I love the sound of my H120, and of the rest of the system. Even now, I will still look up and think by heck that sounds good. In the same way I would hear the old system and think it's not quite...right, is it?
I stream through a Sonos Connect connected via an optical cable, or an iPad connected via USB.
Since I don't live in a fancy Norwegian house that had Cat 6 cable wired in along with the mains when it was built, and the Hegel doesn't have Wi-Fi (and that was not a deal-breaker) I have a wi-fi extender to connect it to the home network.
In theory I could use AirPlay, but until the last update that never seemed to work. Now it does.
The bit where I choose the Hegel from my Air volume control and the amplifier switches itself to Network and some You Tube commentary comes out of my hi-fi is truly... cute.
But...
But...
But...
The Hegel refuses to play with the other kit on AirPlay. I can group my Sonos One's and the Beam, because they support AirPlay2, but choose the H120 and everything else falls off.
Guys!
You made it work with Spotify Connect.
AirPlay 2 is how Apple offers multi-room hi-fi without having to do all the deals Sonos has done... let me explain that.
Sonos has done deals with a bunch of providers to the effect "You send individual streams to each of the Sonos items our customers have, and we will incorporate your service into our pretty darn fabulous app. Oh, and we sell a LOT of kit." Someone will be kicking back to someone on this deal, but I'm guessing the amounts are fairly small.
Sonos have patented the multi-source, multi-destination, grouping and independent volume control stuff. Google lost a lawsuit badly to that effect in 2021. Apple doesn't have more cash than Croesus because it pays licensing fees to competitors. That's why AirPlay runs through the controlling iDevice and only handles one stream at a time: to avoid the Sonos patents. Apple licenses AirPlay to anyone who asks, so a lot of other hi-fi manufacturers use it to provide multi-room and save themselves the trouble of developing their own. All the streaming service apps offer AirPlay integration. Why pay Sonos when you could be getting paid instead?
I can live without AirPlay, and mostly do. But it would be nice to have the option to do real multi-room streaming to include the Hegel.
Tuesday, 1 February 2022
Friday, 28 January 2022
That M1 Mac Air Though
My trusty early 2015 Mac Air, has begun doing odd things every three or so weeks. A complete screen glitch in the middle of a YT video felt like an advanced warning. So I ordered an M1 Air.
Then my bank sent me a message saying that it had cancelled the payment instruction because fraud.
I called the number I had for these occasions, and the agent told me that this happened a lot with Apple, John Lewis, Curries and a couple of other retailers. If someone gets your card and orders from those guys, they can do a lot of damage in a short time. They choose those guys because they can resell (on eBay presumably) readily. If they bought an X-E4 from Fuji, it's going to be a while before that shifts. Fair enough, if inconvenient. The bank's agent asked me to make another order so he could make sure this payment went through. Not to worry about the first order, Apple would cancel that when they saw the payment was cancelled.
You can guess what happened. I got one Air delivered and the money taken from my account. I noticed that there was still another payment outstanding. I called the bank. Not to worry, they said, it's just a delay because New Year.
Nope. A couple of days later I got another message from DHL saying they would be delivering my Air. I called Apple (in fact, their outsourced customer handling company) explained the situation, and their agent was totally calm and competent, told me to refuse delivery when the courier arrived, and set a return and credit in motion. All of which went through within a couple of days.
So when the bank cancels your next payment to a retailer, cancel the order as well. Do not assume the retailer will notice.
Anyway.
Everything they say about these M1 Airs is true. It's even smaller than the previous one. The keyboard is terrific, and only Apple make trackpads this good. The screen is just pin-point wow!
The stereo sound system is using some psycho-acoustics that puts voices in the middle of the screen, but then ventriloquises background sound as coming from the left and right walls. Music videos have the music in the middle, though it feels like they are using a `spatial' effect that I last heard on a ghetto-blaster in *cough, splutter*.
After making up an old-school what-I-need-to-transfer-and-install list, I found out about the Migration Assistant. See, that's why we all pay Apple prices. It's not for the kit, it's for the eco-system. It's because they put a tonne of work into developing a program that we would only use twice in the life of the machine, once at the start to import everything from the old machine, and once at the end to export it to the even newer one. Everything came over, and everything works, except for a program called LatextIt!, which is probably searching for some files somewhere they aren't any more.
On the hardware side, I got an Anker multi-adapter for USB-A and card readers, plus additional USB-C ports.
Then I tried ripping some CDs.
