#so for the time being i have been using my old MacBook Air from 2015 LMAO

[wttcsms]

Amber, I'm back to yell at you!!!! I'm literally dying over Most Noble what?! Its sooo good, i literally took a deep breath while my eyes watered cause of that ending! Oh to be in love with Sir Nanami 😍 He really is too much, the way he wants the mc so much, it gives off enemy to lovers vibes, with a lot of slow burn! Its so good the way I gasped when i read it on AO3 cause it said chapters 1/1 😭 No, its too good, YOU'RE the reason i even love Nanami so I refuse to believe thats it for them. But also thank you for that, it was such a good read the pining got me right in the feels i had to take a moment for myself to calm down. Please don't say its over 😭

Moving on lols, the way I read Balancing Act this morning! I wanted to scream, and I'm in no way a morning person but that one woke me up! Gojo being so self assured, I love that for him. The way you wrote the whole crew working for Gojo and Getou! Nanami saying that Getou is just like Gojo but would give himself 6 months instead KILLED ME!!!! Also just Nanami, and his whole work is shit rang through my head when you said he left then came back 😭 Just the way you wrote them all is soo good, the interaction between Gojo and Mc oooomph absolute genius! Utahime and Gojo friendship! Personally that little bit got me hook line and sinker cause i dont ship them 🫠 Finally that flashback of them as teenagers in high school!!! Yes queen him falling in love and not realizing it but also i loved that the mc ruined what i assumed would be his year of just fucking around! Its god tier I know im going to add this to my list of comfort fics!!!

hi hi, i was waiting til when i was less busy so that way i could give this lovely msg a proper response!!! as always, i love love love hearing ur thoughts and seeing u in my notifs makes me so happy, like kicking my feet and giggling happy because ur such an amazing reader and i love hearing ur thoughts on my work.

first of all, even w/out me, u would have fallen for nanami bc that's just the type of man he is. most noble was so fun to write purely bc i didn't have a set plot line in place, i just let the word vomit spew all over my docs and clicked post on tumblr. that being saidddddd, i am always open to revisiting our princess and sir nanami bc the fun part in writing mutual pining is the eventual getting together. like all fairytales, they are so gonna have a happy ending <3

im so happy you've read balancing act because for me, it's such a fun project and a way for me to not so subtly vent out any pent up feelings i had towards my experience in working in banking in nyc BAHAHAHA. i think workplace dynamics are so fun to write as well & i really wanted to incorporate just how blurry boundaries are within the field but also how close knit they truly are because most of the time, you see your coworkers more than your family and your significant other and it's hard not to become friends or something more (it's either that, or u all hate each other's guts LOL). geto and gojo would not be besties if they weren't both absolute menaces, i stand by that. utahime + gojo are lowkey MY dramione HAHA, and so i always like to write them in some type of relationship, whether that be platonic or romantic. they def squabble like siblings in this fic + it's going to be so much fun writing them in a diff light than i normally do (what's up for debate is whether or not i hint towards nanami x utahime :O) nanami found out that working in academia is JUST AS TOXIC as industry, so he's back bc, hey, at least he gets paid hella money, but we'll explore more nanami lore in balancing act once i decide on his exact role in the fic muahahaha.

thank you for always reaching out with your thoughts on my writing and just to chat in general, it means the world to me <3

[livefromphilly]

The Good and The Bad, 06.30.20 - 07.31.20

Somebody press fast forward. 

:(

One of my favorite emcees of all time, Malik B. from The Roots, passed yesterday. The Roots were a huge influence on me growing up and way back before social media I met a bunch of people I'm still friends with today through the message boards on Okayplayer.com. A really wild part of the whole thing is that when I saw he passed and went to Google to confirm it, I found out he was using a photo I took of him for his Facebook background. It's one of those spooky coincidences as I shot it almost exactly seven years ago on July 31, 2013 (man, I've been on Tumblr forever). It's also a photo that is being used on a bunch of national outlets like CNN and CBS, in some cases incorrectly attributed to legendary Philly photographer Mpozi Tolbert (dunno how they didn't realize the photo was taken seven years after Mpozi passed). I let the Associated Press photo people know and they told me they'd fix it soon. EDIT: It’s fixed. New York Times has the updated credit. 

Baseball started, but the Phillies are still bad. To make matters worse, the team that kicked their ass in a three game series is going through a Covid-19 outbreak. Now the Phillies are sidelined while the rest of the MLB (aside from the team they played) is still at it.

My Apple router kicked the bucket after 10 years of faithful service. My 2010 iMac also died recently (well, just the hard drive, but I'm probably not gonna pay for a replacement on a 10-year-old computer). Those were the last two Apple products I owned from before Steve Jobs passed. Feels like the end of an era. My 2015 Macbook Pro is a bit long in the tooth, but I'm holding out until the Apple silicone computers start shipping. 

They said that Philly is the best city at wearing masks. If that's true, this country is really fucked because we aren't especially good at that shit imo. 

It's been a whirlwind these last few weeks. A close family friend died a few weeks ago and it was like "well, that sucks". Can't even have a proper funeral or meet up with anyone to commiserate and have some whiskey. I really hate this virus. 

!

Soccer is back ("Football" for my international peeps) and the Union are doing pretty ok in this tournament. That's good.

The NBA is also back and the Sixers have played well so far. Their starters have, at least. Also, Matisse Thybule is great at vlogging. 

I've been looking at ways to possibly start doing photography as a full time thing because I think I might be over working. If I do decide to do that I'll start by selling some prints.

I got my car's air conditioner "fixed" since the last time I made one of these. "Fixed" in that it cools off the car, but it kinda leaks all over the passenger floor. Sucks for when I have other people in the car, but having other people in the car doesn't happen much these days so I'll probably hold off on fixing that. 

July felt like it was 90 degrees every single day, but it looks like it will be getting somewhat cooler. Only Sunday wiil be 91, and every other day going forward should be in the low 80s. This is great because my electric bill this month is super high thanks to running the AC 24/7.

