A Geek Goes Flying

We’ll see if this setup survives the onslaught of The Puppers™ but I’m optimistic.  ESP Ltd single cut on Hercules stand Hercules GS405B SHOKSAFE stand (“features a shock-absorbing system [and] the yoke and cradle are flexible and secure to fully protect the instrument”), affixed to the perforated side of this credenza-ish thing with thin gauge aircraft cable . 🤞 ( Astrid II once tried to burrow under the cheap (also: inexpensive) Amazon Basics stand I had there before, to get to a ball that rolled under... Sigh...) The Office Guitar™ has returned... (And, I mean, I paid $150 used for this axe, so if it *does* do a faceplant I’ll survive... But given the design of the stand, and that I have it anchored, again, I think it’ll be fine 😌 ...) The anchor Honorary mention: The D&A Starfish also appears to be fairly topple-proof, but wouldn’t “catch” the guitar, and so I didn’t fully trust it would have been effective when the dogs are wrestling. Still, looks like a good ...

I’ve been using an ancient (2004?) Think Outside XTBT01 (a/k/a iGo Stowaway) Bluetooth pocket keyboard, and it does the job well enough. I like that it uses AAA batteries and won’t be eWaste when the battery chemistry eventually degrades past the point of usability. But. It’s kind of a cramped keyboard, the “Del” key being right next to the right arrow key f’s with my muscle memory, and it’s rare and expensive enough I think twice about taking it places where it might genuinely be useful. So. When I found the Rovinda Foldable Bluetooth Keyboard for $25 on Amazon, I decided to give it a spin. (I really wanted to try the  ROYAL KLUDGE F68 for the low profile mechanical switches, but the 12" length meant it wouldn’t fit in a Loungefly , and it would be otherwise pretty awkward to carry out and about in most circumstances.) I like it well enough. I need to re-learn how to type (using the home row this time, not whatever it is I’m doing now). It folds up nicely, it’s compact and...

For the Listening Station™, intentionally constrained by the dimensions of the IKEA Knarrevik ($10 when I got it), I needed to put the Schiit stack on top of the 2014 Mac mini I’m using as an audio source. Unable to find a ready made solution that did what I wanted, I hacked this together Parts / tools: 6061 T651 Aluminum Sheet Metal 10 x 10 x 1/8(0.125") Inch Flat Plain Aluminum Plate ($15) Sign Standoff Screws Advertising Screws Stainless Steel Wall Standoff Mounts Glass Acrylic Nail, 8 Pieces (0.75 x 1.96 Inch) ($9) DEWALT Drill Bit Set, 14-Piece, 135 Degree Split Point, For Plastic, Wood and Metal (DWA1184) ($10) A 7.2V Black & Decker cordless drill I already had ( $27 at Walmart? Edit: Found the original receipt; it was $19.88 in 2007); roughly equivalent to this I think ($29), but if I was doing it again I’d get something like the beefier 20V MAX Cordless Drill (BCD702C1) . Shooting glasses I had lying around ( equivalent to these ) ($11). The stand-offs being .75...

Not sure why it took me more than 0.1 seconds to figure this out, but when in doubt, RTFM ... Had to hit the “Default” button at the bottom of the list of profiles and now whenever I open Terminal.app or (while using the application) open a new window, it opens using my super-kewl l33t theme. Terminal.app running my l33t theme   MacBook Air stand with keyboard, mouse, timer Meanwhile, I’m liking the combination of a Moft Z stand with a Tokyo60 keyboard (black colorway, with Boba U4 switches and Cyber keycaps) , Pebble mouse , and Remy's Ratatouille Adventure Kitchen Timer ‡ . The MacBook Air is a 2012 Core i5 1.8 GHz with 8GB RAM and an aftermarket 256GB SSD, with a small High Sierra partition and the rest setup with Monterey courtesy OCLP . (The power cord is a USB-C to MagSafe 1 adapter connected through the Apple MagSafe 1 to 2 converter , currently hanging off a 100W UGREEN wall wort .) (I’m killing time while watching paint dry emails sync from our hosted Exchange server (...