My Air told me the USB-A CD drive needed power (the Anker supplies power, the USB-A HDD was running) and I should plug my kit into a USB-C port on the laptop. But. But.
OK. Order a USB-A to C adapter so I can plug the USB-A CD drive into the other USB-C port. Arrives via Amazon Prime in less than 24 hours. Plug in. Yea! Works.
This Air turns into a desktop sprawl if you want to do rip CDs, or read an SD card. The rumours are that the next iteration will have extra slots and an SD card reader, and the Magsafe (which I have not felt the need for so far) port.
I am, however, a happy customer.
Then my bank sent me a message saying that it had cancelled the payment instruction because fraud.
I called the number I had for these occasions, and the agent told me that this happened a lot with Apple, John Lewis, Curries and a couple of other retailers. If someone gets your card and orders from those guys, they can do a lot of damage in a short time. They choose those guys because they can resell (on eBay presumably) readily. If they bought an X-E4 from Fuji, it's going to be a while before that shifts. Fair enough, if inconvenient. The bank's agent asked me to make another order so he could make sure this payment went through. Not to worry about the first order, Apple would cancel that when they saw the payment was cancelled.
You can guess what happened. I got one Air delivered and the money taken from my account. I noticed that there was still another payment outstanding. I called the bank. Not to worry, they said, it's just a delay because New Year.
Nope. A couple of days later I got another message from DHL saying they would be delivering my Air. I called Apple (in fact, their outsourced customer handling company) explained the situation, and their agent was totally calm and competent, told me to refuse delivery when the courier arrived, and set a return and credit in motion. All of which went through within a couple of days.
So when the bank cancels your next payment to a retailer, cancel the order as well. Do not assume the retailer will notice.
Anyway.
Everything they say about these M1 Airs is true. It's even smaller than the previous one. The keyboard is terrific, and only Apple make trackpads this good. The screen is just pin-point wow!
The stereo sound system is using some psycho-acoustics that puts voices in the middle of the screen, but then ventriloquises background sound as coming from the left and right walls. Music videos have the music in the middle, though it feels like they are using a `spatial' effect that I last heard on a ghetto-blaster in *cough, splutter*.
After making up an old-school what-I-need-to-transfer-and-install list, I found out about the Migration Assistant. See, that's why we all pay Apple prices. It's not for the kit, it's for the eco-system. It's because they put a tonne of work into developing a program that we would only use twice in the life of the machine, once at the start to import everything from the old machine, and once at the end to export it to the even newer one. Everything came over, and everything works, except for a program called LatextIt!, which is probably searching for some files somewhere they aren't any more.
On the hardware side, I got an Anker multi-adapter for USB-A and card readers, plus additional USB-C ports.
Then I tried ripping some CDs.
My Air told me the USB-A CD drive needed power (the Anker supplies power, the USB-A HDD was running) and I should plug my kit into a USB-C port on the laptop. But. But.
OK. Order a USB-A to C adapter so I can plug the USB-A CD drive into the other USB-C port. Arrives via Amazon Prime in less than 24 hours. Plug in. Yea! Works.
This Air turns into a desktop sprawl if you want to do rip CDs, or read an SD card. The rumours are that the next iteration will have extra slots and an SD card reader, and the Magsafe (which I have not felt the need for so far) port.
I am, however, a happy customer.
Tuesday, 25 January 2022
Tom Torero
Before you read a lot further, listen to this
(Video taken offline by his Executors)
I met Tom Torero in the summer of 2019, for a lunch arranged by a mutual acquaintance who wanted me to explain how to do lifetime bachelorhood. I tried, but I probably failed. Tom was aware of the legal hazards of relationships, but he seemed to be repeating the words, rather than believing it. He had a strong presence and a confident manner that made you want to like and trust him. Yes, I knew about the dodgy infield with the French girl. I could imagine him standing in front of a Year 10 history class. Like a lot of PUAs, he believed in love, that there was someone or two with whom one could have a long-term relationship that retained its romance, and that was what he was looking for, and was disappointed that he had not yet found it.
Tom describes how he re-invented himself in his twenties, physically and psychologically. I did something similar in my thirties, hitting the gym and going to AA Meetings. Physical re-invention is work, but it shows results quite quickly, can be enjoyable and becomes a positive part of your life. Except legs day. In my experience, psychological re-invention is a lot harder, and more fragile. I learned new behaviours and mind-sets, I can shrug my shoulders at things that in the past would have had me fuming, but the basic structure of my soul remains unchanged: I only look normal on the surface. Psychological re-inventors look as if they are in spiritual balance, but it's unstable, whereas Normies are stable. Maintaining an unstable balance all day can be tiring. One trick is to stay away from situations where you might be thrown off.
