[Yes, most of these are affiliate links. But I think we know each other well enough by now that you understand I wouldnāt give a dishonest review of something in an attempt to make pennies off your click. I honestly donāt remember the last time I had an Amazon Affiliate payout.]
NOMAD Stand One MagSafe Dock
This thing looks so sleek on my desk, and works way better than the old Qi charging pad I was using. StandBy mode is pretty sweet too.
Itās great for the iPhone mini and has saved my bacon a few times (especially while hiking), but probably not worth it for bigger phones. Because of all the special sauce it gets, I canāt believe Apple discontinued it without a replacement!
Actually, I canāt tell you much about them because I havenāt installed them yet. I was so stoked to get these and use them to train up for ice climbing using my actual ice axe shafts, but then the weather turned cold and I canāt see the point of swapping my ice picks for them since Iām probably just going to start climbing real ice again soon.
A ridiculously expensive jacket that I could only afford because of my steep employee discount in our gear shop, but I canāt deny that itās my new favorite jacket. Itās so lightweight and svelte while being completely waterproof that I donāt mind carrying it around as an extra layer just in case of bad weather.
After wearing just the one Alpine Loop band for my Apple Watch Ultra for an entire year, I was pretty excited to have a second option. Somehow, itās even more comfortable than the previous king-of-comfort, the Sport Loop bands, while also being more secure on the wrist.
Iāve had more need for charging bigger devices in the car, and my old no-name, off-brand 5W charger couldnāt keep up. This one can deliver 30W and doesnāt worry me that it has feeble innards that will either fry my electronics or catch on fire.
Iāve been a big fan of 3-in-1 charging cables that let you power multiple devices at once, but I needed a USB-C one to go with the Anker car charger. With 100W capability and the retractable cable, I think itāll meet my needs for many years to come and do so while not taking up much counter space or room in my carās arm rest cubby (yep, I bought two of them).
I had such high hopes for this thing because itās such a lightweight and unobtrusive way to always have a keyboard at the ready with the iPad mini. But the keys are just way too small and weirdly laid out that I donāt think I could get use to typing with them.
If this keyboard were made out of different materials, or dropped some features, to make it lighter, it would a runaway success ā a true iPad Pro mini-maker. As it is, the typing experience is pretty good and the trackpad surprisingly excellent, but itās so heavy that I donāt want to use it as a daily driver.
You get three functions for each of the three keys for nine(!) different devices or scene automations this remote can run. Itās pretty reliable and doesnāt require a separate app for setup or updates āĀ I just wish it were a little bigger/more substantial.
Our bathroom doesnāt have a shower fan, or an easy way to install one, so, after hours of research, I found this dehumidifier that (1) can auto-drain, (2) is small and unobtrusive, and, most importantly, (3) can monitor the active humidity level and automatically turn on when it goes above a pre-set level (i.e.Ā when taking a shower). Iāve been very pleasantly surprised by its effectiveness at clearing out the humidity and preventing mold.
Such a clever device, trying to kill two birds with one stone: (1) overcome the objectionable bottomside Lightning charging method of the Magic Mouse by adding wireless Qi charging, and (2) give the Magic Mouse more (ergonomic?) substance. Everyoneās hands are different, so your mileage may vary, but mine tends to prefer the lower profile of the naked Magic Mouse even while I applaud their success on the charging mechanism.
This is the gizmo that you didnāt know you needed, and, by golly, itās flawlessly executed. Stick this thing on the back of your TV and youāve given yourself a Continuity Camera mount so you can slap your iPhone on your TV for FaceTime calls, but then effortlessly hide it away when not in use.
An Instagram ad that got me, but Iām glad it did. It makes cleaning up drain-clogging hair a breeze, even if it doesnāt let water through even when ācloggedā as effectively as you might hope.
I saw they had sink versions when researching the TubShroom, and Iād say this version is even better. It does let water drain when when ācloggedā, it looks good, and, best of all, food particles donāt get hung up on itās edges when chasing them around this sink with a stream of water.
Are you catching the theme here? This supposedly easy and efficient drain snake was a big disappointment and I donāt recommend it; just get the real deal instead.
[Full disclosure, I added this one after publishing because I remembered it after I saw on The Verge that you can get it for 55% off (just $36) right now.]
Where has this screwdriver been all my life?! It houses all the bits in its carrying case, is charged by USB-C, has plenty of power for household screwdriving needs, has a built-in light, and fits in tight places where a traditional drill wonāt ā what are you waiting for?
Great! I got more of my opinions out onto the internet! Just what the world needs. Anyway, that was actually kind of fun to write. You should try it and send your reviews to me. My rampant consumerism hasnāt be sated by Capitalist Hellscape Week, so I need to know what you found that totally, definitely has been (or will be) the missing link to eternal happiness.
A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, but often not.
