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What’s on your mind?
- Thread starter Gutwrench
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The quest goes on then. Good luck with the right Mac when it comes along.Excellent suggestions all the way around. 💕reading those informative posts by @D.T. @SandboxGeneral @Clix Pix ❤
I standby my glowing recommendation of the 16" MBP. If you're a laptop person, it's gangbusters.
The return was a snap,also took the unopened 1st gen pencil back.
I went with my plan.
Anyway, I hope everyone is well.
I remember when I wanted to move from my 21” iMac to a mini (because that glossy screen wasn’t for me!) it took ages for a new mini to be released.
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I also read the thread you posted. I use the Apple wireless keyboard and mouse as well as my Bose QC35’s via Bluetooth with no issues.
Perhaps give the mini a try and return it if it’s not for you @kazmac?
I've been on steam locomotives (trips organised by heritage societies, the railway carriages were also wonderfully old, as well, very atmospheric - my brother organised a few such trips for me, "you love all this Harry Potter style stuff", he had said to me) - and such trips were brilliant - but they had to use qualified drivers, all of whom had worked for what was the state railway company, all of whom had been trained in the days when steam had been used, and almost all of whom were elderly (because steam locomotives aren't much in use nowadays).
I chatted to the driver, and asked a few questions about this, (learning to drive steam locomotives) and he said that it was a process that took some considerable time.
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The other thing that is interesting is the process of cooling (and watering) the steam engines, at stations, and ensuring that sufficient coal has been loaded in the section of the engine reserved for coal, - the section behind the driver's cabin - and sufficient coal fed into the furnace of the engine by the stokers (dirty, demanding, difficult and occasionally dangerous work).
Those "smuts" (also influenced by the prevailing wind, as well as the train's own speed and direction), are also an issue - if you are standing in the wrong spot - while feeding and running a steam engine can be filthy work.
Still, it was fascinating, and the process of judging the temperature of the engine (it had to be sufficiently hot to be able to run the engine, yet not so hot that the engine ran the risk of over-heating), was a skill acquired by much training and experience. The cabin was also home to levers and gauges and switches that looked both wonderfully tactile and splendidly, authentically old-fashiond.
Nevertheless, I must say that that rhythmic sound of the steam train actually moving - clacking along - on the tracks - especially when accelerating - that same sound you hear in westerns, (but also faithfully reproduced in the Pink Martini song U Plavu Zoru), is wonderful - and great fun - to hear in real life. As is the elongated sound - or screech - of that whistle. Serious fun, and I remember grinning at my brother, the sort of silly grin you often see on children's faces, but is seldom found on the face of an adult.
Electric, or diesel, or other trains just don't reproduce this sensation or sound.
Sometimes, especially on a Sunday, when the railway timetables are a lot less busy, - and therefore actual railway lines are freed up and can be utilised for such activities - and, especially on a Sunday in summer (with longer days, better light, and - perhaps - with luck, some actual sunshine) heritage societies will arrange to run steam train excursions. They are almost invariably well subscribed.
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Thank you.
The rush was due to the tariff price hikes, and my thinking perhaps I could roll with a laptop.
My decision to wait now is due to:
Wanting to continue to be fully here for mom as she goes through these surgeries.
And on the tech-end:
Apple have made progress in fixing the MBP, I’ll wait to see if they do the same for the Mini & the iMac.
I am not sure how powerful a desktop I’ll need now. I just want something that will be solid for years and allow for an eGPU if necessary and my running a Wacom and art programs IF I want to go there.
The Apple store I frequent is fine with price matching items now (though my desktop will be CTO) and I want to replenish my savings.
I stopped being angry with Apple as that they are starting to fix their tech, give me discounts and continue to help in most ways. This has opened my mind to trying Apple tech I swore off (3rd gen iPad Pro, and Airpod Pros - I bought those yesterday too, but am uncertain about them). So the Mini is in the back of my mind. I am also at peace with needing an eGPU.
The minor snag with upgrading my desktop soon is: still waiting on the landlord to fix the outlets upstairs (He’s an electrician and helped build this house), and we need to upgrade our router & modem. Mom can’t go iPad only for her entertainment so we need a tv too (which is fine, because I haven’t been able to watch my movies either.).
Of course, if my iMac truly stops working before anything new is released, I’ll weigh my options after tending to the above electric, internet etc.
What’s on my mind?
I think the annoying neighbors’ pigeons are on our roof. I hear them cooing.
Well I need to sort out the electrics and internet for our new house over the next coming weeks. The electrics are pretty dated. Like one plug point per room.Thank you.
The rush was due to the tariff price hikes, and my thinking perhaps I could roll with a laptop.
My decision to wait now is due to:
Wanting to continue to be fully here for mom as she goes through these surgeries.
And on the tech-end:
Apple have made progress in fixing the MBP, I’ll wait to see if they do the same for the Mini & the iMac.
