As with all its services, Apple offers no real troubleshooting when iCloud Drive synchronization stalls in macOS. Glenn Fleishman encountered a problem that took months to diagnose and fix. In the process, he went through the wringer of trying nearly everything suggested online, via Apple support, and from colleagues. In the end, the magic that fixed it was undisclosed engineers.
Source: Cloudy with a Chance of Insanity: Unsticking iCloud Drive – TidBITS
At heart, I’m a Linux guy. For many tasks, I use Emacs (a popular editor among some developers due to its extensibility), with Orgmode as my primary means of managing tasks, recording time, jotting down notes and, at times, trying to manage my calendar.
But there were several problems with this. Firstly, the only mobile client to sync Orgmode files with reasonable reliability, was MobileOrg. Sadly, this project has been discontinued for a while, and to my knowledge it hasn’t yet seen a superior successor. In addition, Orgmode is a great calendar within Emacs, but it’s not so strong outside. And while MobileOrg was “ok”, it didn’t present information in a convenient, easily-interpreted way.
In short, having a text-only, Linux/Android-only solution, was awkward.
Part of the appeal of Orgmode and MobileOrg was being able to keep all data within one’s own infrastructure. As one of MobileOrg’s features is to “sync files from an SSH server”, and Emacs has TRAMP for accessing network locations, this made it possible to get each end talking with the other, and the synchronisation was generally reliable.
But in some ways, using Emacs, Orgmode and MobileOrg – to achieve data security and ultimate privacy – is arguably a case of the tail wagging the dog. Was this the only private-data solution? Probably not. Was it the most convenient? Was Orgmode the right tool for many of life’s repeatable, short-lived events? Definitely not.
Despite trying to use only free, libre & open source software to address this requirement, around 2016 it started becoming clear that simpler solutions existed – albeit involving proprietary software of some kind. Certain diehards might scoff that, if some software only exists in proprietary form, it’s inherently evil and you must build a free/libre version. But such ideals are rarely achievable when your needs as a new parent and business owner outweigh most others.
As I pondered my motives, it became clear to me that controlling my data was more important to me than controlling the tools.
For years on Android, I used CalDav and CardDav syncing tools, which were proprietary plugins that presented calendar and contact “providers” to the OS. These worked great, but finding equivalent staples on Linux was somewhat harder. The time had arrived when I needed desktop access to calendar, task and contact management, that wasn’t based in an Office365 tenancy.
The right move here was to set up Nextcloud. On my small personal hosting box at DigitalOcean [discount referral link], I set up a virtual server to run Nextcloud. Nextcloud provides calendar, tasks and contact databases that are conveniently accessible through CardDav & CalDav.
As I had to work on a Mac in order to test websites in Safari (which accounted for at least 9% of traffic, and often more), it was useful to have syncing of this data there too. And this, unlike some of my earlier grumpiness with all things Mac, was actually a pleasant surprise: macOS actually had great support for CalDav and CardDav.
Do I get the solution I need? Yes. Does it sync well? Yes. Am I happier? Yes.
Not only that, but the downside of Orgmode syncing was that it worked best if restricted to two-way communications. If you added a third or fourth client and tried syncing between all of them, it would quickly become a clusterfunk.
Is Apple the enemy? Well, probably. But better the devil you know, sometimes. Due to the ease of synchronisation with tasks, contacts and calendar in macOS, I slowly warmed up to the idea of replacing my ageing Samsung Galaxy Note 4 with an iPhone. So I did. And arguably, for this requirement, it was a good choice.
Does this mean I’m no longer a Linux guy? Oh no, not at all. I still have my ThinkPad T420S, which was a side-grade replacement for my chunky T420. I use it every day in my work as a Senior Systems Administrator, for one of the UK’s top universities. I still use Emacs and Orgmode as a daily driver for tasks and coding.
But at home, my wife and I share a calendar and contact list across Android and iOS, thanks to the support of industry standard protocols.
Controlling where the data is has served us pretty well.
Less clicks, saved time
Source: Let’s get rid of double-clicking! Apple, Microsoft — please do something!
This is why I hit on @apple. From the article:
This situation has some prominent Mac users up in arms. Forum posts have been popping up at various locations since Mojave’s release and last month, a petition that currently has over 2,800 signatures landed on Change.Org urging Apple and Tim Cook to work with NVIDIA.
— Read on www.forbes.com/sites/marcochiappetta/2018/12/11/apple-turns-its-back-on-customers-and-nvidia-with-macos-mojave/
Lunchtime at Apple Park just got a whole lot more exciting ? pic.twitter.com/GJFcOsIB4C
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) August 16, 2018
But … judging by the slow speed, I’d say they have a cooling problem on those motors… /s ? #thermalgate
Marie Kondo’s bestseller, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up, is quite an inspiration. She takes what is, essentially, a slightly mundane activity – decluttering – and transforms it into a ritual; a rite of passage for one who wants to transcend from disorganised hoarder, to cleansed, enlightened minimalist.