1ļøā£ Indie App Sales has a list of over 300(!) apps that are providing some sort of discount for the Black Friday shopping event/week. I have a feeling that my digital wallet is about to get a bit lighterā¦ [š app.indieappsales.com]
2ļøā£ Iāve enjoyed following along with Matt Birchlerās 365 Albums Project this year. I didnāt often listen to a full album he recommended, but I have been rocking out to the compilation playlist lately. In the moment, I didnāt appreciate his custom header images for the albums. Check out this retrospective post for some superb examples. Iām considering doing something similar next yearā¦ [šµ Matt Birchler // birchtree.me]
3ļøā£ I promise you that I do not climb like this. But the sheer audacity of this 9000-foot traverse, not to mention the manner by which these guys completed it, is jaw-dropping in every sense of the phrase. (Oh, and this crag, The Gunks, is kind of in my downstate backyard. Iāve been there a couple of times this month!) [ā¶ļø Well Good Productions // youtube.com]
4ļøā£ The thing I love about Chris Sharma is how unassuming his demeanor is. If you can subscribe to Reel Rock to see the full version of this video, I highly recommend it. You see him tackling this bleeding edge climb at the highest difficulty, while also balancing being a father and business owner. Itās so inspiring to see someone do it all. [ā¶ļøREELROCK // youtube.com]
5ļøā£ My wife and I have been loving Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV+. Brie Larson is undeniable as Elizabeth Zott. Now Apple has put together a site with key recipes from the show! Weāre gonna have to give some of these a try. (Oh my god, there are even premade ingredient carts for Instacart!) [š½ļø Apple TV+ // lessonsinchemistryrecipes.com]
7ļøā£ Great, now I have a new pet peeve. Maybe skip this one if you donāt want a new thing to be bothered by. [š¤ Mike Crittenden // critter.blog]
Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that Iām finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.
I wasnāt going to say anything about Appleās traditional holiday short, but after reading Andy Ihnatkoās dissection of it on Six Colors, I realized I wasnāt the only one put off by it. Theyāre usually heartwarming, heartfelt, and sweet, but this yearās short fell, well, short for me this year. Andy did a great job summing up the myriad of things that felt off about it. You should go read his whole post, but Iāll call out a few points that stuck out to me as well.
The protagonistās revenge stop-motion film seemed over the top for the grievances her boss performed against her:
How many weeks did it take her to complete just one of those humiliating scenes? She designed and constructed dolls, props, and sets; she invested lots of money and ingenuity in doing the lighting and rigging; she animated each shot one painsaking frame at a time; and then did all of the editing.
You must agree with me that this is an utterly psychopathic amount of work. Itās very correct to witness this behavior and then fear for that manās safety out in the real world.
One of those āgrievancesā:
Iāll also point out that one of the little things the boss did that annoyed and angered her was that he noticed that she was very late for work. He communicated his disappointment in a quick, low-key way that drew no attention from the rest of the office. Close examination of the previous scene reveals why she was late that morning: sheād gotten so wrapped up in her whole Torture My Boss By Wooly Proxy project that sheād lost all track of time.
And then, her empathy was far too forthcoming for the supposedly deep-seated dislike she held for him, just because he (wishy-washingly) handed her a handmade gift (that he also gave to the rest of the office), and then she saw him eating alone.
It just felt like too little for her to completely change her mind about the man, after she had clearly spent weeks (months?) imagining his painful humiliation. Andy seems to have felt the same way:
So when the lady in the āFuzzy Feelingsā video exercises her empathy only conditionally, after she comes to pity her boss (itself a form of dehumanization), it comes across asā¦ well, not wrong, but definitely odd.
A real gem in Andyās piece is this declaration about human empathy:
Well, whatever. Empathy is the point of todayās sermon. Empathy requires each of us to never ever forget that we should treat fellow humans like human beings and not human-shaped objects. No exceptions and no excuses.
Simple? Oh, sure. But holy cats, itās hard to get a consistent grip on the thing, isnāt it? Itās easier to know that weāve misplaced our empathy than it is to be sure of what we should do with it.
So good that I copied it to my quote journal!
But I donāt really buy Andyās theory that the protagonistās capacity for empathy is influenced by the fact she she uses Windows at work and Apple products at home:
So maybe the ladyās capacity for empathy is intactā¦ but her ability to access it is influenced by her environments. When sheās in the office and her boss gives her a gentle rebuke for a legit HR infraction, her proximity to a Microsoft operating system influences her to choose a path of (needle-felted stop-motion) violence.
Thatās a little too āgrasping at strawsā for me, but the manufacturer of her work tools was an interesting detail that I hadnāt noticed.
Appleās had a good run of theses warm and fuzzyholidayshorts. Iām not faulting them too hard for one flop out of many years. I guess Iām just a little surprised that literally the fuzziest one of all didnāt land so well.
This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for months. Nobody was asking for it, but I feel like I need to end the two-part saga.