[gguksgalaxy]

Masters Week 5

This one comes a little late, but honestly it's pretty representative of how things have been going for me. After I went through a bit of a rough time between week 3 and 4, I got stuck in a rut. I couldn't motivate myself to do anything, not even game, or draw. I just ended up doing super mindless things. I didn't want to walk, I didn't want to cook or anything. And it was really hard to not fall into a mindset of 'I'm so bad for not doing anything'. I tried to figure out for myself what was causing this lethargic(?) feeling. I can't truly pinpoint it, but my guess is that it has something to do with the fact that I was a little burnt out from working so hard the first few weeks. Or it's related to me having a lot of anxiety  bursts throughout the time period before that.  That being said, I ended up revising what was going on with my work and pushed all of it to my 3 week break. I told myself it would be easier to just do this one week later and do the next week as normal, than to try and catch up. Because I was still trying to catch up from week 4 and that just made everything too crowded. So let's hope that everything goes better now! That said, I finally finished telling @kissmekook​ about all the details in my upcoming fics (except for the ending of course). I'm so happy that she's so excited for everything and that she's enjoyed her time talking to me. A lot of thanks to @fallinforkoo​ and @guksweet​ for helping me figure out the last bits of plot I had left. I can now officially say that Fool's Gold will have a prologue, 24 chapters and an epilogue (if I finish it that is). I'm so excited to share this story with all of you.  Oh I got my grade back for my Logic midterm, I scored an 8.6/10 (in Dutch university terms that is really good). So yay me on that! AND I ordered a new macbook, because honestly my old baby has been getting so slow with how much I've been asking from it after 4.5 years. She has served me well, I have never had any issues with my 2015 macbook air. It's just old and with the way I use it, which is demanding and continuous, it requires me to have something stronger. So I ordered a Macbook Pro (2020, 1.4 i5, 16Gb, 256Gb in silver) with a white casing (they didn't have pink TT.TT). It should be here within a week or two! And I may or may not have pre-ordered BE as a birthday present to myself.  Week Rating: 2.5/5 Something I learned: As hard as you may try, you're going to have bad weeks. However, what matters is how you get through them and learn from them.

[mandelene]

(1) Oh! HP is actually the brand of laptop I'd like to have the most, and I have a lot of complaints about the current one I'm using, which is an Asus. What kind of problems did you encounter with your HP laptop, and which of your old Windows laptops did you like best? My Asus has a really low battery life (4-5 hours and it was only bought mid-2018), and it costs around $1.1k. It's also a bit slow, despite having an 8th gen i7 CPU. Can you elaborate on why you like your Macbook Air so much?

No worries! I’m happy to answer all your questions! I think my favorite Windows laptop was probably my Acer Aspire, as I didn’t experience as many problems with that one and it ran fairly smoothly and quickly. HP laptops were always extremely slow for me after just one year of use. They would have problems connecting to networks and would experience a lot of random glitches. When I was a young teen (maybe like 13), I had this bulky HP laptop in this awful biscotti color, and I remember resting my forearm by the touchpad one day and the computer shocked me -- like sent an electric shock through my entire arm, lmaooo. I freaked out and my parents immediately took it away from me and got me a different laptop. That was the weirdest experience I’ve ever had with a laptop, so it’s left a permanent bad taste in my mouth when it comes to HPs. My dad currently has an Acer desktop computer that he really likes, so Acer makes some solid computers from what I’ve experienced.  

My Asus, on the other hand, started getting a glitchy green bar of death at the bottom of the screen one year into using it, and that green bar never went away after that lol. It used to overheat a lot, to the point that I couldn’t keep it on my lap because it was uncomfortable and hurt. I also remember that it couldn’t keep a charge either. 

I like my Macbook Air because it’s extremely fast even after 3 years of use. It never overheats, never has a problem connecting to wifi, and is light and easy to take to school with me for note-taking. The battery is decent, and it’s never had a virus or started glitching on me in all of the time that I’ve had it. I’ve even been able to play a couple of Steam games on this laptop and it handles them just fine. I also edit audio and video in Adobe Audition and Adobe Premiere Pro on it, and it’s been able to handle that as well. Basically, this computer has been through a lot -- I’ve been on it almost every single day since I got it -- and it’s still doing totally fine with no problems whatsoever.

I have the 13-inch, early 2015 model with the 1.6 GHz Intel Core i5 and 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3 memory. There’s 128 GB of flash storage. The graphics are Intel HD Graphics 6000 1536 MB. Currently, you can get a new one at Best Buy for $700 USD. All of the other computers I’ve had died within 2 years or were so slow that they became unusable. 

Yeah, don’t get the recent models -- an older one will serve you just fine and will still last you a couple of years. Apple is definitely overpriced when it comes to their new stuff. Their old Macbook Airs still operate just fine and have withstood the test of time. 

I had trouble getting used to MacOS at first, but if you use your computer a lot, you’ll be much more comfortable with it after a week or two. It seems complicated at first, but it’s actually much simpler and straightforward than Windows. Don’t let not being familiar with the interface stop you from trying a Macbook out because it’s honestly something you’ll get the hang of pretty quickly. In terms of compatibility, downloading some programs can be a pain, but there’s almost always a Mac alternative these days. 

Let me know if you have any other questions! :D 

[lololollywrites]

thoughts about being 29 on the internet that i just had in the shower...

...and had to write down. they were all basically just about how f**king - NEW. and surreal. the internet, its capabilities, and its fandoms can still be to me sometimes. i feel like i forget this a lot. but when i think about it, i can easily recall my wonder at discovering that it all existed in waves of smaller finds. and because i know there are others like me, i thought i’d share some of my own experiences. because honestly, i’ve had fewer years on tumblr and sites like it than some people much younger than me. i’m catching up and enjoying it.

firstly, i know i’m old to some of you, but i’m not really old. not really. i’m still a millennial, screwed over by student loans and old white men and viewed as part of the technological generation. i’m a phd student, and because i’m always on a college campus, i’ve been mistaken as a freshman. a few times. but it’s been fascinating to witness actual freshman and other college students and consider just how different things are for them and honestly? i’m sort of jealous. 

because...

i can remember when i first discovered that fanfiction existed. i was in third period tech skills as a junior in high school - 16 years old - and got a little off-topic and searched for spoilers for a new supernatural episode. this was in 2005 and the show had just come out (yes i still watch, i can’t escape).

and what did i find? somehow? fanfiction.net. i was, no exaggeration, shocked. i sat and read a full-length chaptered fic in episodic format. my mouth was hanging open. i saw thousands more fics in hundreds of fandoms and suddenly felt less strange for envisioning full-scale episode re-imaginings in my head as i laid in bed, dissatisfied with what i had just watched. (btw, i watched new supernatural episodes the sunday after they used to originally air on the wb on thursdays, at my mom’s house where i had my own room and own tiny tv, because no one at my dad’s house wanted to watch and streaming episodes wasn’t something i could even imagine. plus i didn’t have internet at my dad’s house. i know.)

not only that, but i was impressed as hell. here was me, not even aware that you could somehow upload your own text to the internet, and people were not simply writing polished stories in private but posting them somewhere that allowed for chapters. that allowed for people all over the world to read their words. that categorized everything into a huge virtual library. and, most incredibly to me, that allowed for reviews from people around the world.

