• Podcast Clients

    April 6, 2016 / No Comments

    So while my Mac is out of commission, I’m using my Windows computer as my main computer. Honestly I could really use any operating system, 99% of what I do is in the cloud. My one dilemma was a podcasting client. For audio podcasts, phone apps have them covered. There are lots of good podcast downloading apps for phones. I however watch a ton of video podcasts on my computer too. All of the desktop podcast clients all seem to be old, outdated, and buggy. I couldn’t find any decent ones for Windows. Am I the only one still downloading podcast to a computer?

    I found a great solution though. Since everything I do is in the cloud, why not use a cloud client? There are a bunch of them, but I settled with Pocket Casts web version. It’s pretty slick. I don’t know why I never though of a cloud client before. Now I can watch my video podcasts on any computer, and everything is kept in sync. Podcast apps sure have come a long way since 2004.

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  • Mac Crash

    April 5, 2016 / No Comments

    On Saturday something got corrupted on my Mac’s boot drive. It wouldn’t run ten minutes without crashing. It’s no big deal, I got backups, I just have to reinstall the OS. I was booting off an external SSD because the internal hard drive on Mac Minis are slow as hell. SSDs have really come down in price, so I’m going to use this opportunity to upgrade the internal drive to a 1TB SSD. Surgery day is scheduled for Friday. It’ll be a pain in the ass, but I’ve upgraded cell phone batteries, so this shouldn’t be a problem either.

    Wish me luck.

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  • New Car

    April 2, 2016 / No Comments

    We are in the market for a new car. Our Jeep is 12 years old, and while it’s in good shape, we’re ready for an upgrade. We’ve been looking around, but don’t really know what we want. I really want our new car to include Apple’s Carplay, but few cars have it yet. I hate the Ford Sync system in my truck. I don’t believe car manufacturers know how to make a user friendly interface. I want a system that will be upgradeable also. If Carplay and Android Auto work like they say, updates on the phone will carry over to the car stereo.

    This week Tesla announced the Model 3. It’s starting at $35,000, so it’s the first Tesla that normal people can afford. It’s on the upper limit of what we want to pay, but we could pull it off. The deal breaker though is the distance limitations. For people living in a big city 200 miles is probably fine, and for us around town it’s fine too. The problem is Minneapolis is 240 miles away, and we go there quite often. We would be stuck using my gas guzzling truck for all our road trips. So then what’s the point in spending that much on a car that can’t leave town?

    I really want an electric car, but this time around, they aren’t quite there yet. They need increased range, plus who knows how much more limited the range will be in our cold weather. Maybe our next car in 12–15 years will be electric.

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  • IFTTT and Pinboard

    March 31, 2016 / No Comments

    I’ve been saving links into Pinboard since 2010. Thanks to IFTTT I have a nice system going where all I have to do it add a link to Pinboard and it will then be Tweeted and posted to my blog. I also have a few dozen other IFTTT recipes that make life a lot easier. Now that IFTTT is getting more popular they are changing a little bit the way they work and because of this Pinboard will no longer work. The creator of Pinboard explains it all.

    I took Maciej’s advice and moved my Pinboard IFTTT recipes to Zapier, and I really like Zapier so far. It’s just like IFTTT, but I found it easier to setup and use. I wish I could move totally over to Zapier, but they aren’t totally free. I don’t have a problem paying for a service like this, but Zapier’s lowest tier is $20 a month. That’s a little more than I want to pay, so for now Zapier will just be for my Pinboard automations.

    I hope Maciej is correct and more IFTTT type of sites pop up. Maybe the perfect one for me isn’t here yet.

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  • New coworker

    March 30, 2016 / No Comments

    We have a new employee at work. I haven’t met her yet because I’ve been on the night shift. Yes, it’s a her. I work in a predominantly male profession, but it doesn’t have to be. I mostly sit in front of a computer or work in the lab.

    We hired a woman a few months back and she didn’t work out. Everybody thought it was because she was a woman and that we should never hire another woman again. I cringed at that thought. I say you hire the best person for the job despite what their genitals look like.

    I give my bosses credit for hiring another woman. She was up against a military vet and they chose her because she had the schooling. She actually went to the same school I did.

    I’ve been doing some Google stalking, and it looks like she is gay too. I think that’s awesome. We need more diversity around here. I can imagine all the horrible things some of my coworkers are going to say behind her back. Fuck them. I’m excited to meet her Tuesday.

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