All my worries yesterday in July were for naught. The ānuke and paveā went very smoothly, certainly as well as anyone could have hoped.
Erasing the Mac was quick, thanks to the encrypted data technology in modern Macs. Getting booted back up into a fresh install of macOS Ventura had but one small hiccup: I needed to do an extra restart for the Mac mini to kick its Wi-fi chip into gear and notice my network. Signing into iCloud to get it to start downloading all of my files and photos was seamless. But the star of the show, for sure, was my āSetup a New Macā checklist.
The after pic. My Mac mini is sporting a new, fresh soul. ā
Between all the apps I use on a daily basis, the keyboard shortcuts Iāve built into muscle memory, and long-standing preferences Iāve fine-tuned in System Settings, there were just too many things to trust them to my feeble human memory.
Maintaining this list has been one of my best preparation moves in years. ā
So Iāve been curating a list (Apple Note link) of things to set up first when doing a fresh install of macOS. Itās got screenshots of preference panes, links to little hacks, and everything I need to do to make my Mac feel like my Mac.
Since starting fresh, I can say that Iāve noticed an increase in general speediness, and a decrease in app hang-ups, bugs, and general weirdness. Itās not been a dramatic difference, but enough to have one fewer thing nagging at the back of my mind. Soā¦thumbs up, I guess?
Oh, and I havenāt once had to go back for a file in Time Machine. Knocks on wood.
Heyo, itās so good to be back for my third episode of Clockwise in a row! Has any other guest ever had such an honor?
Iām getting pretty used to the idea that you all just ignore my answers, and you know what? I can just roll with it! Letās hop to it.
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Mikah Sargent: If you had to choose between noise cancellation or excellent audio quality ā you canāt have both! ā which would you choose and why?
This is an easy one. My hearing is so poor that high-fidelity audio is lost on me. Donāt get me wrong, I do appreciate good audio, and I love how my AirPods Max sound, but when we start talking about lossless audio, I donāt think it would make a difference to my ears.
But noise cancellation is something that makes a big difference for me. I use it when vacuuming or doing other loud chores, or just when I need to block everything else and concentrate. Our house doesnāt offer much in the way of noise isolation ā at this very moment I can hear my wifeās phone conversation while sheās down in the living room and Iām upstairs in the study ā so having the ability to shrink down my world for concentration is key.
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Doc Rock: If you could have an unlimited supply of one thing for the rest of your life, what would it be and how would it change the world or your life? Money and time are off the table.
Iām going to go with a potentially boring answer here: clean, fresh water at any temperature of my choosing. Iām cheating a little bit here. This was a similar ice-breaker question that I was asked at my run club earlier this fall, except, in that scenario, the unlimited supply of whatever we chose would shoot out of our fingers. I spend a lot of my time as a mountain guide thinking about when, where, and how Iāll next get clean water for drinking and cooking. And water is heavy to carry. If I could have an unlimited supply of water that appeared on demand, I could save mental energy, ache on my back, and all the time it takes to filter it in the backcountry.
1ļøā£ Cash. Have you ever realized that you could get each denomination of US dollars to shoot out of each one of your fingers to make exact change every time?
Hundreds
Fifties
Twenties
Tens
Fives
Ones
Quarters
Dimes
Nickels
Pennies
Coincidence? I think not!
2ļøā£ Silly String. Come on, that would just be fun!
3ļøā£ Spaghetti and sauce. I could eat that for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and always be happy.
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Dan Moren: Will Appleās adoption of RCS change anything in the world of cross-platform messaging, or is this just lip service to avoid litigation from large governments?
I do think that RCS on iPhones will improve the quality of inter-platform chats. People flee to other services when they donāt get the features they want. If RCS delivers on its promise of better group chats, higher-quality media messages, read receipts, and the assurance that messages do get delivered, I think that there will be less need for a fractured chatting environment. Maybe more people will be able to rely on the default Messages app.
Or maybe folks have already been trained to go to other messaging apps to meet those needs and nothing will change. But I canāt imagine that RCS will make anything worse, thereās only upside.
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James Thomson: Have you bought anything or seen any particularly good deals (from Capitalist Hellscape Week) that you would recommend to our fine, discerning listeners?
I havenāt been much of a Black Friday shopper the last few years, and I havenāt kept up with any major deals so far this year. What I have done, though, is save a couple of shopping carts on Amazon and elsewhere online to check for discounts tomorrow on items I was already going to buy. I had been ready to pull the trigger on some Lutron Caseta switches for our home earlier this week. But I remembered, just in the nick of time, that there might be some deals to be had on Friday. š¤
Oh! I almost forgot, thereās an amazing site cataloging indie apps (over 300!) that have huge discounts this week: app.indieappsales.com
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Bonus Question: You have been chosen to represent your country in a global competition. What sport, talent, or activity are you doing?
Hard to say. I might place well in the āmost side tangents and distractions explored while trying to complete a simple taskā event.
