Tag: Apple

Cool

I Joined A Cult

It is official. I’m a newly inducted member of a cult. So far they seem pretty harmless, but I’m noticing it’s pretty hard to escape. Another drawback is that they demand a hefty price to be a member. It feels like every time I turn around more money is needed. I am, of course, talking about Apple Computer.

A little background. I worked for Microsoft for a long time. I was an early adopter of Android and did some development work on Android apps in the early days. I was not a fan of Apple. The Apple world was expensive and a ridiculous walled ecosystem that did not play well with others. As an engineer I did not like the fact that access to the OS was mostly inaccessible to the average user. With Windows system access, customization was easy and encouraged. Whatever Apple decided met their “surprise and delight” standard was what you got. Working under the hood was not encouraged. So for the entire time I was at Microsoft, and for quite a bit afterwards, I was decidedly not in the Apple camp.

This was made more complicated by the fact that Mrs Troutdog works for Apple. We’ve been in a technologically split marriage for years. She did her thing and I did mine (computer and phone-wise) and we’ve managed to make it work. But the interesting thing about cults is that they all feel the need to convert you. I’ve endured years of constant little hints to just switch over. Wouldn’t it be easier if we were both on the same system? Oohhh, look how fantastic the new iPhone is! Don’t you want to switch?

But I held out. The Microsoft/Android ecosystem does everything the Apple ecosystem does. Cloud based sharing of data across all devices. A rich app library, etc… I was happy. But after leaving Microsoft, more and more of my friends and family were all Apple. They couldn’t include me in FaceTime sessions. Sharing calendar/email stuff between the platforms is a nightmare. And any video shared in a group message is unviewable by Android – Apple intentionally downres’ it for non Apple devices so it’s unwatchable. Eventually I was the only remaining non-Apple person amongst everyone I know. It was a little lonely.

Six months ago I needed a new desktop machine for video editing. After hours of research I decided to bite the bullet and go Mac Studio. I’ll be the first to admit that their system on a chip is amazing. Performance-wise, blows doors on any PC I could have configured. So that was my first foray into the Apple world. I kept my Android phone and had never even touched an iPad. So even though I had one foot in the Apple world it wasn’t a complete experience. As I got more comfortable with the Mac OS, I did finally tell Mrs Troutdog that when it came time to replace my phone I would switch over to an iPhone to make intra-tech simple.

And sure enough, two days ago my Android phone bricked. Black screen of death. I took a deep breath and we went and got a iPhone. A day and a half of usage and I’ll admit that I like it. Setup and customization was pretty easy. A little awkward with the learning curve and lots of hunting and pecking to try and find settings and such. Apple is not nearly as intuitive as they’d like to think they are. But I did like the intra-machine ecosystem cloud so much I started playing around with an older iPad as well. The three devices do seem to work together more seamlessly than the Microsoft ecosystem did.

So that’s that. I’m in the club. Is there some sort of secret handshake or something? Can other Apple users spot each other in the wild? I think I’m going to go all-in. AirPods, iPad, Watch, Pencil. I will be a walking Apple commercial. Mrs Troutdog is happy now.

But I draw the line at that silly Vision Pro spatial computer thing. I will not sit in my living room, wearing weird looking ski goggles, waving my hands around at invisible icons and looking like a crackhead on a bad mushroom trip. A mans got to know when to say no.

