siri to the smart speaker paradigm currently led by Amazon with the Echo and Google with Google Home. It’s pricey but apparently it has amazing sound. Siri is built in. Everyone tells me how awful Siri is and that it’s worthless but I use Siri all the time, especially to control our Philips Hue lights when Amazon Echo’s Alexa responds with “I can’t find the device you’re looking for” after every other request. Siri always knows how to turn off the lights on dining room hutch. Alexa can turn them on but forgets how to turn them off.
The two standout features that really grabbed my attention had to do with mobile and are both in iOS 11. The first one is safety oriented and is called “Do Not Disturb While Driving” mode. Basically, iOS 11 now has the ability to detect while you’re driving and will put your phone in a Do Not Disturb mode, replying automatically to messages on your behalf indicating what you’re doing. The screen will remain dark and when you get to your destination everything will unlock and you can catch up on your activity then. You can build a VIP list that allows select users to reply to the alert with “Urgent” and it will force your iPhone to display the message.
I think this is exactly what they driving American public needs in a smartphone right now and I am eager to use it.
The second update to iOS 11 that really got my attention was the vast improvements to using iOS on the iPad. Apple made great strides in making the iPad Pro more of a content generation device and less of a content consumption device. The addition of Drag and Drop to the interface, along with a more familiar Mac-like dock along the bottom is a welcomed enhancement. I have always wanted to use my iPad Pro as my primary computing device, especially when traveling, but I’ve always felt boxed in by the experience. While not perfect, iOS 11 takes a hearty step forward in making this possible, at least within my realm, and I’m eager to try it out.
The hardware upgrades announced were a welcomed addition to the event, and one that should calm folks screaming about Apple being behind the curve on processing power in their MacBook Pro line, at bat for a bit. One of the hardware announcements, the new iMac Pro coming in December, really grabbed my eye. This is an iMac designed to be a powerhouse of a machine and to be used in professional environments (photo editing, graphic design, video creation, etc). It’s pricey but the specs are out of this world. And the best part it, while it is amazing, it’s NOT a replacement for the Mac Pro, which is going to be updated in 2018.
It also comes in Space Gray with all new Space Gray accessories. It looks bad ass.
All in all, I’m a very happy and content Apple Geek. I purchased a couple of things yesterday (tell my husband to calm down as I didn’t spend a great deal of money at all) and I’m looking forward to watching some of the workshops at WWDC 2017 online in my spare time this week.
During my Jeep adventures this weekend I had this song cranked up as I was bumping around on a nearly non-existent road.
Here’s Agnetha Fältskog with “I Won’t Let You Go”. You probably recognize Agnetha from ABBA.
This picture of me was taken just shy of the turn of the century. Earl snapped this photo; we were sitting on the shores of Lake Erie in Cleveland, Ohio.
This photo sits on our dresser in the area that acts as Earl’s nightstand. I glance at it from time to time when I’m getting ready for the day. This morning I was selecting today’s pair of underwear and thought back to life at the time this photo was taken.
If you think about it, it’s rather startling as to how much as changed in our lives with the great leaps of technology. This photo was taken back in the days when we relied on our film cameras. We’d fill up a roll of film with memories and take the film to be developed. There was much excitement when we picked up our pictures and looked at the results. Memories were relived. The ability to snap a photo, see the results and share the snapshot with the world, all within the span of five seconds, has kind of made the exercise a little less special to me. When I was out on my Jeep ride yesterday, some of the photos of the solar farm were taken with my trusty Canon digital camera. I didn’t see the results until I transferred the photos from the camera to my MacBook. This added a minute bit of anticipation as to how the photos really turned out. It was a moment of excitement.
I look at myself in this photo and try to remember where my head was at this time. I was very excited about technology. I wasn’t too plugged into politics; Bill Clinton was president at the time and I knew that there was a lot of shenanigans going on with the whole Lewinsky thing and that the Republicans were getting much crankier than I remembered them being when growing up. I watched CNN once in a great while. I read the news on various sites through our dial-up connections. It would be a couple of years before I wrote my first blog entry.
My biggest takeaway from my musings was that I was much less encumbered by the weight of the world. I still felt the need to right injustice in the world but the world didn’t weigh so heavy on my mind all the time. I’m trying to decide if this is a result of tuning into the constant stream of noise on social media/24 hour news/etc or if I’m just growing old and I’m just following the natural path of an American male in his quest to keep those damn kids off his lawn.
I’m making an attempt to not add noise to the chaos online as my 30 day personal growth challenge for the month of June. If I have something to say, I want it to be a positive contribution to the world. I don’t want fame, I don’t want ad revenue, I don’t want notoriety and I certainly don’t want to base my self-worth or value on the number of likes or comments or responses I get to a contribution.
As I come up on the last year of my 40s, while it’s natural that I’m going be older, I want to consciously be wiser without all the baggage of today’s chaos attached to it. I think that could be the best positive change I can make in my life today.
And honestly, I wouldn’t mind bringing Henleys back into my wardrobe again.
With Earl out of town in Chicago this weekend (moving things into our storage unit and looking for more places to live) I found myself with a little time on my hands today. I originally planned on flying this afternoon but winds were gusting to nearly 30 MPH so it was better if I stayed on the ground. I decided to go driving along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario in the Jeep.
I enjoy following the “old version” of state routes. These are easily identifiable: the original routing usually splits off at a curve. The state route follows a very straight and wide alignment but the original route veers off and then comes back to the state route farther up the road. I found one such routing today along NY Route 3 in southern Jefferson County. The original routing had this lovely sign.
