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Bike Sketch

I recently started doing sketches on an iPad using Procreate and an Apple Pencil. (I got an Apple Pencil (1st Generation) along with an elago Silicone Sleeve which makes holding the pencil much more enjoyable.) I have been staying away from paper sketches in recent years, and I wasn’t sure why. When I did the January 2024 Prints I used a light tracing box along with the Shaper Trace and I did like the process, but I came to realize what I didn’t like about drawing on paper was that I liked using markers but I didn’t like how unforgivable they were. Pencil sketches allow you to erase and redo, and markers… do not.

That said, the tracing on paper part was great, the end result was good, but I really wanted to try an Apple Pencil to see what it could do. Back in 2023 I got the old Wacom tablet working again, but I just didn’t love using it. The whole “draw here but look here” thing is not for me. So I bit the bullet, upgraded my iPad to a 6th Gen (since my old 5th Gen did not work with the Apple Pencil) and somehow I had already purchased Procreate so I got that installed and got started sketching.

My favorite thing is the undo. Yes, it’s so damn simple, but if you draw a line and don’t like it you can just hit undo and be back where you were before you added that line. This is the thing I don’t get when sketching on paper, and drawing digitally offers it, and while you should (sometimes) be definitive in your mark making, I am not always that confident… and that’s fine. Everyone works differently.

I still have a lot to learn, but above you can see one of my first sketches… It’s my bike. A Trek 7200 and Dana got it for my birthday back in 2006. I’m not sure if I’ve drawn a bike since 2011, when I did it from memory.

Anyway, welcome to the start of more sketches… I’ll probably use some of them for relief prints in the future, so fair warning if you start seeing prints that look like sketches and vice versa.


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Fan Noise Synth

On a recent trip abroad the wife and I ended up taking an overnight trip for two days & nights and needed to drown out some of the noise at the place we were staying. At home we use the Sleepy Noise Machine which actually plays an audio file of a fan running to create some white noise. We don’t travel with the machine though, so my first thought was to use my iPad to play one of those 10 hour long YouTube videos of a fan running…

Problem 1. The hotel said “Free WiFi” which, you know, there was, but it was not actually connected to the Internet. Whoops. Problem 2. I could have tethered my iPad to my phone for Internet access but since we were traveling abroad the slow data rate and roaming data make that a bad idea. So…

I fired up AudioKit Synth One, screwed around with customizing a square wave, set it to hold the note, and pressed a few keys to get a (satisfying?) imitation fan noise, which you can hear in the video below.

I think I’ll probably just load some suitable audio files onto the iPad before the next trip abroad just to be safe, but I was pleased I came up with a solution when needed.

(When playing the video below you might think “That sounds nothing like a fan!” and, it sort of doesn’t, but trust me, in a hotel room where you want to drown out the noise from the next room… it’s close enough!)

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Still Macin’ (for now)

MacBook Pro

The phrase “I am no longer Apple’s Target Market” is one that I can identify with… and the blog post of the same name makes a lot of good points.

I’ve been using computers (mostly made by Apple) for over 30 years. Maybe I’m just a curmudgeon at this point, but I actually like being able to see the file system, and I don’t want or need some specially curated “App Store” or procedures to protect me from naughty applications I download from the big, bad Internet. I’ve been doing fine for nearly 20 years. As for people who do need such things, I understand the need, but I hope I’m not further restricted due to others and their (lack of) knowledge.

I’ve said this before, and I’ve said it again, there’s a learning curve to using computers, and I’m fine with that. There’s a learning curve to operating a motor vehicle, or a table saw, or a pencil sharpener. There should be. That’s part of life. Learning should not be looked upon as something that is a bad thing, and hey, I’m sorry, but you might have to actually learn a bit to use a computer, or table saw, or kitchen appliance. I’m not saying some things don’t need to be easier, but there’s a middle ground between ease of use, and restrictions of freedoms we once had. And easier? Hell, it’s a million times easier that it once was. Why, when I was a kid you turned on your Apple II and got a blinking cursor. No icons. No menus.

I use Apple hardware, and I use a lot of Apple software (and a lot more non-Apple software.) I also use Linux a lot. Linux has never been my desktop OS of choice, but for servers I love it. I do run some Linux desktop machines though, and they’ve improved much over the years. The work I do though, does at this time require Mac OS X.

I have a first generation iPad. I love it. It’s a great device for what it is. It is not a computer. Sometimes I wish it was a computer, but I find it very enjoyable to use as it is. I wish it were more open though. (But I wish that about a lot of things.)

Mac OS X is still my favorite desktop operating system. Is it perfect? Nope. Has it gotten better or worse over the years? Probably both. I’ve always got a terminal open with multiple tabs, which is something 95% (?) or Mac users probably don’t do.

