A Geek Goes Flying

Trump I’m no political analyst. I’m just a random, with random thoughts. A friend who lives in Austin, Texas (where she moved, ultimately, from Carson City, Nevada) texted me after the election results last night: “THIS is why we don’t flee.... We fucking FLIP. NV is whole ass blue now not purple.” Which got me thinking. Are these shifts durable, and not one-offs as a result of the incompetent leadership and policies of this deeply flawed and unpopular president and his goose stepping Congress, afraid of Trump eliminating their political viability for any perceived “disloyalty” (see, e.g., his call in to Fox last night , discussing Conryn¹)? In Michigan, probably? In Texas and Kansas, I’m skeptical. I don't think this election makes many of these areas “blue,” as much as “not as red, this one time.”  The NYT headline isn’t “Shift among Texas voters suggests Texas is a blue state now,” it’s:  ‘An Earthquake’: A Democratic Rout Stuns Texas . Trump endorsed Paxton, a deeply flaw...

In lieu of an Altoids tin  I prompted ChatGPT: “ Create an STL file for a box, internal dimensions at least 2" by 2" by 1", with a slide to close lid with a small catch so it doesn't slide open without a little effort. ” This is the result:  sliding_box_print_plate.stl.base64 ¹ Happy with it so far, and it stopped yet another truck roll (to deliver, IDK, some small Pelican case or something that would be overkill, and probably $20 shipped etc.). Huzzah. I have a tweak or two I might want to make at some point, like maybe a small hole in the middle of the lid vs. the half-circle at the edge, to make removing it easier. But as a first attempt, I like it, and it keeps all the little bits and bobs from floating around loose. The design Being printed Holding a Bluetooth receiver, picks, USB stuff... Installed on the pedalboard _____ ¹ To decode into an STL file, on a Mac or in Linux, in Terminal run:  base64 -d -i  sliding_box_print_plate.stl.base64  -o  sliding...

I may have to invest in a 3D printer ... No, I’m not going to do that. The last thing I need is another expensive hobby that I dive into with gusto and then it takes a back seat to the next shiny object ... But still, it’s tempting, especially with how easy it is to have ChatGPT whip up an STL file for me.  Wireless transmitter guitar strap clip.  My first foray into 3D printing was to grab Andrew King’s perfect Line6 Relay G10TII Guitar Strap Clip STL file  and send it over to CraftCloud . Neutrik D-type Patch Panel.  My second came about on the tram going from the parking structure to Disneyland, when I gave ChatGPT this prompt: Design an STL file for a 3d printer for a right angle patch panel. The top piece should have two symmetrical holes centered on the short edge, each hole centered behind the neutrik d-type mounts. The top piece should be .75" deep. The side must have holes for two side by side neutrik d-type connectors, orient both d-type openings the same ...

First I put together a pedal board to support my NUX MG-300 MKII. I ordered a Ghost Fire Standard 1.0 from Amazon, which USPS routed to Torrance for some reason (30+ minutes away), and it never got here. So Amazon shipped another one, which arrived. Cool.  Then I needed a volume pedal, as the volume control for the NUX is buried in menus and, patched into the FX RETURN input on my Marshall MG50RCD combo amp , or the AUX IN on the back of my Roland MicroCube  (which runs perfectly hanging off the DC output from the ISO Power Block , I had no volume control on the amp. I ordered a HOTONE on sale. That was also routed by USPS to Torrance. (?!?!) So Amazon sent out another one. That one went out UPS, though the tracking number Amazon provided has never been recognized by the UPS website. Amazon’s own tracking shows only “carrier delay” in Lodi (half a state away), 11 days ago, no update since then. So they sent another one! That one finally arrived. Then as I got into working wi...

I’m a big fan of Homebrew , and install it on every Mac I setup. Including my totally rebuilt MacBook Air M2 (AppleCare+ FTW), which came back to me running Tahoe. I was lowkey shocked to see this on the Homebrew website: “Homebrew supports macOS (Sequoia 15 and newer)...” Damn. I have a 15" MacBook Pro still running Monterey I want to upgrade at some point to whatever makes the most sense for that old warhorse; I was kind of thinking Sonoma, actually. Sequoia will probably run fine. (The only note on the OCLP page is that it has legacy Metal support, which, so does like half of my machines.) But still. Feels like they dropped support for macOS 14 and earlier really quickly. Intel support has apparently also been moved to “ Tier 3 ” support and is considered legacy, even though macOS X86_64 still represents about 14% of the users (with Apple Silicon users about 60%), for the 30 days 9/12–10/12/2026. Can shit stop moving so quickly, especially when it’s not strictly necessary? Th...

Ghost Fire board with gear mounted The rehearsal rig  To avoid lugging around my gargantuan FM3 setup (and cram it into a tight rehearsal space), I setup my NUX MG-300 MK II with some appropriate presets, added wireless with the B-5RC kit , and proceeded to hook it up to my 50 watt Marshall G50RCD combo amp, via the FX RETURN input (to avoid additional coloration, etc., from the pre-amp). Problem: Now I have no volume control, except the one on the guitar itself. I’m also not wild about constantly connecting/disconnecting the DC input on the back of the NUX (those 5521 barrel connectors wear out and/or break off, AMHIK.) So, being me, I decided to build up a small pedal board for this setup.  Asked ChatGPT¹ to find me a reasonably sized board that would accommodate the NUX and a Duncan DVP1 pedal, which is ... large. 12+" deep. Ghost Fire STANDARD 1.0  seems like it will fit the bill, and I like that it comes with a carrying case and some hook and loop tape, etc. (thoug...

Updated the NUX MG-300 MK II to Firmware 3.0.0 Gen2 (scroll down on the NUX page). Also installed NUX Quick Tone V2.6.7.16 (macOS) (ditto), and setup a couple of presets. (An aside: I need to look into “scenes” more. Watching this video , it seems like navigating between scenes and presets would be clunky, but there must be some reason to use them...?) Playing with my first NAM A2 capture and this board, specifically, this Marshall JCM 900 . Before a NAM capture can be assigned to an amp block, you have to import it into one of the 10 dedicated slots, using this button on the top of the QuickTone app’s window: Still learning my way around, but suddenly glad I decided to keep this thing (and sell the MG-101, even if I did only get a few bucks for it). Added a B-5RC receiver/transmitter pair to use with this board at rehearsals. (I was eyeing used Line 6 POD Go Wireless units, which bundle a receiver and G10TII transmitter, but if I’m also going to be picking up the bass for some songs...