I am not sure how powerful a desktop I’ll need now. I just want something that will be solid for years and allow for an eGPU if necessary and my running a Wacom and art programs IF I want to go there.
The Apple store I frequent is fine with price matching items now (though my desktop will be CTO) and I want to replenish my savings.
I stopped being angry with Apple as that they are starting to fix their tech, give me discounts and continue to help in most ways. This has opened my mind to trying Apple tech I swore off (3rd gen iPad Pro, and Airpod Pros - I bought those yesterday too, but am uncertain about them). So the Mini is in the back of my mind. I am also at peace with needing an eGPU.
The minor snag with upgrading my desktop soon is: still waiting on the landlord to fix the outlets upstairs (He’s an electrician and helped build this house), and we need to upgrade our router & modem. Mom can’t go iPad only for her entertainment so we need a tv too (which is fine, because I haven’t been able to watch my movies either.).
Of course, if my iMac truly stops working before anything new is released, I’ll weigh my options after tending to the above electric, internet etc.
What’s on my mind?
I think the annoying neighbors’ pigeons are on our roof. I hear them cooing.
On my mind is how much stuff we put into storage today. 8 pallets worth over the weekend.
My back and neck are feeling it now.
Movers are coming to quote for the rest tomorrow.
What's on my mind?
A number of things, in no particular order:
My mother - who passed away eleven months ago, and remembering how she comforted the carer when the carer was in tears, on account of unpleasant and demanding communications from her (estranged) husband, not long after she had come to care for my mother, and was supporting her own mother, and putting her four children though school and college.
The fact that I realise that it is possible to take pleasure - real pleasure - from music again, something that has largely eluded me since my mother passed away; Pink Martini are just wonderful.
Interviews I had last week, and a few I will be facing this coming week.
I am trying Not To Think about political matters.
And dinner. Dinner is often on my mind.
A number of things, in no particular order:
My mother - who passed away eleven months ago, and remembering how she comforted the carer when the carer was in tears, on account of unpleasant and demanding communications from her (estranged) husband, not long after she had come to care for my mother, and was supporting her own mother, and putting her four children though school and college.
The fact that I realise that it is possible to take pleasure - real pleasure - from music again, something that has largely eluded me since my mother passed away; Pink Martini are just wonderful.
Interviews I had last week, and a few I will be facing this coming week.
I am trying Not To Think about political matters.
And dinner. Dinner is often on my mind.
I can't believe how much we managed to "purge" out over the past 2 weeks, some went in the garage sale, some we donated, but a pretty substantial amount just went to the curb. At least the curbed items mostly disappeared before they were picked up the garbage service, so maybe they found a home.
Back and neck needs a bourbon and ibuprofen
Mines had ibuprofen and a shower.I can't believe how much we managed to "purge" out over the past 2 weeks, some went in the garage sale, some we donated, but a pretty substantial amount just went to the curb. At least the curbed items mostly disappeared before they were picked up the garbage service, so maybe they found a home.
Back and neck needs a bourbon and ibuprofen
Lots of the stuff we should have got rid of before we moved to be honest. But listing it on Ebay just takes an age. We had a big purge a while back though.
There’s just a lot of accumulation over 18 years living in the same house.
Then that’s the sentimental stuff you keep hold of.
Ebay or charity shops?
Whenever Mother wanted any sort of clear out, we tended to sound out charity shops, and either drop stuff in to them, or have them collect the stuff in question.
Ebay is just too much hassle.
I was catching up on the latest installment of the Hieveryone saga and was reminded of an idea I had a while back to make the ultimate dating app that deters… unsavory users with AI.
It would all start with the way photos are handled in the in-app messaging; the user-policy would inform members that their uploads would be analyzed by AI trained on self-taken photos of genitals. If a user happened to send an unsolicited dick pic, the server would mark it, and it'd appear in the other party's inbox (and the sender's history) blurred beyond recognition.
They'd have the option to see the original photo after clicking the "Yeah, it's prolly a dick pic, but I'm okay with that" button. The sender would also get a message saying something like, "your photo has been flagged and likely won't be opened by the recipient."
I imagine that half the appeal of sending unsolicited genital photos is exposing yourself to someone without their consent, so the heavy blurring would ruin that.
After such a photo is sent, the recipient would have the option to—at any point—reroute their end of the conversation to a chatbot. So any unwanted overly sexual messages would be replied to entirely by something with the conversational skills of Cleverbot.
AIs trained on databases of human conversation, like Cleverbot, tend to already have some vaguely sexual conversation learned, so this AI would be trained on conversation that occurs after sexual advances are rejected online. It'd be predisposed to be offended, irreverent, and late in its replies, and those who use it could continue to watch the conversation progress even though they're no longer responding.
I figure you might as well turn online sexual harassment into fun for the would-be victim.
