Home Office + Mac Apps

I’m really going to try to post more here, if only to feel like I’m accomplishing something.

My fiancée and I purchased a home back in New Brunswick and will be relocating around the end of March. I’m really excited to get back home, and get to a living space that’s not only much larger than the apartments I’ve been bumming around in for the past years, but also a place that’s my own. I’ll leave out the details, but it’s a two story, 5 bedroom (technically 4 bedroom with a smaller office downstairs), 2.5 bathroom house with a concrete basement. Everything about the place is a fairy tale. Lots of work to be done, but I’m looking forward to sinking my hands into the fun! Part of that is allocating a room to each of us for a home office, as we’re anticipating work from home pretty much permanently. My layout is above, roughly.

More details to come as they come, but I’m definitely starting with an 8 foot desk and wall mounting my 49” Dell. I want to run the cables through the walls, but we’ll see how ambitious we end up being, cable channels and false walls tend to provide a pretty great effect as well.

A quick list of some mac apps I’ve found great.

Rectangle - Default windows management on MacOS isn’t very good, and I can’t exactly use FancyZones or Dell Display Manager (DDM is available, but doesn’t support my monitor on MacOS). Rectangle is free and easy. Edge and corner snapping were very easy to get used to, and I especially like the bottom edge functionality which works really well with the super ultra wide.

Dozer - The menu bar can get cluttered, and the option to hide various icons behind a single dot is really nice. Very easy to learn and very functional. Great price too - Free!

Al Dente - On demand custom charging limitations. I’m just using the free version at the moment, but being able to limit to 80% charging is really nice. When plugged in, this mac doesn’t sleep, so I don’t see a ton of value in the pro version yet.

I’m still looking for a Notepad++ replacement that treats unsaved files the same, just leaving them as open unsaved tabs, but that might be asking for a bit much. I’ve tried SublimeText, CotEditor, and VSCode, and they’re all similar feels, but I think it’s just a behavioural thing - They all supposedly support hot exit on quit, but the red X isn’t actually quitting the app.

Other than that it’s been a pretty simple transition. I’ll probably cover more sweet apps as I find them too - Stay tuned.

Convergence

For a long while, likely since I got my Surface Pro ages ago, I had the idea of a beautifully converged system. Take a thin and light, maybe like the Surface Pro, and add a dock and an eGPU. This device could go anywhere and do most of your day to day, yet still come home, plug into a dock, and fire up some games or do some heavy rendering. Ultimately, the power of a full desktop rig couldn’t be ignored, and although there were times when I revisited that concept, finding something that would work well enough for me was futile.

I was fine with my Macbook Air and iPad Pro over our holidays in December. When we got back to Toronto in early January, I decided to sell my desktop and ordered a Macbook Pro 14”.

The config I went with was a bit of a middle ground. I was very interested in the Max, but the cost difference would have made it a bit too expensive with me putting extra money into the SSD upgrade and additional RAM. On top of that, I don’t anticipate needing much more than the already powerful 16 GPU cores in the Pro in the future. Even doubling the memory bandwidth didn’t seem like that big of a deal in workflows that I would be doing.

14” was a must have for me. I cannot stand lugging larger notebooks, and I feel I can get just as much done on a 14” screen as I can on a 16”. The smaller size means it should fit a bit better into tight spaces while on the go.

I chose 32GB of RAM for longevity. I know I could likely get by with 16GB of RAM, but I anticipate this will be my primary computer for the next 3 years, minimum. I’ve also seen the light of 64GB of RAM, and looking at my uses I’ve really only exceeded 32GB a handful of times.

Finally we have the 1TB SSD. This seems a bit light, but external SSD storage is relatively fast, and most of my local storage was consumed by RAW files for Lightroom Classic, or for games. I don’t anticipate playing too many games locally, and my whole Lightroom library for now and the immediate future is living on a Samsung T5 2TB drive. I’m only occasionally jumping into Lightroom Classic now anyway, and it’s mostly to pull older stuff. ~400-500mbps reads on RAW files are fine for that, and previews/catalog can still live on internal storage just fine. There’s plans for a NAS in our new house too, so I will likely end up moving the RAWs there too.

But why? Why sell off and abandon a constant in your life for so many years in favor of what only appears to be an expensive downgrade?

I’m not gaming as much.

Flat out, there’s very little desire to play games, and that’s been this way since June or earlier of 2021. And what if I do get the itch? Well, the M1 Pro is definitely capable of some titles, and more are being released for the platform all the time, but my primary focus will be cloud gaming. GeForce Now, Stadia, and XCloud through Xbox Game Pass Ultimate all allow streaming on pretty much any device, which for most of my single player focused gaming is plenty performant. Ultimately, I’m planning on purchasing an Xbox at some point as well, which should round things out. The current generation is extremely performant with fast SSDs and high end desktop class processing power, so at the price point it seems like a no brainer.

I’d like to reduce my tech footprint.

Seems like a buzz phrase! I love gadgets as much as the next nerd but my adventures through One Bag have helped me realize I love the idea of fewer things, but of high quality. This mindset is following me into technology - Why have a laptop and a desktop when I can have just a laptop that hits a similar performance in 95% of my workflows?

More flexibility and less compromise.

In the past on trips I’d often have to compromise with my portable device and wait to do a lot of heavy lifting until I got back to my desktop. Replacing the desktop with a Macbook Pro means I’ve got flexibility. Photography heavy trip with a bit of downtime? Pack the Mac and get ready for massive panoramas and HDR merges. Light trip with a bunch of city hopping? Maybe it’s just the iPad Pro! Weekend? Leave it all and take the phone. Lightroom CC has also made it a lot easier workflow wise here too - Any of my devices can be used for ingestion and the workflow across all of them is similar.

Synergy.

Oh hey, a buzz word. Yeah, I won’t lie, I love the synergy I get between the Macbook, iPad, and iPhone. Messages sync across all devices, answer a call on whatever device you’re on, Airpods are connected to everything, shared clipboard and handoff, and Sidecar to use my iPad as a second monitor. I’m definitely missing that on Windows.

Lowering my power consumption.

The desktop can consume north of 500w at full load. Even just the processor can guzzle 135w at full tilt. The Macbook Pro seems to have a full tilt consumption of roughly 60w. That’s insane, considering it’s anywhere from 75-100% of the performance in the workflows I’ll be utilizing it for.

ARM might be the way?

Still up in the air. I know x86 has a long list of legacy compatibility, but Rosetta 2 has shown me that can be fairly reasonably emulated in a lot of situations on ARM with minimal performance impacts. A lot of large tech companies are pushing toward ARM - Microsoft with the Surface Pro X, Google’s recently launched chip in the Pixel 6 series, and Nvidia’s Tegra are all great examples. Apple’s M series launched in 2020 and the various A series chips they’ve been shoving into phones and tablets have really lit a big spark to push toward ARM, and it’s good to see competition. It can only mean good things for the future of computing.

How does this all tie into “convergence”? Well, convergence has changed! I can have this relatively compact computer WITH all the power of a modern desktop. Games can be streamed from the cloud. Storage is cheap in the cloud and allows me to access my data on any device. Convergence now doesn’t need to be the concept I initially wanted, it changed as technology changed. Why need a dock when the monitor at home has a USB-C connection for power and display? Why an eGPU when the chipset inside the machine provides more than enough power at a low energy footprint? Why do I need extra ports when everything is so reliable and frankly better over wireless now? It’s reducing down into fewer items that are higher quality.

Looking back, this has likely been a transition just waiting to happen. I can remember in high school fawning over the old white iMacs, working through how best to get the spec I wanted. I chose a different path back then, but it’s been a hell of a fun one. I can only assume it’s going to stay fun.

