Tralfaz

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  • Souring on the Apple Ecosystem

    Souring on the Apple Ecosystem

    Along the recent grumbling and the pending cancellation of my Apple Music subscription, a wider topic is how the Apple Ecosystem has become less an asset and more of a liability in the world of Apple. At one time, the bundling of great applications, like Garage Band, iPhoto, iTunes, and iMovie was a huge benefit for those who bought Mac computers. These applications just worked, were plenty useful, and very usable for even tyro computer users. Just compare early versions of iTunes, and the homeless-abortion that is the “Windows Media Player” and you got a pretty clear picture.

    Throughout the ’aughts, this was true, especially iPhoto, where when you got your first (or second, or third…) digital camera, you just plugged it in and like magic the iPhotos application would load, import your images, and give you ample opportunties to do minor tweaks, and management of your library. (more…)

  • Music Streaming changes

    Music Streaming changes

    In the wayback, about 2015, I did a pretty thorough personal review of the music streaming services. Apple had just launched their “Music” offering, I spent time with the then-new Google Play subscription service, and Amazon’s subscription service, as well as Spotify.

    The result was that Apple’s Music had better curated playlists, and their “Radio” function was head and shoulders above. I ended up canceling my Spotify and Google Play all-access account before the trial was up.

    Later, I discovered that Amazon’s subscription service was quite good, and added that to my listening options (paying for both Apple Music and Amazon.) I find myself listening more and more to Amazon, over the Apple service, mainly because, there are native apps for windows that ahem doesn’t suck. (more…)

  • Photo Management – 2017

    Photo Management – 2017

    As a quasi-serious photographer, I have at multiple times posted about the trials and tribulations of photo management, here, here, and here as I struggled with the zigging and zagging that Apple has done on native photo management on OSX. The net result was me going all in on Adobe Lightroom that I got as part of my Photographers Bundle from Adobe. It is an amazingly powerful package with many built in capabilities that are immensely useful, and it got me completely out of the iPhotos/Aperture/Photos morass.

    I also did a little diversion into the Google world with the now defunct Picasa, shudder no, Google photos is not a product that I am willing to use. They already can mine too much of my data, no need to add a couple hundred gigabytes of personal information, thankyouverymuch.

    (more…)

  • Dying Drobo

    Dying Drobo

    My old Drobo, a second generation, 4 drive unit that I bought new in 2008 has been a faithful servant. It spent a lot of its time as the time machine backup and deep storage for music, photos, and videos. A couple of failed drives (easily replaced) and not a single byte of lost data in the 9 years that I have had this tethered to my Mac(s), it is hard for me to point out a fault. (more…)

  • New music – The Source

    New music – The Source

    I was listening to music last week, the “For You” selections on Apple Music. After clicking through to a couple of albums that I was grooving to, there was this title “Aryeon” and the album name “The Source“. What the heck, I clicked on it.

    Before I go further, I must confess that I am a fan of “Project” albums. Like the rock operas of old (think Tommy, or Quadraphenia from The Who, or “Operation: Mindcrime” from Queensryche), and this was an epic in that mold. The brainchild of Arjen Lucassen, Aryeon is one of his projects, and spans more than 20 years and now 13 albums, each having its own character.

    Listening to this, I knew that a) I wanted to support this effort more than the mice-nuts that streaming pays, and b) I needed to own this. It had some kick ass guitar riffs, always something I am grooving to, and in general, the album just “hangs” together. It tells a story, very dynamic, and just lovely music. (more…)

  • Netflix Original – The Killing

    Netflix Original – The Killing

    I have often bashed the Netflix Originals, as they in general don’t appeal to me. Either I am not the right demographic, or I am picky, or as some readers say, I have no taste. No arguments there.

    But I recently found a show that is pretty solid. The Killing turned up in a search for shows similar to my last binge watching, “Broadchurch”.

    If you want to avoid spoilers, you should probably stop reading now. (more…)

  • The Lawn

    The Lawn

    For the first time in my life, I have a house with a yard that I take care of, or, more importantly that I care about. Something about a $700K house.

    One of the factors in our selection of this house was a safe, sane yard for our dogs, at the time an epileptic greyhound, and his older brother, a well aged greyhound. The small back yard had a pretty decent piece of grass, my lawn, and I have put effort into keeping it nice.

    The first challenge was the west end of the yard, it is perpetually in shade, and when it rains (which happened a lot the last year), it never dries out, grass didn’t get enough sunlight to grow, and it was almost a permanent bog. (more…)

  • The last RO post, I promise

    The last RO post, I promise

    As a couple of previous posts chronicled the demise of my initial reverse osmosis system, and my search and replacement of it.

    As mentioned, the quality of the water is outstanding, the installation was routine, almost mundane, and the only remaining task was to hook up the ice maker in the refrigerator.

    When I bought the system, I splurged for the $15 ice maker kit, that was about 20 feet of 3/8” tubing, a terminal connector, a ’T’ connector (to splice into the output line) and an on/off valve.

    Apart from dumping about a cup of water, and having to drill a hole in the floor of the under sink cabinet, it was completely painless to install. Seriously, it took less than 30 minutes from grabbing the tubing cutter, to pushing the refrigerator back into its nook.

    Tossed the accumulated ice, ran about a gallon of water, and now we are enjoying ultra clean water at both the tap, and in the door dispenser of the refrigerator.

    Bonus? The ice is clearer.

  • The RO Fun Continues

    The RO Fun Continues

    As I have chronicled the original Reverse Osmosis system I installed at my home died. Some research later, I bought a more robust replacement, and a rather pain-free installation, and I have outstanding water.

    HM TDS Meter

    Just how outstanding? Well, the measure of quality is the concentration of total dissolved solids (TDS), and there are a variety of means to measure it. Since I had consumed one of my Flowlok pellets (I had a slight leak), I needed to order more. Alas, the shipping was more than the cost of the “pellets” so I just padded my order, adding a TDS meter.

    Once it arrived, I tested the three sources of water in our house. The tap, the refrigerator dispenser (that has a filter), and the RO system. As I mentioned previously, our water is delivered via Great Oaks Water, and it is predominantly well water, and very hard.

    The tap water measured at 376PPM TDS. That is not out of tolerance, but it is very hard water, and the mineral buildup on our fixtures are a testament to how hard the water is. It also has a noticeable taste that isn’t enjoyable.

    The refrigerator – an LG – has an in-door dispenser of filtered water and ice. There is a cartridge filter and we keep it replaced as per their recommendations. It measured at 303PPM TDS. Better, but still not great. The water out of the refrigerator does taste better than tap, but it does have a noticeable flavor to it.

    Out of the Reverse Osmosis system, it was 33ppm. Right in the ballpark for what is expected. The taste of the water is indistinguishable from the bottled water that you pay big $$$ for. Mission accomplished.

    While the meter was a bit of a splurge (and less than $20) it will be useful when we change the pre-filters every year, and the membrane after 3 years to verify that all is well.

    Today, my task is to hookup the system to the refrigerator.

  • Guitar Group Misbehavior

    Guitar Group Misbehavior

    As a long time player, at one time pretty serious, but somewhat lapsed, I still doodle on the git-box. I also belong to a couple of private groups of guitar players on Facebook. While it is mostly entertaining, there are some really fucked up things.

    Snobbery

    (more…)