Hopefully, the worst sort of people would learn that their efforts get them nowhere on my hypothetical app.
It would all start with the way photos are handled in the in-app messaging; the user-policy would inform members that their uploads would be analyzed by AI trained on self-taken photos of genitals. If a user happened to send an unsolicited dick pic, the server would mark it, and it'd appear in the other party's inbox (and the sender's history) blurred beyond recognition.
They'd have the option to see the original photo after clicking the "Yeah, it's prolly a dick pic, but I'm okay with that" button. The sender would also get a message saying something like, "your photo has been flagged and likely won't be opened by the recipient."
I imagine that half the appeal of sending unsolicited genital photos is exposing yourself to someone without their consent, so the heavy blurring would ruin that.
After such a photo is sent, the recipient would have the option to—at any point—reroute their end of the conversation to a chatbot. So any unwanted overly sexual messages would be replied to entirely by something with the conversational skills of Cleverbot.
AIs trained on databases of human conversation, like Cleverbot, tend to already have some vaguely sexual conversation learned, so this AI would be trained on conversation that occurs after sexual advances are rejected online. It'd be predisposed to be offended, irreverent, and late in its replies, and those who use it could continue to watch the conversation progress even though they're no longer responding.
I figure you might as well turn online sexual harassment into fun for the would-be victim.
Hopefully, the worst sort of people would learn that their efforts get them nowhere on my hypothetical app.
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Yeah, we finally just got rid of things, even what some folks would consider keepers. High school year books? Trashed! A couple of dozen car show trophies? Goodbye! (some we gave away at the sale, it was very funny) Old awards, clippings, etc., from my previous businesses? Decimated! I also shredded about every business/legal document in the house (UPS store is $0.99/lb), it's so cathartic shoving that crap into the secure shredder container
Trickets? Knicknacks? Doodads? Geegaws? Disposed. I had a ton of old computing devices that had bad batteries, were in some kind of unknown status ... into the abyss with you!
Whew.
High school year books? I burnt all my school books when I turned 15 and left! Hated school.Yeah, we finally just got rid of things, even what some folks would consider keepers. High school year books? Trashed! A couple of dozen car show trophies? Goodbye! (some we gave away at the sale, it was very funny) Old awards, clippings, etc., from my previous businesses? Decimated! I also shredded about every business/legal document in the house (UPS store is $0.99/lb), it's so cathartic shoving that crap into the secure shredder container
Trickets? Knicknacks? Doodads? Geegaws? Disposed. I had a ton of old computing devices that had bad batteries, were in some kind of unknown status ... into the abyss with you!
Whew.
One of my goals for this winter is to do some more sorting/donating/discarding..... I did some of that last winter and am still reaping the rewards, so that is a motivator to get to it again now in another area of the house..... It's one of those things that once I get into it, I really DO get into it, so it is just a matter of actually getting started with it. Right now I'm busy with other things but on cold winter days when I won't want to go out that's the time to embark upon this sort of project. I am not planning any household moves any time soon but it certainly doesn't hurt to do this now in advance of any such change in the future!
We donated a van full in June. But I have some things that would sell, but not in a charity shop. Plus I could do with raising a few hundred pound towards the renovations.
Fair enough.
Each to their own.
I haven't an entrepreneurial bone in my body, and would prefer someone to relieve me of such stuff (or organise the sales for me - happily taking a generous cut) rather than undergo the stress (and that is something that would stress me) of trying to organise selling stuff on top of the stress and strain of planning to move house.
Yes, in fact, we have a round 2 planned, probably Spring, we mostly cleared out things that were in the attic and/or obvious, but there's disposable items still sort of mixed in with things we want to keep.
Over the last several months we cleared out my mom's house (er, my house now), and it gave us a good perspective on not just storing/stockpiling/stashing boxes and boxes of things that will ultimately just wind up in a landfill (including "collectibles" which wind up being worth __nothing__).
I do like trying to find something who could use the items, that why generally, if it's something decent, we try to donate or at least leave it in plain site at the curb, a few days before trash collection, someone usually takes it (there's quite a few folks who drive through this area, looking for items to use, sell, scrap, etc.)
Not going to list things until after the move. Mrs AFB will deal with it. She buys and sells on eBay and other places all the time.
I tend more in the direction that SS does, and that is to do whatever is simplest and most expeditious and not take risks. With many household items and clothing it's pretty easy to determine straightaway that they will be appreciated if donated to a charity, and that is often the most convenient means of passing things on that are not simply unusable and therefore ready for the trash bin. Other stuff has more inherent value and maybe one doesn't want to just donate it but see what can be gleaned from a sale or trade-in of the item..... That's when it can get sticky. I'm really rather risk-averse so I am not about to put valuable items up on eBay or deal with some other actual local online site which involves strangers coming to my home to see what I have to offer.....