Ok, perhaps that is slightly strong an example, but this is the idea. The KonMari method of tidying is quite simple: do this, then do that. Kondo hand-holds her reader through the treacherous caverns of uncertainty and out into a bright, new world. Her two basic tenets are, that one must organise (and purge) by category, not by room, and that one should also focus on what to keep, but only if it “sparks joy”.
It’s simple, but it works – and surprisingly well, too. When followed correctly, it’s an efficient way to declutter, reorganise, and reset.
Getting started is remarkably easy. KonMari dictates that purging one’s superfluous clothing is the best starting point. I’d agree. It’s interesting how you can start clinging on to item from your past, instead of looking forward to wearing something in the future!
I have since discovered what I like, what suits me, and what I feel comfortable in
It’s surprisingly easy to start in this way. It teaches very effectively to be selective and mindful about what you keep for your wardrobe, and why. The key lesson, letting go, is learned here.
Like many minimalists, I have since discovered what I like about my clothing, what I think suits me, and – perhaps most importantly – what I feel comfortable in. And, like many, my wardrobe now features a number of more plain black, grey and white items. But I don’t subscribe to monotone styling; blue is the colour I love, so I have a lot of blue in my wardrobe too, plus warmer hues.
Minimalism, to me, is far more about quantity. It doesn’t mean I need to sacrifice style.
After clothes comes the decluttering of books, paperwork, CDs/DVDs and miscellanea (random bits and pieces, called komono by Kondo). How much you have kept will determine how long this takes. But a little dedication can bring surprisingly quick results. Several hours are really all that’s needed for decluttering.
Five bin bags of clothes, and four boxes of books later, I feel well on my way to simplifying and minimising.
And what a great feeling, being unburdened.
As I proceeded with old paperwork, the voice in my mind became yet more balanced. I had to double-check on certain items, and felt freedom and empowerment to change my mind part way through – sometimes choosing to discard what I initially wanted to keep, and vice versa. This process is mentally decluttering, and (if I were spiritual), spiritually cleansing.
Computing, for me, is a big thing. As soon as I could record stuff on computer, I did. I have databases and documents dating from the early 1990s onwards. Sadly, the file formats used for those documents are not widely supported any more.
This creates a problem: Do I keep those old documents, which probably serve no purpose to me now? If not, why did I keep them for so long? Or, do I go to the trouble of getting an older computing platform to convert them from, into a more modern, or at least less-encumbered, file format? Do I still need them? Will I ever? Or do I just archive them all off and save myself the time and effort? (Do you see how all this digital clutter is causing angst and complexity? Why am I thinking about this stuff…? etc.)
These questions have haunted me for quite some time, but eventually I came to realise that while it would be nice to have access to all my data, in reality, I don’t need it. And having access to it would increase the amount of digital clutter that I don’t need to be concerned with.
Although previously I wanted to convert all my old files into modern formats, I am beginning to realise that there really is little benefit to doing this. Up to roughly 1999, I would have used my Amiga computer for word processing and other work (e.g. editing images). When I got a PC in 2000, and installed SuSE Linux 7.2, I started using StarOffice (the precursor to OpenOffice/LibreOffice) instead. StarOffice files are still supported in modern versions of LibreOffice, much to my delight.
But for pre-2000 data, I must accept that without significant time, energy and devotion, I cannot easily liberate my files. This means all my university essays, college assignments, personal notes, documents, databases, images and other data are now part of that fabric of digital cruft. The best I can do is securely archive them off, hoping that one day an easy conversion solution will be available.
Yet, in some ways, this is for the best. What good does reading my own essay on Chaucer do, for me, in 2017? I am too busy with other things that are contemporary and relevant, right now, to indulge in that. Digital decluttering is as important as physical decluttering.
I have observed that, during this decluttering process so far, I have had a tendency to hang on to things because of their value to me in the past. My mindset in the present has been influenced by past events, of course, but this has also lured me into some complacency with regard to my beliefs and philosophy on life.
When we start becoming defined by the things we have, instead of the things we do, there is little value in “having” those things whatsoever.
I am looking forward to doing more, and having less.
Have you had a similar experience with de-cluttering? Please comment – I’d love to hear about it!
