Tag: Apple

Photo Booth?

Patches was laying down on my desk.  I thought it was a good candidate for today’s photo-a-day.  Unfortunately she was sitting on my phone, and my Nikon was not quickly accessible.  What can I do?

Well, I have a webcam on my laptop.  Could I use that?  I did a Spotlight Search for camera and webcam but they didn’t turn up anything useful.  I checked Launchpad to see if there was a camera app of some kind.  That’s when I saw it.

Photo Booth?

Is that still a thing?  I popped it open and sure enough, it’s still a thing.  I angled my lappy to face the cat and BANG, photo acquired.  I opened it up in Photos to clean it up a little and, as always, was a tiny bit saddened by the lack of groovy filters.  I messed around with it a tiny bit and then clicked the export button to see what my options were.  It used to be able to connect to Flickr, but not any more.  I clicked the “more” option at the bottom of the drop down and saw something I never noticed before.

Extensions?  In Photos?  Huh.

There were no options available but I wasn’t ready to let it go so I did something I never do… I went to the Mac App Store.  I searched for Photos Extensions and sure enough a few things came up.  I searched for Photos Filters and much to my surprise a Free app displayed.  I figured I would install it just to use it as a guinea pig for the Photos extensions.  Much to my surprise, it worked!

Now my Flickr Photo-a-Day pic is a Photo Booth snap, edited in Photos, using a third party filter app.  It’s just a day of firsts for me!

253/365 - I took this with Photo Booth because... it was there.

Oh No!

Oh no!  The inherited MacBook wouldn’t install the backup from my 2016 MacBook Pro, and then it wouldn’t reinstall the current MacOS from the Apple server either!

I’m going to try a couple more things, but I am sad.  Not really, because my 2016 MacBook Pro is still in pretty much perfect shape, but I like new stuff, you know?

We’ll see what happens.

What Was This?

I saw this out the window today at work*.  One car pulled over and seven state troopers on the scene, including one who was blocking the second lane.

This was a little before 1:00 PM. A little more than an hour late I heard two co-workers talking about all the staties and I looked out the window and not only were they still there, but there were two more along with an ambulance.

*I misspelled “more” like four times. I thought it was me. Then I misspelled two more words that had “r” in them. Now I’m wondering (this was another “r” typo) if I am seeing the first sign of the fatal MacBook Pro keyboard issue.

rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Apple and Covid-19

Coronavirus panic, catch it.

No, but seriously.  Wash your damn hands.

Am I worried about this thing?  Nope.  Not even a tiny bit.  Am I paying attention to it on the off chance that it will become something to worry about even though I am not worried at all right now?  Yeah, something like that.

To all the trump nazis who are saying this is a hoax created by democrats to make the orange pile of fascist goo look bad (as if he needed any help in that department) there is this:

Apple sent out a letter to it’s shareholders saying that they would not be able to meet their sales projections for the quarter because the Covid-19 situation in China has slowed their production too much.  Also, they sent a message to their stores that they are going to have a shortage of replacement iPhones for customers who come in looking for major repairs.

So, my nazi neighbors, if it’s a hoax you should feel free to smash your iPhone with a hammer and bring it to your local Apple store for a replacement.  Go ahead.  I dare you.

The question isn’t, is this real. The question is, how far will it go.  Of course it’s real.  The whole world is reacting to it.  I’m just not going to worry about something that isn’t really anywhere near me yet.  If lots of people in Eastern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire start getting sick then I’ll batten down the hatches and ride it out.  Until then, I’m going to keep going to work, and keep going to the store, and keep breathing the air.

Having said that… first sign of a fever and I’m locking myself inside.  Even if it’s not Covid-19, you won’t see me adding to any potential panic.  Unlike the trump nazi cult, I actually look out for my fellow humans when I can.

Although… a little self quarantine would give me lots of time to play the guitar and get caught up on all of my television shows.  It would also allow me to continue live blogging the new Cream album.  I didn’t plan on doing that, it just sort of happened.  I still have two discs to go.  Sorry my posts weren’t in real time.  I could have time stamped them and everything.  Oh well.  Maybe the next time a 60’s band releases a new box set.