Daily Life

A Weekly Wrap-up

It’s Friday and time for some random thoughts to wrap up the week. Enter at your own risk:

  • If you haven’t seen it, there’s a meme floating around about a wife who asks her husband how often he thinks about the Roman Empire. She’s shocked to find out it’s a daily/weekly thought for him. Take a moment and watch this – it’s hilarious because it’s so true. I’m a once every couple of weeks kinda Roman Empire guy.
  • I’m heading to a tropical island in a few weeks and needed a new swimsuit. Since the boardshorts don’t have a liner, I had to order some sort of swim underwear to keep the parts… well, contained. I don’t know what my Amazon search term was, but I discovered dudes are ordering underwear with padded crotches to, ahem, enhance the bulge. I now fear for the ad suggestions that will pop up for the next month. And no, I didn’t order them.
  • I learned a new term today. Anthroinsulae: human islands — cultures within cultures. The island of Lampedusa, Italy was overrun by 8,000 migrants in 48 hours. We had 9,100 migrants just the other day on our southern border. We’re on track for 200,000+ a month this year. DHS is now referring to them as “freedom runs” when instructing the border patrol on mass releases. If you’re of my age, the country you grew up in is gone. These migrants are not looking to assimilate or integrate into the American culture. See earlier reference to the Roman Empire and decline thereof.
  • We’re about 90 days now from the typical start of the ski season. Unfortunately we’re entering an El Niño phase, which in my part of the world usually means drier and warmer. Is it going to be a bust of ski season? I hope not, I don’t have that many left.
  • Dove soap is having its own Bud Light moment. After watching Disney and Bud Light implode, how does a corporation still green light ad campaigns like this? How did woke become more important than oh, I don’t know, returning profit to shareholders?
  • We’re having some landscaping work done. I’m in awe at how hard these guys work. This week they’ve been going to a different job at 4am, working until 8am and then coming to our place and working until 6 or 7pm. Meanwhile, I change a lightbulb, go to the grocery store, mow the lawn and then need a nap because I’m exhausted. I clearly won’t survive the zombie apocalypse.
  • Speaking of zombies, I watched the first episode of the new Walking Dead/Daryl Dixon spin off series. Meh. I’ll give it a few more episodes. I don’t know who thought having half the characters speak in a heavy French accent that’s hard to understand would be a good idea.
  • Because of the landscape work being done, I spent the last few days researching low voltage lighting systems. Good grief, it’s way more complicated than I imagined. Voltage calculations, length of wire runs, transformer options, LED vs halogen… At this point I may just duct tape some flashlights to the trees and call it good.
  • People are getting fed up with the ridiculous climate activists blocking roads. Unfortunately in this country you just have to sit in your car and take it. I guarantee if you try to move any of them out of the way, you’ll be seeing prison time.
  • Update to the Crocs situation: I am now a convert. Contemplating ordering more colors.
  • Speaking of converts, Mrs Troutdog is a long time Apple person. Apple just announced their new phone and watch, which Mrs Troutdog instantly jumped on. As a brand new iMac user, I expect her to go full court press to get me to dump my Android phone and fully commit to the ecosystem. She already hinted that the watch could be used as a dive watch for the upcoming island trip. I did look, it turns out you have pay for a subscription service to use it as an actual dive computer. I might have to unretire to afford all the new tech.

That’s it for the week. Go out and do something fun. I plan on ruining a good walk by chasing the little white ball around. Probably throw a trip into the backcountry into the mix as well. Might even wear my new camouflage Crocs.

Cool

Let’s Make A List

A couple days ago I posted that I was contemplating allowing myself to get sucked into the Apple ecosystem. I still find it ironic that Apple at one time advertised themselves as the anti-establishment brand. Remember the 1984 super bowl ad by Ridley Scott? The PC back then was still associated with IBM and conformity. Now? Apple is the very picture of conformity. All the cool kids want to be in the massive Apple ecosystem. The edgy, rebellious, hackers are all using PC’s, Android devices, and gasp, Linux based machines. Kids of today have no idea.

Anyway, the rest of this post probably won’t be of interest to most folks, other than a few tech-curious people. I’m going to walk through my thought process on maybe, maybe not switching ecosystems.

First up, my current setup. I “work” in two locations, often for weeks at a time. My main location has my desktop PC. It’s about three years old, reasonably beefy (for its time) and capable of decent video and photo editing. My second location has a very old tablet PC (the very first gen Microsoft Surface. 2 cores and a massive 4 GB of RAM) that has never been capable of anything and finally bit the dust.