Post Trip Report: Onebag To The Maritimes.

I gotta say, it was really nice travelling again. The whole trip was a whirlwind from start to finish, and there wasn’t a moment that went by that I wished I booked more than a week. I figured it’s been a bit of time stewing on how my list performed, so I’d go over what worked and what didn't.

The eternal struggle of getting a good photo at Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse.

First off, a quick overview. We were between a number of accommodations - An air mattress at a friend’s place, my parent’s cottage in Nova Scotia, a sofa at another friend’s place, and finally a hotel room in Halifax. Most of our time was spent either with friends and family, or at restaurants and bars. The weather was cool most days, with a lot of humidity and rain on a number of days. I had adjusted the previously posted packing list to include an ultralight down puffer jacket from Uniqlo and I also dropped the Bellroy classic pouch in favor of just stuffing my charger and cables into the tech pouch built into the Bellroy Transit.

What Worked?

For clothing, I was very happy with my choices and my minimal color palette. Choosing clothing for the day was as simple as grab and go. I don’t think I packed too much here. I ended up washing underwear daily, and the spare pair really came in handy for days where transit was a thing. My tees also sink washed nicely, that being said I only needed to sink wash one, and that was because I ended up grilling while wearing it and the smoke smells wouldn’t fade entirely.

The two wool pieces were absolute standouts! Not only did the Wool and Prince button down look and fit great, it also worked as almost a light jacket. Wrinkles from the bag fell out of it with body heat and it generally looked rather sharp. The All Saints hoodie really did regulate body heat quite well and looked fantastic doing so. I may grab another in black or dark grey if I can find it.

Finally for clothing, the Vessi shoes came through clutch. With a lot of rain, dry feet was a godsend. Although the outer fabric would be wet to the touch, my feet stayed nice and dry the entire time. Usually the shoes would be dry on the outsides by morning. Top it off with walking comfort and we were A-OK.

For toiletries, I was generally happy with what I brought. No comments overall, everything worked as expected and worked well. The Matador bags were probably the standout, they really do dry through like magic.

For electronics, my full camera kit was great for walking around everywhere and having a very performant camera in a very small package. The iPad Pro was awesome for downtime/reading/editing photos.

The Bellroy Transit overall made it really easy to organize and go place to place. Not once did I feel the bag was hindering me. Very happy with it overall.

What Could Improve?

For clothing, I was happy with what I packed, but if I was to do it again I’d likely pack another pair of underwear. The Maritimes is infamous for having fewer climate controlled homes, and with it being as humid as it was I occasionally had issues drying overnight. Since I had a spare pair it wasn’t so bad, but it was a bit tight some days. I would have also liked to pack a pair of longer socks for the colder days. The SmartWool no shows worked great, but a longer, thicker pair of socks would have been nice for chilly evenings. Finally for what I wish I had packed, a casual long sleeve shirt. I don’t actually have a long sleeve in any technical fabrics, but I do have a Seagale henley on the way. Something a bit longer sleeved would have been nicer for layering some of the days, and broke up the plain t-shirt monotony.

For toiletries, I really wish I tried to find some smaller deodorant and sunblocks. I liked the all solids, but these took up a good chunk of space. I’m also happy with the Lush but a scent free version would have been great. I’ve been trying “The Unscented Soap Company” bar shampoo and conditioner and they’ve been awesome.

There’s a couple things I didn’t use too - My GorillaPod could have stayed home, along with the buff and surprisingly the ultralight down. My hoodie and rain jacket provided enough layering on most days to stay comfortable. These didn’t take up a lot of space though so I’m not too ripped up about it.

Overall, I’m happy with my first solid packing list and how my gear performed. I’m looking forward to the next trip, and will be taking what I learned during this one and applying it! Expect a new packing list in a month or so.

MacBook Air M1: Initial Thoughts

“C’mon, these things have been out for a year and you still don’t have one? Really?”

In my defence, I’ve been trying very hard to not buy one, but after seeing the interoperability between the iPhone, iPad, and AirPods, I figured I could jump on the education discount and see what all the hype was about.

I had other reasons as well.

• There’s more and more MacOS around, and getting familiar with a new operating system isn’t a bad thing.

• Travel without vacation is a bit easier to manage without taking my work laptop - A simple VDI would let me work from a much slimmer, much quieter device while on the go without having to carry a thicker, louder, hotter laptop.

• I want to look into app development! It’s hard to publish apps on the App Store when you need to upload them from a Mac… Xcode is free, so why not?

Overall those are some pretty weak reasons for a new trinket, but here we are. I grabbed the base model M1 Air. That’s right. 8 cores, 7 GPU cores, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB SSD. Am I regretting not getting the 16GB RAM model? Well, we’ll see. For now this is just to dip my toes into the environment, and my use case is pretty simple, even though everything online seems to indicate this thing is a monster. Web browsing, blogging, coding, and some Lightroom work when away from my desktop. I figured I’d just give some bullet point initial thoughts after having this thing for about a week.

• The build is great - No real noticeable flaws in seams etc.

• The trackpad is actually wonderful. It didn’t take much to get started with the gestures and they stuck really well. I haven’t had a Windows trackpad that works this well. Coming from the Magic Keyboard on the iPad Pro I expected good, but not this good.

• The keyboard experience is very nice - Not quite Thinkpad, but there’s a good bit of tactility to it and it’s an enjoyable typing experience.

• The screen is great! Plenty bright for working in a bright space, great color, not any noticeable bleed. I’m really fond of TrueTone on my iPhone and iPad, and the MacBook is not different there! 13” is a good size for a laptop for me.

• A lot of people note the bezels are outdated for a laptop, but I’ll have to disagree. They look fine.

• Fanless is amazing. This thing gets slightly warm to the touch but not any worse. And it doesn’t slow down. My last finless device was a Zenbook and it wasn’t exactly a speed demon. The battery life was awesome, but Lightroom was an absolute joke on it.

• The battery life is spectacular - I haven’t dug too deep on battery but I’ve charged it once Monday, and have been using it a few hours a day. We’re sitting at about 55% writing this.

• Wake from sleep is instant! Thanks, ARM architecture.

• Single USB-C cable works great to the U4919DW. Full resolution, no performance issues, and USB passthrough works a treat for the Logitech Unifying dongle.

• Speaking of Logitech… The experience on Bluetooth isn’t great. It was a bit rough getting the Options software to pick up the devices on Bluetooth initially, and even then the mouse felt a bit weird. Not sure if this is Apple or Logitech, but the dongle seems to have smoothed stuff pretty well. I’ll need to play around with the gestures on the MX Master 3 and see about getting Flow setup between the desktop and MacBook.

• Rosetta 2 really does do emulation well - There’s no appreciable difference between ARM and X86 built applications in day-to-day usage.

• Built in window management is a bit wonky coming from Windows… I think I need to give it more time and look into it further, but it doesn’t feel as efficient as Windows based window management.

• WTF is “Command”. I’m joking, but Ctrl to Command is a bit different.

• Hello SideCar! Being able to tote my iPad around and use it as a secondary display just about whenever is a killer feature for someone used to a lot of screen real estate.

• Universal clipboard and handoff in general is really nice - Tabs sync automagically, you can pickup on something on any device where you left off pretty easily.

I think that’s about all I have for now. I’ll have more as I keep using the device. For the time being, this thing has been a great computer so far!

Packing list - onebag to the maritimes.

Oh yeah! Late summer 2021 and we’re finally back to traveling!

The Bellroy Transit 28L, still my choice so far.

All my planning has paid off! If you read earlier in the year, I’ve been trying and buying various things to make travel lighter and easier, which had lead to streamlining what I own and wear a little bit too. We’re headed to the maritimes for a week in just a week, and I’ve been having a lot of fun putting together my bag. Let’s start with the clothes.

