Apple on Matt Thornton

Moving my Music library to a NAS - update

Wed, 15 Jun 2022 09:46:37 +0000

Quick update on this as I’ve just migrated to a new Mac. For some reason I opted to do a sort of half-half job using the Mac migration assistant which, I may write about separately, because ultimately it’s been a bit of a mission to do this.

One issue was how to get Music set up on the new Mac. The music library on the NAS is fine and nicely organised but despite the media itself being somewhere else, the Mac still relies on a file called ‘Music Library’ (by default) which is effectively a big list of everything.

At last a macOS update I can get on board with

Fri, 10 Jun 2022 09:46:37 +0000

I’ve used “the Mac OS” for longer than I care to admit but through many, many incarnations over the years. In the early days, you would look forward to the releases/updates of new major versions because they would bring major innovation. But over at least the last 5 major versions, I’ve updated but experienced very little in the way of new functionality that has been of any real use or interest. In most cases, it usually just becomes more irritating to use. I don’t begrudge Apple making changes for e.g., security purposes, but I couldn’t tell you one new feature over the last 10 years that has genuinely changed the way I work or made me step back and notice.

I finally moved my Music library to a NAS

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 22:46:37 +0000

A vaguely tech-related philosophical-ish thought-piece.

Tedious irrelevant tech challenge #7582: I still buy music. On physical media. CD mainly.

Tedious philosophical quandry #29: are streaming services eroding our emotional connection with music?

I don’t know why I still buy physical media. The economics of it don’t really make sense when compared with all the kool-kidz streaming stuff that is available nowadays. I can buy one album for around a tenner. I can buy a month’s streaming service of near-infinite music for around a tenner.

Simplified deleting in OSX Finder

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 12:51:02 +0000

I finally got around to solving a longstanding irritation I’ve had with Finder. Well, when I say that, what I mean is, I posted the irritation to a forum, and some helpful folks there gave me the inspiration for the solution.

The irritation:

Quite often I copy a bunch of images off my phone on to my laptop. In Finder I open them up and use the quickview (using spacebar) to quickly view and delete items [using the keyboard only]

My iPhone experience

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 16:16:48 +0000

As a fully-fledged Apple fanboi (as the idiots would call me), I was waiting with great anticipation for the iPhone to arrive in my area. In mainland UK, the iPhone is locked to o2, but here in Guernsey, we have three mobile carriers (none of which are o2) so there was a long, long wait for them to arrive here. And when they did, they were by no means official - that is, the two carriers offering them are importing them certain European countries for sale unlocked, and I’m reasonably sure Apple has little to no idea about it. As I was on the waiting list, I was one of the first to get my hands on one.

I’d needed a new phone for ages, as the ghetto orange Sony Ericsson I had been using was both a) a girl’s phone and b) a lesbian one at that. Not to mention totally beaten to hell and displaying typical “old phone” behaviour in randomly turning off when it ballywell felt like it. Not a good look. When the iPhone arrived here, it was a no-brainer to get one. And, as it turns out, I really had disengaged my brain in getting one.

Wireless backups: USB drive, Airport extreme and Time Machine

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 18:23:48 +0000

Quick hint: if you’re having trouble getting wireless backups on Time Machine and an Airport Extreme working, then try this - I had the same problem and fixed it for me. Plug the USB drive in to your Mac and using disk utility, veryify and repair the disk not the actual partition. Alternatively, remove all existing partitions from your drive, and then recreate the necessary partitions for your backup scenario. It seems that if you only verify / repair the partitions then the Airport Extreme won’t necessarily mount the drive properly (meaning you can’t use it as an Airdisk, and you can’t use it with Time Machine.)

New York

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 15:53:06 +0000

New York, New York. The Big Apple. Don’t think I’ve actually seen any apples, but it’s great being here anyway. Strictly speaking, I’m in Connecticut, staying with my brother in his new house in Stamford, but it seems that anyone within about 3 hours of said massive fruit describes themselves as living in New York.

I just need to get this out the way first: we were robbed. Rugby, that is. I don’t care what any of my South African friends say - we were robbed. (OK, maybe not robbed*.) But nevertheless England were the better side and a far-cry from the side that got drubbed 36-0 by the Springboks earlier in the tournament. Our attacking game was strong and that try could have gone either way. From where I was standing - about 12 foot from a widescreen TV in an Irish pub in Stamford, with at least one pair of beer goggles on and about 50 other English, South African, American and Irish people in a similar state - it was a try. Lewis Moody dropped the trophy for us, though, with that outrageous trip tackle - it was totally unnecessary and 6-3 would have been a much easier position from which to recover. But alas, it was not to be, and fair play to the Springboks for 80 minutes of solid defence. But equal amounts of fair play to Brian Ashton and the whole squad - nobody was expecting England to do so well and I’m pleased they were able to flick some V’s at the unbelievers. We can now look forward to regaining the cup in 4 years time.