Sitting Duck

For a long time now, I’ve had an Alfred Workflow that I use every night when I leave my Mac (and often at other times, too). It prepares my Mac for staying on all night without disturbing anyone. I just added an extra feature today and it appears I’ve never shared the Workflow, so this …

Continue reading “Good night Mac – an Alfred 3 Workflow”

When we observe the world around us we are frequently to be found comparing what we see with our previous experiences. “That’s a lot of rain” is not an absolute measure of the volume of rain without considering the observer – do they come from Thailand or southern California? So it should come as no surprise that the technology we are already familiar with has a significant bearing on our assessment of new gadgets. It recently occurred to me that my own judgement has been clouded in this way and I think it’s a common affliction.

A little over a week ago I wrote about my quest for software to ‘run’ my podcast production for The Sitting Duck Podcast. Specifically, some form of sound board software that would work well for multi-track recording into Logic Pro X.

Since then I’ve discovered two new pieces of software and a new way to approach the multi-track solution.

There was a time when I used to record and publish a podcast every Thursday. It only really lasted a few years before I lost the passion, but it does still exist and I release new episodes from time to time when the bug bites me.

I’ve been skirting around the edges of putting a new episode out for the last couple of weeks but one thing is holding me back – software. The podcast was born on a Windows PC in the wonderfully simple CastBlaster software. After switching to a Mac, I used GarageBand for a time before discovering what would almost be the perfect tool for me – Ubercaster.

Unfortunately, Ubercaster is no more, so this week I set out to see if I could come close to the Ubercaster experience with contemporary Mac software.

You know what the internet is like. You click on a link on Twitter which takes you to YouTube which suggests another video, which then suggests another and before you know it you’ve spent far more time than you intended at the computer.

That’s the process that landed me on a series of Numberphile videos. I know about Numberphile through another, much longer series of links. I listened to the NosillaCast, which featured Bart Busschots, who co-hosted the International Mac Podcast (no longer active), on which I appeared with Andrew J Clark who recommended The Prompt (since replaced by Connected) which featured Myke Hurley, who started Relay.FM on which he joined CGP Grey for Cortex, where Grey mentioned Hello Internet which features Brady Haran who makes the Numberphile videos!

Cutting to the chase, I watched a whole bunch of Numberphile videos today on all manner of topics including a number which has long held a fascination for me – pi, or π.

Back in 2013 I wrote a blog post (since taken offline) about my disagreement that modern smartphone cameras “make compact cameras obsolete.” My premise being that for many types of photo – just about anything of an object out of reach – the lack of optical zoom is a severely limiting factor.

Later I purchased what I call “the hundred dollar camera” and have been carrying this in the bag I take to work every day, and sometimes – when I remember – in my pocket. My goal is to find and capture scenes that are simply impossible to capture on a phone, using a device that’s just as pocketable and super cheap.