Option one, in a perfect world, I’d have a powerful video editing machine at each location so that I’m only carrying an external drive back and forth. That option is too expensive.

Option two is to have a powerful machine with a form factor that I can easily transport back and forth.

Option three is just replace the tablet with something inexpensive and continue to do my video/photo editing in just one location.

Here’s what Apples options look like:

  1. The new Macbook Air 15″. 8 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16GB memory, 512 GB storage, 2 ports. Would not need to buy a monitor. $1,700
  2. Mac Mini. 8 core CPU, 10 core GPU, 16 GB memory, 256 GB storage, 4 ports + HDMI. Will need to purchase at least one monitor. $800
  3. Mac Studio. 12 core CPU, 30 core GPU, 32 GB memory, 512 GB storage, 8 ports + HDMI and SDXC. No monitor needed. $2,000

So my thought process goes like this… Option 1 is clearly the most portable, but I’ve always worked at a “desk” environment. It gives the option to work at a coffee shop, in the backyard, on the couch, etc… but it’s unclear if I’d ever take advantage of that. It’s just not something I’ve ever done.

Option 2 is reasonably portable. Adding a second monitor and keyboard puts the price pretty close to option 1.

Option 3 is clearly the best choice for video editing. But it’s not really portable so I’d have to also buy an inexpensive iPad for location 2 and continue to just edit in one location.

All three options will require buying external drive(s). Apples SSD storage is ridiculously expensive and slow. Additionally, moving to the Apple ecosystem will require buying an iPhone eventually.

So what to do? I think option 3 is out. The Mac Studio is an amazing machine for the money. Maybe someday if I develop a YouTube empire, but probably not realistic for now.

Option 1 feels like it gives the most flexibility. But if I ever decide I want a regular monitor/keyboard experience in both locations, option 2 becomes the most cost-effective choice.

Or maybe… I just get an inexpensive iPad to see if I even like the Apple interface and readdress all this in 2-3 years when my desktop PC is too outdated and/or my existing phone dies?

Analysis paralysis is real my friends. And don’t even get me started on looking for a new office chair…

Cool, Daily Life

It’s All About The Ecosystem

I live in a bifurcated tech family. I worked for Microsoft for much of my career. Mrs Troutdog works for Apple. Somehow, we’ve survived this great tech divide all these years. I will admit that early on I was a bit of a PC snob. As a software engineer, I scoffed at the closed environment of Apple. I laughed at their early attempts to hide bugs and security risks from the users so as not to damage their image. I’d smugly think to myself, any real tech person would want to have access to the inner workings of the machine. And iPads? Please, those were for children and grandmas who only surf the internet looking for recipes.

Time went on and I eventually left the (once) evil empire. My opinion on all things tech have significantly mellowed over time. And Apple, to their credit, have been putting out some serious hardware. A number of my former MS colleagues have gone over to the Apple side of the world.

I don’t have much criticism of Apple these days. Their price points are ridiculously high. They often seem to design products with the sole purpose of making whatever you currently have, instantly obsolete and non-upgradeable. But then again, the diehard Apple fans will happily re-mortgage the house to get the latest and greatest version, so it’s obviously working for them.

At this point in my life, I can honestly say I hold no allegiance to any particular tech platform. I happen to be PC and android based but would happily switch if it made sense. And there’s the problem. Apple has focused on creating a walled garden. An ecosystem that sucks you in and is hard to get in or out of. They don’t play nicely with non-Apple technology. Yes, I can keep my Android phone but I miss out on iCloud syncing, Facetime, etc… For example Mrs Troutdog and I try to share personal calendars, but events coming across from Android to the Apple calendar give her constant errors.

So for me to switch ecosystems, I’d need to change my music service, download new versions of all my software, and switch phones. I have data stored on USB thumb drives that would still require a PC to read. I don’t know if all my little peripherals (keyboards, speakers, monitor, mice, etc…) would be compatible or have to be replaced. None of that would be the end of the world. Just inconvenient and potentially a little costly.

