Hardware

New old stereo gear is wonderful

Switching between the MacBook Air keyboard and the HHKB keyboard can be off-putting. I have loved using the HHKB for years, but I’ve lost patience for the function layer and missing arrow keys. My pinky hurts too often. I’ve been using an Apple Magic Keyboard and Logitech MX Master 3, and, while I love the mouse, the keyboard was boring, but fine, except the spacebar would intermittently fail to register. That’s annoying. ...

Nostalgia is some powerful stuff, ain’t it? My old Nakamichi cassette deck stopped working a few years ago, and I never bothered to replace it. I’ve been into vinyl and still have a good CD transport, so I didn’t see a need for cassettes. Occasionally, though, I’ll spot a cassette somewhere and think I might like to bring mine out and play them. I didn’t want some ancient “vintage” cassette deck, and I didn’t want to spend much. ...

Scrolling with the Logitech MX Master in Safari sucks out of the box. The following from this Reddit thread helped, even though it required installing 2 additional packages. Here’s the useful part of that thread: Install Logitech Options+ (sigh) and set: Logi Options+ (Plus): Customization App for Logitech Devices What a gross bit of software, but it’s necessary here. I’ve read that once this process is done, I can delete the app completely, but I haven’t tried that yet. ...

Scrolling with the Logitech MX Master in Safari sucks out of the box. The following from this Reddit thread helped, even though it required installing 2 additional packages. Here’s the useful part of that thread: Install Logitech Options+ (sigh) and set: Logi Options+ (Plus): Customization App for Logitech Devices What a gross bit of software, but it’s necessary here. I’ve read that once this process is done, I can delete the app completely, but I haven’t tried that yet. ...

AlphaSmart Neo 2 I started free writing again a couple weeks ago, but this time I’m doing it digitally, using the AlphaSmart Neo 2. I dove hard into “Morning Pages” after reading Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way, but it didn’t last long. I mean, c’mon, there’s no way I can consistently write 3 lined pages, longhand, every morning. ...

I like this calculator better than the one it replaces

Look what I found in the garage: Apple Extended Keyboard II It’s my old Apple Extended Keyboard II from 1990 or 91. I last used this one in 2015. The AEKII uses an ADB port, so I had to dig out my ADB->USB-A adapter (save everything!). I’m typing this post on the keyboard right now. The Alps switches are as great as I remember, and might be my all-time favorite switches. ...

I know, I know, the reMarkable 2 tablet is designed as a digital replacement for writing on paper. It’s not necessarily meant as a document reader. But that’s what I’ve been using it for. Reading PDF on reMarkable 2 For years now I’ve saved web articles as Markdown files, converted them to PDF, and printed them for reading later. See My read-later service is made of paper. I wanted to see how reading PDFs felt on the reMarkable, so I copied a few of my saved article PDFs to it. It turns out that I liked it very much. Highlighting text with the stylus works great, and I can even choose the color of the highlights, which don’t display on the device, but they do on the actual PDF. ...

I bought a miniStack STX to go with the new M2 Mac Mini

People make fun of me for frequently changing the way I do things. This is not undeserved. I like to try things. That’s me ¯_(ツ)_/¯. But as a counterpoint, sometimes I stick with things for a long time. Today’s example is shaving. I was so annoyed by the price of disposable blades for my razor that I started shopping for alternatives. What I found was safety razors, nice shaving cream, and a brush. I use a Merkur safety razor, Vulfix brush (Warning1), Taylor of Old Bond Street Almond shaving cream, and Shark double edge razor blades. I’ve been using this exact setup since 2005. ...

I splurged on a new Apple Studio Display for my home office. It’s only been 24 hours but I couldn’t be happier. I wish it wasn’t so expensive. Even the “base” model is too expensive. And no way I’m paying another $400 just so I can adjust the height. That pisses me off a little, but the display is gorgeous, so all is forgiven. Here’s why I bought one: My 32-inch LG was too big. I know that sounds crazy, but too much screen real estate is a distraction for me. I wanted 5k. Whenever I switched between the (4k) LG and my internal Retina MacBook Pro monitor, the difference when reading text was pronounced. Moving to the internal Retina display felt like putting on glasses. I wanted built-in speakers and camera. I keep the MBP in clamshell mode, so I needed to have extra speakers on my desk and didn’t like the clutter. The hardware is beautiful. I stare at my monitor nearly all day, every day. The Studio Display is simply nicer looking than anything else I’ve seen. This alone doesn’t justify the purchase, but it sure helps. I’ve taken the LG to my temporary office in our old building, so it’s not like it’s going to waste. The new Studio Display is a great upgrade, though. ...

Riccardo Mori: But this review was underwhelming and, as I commented on Twitter, with unusual fanboyish tones I’ve never really detected in his past product reviews. I notice that when someone agrees with a review, it’s “thoughtful and detailed.” When one disagrees, however, it’s “a brief from Apple’s marketing department”.