i couldn’t believe that this new world was open to me. that people would be so generous as to offer amazing stories to me to read FOR FREE. that i had a limitless supply of content to read and review. i barely had functioning internet at home, so i had been sheltered. i told the people sitting next to me in class about it and encouraged them to check it out, mostly to blank stares. i may have even told the teacher, but no one cared. i didn’t understand. who wouldn’t be interested? i told my dad and my sister about it when i got home from school. i was mind-blown.

months in and many reads and written reviews later, i wrote my first fic. it was for smallville. 6 chapters, with updates every few days, that received 14 reviews in total. i read them all multiple times. i showed my sister. i checked the story stats every half hour. i cried. i wrote on the family computer secretly in the evening when most of my family had gone upstairs, because i was about half a year away from owning my first laptop. i wrote more stories sporadically for about 6 years, gradually getting better, but also gradually becoming more stressed and aware of negativity, online arguments, and the embarrassment and shame i suddenly felt about having an online presence. i found a supernatural forum at tv.com (the forums sadly no longer exist), learned about fandom, and immersed myself in posting and being part of a community that i thought understood me more than my friends. like a secret life.

during my first year of college, in 2007, i was in a friend’s dorm when he asked everyone if we wanted to watch an episode of scrubs. i laughed. surely he was joking. “how can we just watch an episode? it’s not on now and you don’t have the dvds.” i literally didn’t consider that there may have been a way. he excitedly told us that he had found some website that had episodes just... pre-uploaded. and that you could just click. i didn’t believe him. the stress of having to be at the tv at a certain time each week for fear of missing an episode entirely and forever was just part of being a fan, right? buying the tv guide and checking listings was necessary. but he found the episode. and clicked. it only took a few full minutes to load and there it was. again, i was astounded. this memory is so shockingly clear to me. it changed how i spent much of my free time, for one. just that moment.

sometime during this first year of college, i was home for break and came across a video on youtube, this new website i had started to use. it reminded me of ebaum’s world, which my friend would show me at her house sometimes because her computer was faster than mine. it was called “cat soup”, and by two guys that called themselves smosh. it had more views than i could comprehend - probably not much more than 5 digits, but still. they were just two kids i could have gone to school with who could create a funny video and get famous. again, i was shocked. mind-blown.

i showed my sister, my mom, and all my friends. they appreciated it a bit more than the fanfiction, but no one seemed to grasp how incredible and revolutionary it was. they all liked “shoes”, with the kelly persona by liam kyle sullivan (we still quote it today), probably because its budget and effects made it a bit more familiarly professional and it appeared less homemade (though it definitely was). but i couldn’t forget smosh. i was so impressed by them. i watched more videos and eventually found communitychannel and jenna marbles and eviliguana and shane dawson. i even found fan edits for my faves, buffy (maybe i saw one of phil’s, lol) and supernatural and smallville, and tried making my own. i freaked in 2009 or so when fred reached a million subscribers. a million. i couldn’t wrap my head around that. again, i told my sister and friends, expecting them to see the enormity of something so crazy happening, and they just... didn’t.

back in 2008, after watching “stick it” again, i recalled the name of a gymnast my cousin used to always talk about when we were kids - from the 1996 olympics - and looked her up on youtube. i realized that all gymnastics competitions imaginable had been uploaded. again - not to be repetitive - but i was shocked. there’s no better word. i gave myself a thorough education on the sport, traveling through time. i am still so grateful that i was able to do that.

sometime in 2009, my friends started pestering me to create a facebook account. i was a junior in college. 20 years old already. it sounded weird - pictures of me online? why? but i gave into pressure and made one. my mom had never allowed us to make a myspace; we were a bit young, and she hated the idea (now, she’s on facebook more than i am). around the same time i got my fanciest phone yet - an LG Env3. i figured out that it could access the internet and that i could use songs to create ringtones. again, sufficiently mind-blown. considering my first cell phone had been a flip phone with no camera that i shared with my sister during emergencies when i was 13, i felt that technology was coming along fast. 

smart phones were foreign to me for a long long time, until recently actually. i thought they were unnecessary for quite a while. i don’t even remember what phones i had at the end of college and through grad school, but i’m pretty sure they consisted of a series of cheap pay-as-you-go phones from walmart. in 2013, i went to china for a year to teach. i got a cheap phone there and used it for about 7 months. one day, a friend of mine gave me his old htc smartphone because he was getting a new one. i didn’t know how to use it, but i played one app on repeat before class and snapped some low-quality photos. after that, i almost immediately went to indonesia for another 9 months to teach high school (2014-2015). the htc phone died very quickly, so i used the nokia brick phone given to me by the organization. it was fine. i had never even used my old smartphone to access the internet, aside from wechat, thanks to china’s internet blocks. it wasn’t until i got home, in the summer of 2015, that i finally got an iphone. it was a huge deal and a big learning curve. it was also around this time that i found dan and phil and tumblr. i only got my macbook two years ago and finally think i have some things figured out.

so i may be old in some ways and remember floppy disks and the card catalog and using encyclopedias to write my middle school papers and huge computers with black screens and green text that displayed math problems in elementary school. i may be able to remember the sound of ancient, huge printers that used reams of paper with perforated, tearable strips down each side. i may remember aol red, dial-up, and not being able to connect if someone was on the phone. but i can also remember watching technology evolve in front of me, discovering fandom and the huge world of content and friendship that lay ahead. and when people try to say i’m too old to like dan and phil, i remind them that dan and phil can also remember. we’re the same age. i relate to them and their stories. to phil’s buffy obsession. to dan’s love of smosh. i’ve only had about 10 fully-cognizant years here on the internet, and only a couple in the world of tumblr and iphones and mobile apps. i’m young in those ways. and i look young enough that strangers sometimes think i’m a teenager. 

that’s laughable to me in some ways, because i’ve lived so much since my teen years. so much has happened. but in others, i don’t feel much different. there’s no age where you just feel grown up. that your interests vanish. that things suddenly seem childish and dumb. yes, i cringe about some things i wrote or did back then and i think i’ve matured, but my interests are all still relatively similar and i can finally explore them in ways that i just couldn’t before.

i hope that this has made sense. and i hope that some can relate.

[finnlet]

Sans the skeleton went into a coffee shop on September 13th, 2019. He came in for a americano because it was one of the few things that warmed his cold heart. He took it black and added nothing special to it. He loved bitterness.

Then, he saw him. Kokichi Ouma. The Ultimate Supreme Leader. He felt something in his bones, an aching sensation to go meet him. He went to the barista and read his nametag.

"Hey.... Komaeda. give me a freakin' americano! no sugar, no creamer, just make it black and venti. thanks."

"um. ok. i'll get it going for you... sans"

"whatever."

Sans and Komaeda had been a couple back in 2015 but they broke up due to Komaeda cheating on him with another man named Hajime.

