When I see a bunch of people talking about a specific problem on message boards with no clear answers, I feel obligated to write a blog post as a public service so that others may avoid the suffering I experienced in solving it. This is one of those posts (check out all the confusion out Continue reading iOS 18 and Apple Pencil wonkiness replace your tip
I believe in human creativity and don t expect (or at all want) the robots to take over any time soon when it comes to making art in any medium. Every art has technical aspects, though, and if you re working solo and trying to figure out how to express oneself, it is easy to get bogged Continue reading Guitar Pedal Assistant
I got a Tonal a few years ago and it has been a life-changing machine. I ll go into some detail in this post as to why I feel that way. One of my pet peeves when I read product reviews is the review that evaluates a complex product in too short of a time period Continue reading Tonal home gym review
The Internet can be an ugly place but beneath all the noise of social media, it can still be a beautiful place. In recent months, I ve found myself spending some late nights and early mornings on YouTube going deep on an amazing piece of music gear I got for my birthday this year: the Roland Continue reading My first YouTube video: be the Internet you want
One of the most misguided notions I ve seen in my life is that in one s career and education you have to choose between a technical path and a non-technical one. It is a false choice. Anyone who has worked with a great engineer who also is a gifted communicator knows what I mean. In an Continue reading Technology *and* liberal arts
I haven t written code every day for many years but every now and then, a project emerges that requires a little bit of coding. This tends to happen about once a year. In the past, the cost of revving up the coding engine could be pretty high: None of the above is hard in a Continue reading ChatGPT as a programming assistant for infrequent coders
A couple of weeks ago, I found myself standing in line at a store in Oaxaca, Mexico that sells boxes and packing tape. I was at the tail end of a one-week trip and I had three bottles of mezcal and two packages of mole that weren t going to make it back unless I packed Continue reading Language gaps as an opportunity to connect
I almost never do podcasts but when the Omni Show called and asked me to talk about a piece of software that has been essential to my life for 15+ years (OmniFocus) I had to say yes. OmniFocus is how I manage my day-to-day life and I couldn’t live without it. Here is how they Continue reading Talking about OmniFocus on the Omni Show podcast
You might have heard a couple of weeks ago that NY Governor Kathy Hochul came out in favor of banning gas stoves starting in 2030 or 2035, depending on the nature of the project. This kicked off a firestorm of alarm, consternation, and misinformation, adding another log to the culture war fire. I ll leave the Continue reading Gas vs. electric stoves: notes from my own direct experience
As more of our lives depend on Internet access, it has become increasingly important that the Internet be up all the time. Most providers are pretty solid these days but no provider is perfect. My primary provider has few outages but I ve had at least two multi-hour outages and occasional 5-minute glitches. I work mostly Continue reading Home setup of two Internet providers with automatic failover