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My Question: Whatās your go-to discovery method for new music?
I donāt typically go to the Music app itself for new music discovery. I know there are some great genre playlists and radio stations there, all lovingly organized by the Apple Music human curation team. But most of my discovery comes from recommendations I find from friends and acquaintances. If someone recommends a new album, it gets saved to MusicBox for me to check out later. But I also get good usage out of my automatically-generated Friends Mix playlist for songs that are out of my usual jurisdiction. Itās refreshed with songs that people I follow on Apple Music are listening to each week.
If I do find an artist that piques my interest, Iāll seek out their Essentials playlist on Apple Music to get a better look at their discography. Those are pretty great.
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These topics are always such brain ticklers. Itās so much fun to explore new ideas with you all. Thanks for having me on, and Iāll see you next week!
I went into the Taylor Swift Eras Tour movie expecting something along the lines of Hamilton. A well-produced video capture of a live event. And, I suppose, that is what I got. But what I hadnāt anticipated was the awe-inspiring, mind-boggling creative production that was this concert ā if you can even call it a concert.
Taylor Swift is at the top of her game. It was quite the thing to be reminded of the breadth of her discography. Her mastery of songwriting has only grown over time, and sheās an intricate wordsmith. These are things that I already knew, but re-appreciated during the film.
I hadnāt realized what a commanding performer she is. That stage was all hers from the very first beat. Every movement was measured, rehearsed, and then executed with extreme precision. It was almost uncomfortable at first being confronted with something so obviously calculated. It felt somewhat antithetical to the idea of seeing a creative artist live. But then I realized that this is just what Taylor Swift does. She sets a goal and then pursues it relentlessly until it is perfect. Why would her self-funded, self-distributed show be any different?
In the end, I came to enjoy watching and being amazed by such a precise performance. The details of its production were astonishing. The seamless costume changes and transitions. The elegantly-styled microphones that matched each Eraās theme. What I wouldnāt give to see a rundown of the logistics behind this show.
What I think I enjoyed most, even beyond the absolutely top-tier and cutting edge production, was that it was so obvious that Taylor was having fun from beginning to end.
Sheās set a new bar with the Eras Tour. And I canāt even imagine who could top it.
Hereās my latest exchange with Kev Quirk for theĀ Letters projectĀ this month. You can follow along with our conversation here here, but you owe it to yourself to see the awesome email styling that heās done over on his site.
Finally getting around to emailing you back, right at the end of the weekā¦your email was a long one and I want to make sure I hit each point, so Iāve done some inline quotes with the answers. Hope thatās ok - makes things a little easier for my brain to parse.
I think I first discovered you and your site on Micro.blog, which I think is where you hosted it before moving to Kirby, right?
I never actually hosted my site on Micro.blog. I did use their service for what was basically a cross-poster for the kind of posts I tend to post on Mastodon - shorter thoughts that are ephemeral. I think cross-posted to a few places from Micro.blog. I ended up killing the account though, mainly because there wasnāt much value in it for me. BlueSky offers very little for me, so that just left Mastodon.
I would have never hosted my blog there because I really dislike Hugo, and I donāt think Micro.blog gives enough freedom for blogging.
Iām currently on a Blot site and it gives me just enough control to keep me both tinkering and happy. But the draw of migrating fully over to Micro.blog is so tempting to have everything all in one place. Gah, I canāt decide.
You might have already guessed, given my previous answer, but Iād say stick with Blot. Thatās where I hosted my blog before moving to Kirby. The only reason I moved away from Blot is that Kirby seems to be Perfect for my use case. I continue to really enjoy it. For example, I built a custom UI for these PenPal posts where I paste both our emails into separate boxes, and the template does the rest. Kirby really is great.
So yeah, if youāre gonna move away from Blot, my advice would be to move to Kirby. But if youāre happy with Blot, Iād say stay there.
Iām approaching my 30th birthday, but still feel like a kid most days.
Iām 40 on my next birthday, and I still feel exactly the same.
I work as a Mountain Guide, but have also been a Scout Camp Director professionally.
Thatās really cool, and a really nice digression from the usual developers that tend to run in the circles we run in. Both of my sons are in Scouts and the both absolutely love it - and we love it when they go away to camp and we get some much needed downtime. :-)
It seems like thereās a TONNE of work that goes into managing a Scout group, is that right?
I have big aspirations, but am still working out how Iām going to achieve them all.
Come on, man. Donāt leave me hangingā¦what are those aspirations? Itās funny how things work themselves out. Iāve always been very career-minded, which has motivated me to do well in my career so far. But I often wondered if it was possible to find a balance between being career-minded and being present for my family. Luckily Iāve been able to find a balanceā¦long may it continue.
Your mowing woes had me worried for the mower.
