Month: May 2023

The Story of My Mac Mini M1

by

I had been waiting for Apple to come out with a new Mac Mini that I can upgrade to for a long time. I even wrote about it as far back as 2016. By then it had been two years since Apple had released anything new in the Mac Mini models. I had the 2012 model at the time. They had came out with a 2014 model however by 2016 when I wanted a new computer it was not worth spending money on a two year old computer model that is only slightly better than the one I already own. The challenge was what I owned was four years old and really needing a replacement.

It would be another two years before the mini was refreshed in 2018. At that point I was prepared to buy a new one. I may have even had an order ready to go. However on reflection the differences between what I had that was six years old in the 2018 variant wasn’t hugely different and the amount of money was not insignificant. At the time I past on an upgrade and just used a laptop as my desktop. I also purchased A significantly cheaper Intel Nuc with better specifications that I put Linux on.

Even after coming up with an alternative plan I still really wanted a Mac Mini. I just couldn’t justify the price for what it was getting me. Flash forward to fall of 2020 and I was excited to pre-order a M1 Mac Mini. I did in fact have an order placed and it was on backorder for about six weeks. After a little while though I talked myself out of getting it and continue to use my old laptop. It was not until this winter then I finally decide the time was right to make a purchase. For the money the mini was a pretty nice computer with the M one chip in it. I also had a 12 inch iPad Pro that are used around the house and out and about like a laptop. It’s not a laptop replacement however someone said the perfect quote that it’s about 90% of our computer replacement. For when I’m not at my desk having the iPad Pro is perfectly fine. For when I sit at my desk having a desktop computer works better than a laptop docked to a monitor.

After literally over four years of waiting I finally got my new mini. Was it worth the wait, I won’t say that. It is a pretty nice computer though. my 2012 mini stop being functional as my main computer about three or four years ago. I used it for a while with Debian on it. At this point it is a paper weight.

I was so slow to write this post that a funny thing happened after a few months with my Mini. I started missing a personal laptop or the freedom that being undocked from a stationary position. Even if it was rare that i did it, the flexibility was nice. I went out and got the stock 8Gig M1 MacBook Air. I was worried that the base configuration was not going to be powerful enough. I was wrong. It has been perfectly fine. After having the MacBook Air a while i can say that i do not use it away from my desk often. When i do it is worth the flexibility. I do see the iPad Pro 12” getting flexible enough that i may change that decision over time.

As great as the Mini was, after about a year I had sold it on eBay in favour of the MacBook Air. I still miss a desktop now and again but the laptop is way more flexible.

W Sisters Short on Failed At Parenting

by

Walking home from school today I told the girls that we are thinking about getting a car. We like the Prius. An old work friend once called them the Ninja of cars and that name stuck to me so I told them that if we get one I want to name it snake eyes. He is of course the most famous ninja I know.

A asked who he Snake Eyes was. I gave a fake shocked face and told her he was the best Ninja from GI Joe. She said what’s GI Joe? I asked her how she didn’t know what it was? A’s reply was that I had failed as a parent. In this case she was right, but it still stung!

The Story of My Upgrade Partially Pi Powered Backup Network

by

I have written a few posts on using Resilio Sync to replicate my personal data as a backup network. Currently I have several nodes running at home on various devices. I have one remote nodes running. It is on a VPS that I may write about in more detail separately. I had another remote Pi at a friends house for years. With the cost of the VPS being so cheap and easier to manage remotely I gave up on the extra node with my friend.

Instead I have 2 Pi’s running Resilio at home. In addition to a ODROID HC2 and instances on my laptop and NAS. Every device does not have all the data on it except for the NAS. Some of the shares are so big I had to shard them out. Only the NAS has all the data. However all of my data is replicated at least twice in the house. All, but my videos are replicated to the VPS.

I also started using Amazon Glacial Deep Freeze to backup (approx $1 per tb) some shares. Deep Freeze is so cheap my intention is to add bigger shares to backup. I just have not gotten around to it yet.

The Raspberry Pi’s photographed are the Pi 2’s (white cases) and Pi 3’s (Grey cases). The current generation of Pi’s I am running are two Pi 4’s. One with four gigs of RAM and the other with eight. I have a third Pi 4 with four gigs of RAM that I am playing around with alternative configurations on. I still have the second and third generation Pi’s. I use the third-generation ones periodically. Most recently one was a dedicated Pi-hole, however I recently stopped using it.

Pull disclosure, pictured is the older P2 and P3’s.

Do I Get A Merit Badge Or Something For Finishing Cryptonomicon?

by

I finished reading Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon today. Funny enough until a few years ago i hadn’t know it as a body of work had exitested. When i did i was in no rush to start it since i had heard it was a rough slog to read and it was huge. I dont remember what changed recently however I finally got around to starting it in the beginning of April. I cannot recall any novel I have read being that large. I feel like I deserve some sort of cryptography merit badge by finishing it.

Now a days I read way too many reviews on books before I read the actual book. I want to be sure something is worth it for me. With Cryptonomicon I was a bit worried about the time investment since so many people gave it mixed reviews. In the end i decided to risk it. I really liked it. Once i got going i did not worry about how big it was. I also found the story to be a really good progression leading to the conclusion. Many reviews complained it was all over the place and i guess did not see the progression from the original plot points to the end. I thought it was pretty well done overall.

I also got more of a lesson in cryptography than I thought. Since I didn’t really expect any lesson at all.