Pretty minimal, I think I could cut down a bit more but we’ll see.

I’ve been trying out a lot of different brands and options for clothing, and I think I’ve settled on this stuff so far. I’m keeping my colors to greys, blues, and blacks as well to streamline choices. All of the below is packed into a Peak Design medium packing cube.

• 2x Seagale Action Merino t-shirts: These have been awesome so far. They’re a blend of Tencel, merino, and elastane, which means soft, stretchy, and odor/wrinkle resistant. Seagale is great too as they’re French, which means a more European focused cut. For someone smaller like me, XS actually fits pretty decent! I could probably cut this to just one. Two extra shirts as I can get multiple wears out of one, and they dry overnight after a sink or shower wash anyway.

• 1x Wool and Prince 130gsm merino button down: I’m not happy with the price I paid to get this here, but I am happy with the overall fit and finish of the shirt. This is the first button down that I’ve been really happy with. I did take it to a tailor to taper the arms and bring up the hem a little bit, and now it fits great and wears better untucked. Merino is stink and wrinkle resistant, so I can wear it a lot without washing. Dresses up or down for some of the slightly less casual restaurants we may be hitting in Halifax. I wouldn’t mind grabbing another one of these in grey in the future.

• 1x All Saints Mode Merino hoodie: This is the closest I could find to a normal hoodie in merino. Very warm for the weight, and quite soft. I still don’t think it’s perfect, but I’m pretty happy with it.

• 1x Uniqlo Blocktech parka: I expect there might be a little bit of rain back home, and it’s possible we could see some chill off the water too, depending on where we’re going. I’ve had one of these forever and I’ve been real happy with it.

• 2x Uniqlo Airism trunks: These are for sleep. One dirty one clean. I cold probably get away with just one considering how fast they dry, and I’ve been known to wear them more than once at home. I’ll take two just in case.

• 2x Saxx Quest 2.0 boxer briefs: I’ve been a briefs guy for a long while but these are wonderful. Slight compression fit, great pouch, moisture wicking, good stretch, anti-stink built in, and they sink wash and dry overnight. They might do for swimming in a pinch! I’ve been adding these to the underwear drawer whenever I can.

• 3x Smartwool No Show merino wool socks: Merino blended with nylon and elastane. I can get a few wears out of a pair but I figure they take up almost no space so why not bring 3 extras. They’ll sink wash and dry overnight.

• 1x Arcade Midnighter adventure belt: This thing is pretty much just a stretchy waistband for all your pants. Nylon buckle so you can wear it through airport security, if that’s your jam. Works fine for a belt.

• 1x Lululemon ABC Pants Skinny: I’m bringing the Warpstreme fabric version of the pants with me. They’re skinny fit, polyester with a little technical shine but not a ton. Work great as a plain pair of black “jeans” with a lot more stretch and a lot less weight. Happy with these!

• 1x Uniqlo x Theory relaxed fit shorts: Surprisingly slim for being relaxed fit. Lots of pockets. Light weight Kando fabric means fast drying, and coupled with mesh pockets and internal drawstring they make for pretty decent swim trunks, while holding up as a chino short.

• (Not pictured) Uniqlo Airism Mask: Gotta have a spare. This might actually end up being the Matador version if I like it.

Worn.

Up next we have the on-body. Again, keeping with the minimal color palette of greys, blacks, and blues. Not pictured is the keys, wallet, phone, and AirPods. Those will be between pockets and bag most of the time. The keys will contain a NiteIze Doohickey and a RollingSquare InchargeX.

• Vessi Everyday Sneaker: I had enough of the ads and finally bought them. I haven’t had an athletic style sneaker in ages, but these look space age and have some great features. They’re very comfortable for long walks, very light weight, and best of all, waterproof! I’ve tested them a bunch and they’re 100% no leaks.

• Saxx Quest 2.0 boxer briefs: Same good things to say as above.

• Smartwool no show merino wool socks: Same good things to say as above.

• Seagale Action Merino T-Shirt: Same good things to say as above.

• Lululemon ABC Joggers Skinny: Fancy sweatpants in the same fabric as the skinny pants. Exceedingly comfortable, great for flights, lounging, and just day to day.

• (Not pictured) Uniqlo Airism Mask: I love the weight and the fabric, and the fact that they’re three layer masks. They wash and dry well, no wrinkles or special care.

DOP o’clock.

The DOP bag has been kept to all solids to breeze through security. If I find something isn’t performing well, I can just grab stuff at a pharmacy locally.

• Matador toiletries roll bag: This is dry-through and minimal. Holds stuff, doesn’t leak, but lets stuff inside dry out. Magic.

• 2x Matador soap bags with Lush Seanik and Lush Avocado Co-Wash: The bags are magic for solid soap - They don’t leak but let the bars dry out. Seanik from Lush is a shampoo, but works great for washing body and clothing as well. The Avocado Co-Wash washes and rinses from hair really well, and doesn’t leave my hair super dry feeling. These two take care of personal hygiene and laundry needs.

• Nalgene bottle with Lush Dirty Toothy Tabs: They work great, taste good, and they’re not a liquid.

• Nalgene bottle with meds: Advil, Gravol, ginger Gravol, and Benadryl. Just in case.

• Neutrogena sunblock stick: No liquids life. Takes a bit of extra care to apply but works well.

• Schmidt’s deodorant: Wish I could have gotten a smaller size but it works. Might swap for Dove travel size.

• Folding toothbrush: Self explanatory.

• Folding Hairbrush: I bought this thing from a 100 yen store in Japan and it’s still going great.

• Floss: For flossing.

It’s ya boi, the Peak Design 3L Sling.

Up next we have the tech bag - This also doubles as my day bag and holds my camera goods. I love how this can just be thrown into the top of the backpack and it’s good.

• Peak Design 3L Sling: Just the right size for a Fuji X100V carry. I find myself thinking the 6L might be a better choice but this one has been consistently great.

• Fujifilm X100V: Outfit with a hood, a B&W UV filter, a Peak Design cuff, and a 128GB SD card. This has been my main camera for over a year now and I still love it every time I pick it up.

• Fujifilm TCL and WCL: Both outfitted with B&W UV filters. Great options to add a bit more flexibility to the fixed 35mm of the X100V, they give me a 50mm and a 28mm equivalent focal length while maintaining the 2.0 max aperture.

• Fujifilm EF-X20 flash: Great compact flash that adds a bit more flexibility to the kit. Fires remotely via command flash on the X100V for off camera fun.

• 2x extra Fuji batteries: Mirrorless isn’t exactly known for it’s great battery life.

• 2x extra AAA batteries: The flash might get hungry.

• Mophie 6000mAh external battery: This was a HUNT. This does power delivery off the USB-C port, has a lightning input, and supports pass through charging. I can charge this off lightning and chain my AirPods and my phone to it if I need to. Great battery.

• Anker 30w Powerport Slim: This thing is great. 30w fast charging and fits in a coin pocket. Definitely a great backup charger just in case.

• Apple Lightning SD card reader: Brand name still seems to be the best option. Fast, portable, reliable.

• Etymotic soft case with Lightning EarPods: Just a backup. I’d like to replace these with a USB-C and Lightning audio dongle along with the 3.5mm EarPods. Mediocre sound but solid mic. Great in a pinch.

• Microfibre cloth: Cloth. Cloth for cleaning. Cleaning cloth.

• DIY filter kit for the flash: Cut up some old filters and packaged with an elastic. Provides a few more creative options.

• Various cables: All 3ft, USB-C to USB-C, USB-A to USB-C, USB-C to Lightning, USB-A to Lightning. Charge all the things. They don’t leave the bag.