And yet even with all that to consider – drumroll please – I’m seriously considering it.

I have a very old PC tablet that finally went belly-up, so I have to replace it with something. Do I just go get a relatively inexpensive PC based tablet or laptop and call it good? Or do I go all-in and completely switch ecosystems? The problem is that my main machine is a relatively (as of three years ago) beefy PC for video editing. Switching teams would instantly make it a brick.

I spent the morning looking at all the various options Apple has. Wow, there are so many ways to go. Mac Studio and Mac mini. The new MacBook Air 15″ is an amazing machine for its price. The analysis can be paralyzing.

Big bucks to switch everything over now, or spend significantly less money and stay in the PC ecosystem? It’s actually a really hard decision to make. (oh, the first world problems we’re fortunate to have)

Sigh… why doesn’t the tech world play nice together? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could mix and match the best of both worlds? What to do, what to do? Stay tuned.

Daily Life

A Technological Disaster

Why can’t things just be easy? When it comes to technology, things have a way of becoming unnecessarily complicated for me. Which is slightly ironic since I was a tech guy back in the stone age. The issue isn’t that I can’t figure out how to fix things, it’s why do they happen to me in the first place? I had a planned motorcycle ride yesterday (the fifth or sixth on the new ginormous bike) and wanted to make a video and practice some navigation stuff. I shall now entertain you with a list of my technological failures:

  • I couldn’t get the audio on the helmet to GoPro working. It worked before, now it wasn’t. I ended up pulling out all the wires and reconnecting everything which didn’t fix it. After some internet search time I found a GoPro setting that somehow got changed. Audio now working. Time spent, 45 minutes.
  • Camera mount on the handlebars suddenly won’t hold up the camera in the wind. It worked on the previous bike, but not now.
  • I managed to yank out the audio cable for the camera while opening up my visor at the gas station. In a fit of frustration I decided to abandon filming the ride and stuck the camera gear in the tank bag. I decided to focus on learning to use Android Auto with the bikes built in display unit.
  • Ten minutes down the road, Android Auto disconnects. I pull over and wiggle the connection to the phone and it reconnects. My phone is old and the USB C connection is loose. It’s a known issue, but I’ve been reluctant to get a new phone since I’ve spent a truckload of money already this year. I came prepared for this and used some rubber bands to keep the connection tight.
  • Twenty minutes later, Android Auto disconnects again. Pull over and this time my Bluetooth headset powered off for some unknown reason. Turn it back on and reconnect.
  • Another disconnect. Pull over and the rubber bands both broke. Wiggle the connection and back in business.
  • Another disconnect. This time the phone overheated and powered off. Turns out the tank bag has a clear plastic top where the phone sits. That clear plastic acts like a magnifying glass and the phone was burning hot.

At this point I gave up. Fortunately I knew where I was going, so just concentrated on enjoying the ride. But why does everything have to be so difficult? Is it just me or does everyone face these challenges? On top of these things, it turns out that neither Android Auto or Apple Carplay are able to utilize a custom route. This is important since they navigate based upon the fastest route. Great for commuting, but I don’t want to take the fastest route, I want to enjoy the backroads and roads less traveled. Otherwise, how am I going to find the worlds largest ball of string? Very frustrating since I don’t want to have to buy a separate GPS. I suppose that’s the purpose of these shakedown rides – to get everything dialed in before I go somewhere unknown to me. But would it be too much to ask for something to just work, first time?