The woes are ongoing. I need to do some more repairs to it over the winter, but Iām currently renovating the garage, so it will have to wait a little bit. It needs a whole new steering column. Ultimately, itās not really up to the task, but we canāt afford a bigger mower right now (theyāre stupidly expensive) so the poor little guy will have to keep on chugginā for a while yet.
Hopefully, the livestock idea works out to keep those fields under control! But I didnāt realize you had all that going on with the zoo of animals. I imagine things are quite lively at the Quirk household.
Things can get pretty crazy here with all the animals. Iām in the lounge writing this email and my wife is currently doing a water change on one of our 4 aquariums. Iāll do the others a little later, then I need to walk the dogs and apply another coat of paint to the floor of my garageā¦busy times, and this doesnāt include the kids and chickens.
We keep flip-flopping on the livestock idea. We recently found out thereās a natural spring at the top of our larger field, so weāre thinking about putting a pond in there and seeding the field with wildflowers, then having it like a little wildflower meadow. That way there will be lots of wildlife in there some summer, and it we will be able to leave it alone.
We shall seeā¦
I feel like my hands are full enough with no kids, one dog, one cat, and a turtle, minimal property maintenance (although thatās picking up now that weāve purchased our first home), and just a bunch of side hobbies.
I used to think that too when it was just the 3 of us (wife, 1 dog and me) but youād be surprised how much time you can fine when you really need to. Things are busy, but itās fun busy, not overwhelmingly, if that makes sense? Iām learning so much in this process as Iāve never done anything like this before, so it keeps things interesting.
Iām curious about how blogging, running a Mastodon server, and web design interface with what you do for work. My job in the outdoor field keeps me off the computer enough of the time that itās exciting to stretch those muscles and interests in my off time. Is the day-to-day of cybersecurity different enough from tinkering with your own code that itās still fun to continue to monkey around on the computer when the workday is through?
Anyone who reads this blog will know that I rarely write about cyber security, and when I do, itās usually at a very high level. Thatās how I personally separate the 2. This blog is my hobby, cyber is my job, and although theyāre both computer based, theyāre also very different.
I try to get away from my desk during the working day as much as I can. For example, if I have a 1:1 with one of my team in the office, we will go for a walk around the campus instead of sitting in a meeting room. If the weather is nice, Iāll go out for a walk during my lunch break and when I work from home, I take the dogs for a walk.
Most of my actual work these days is meetings, so itās easy for me to get away from my desk for a good portion of the day. So when I sit down down to write, not only is it often on a topic thatās completely separate to my day-to-day, Iām also relatively fresh.
Anyway, how did you get into watches, and what do you look for now that youāre a more experienced collector?
The watches thing is a combination of nostalgia and just geekiness. I remember pining over Casio watches when I was a kid, but never being able to afford one. So I got myself a basic Casio as a beater watch a few years ago, then I discovered the sheer breadth of watches they offer, so I bought more, and more and more. I now have around 50 watches from various brands in my collection.
Thereās 3 types of watch that pique my interest:
Nostalgic watches, like my Casios
Militaryā/āfield watches
Watches that I just like the look of
After these 3, the next thing I look for is value for money. I could have a small collection of Rolex, Omega etc. but Iād much rather have a larger collection of cheaper watches. Plus, having a watch on my write thatās thousands of Ā£ would really worry me. My most expensive watch was around Ā£700, so although Iād be pissed if I lost or damaged it, I wouldnāt be out thousands.
I also enjoy the ritual of choosing a watch in the morning. I have them all in display cases on the window ledge in my bedroom; looking through them and choosing one just gives me joy every day. Hereās what the collection looks like:
I wear an Apple Watch and have had one on my wrist every day for over 7 years now. I upgraded to the Ultra version last year and adore it.
Before getting back into watches I wore an Apple Watch (which my wife now wears). I did like it, but I didnāt like how much I checked it for notifications. When I first took it off, Iād find myself instinctively looking at my wrist and tapping my watch. It was sad. I now find it frustrating when people check their wrist in the middle of a conversation too.
Do you worry about the addictive nature of having a little smartwatch on your wrist?
I subscribe to both these already. Thereās some great content that comes from both.
Iāll end this extremely long email with a question to youā¦are there any blogs you follow that have nothing to do with what weāve covered already? No tech, no outdoorsman stuff etc? Is there anything thatās completely random that you follow?
Now Iām off to go paint the garage again so (hopefully) I can start working on my motorbikes again soon. Looking forward to our next exchange,
Kev
Hey Kev,
I didnāt quite get to it by the weekās end, but your letter gave me a lot to think about. And I liked the inline quotes, I might give that a shot too.
I would have never hosted my blog there because I really dislike Hugo, and I donāt think Micro.blog gives enough freedom for blogging.
Youāve mentioned a couple of times that youāre not a fan of Micro.blog/Hugo for a personal blog. Iām curious about what you find so limiting. Iāve done Squarespace and Blot (Mustache), and only just learning about other static site generators out there.
