Thinking a lot about data portability again.

Worried about the future.

Worried about businesses deciding I don’t affordable electronics any longer.

Worried I may not be able to keep using the brand of my choice.

I have an old MacBook Pro that has a failing battery. Or something. It’s failing in such a way that the battery discharges while operating and connected to power. No matter which charger, no matter which port the charger is connected to. When the battery goes to 2% it shuts down—again while connected to mains power and the OS indicating the charger is connected.

I had hoped I might be able to repurpose this machine as an “iTunes” server, replacing a MacBook Air that ended a few OS versions sooner. That one is still chugging.

Battery replacement on one of these has about 38 steps to get the battery out. The battery itself is in six parts. And there is a lot of heating and prying because of adhesive—which has to be replaced on the return journey. I saw a video on YouTube with the process that was an hour and 15 minutes long.

I’m not doing that. My suspicion is that the battery might be failing, but something else has failed, too. If it was a matter of a few different screw types after pulling of the bottom cover, and a knock-off battery from Amazon for 40 bucks, I’d have placed the order already.

Because of the way this is designed, I’m not going to chance it. It breaks my heart. But this one will probably be handed back to Apple for recycling.

I would estimate the amount of money it would cost to have it repaired by Apple would put me pretty close to the price of a NEO.

Even at my standing desk, my watch tells me it’s time to stand

Well, I did it again. Killed an Ubuntu install through experimentation. Re-installing.

A lesson I have to keep re-learning is when to allow notifications, or when to supply my email address. As a person whose attention can easily be re-directed, I have to help myself.

When you Google information and find another sub-Reddit to join

That’s maybe the most important thing. Is to shake off this erroneous notion that life is there and you’re just gonna live in it, versus embrace it, change it, improve it, make your mark upon it. I think that’s very important and however you learn that, once you learn it, you’ll want to change life and make it better, cause it’s kind of messed up, in a lot of ways. Once you learn that you’ll never be the same again.

-Steve Jobs

I love any article claiming x or y or z product is a MacBook killer, while being about a device that doesn’t run MacOS.

I’m not fried, but today I’m supercalifragicrispy around the edges.

Ah, “Progress”

I’m in IT. This is a metaphor and all metaphors fail.

Progress bars or status messages introduce a wierd alternate time, feels like travel when you have never been at this particular departure gate before and have never been to the destination, before.

There are some landmarks on your installation/update/removal journey. Someone has decided these landmarks are percentages, but of what? We would like to assume it’s the amount of time elapsed relative to the time remaining, but folks who have been around the block a few times know this is typically not the correct reckoning.

And so we wait and hope that the train doesn’t go off the rails. We bought the ticket and took our seat, but we are not driving.

Sometimes we arrive at our destination before we expected.

Sometimes we are told we are already at our destination, but nothing has changed.

Sometimes we stop the train and go back to the station because we aren’t sure if everything was in order before we left.

Sometimes we find there is a bridge out. No matter how many times we restart the journey, the path to the destination is blocked. We don’t know how badly the track is damaged beyond the point where we keep stopping.

Sometimes, nothing happens. You never leave the station. Or maybe you can’t even get on the train.

Sometimes, you are in a dark tunnel. You can’t even tell if the train is moving.

Long moments of boredom punctuated with moments of terror.

May all your progress bars complete. Successfully.