========

"S-SANS? IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK. H-HE... UM..." komaeda screamed

"OH BUDDY YOu'RE SET TO HAVE A BAD TIME NOW. PREPARE YOURSELF" sans shouted.

sans threw a lamp at hajime, who ran out screaming and crying. komaeda moved out of sans' house and went to move in with hajime. oh well.

========

Sans went over to the little purple haired man who was sitting on his macbook writing an email.

"Hey... you look kinda cute. Wanna get sansy?" sans asked.

"what the fuck lol. are you cursed. im going to send a picture of u to korekiyo lmao. maybe he knows whats happening" ouma said, taking out his phone

"wha.... what the hell are you talking about" sans asked

"korekiyo knows about weird shit so he'd probably know what you are you cursed halloween decoration"

*snap*

ouma mumbled as he typed: "hey... dude .... look at this... weird shit at starbucks"

"Im not a decoration, i'm a skeleton." sans said.

"oh. So do skeletons have dicks."

"I can show you if you come back to my place later." sans said WITH A SMIRK.

"...I think i'll take you up on your offer. i've always been curious about what happens when all the flesh falls off  lol. TIME TO SEE SKELTON DIK." ouma shouted.

the other patrons of starbucks turned and looked at him.

saihara, who was hanging out with kaede, kaito, maki, kiibo, and korekiyo, ran over.

"Ouma shut the fuck up you're so loud and annoying." saihara said

"ok" ouma said

"hey who the hell are you. im trying to hook up with this dude and you're here yelling at him" sans growled. he was rumbling like a machine. his eye went blue.

"well if you really want to know I'm... Shuichi Saihara. They call me the Ultimate Detective, but... lol. you know, you give off the same awful aura that ouma gives me. two peas in a pod i guess" saihara said, eyeing sans.

*snapchat noficiation sound*

"...korekiyo is right there but he sent me a fucking snapchat message back. what a creep." ouma sighed. opening it, he huffed a HUGE GROAN.

"are you even a real fucking anthropologist? why do you know the history of farming but not skeletons." ouma shouted across the restaurant.

"BE QIET SIMPLETON." maki shouted back angrily. she was beyond pissed off.

“Har har har!” ouma laughed heartily.

“SANS? WILL YOU PLEEEEEASE PICK UP YOUR COFFEE. IT’S BEEN DONE FOR LIKE, 10 MINUTES NOW.” komaeda shouted through the microphone.

“Fucking hell ok” sans said, walking off. He picked it up and walked back over towards Ouma.

“That guys my ex. Hes kind of weird isnt he :) i threw a lamp at his boyfriend when they tried to cuck me. LOL” sans chortled. He sounded like a wind chime when he laughed.

“Komaeda is cool, he gives me free milk and cheese samples since I told him i’m an orphan from tokyo. What a fucking idit he is for believing me am i right?! i have my macbook pro and my iphone x AND MY AIRPODS, plus my ipad pro and these cool yeezys.” ouma laughed. he was so fucking sneaky.

“what do you use the ipad for if you already have a macbook” sans asked. he had nothing but an iphone x and some air jordans :/”

“I use that to watch family guy, WHA TTH EFUCK DO YOU THINK? Do you think i don’t like the best program of our time? I love seeing Peter Griffin appear on my screen. he fills me with lust. Dare say you that you…. dislike family guy?” ouma went on monologuing.

“n-no i didnt say i hated family guy i just-”

“ANDDD YOU’RE JUST LIKE KIBOY! HAR HAR HAR! He hates family guy! He can’t stand it. nobody at that noob table likes it. the only people who like family guy at my school are me, ryoma, angie, and himiko. Tenko watches it but only because she has a crush on lois. lol” ouma sighed.

the starbucks went quiet aside from the sipping sounds and weird ass pop music. today’s playlist included: “fake love” (A/N: STREAM FAKE LOVE :]), “two trucks”, and “like a farmer.”

ouma specifically requested this because he knew everyone hated the music, but komaeda felt bad for him and kept the same three songs on.

“Ouma Kokichi. One of your little friends over there just told me that you AREN’T AN ORPHAN?” komaeda said. he was crying.

“w-WHO. WHO SAID THAT LOL. IT’S A… THEY’RE LYING.” ouma shouted. he was so scared. he knew that komaeda had kept note of how much free starbucks shit he’d gotten and it was well over 4,500 dollar.s

“idk. that one.” komaeda pointed at kiibo.

“OHHH KIBOYYYYYYYYYY. He’s a robot, Nagito. You can’t trust Robots!” ouma laughed.

“That is blatant robophobia! I will report you to the proper starbucks authorities if you keep up this act Ouma!” kiibo shouted.

“shut up you ugly bag of bolts” ouma growled aggain.

kaede, korekiyo, and saihara looked alarmed. every day kiibo and ouma fought in the bathroom and caused some type of flooding to happen. once they lined up a bunch of fruits and vegetables and flooded the bathroom and they all ended up in the hallway.

“Kaede. Saihara. It’s been… nice, but I will leave now. I do not like being around Ouma.” korekiyo said.

“w-wait man donT LEAVE YET.” saihara said. he was sweating like a pig. he knew that kiibo liked having saihara on his side and ouma always punched himb (saihara) in the ribs to give him a bruise.

“yeah you shouldn’t leave yet…😀 please” kaede begged.

“You have Maki and Kaito. I’m fairly certain they can fight better than us.” korekiyo said, already halfway to the door.

“He’s right you know.” kaede said. she and saihara said goodbye through their tears and turned to ouma and kiibo again.

“MAN I’M ALL FIRED UP, CAN’T BELIEVE THAT OUMA IS FUCKIN’ AROUND WITH KIIBO AGAIN AND IN PUBLIC THIS TIME” kaito shouted. he was so full of energy because he had accidentally gotten coffee with extra sugar.

“kaito shut up” maki said.

“CAN’T STOP ME NOW…. IM HAVIN’ A GOOD TIME DON’T WANNA STOP AT ALL” kaito said. he did not know the lyrics right.

“c-can you guys please leave” said two men sitting in a booth. it was george michael and andrew ridgeley. they were visiting japan today for their tour and decided to get some unicorn frappuccinos to drink.

sans was staring in anticipation at everyone. ouma and kiibo were glaring at each other and komaeda could only watch in horror.

“Lets take this outside man. maybe it’ll rain and you’ll get rusty and die. LOL.” ouma screamed. he was in hysterics now.

“OH. YOU’VE DONE IT NOW. YES, WE’RE GOING TO FIGHT RIGHT NOW. OUTSIDE. SAIHARA, KAEDE, KAITO, MAKI, K…. where did korekiyo go” kiibo said

“He left bc you guys are fucked up” maki said. she wanted to leave when she saw ouma but didn’t have the heart to say it to everyone. ouma always ruined the plans.