Both of my sons are in Scouts and the[y] both absolutely love it - and we love it when they go away to camp and we get some much needed downtime. :-)
Haha, yeah, camp can be a blessing for all. I loved my summers growing up where I got to spend a week (as a camper) and then a whole summer (as a staff member) away from home. Itās where I learned to make decisions and take care of myself since my parents werenāt there to do it. I grew a lot there. I hope your kids find that they grow into themselves there too.
It seems like thereās a TONNE of work that goes into managing a Scout group, is that right?
For sure. For many things, it was a one-man show. I had to do program development, fundraising, budgeting, property maintenance, purchase food and supplies, hire and fireā¦the list goes on. And thatās all before any kids showed up! For the events themselves when I had either a staff or a team of volunteers, my role changed to supporting them to implement all the fun stuff ā although it was important to me to lead by example and sing the songs and do all the stuff that I was asking others to do. That role was a crash course in figuring out how to do a little of everything.
But thatās from the camp-specific side of things. Actually being a local Scout group leader, in many ways, is much harder. My campers all went home at the end of the week. In a Troop or Pack, youāre in it for the long haul with all your Scouts. Being that role model and helping them to be successful in the program and achieve their goals takes a special kind of person. Do you ever volunteer as an adult leader in the Scouts?
Come on, man. Donāt leave me hangingā¦what are those aspirations?
Well, since you asked. š I would love to open a local climbing gym. Thereās a decent population of dedicated climbers here, but no real āhome baseā for them to go to. Granted, many are outdoor climbing purists, but the weatherās not always good. And we could all use a place to train, swap stories, and hang out (literally). Plus, there are plenty of tourists coming through looking for an indoor activity to do when it rains.
My wife and I have also talked about the need for a doggy daycare service in our area. So many people have dogs here, but, again, thereās no great place for them to go during the day. I think it would be fun to operate the climbing gym and dog daycare together. Stop by to pick your dog up in the evening, and get a few climbing laps in! I think it would expose more people to the sport too.
And, as part of that business, Iād want to offer my own guiding service. Iām working on getting into a course progression that would certify me as an internationally recognized rock guide. But that progression is a very long, very expensive one.
Really, all those goals are very long and very expensive. But I continue to dream and scheme.
We keep flip-flopping on the livestock idea. We recently found out thereās a natural spring at the top of our larger field, so weāre thinking about putting a pond in there and seeding the field with wildflowers, then having it like a little wildflower meadow.
My grandparentsā property has a man-made pond. It was always a favorite place to go during the warm summers for swimming and fishing. And so peaceful to see the wildlife use it, too. Go for it!
I used to think that too when it was just the 3 of us (wife, 1 dog and me) but youād be surprised how much time you can fine when you really need to.
Thereās a mantra that Elizabeth Zott says in Lessons in Chemistry (which my wife and I are watching) about raising a child that I think is applicable here. āYou donāt think that you can do it, and then you expand, and you do it anyway.ā
For example, if I have a 1:1 with one of my team in the office, we will go for a walk around the campus instead of sitting in a meeting room.
Walking meetings are the best. I find it difficult to think clearly if Iām not moving around. If Iām on the phone, Iām probably pacing around my house while talking. Iām glad that youāre able to separate your work life and personal hobbies to keep both fresh, even though theyāre in related fields.
I now have around 50 watches from various brands in my collection.
Wow! That collection sprung up fast. I figured it had been a lifelong interest, but it sounds like you only picked up that first Casio a handful of years ago. That it got started with one that youād wanted since being a kid is pretty sweet. I like the breadth of your collection there. It looks like you have one that would fit for nearly any occasion! Your pragmatic approach of more less expensive watches, rather than fewer costly ones, makes sense to me.
My next question, though, is how do you keep them all synced up? Do you have to make adjustments often, like every time you put a new one on after a time change? Or do you spend the time to get them all in sync at once?
Do you worry about the addictive nature of having a little smartwatch on your wrist?
Not so much. Itās a pretty passive device for me. Iām self-conscious about looking too busy to be engaged in a conversation and will always wait to check it. I do like the notifications though, since they keep me from diving into my phone where Iām more likely to get sucked into something else. The phone is much more addictive for me. But I love the workout tracking and the little bits of data I get from it. For example, itās helpful to keep an eye on the current elevation when Iām out hiking with clients. I can pass along encouragement for every hundred feet of elevation gained.
[A]re there any blogs you follow that have nothing to do with what weāve covered already?
You know, I was tempted to give an emphatic āYes, so many!ā, because I follow a bunch of personal blogs. But, Iāve picked up a lot of those personal blogs from Micro.blog or Mastodon, which both attract folks with a certain amount of at least tech-adjacent interests.
However, I do follow the RSS feeds for One Sentence News (world news, distilled down to bite-size chunks), the Studio Neat Gazette (one weekly pick of something interesting from each of the cofounders, Tom and Dan), and some comic strips (The Oatmeal and xkcd). I look forward to all of those popping up my feed reader.
