One of those weeks, I guess.
We watched Joe Biden’s presser and I felt as though I should weigh in, but Charlie Pierce beat me to it with his remembrance of how Laughin’ Joe knuckle-chuckled Lyin’ Paul Ryan right off the stage during their 2012 veep debate, in which “he effectively demolished Ryan as a political figure simply through good old Irish barroom bonhomie.”
Like Charlie, I always had a soft spot in my heart for José after he gave that empty suit the old one-two, the hee and the haw.
Next, my APC Back-UPS NS 1080 went loudly sideways, presenting various error messages overlaid by a soundtrack from the Nostromo on self-destruct in “Alien.” This caused me to spend the better part of quite some time online with tech support, trying to diagnose what I suspected — and the tech eventually confirmed — was a terminal case of old age, the unit being 7 years old, the short end of this battery backup’s lifespan.
Speaking of old age, in the course of unplugging and inplugging laptop, monitor, dock, speakers, backup drives, backup battery, and what have you during the diagnostic process I was reminded that the fans in my 2014 MacBook Pro 15-incher seemed to be running all the time, no matter how light the workload. Also, its trackpad was largely inoperable again.
The first time the trackpad issue cropped up, the cause was a swelling battery. I had Apple replace that and give the innards a wash and brushup. But this time I didn’t see any telltale bulge in the case, and some casual nosing around the Innertubes led to the usual potential suspects — old, dried-up thermal paste, other failing critical bits, filth and clutter, demonic possession, Cthulhu awakening, and why not just buy a nice new MacBook and shitcan that 10-year-old relic, you penny-pinching eejit, etc.
Well, we’re not quite there yet. I unplugged all my gear again, set the 15-incher aside, and swapped in its little brother, the 2014 13-incher, which has gone mostly unused since I sidelined my Radio Free Dogpatch podcast and seems as quiet as a mouse.
Naturally, there’s a downside to that maneuver. When I bought the 13-incher I went for 8GB of memory and the 128GB SSD for reasons that elude me now (possibly penury; more likely stupidity). And that drive is pretty close to full. Happily, I had a 480GB OWC Mercury Elite Pro Mini external drive lying around doing not much, so, yay, problem solved. Or at least avoided. For now.
I know, I know. I should sack up, crack the Big Mac’s clamshell, get in there with my little toolkit and root around like I know what the hell I’m doing.
But I’m gonna take my cue from Joe here. Pass the torch to the Vice-MacBook Pro. It’s not so much the big fella’s age; it’s the hours it’s been on and running hot.
There may be a better candidate out there somewhere, but so what? I got shit to do, man.
Mad Blog Media 
Have you looked into picking up a new battery(s) for the APC unit? I’ve purchased generic batteries for the APC’s that I use and they tick (are ticking) along nicely.
The tech told me that my model was extinct, which I took to mean no batteries for that bad boy, though he did recommend purchasing a new one for a couple hundy because of course he did.
Then it struck me that it’s not really necessary for me to have that thing crouching under my desk like a troll anymore. I’m not doing anything anymore that requires me to save a whole bunch of working files when the power goes out.
I started using the APC dealies back when I was cranking for VN, BRAIN, and anyone else who could spell my name right on a check, and I was using desktop computers with no battery power. I’ve been rocking laptops hooked to external monitors for years now, and lately all I use ’em for is the ol’ blogeroo here. If one of my brain farts swirls down the loo and nobody sniffs it, does it stink?
In lieu of scrapping the APC, help your better half put together a listing and sell it online. It should be able to sell for several tasty coffee drinks / beers at your favorite establishments. Be sure to pull the old batteries out and recycle them. That will keep the shipping cost down a few dollars.
Ahhh, Il Vicino! Those were good times, thanks Tom!
IYKYK Aka Amicas of Exit.
Ah, Amica’s. Et there many a time I did. I think my first Il Vicino meal may have been in Fanta Se, back in The Before-Time. We were delighted to see them follow us to Bibleburg. And there’s one just a few minutes from us here in The Duck! City. So, winning, yes?
Actually, now that I’ve scanned the “About” section of the Il Vicino website, it seems we probably ate first at Pranzo Italian Grill in Fanta Se, which was just a hop, skip, and jump from our hovel on Romero Street. Man, did they lay on the garlic. Waddn’t a vampire to be seen within miles of the place.
