22/12/2017

The archive contains older posts which may no longer reflect my current views.

Just a beginning

In keeping with the season there have been a number of “best of” posts with folks outlining their favourite Mac software of the year which all leave me feeling like mine is horribly underused.

Maybe it’s because I’m still learning what I can do with it since moving from Windows but it’s also that I tend to keep things relatively simple.

Beyond Safari and Ulysses there’s very little I use on a regular basis.

I still run Magnet for docking windows, Filezilla as my FTP client, and have the likes of Slack, BBEdit and Visual Studio Code installed but nothing really gets that much use.

With two exceptions:

  • the micro.blog app, and
  • Pixelmator

I’ve written a lot about micro.blog recently so don’t need to go over the same ground here.

As I mentioned in October, I had previously used Gimp (still hate the name) as a free option but the updates to Pixelmator were very tempting. I thoroughly enjoyed using it during the free trial so snapped it up.

I can’t remember the last time I actually opened VS Code and removed it from the Dock, so that tells you something, while BBEdit is operating in its free, reduced functionality mode because I can’t justify the cost for the little that I use it.

I’ve looked at Alfred and LaunchBar again but still not yet found a compelling reason to use them. I was very much the same with Workflow on the phone - I originally couldn’t think of anything to use it for until it suddenly clicked. Now I couldn’t be without it and still fret over what happens if/when Apple finally pulls the plug - hopefully in favour of extensive native automation.

I think it’s a bit of a catch 22 situation: I can’t think of ways to automate what I do because I don’t do that much on the Mac but would probably do more if I had it automated.

Despite all this I’ve been really enjoying the MacBook as my laptop of choice (it’s still not my primary computer - that’s the phone) but still see this as just the beginning.

It’s been less than 6 months since making the switch so I feel like I’m still finding my feet. 2017 has been a good start but next year will be when I kick it up a notch.

# On the subject of the MacBook, you may recall I was having an issue with it crashing while in/waking from sleep.

I thought it was because of third party software running in the background and seemed to have narrowed it down to the Logitech mouse software.

Apparently not as I’ve had a couple more crashes.

A further search found a thread in the Apple Communities that gives an interesting possible explanation:

”It seems that the initial upgrade from Sierra to High Sierra 10.13 might lead to some corruption of the admin account from which the Mac was upgraded.”

And, while the errors seem to indicate a power management issue, corruption of the admin account can lead to wake/sleep errors.

The proposed solution is to create a new admin account, log in to it, delete the original account (leaving the home folder intact) and recreate it pointing back to the original home drive.

I also found a thread suggesting that changing the MacOS hibernatemode from 3 to 25 (safe sleep to proper hibernate) could also help.

So, I have recreated my admin account and changed the hibernate mode. We’ll see if they help.

# Liked: Democracy Dies in the Light — BuzzMachine...

”We must learn to listen and help the public listen to itself. We in media were never good at listening — not really — but in our defense our media, print and broadcast, were designed for speaking. The internet intervened and enabled everyone to speak but helped no one listen. So now we live in amid ceaseless dissonance: all mouths, no ears.”

Jeff Jarvis writes that journalism seems powerless to prevent the apparent erosion of democracy in the US.

But it’s not just democracy that’s being eroded - it’s a visible symptom of a deeper problem.

Civility, decency, tolerance, respect, they’re all suffering because everyone talks but no one listens.

All mouths, no ears.

It’s not just journalists who need to reevaluate their positions but all of us.