“wha…. NO?” kiibo said. he cried one tear.

“>implying you can use everyone. YOU ONLY GET TWO OF THOSE PEOPLE ON YOUR TEAM DUMBASS.” ouma shouted

“t-team?!” saihara gasped. he was 💩ing bricks.

“for the BEST TEAM, i, kokichi Ouma, pick: kaito and maki. kiboy gets saihara and kaede! lmao have fun with weaklings.” ouma said.

“can you all leave already, you’RE SCARING THE CUSTOMERS AWAY AND ITS RUINING BUSINESS.” the manager (teruteru) said angrily.

“oh fuck off you ant.” ouma said, dragging everyone out into the back lot. komaeda and sans were dumbfounded. there was virtually no rehearsal for that.

CHAPTER TWO START:::

“Ouma you have insulted me for the last time. today is a new start. kaede, saihara, and i will now proceed to defeat you.” kiibo shouted. he was fucking confident in his abilities today.

“kiboy you will lose in one minute. im sorry to say it. wait, NO IM NOT. fucking hellion. seth mcfarlane personally blessed me with family guy so i am invincible.” ouma said.

“ouma do i have to help you. i dont want to fight my sidekick OR KAEDE. o-or KIIBO :)” kaito asked.

“yes shrimp. you must fight for me because i recruited you and that’s how this bullshit works. don’t worry though! it’ll only take one pow and kiboy will be knocked out because he’s rusty and old. NEEHEEHEE.” ouma was fucking laughing his ass off.

maki and kaito looked at each other and gave the most sorry looks to kaede and saihara. they honestly didn’t Want to help ouma because they thought he was a fucking asshole but ouma could blackmail them and potentially kill them. no risks. kaede and saihara knew this but were still hurt.

“Ouma I have a doctor’s appointment in like, 15 minutes. can i leave yet” kaede said.

“wha…? w-well… you’re goign to hav eto recruit someone else to fight in your place since saihara wouldn’t win against me in a million years lol.” ouma said. he was so fucking annoyed. he just wanted to punch kiibo already.

[fouldreamernut]

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Each year, Apple makes improvements to macOS, the operating system (OS) you use on your Mac. The annual Apple Mac update cycle often brings iterative tweaks, but some years have major changes.

CleverFiles Disk Drill Pro (for Mac) $89.00 at Disk Drill See It If you have Mac with a traditional hard drive, Disk Drill Pro offers one of the most advanced data recovery utilities available. Recover any type of deleted files in Windows including Office documents, messages, and media files quickly and easily. Disk Drill for Windows is free data recovery software that restores deleted files from an HDD, USB drive or any kind of disk-based storage media with just a few clicks. Free Download Upgrade to PRO Also available for Mac OS X. Disk Drill is able to run native scans of system drives on Macs because of its kernel extension, or kext. Apple deprecated certain kexts with macOS Big Sur, replacing it with its Endpoint Security.

Your macOS operating system – or OS X, for older versions of macOS – can be updated each Fall, so long as Apple is still supporting your device. Here we’ll show you how to prepare your Mac for an update, the right way to update MacOS to the latest version of OS X or macOS, and some apps that make the process much smoother.

How to prepare your Mac for an OS update

Knowing how to update the latest Mac system is one thing – preparing your machine is equally important. To prepare your Mac for an upgrade, you’ll want to make sure your files are organized properly, all of your system settings are correct, and that your file system is backed up. It’s also important to know if your Mac is eligible for an update.

Check the General Requirements (and Hardware)

To see what specs your Mac has, follow these steps:

From the menu bar on your Mac, select the Apple icon on the top left

Select “About This Mac” from the drop down menu

This will tell you what year your Mac was made, the version of macOS or OS X you’re currently on, the computer’s RAM (Memory), processor, and which graphics card your Mac has. These are important to know, as upgrading to the latest version of macOS – macOS 11 Big Sur – requires the following:

macOS 10.10 or later

4GB RAM (Memory)

15-20GB of available storage.

Note: To see how much available storage space you have, follow the two step process above, then “Storage” tab at the top of the window.

When you want to upgrade MacOS, keep in mind the latest version of macOS is only available for these models:

MacBook (Early 2015 or newer)

MacBook Air (Mid 2012 or newer)

MacBook Pro (Mid 2012 or newer)

Mac mini (Late 2012 or newer)

iMac (Late 2012 or newer)

iMac Pro (2017)

Mac Pro (Late 2013 or newer)

Back up your Mac

When it’s time to back your Mac up, Apple has an official method dubbed Time Machine. When you use Time Machine, it keeps what’s called an “image” of your Mac, which is what a backup really is. When you backup your Mac, you’re making a compressed version of your entire operating system.

Learn more about time machine backup.

The purpose of creating a backup is most often to have a recent save point you can reboot from. It’s important to do as often as possible.

Here’s how to create a backup of your Mac using Time Machine:

Connect an external drive. This is where your backup will be stored.

From your Mac menu bar, go to Apple > System Preferences > Time Machine

Click “Select Disk”

Select the external drive you connected to your Mac

Select “Use Disk” in the new popup window

There’s a much better way to backup your Mac, though: Get Backup Pro.

Get Backup Pro makes backing up your Mac simple, and you remain in total control. One issue many have with Time Machine is it often starts backing up during the day, which consumes resources on your Mac, and things you're working on may not save in your backup. Get Backup Pro lets you back your Mac up to any device you like, and you can set the schedule you want for backing your Mac up. You can even choose how many backups you want to keep; Time Machine doesn’t allow such customizations!

Make sure you have sufficient space for macOS Update

Apple recommends you have a minimum of 4GB RAM, or Memory, and 12.5GB available storage when upgrading your Mac. (It’s also wise to have a strong internet connection, as the download can take quite a bit of time!)

Here’s how to check your system to see if your Mac is eligible for an Apple OS update:

From the menu bar on your Mac, select the Apple icon on the top left

Select “About This Mac” from the drop down menu – this shows you how much Memory (RAM) you have

Select the “Storage” tab

Under “Macintosh HD,” ensure you have at least 12.5GB storage available

Clean Your Mac

When you think “how do i update my mac operating system?,” you should also be thinking about how to prepare your Mac for the update. Remember that if you need to boot your Mac from a backup, it will load exactly what you have on your Mac at the time of the update. Now is a great time to delete apps, re-organize your files, and make sure your settings are optimized.

There’s just no better app for this than CleanMyMac X. It leaves your Mac running in peak condition, and like Get Backup Pro, it can be set to alert you on a schedule that it’s time to clean up your Mac. All you have to do is open CleanMyMac X on your Mac, select the “Smart Scan” module, and the app scans your system and cleans up unnecessary files, scans for malware, and ensures your settings are set to keep your Mac running as fast as possible by doing things like freeing up RAM and running maintenance scripts.