Later, of course, we ate at Scalo on Nob Hill (they sponsored the Scalo Route 66 cycling team). The whole Il Vicino thing came later.
Man, do we miss Scalo. Once they went tits up we had very little reason to visit Nob Hill. I’m down there now mostly to drop by Two Wheel Drive on Central.
Littleton had an il Vicino when we lived in Denver. Was close to Michele’s work so we had lunch there maybe every other month.
Now it’s a Piccino, same 7,000° oven, same menu I believe.
Stopped in after a hockey game last year, food was still excellent
https://piccinopizza.com/
Il Vicino has downsided a bit over the years, methinks. There were a couple-three in Bibleburg, and now there’s only the one. We have three down here in ’Burque. And there are two in … Wichita?
The food from the Montgomery location near here is reliable. We mostly stick to the sammiches, which are big enough to serve as both lunch and dinner.
Are you still running a desk top that requires a UPS?
Nah. It was just a habit. I may have started using Back-UPS when we lived on that rockpile in CrustyTucky, where the thunder god frequently grew bored and started chucking bolts of lightning around and about, croaking our power for an hour or two or three. It gave me some breathing space to save whatever I was working on at the time — a column, a cartoon, whatevs.
We kept the Coleman two-burner, several flashlights, candles and lanterns, and a closet full of nonperishables and jugs of water for the same reason. Also, and too, firearms, and a Tuff Shed for the trash can because bears.
Now in these dark days of modern times when I’m all laptop, all the time, I think I can do without the Back-UPS. Unless I buy a new Mini when they come out, supposedly this fall. …
I thought that the Power PC might still require the UPS.
Aha! Someone remembers the PowerPC. That ould beastie is my Library, and I access it only when I’m trying to confirm some unlikely fragment of memory rattling around in my skull or looking up a specific cartoon, column or story from the Before-Time.
The Archives go back into the Nineties, and are probably of interest only to me, most of my stuff having a very short shelf life. But just in case I keep it and all its backup drives plugged into a surge protector.
One of these days I need to relocate all that crap to some giant modern drive for safekeeping. But if the G4 tower itself were to fail, I could still save most of the Archives using my 12-inch G4 PowerBook, the only other item in the joint still capable of booting into both the “Classic” Mac OS and OSX.
How much storage do you need? What kind of files? A body of work is valuable!
I haven’t given it much thought, to be honest. Not that much, is my guess. Most of it would be text files; some of it cartoons of various sizes. And of course I’d have to thin the herd, cull the weak, separate wheat from chaff, etc.
This is one of the reasons I haven’t given it much thought. …
I gave up on APC’s and other power protecting devices of all kinds a while back after the second multi-year-old unit went out completely in a screaming rampage (it, not me). The first one died while not only screaming, but smoking as well (glad I was home at the time) – so it was an Olympic feat to scramble it out the back door before the house burned down. They are supposed to protect your devices, but yet can destroy your house while doing so? No thanks. Never again. I just unplug computers and monitors if I’m not going to be using them for a spell, or if the sky is rumbling.
And batteries on laptops, phones, etc., says The Apple, should never be charged beyond 80%. Yet, after buying an Apple Studio Monitor, which is beautiful BTW, it constantly charges the 2023 16″ MacBook Pro to 100%. Without fail. Until something fails. There isn’t any setting to prevent it going over 80% straight to 100%. Apple techs have no comment or suggestions. That can’t be good, or safe for the laptop’s lifespan.
Yow. Th’ow that smoky sumbitch into a wheelbarrow and trundle it out the door to the rain barrel, did you? Too many bloody batteries in the mix these days.
I will say that the APC tech was very helpful in diagnosing the issue(s). I got the feeling that s/he had plenty of practice, which seems both good and bad.
I was out for a ride when mine went apeshit. Herself sent me a video of it doing its “Danger, Will Robinson!” number and shut it down. When I came back and switched it on to see all the error messages — F01, F02, “This Back-UPS will self-destruct in T-minus 10 minutes,” etc., I knew I was in for a long day at the office.