Now, if you had asked me about podcasts, I would have a more broader library of topics to choose from. Are you a podcast listener?
The time has gotten away from me, so it looks like I wonāt be attending this weekās Run Club. But thatās okay since itās basically blizzarding outside, and I have groceries to go pick up for Thanksgiving this week anyway. Looking forward to hearing back!
You know how sometimes you stumble across bits of information that feel like they were packaged up just for you? Thatās what happened to me yesterday when listening to AppStories and Federico Viticci solved an internet problem I didnāt even realize I was looking for a solution to.
Yup, thatās me. Over three years ago, I plugged my wifeās PS5 into Ethernet and ignorantly assumed that it would swap over to the hardwired connection. Our Wi-Fi speeds were pretty fast, so when she downloaded games and I could see the progress bar visibly moving, I assumed all was working correctly. But there were times that I noticed lag (like when using PS Remote Play), or was surprised by the time it took to download even smaller updates to the device. But I thought it was already using Ethernet, so what could I do?
Enter this new age thought technology: actually check the goddamn settings. š Less than a minute of futzing through the network settings, and now the PlayStation is getting 6x ā thatās right, six times ā the download speed. Probably the most valuable seconds per Mbps increase Iāve ever invested.
Hereās how you can futz through the settings yourself and hopefully get a massive increase in speed to your console as well.
Look-ey here. Even though itās got an Ethernet cable plugged into its butt, the PS5 thinks the Wi-Fi is the way to go. Nuh-uh. Next stop, āNetwork ā Settings ā Set Up Internet Connectionā to initiate the Ethernet connection.
But before you fire up that Ethernet connection, go ahead and do a speed test on Wi-Fi so you know what kinds of gains you get afterward.
80 Mbps?! Yeah, somethingās not right here when Iām paying for a 500 Mbps pipeline to the modem itās hooked directly into.
Start up a LAN
Over in āSet Up Internet Connectionā, youāre going to make a new connection and select the Wired LAN option. This threw me off for a second. I wasnāt trying to set up a LAN Party where my buddies could bring over their consoles and we could string them all together for a Halo showdown. Would this LAN setting know to actually connect with the broader internet? Did I need to name it the same as my Wi-Fi network?
I neednāt have worried. It just worked. I did end up naming it āJandJ Ethernetā just so Iād know exactly what the connection was, but I donāt think it matters what you name the network at all.
Speed Test
Okay, back over in the āConnection Statusā pane, we can see that the Ethernet connection has now taken precedence. It retains the Wi-Fi network in its memory, which is good I guess, but hopefully, we never have to use it again.
Why didnāt it just do this in the first place? ā
Letās do a new speed test to make sure things are hooked up right.
Thereās that 500+ Mbps I was looking (and paying) for!
Thatās it!
The PS5 should be feeling better now that itās not trying to sip data through a kiddie straw. Now itās punching a hole in the side of those data beers, cracking open the top, and shotgunning megabytes down its gullet at warp speed. Wow, that analogy about an Ethernet cable in its butt really doesnāt work now, does it? š
I did a real-world test and a large game update zipped through its download faster than ever before on this console. Success.
Hopefully, you see those same massive gains in connection speed. And, Sony, if youāre reading along, maybe consider prioritizing the wired connection automatically when one is plugged in. I can guarantee thatās what your users expect.
A weekly list of interesting things I found on the internet, posted on Sundays. Sometimes themed, often not.
1ļøā£ I might have to get me one of these classic Mac āhelloā signs. Itās so diminutive and cute! [š @camiel // schoonens.social]
2ļøā£In Review is a gorgeous new movie, TV, and book review blog written by Alexandra. Excellent design choices made here. [š Alexandra // inreview.ca]
4ļøā£ Youāre not gonna want to miss this example of a program that uses AI vision and speech generation to have David Attenborough narrate a live webcam view. [š Benj Edwards // arstechnica.com]
6ļøā£ If youāre a Mastodon (or Micro.blog or ActivityPubā¦I should just say āsocial webā) user, you should follow the (unofficial) @merlinwisdom@botsin.space. Itās an account that spits out a random entry from Merlin Mannās Wisdom Project (which Iāve mentioned before) every six hours. Iāve used Shortcuts and widgets to surface these in the past, but thereās something to be said for them just popping up in a feed Iām already reading. [š @merlinwisdom // botsin.space]
7ļøā£ Count me in for Todd Vaziriās Apple TV remote redesign proposal. I havenāt been particularly annoyed at my remote lately, but canāt deny that this would be an improvement. [š Todd Vaziri // fxrant.blogspot.com]
Thanks for reading 7 Things. If you enjoyed these links or have something neat to share, please let me know. And remember that you can get more links to internet nuggets that Iām finding every day by following me @jarrod on the social web.