• Hair elastic: Long hair life.

Bellroy classic pouch for the extras.

For extra tech I’m stowing it in a Bellroy classic pouch. I’m probably going to drop this and just use the tech portion of the backpack, as this is a bit much for just a few cables and a charger.

• 6FT Cables: USB-C to USB-C for the USB-C things, and USB-C to Lightning for the Lightning things. Anker and AmazonBasics.

• Apple USB-C SD card reader: It’s just faster than the other options and well built. Lets me ingest into the iPad directly.

• BASEUS 65w GaN charger: 2x USB-C and 1x USB-A cover all my charging needs, and should be able to shoulder fast charging the iPad and the iPhone at the same time. Compact. Would like to swap this for an Anker option that has the removable cable in the future.

• (Not pictured) Cards: Health card, debit card. Just in case.

The free-floaters.

Last up we have what gets packed in spots in the bag.

• iPad Pro 2020 11” w/ Apple Pencil and Magic Keyboard: This thing actually penned this entire blogpost. I’ve been really enjoying the magic keyboard experience, the typing is really nice vs the Smart Keyboard folio. Overall this can do 80% of what I would do on my desktop and does it all really well. Happy with the size and the performance. Great for planning days, reading/entertainment, or editing photos in downtime.

• Packable Towel: Probably won’t need it as everywhere we’re going should have towels but nice to have. This has served me well across a lot of trips. Would like to replace it with a Matador nano version, but maybe in the future.

• GorillaPod Action Tripod: Holds the X100V just fine and doesn’t take up a ton of space.

• Matador packable tote: Got these for 12 bucks on clearance, they’re built great and pack down to nothing. Love the waterproof shell. Can clip to my sling in case we grab anything while we’re out.

• Merino Buff: Probably mostly a face mask for sleeping if needed. Doesn’t take any space.

All packed up!

I’m real excited to be taking this thing out for a spin. I may still make a few tweaks to the final packing list, but overall I think this is what’s gonna be going with me. Post trip report to follow!

2021 EDC Two: The Streamlining

Pretty simple update here.

• iPhone 12 128gb Black w/ Baltic Blue leather case

• Baltic Blue Apple MagSafe wallet

• Apple AirPods Pro

• Keys on a dangler/shackle

• Nite Ize Doohickey

• InCharge X

The Doohickey is a key shaped multitool that I'm testing out as I was finding without my TPT I'd inevitably run across the need to open a bottle or a package. This is a bit more streamlined and likely fine through airport security in the future. It seems to do the job pretty well, even if it’s a bit more brute-force for opening packages.

I made a quick update to the tips on my AirPods - I added a bit of memory foam from another pair of in ears, under the silicone tip. This facilitates a much better fit and some additional passive isolation. They’ve been great still.

The InCharge X is not really needed much in this setup, but it doesn’t take a lot of space. It’s a nice update to the previous InCharge 6 I had, as it fully supports 100w Power Delivery and other fast charging protocols. It’s really only going to be used in my extended setup, which is what you see here, along with below:

• Mophie PowerStation 6K PD

• Anker PowerPort Atom III Slim 30w

• 3ft USB-C to Lightning cable

The Mophie battery is absolutely perfect. It’s a bit smaller than the phone, weighs a bit less than the phone, and throws out 18w power delivery off the USB-C port. It has a lightning input, and a USB-A output, along side that USB-C connection. It also supports “priority charging” which lets me chain the charger to the battery, then to my phone, and will prioritize charging the phone followed by the battery. I can charge my phone and my Airpods at the same time. The best part is, it takes up very little extra space compared to the 10k Anker PD batteries. This is definitely the best option until Apple comes out with some battery case that uses MagSafe, and even then, who knows. The above gives me the ability to go pretty much indefinitely, and would be what I’d consider the minimum required for indefinite operation.

One Bag: Planning Is My Way Of Missing Travel

I miss travel. I think everyone who travelled before misses it too. Everyone expresses it differently. For me, it’s diving into another gear obsession, and planning out the best way to make my travel as easy as possible. If you’re not familiar with the one bag philosophy, it’s the idea of packing fewer, higher quality items into a single bag to make transit smoother and your trip easier. The less you need to think about while you’re at your destination, the better!

Of course if you’re going to be one bagging, you need a bag. Being a Peak Design fan, my first thought was the Peak Design Travel Backpack, but I quickly decided it was a bit too big, too expensive, and too heavy for what I needed. Also, dropping my kit down from Sony to Fuji really decreased my camera footprint, so I decided on selling my everyday backpack. Taking it’s place as my main bag will be the Bellroy Transit 28L! It’s a fairly subdued look which I like, the weight is good, and the price point was much more affordable than the Peak Design Travel Backpack. It fits my Peak Design Sling in the top, which in transit can double as a tech bag, and should be able to fit a decent size packing cube as well. The laptop sleeve is spacious, so if necessary I can pack my iPad Pro and my work laptop. There’s some nice organization features, and hidden water bottle pockets. Overall, great pickup, even if I’ve only used it a couple times for groceries so far.

I’m also evaluating fabrics. One bag clothing at peak should be either fast to dry, or odor resistant, or ideally both. It’d be nice if the fabric regulated body temperature in either hot or cold, and also resists wrinkles. That puts cotton out of the running unfortunately. Since you’re packing less, you’re either looking to get multiple wears out of something, or you’re looking for something you can wash in the evening quickly that will dry while you sleep.

I started with a few synthetics from Uniqlo, but I’ll also be trying out some merino as well in a few weeks. The synthetics are two of the three from Uniqlo I want to try, Airism, and Heattech. Airism is poly/spandex, and super light, generally coined as an undershirt material, but can in a pinch work great as a fast drying, super compact travel shirt. It’s a bit technical looking with some sheen to it, but in my initial testing it dries after a hand wash in about 2 hours. Heattech is a blend of more materials, dries a little slower (About 3 hours, still extremely quick!), but ultimately feels more like one of my H&M cotton shirts. I think between the two I’d choose Heattech as my packed shirt.

I plan on trying an Icebreaker Anatomica short sleeve in a few weeks, which is a merino/nylon/elastane blend. They’re definitely a little pricey, but if the fit is good and they’re as smell resistant as they claim, I could possibly get away with 2-3 of them for a full trip. From my understanding they’re also fairly fast drying, lighter weight, and they have great heat regulation properties.

I’m testing socks and underwear too. I’ve been on the same Hanes crew cotton poly blend forever, and they generally stink after one wear. They also take up a bunch of space. My first stop for socks is Darn Tough. Vermont based, merino blend socks with an unconditional lifetime warranty. I went with 1/4 ultralights, and thanks to a distributor error, ended up getting 3 extra pairs of no shows for free as well. I stress tested these at home and got about 5 days out of them before I decided to put them in the wash, and really, I didn’t notice any funk on them then. I still want to grab a more cushioned crew version which I think would be better for colder climates, but so far the ultralights have been great even down to -10c here.

For underwear, I’m currently on synthetics from Calvin Klein. Again, poly/spandex blend, they fit like my normal cotton calvins, but dry a lot faster. Overall, I’m happy, but I’m going to grab a pair of Icebreaker Anatomicas just to try. I can’t see myself being comfortable wearing underwear for more than a day, but hey, it’s science time!

I still haven’t found a tech hoodie that’s 100% attractive for me. There’s a few options from the likes of (surprise) Icebreaker and Lululemon that I’ll try thanks to generous return policies, but nothing has stuck 100% yet. More on hoodies later.

For pants, I’m going to start with some technical pants from Lululemon, the ABC skinnies in warpsteme fabric. Quick drying, lots of stretch, etc. Should pack light, and if I like them 2 pairs of those and a pair of the joggers should last me a good long while.