  • Yosemite National Park to Install Auto Belay System on El Capitan. Bravo Climbing.com. For a minute you had me. First day of April and all.
  • We started re-watching the Sopranos from season 1. We watched in real time when it originally came out and I hadn’t seen it since. What a fantastic series. I honestly don’t think you could make that series today. Someone would get all butt-hurt about something and protest.
  • Facebook and Instagram have taken down Trump’s interview with daughter-in-law Lara. FB told Lara Trump that “content posted in the voice of President Trump is not currently allowed on our platforms (including new posts with President Trump speaking) and will be removed”. Think about that for a minute. One of the largest media platforms on the planet decided they will censor a former sitting president. If you had told me that a few years ago I would have laughed. What’s frightening is how many people get most of their news from FB. No bias there. I suppose it’s ok. Words are scary. He might incite the bugaloo bois to jump out of the bushes and, you know, do some insurrection or something.
  • Ya’ll have a great weekend. I’m off for a three day work stent, so I’ll be tired and grumpy. Fingers crossed for warm weather and no wind next week.

Song of the day: Alabama 3 Woke up This Morning (The Sopranos Mix)

Cool, Daily Life, Motivation

Chapters In A Book
  • Have you read many really good books with only one chapter? Probably not. Those chapters serve the same purpose as scene changes in a good movie. Some are longer or shorter than others, but at some point the scene needs to change or your mind wanders and you get bored. It takes extraordinary skill to keep a long running movie scene with lots of dialog interesting. Quentin Tarantino comes to mind. Get it right and it’s brilliant. Get it wrong and it’s a 40% on rotten tomatoes. Life is pretty much like that. Hopefully you get to the end with many interesting chapters. What amazes me is how many people are afraid to turn to the next chapter. They cling to the current chapter, trying to prolong it, hoping it will remain just as good as when it started. I think the trick to being content with your life is knowing when to turn the page. Remember way back in junior high and high school? Every new event in your life was hyper exaggerated. Your clique no longer wanting to eat at the same lunch table, or having to change schools was earth shatteringly devastating. I think in part it was because at that young age you couldn’t fathom that your life will be filled with many chapters, so you desperately tried to hold on to a particular moment and pray it wouldn’t change. It’s funny how some people never evolve past that. They cling to their current chapter, prolonging the page turn until long after the dialog and scene becomes stale. Of course you don’t want to go too far the other way – life is not a race to the end. Speed reading may get you there faster, but did you really appreciate what you read? As you get older and wiser, hopefully you learn to appreciate the good and bad chapters in your life, but not dwell on them. There’s always another chapter, as long as you’re willing to turn the page.
  • Sticking with the same theme, one of my three regular readers wrote some wise words the other day about our working lives. Essentially there are three milestones in your career; the first job; course changes; and the best – ending it. Permanent summer vacation! Worth reading the full comment.
  • Last year when about 220,000 people had died from COVID-19, Joe Biden said that “anyone who’s responsible for that many deaths should not remain as president of the United States of America.” He also said that they would have a plan ready on day one to combat the virus. Well, there’s been 100,000+ deaths since he took office. Let’s see if I’m doing this right – Joe Biden is now responsible for one fifth of all Covid deaths. Sigh. The political gotcha game is tiring.
  • Speaking of political narratives, Trump said in an interview yesterday, “I said, I think you should 10,000… I definitely gave the number of 10,000 national guardsmen. I think you should have 10,000 of the national guard ready. They took that number, from what I understand, and they gave it to the people at the Capitol – which is controlled by Pelosi – and I heard they rejected it because it didn’t look good.” So if true, and Trump actually requested the national guard and Pelosi rejected it, that should be a pretty damming blow to the speaker. Unfortunately the press won’t pursue it, so there’s really no point. It’s very disheartening to constantly see how one-sided the public narrative is. For example, the same press that spent the last year fawning over their media darling Cuomo, are now being very reluctantly dragged into exposing him for the asshat he really is. The sad reality about the media is that they are only pursuing it because they have no choice after championing the #MeToo movement. Sucks when one of your own gets caught up in it. CNN posted about halfway down their home page “Cuomo says he’s ‘sorry’ for comments and agrees to independent attorney to review accusations”. Wow. There’s a blistering condemnation.
  • I’m very frustrated with technology. It’s looking like neither Android Auto or Apple Car Play support following a custom route. For example, with Google Maps or Bing Maps I can create a custom route with waypoints, markers, etc… save it as .gpx file and download it to a GPS or simply follow it via Google maps. Android Auto and Car Play only allow you to navigate to a single destination – which will always try to route you the shortest distance. This does me no good since I want to travel via byways primarily. Travel by Interstate and you’ll miss the worlds largest ball of string, the Emu museum, and all the cool ghost towns. It’s like they’ve designed navigation solely for people commuting and Uber drivers. My search for the right navigation system continues…
  • This is a hilarious HP ad from 2015. Pre Covid, working from home, Zoom meetings, custom backgrounds, etc… Could you imaging going back and telling them just how prescient they were? I’m not sure even they’d believe you.

