Darren

Honestly, the base level M1 mini is still one hell of a computer. I’m typing this on one right now, complete with only 8gb RAM, and it hasn’t yet felt in any way underpowered.

Encoded some flac files to m4a with XLD this morning. 16 files totalling 450mb; it took 10 seconds to complete. With my work flows I can’t imagine needing much more power than that.

it felt more like what you’d expect from a labor-of-love indie game

I thought that too. It was like a long cutscene and I loved it.

If only the goal of the tech firms was to make the world better while making enough money to achieve this, rather than their goal being to make as much shareholder value as possible while ekeing out improvements on a schedule that fits their need to maximise profits.

This past month has felt like two years.

I was thinking about this the other day, while loading music onto my modded iPod. If I could go back in time and stick a pin in tech growth, it would be 2006, before the iPhone came along. Don’t get me wrong, I think the explosion in smartphones that came after the first iPhone is broadly good and has the ability to be democratising. But that’s not really what shook out.

The world in 2006 had digital cameras and small, portable music players. We had SMS for easily staying in touch with each other, and we did have smartphones - just not as smart as they are now. From a communication perspective, we mostly had what we needed. Hell, by 2006 3G connections were pretty universal, so we could do video calling if we had a phone that supported it. Having a bunch of devices that all did specific things meant that we spread our reliance around a number of companies. Now, with our camera, MP3 player, computer, and communication device all being controlled by one company, if that company turns to shit we have to jump to a less shitty firm, but we have to abandon all of the conveniences to which we’ve grown accustomed.

As someone who recently jumped from 15 years of iOS to GrapheneOS, this last one is particularly painful.

And sure, everything has gotten a lot faster since then, but there’s a part of me that kind of enjoys the inconvenience of slower, finicky hardware that sometimes needs a nudge in the right direction.

Oh, you also work with my chatty manager?

I’ve been using Moshidon. One day I’ll find an app as good as Ivory on iOS, but in the meantime Moshidon is fine.

If I can shoot rabbits Then I can shoot fascists

“There’s something in the air” bellows a grinning TIm Apple, before letting rip an almighty clothbuster.

I have a Brother printer at work that’s old enough that I don’t have a single thumb drive small enough to work with it. Haven’t tried in a while, but iirc it tops out at 8gb and the smallest I have is 32gb.

But it works fine over the network, so I’ll just carry on ignoring the firmware update it’s been begging me to install for two years.

Safari + AdBlock + Vinegar makes for a great YouTube experience.

That said, Freetube on my Pixel is wonderful.

I had my 13 mini for two years, and in that time I never once felt like the battery was on the way out. At worst it would be around 20% when I went to bed.

I had a 13 mini until a month ago. It’s one hell of a phone, and honestly, I’d still be using it if iPhones didn’t keep their value so well and Apple weren’t such a shit company.

I re-glued the rubber pad on the side of my mouse the other day. It’s been wonderful not having to continually reposition it because the glue had broken down to the point that it slid about.

10/10

There’s a tiny part of me that’s willing to allow that the people voting for him in 2016 just wanted to make their protests heard. Even though he was very, very clear who he is and what he stands for, people were struggling and made themselves heard in the shittiest possible way.

But the people who voted him in again, knowing exactly how it’s going to shake out could all drop dead at once and I wouldn’t shed a tear. Fuck every one of those cunts.