I also am rather lazy and don't want to go to a lot of effort so going online to particular sites and offering certain items for sale and subsequent shipping really isn't my thing, either. I don't want to muck around with first photographing and displaying the item(s) for offer and then awaiting emails accepting or inquiring about my established price or asking questions about this, that or the other.....I'm really not all that good at negotiating, either! So then comes packaging up the item(s) and trekking off to the PO or FedEx...... Just really don't want to deal with that.
My most recent situation has involved the decision about selling outright or trading in items, and my choice was to go for the easier route, the trading-in at a local, trusted dealer with whom I've already had a long-established relationship, and while, sure, I might have been able to make a little more money dealing with online sales myself, to me it just was worth it to hand over the gear to the camera shop and let them worry about what happens next with it. In the meantime I am happily playing with the new camera and lenses while saying goodbye to the old gear that helped finance my new purchases......
Yes, in this condo community we seem to have a few people from around the area who periodically drive through our parking lot and check out our dumpsters and our recycling area and who help themselves to whatever might be there.... In the past I've put a few things in the recycling area and wondered how long they would stay there.... Some things seem to disappear pretty quickly!
I also am rather lazy and don't want to go to a lot of effort so going online to particular sites and offering certain items for sale and subsequent shipping really isn't my thing, either. I don't want to muck around with first photographing and displaying the item(s) for offer and then awaiting emails accepting or inquiring about my established price or asking questions about this, that or the other.....I'm really not all that good at negotiating, either! So then comes packaging up the item(s) and trekking off to the PO or FedEx...... Just really don't want to deal with that.
My most recent situation has involved the decision about selling outright or trading in items, and my choice was to go for the easier route, the trading-in at a local, trusted dealer with whom I've already had a long-established relationship, and while, sure, I might have been able to make a little more money dealing with online sales myself, to me it just was worth it to hand over the gear to the camera shop and let them worry about what happens next with it. In the meantime I am happily playing with the new camera and lenses while saying goodbye to the old gear that helped finance my new purchases......
Yes, in this condo community we seem to have a few people from around the area who periodically drive through our parking lot and check out our dumpsters and our recycling area and who help themselves to whatever might be there.... In the past I've put a few things in the recycling area and wondered how long they would stay there.... Some things seem to disappear pretty quickly!
We moved back into the city 2 years ago.
a year before the move i sold off the larger items with success; a 4x4 tractor, the motorcycles, a car trailer but medium and small items were difficult to sell. Seems around here boomers are all down sizing.
The new space was rented for 4 years prior to the move so fix up repair needed to be done. I am a DIY type. The process was a testing
Once the original house was empty i started a second fix up repair process. We had lived in the house for 20+years. Put the house up 4sale. I think the new owners gutted the house anyways.
After all this we are very careful not to buy new stuff.
going into retirement I did not want to be totally dependent on owning a car. Doctor, dentist, hospital are all abut a mile away. Shopping, restaurants and a lite rail station are all close in.
what's on my mind?
We still have the cars but how nice would it be to sell those off and buy an EV. not the tesla cybrtruck tho. Wish Honda would do an electric Acty 4x4 van.
a year before the move i sold off the larger items with success; a 4x4 tractor, the motorcycles, a car trailer but medium and small items were difficult to sell. Seems around here boomers are all down sizing.
The new space was rented for 4 years prior to the move so fix up repair needed to be done. I am a DIY type. The process was a testing
Once the original house was empty i started a second fix up repair process. We had lived in the house for 20+years. Put the house up 4sale. I think the new owners gutted the house anyways.
After all this we are very careful not to buy new stuff.
going into retirement I did not want to be totally dependent on owning a car. Doctor, dentist, hospital are all abut a mile away. Shopping, restaurants and a lite rail station are all close in.
what's on my mind?
We still have the cars but how nice would it be to sell those off and buy an EV. not the tesla cybrtruck tho. Wish Honda would do an electric Acty 4x4 van.
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If it’s an old iMac or iPhone I tend to trade them in or sell to someone at work. But the things I have to sell are my old magic things. Not really going to sell at a charity shop. Some of them were quite expensive, but that was 20 years ago.
If I can recoup a bit of money we have plenty to spend it on when we move.
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We’re going the other way. Moving from the suburbs to the country.
That is pretty much my position, as well.
While money is not my god, time is, and you have described the extraordinary amount of time that being involved in any sort of sales seems to entail; like you, if I don't give stuff (old computers) to deserving brothers, (or old printers to deserving brother or one or two deserving friends, for example) I will do trade in stuff with reputable shops.
Haggling, negotiation, beating people up or down on price, photographing, offering items for sale, worrying if fraudsters are part of this exchange, packaging stuff........while I can readily help to run elections in countries that were once war zones, this sort o stuff is a level of stress and strain that I would far rather forego, or pay someone else to take care of for me.