The other day I dropped by the Apple Store to inspect all the latest and greatest whizbangs, doodads, and comosellamas. Honestly, I didn’t see much in the way of improvement since I bought the 15-inch MBP in 2014. The new stuff may be faster at some tasks, but when it comes down to trolling the Innertubes for bloggable outrages using our Bronze Age DSL I probably wouldn’t notice much difference between Then and Now.
Doing your part POG to at least save an acre or two of this old worn out globe. I volunteer at a recycling center and am stunned at how many e-things people bring in that might possibly still work IF folks would attempt what you do to keep the things operating. Sadly, there is only a tiny amount of our e-things that get recycled as none of the plastic casings/housings, keypads will. The more I learn about recycling the more I know that NOT buying new stuff is the true solution to cutting down fossil fuel extraction and other minerals. BTW….isn’t it a great feeling to fix something after hours and hours of diddling and fiddling around with it? Even if in my case I often don’t know what I did to get it working again but I still puff my chest out and strut around a bit.
Herb old recycler, what little I know about MacMaintenance I was compelled to learn through circumstances. When we lived in CrustyTucky the Apple repair people were a long ways off, in Pueblo or Bibleburg. So I got under the hood of the damn things early on with my ball-peen hammer, claw hammer, and mallet (the Irish favor simple tools, like the shillelagh and Semtex).
Sites like OWC and iFixit are a real godsend for the shade-tree repairperson. OWC’s videos have helped this thumb-fingered old fool through a variety of tasks that would’ve cost me a pretty penny if I handed them off to the pros. And thus the old MacStuff mostly keeps on ticking, like John Cameron Swazey’s Timex.
The newer models are a little fussier to tinker with, and my eyesight has dwindled from Eagle to Magoo, so I’m a little less eager to grab a hammer and jump in. But I’ll still do ’er when I have to.
And yes, buying less shit makes more sense. I have this sinking feeling that all the items we so dutifully place in our blue recycling bin wind up in some anonymous arroyo on the South Side.
Last time I really checked, less than 10% of plastic gets recycled; all that does get recycled is number 1 or 2. Plastic production increases every year, and the manufacturers use new plastic because it’s cheaper. Like Patrick says, “we thought our nest was so big we could shit in it forever.” Wrong we were.
The Cynic and the Two Nations was a bit depressing. Theres at least one political sci fi book to be written about going back in time and telling Obama, here’s the deal, you can be President, and you’ll do fine, but when you’re done, the rest of us are stuck with Needy Amin for 12+ years. Still want the gig?
https://apple.news/AEfeisWtQQ-2e4J3s76ftPQ
“Needy Amin.” Hee hee hee.
Look at today’s New York Times spelling bee. I immediately saw that “chainring” was a pangram. And then just as quickly, was told by the spelling check Nazis that it was not in their elitist word list. This is why we can’t have nice things.
You know, if one person, just one person writes the editors a letter, maybe an eight-by-ten color glossy photographs with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one, explaining that “chainring” is in fact a real word, they may think he’s really sick, and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it—in harmony …
If a person owns a belt drive bicycle is it still called a chainring?
I personally have my own vocabulary and don’t care whether it conforms to the NYT accepted words list. But then there might be people who have called me sick along with other pleasant names.
But Steve I appreciate your thoughts. What address would I send a letter to? 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or 1313 Mockingbird Lane?
Here’s a cool short movie about Thomas McGuane, Jim Harrison and Jimmy Buffer in the Florida Keys back in the day.
Cool movie about Thomas McGuane and crew in the Florida Keys back in the day
oops. wrong video
Yeah, I read something about that earlier this year. I thought I posted something about it, but can’t find anything in the archives. Maybe I just told Hal about it. Thanks for bringing it to our attention, Hoss.
The old Key West mob. Judas Priest. Can you imagine running with those dawgs? Captain Berserko in his prime and Jimbo the One-Eyed, Well-Digging Poet? My crowd was rough enough. I’d never have made it out alive.
Thomas McGuane’s recollections of Richard Brautigan were something. That story about the urn. Yow.
And of course the correspondence with Jim Harrison. Fifty years’ worth of letters back and forth. I understand McGuane has made a selection of his papers available at some Montana repository, but I don’t know that any of those letters are in there. I think he’s waiting for his own departure before those come to light. Could be fascinating reading. I wish McGuane would write more. …