The Newsweek article could have been written about Rollo Tomassi, or Steve Jabba, or Krauser, or Richard Cooper, or a dozen other people. But it wasn't. It was written about the kid with acne and bottle-glasses, because that's who bullies go for. It was a reminder that for all his work on himself, inside, he was still that kid, and the bullies could see it. And he had nothing else, not even a day job to pay the rent and leave enough over to put aside for old age. He was 41. Being broke and unemployed at 41 is scary - ask me how I know. He was driving round Europe in a van, living off heaven only knows what. It looks like freedom and it smells like fun, but it feels like being on the run. Any therapist would have unhesitatingly referred him to someone else.
Nobody knows why people commit suicide: it's not like we can interview them.
It's a damn shame. He was a decent guy who had come a long way by his own hard work. A lot of people are expressing how much his ideas and teaching meant to them. He lives on in their memory, which is where immortality is found.
I met Tom Torero in the summer of 2019, for a lunch arranged by a mutual acquaintance who wanted me to explain how to do lifetime bachelorhood. I tried, but I probably failed. Tom was aware of the legal hazards of relationships, but he seemed to be repeating the words, rather than believing it. He had a strong presence and a confident manner that made you want to like and trust him. Yes, I knew about the dodgy infield with the French girl. I could imagine him standing in front of a Year 10 history class. Like a lot of PUAs, he believed in love, that there was someone or two with whom one could have a long-term relationship that retained its romance, and that was what he was looking for, and was disappointed that he had not yet found it.
Tom describes how he re-invented himself in his twenties, physically and psychologically. I did something similar in my thirties, hitting the gym and going to AA Meetings. Physical re-invention is work, but it shows results quite quickly, can be enjoyable and becomes a positive part of your life. Except legs day. In my experience, psychological re-invention is a lot harder, and more fragile. I learned new behaviours and mind-sets, I can shrug my shoulders at things that in the past would have had me fuming, but the basic structure of my soul remains unchanged: I only look normal on the surface. Psychological re-inventors look as if they are in spiritual balance, but it's unstable, whereas Normies are stable. Maintaining an unstable balance all day can be tiring. One trick is to stay away from situations where you might be thrown off.
The Newsweek article could have been written about Rollo Tomassi, or Steve Jabba, or Krauser, or Richard Cooper, or a dozen other people. But it wasn't. It was written about the kid with acne and bottle-glasses, because that's who bullies go for. It was a reminder that for all his work on himself, inside, he was still that kid, and the bullies could see it. And he had nothing else, not even a day job to pay the rent and leave enough over to put aside for old age. He was 41. Being broke and unemployed at 41 is scary - ask me how I know. He was driving round Europe in a van, living off heaven only knows what. It looks like freedom and it smells like fun, but it feels like being on the run. Any therapist would have unhesitatingly referred him to someone else.
Nobody knows why people commit suicide: it's not like we can interview them.
It's a damn shame. He was a decent guy who had come a long way by his own hard work. A lot of people are expressing how much his ideas and teaching meant to them. He lives on in their memory, which is where immortality is found.
Friday, 21 January 2022
Welfare Mothers, Neil Young
Welfare Mothers make better lovers. That's the chorus. Try Googling for some interpretations and a saddening majority of the answers suggest that Neil Young is a) attracted to welfare mothers, b) thinks that other men should be attracted to welfare mothers.
(Shakes head slowly, sighs)
The live version has an interlude in which the Welfare Mother is eagerly awaiting and then receiving her cheque from the Government. It's clearly her only source of income.
This is not a Single Working Mom, that heroine-figure of Late Feminism / Capitalism(*). This is not Sienna Miller in Burnt - which is very silly and very watchable film.
This is an unemployed woman who made some very bad choices and can't make her way out of the consequences.
I've said before that Normies simply don't see Screw-Ups, and so never get involved with them. The way Screw-Ups know they are Un-Screwing themselves, is that they stop being attracted to other Screw-Ups, and begin to wonder how they could ever have been attracted to Screw-Ups. (OK, so, maybe because Hot, but Hot and Only Hot is a One-Night Stand, not a relationship.)
So those people thinking Neil Young was commending welfare mothers to them?
Screw-Ups.
I bet the chorus line was a bumper-sticker. If it wasn't, it should have been.
It was Neil Young being sarcastic.