Anyway, quick detour into me missing travel. More to come as it comes. Cheers!

A Tiny Filter Kit For A Tiny Bag

I’ve been trying to come up with a really compact option to add some flash gels to my camera kit. I think I figured it out.

It might be a little janky, but I ended up cutting down a cheap-o filter kit into tiny gels, which can then be secured to the flash with a single elastic band. There’s probably a better way to do this, but the option takes up very little space (All the filters, the dividers, and the small elastic fit into a tiny resealable bag). Why didn’t I just stow the filter kit you ask? Well, I love using my flash both on and off camera, and the unfortunate part of the larger filter is it obstructs the optical sensor that’s used to trigger the flash remotely.

This compact option gives me a full set of CTO gels (full, 1/2, and 1/4), a green shift, and a blue shift, along with a bunch of creative color options. I do wish it was a hair less janky, but I’ll take it for now considering it cost me nothing and lets me be a bit more flexible with my lighting options.

Side note, I’d LOVE to grab a second one of these EF-X20 flashes if I can come across one for next to nothing. They don’t cycle overly quickly but the compact size and robust build make up for that entirely. A second one would slot really easily into my camera bag, and provide a killer two flash setup for even more creative lighting options.

Apple MagSafe Wallet First Impressions

Well I guess that didn’t take long…

We like the wallet!

Just some initial impressions, nothing extensive:

• Quality leather matching the case.

• 3 cards max, full stop.

• Magnetic attachment with the leather-on-leather contact leads to some nice adherence.

• No problems with the wallet coming off when the phone is put in or taken out of my pockets, and I wear skinny jeans.

• Fit and finish on the seams and stitching is exceptional, on par with my Popov wallet easily.

• Cutout in the back is nice for pushing cards out.

• Overall just a nice wallet, even if it wasn’t MagSafe Apple.

Entry price seems steep but a Bellroy, Fossil, or handmade card sleeve with a similar fit and finish would easily be in the same price range. It holds my main Visa, my ID, and my transit pass. Since the time I could have it on Google Pay here in Canada, all of my loyalty cards are on my phone, along with my debit and other credit cards. This isn’t any different for Apple Pay.

More to come at some point! Going to feel a bit weird walking around without something in my back pocket.

2021 EDC

It’s hard to find real good stuff to keep in my pockets.

Really enjoying these huge windows.

This is generally the kit that graces my pockets when I’m leaving the house.

• iPhone 12 128GB Black w/ Baltic Blue leather case

• Apple Airpods Pro

• Popov Leather card holder Royal Blue

• Keys on a dangler/shackle

I’ve slimmed down a lot, but this is mostly due to the ongoing pandemic. The furthest we go from home now is really about 10 minutes or so for groceries.

iPhone 12: It’s been a nice change from Android. Overall it took be a very short time to get used to the difference in operating systems. I still use a pretty full Google ecosystem for apps, along with a mix of Microsoft stuff. Camera on the Pixel still feels better but the iPhone is very solid. Battery is leaps and bounds better. With the current lifestyle of “on WiFi all day” I generally end the day with about 4 hours of screen usage and 50-55% battery left. Idle drain is minimal, so I generally get close to a 2 day battery out of the thing. The leather case feels great and has definitely gained a bit of patina in the few months I’ve had it. Power Delivery is still available with USB-C to Lightning cables, so other than having to buy a bunch of new cables, I’m very happy with the switch!

Airpods Pro: Well, these are it. These are the best of the best. Noise cancelling and battery are about the same as the WF-1000XM3. The sound signature is a bit more neutral which is preferred. The passthrough is infinitely better, and let’s not get started about the case size! It fits in my jeans pocket, which is perfect. If Apple enables reverse wireless charging off the iPhone, it’ll be a great setup!

Popov Leather Card Holder: I’ve spoken about this many times before. Still one of my favorite wallets, and has continued to wear beautifully. Holds 8 cards no problem.

Dangler/Shackle for Keys: I moved back to this setup. It’s a lot slimmer than the Quiet Carry Shorty I had for a while. The Shorty was built well but had a few caveats with shorter keys, and I wasn’t using the multitool a lot when I was carrying my Big Idea Designs TPT, which felt like it had a lot more usability and was considerably slimmer.

So yeah, it’s a bit light now, you’ll probably notice I’m not carrying a handkerchief or the titanium pocket tool - This isn’t because I’ve given up on them, it’s just because they’re not needed now. The TPT is actually my favorite pocket doodad, as it does two things perfectly - It opens boxes and bottles.

Am I 100% happy with my carry? No. I want to add a few things, actually! Although battery anxiety with the iPhone 12 is considerably lower than with the Pixel 3/4, there’s times I could see myself needing a bit of a boost if I get caught out for longer than expected. This is most likely to happen after the pandemic, but I’ve had an instance where I was stuck with just my phone and although I was fine, I had to be pretty conservative. MagSafe seems like it should be able to offer a compact battery which could possibly double battery life when out and about. There’s a few models currently on the market that are fairly attractive (Oisle does a color matching version with a capacity of about 4300mah, ZEERA does a 3000mah model constructed out of aluminum, Anker will be launching a few in February), but no first party options yet. I’m likely to wait for the Anker to see what it looks like. I prefer the brand, and it it offers options like the Oisle/ZEERA (functions as a USB-C battery pack and can work as a wireless charger when plugged in) then I’ll likely jump on that. Otherwise I’m likely to grab the ZEERA, at least until Apple hopefully releases a first party option. Ideally I want a small, just-in-case power bank that’ll fit in my skinny jeans and not look like a tumor.

I’m also interested in grabbing the MagSafe wallet - I like the size and the 3 card capacity, as really, when I’m going out I only need ID, credit card, and transit pass. I’ve had my rewards cards all on my phone for ages, and honestly in most cases all of my payment sources are on my phone too. It’s definitely optional but could be nice.

There’s other stuff I wouldn’t mind having like an actual wall charger and a cable. The wall charger is a long shot but could be done with an Anker PowerPort Atom iii Slim, my current favorite charger. It’s about the size of the Airpods Pro case. For cables I really like the concept of the InCharge 6 and I have a couple, but they don’t do fast charging. I’ve backed the Incharge X , so we’ll see how that shakes out. I have a feeling I’ll end up with a 3 foot USB-C to Lightning cable if I needed it though.

2020 Desktop Upgrade: Complete! Well, Mostly.

Alright, we’re packing it up. It’s done. Well, mostly.

That’s a lot of screen real estate…

Final spec as per below:

• AMD Ryzen 9 3900X w/ Noctua NH-D15

• 64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200Mhz DDR4 RAM

• MSI MPG B550 Gaming Carbon WiFi motherboard

• ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB NVMe SSD x2

• Western Digital Blue 4TB SATA SSD

• Zotac AMP Holo RTX 3080

So yes, we swapped the B450 board for the B550 variant. It was a few dollars more, and I didn’t realize when buying it I wasn’t getting full speed out of my NVMe drives. With both slots now supporting at least PCIe 3.0, I’m getting within spec reads and writes on the second drive. There’s some other nice stuff like support for front panel USB-C, the option to turn off RGB directly on the board, and full access to the SATA ports even with NVMe drives connected. It should better support Zen 3 if I do decide to move over to that.

More brown and beige.