This presented me with a challenge for the Jeep. I hadn’t been off-roading in a while, so I followed the remains of this road, which ended up taking me through some farmland, closer to the shore of the lake and then ending abruptly at the remnants of a bridge. Along the way there were places where I could splash the Jeep in the mud.
This is what was left of the road at one point.
I did come across a scenic view of a tributary from Sandy Creek that flows into Lake Ontario.
I was all by myself in the middle of nowhere and it was quite peaceful. I had a lot of fun off roading for a bit. A highly recommended exercise.
Has society become so unpredictable that we can’t be trusted with a spoon or knife without precautions?
Over the past couple of years solar farms have been appearing across some of the local landscape in our county. They are especially prevalent around the county buildings near the old county airport.
I’m happy to see this type of growth in our region, as there’s a lot of open space that is being used with this clean energy generation. If Earl and I still lived on the big swath of land we owned back in the early 2000s, I’d probably be pushing for a solar farm of some sort on our land.
While I kind of understand the community resistance to wind farms, I really don’t see why folks have fits about solar farms. Back when the Paris Accord was signed back in 2005, some of the reasoning as to why solar farms are bad for us were baffling. A retired science teacher in North Carolina was concerned that the solar panels would divert the sun away from vegetation. She claimed the solar panels would retard photosynthesis. The vegetation around the solar farms in this area are thriving. Perhaps she just wanted to throw out the word “photosynthesis” to prove to the town council that she was a scientific genius. She also claimed that no one could tell her that these panels didn’t cause cancer. So much for an open mind.
There have also been claims that the panels will suck all of the energy out of the sun and burn it out. My only response to this, “and these people vote”.
There are efforts to build solar roadways elsewhere in the world. Basically, pavement would be replaced with solar panels which can also have LED lighting embedded in them. These panels would be wired to cabling in raceways along the roadway, which in turn would be tied into the local power grid. Imagine, all that asphalt replaced with solar panels. How awesome would that be? No more worries about an eyesore in a nearby field!
Another great idea is the addition of solar canopies to parking lots. In a previous job, when I would visit an office outside of Dallas, Texas, the biggest complaint from the local folks was that the new company building did not have a parking garage. Their vehicles were sitting outside, baking in the August Texas heat. Imagine if a relatively inexpensive parking lot canopy made of solar panels was installed over the area. Cars in the shade and electric power generation in one swoop. This would even benefit us in the northeast. Snow off the car in the winter while providing electric power for the surrounding area.
We can have such a bright future if, as a society, we stop clinging to the past of young, fairly ignorant technology and keep moving innovation forward. Both wind and sun are an unlimited source. Being part of the Paris Climate Accord, no matter how “symbolic” it appeared to be, was a positive step in the right direction.
We need to focus on building a brighter, cleaner future. Stagnant thoughts and ideas will never get us anywhere. We have a future to build. As a world, let’s all build that future together.
There’s been a lot of talk over the past 48 hours about Climate Change. I’ve heard also sorts of people debate as to what is happening with Climate Change on a global scale, its impact on the economy, who is responsible for Climate Change and whether the climate is even changing or not. Many believe that Climate Change is part of a cycle and that the Earth will take care of itself. Scientists believe that humans are having a definite negative impact on the climate and we may be mucking it up to the point of very dire events over this century.
Of course, Trump announced yesterday that the United States will be pulling out of the Paris Agreement, an effort initiated on our behalf by the Obama Administration in 2015, because he feels it doesn’t give the United States a fair advantage on the global stage. Sometimes being a leader isn’t a fair game.
Participation in the Paris Agreement is completely voluntary. Canceling the United States’ participation in this agreement is symbolic at best. Hopefully, Trump spent too much of his political capital with this latest distraction stunt to further erase any hopes of him being re-elected for a second term in 2020. Realistically I doubt that he’ll make it to 2018 in the Oval Office, let alone 2020. Though, admittedly I have underestimated the stupidity of the general population and I will probably continue to do so. Optimism and all that.
The Maple Ridge Wind Farm can generate power for about 140,000 homes. With 195 Vesta turbines placed over 75 square miles of land in Lewis County, the wind farm has an installed output of 321 megawatts of power. The wind farm surrounds some farm land of relatives on the paternal side of my family. It’s about 45 miles north of our home. With all the talk about renewable energy this week I went up and parked the Jeep in the Visitors’ Center parking lot, listening to the wind turn the turbine situated closest to the center.
Admittedly, the turbines are large and definitely a part of the landscape. There’s no escaping them, so I understand why folks would be hesitant to live near these fairly recent additions to the Tug Hill Plateau. But looking at the bright side, there’s no smog, no toxins being released into the air and no threat of a nuclear meltdown.
Just the whisper of clean energy being produced by a renewable resource. Somewhere nearby, 140,000 homes were able to light up their evening because of these guys doing their thing with the wind.
And I find that to be absolutely amazing.
Let’s keep the momentum moving forward. Even if we don’t have to do it, let’s want to make our planet, our only home, the cleanest it can be. Let’s not be selfish.
Let’s give more than we take.
From one of the greatest shows of our generation, “The West Wing”. God I miss intelligent television that still entertained. I’m a not a lowest common denominator.
Please take a moment to read the annotations/fact checks against Trump’s speech yesterday when he announced that the United States will be withdrawing from the Paris Agreement.
The man is either a psychopathological liar or he has absolutely no idea of what he is talking about or any grip on reality in the world. He just spews nonsense.
Fact check, people. Fact check.
Trump’s Speech On Paris Climate Agreement Withdrawal, Annotated
h/t to Steve Inskeep from NPR.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
Weird? Eccentric!