(*) Drop me a line if you ever work out the difference between the two, mod rhetoric.
(Shakes head slowly, sighs)
The live version has an interlude in which the Welfare Mother is eagerly awaiting and then receiving her cheque from the Government. It's clearly her only source of income.
This is not a Single Working Mom, that heroine-figure of Late Feminism / Capitalism(*). This is not Sienna Miller in Burnt - which is very silly and very watchable film.
This is an unemployed woman who made some very bad choices and can't make her way out of the consequences.
I've said before that Normies simply don't see Screw-Ups, and so never get involved with them. The way Screw-Ups know they are Un-Screwing themselves, is that they stop being attracted to other Screw-Ups, and begin to wonder how they could ever have been attracted to Screw-Ups. (OK, so, maybe because Hot, but Hot and Only Hot is a One-Night Stand, not a relationship.)
So those people thinking Neil Young was commending welfare mothers to them?
Screw-Ups.
I bet the chorus line was a bumper-sticker. If it wasn't, it should have been.
It was Neil Young being sarcastic.
(*) Drop me a line if you ever work out the difference between the two, mod rhetoric.
Tuesday, 18 January 2022
Don't Stop The People, Outlaw The Dinghies
No dinghies, no immigrants.
The French, or the EU, pass a law that requires all dinghies - which will be very broadly defined - must be licensed, and that any dinghy out on the water must be operated by a Licensed Dinghy Operator (LDO) or an employee of a Competent Dinghy Owner (CDO). CDOs are Goverment organisations such as the Police, Customs, Immigration, Lifeboats and so on. Non-CDO licensing will be done at the local police station, and getting an Operator's licence will require an examination held once a year in a small hall in Clermont-Ferrand Only EU nationals can license a dinghy, and registration must be made by an LDO or the competent applicant (CA) of a CDO. Competent applicants must be company secretaries. Anyone with a Master's Ticket is automatically an LDO. A dinghy must display a license with the name of its LDO / CDO. Oddly, these licence documents will only be available to French organisations: the gendarmerie will always be waiting for those to arrive.
Unlicensed dinghies are subject to immediate confiscation by the French Police. Selling a dinghy to anyone who is not an LDO/CDO is illegal, as is transporting unlicensed dinghies. As you can guess, practically every dinghy not on a ship or used by a government organisation, will be unlicensed.
Now when the French Police see a bunch of people huddled around a dinghy, they can move in, confiscate the dinghy, and leave. No need to ask for anyone's papers. No need to get involved in debates about illegal immigration or anything else. They're just taking the dinghy. And leaving Gaston behind to make sure nobody brings another dinghy out from behind the shed.
If the dinghy does make it into the water, the French can go after it, make them turn around, confiscate the dinghy, and leave everyone else on the shore. Nobody is stopping illegal immigrants illegally immigrating. It's just an administrative law. Nothing personal.
The French, or the EU, pass a law that requires all dinghies - which will be very broadly defined - must be licensed, and that any dinghy out on the water must be operated by a Licensed Dinghy Operator (LDO) or an employee of a Competent Dinghy Owner (CDO). CDOs are Goverment organisations such as the Police, Customs, Immigration, Lifeboats and so on. Non-CDO licensing will be done at the local police station, and getting an Operator's licence will require an examination held once a year in a small hall in Clermont-Ferrand Only EU nationals can license a dinghy, and registration must be made by an LDO or the competent applicant (CA) of a CDO. Competent applicants must be company secretaries. Anyone with a Master's Ticket is automatically an LDO. A dinghy must display a license with the name of its LDO / CDO. Oddly, these licence documents will only be available to French organisations: the gendarmerie will always be waiting for those to arrive.
Unlicensed dinghies are subject to immediate confiscation by the French Police. Selling a dinghy to anyone who is not an LDO/CDO is illegal, as is transporting unlicensed dinghies. As you can guess, practically every dinghy not on a ship or used by a government organisation, will be unlicensed.
Now when the French Police see a bunch of people huddled around a dinghy, they can move in, confiscate the dinghy, and leave. No need to ask for anyone's papers. No need to get involved in debates about illegal immigration or anything else. They're just taking the dinghy. And leaving Gaston behind to make sure nobody brings another dinghy out from behind the shed.
If the dinghy does make it into the water, the French can go after it, make them turn around, confiscate the dinghy, and leave everyone else on the shore. Nobody is stopping illegal immigrants illegally immigrating. It's just an administrative law. Nothing personal.