I’ve also gone ahead and added a few additional Noctua NF-A14 PWMs as bottom intakes, and managed to get a nice sized finished piece of MDF for the tower to sit on top of. This also let me re-invert the power supply to feed it cool air from the bottom. The 3080 is a very hot card and the more cool air I can provide to it the better. All fans run at 35% (About 500-550 RPM). When system temp jumps up past 40 degrees, the case fans will ramp up to 80% at 50 degrees with a .7 second ramp up time and 1 second ramp down time. 100% is at 60 degrees, which I think is pretty unlikely to be hit. This ensures the system is fed plenty of cool air when it’s under load, but otherwise maintains my desire for silence. It’s not as quiet as it was, but the TDP is definitely higher so that’s understandable.

I ran out of black zip ties so here we are with clear ones… Oh well, closed case.

The processor is a different story. Since single core loading can ramp up die temperature very quickly, I have the fan set to run constantly at 35% until it hits 65 degrees. It then will ramp up to 80% @ 75 degrees and 100% at 85 degrees. This keeps the noise level down when doing day-to-day things like browsing and videos and whatnot, while still ramping up when required. 65 degrees is not uncommon to see in quick bursts, but I really don’t want to hear the whir of the fan right away when I know the thermal mass of the D15 can take care of most of the heat.

Wide boi.

The U4919DW is absolutely massive. The size of the box alone is extremely large. From a real estate perspective it’s like having 2 27” 2560x1440 displays side by side, without the bezel in the middle. And yes, I could have had 2 4K displays for a bit cheaper, but this resolution will be easier to drive for games. A single mount is fairly attractive, and even after playing a few hours of games I can see how this is much more immersive than a single 4K display would be. The work laptop gets a single USB-C cable connected to it, which drives video and power. The desktop gets connected to Displayport. Mounting the display was a bit of a challenge, as I needed to purchase 40mm long M4 screws and nylon spacers to get it far enough off the wall to use my ScreenBar.

ScreenBar Plus - Pricey light, highly functional.

Finally, we have the ScreenBar Plus from BenQ. Out of focus in the background you’ll also notice the control knob. I keep it on auto most of the time, however there’s full control of the warmth and brightness from the knob. I gotta say, having a task light makes things considerably easier during the darker winter months.

So that’s about it other than a few small things. I have maybe 2-3 more small things to look at before calling it complete, but it’s highly functional as of now.

• Longer USB-C cable for connecting the laptop - Included one is fairly short and makes powering on the laptop a bit of a pain.

• Better routing for headphone cable - Considering an extender run from the back, anchored at the bottom of the desk between the two drawers.

• Better WiFi antennas for the WiFi on the motherboard - Connectivity seems fine, but it could be better. There’s some options out there with a magnetic base that seem great.

• Shelving above the monitor - I have a shelf I like for this but pandemic means no access to a hammer drill. Will wait on that for now.

• Cable routing - This could be improved with a larger cable channel.

• Bias lighting on the monitor - Researching solutions here. I really just need the light to be on when the monitor is on, so I may just go with a fairly cheap USB powered warm light strip and see what it’s like. The ports go unpowered when the monitor goes to sleep, so it should technically only be on when the computer is in use.

• Speakers - This may just be a Bose Solo 5 mounted above the monitor. If we upgrade the living room TV we’re likely to replace the Solo 5 with something a bit beefier, so I can just take that.

• Maybe better positioning for the magsafe charger? It’s fine for now.

Not bad, but definitely things for the new year. For now, I’m waiting on CyberPunk!

2020 Desktop Upgrade: Continued Again

It’s all over except some more cable management… And a whole lot of tweaking.

Absolute unit.

I know they said the 3080 was a big card, especially the AIB models, but wow, this Amp Holo takes it to another level. This thing weighs a ton! Overall it’s a fairly attractive looking card. The solid backplate lends itself to a slightly lower thermal performance than other AIBs, but I’m that’s mostly down to the stock fan curve which is fairly quiet.

Current curve.

The RTX 3080 takes very well to “undervolting” and can tend to maintain great clock speeds at much lower voltages. I’ve decided to do a stepped curve as per what I’ve found on Hardforums, and then set my power limit to 90%. With this I’m pulling about 300w vs 350 at stock, performing about the same as stock, and producing less heat.

The current fan curve.

My current fan curve is fairly aggressive. In my current testing, playing older titles (Mass Effect Andromeda, Borderland: The Pre-Sequel) I’m seeing temps under 60 degrees, and for more demanding titles (My only RTX title currently is Call of Duty Modern Warfare) see 4K gameplay at max settings hit 71c max. Oh, and that’s pinned at 60FPS. Not bad! Noise isn’t a massive concern as I play games with headphones, and otherwise while doing normal tasks the system is close to quiet - I definitely have fan speeds up a bit more than previously, but we’re looking at much higher TDP parts now.

1660 Super for context.

I feel like I can go lower on voltages with a bit more testing, but I really just want to play some games again. I’m pretty happy with the settings as is, and with a bit more time playing with ideal fan curves for the case, I think I can bring my temps down a bit further. This cannot be treated like the previous cards where I can keep my case fans at around 300-600RPM. I have some plans to raise the case off the carpeted floor using a plank or something but I haven’t got around to it yet. With that, an additional 140mm intake or two at the bottom could add more airflow to a very hot card and ideally let me drop fan speed a bit more. I’d also be able to flip the power supply again, isolating it from the rest of the system. Sometime in the near future I suppose.

That’s a lot of NAND.

Finally, taking the place of my 6TB external drive is this 4TB Western Digital Blue SSD. It’s a TLC drive that can saturate SATA3, which makes it considerably faster than the 160mbps I was getting off the external. The big two boosts here though come from both the lack of noise and the responsiveness of an SSD. The external was loud and slow. It’s fine for dealing with movies and stuff, but my Lightroom Classic library is on the drive, and that makes a huge difference. Just firing that up after migrating my data was astounding the difference in performance. NAND only baby, here we go.

So I suppose that’s almost it for desktop upgrade. It’s been a while, and I hope it’ll be another while before we do it again. I’ll be posting more photos once the U4919DW arrives, and on top of that, expect photos once I’ve re-cabled the desktop.

2020 Desktop Upgrade: Continued

Alright, initial build complete and man this thing is quick! Couple things to note about the process.

Still some work on cable management to be done… That can wait a week as I’ll be adding more cables.

• The D15 is tight, even in a nice spacious case like the Define R5.

• Memory was all detected perfectly and running at XMP profile after a bit of tinkering with placement on the board (had to start with 2 sticks in slots 3 and 4, then add the rest).

• It doesn’t seem I can disable the RGB lights on the MSI motherboard through the BIOS, but that’s minor in a windowless case.

• The thermals on the 3900X are real! I currently idle high 30s low 40s and seem to top out at about 73 degrees under Prime95 Small FFTs. Single core load seems to spike temps more, but still manageable. The 3900X runs hot due to the density of the chip, and under regular load I should never see any issues.

• I finally got a decent fan curve where all fans in case operate at about 500RPM until the processor hits 65c, then they’ll ramp up to 100% at 85c. There’s a delay in ramp up and ramp down too, which smooths things out a bit.

• NVMe SSDs are definitely faster than the SATA I had in there before. Windows install took no time and I’m having no problems with system responsiveness.

With that said, initial thoughts are this thing is going to be fine for 5 years. If a sale comes up in the next year for a 5900X or 5950X, I might switch over to that, but that’s only if I can come across one for about the same price I paid for the 3900X.

Oh yeah, that’s a winner. Not sure why I like that beige and brown color scheme.

As for further upgrades, I’ve got 2 coming in:

4TB Western Digital Blue SATA SSD: This one seems a bit weird since I just grabbed 2 2TB NVMe drives and mentioned how much faster they are. I do however have a 6TB Seagate external hard drive that’s quickly become the loudest thing at my desk… And well, we just can’t have that. I use large format storage to hold my Lightroom Classic library and other various software and media, so having a 4TB SSD in place of an external spinning disk will improve Lightroom Classic responsiveness 10-fold. This is useful for working and managing older images that I don’t store on creative cloud. This should also be useful as a working drive for some low-use VMs that I may want to run. As of now though, it’s primary purpose is storage! I can’t complain about the price either, as Newegg had a special running the day I was looking. 35% off made for an all time low for 4TB SSDs.

