Blog

Short blog posts, journal entries, and random thoughts. Topics include a mix of personal and the world at large.

Okay, I get it now

My job brings me opportunity to sample many a different computing hardware from over the generations, which can be a good thing or bad thing. Whenever the latest newness arrives in our offices, I’m obviously tempted to buy one for myself. Indeed that is in part how I’ve come to be typing on this 16-inch MacBook Pro: I noticed what a leap it was over the old 15-inch version, and how it’s truly the best large MacBook Pro since the beloved “retina” - the one with all the IO ports. So I end up spending money I wouldn’t have otherwise, all because of exposure at the workplace.

Yesterday I happened to be working on a 2018-vintage MacBook Pro, which is largely similar to the one I previously had. Immediately I noticed what a horrible experience it is to go back to typing on the “butterfly” keyboard. It felt like typing on a bed of rocks: stiff, unreassuring, and super awkward. The “magic” keyboard in the 16-inch MacBook Pro (and every Mac laptop in the current lineup) is vastly superior on typing feel alone, never mind the supposed reliability improvements. Positive feedback from the keys is so important, and the old butterfly keyboard is utterly lacking.

Granted, I didn’t hate the typing experience when I had my 15-inch MacBook Pro - with the butterfly keyboard. The shortcomings of the keys, in terms of feel, can be overlooked once you get used to it. Besides, I didn't really have anything better to compare it to until this year when the new 16-inch laptops started arriving at work, and I got to experience what an improved alternative is like. People say comparison robs you of joy; I would say it also robs you of your hard-earned cash. In an alternative universe where I don’t work in tech support, I’m sure I’d still be happily using my 15-inch MacBook Pro, and my wallet wouldn’t be out of a two grand.

I just hope the cycle doesn’t continue: what if the forthcoming Apple silicon Macs prove to be equally irresistible? Perhaps I should make a declaration…

One laptop to rule

So I recently purchased a 16-inch MacBook Pro as a “one laptop to rule them all” replacement for both my 2017-vintage iMac and 2019-vintage 15-inch MacBook Pro. Admittedly this is a bit of a frivolous expense because I could have simply sold the iMac and kept the still relatively new 15-inch laptop as the main workhorse. But, who doesn’t like the latest and greatest things, am I right? Buying the 16-inch MacBook Pro allowed me to do something I’ve wanted to do for the longest time: custom spec a laptop to what I need, rather than anchoring to a certain purchase price (read: being cheap). If this is indeed one laptop to rule them for a long time, then might as well go for it fully.

The primary extra cost is the two terabyte SSD upgrade over the paltry 512 gigabyte standard issue. I want to fit my extensive collection of music and the back-catalog of digital photos - some 800 gigabytes worth - right onto the same MacBook Pro, rather than storing them on an external drive like I have done since the Mac mini I bought back in 2014. With this new laptop I no longer have to plug in a drive anytime I want to listen to music or edit pictures, and I have to say it’s well worth the extra cost for this convenience. This 16-inch MacBook Pro now quite literally holds my entire digital life.

Don’t worry, it’s very well backed up.

Some of you may ask why would I buy current 16-inch MacBook Pro when the entire computing world knows Apple will soon be releasing laptops running their own silicon chips, rather than the current Intel products. There’s much expectation the future Macs with Apple silicon will run rings around the Intel chips both in terms of speed and efficiency, so why I didn’t I simply wait a bit? Why buy what is surely the last of a dying breed of laptops?

Because I am of the mindset that you should buy what you need right now, instead of constantly waiting for that’s next. You’ll never be disappointed if you get what you need right this moment, and use fully that particular thing’s potential. You wouldn’t have time to think about whether or not something new is on the immediate horizon, and that you’ll be missing out on something better, if only you had waited. One constant in the tech world is that improvement is always coming up next, so if the fear-of-missing-out emotion is strong in you, then you’ll never be satisfied no matter how long you wait.

I bought what I wanted right now and am enjoying the new machine immensely. For sure the Apple silicon Macs will be brilliant, but future potential is not something for the present me to fret over.

Good news!

Great news: our dear pet cat does not have cancer!

Frequent readers would know that our kitten has been dealing with a stomach issue, leading him to not eat or drink much, and therefore losing weight relatively massively. We took him to the doctor a few weeks back, and found a critically inflamed intestinal tract. As a precaution, a biopsy was taken to check for potential lymphoma. Results came back early last week, and it confirmed it’s but only a bad inflammation, nothing more serious. As of this writing, the beloved cat is well on the mend and back to his old cheery self.