If you want to really dial your Mac in, CleanMyMac X has a module for uninstalling apps, which also removes their associated files. You can also run the “Maintenance” module to take the Smart Scan feature a step further with a more detailed scrubbing of your Mac.

How to update a Mac

You may be wondering “how do I upgrade my Mac operating system?” Now that we’ve told you how to backup your Mac and optimize it, here’s how you update your Mac:

From the menu bar on your Mac, select the Apple icon on the top left

Select “Software Update”

That’s all you need to do! Your Mac will tell you if there’s an upgrade available for you. Next time you’re thinking “how do i upgrade my operating system on my Mac?,” remember this two-step process.

How to turn on automatic updates

You can trigger your Mac to update automatically – but first, a word of caution. Many set their Mac to update automatically so they don’t ask themselves “how do i update mac os?” every few months. It’s typically fine to have your Mac update automatically, but there have been some features that break old apps in newer macOS builds. We would caution you to consider your needs; if you can’t risk apps not working or perhaps files being shifted around, we would advise against automatic updates.

But for most, it’s fine to automatically upgrade your Mac. Here’s how:

From the menu bar on your Mac, select the Apple icon on the top left

Select “Software Update”

Select “Advanced”

Make sure all boxes are checked

Note: for a Mac to automatically update, it must be connected to power.

Keep in mind you have a bit of control here, too. You can choose to have your Mac check for updates automatically, but not download them. This is a smart choice for those who want a bit more control over when their Mac updates, and we prefer this option as it allows you to run CleanMyMac X before a backup with Get Backup Pro. Backing up before an update is always a smart move.

How Can I Update Drivers on Apple OS?

Drivers are what allow your Mac to communicate with peripherals like graphics cards, speakers, or printers. You can’t directly update drivers on a Mac; your best bet is to update your operating system, which has all the necessary drivers.

If you’re using a specific app to communicate with peripherals, like an app for a printer, updating the app itself may install new drivers.

Mac Won’t Update?

If your Mac simply won’t update, it’s likely a hardware issue. As we noted, you’ll need 4GB RAM and 12.5GB storage to update your Mac. If you don’t have at least that, you will be unable to run the latest version of macOS.

Your Mac may also be too old. Though the system requirements help avoid this, Apple only supports older machines for a certain amount of time; this is often because other specs, like graphics cards, are no longer adequate for newer versions of macOS.

Disk Drill Mac Cracked

It’s also possible the update was interrupted; this is why we advise you have a strong internet connection before updating your Mac. These are core issues with a Mac which won’t update. If you’re experiencing issues, get hold of Apple for support.

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Conclusion

New versions of macOS are exciting for Mac enthusiasts, but don’t rush to download them. Always make sure you’ve cleaned your Mac using CleanMyMac X, and back your machine up with Get Backup Pro. Another great app to download is Disk Drill, which can help you recover files you thought were lost.

All three apps are available for free as part of a seven day trial of Setapp, a robust suite of productivity apps for your Mac. Alongside Disk Drill, GEt Backup Pro, and CleanMyMac X, you’ll get unlimited access to the full Setapp library of nearly 200 excellent Mac apps.

When the trial ends, Setapp is only $9.99 per month to retain unlimited access to the full suite of apps. For families, Setapp’s $19.99 monthly plan allows full access to Setapp on up to four unique Macs. An incredible deal – give Setapp a try today!

Setapp lives on Mac and iOS. Please come back from another device.

Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.

Read on

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Disk Drill is a set of tools for recovering data from, managing and analyzing mass storage devices.

The application has been quite popular among Mac OS users for quite a while and the developer has ported the application to Windows.

With Disk Drill, you are given a comprehensive set of tools for finding, managing, rebuilding and recovering damaged data. Its usefulness is in its multiple algorithms it uses to recover data.

Disk Drill features a beautiful user interface which provides users with the quick ability to get down into the internals of virtually any connected device. It supports the Windows filesystems along with Mac's HFS along with Linux EXT2, EXT3 and EXT4 filesystems.

Recovering data with this recovery tool is rather easy and allows you to search through recoverable data. Items are grouped depending on their general category (eg. Videos, Pictures, Documents, etc.) The app allows you to save the data to an external device.

Another useful feature of Disk Drill is its protection feature which helps guard against data loss and permanent deletion.

Disk Drill is a useful and easy-to-use data recovery program which can be very useful for more novice users or simply for people who like a combination of beauty and functionality with a simple interface.

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Supports FAT, exFAT or NTFS file system, is HFS Mac drive or Linux EXT2/3/4

Helps map old partitions to rebuild

Protects your PC from future data loss

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[ilegnangeli]

Random May Thought #1

I think I may have forgotten how to properly write an entry on Tumblr. Much features have changed since I last posted here. If it weren’t for Instagram’s connect to Tumblr feature, I wouldn’t have updated this blog in years. Last I posted was a picture of my penmanship in Mandarin. I was still a student in China back then. And well now, I am back to the mothership.

Two years ago, COVID-19 didn’t exist. Oh wait, it did, they just hadn’t named it yet or they haven’t discovered it yet (I actually remember they used to call it nCoV). Two years ago, I was still lying in my bed in my spacious dorm room probably wondering why time flew so fast. Two years ago, I was a completely different person. I had plans two years later, you know. Plans that got soiled. I didn’t think I would still be here. I should be experiencing spring elsewhere and yet I’m basking in the scorching heat of summer in the Republic of the Philippines. Not that I’m complaining. Alright, fine, I am.

Life has been pretty tough lately. I think I wrote the same thing in one of my book reviews in Goodreads. After reading that book by Paul Kalanithi, I became more aware of how finite life is. I’ve always loved books that sorta ended in tragedies (maybe it’s the masochist in me lmao). But reading a memoir of someone who suffered a similar fate to those fictional characters I’ve read before, reading through his personal struggle made me think about how life—at the end of it all—is truly fragile.

I also read through my old entries in here. I laughed at some. I smiled at some. I sorta became sad after reading some entries. But I’m glad I wrote. Now, I’m feeling like continuing this thing I do often when I’m overwhelmed by life: writing. There’s a sense of bittersweetness to reading your old diary or journal entries for the world to see. Two nights ago, I dug through my old notebooks and read some of my written entries in there. Ten, nine, eight years ago versions of me who loved writing and sharing her thoughts on pages of now worn-out notebooks. Again, I’m glad I wrote.

Writing is probably something I’m not really best at but I’m good at. And suffice to say, I enjoy it. I love writing and it’s probably going to be the end of me. Funny how going back home, here in the mountains of Rizal, transforms me into a sentimental freak. The life in the city is probably the most ideal, future-focused lifestyle but the old soul in me will always go back and try to rekindle the sad and happy memories of the past.