In closing, here is a picture of my cat being adorable.
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Oh What a Relief – #RPM2020

This morning I packed my computer, a microphone, a pair of headphones, and a USB interface into the car and drove off to a parking spot behind The Loop in Methuen and recorded four songs worth of vocals.  I had the lyrics and melodies written already so it wasn’t too painful an experience.

When I was done (meaning, when the battery on my MacBook was approaching death and I had to go pee so bad I could taste it) I went home and started working on lyrics and melodies for the last four songs.  The first of the two were kind of interesting and one of them I purposely made pretty difficult as a bit of a challenge.  After those two I was really getting tired so I threw the last two together pretty quickly and they are just as bad as that sounds.

After that I hung out with my step son for a while, and made some late lunch/early dinner for the love of my life, and then (after double checking that the MacBook’s battery was back to 100%) I went back to The Loop (a different section of the lot behind the building this time) and cranked out the last four.  I got a little over confident for a bit and a couple of the songs have THREE part harmonies instead of my usual two.  Sick.

So where does RPM stand now… Four songs mixed, three songs ready to mix, three songs needing saxophone, and four needing lead guitar.  Once the full boat is mixed I am going to go back to six of the acoustic songs and add bass guitar, drums, and lead guitar and then remix them.  If I don’t finish that by March 1st I won’t worry about it, I just need to make sure I get a complete mix of each song before I start messing with alternates.  Well, more alternates.  I already have two different mixes of one of the acoustic songs.

I need to have all of the remaining guitar and saxophone finished before we leave for Disney World.  I will have my MacBook with me on the trip so I can sneak in a mix before bed each night, and if I am out of my mind crazy I might even sneak a couple in on the plane.  Then I will take full advantage of the leap year day and mix anything that’s left over once we’re home again.

Is any of this stuff good?  Well, no.  That’s not the point though.  The point of RPM, as always, is that it didn’t used to exist but now it does exist.

There’s still the issue of the half-a-song left for FAWM.  FAWM is 14 songs in 28 days, so for the leap year they say it’s 14.5 songs in 29 days.  Does that mean I have to sneak in one more?  If I do it’s either going to be simple, or 36 minutes of noodling and noise for the Blind Chaos thing I mentioned a few days ago.

I wouldn’t say I’m almost done, but I’m past the one humongous hurdle with time to spare.  I feel happy.

In closing, here is the view from this evening’s “studio.”

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Flying iPad

I learned something interesting tonight.

Apparently, my iPad Pro (its the smaller version, not the gigantic one) can fly.

No, really.  My iPad Pro can fly.

It’s a little after 11:00 PM on a Sunday night.  I’m tired.  I’ve had a long, stressful weekend and I need sleep.  Unfortunately, I have a load of laundry running and I can’t go to sleep until I flip it into the dryer.  This is really a typical Sunday night thing for me.

So I’m sitting up in bed.  My beloved bride is lying next to me, sound asleep.  I had just finished watching the season finale of Star Wars Rebels and decided to see if there were any NHL games still going out on the West Coast.  There was, the Rangers were visiting the Ducks.  I put the radio broadcast on and leaned back against the headboard.

Next thing I know, my iPad has launched itself away from me and is flying across the room.  The headphones came unplugged from the device but the ear pods are still in my head.  The crash as the flying iPad landed on the floor to the side of the bed was deafening.  Or, at the very least it was loud enough to wake my wife.  I look down and I can see the smart cover on the floor, but no iPad.  It has literally flown away.  I had to get down on the floor, but I found it underneath my wife’s dresser.

Aparently as I dozed off, my brain somehow managed to jerk my body awake.  In doing so, I must have flung the iPad away from me.  Fortunately the only issue I can see is that the screen got nice and dusty from sliding under the dresser.  Otherwise, all is well.

So let’s all tip our hats to those who designed and manufactured the (smaller version of the ) iPad Pro, for they have created a device that can fly halfway across some fat red head’s bedroom without getting a scratch on it.

Thanks, Apple!