Zotac RTX 3080 AMP Holo: I caved. Also I managed to FIND one out of sheer luck. Best Buy had listed a SKU recently that wasn’t being tracked by any of the bots or scalpers, and I managed to get an order through on it. This will be my first higher end GPU, as I usually come in around the xx6x/xx7x series historically (8800GT, GTX 260 Core 216/GTX 275, GTX470, GTX 670, GTX 970, 1660 Super, etc). I haven’t been playing too many games lately, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to, and with the global pandemic, it’s even easier to find time to do so. With the U4919DW clocking in at 5120x1440, the 1660 Super really wasn’t going to cut it. After seeing benchmarks on the 3080 and seeing it smashed just about any title on the market at 4K with 60+ FPS, I was convinced to go up a tier this time around.

I’ve inverted the power supply as it’s sitting on carpet now, but checking inside the thing was clean - I’m not sure the fan has even come on since I bought this unit. Would have liked it if this motherboard came with a second NVMe heatsink.

The Holo doesn’t appear to have many reviews, and the little there is on the internet seem to indicate it isn’t the quietest/coolest card out there, but my plans are to under-volt a bit anyway. This should also help assuage my fears of my 650W PSU being too little. Everything I’ve read online says I should be fine with the 650W, but Nvidia’s recommendation of a 750w has me a bit worried. I feel the EVGA P2 650w should be super solid though being based on the Super Flower Leadex platform, and worst case scenario I grab something a bit beefier and sell this premium unit to make up for the cost.

2020 Desktop Upgrade

It’s that time again. And what a time it is. If anyone reads this blog they probably know the last time I had upgraded my computer is coming up on 5 years ago, and my component choices were solid for the time. My needs have changed a bit though with a lot more focus on creativity and less focus on gaming. That being said, for 2020, my current i5-4690k and 16GB of RAM really aren’t feeling as quick as they once were. Having Lightroom and Photoshop open at the same time with a few chrome tabs in the background pretty much means we’re paging a bunch of data to storage, and although my SATA SSDs are SSDs, they’re not as fast as NVME is now. So going into this, the parts list:

• AMD Ryzen 9 3900X

• MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon MAX WiFi

• 64GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 3200mhz DDR4

• ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB NVMe SSD x2

• Noctua NH-D15

I’ll be keeping my case, power supply, and fans, but WOW, that’s a build list right there. How about my choices?

AMD Ryzen 9 3900X: AMD for the longest while was the underdog, but with Zen 2 AMD started becoming considerably more competitive. Compared to Intel, Intel still leads in the single core performance game, but for the margin is extremely close. When you look at multi core, there’s no competition at the price point – 12 cores and 24 threads is an extreme amount of processing grunt. With my workloads tending to be fairly multithreaded, this should be a huge benefit over the lesser core count Intel offers. From a games perspective, the new game consoles are built around AMD’s Zen 3 architecture, being 8 core 16 thread APUs. Going with a higher core count should ensure that a lot of future game titles run better on my PC as practically every platform is coded similarly now – Windows, PS5, Xbox Series X/S. This may in the future be upgraded to a 3950X, or perhaps a Zen 3 equivalent – Zen 3 providing around a 20% IPC boost over Zen 2.

MSI B450 Gaming Pro Carbon MAX WiFi: Full ATX board, minimal RGB, lots of fan headers, 2 NVME slots, premium audio codec (ALC1220), Intel WiFi (1.73ghz max) and Bluetooth 5.0. B450 is slated to receive a BIOS upgrade in the new year to enable support for the Zen 3 chips, so slotting in a Zen 3 chip in the future is easy. Yes there’s no USB4, and it’s missing out on PCIe 4.0, but these are features that aren’t really relevant to me currently, nor do I see them as being relevant in the next 5 years considering my reliance on cloud file transfers for the majority of file sharing. WiFi is a huge requirement as we’ve moved to pretty much exclusively wireless connectivity in the apartment, so the best WiFi chipsets are definitely required.

64GB Crucial LPX 3200mhz DDR4: Well, the board needed DDR4, the heat sink requires low profile memory, and I really didn’t want to get stuck at 16GB. 4x the memory will give me plenty of room to play with photoshop and Lightroom simultaneously, spin up VMs, and forget about Chrome tabs being open. 3200mhz should be a fine spot for my requirements.

ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro 2TB NVME SSDs: 3500mbps reads, 3000mbps writes, why not? These things are blazing fast and should work great for my needs. I don’t plan on RAIDing them. If 1.25TB of SSD storage got me through fine for 5 years, I think 4TB should be plenty for the foreseeable future.

Noctua NH-D15: I’ve been a Noctua guy forever. I love the quirky color scheme, and the fans just plain sound great even at full speed. My NH-U12P has been with me since 2008, and although it’s likely up for the task, I want to go with something potentially even quieter for the beast that is the 3900X. Here’s hoping I can keep my 300rpm fan speed for the foreseeable future with one of the giants (both in size and performance) of air cooling.

For all that, the build was surprisingly less than I was expecting. I’ll be carrying over my exceptional EVGA 650W platinum power supply, my case, and my fans. I’m still waffling on the video card – I don’t really play as many games as I did before, but I’d really like to try changing that. On top of that too, I managed to score a Dell U4919DW for extremely cheap. A 49” super ultra wide monitor with a resolution of 5120x1440 might be a bit rough to push with a 1660 Super. Even scaling resolution back to 3840x1080 for games is a lot more pixels than my existing 2560x1440. The RTX 3080 has been tempting, and I have a pretty good feeling that could be a 4-5 year video card… Provided I can find one. The U4919DW will get a lot more use for productivity however, considering how much we’ve been working from home, having it connected for work will be like having 2 of my current monitor setup again.

Perspective: A Week In The Walled Garden.

I’ve been a lifelong Android user. I’ve owned a few Nexus devices, I’ve owned a OnePlus, and recently I’ve been on the Pixel train. I’ve never owned or used an iPhone extensively. Until this past week.

Borrowed iPhone XR and owned iPad Pro 2020.

I’ve been pretty happy with my Surface Pro for a while. After finding out the iPad mini wasn’t really cutting it for me at the time, I bought into the Surface for some travel purposes. It fatefully showed me through a few multi-week trips, and even became my primary computer for my past few moves. For that it did pretty great. That said the 8GB of RAM and 128GB of slow-ish SSD storage made me look at upgrading casually over the past few months. If I can get the majority of my day-to-day done on a low power machine while keeping the desktop off, why not, after all? But the Surface Pro 7 was expensive in the configuration I wanted, so I threw most of my upgrade ideas aside.

Until a few weeks ago when I was able to demo an entry level 7th generation iPad. Loading up Lightroom I fell in love again! The thing absolutely flew through edits. I shared an album of photos of my partner with her, she liked/commented on the ones she wanted to keep, and I edited them on the fly as she did. Never a hitch, never a slowdown. Couple this with a lot of the changes in iOS since version 11 on the Mini and I legitimately could replace my Surface with an iPad.