Hey guys, thanks for having me back on this 529th episode of Clockwise! I didnāt hear my audio get into the podcast last time; maybe my track was muted? Anyway, Iām happy to be part of the conversation here on these four five tech topics.
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Dan Moren: Do you have any plans to start capturing spatial video even if a Vision Pro may not be in your immediate future?
I would love to capture spatial videos for viewing on a Vision Pro whenever I get one. I think having that extra data will be useful in the long run, and I think itāll be a worthwhile trade-off for those videos to be 1080p rather than 4K for the time being. Surely Apple is working on upping those specs and having a vertical video mode.
The only problem is that Iām currently rocking an iPhone 13 mini, and donāt have any plans to replace it. Spatial video capture could push me towards upgrading, but certainly not before thereās a Vision Pro in my possession.
Maybe next Septemberās iPhones will be the ones to finally tempt me away from the mini form factor. (Or Apple could bring it back and include spatial video capture on that device too. That sure would be great.)
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Joe Rosensteel: Does anyone have strong opinions about the fonts that they use for work or note-taking in their lives?
Iām typing out this very blog post in Drafts, where I changed the default font to whatever monospace version it has built-in (itās Menlo). For text and Markdown files, I prefer a (read: any) monospace font. Otherwise, Iām a big fan of the San Francisco typeface and its variants, so I will typically choose them if given the option.
Iām pretty basic in that regard. But I do appreciate good fonts, expertly used.
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Mikah Sargent: Have you ever used or do you currently use a journaling app or service? And how long have/did you stick with it if you do/did?
Iāve tried the journalling thing several times, but itās never stuck. Iāve primarily tried Day One, but Iāve also done a few stints with the Theme System Journal. I still havenāt filled the first one that I started years ago, and although I like Day Oneās prompts, Iāve not been able to make journalling a habit.
Iāll certainly give Appleās Journal app a shot, but Iām not expecting a miracle here.
(Iām not counting the automatic import of my Instagram posts, blog posts, and New York Times newspaper covers as journaling, even though those do all make it into Day One. It would be hard to give that automatic archive up if I were to make the switch over to Appleās app.)
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Kathy Campbell: When do you tell your non-tech people in your life to update the software of their devices and do you make different recommendations for different devices?
I used to be so bad about this. And by ābadā I mean that I was a monster about pushing people to update to the latest OS. I would let my wife that a new update was available pretty much as soon as it came out in September (I was probably already on the beta). Then, if she didnāt update on her own within a few days, I would do it for her. Cringe. There were a couple of times that something moved, was removed, or just generally different enough that it disrupted her day, and she was not pleased.
Iāve stopped doing that.
Now, Iāll generally not say a word and let the news reach her organically. Or, if thereās a particularly handy feature in the new version, Iāll show her on my phone, and then if, and only if, she asks about how to do it, Iāll let her know that sheād have to update to get it. This sometimes happens throughout the beta period, giving her a stack of reasons to update in the fall.
My parents, on the other hand, routinely ask me to audit their devices when Iām home to make sure that theyāre up-to-date. Theyāre getting better about doing it on their own, but I think they appreciate having someone on hand to help them figure out the new stuff, or fix the broken stuff if needed.
In general, I now try to practice the art of not interfering with other peopleās lives when they havenāt asked for it and it doesnāt affect me. Folks can choose for themselves if they want to update their stuff, and choosing not to do so is totally fine too.
To come completely clean, though, I will say that if my wife has already updated to a major OS version and then a security patch comes out later, Iāll make sure that her devices get that patch. I feel like thatās just good looking out, and is rarely disruptive.
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Bonus Question: What was your favorite playground structure to play on as a kid?
I was always a big fan of the monkey bars. The classic ones, and the ones that formed a sort of dome structure, were always so fun to swing around on. I was also known to push my luck from time to time by getting on top of the monkey bars to crawl or walk across.
I suppose itās no wonder that I still love to climb and swing around on things.
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My Question: Itās getting to be wintertime here in the Northeast, and Iāve been scheming about what Iām going to do to fill the short days and long nights. What are your winter objectives this year?
This summer, my objective was to rock climb the intimidating and remote Wallface big wall, located in the heart of the Adirondacks. Which I did! š
But I donāt have one big, overarching goal that Iām set on yet for the winter. There are a couple of fuzzy goals that Iāll aim toward: do my first ice climbing lead and maybe complete the arduous Johannsenās Last Call backcountry ski by the end of the season. But both of those things will depend on how confident I feel in my abilities, and will take significant time investments to build up skills.
I think I can do them, and Iām going to try, but Iām still considering if thereās something else that I can really sink my teeth into and keep me motivated throughout the cold days.
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Another fun one in the can. Now Iām watching the clock say that itās pushing past 2 AM and itās time to go have a long visit with my pillow. Thanks again for having me on!
HeyDingus 