Friday, 14 January 2022
Forming Habits Instead of Setting Goals
Despite all the hype, a salaryman doesn't need any self-discipline or inner drive. What he needs is the ability to grind and the fortitude not to run screaming from it all.
Consider how my waking days went. 05:15 - 08:00: wake up, breakfast, commute, sit in cafe, walk to work; 08:00 - 16:00: work; 16:00 - 17:30: travel to gym and work out; 17:30 - 18:45: commute; 18:45 - 21:30: supper and maybe watch a movie or a couple of episodes of something.
That leaves about two hours free time in the evening.
How much effort did I have to put into filling my time?
None. My big decision was what to read on the train.
Now I don't have a job.
Now I have to make decisions?
One thing I know: direction, plans, goals, and self-discipline are not the tools I need.
That's externalising one's motivation: it's why gurus say we should tell our friends what we want to achieve and have them "keep us honest".
That's how jobs work.
The way our time works is that there are things we have to do, and having done those (aka "been productive"), we do things we enjoy doing. Which doesn't mean lazing in the sunshine - though I bet it does on the Northern Mediterranean coast - and could mean doing things that are challenging in Millennial-speak. I'm not sure what kind of challenging I would be interested in, but I'm pretty sure You Tube rabbit holes aren't it. Or spending too long reading the newspaper (on my iPad, of course).
I think the trick is to do the compulsory stuff (exercise, walk, food shopping, cooking and cleaning) first and early, and then I have the rest of the day to do anything or everything else.
Which is a habit it will take a few weeks to form.
Consider how my waking days went. 05:15 - 08:00: wake up, breakfast, commute, sit in cafe, walk to work; 08:00 - 16:00: work; 16:00 - 17:30: travel to gym and work out; 17:30 - 18:45: commute; 18:45 - 21:30: supper and maybe watch a movie or a couple of episodes of something.
That leaves about two hours free time in the evening.
How much effort did I have to put into filling my time?
None. My big decision was what to read on the train.
Now I don't have a job.
Now I have to make decisions?
One thing I know: direction, plans, goals, and self-discipline are not the tools I need.
That's externalising one's motivation: it's why gurus say we should tell our friends what we want to achieve and have them "keep us honest".
That's how jobs work.
The way our time works is that there are things we have to do, and having done those (aka "been productive"), we do things we enjoy doing. Which doesn't mean lazing in the sunshine - though I bet it does on the Northern Mediterranean coast - and could mean doing things that are challenging in Millennial-speak. I'm not sure what kind of challenging I would be interested in, but I'm pretty sure You Tube rabbit holes aren't it. Or spending too long reading the newspaper (on my iPad, of course).
I think the trick is to do the compulsory stuff (exercise, walk, food shopping, cooking and cleaning) first and early, and then I have the rest of the day to do anything or everything else.
Which is a habit it will take a few weeks to form.
Tuesday, 11 January 2022
Goals and Plans For 2022
So given my prediction for 2022, and my expectation that what has rightly been called Covid Theatre will continue to 2025, what the hey am I going to do to improve my life in 2022? Never mind onwards?
I started to think of some things I might do, and halfway through thought these are all tweaks. What would not-tweaks look like?
When I made a list, with the usual items such as part-time work, I spotted the commonality: all of them were about adopting something out there to provide structure, meaning and direction to my life.
Let's see, I did that for 43 years.
How did it work out?
It was so wonderful that...
I don't miss my day job. I don't miss seeing the people. I don't feel lonely and I don't feel like my mental health is deteriorating.
I already did the one thing most guaranteed to improve my life.
I retired.
I have three daily goals: 1) stay sober, 2) stay as fit and healthy as I can, 3) occupy myself with whatever takes my fancy from time to time.
Maybe you would do something far more worthy and virtuous.
You do you, and I'll do me.
For the first time in 43 years.
I started to think of some things I might do, and halfway through thought these are all tweaks. What would not-tweaks look like?
When I made a list, with the usual items such as part-time work, I spotted the commonality: all of them were about adopting something out there to provide structure, meaning and direction to my life.
Let's see, I did that for 43 years.
How did it work out?
It was so wonderful that...
I don't miss my day job. I don't miss seeing the people. I don't feel lonely and I don't feel like my mental health is deteriorating.
I already did the one thing most guaranteed to improve my life.
I retired.
I have three daily goals: 1) stay sober, 2) stay as fit and healthy as I can, 3) occupy myself with whatever takes my fancy from time to time.
Maybe you would do something far more worthy and virtuous.
You do you, and I'll do me.
For the first time in 43 years.
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