Right now, I’m sat at the end of my bed. With a laptop. Typing these random thoughts. I see my piano on the left. I see my bookshelves right in front of me. And I see my luggage, to my right, that I haven’t used since I got back from China (I didn’t use this for my trip to Japan, I used a smaller one lmao).

I leafed through the pages of my old planner. It was the planner I used for my final year in university. I saw this “Dream Board” that I ever so creatively put together using cutouts from magazines, stickers, and sticky notes. I wrote there that I would make films, music, and literature. Funny how those “dreams” became reality. One by one. I also remember listing down the places I’d always wanted to visit in that planner. I remember writing all the countries that I would, one day, visit. And by some weird miracle, I’ve ticked off so many of those places. Well, except Amsterdam (because damn, the Netherlands is so far away). But don’t worry self, we’ll get there. Eventually. Lmao.

My dream board was extended to the next page where I listed down so many things that I would save up for. Teenage me would be proud of herself because ten years later, she has owned that John Green book collection (she now even has at least three versions of each book John Green has published, I know that’s ridiculous but please stop judging me lol), she has also owned two MacBooks (an Air in 2015 and a Pro in 2020), she has bought a digital piano (God, I srsly am in love with this piano, teenage me would cry out of joy I swear), and she has travelled to a lot of her dream destinations and countries. Teenage me would be so proud of who she has become. I seriously sighed as I typed that last line.

Ten years. Feels like an entire lifetime ago. I didn’t think life would be this fast-paced. I mean, thanks technology but boohoo because here I am, somehow struggling, asking myself every single day, hour, minute why adulting has to be this difficult. I sorta blame my teenage self because, she wished for this moment. She wished to fast-forward to my yuppy self. But then again, who am I to complain, THAT WAS ME ten years ago. Bitch, you did not. Lmao.

Earlier this afternoon, it’s nighttime as I type this, I spoke with one of my co-workers. We haven’t known each other that very long. But it feels like we’ve known each other forever. She’s a Libra, just like me. She’s a 92-liner, too. Oh the joy! And she’s a psych major, I envy her. Sometimes I still wonder why I didn’t take that path in university. Accountancy was shit and as much as I loved my Sintang Paaralan, I just didn’t want to be there anymore for personal reasons. You’d know, if you ever met me in person, I’ll tell you. Wow, am I really that good at moving on? Anyway, being a communication major is and was a great experience. I hate competitions but I joined so many competitions in that field and lost some but you gotta win some, right? So I did. Thank you for the wonderful experiences, Piyu.

Whoa, I didn’t think I’d be writing this long. But I’m not done yet. So as I was saying, I spoke with her. She isn’t just a colleague to me now but more like a best friend. I never thought I would meet someone my age who spoke the same language as me before her. I’m a nerd. If that isn’t already obvious. And if being caught by our director talking about Sigmund Freud and Maria Montessori isn’t enough proof, then I guess let’s talk about global warming, greenhouse effect, and the melting polar caps. I like talking about ideas, phenomenas, and books. Crucify me! #ReasonsWhyImStillSingle

I’d been praying about something recently. And I only got that clarity when I finally spoke to her about it. We’ve been on this topic for about a month now. And occasionally we like to make fun of this topic. But I guess, when something isn’t really meant for you, God will make a way for it to not, you know, find its way to you. Thank you, LORD.

She told me so many things that made me realize that the person I like right now probably has his reasons why he’s not making the first move. And I understood that. She insisted that my feelings were valid and it was okay for me to feel those things—to think those things. But oh my goodness, I told her, this person is so lucky. Like I swear to God. Because I don’t really “like” guys that often. I don’t feel easily attracted to anyone. So it is by some miracle that I ended up liking this particular human sub-specie (bro, you should feel privileged, too bad you won’t be able to read this). Anyway, It was so clear to me. And I had to move on. Immediately. But what’s weird about it is that I just took a nap. And when I woke up from that nap this afternoon I felt nothing. Like that feeling expired almost immediately. It completely dissipated. So ridiculous, right? I’ve harbored feelings for this person for some time now (it hasn’t been that long to be honest) and I’m just over that feeling now. In an instant, too. I don’t know why. It’s probably one of my talents.

Wow, I really do move on fast. Don’t I? Am I cruel (to myself) that way?

So I had decided to busy myself with work. Plan about my graduate studies. And hope for the best. But for now, I’ll enjoy the rest of my leave from work. I sighed. Again. As I wrote that. My head hurts. I don’t know why. But it does. And I almost typed that in Korean.

On another topic, I’m thinking about compiling all of my literary works in some way. I also feel like commissioning my niece and my older brother to illustrate some of my poems for me. I’ve actually thought about this like a year ago amidst the pandemic. But the lazy ass in me just kept postponing. And I blame myself for procrastinating because all my “plans” haven’t come to fruition. But I’ll get my shit together. Eventually. I need to make this happen. At least before I expire. Lmao.

P.S. I’m tired. I actually stayed up late last night. Or should I say earlier this morning. I video called one of my ex-colleagues. It was also a really nice chat. But I’m not used to staying up late anymore. I’ve burned tons of midnight oil in university. NEVER AGAIN. I’m sleepy to be honest.

P.P.S. Tomorrow’s my elder sister’s birthday. I’m going to post ancient pictures of her on my stories.

[lifeofaleia]

𝟖𝟒°𝐅

That’s how hot it is right now. Or, at least, that’s what Google tells me. According to my state of the art personal built in weather detectors (my sensory neurons) that are never and not at all hyperbolic, it is a million degrees right now in my living room- but I love it. Most of my waking hours are spent in air conditioning because of school, so for me, it’s always nice to bask in the natural, comforting heat of Saipan. 

And as I write this entry I realize how absolutely privileged I am to be typing these thoughts from the comfort of my home, in the presence of my family members. Typing on a Macbook Air laptop, nestled on a comfortable couch with a glass filled with cold water to keep me cool. 

The highest temperature on Sunday, April 11, 2021 in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, was 56°F. On that day, around 4:45 PM, officers of the Brooklyn Center Police Department pulled over 20-year old Daunte Wright by a traffic stop, just 10 miles away from where Derek Chauvin is being put on trial for murdering George Floyd almost a year ago. 

Minutes later, Daunte Wright was shot by officer Kim Potter. 

I’m not a police officer, nor am I an employee of any form of law enforcement, crime scene investigation, or medical field, but I believe there was no reason or explanation for Daunte Wright to die on that day. I believe that the only thing a person has to be to determine that a person should not have their life taken away from them is human. 

