∞ Apple Support: How to turn on AirPods Pro Conversation Boost:
In a million years I would not have figured this one out. Watch the video below, see if you agree. This is some pretty low discoverability.
That said, props to the Apple Support team for making this video. Very well explained.
[There’s almost no way I’d remember all those steps… but at least they made the video.]
Source: The Loop
iPad Pro Magic Keyboard trackpad suddenly stops working:
I had the same problem, 2018 iPad Pro running 13.5.1 with the Magic Keyboard. Removing the both the iPad and the USB-C power cord from the keyboard (i.e. no power going to the Magic Keyboard from any source) seems to reset things enough to get it to start working again.
[I’m marking this just for me to find again. It doesn’t happen very frequently for me, but when it does I never remember exactly what to do… (of course, now I will)]
Source: Apple Community
Dear Liberals, Stop Trying to be the Good Guy.:
Stop talking about the altruism of food stamps and start referring to it as national security. Hell, move the food stamp budget over to national security because, and here’s the kicker guys, IT IS. When people eat, they tend to be a little slower with the pitch forks. It’s no coincidence that 25 percent of the insurrectionists had recently declared bankruptcy. Poor people are desperate. Desperate people are dangerous. FEED THEM.
“This not going to go the way you think…”
‘Bad Company’ by the Group Bad Company, from the Album ‘Bad Company’ – Lost Art Press:
Two lessons: Big business will try to bully you. They will try to decide when to pay you. They will decide how your pricing should work. They will ask for special treatment compared to your smaller customers.
Don’t give in. Once you start treating your customers differently, you are in for a world of drama and deceit. Whenever we get asked for special treatment, I simply remember what Jennie Alexander always said: “’No’ is a complete sentence.”
The second lesson: Pay your vendors on the day you get their invoice. When someone drops off work they did for us, they leave with a check. When an invoice arrives, John pays it the same day.
Vendors remember this. And if you’ve wondered how we kept so many of our products in stock during the pandemic shortages, you now have your answer.
These folks are such a pleasure to deal with, and they produce (and write) some of the best works in the field. The books themselves are a joy, beautifully designed, printed and bound. I must repeat this line… it’s so important! “Jennie Alexander always said: “’No’ is a complete sentence.”
Does Kenny G Make Good Music? | The New Yorker:
Perhaps his most outspoken critic is the jazz guitarist Pat Metheny, who once referred to Gorelick’s work as “lame-ass, jive, pseudo bluesy, out-of-tune, noodling, wimped out, fucked up playing,” and described Gorelick’s version of Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” as “a new low point in modern culture—something that we all should be totally embarrassed about—and afraid of.”
Regardless of what you think of Kenny G or Pat Metheny, I greatly appreciate an honest opinion. So much of the interactions I witness have pulled punches and unsaid truths because it won’t do to upset the apple cart. You don’t have to be mean or rude. But once you’ve lost the impact and core what you mean to say, you might as well say nothing…because that’s the end result. All your words wind up being meaningless. The above is not new, it happened years ago. But it was refreshing to run across it in what I thought was going to be a half a puff piece promoting the new film. Nice!
I came across this article because, in the Internet sense of knowing someone, I know the author. I can assure you that neither of us would know the other if we sat across a table from each other, but I purchase books and tools from her husband’s companies and then the Internet takes over.
So autism. It’s not easy on the parents, it’s not easy on the child, and without kindness from others it’s a total mess. There. I’ve wrapped a heart wrenching and complicated topic in a few short sentences. Time for you to read: Cutting with kindness.
That’s a beautiful story. But let’s extract the autism for a moment. When I was growing up one of the things I was taught was “patience”. Now patience, like all things, has a balance to it. There’s the “it’s not all about you” patience. And then there’s the “put up with other’s crap” patience.
I know I’m far less patient (both kinds) with my family than with not family or strangers. I expect more from the people closest to me, and so I have less patience with their needs. And, of course, I feel safer expressing myself in glorious detail, dissecting exactly how their actions affect me with possible means for rectification. Feels kinda backwards to me right now after reading that story. As I’ve said before, living an examined life is a PITA.