Anyway, it’s December 2012, and I’m still using Macs (a lot) for business and personal use, and most of the time, they work well for me. I’ll let you know where I’m at some time in 2013.

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Beach Bike

Beach Bike

I shot this bike at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware using my Nikon, and then after I synced the photos to my iPad I used Trey Ratcliff’s 100 Cameras in 1 to do a little processing.

I was quite pleased with how fast the iPad processed the photos in comparison to my 3G iPhone (but that’s to be expected I guess.) The images came out at 600 pixels wide/high. I’m not sure if there’s a way to adjust that, as higher resolution would certainly be nice. I should also mention that I have the iPhone version of 100 Cameras in 1. (There’s also a separate iPad version, though I didn’t feel like plunking down more money for it… yet. Of course, this may be why the images came out at 600 pixels wide/high.)

At first I was sort of overwhelmed with 100 Cameras in 1, because, hey, that’s a lot of cameras! But I’m slowly getting used to it. It’s quite a difference from Plastic Bullet, one of my favorite iPhone photo apps, but it’s growing on it.

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Virgin Mobile MiFi

MiFi

About 6 month ago I picked up a Virgin Mobile MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot. I just call it a MiFi, as do most people. It’s basically a 3G modem which lets you connect up to 5 devices (via wifi) and get them online.

The decision to get the MiFi was driven by the service of Time Warner Cable… after a two-day outage that is. The work I do requires an Internet connection, and I thought the MiFi would be a good backup for Time Warner failures, as well as the occasional traveling I do.

Now, there’s plenty of reviews of this model, in fact, here’s one, and here’s another. You can also find review on Amazon and elsewhere, but hey, this is my personal experience, rather than a straight-up review.

I liked the idea of a prepaid account because I just wanted to buy the device and the “pay as you go” model fit my usage. Of course you can’t predict the future, and those Virgin Mobile folks have changed the pricing more than once. When I was planning to buy one, the 3 options were $10, $20, and $40, and by the time I bought one weeks later, it was $20, $40, and $50. And who know? They may change again…. Urgh.

Anyway, since I’m an AT&T iPhone customer with only occasional needs for tethering, this is still a better (cheaper!) option for me at this point in time.

So here’s my review (which isn’t a review.)

When I first tried using the MiFi at my house, it seemed to work fine. I was satisfied that it would be a good backup solution to another Time Warner outage. My next use was at the Milwaukee Makerspace where I used it as backup for the sometimes unreliable wifi there. It seemed to work OK, though a little slow. I wasn’t sure if it was the building, or the location, or what. I was less than impressed this time. Next was a grade school near West Allis, and the results were similar to at the Makerspace, a bit slow, but better than nothing. I’d also seen then device get really hot a few times. I’m not sure what causes this, as sometimes it happens, but it’s not consistent. I should note that on all of these occasions, it was my MacBook that was connected to it.

The thing is, I’ve seen crappy 3G connections on my AT&T iPhone around Milwaukee as well, so I don’t know if it’s saturation of the network, or the buildings, or what.

My next big test was on a drive from Milwaukee to Minneapolis. This time I used the iPad instead of the MacBook, and I really didn’t notice any connection problems. I don’t know if any of it had to do with how iOS works, but using Reeder, Oosfora, and Mobile Safari was pretty smooth. Sadly, Maps did not work the way it does on an iPhone, or how I assume it works with a 3G iPad. It just showed my location back in Pewaukee. (Oh, my daughter actually used her iPod with the MiFi as well, though I think she just spent a few minutes Facebooking.)

We stayed in Minneapolis at a hotel that did not have free wifi. (Yes, sadly, they still exist.) The MiFi was a champ here, providing us with our own Internet connection. Again, we just used the iPad and I didn’t notice any connection problems.

Now, on to the east coast… where I wish I could say the experience was just as good. I didn’t need to use the MiFi until I got to Preston, Maryland, and the house we stayed at had no Internet connection. Being able to connect was totally hit-and-miss. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn’t. Placing the MiFi up against a window seemed to help. I formulated in my head getting a rubber suction cup so sticking it onto a window were possible. On the last day we were there, the MiFi would not connect at all. It was raining pretty badly, so I wasn’t sure if that was the cause, but then realized that it kept showing the device as “Not Activated” and for some reason, I had to go through the whole activation process again. Luckily Mobile Safari (yes, still using the iPad) managed to maintain the needed activation codes so I didn’t need to type in anything. Still, this “reactivation” was a pain to deal with, and I hope I don’t need to do it again. After the reactivation, all was well again. I even ended up using it on the plane at BWI while we sat on the runway for 30 minutes.

In the end, when the MiFi works, it works well, though occasionally a bit slow. The ability to connect seems to depend on a number of factors, and I just need to live with the fact that there is no guarantee it will work at all. I suppose that’s better than nothing… right?

I’d love to hear others’ experiences using this MiFi device, or any others.