#Apple #freesoftware #GNU+Linux
Steve Jobs “figured out a way to make computers that are jails for their users, and make them so shiny that millions of fools would beg to be jailed”. Absolutely classic Stallman quote (at 18:00). 😀
I’ve ordered a machine to replace my Macbook Pro in the office: Dell Precision T3500 Xeon W3540 2.66GHz w/12GB 🙂
I have been suffering as a would-be Mac user for the best part of 10 months now, on and off. It’s been a painful experience, physically and mentally. I was only going to post a short “microblog” post and be done with this topic, but I felt the need to expand upon my decision to do this.
Perhaps it will help dissuade potential future purchasers of Apple‘s overpriced, underwhelming and non-expandable machines. I hope it does, as one of the worst problems we create for ourselves in the 21st century is planned obsolescence – something, arguably, which Apple is guilty of.
In my day job as managing director (CEO) of a UK web development & cloud hosting business, I – predictably – develop websites and administer servers. I’m the kind of guy who likes to keep his hands dirty, and my skills up.
Like many other people running a small business, my daily activities can vary rapidly. A computer which is good at switching quickly is a boon. Actually, it’s a frikkin’ necessity. Yet my core activity – PHP & JavaScript development, rely on a few basic things.
Very basic things, in fact.
Very Basic Things I continue to rely upon, to get work done:
For me, the Macbook Pro fails in all of the above.
In April 2016, I bought this “Early 2015” Macbook Pro. It has a Core i5 5257U processor, 8GB RAM and 256GB PCIe SSD. When I mentioned to fellow designers I bought this, it was met with a knowing smile and the instant acknowledgement, “ahh wow, the SSD in those machines makes them so fast!”. I also, regretfully, bought a 27″ Thunderbolt display. The total cost of these two: a few pence short of £2,100. Two-thousand, one-hundred pounds for an average-spec 2015 laptop and 27-inch QHD monitor.
Fast is something I have never, ever considered a Mac to be, and especially this MBP. It booted quick, sure, but in general use… nah. Really, no. But I’m not in the habit of upsetting people, so more often than not I’d reply with some kind of non-opinionated remark like, “yeah? Right… I look forward to seeing that”. I’d argue, though, that the apparent lack of speed is much more to do with the operating system than the hardware.
This isn’t an Apple-bashing post. It’s just an expression of my preference. Yet there are things I really do like about the MBP:
I am typiubg this post on Apple’s “Magic Keyboard 2”. This section, including heading, is intentionally left with all the typos in as I make them. Why? Because the MAgic Ketword 2 is uterly crap compared to the keyvoard on the MBP itself. It pales in comparison in terms of typing experience. I would strongly recommend against anyone buying it, unless it’s vital to you to have a mininalist desk you can take photos of and swoon over all day. I spend hours of wasted time correcting typos that occur as a direct resylt of using this keyvoard.
By comparison, I was really quite glad how usable the keyboard on the MBO really is. ITs typing experience, much to my genuine surprisem ws excellent. The key travel is good abd the spacing between keys works really well. Although chiclet in style, with slightly rteduced key sizes compared to, say, an old school LEnobo Thinkpad (like my old T420), it’s so much more intuitive to use than the Magix Keyboard 2 that I shall no longer labvout the point and just move on.
macos is stupid and has been out-developed by GNU+Linux and the GNOME free software project. Strong statement, huh? Here’s a few reasons why.
But the most important thing is that GNU+Linux and GNOME (or really any other free software desktop environment) is so much better. At least for someone like me, working with remote servers, or SSH sessions in a terminal, or doing lots of text editing.
Here is a phrase you may have heard somewhen:
I believe this is true. I love my occupation and I am so privileged that people pay me to do it. When I get into the office, I cherish that feeling of biting off more than I can possibly chew, and working the problem towards a solution.
In the business, we make every effort to deliver the highest quality at the lowest possible cost. However, in web design, development and hosting, there are quite a number of significant costs to meet while trying to keep the end price reasonable. One such cost is test equipment.
Another cost is time; a hidden cost if, as a developer, you are always fighting your equipment in order to achieve a comfortable, efficient workflow. Using a Mac, while semi-enjoyable, also taught me just how efficient I had become using GNU+Linux to deliver results to clients. I can’t imagine a more fluid workflow than Emacs, Chrome and GNOME.
So, to the new (old) machine, which will be with me tomorrow. For the enormous sum of £179.99 + VAT and delivery (£9.99), I am getting:
There are a few discussions online about the merits of this workstation, and I’m glad I opted for one instead of a new laptop to supplant the MBP. The Xeon 3520 processor is not new by any stretch of the imagination. It’s 8 years old. But it’s still capable enough by far and comparable to a core i7 920; a processor we still have in use in a server at Warp.
But let’s focus instead on someone else’s video, which is a nice way to tail off…