The lesson here however is not in being more patient, kinder, and understanding to children with autism. Although everyone should be more understanding of the families it’s not my point. Also, there will always some people whose problems are too deep—who will take whatever you offer no matter how much. Let’s avoid discussing that problem…it’s one side of the bell curve. So, the point is… it can only improve my life to continue to be ever more aware of people’s needs and respond kindly, thoughtfully, with ever greater awareness.
I have long envied people who stick to their morning rituals. Or maybe they rely on them. I find the world highly ephemeral. I try not to rely on anything I don’t feel compelled to rely upon.
So I’ve watched over the years, now that people share, in the Instagram perfection of it all, their rituals, if not daily, then at least over time what appears to be a daily thing.
The first action of the day might be making coffee. They grind, froth, stir, and ease into their day. Some get kitted up and cycle to their favorite spot where they meet others of similar ilk and collectively drink and eat a bite of something before whisking off on their daily ride.
Lots of folks I know head quietly to their workshop of choice. Wood, pottery, metal–it matters not. They spend some time making things that they or others may cherish for years to come, a tribute before heading off to work. Sometimes it’s a wish, a hope, or prayer that they can spend more time doing the creative activity they love.
My mornings have been defined by external factors for a long time. Garbage and recycling 3 times a week. Getting DaKid™ on the school bus. Sometimes commuting. But not much in the way of taking a few moments to greet the day.
I have a pile of gifts that I’ve been making in my little wood shop for a while. Some of the folks have been waiting years for their gifts to be completed. Sad. So terribly sad. Last year and now this year have been banner years for completing projects. Bookcases, a dining room table, and now the gifts are all being finished. And while it’s a tiny fraction of what it used to be, I’m even working on some new music.
I find new rituals establishing themselves. After taking care of the other stuff (garbage, School bus, etc.) I make my way to the shop and spend a few minutes adding another coat of shellac to a board. Or some other not very risky task. Risk takes time. I need to be able to back away, think, come at it again. There’s little time for that in my morning.
Shellac is a beautiful finish. A bit high maintenance for some, but beautiful. I use very thin coats and many of them. Each day another thin layer is applied. It’s probably dry in ten of fifteen minutes, but work beckons, and so I don’t make it back there until the end of the day. It is ritualistic. I go down there, flick on the lights, put one glove on like a drunken surgeon, uncap the canning jars, one with shellac, one with the cloth pad. A few swipes later, and I’m done for now. The jars are lidded, and the glove, turned inside out as I remove it, goes in the trash.
More recently, as I began composing some new music, I started practicing again. I sit down, grab an instrument, turn on the metronome and lose myself in exercises for 15 or 20 minutes. Amazingly peaceful for me. A touchstone from an older aspect of my life and a meditation. And probably something I should every day for the rest of my life. It’s not “playing” or “performing”. It’s a simple discipline where I work toward increasing facility. Playing things that are hard for me now until they become smooth and easy. A new picking technique. A hard to play phrase. A difficult intervalic leap. A few concentrated minutes that stops time outside of my focus before the day is in full swing. A morning ritual.
I wanted to write about what this election is about to me… and I assure you it’s not about parties, candidates, media news cycles, or predictions.
Here’s what I think this is about… it’s about getting small. It’s about realizing that growth is not the only answer to how you improve your life. It’s about doing and creating things that other need, without allowing that to become more important than family, friends, and making the most of the unknown amount of time you have.
Think about the following…in 2008 when you were spending $4 a gallon for gas. It took me back to 1973 when waiting on a gas line (and no cell phones!!) was a thing. Even the folks driving us to school waited on line with us kids in the car, because you needed every advantage. Even if we put up with things like fracking (oh heavens, no), and giant oil lines running across our wilderness (please, have a little respect) we’re running out of oil, no matter which way you want to look at it.
