A Geek Goes Flying

I have a somewhat involved office setup, that looks something like this: My 2021 MacBook Pro 14" is connected to a: →   Cable Matters USB C Hub DisplayPort 100W, 4K@240Hz (USB C DisplayPort 1.4 Hub), 480Mbps Ethernet, 2X USB , which in turn is connected via a:    →   IVANKY 3ft/1m DisplayPort Cable, DP to DP 3.3ft, 4K@60Hz, 2K@165Hz, 2K@144Hz  DisplayPort cable to a:      →  Unitek DP KVM Switch 1 Monitor 2 Computers USB 3.0 8K@60Hz KVM unit, which uses another:        →  IVANKY 3ft/1m DisplayPort Cable, DP to DP 3.3ft, 4K@60Hz, 2K@165Hz, 2K@144Hz  DisplayPort cable to a:            → Dell UltraSharp U2412M 24-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor   The 2012 Mac Mini (OCLP patched and running Sequoia) is connected via a Cable Matters 4K Mini DisplayPort to DisplayPort Cable , to the KVM, and through the KVM to the Dell. It works perfectly. The MacBook Pro keeps blanking the screen, for ~...

Picked up the NuPhy Air 60 v2 , tweaked with shine-through keycaps (though oddly the set doesn’t include the right “shift” key, so I’m stuck using the old, colorway-mismatched, non-shinethrough cap for just that one key). I opted for the Moss switches , and so far I like them well enough. Anyway, I picked this up as my older Air 75 wasn’t physically compatible with my current laptops (daily drivers are a 2021 MacBook Pro 14" and an M2 Air 13.6"), and since I’ve gotten so used to HHKB layouts normally (several Tokyo 60s and a KeyChron Q60 Max, mostly), I wanted VIA remapping capability so at least I could, e.g., swap '|\' and 'backspace' (muscle memory is a bitch).  Air60 v2 on a 2021 14" MacBook Pro I got it. I finally got it figured out by actually, you know, reading the instructions . First you have to download a JSON file from Nuphy (is it NuPhy? IDK...), then toggle the Design Tab in settings under usevia.app, then upload the JSON in the Design Tab,...

After having uBreakiFix (Asurian) swap out the spicy pillow OEM battery for ~$100, I dropped another $60 or so into this mostly pristine 15.4" MacBook Pro (bought new just as they were f inally discontinuing them in 2018 ) to bump the SSD from the stock 256GB to a cool 1TB using a Western Digital Blue SN580 drive and a Sintech NGFF M.2 nVME SSD Adapter . With some room to play, I decided to triple boot the thing: macOS Monterey, the last version officially supported by Apple. (Debating using OCLP to bump it to Sequoia...) This occupies the bulk of the storage, with 617 GB allocated. macOS High Sierra, the OS it shipped with. This lives on a relatively tiny 128 GB partition and really only exists for legacy software. (Might make sense to bump this to Mojave, which will still run 32-bit software?) Linux (255 GB partition). I’m going to try Ubuntu Budgie LTS (24.04.1). I setup Monterey first using Apple’s over-the-Internet restore functionality. I then built a High Sierra insta...

I’m finally embracing Thunderbolt. Most of the machines • I’m using these days has at least this port: Side view of Apple laptop highlighting Thunderbolt 1/2 port MacBook Air 13" 2012 (Core i5 1.8 GHz, 8GB RAM): Thunderbolt 1 (10 Gbps), Mini Displayport connector MacBook Air 11" 201 5 (Core i7 2.2 GHz, 8GB RAM, Crucial 1TB SSD ): Thunderbolt 2 (20 Gbps), Mini Displayport connector, backwards compatible with Thunderbolt 1 MacBook Pro 15.4" Mid-2015 (Core i7 2.2 GHz Quad Core, 16GB RAM, 256 GB SSD): Thunderbolt 2 MacBook Air 13.3" 2020 (Core i7 1.2 GHz Quad Core, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD): Thunderbolt 3 (40 Gbps)/USB 4 (USB-C connector) MacBook Air 13.6" (M2 3.49 GHz, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD): Thunderbolt 3 MacBook Pro 14" (M1 Pro 3.2 GHz, 16 GB RAM, 512 SSD): Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps)/USB 4 (USB-C connector) The idea was to be able to swap in a laptop into my corner workstation (eventually, when I get the Mac Pro running again, with a KVM (with Extended Di...

Install Monterey.app icon The space bar on my MacBook Pro M1 Pro 14" was binding, so Apple replaced it. But then the fingerprint reader didn't work. So Apple fixed that. Eventually, I got my computer back, but with a 0-cycle battery (yay!) and wiped storage with a fresh install of Venturfa (booo!). I'm not a fan of Ventura and want to use Monterey for as long as I can (I also have three 2015-era machines that max out at Monterey, officially). So... (All of this was done on a 2015 11" MacBook Air i7, running Monterey, using a double-ended Lexar USB A/C flash drive . The instructions came from Apple , actually. I don’t know why I thought Apple Silicon would be harder to “downgrade” than an Intel Mac; maybe because installing updates on Apple TV devices, iPads, and iPhones, etc., is usually a one-way street?) Over to Mr. Macintosh for an installer file for 12.6.8 . % curl -O https://swcdn.apple.com/content/downloads/50/44/042-15015-A_XSTTRTW8H4/cu5mniyv6jsu0h806qoqt5qtlu...

Tripodsy standing desk with MacBook Pro A trip to Mammoth validated my concept of a portable office. (Of course, this trip we ended up in a condo with a desk, making the standing desk less of a requirement - though still useful - and rendered the collapsible stool superfluous. But, this condo doesn't have a Keurig, so now I’m thinking: Amazon Basics Compact Dual Brew Single Serve Capsule Coffee Maker . But I digress.) Stuck inside while an atmospheric river dumps snow outside (the picture here was taken on the third floor!), I’m getting work done with the following setup: Tripodsy standing desk , that I carried up in a 24" duffel bag : Apple MacBook Pro 14" with a ShaggyMax screen protector and Speck FlapTop sleeve (says it’s for the 13" Air and it fits that, too, bu the MBP 14" fits perfectly). NuPhy Air75 with brown switches, shine-through keycaps and revised logic board . (I’m not sure I’d use this keyboard like this again. The brown switches aren’t my ...