So I bought a 256GB 11” iPad Pro 2020 model. Free AirPods (Not keeping them, I’m quite fond of my Sony setup), grabbed the pencil, good to go. This FINALLY feels like a tablet that just gets out of the way and lets you do the stuff you need to do. There’s no lag. Scrolling is completely smooth. Multitasking is basic but fluid. The screen is gorgeous. The pencil actually feels like it’s a natural writing experience. No lag waiting for strokes to show up on screen. No trailing. Just feels good. Keyboard and mouse support is awesome! I’m typing this now at the dining room table with my MX Keys attached to it. Lightroom direct import is basically what it was missing! The photo in this post was imported directly into Lightroom with a USB-C SD card reader, edited, and uploaded.

I was convinced enough by iOS 14 to try an iPhone too, so I borrowed an XR. This wouldn’t be my first choice in device, but it was a pretty good option to see what the walled garden had in store. And it really does just work. With iOS 14 changes I’m able to set default mail and browser clients, and use some basic widgets. The past week with the XR makes me realize that I’m a Google user, not an Android user.

I suppose we should have a pros and cons though…

Pros

• Tight app ecosystem - The quality of apps on tablets and phones feels higher.

• Exceptional battery life - I could never get 2 days out of an Android device. With similar usage, I’m seeing 2 days with the XR pretty easy. The standby is great.

• IOS 14 brings app drawer, default client selection, and widget support! Finally.

• All of my favorite Google apps are available on iOS, and in some cases seem to run better?

• Parity features. Apple Pay works great on the phone. FaceID is as good or better than the Pixel 4.

• Great tablet system, and a smart watch that actually looks worthwhile.

CONS

• No USB-C on the iPhone, still. C’mon Apple. I’ve been working so hard to go one-cable.

• Control of audio settings leaves a bit to be desired, but is workable.

• AAC is the highest Bluetooth codec for audio, but not overly noticeable.

I guess my cons list is pretty minimal. I’m excited to see what the next iPhone release looks like. I haven’t had a new phone for myself in about 2 years, and that seems to be my current upgrade cycle. I wouldn’t mind giving it a change. Whether that’s a 12 Mini, or an 11 Pro, time will tell.

Wireless Hunt: Bad Romance Edition – 2020 Pixel Buds

So much promise, but unfortunately, I’m going to be returning them. I was really hopeful for these when they were announced in 2019, but they just don’t live up to what they should be. They’re compact and lovely, but plagued with connectivity issues that shouldn’t have been a thing when they shipped. There was a promised update to address this, but the update came and went in August, and the problems persisted.

Pros:

• Case size – This is TINY! It fits into most of my coin pockets, and the buds sit well in the ears.

• Fit – They fit great, after a 2-3 day adjustment period I could wear these things for hours.

• Integration – They integrate very well with the Pixel device, from fast pairing to the app function. They just seemed to work in that sense.

• Build quality – The case is addictively clicky and the buds feel well built but incredibly light.

• Features – The new feature drop for August rolled out some super cool stuff like detection for sirens/barking dogs, detection for when you’re sharing buds to allow individual volume control, and a bass boost that’s subtle and well implemented. Let’s not forget automatic volume based on ambient sound and wireless charging in the case too.

Cons:

• Connectivity - If anything is annoying with true wireless ear buds it’s connectivity problems, and these things cannot actively maintain a connection in some way, shape, or form. It’s either connectivity to the phone, or a split second skip every 1 minute 50 seconds when using two buds. It really does feel like this is a beta product on the connectivity front.

• Sound quality – This isn’t up to par with my WF-1000XM3s. The sound quality would be good for some, but for me, it wasn’t $240 good.

• Case is only in white - Although the buds have released in additional bud colors, the case is only in white. Minor con, but I would have loved a black case to match black buds if I had the option.

So there you have it. A pretty photo and a not-so-pretty pros and cons list. They have a lot of pros, but the connectivity con really outweighs everything. I may revisit these in the future, but for now, they’ll be going back.

Bags are cool - Peak Design 3L Update

This thing can fit a lot of stuff!

My current load out is as per below:

• Fuji X100V + JJC Filter Adapter/Hood + B+W MRC Nano Clear

• TCL-X100 + B+W MRC Nano Clear

• WCL-X100 + B+W MRC Nano Clear

• Fuji EF-X20 Flash

• 2x Spare Fuji batteries

• 2x Spare AAA batteries (For Flash)

• Anker PowerCore 10000 PD

• 30w Anker Slim PD charger

• 3ft Anker USB-C to USB-C cable

• 3ft Anker USB-A to Micro USB cable

• Sony WF-1000XM3

• Microfibre cloth

• Advil tube for various medicines

• Hand sanitizer

• Sun block

• Cloth mask

That’s a LOT of gear, and just about everything I could ever need for a daily outing, and then some.

The JJC Filter Adapter+Hood was chosen over the official Fuji because it’s 1/5 the cost and still made of metal. I went with the best class of B+W filters I could as if you’re going to put glass in front of glass, it may as well be the best it can be. My charging gear is of course Anker, and it’s gotta be power delivery capable. All my personal devices carried charge or connect via USB-C. The USB-A cable is only brought in case I’m out with Sam and she needs to charge something. Everything else is a possible daily need - Advil tube carries things for allergies, indigestion, and aches/pains, sun block is a necessity for the summer in Canada, and the hand sanitizer and cloth mask are a bit of a necessity for pandemic times.

If I need more than this, I have my 20L Everyday backpack. I’ve got plans to see exactly what I can fit in there, but I’m pretty confident with a single bag and my gear setup I could make it into a weekend bag, even with my Surface Pro.

WCL-X100/TCL-X100 Mod - Save Money, Get That V2 Experience

If you still have your original v1 converters kicking around, about 2 dollars worth of supplies and a bit of patience can get you a v2. It just doesn’t look pretty - But hey, who looks at the back of these things?

Magnets. How DO they work?

Optically, the V1 and V2 converters are identical. The V2 was introduced with the X100F and introduced auto-switching. Magical! It must be some form of electronics! Actually it’s just a magnet.

The lens detection on the X100F and X100V is triggered by a magnetic field placed on the lens at approximately the position shown below.

Just magnets.

Polarity wise, one polarity triggers the telephoto conversion, and the other triggers the wide angle.

So, with a bit of deal hunting for v1 versions of these lenses, an Amazon order, a dollar store trip, and a bit of trial and error, I was able to convert my V1 lenses into what is functionally V2 versions. I bought some 4mm wide by 2mm tall magnets and some 5 minute epoxy. I had tape on hand and tested placement first with that. My total costs? It was about $250 Canadian for each of the conversion lenses, $0.25 worth of magnets, and the tube of epoxy was $1.50. If I was to buy the v2 lenses, they would go for about $450 Canadian each, plus taxes. Over $500 in savings for buying the V1 and doing the mod.

With my magnets, I required 2 on each lens stacked - So if you can come across a 4mm x 4mm magnet, you’re probably fine too. With better magnets, you can even get by with a 2mm x 1mm magnet on the ledge below the threads, as I found online. I’m fine with an uglier presentation as it’s functional, does not impede performance, and doesn’t affect the look of the camera.

Bags are cool.

I got a new bag. Surprise!

3L Peak Design Sling V2.

Initial thoughts:

• Holds the X100V, a couple batteries, and daily essentials like a battery pack and headphones.

• All black is unassuming and wears well, though I do wish it came in charcoal.

• I miss the Hypalon zip loops.

• Double pull vs single pull zipper is great.

I’m happy with it so far. I’ll be seeing how much actually fits inside the thing with an EF-X20 and the two Fuji conversion lenses in, but I fully intend this to be my day bag for trips downtown or out when travelling. With how little I use my work laptop, this may actually become my daily work bag too once work opens back up.

I’m still working on a better travel system than my 20L Everyday backpack + 35L no name duffel, and the 3L + the Peak Design travel backpack seems like it might fit the bill, if I can find the backpack on sale.

Whoops, I Did It Again.

Review to come, maybe.