The past week is one of much anxiety for different reason. I had ordered a custom MacBook Pro to replace both my old MacBook Pro and iMac desktop - one laptop to rule them all, if you will (hello, Tolkien fans). The laptop arrived fortuitously on Thursday, which I was lucky enough to be home to receive as it was a day I was designated to not physically go to campus. Of course, with a fresh new piece of tech to entice me, I couldn’t wait until I was properly off work hours to get started with the data migration, so I started to multitask.

Let me be the umpteenth person to say: multitasking does not work. The brand new laptop distracted me from work all the way into Friday, because there was a snag with transferring my huge music collection (I don’t do streaming). As someone who practices the buddhist art of going with the flow of life and patiently waiting for events to play out, when reality presents me with an opportunity to put it into action, I utterly failed. The “unfinished” state of the new MacBook Pro was such a distraction that I had trouble going to sleep until the data transfer was finally completed on Saturday.

Indeed it can be tough sometimes to have patience, even when you know a particular process will take a bit of time. I am the type of person who would constantly check shipping updates, agonizing over each detail: I dropped the package off at the post office an hour ago - why hasn’t the tracking reflect this? Oh my god, what if they lost the package?! I get quite antsy when various things are in progress, and won’t find peace until those things are brought to a conclusion and taken care of. But that’s a false promise, isn’t it? Life continues on and will continue to bring more things and challenges.

As always, it’s a work in progress.

Trading it in

In the quest to consolidate and simplify my life, in preparation for the time when COVID is over and we all go back to what once was normal (as of this writing, hopefully early next year?), I am selling my barely a year old 15-inch Macbook Pro. The laptop was bought as a bandaid option during a difficult time last year - when my main computer the iMac was unceremoniously taken away from me - and as specified it doesn’t fit what I need going forward. While indeed I am taking a rather huge chunk of loss in depreciation, sometimes in life you have to spend the money to get what you want.

I am stingy 95% of the time so I can afford to spend somewhat frivolously during the small 5%. Exhibit A: the GT3.

Anyways, the 2019 version of the 15-inch Macbook Pro is a fantastic machine, but the reason I am trading it in (for cash to be used on a future Macbook Pro) is because the particular unit I bought is lacking in storage space and memory. Apple’s largest laptop is appropriately expensive, and speccing for larger SSD drives and extra RAM increases the price rather dramatically. It was an emergency situation at the time of purchase of my 15-inch unit, so I didn’t have the foresight (or money, honestly) to spec the machine the way I would have liked. “Poverty spec” - the absolute base model - was what I ended up purchasing.

Armed with only a 256 GB SSD drive, space becomes precious really quickly, especially dealing with 100 MB RAW files from the Sony A7R2 and 4K footage from the GoPro. I am not able to fit my music collection onto the main drive itself, because it would take up half the room. To listen to music I had to plug in an external drive, which is slightly burdensome and a hassle if I wanted to move the Macbook somewhere off the desk. The goal with whatever Macbook Pro I buy in the future is to opt for enough hard-drive space that I can fit the entirety of my digital life onto the laptop and still have vast amount of space in reserves for my photography and video projects. I want to be able to just grab that one computer and take everything with me wherever.

One laptop to hold them all. Tolkien would be proud, I’m sure.

You're getting a Dell!

At work, we are imaging a whole bunch of Dell laptops in preparation for the looming Fall semester (still remote, mind you), and I have to say there’s nothing quite like the intoxicating smell of brand new computer hardware. Don’t worry, it’s not just Dell machines - the sweet scent of Apple computers will come hopefully in a few weeks’ time. For now, it’s Windows laptops made by Dell, and in handling over a few dozen of them over the past week, I’ve come to one concluding revelation: it’s so nice to have various type of ports built into the a laptop.

I am the biggest Apple fanboy as there is, but even I have to admit the decision to feature only USB-C ports - and nothing else - on the Macbook line is a massive inconvenience, especially in the education environment. Back last year when my main machine was a Macbook Pro, each and every time I needed to import photos from my camera via SD card, I would forget that I first have to get the USB-C to SD card adapter out of the drawer. Were it a Dell machine - or any typical PC laptop, really - I’d be able to stick the card right in, no fussing with adapters. The hashtag “dongle life” is a real thing, and can get massively annoying.