Song of the day: Alesso – Nillionaire (Original Mix)

Cool, Daily Life

Innovation And The Road Trip
  • On a recent two day road trip, it dawned on me just how behind the technology curve the automobile industry is. With the notable exception of Tesla, the interior of the modern vehicle hasn’t changed in a decade. For the most part every car still uses the same knobs, buttons, and analog gages they’ve always used. The most aggravating lack of progress has been around the phone. The modern smart phone has been in existence for 14 years. The smartphone controls everything in your life – navigation, music, your wallet, contacts, and communication. It’s a required piece of equipment for virtually every human being in the modern world. And what have today’s vehicles done to integrate this vital piece of hardware everyone uses? Nothing. They’ve added a USB port. Ever single driver today is using their phone for directions and communicating while driving. And you still have to go buy a third party plastic phone holder of some sort with a suction cup to mount somewhere. Cities are still having to pass “hands free” laws because making a phone call still isn’t nicely integrated into the vehicle. How hard could it possibly be to design a phone holder and charger that’s a seamless part of the dash? And as Tesla has so capably proven, there is zero reason why vehicles can’t have a smart screen display showing every possible bit of data about your car as well as, gasp, interfacing with your phone. Ignoring the electric part, Tesla continues to highlight what dinosaurs the auto industry have become.
  • Speaking of electric, I started the series “Long Way Up” with Ewan McGregor. It’s a continuation of the classic Long Way Round and Long Way Down series of long distance motorcycle trips. The twist this time is that they are on all electric motorcycles traveling from the tip of South America to Los Angeles. I’m only on episode three, but spoiler alert, it’s not going very well. Let’s just put it this way… they have a giant truck following them with a massive diesel generator to keep them charged. As I said in a previous post, we have a ways to go with electric charging infrastructure.
  • And while on the subject of motorcycles and phones, I have a decision to make. My new motorcycle has Apple Car Play integrated into it’s touch screen dash (which is more modern than most vehicles produced today). The problem is that I have never entered the Apple ecosystem. For whatever reason Honda chose not to support Android Auto. So for me to fully utilize all the fancy wiz-bang features on the motorcycle, I have to switch to an iPhone. Except, breaking news, literally just a day ago Honda announced support for Android Auto starting in Europe. So, do I hold out for eventual integration or switch over to Apple today? Sigh, why can’t everything just work?
  • Who knew you can order completely customizable Oreo cookies?
  • A violent BLM protest/riot injured two police officers in NYC yesterday. The mob also attacked and injured a journalist because the crowd started shouting “he’s a cop”. I’m not clear on the state of things now – do we still care about riots, or is that not a thing anymore?
  • The recall Gavin Newsom has obtained enough signatures to require a recall vote. This should be interesting.
  • We’ve had a pretty mild winter so far, with nothing but a bit of rain. I was super excited to get the new motorcycle out for it’s first ride. And… we’ve gotten 3+ inches of snow the last few days. I suppose I’ll have to spend my day planning out trips for this summer. I think the goal is to see how many quirky roadside attractions I can visit.

Song of the day: Joan Jett – Bad Reputation (Live)