Global warming? It’s not a future problem, it’s a now problem. Please take a few minutes to read through this, and you’ll understand why I say that. The drawing makes it abundantly clear. I know it impinges on the way people want to live their lives, and I feel bad about that. But not so bad that I lose sight of where we are headed to the best of our knowledge. It’s not even a “we’re good, let our kids worry about it” problem—which is venal enough… it’s a now, like we really need to change our behavior problem. When you mix that with the rapidly diminishing oil reserves, and it represents a clarion call to action. Even if all the scientists are wrong (How could that be? All of them?), are you willing to the bet the only inhabitable planet we all live on that they’re all wrong, and that with no particular proof you are correct? C’mon. That’s nuts.
So one last item, the collapse of the banks. Displaying a singular lack of integrity they based their choices on a crazed belief (as is the anti-global warming crowd) that things will not change. That they way things have been recently is all there is. That at the very bottom, in the ooze and muck of “me first”, the personal interest ($$$) of the individuals in the banks is far more important than the needs of anyone or everyone else. They cannot be trusted any more because their interest is uncoupled from yours by an abyss so vast that you cannot expect them to act in even a vague notion of alignment to your interests, which they claim to represent.
We need to stop thinking that the answer to everything is growth. Bigger is not better, and we should stop painting ourselves into a corner that leaves no room for any other answer. Why don’t we ever consider shrinking? Why can’t small be not only good but great? And better or best! Why can’t less really be more? The answer, of course, is it can, because it relies on community, and alignment of values and concerns.
So the election… I’m thinking about the above. I’m thinking about folks who are remarkably not represented in any way shape or form. I’m thinking about folks who just want to live their lives with the dignity and respect accorded others. I don’t see a clear party or candidate that represents “less”, “smaller”, “more simple”. I do not hear anyone talking about moderation, preservation, and talking about a gradual approach to anything. Well, maybe they all talk about gradually increasing taxes in one form or another. But that’s it. So go vote, and do the best you can. That’s as close to a plan as I have for this election.
Some comments on The Anarchist’s Design Book:
Which brings me to my final point. Schwarz has been one of my favorite go-to writers for matters of technique for well over a decade. With this book, (and to be honest, this really snuck up on me) he’s also suddenly sitting as one of my favorite designers. These pieces are all based in historical research, and standing on the shoulders of centuries of other makers – but the results are, to my eye, most definitely his. I’ve been looking at iterations of the desk and chair above, both in photos and in person, for months now, and I think they’re some of my favorite designs of recent memory. And they’ve only gotten more appealing to me over time – which, to me, is the key hallmark of really good design.
[If you the read the piece I wrote on ratios it would be very easy to know all my interests intersect. Music, cooking, coding, baking, woodworking, photography, and others have a thread woven through them for me which I endeavor to exploit. The technical similarity makes for a warm welcome. And while ratios bring some rigor to the process, in the end they inform the process of design and composition and can be extracted from designs as well. A tool on the road to making a point that comes and goes like a barn swallow. The Anarchist’s Design Book. That’s aesthetic anarchy. Not the stuff that passes for anarchy in the news these days. You don’t have to build furniture or work with wood to be impacted by Schwarz’s books. It’s as much about eliminating consumerism, stewardship, and the cost of things. The tool chest in the first book in this series was a metaphor as much as a reality.
And if you love beautiful design rendered as tools, go convince Raney to sell you something. You won’t regret it.]
Now is the time when we get to decide if we have a right to privacy and security, and the limits of our government for the digital age. It won’t happen because of public statements by tech leaders. No, it’s up to us to make our opinions about online privacy and security known to our elected representatives, in order to determine the limits of policing (and protecting) by consent.
In fact, you have an opportunity to weigh in right now. A bill has been introduced in New York State that would ban the sale of smartphones within the state unless they can be decrypted and unlocked by the manufacturer. It’s astonishingly misguided, and for those who want express their disbelief that elected representatives could be so ignorant of technology (and geography), you can set up an account with the New York State Senate, vote against it, and even leave comments.
Then, just sit back and wait for the next ignorant statement or misguided piece of legislation, because these issues aren’t going to be resolved easily, quickly, or definitively.
[I’ve nothing to add here. Go let your feelings be known!]
turnings :: daniel berlinger 