Most annoying is in classrooms when users need to connect to a projector or television; we never get calls from PC people needing an HDMI adapter, because most of them have it built right in - it’s always Apple users who need a dongle for practically everything. A laptop with many type of ports is a convenience I didn’t realize I wanted until I had to image a load of Dell laptops recently, juggling between many USB (type A, obviously) sticks and ethernet cables. Add to that the ability to upgrade hard drive and memory by the user, and it’s a small wonder why I stuck with Apple laptops even after their transition to USB-C ports only.

Oh right: build quality. The precision assembly of a Macbook Pro is second to none (ignore the episode regarding the butterfly keyboard), and the equivalent Dell feels chunky and flimsy in comparison. “Why does the display lid need to be this thick?”, you’d ask, and “Why is the keyboard deck not absolutely rigid?” Of course, depending on the person, this may or may not be high on the list of things that matter to you in a laptop; for me, how tactilely wonderful a Macbook Pro is to hold and use is worth the hassle of dealing with dongles all the time.

The Macbook Pro got refreshed?!

Such is the state of the current situation that yesterday Apple released an update to the 13-inch Macbook Pro and I didn’t find out about it until this morning. Without the ability to gather into fancy auditoriums to launch products - replete with a live video of course, these silent releases from Apple get lost with all the other more pressing news that’s going on right now. Maybe this isn’t the time to get excited about a refreshed laptop when a fifth of the country is unemployed, and the economic outlook is massively uncertain.

Personally, I am not looking to spend money on anything that isn’t essential. This is not meant as criticism towards those of you who are lucky to still be employed, and the dreariness of being stuck at home every single day is best interrupted by a few joyful online shopping sessions. I’ve heard from a podcast that distributors of aftermarket automotive parts are having their best month, because the bored enthusiasts with money are finally getting around to their respective car projects.

If only I had a garage.

Anyways, the newly updated 13-inch Macbook Pro signals the final phase-out of the much-maligned ‘butterfly’ keyboard. Every single new laptop Apple now sells has the revised ‘scissor’ keyboard mechanism that promises to not commit seppuku at the first hint of a bread crumb. As an owner of a 2019 15-inch Macbook Pro, I have to say I dearly love the typing feel of the butterfly mechanism, though indeed I have to clean the deck religiously because I don’t want it to fail. Like an Italian sports car, when it works, it performs beautifully, but more often than not it’s going to be in the shop for repairs.

But car enthusiasts love Italian sports cars; I’m pretty sure I’m the only one who loves the butterfly keyboard - its terrible reliability be damned, and am sad to see it sunset into the annals of Apple’s audacious failures. I’m certainly going to enjoy typing on my Apple laptop for many more years to come; now is not the time to upgrade to the latest and greatest simply because I have the money.

Fancy seeing out these British exports in Guangzhou.

Not too much to ask

Today is one of those days where I don’t have one concrete topic to write about, so here comes a string of thoughts until I’ve achieved the appropriate length for one these blog posts.

My 2017 era iMac is middle of the line in specs with extra memory installed, yet somehow it’s struggling to run Adobe Lightroom smoothly. There’s a noticeable pause between toggling a setting and having it reflected on the image I’m working on. My 2019 era 15-inch Macbook Pro does not have this lag, which is baffling because there can’t possibly be this much advancement in processing power in the span of two years. The blame is squarely on Adobe for putting out a product that can’t run smoothly on a two-year old high-end computer.

Then again, Lightroom was never known for its smoothness and efficiency. Sadly, I can’t move away from Adobe to something like Capture One because my entire catalog since the very beginning of my photographic journey is in Lightroom. Having to migrate and learn a new system is more bothersome than whatever deficiency Lightroom has running on “old” machinery. So I simply deal with it; I could move all my editing work to the newerMacbook Pro, but the 27-inch screen real-estate of the iMac is difficult to give up.

Indeed this is a first world problem, but it’s a problem nonetheless. I get the sentiment of detaching from our issues and taking a different perspective when people remind us that our problems are of the first world variety; it’s a good exercise to remain humble and see that maybe the significance of an issue isn’t what we had initially assigned. However, it’s wrong when people use the “first world problem” refrain as a dismissal of what others are dealing with, as if taking another perspective would magically make the problem go away. That’s not how it works.

Perhaps my particular example of griping about the speed of Adobe apps is hilariously trivial even for first world standards, but let’s see you try editing through hundreds of photos while dealing with the lag. Those seconds of waiting for the interface to respond can add up really quickly. Professional photographs aren’t upgrading their computers every year, so I think the onus is on Adobe to make sure Lightroom doesn’t run slowly on PCs and Macs alike that aren’t of latest iteration in hardware.

I’m not holding my breath.