According to Brooklyn Police Department Police Chief Tim Gannon, his officers had pulled over Chauvin “for a traffic violation related to expired registration tags”, and then shortly discovered there was a warrant for his arrest. Other police officials claimed, on behalf of Officer Kim Potter, a “veteran of 26 years”, that she had “mistakenly confused her gun for her taser”. Gannon directly told the New York Times, “It is my belief that the officer had the intention to deploy their Taser, but instead shot Mr. Wright with a single bullet”. 

By definition, murder is the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another. Premeditated is an adjective used to describe an action (a crime especially) thought out or planned beforehand. 

Many will argue that Potter did not murder, and will not be convicted of murder of any degree for the death of Daunte Wright. Many will argue that Wright should not have evaded arrest by lunging back into the vehicle as he was being handcuffed. But how many will argue that Potter truly did not mean to shoot Wright? How many will argue that Potter, despite over decades of experience on her belt, accidentally shot Daunte Wright? How many will argue that because Potter did not mean to fatally shoot Daunte Wright, she is not guilty of first degree murder?  

The question is, how can we continue to let police officers replicate the same behavior as Derek Chauvin? Or Kim Potter?  How many more lives will be taken before change is made? 

991 people have been shot and killed by police in the last year. 

Or at least, that’s what Google tells me. 

Sources: 

Bogel-Burroughs, Nicholas, et al. “Daunte Wright Shooting an ‘Accidental Discharge,’ Brooklyn Center Police Chief Says.” The New York Times, 14 Apr. 2021, www.nytimes.com/2021/04/12/us/brooklyn-center-police-shooting-minnesota.html.

FindLaw Staff. “Second Degree Murder Overview.” Www.Findlaw.Com, 1 June 2020, www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-charges/second-degree-murder-overview.html#:~:text=Second%20degree%20murder%20is%20generally,crime%20will%20vary%20by%20jurisdiction.

“Police Shootings Database 2015–2021.” Washington Post, 22 Jan. 2020, www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/investigations/police-shootings-database.

Staff, FindLaw. “First Degree Murder Overview.” Findlaw.Com, 2 June 2020, www.findlaw.com/criminal/criminal-charges/first-degree-murder-overview.html#:%7E:text=In%20most%20states%2C%20first%2Ddegree,wife%20in%20bed%20with%20Victor.

Times, The New York. “The Killing of Daunte Wright: What to Know.” The New York Times, 14 Apr. 2021, www.nytimes.com/article/daunte-wright-death-minnesota.html.

[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/macbook-pro-16-first-impressions-return-of-the-mack/

MacBook Pro 16” first impressions: Return of the Mack

In poker, complacency is a quiet killer. It can steal your forward momentum bit by bit, using the warm glow of a winning hand or two to cover the bets you’re not making until it’s too late and you’re out of leverage. 

Over the past few years, Apple’s MacBook game had begun to suffer from a similar malaise. Most of the company’s product lines were booming, including newer entries like the Apple Watch, AirPods and iPad Pro. But as problems with the models started to mount — unreliable keyboards, low RAM ceilings and anemic graphics offerings — the once insurmountable advantage that the MacBook had compared to the rest of the notebook industry started to show signs of dwindling. 

The new 16” MacBook Pro Apple is announcing today is an attempt to rectify most, if not all, of the major complaints of its most loyal, and vocal, users. It’s a machine that offers a massive amount of upsides for what appears to be a handful of easily justifiable tradeoffs. It’s got better graphics, a bigger display for nearly no extra overall size, a bigger battery with longer life claims and yeah, a completely new keyboard.

I’ve only had a day to use the machine so far, but I did all of my research and writing for this first look piece on the machine, carting it around New York City, through the airport and onto a plane where I’m publishing this now. This isn’t a review, but I can take you through some of the new stuff and give you thoughts based on that chunk of time. 

This is a re-think of the larger MacBook Pro in many large ways. This is a brand new model that will completely replace the 15” MacBook Pro in Apple’s lineup, not an additional model. 

Importantly, the team working on this new MacBook started with no design constraints on weight, noise, size or battery. This is not a thinner machine, it is not a smaller machine, it is not a quieter machine. It is, however, better than the current MacBook Pro in all of the ways that actually count.

Let’s run down some of the most important new things. 

Performance and thermals

The 16” MacBook Pro comes configured with either a 2.6GHz 6-core i7 or a 2.3GHz 8-core i9 from Intel. These are the same processors as the 15” MacBook Pro came with. No advancements here is largely a function of Intel’s chip readiness. 

The i7 model of the 16” MacBook Po will run $2,399 for the base model — the same as the old 15” — and it comes with a 512GB SSD drive and 16GB of RAM. 

Both models can be ordered today and will be in stores at the end of the week.

The standard graphics configuration in the i7 is an AMD Radeon Pro 5300M with 4GB of memory and an integrated Intel UHD graphics 630 chip. The system continues to use the dynamic handoff system that trades power for battery life on the fly.  

The i9 model will run $2,699 and comes with a 1TB drive. That’s a nice bump in storage for both models, into the range of very comfortable for most people. It rolls with an AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 4GB of memory.

You can configure both models with an AMD Radeon Pro 5500M with 8GB of GDDR6 memory. Both models can also now get up to 8TB of SSD storage – which Apple says is the most on a notebook ever – and 64GB of 2666 DDR4 RAM but I’d expect those upgrades to be pricey.

The new power supply delivers an additional 12w of power and there is a new thermal system to compensate for that. The heat pipe that carries air in and out has been redesigned, there are more fan blades on 35% larger fans that move 28% more air compared to the 15” model. 

The fans in the MacBook Pro, when active, put out the same decibel level of sound, but push way more air than before. So, not a reduction in sound, but not an increase either — and the trade is better cooling. Another area where the design process for this MacBook focused on performance gains rather than the obvious sticker copy. 

There’s also a new power brick which is the same physical size as the 15” MacBook Pro’s adapter, but which now supplies 96w up from 87w. The brick is still as chunky as ever and feels a tad heavier, but it’s nice to get some additional power out of it. 

Though I haven’t been able to put the MacBook Pro through any video editing or rendering tests I was able to see live demos of it handling several 8K streams concurrently. With the beefiest internal config Apple says it can usually handle as many as 4, perhaps 5 un-rendered Pro Res streams.

A bigger display, a thicker body

The new MacBook Pro has a larger 16” diagonal Retina display that has a 3072×1920 resolution at 226 ppi. The monitor features the same 500 nit maximum brightness, P3 color gamut and True Tone tech as the current 15”. The bezels of the screen are narrower, which makes it feel even larger when you’re sitting in front of it. This also contributes to the fact that the overall size of the new MacBook Pro is just 2% larger in width and height, with a .7mm increase in thickness. 

The overall increase in screen size far outstrips the increase in overall body size because of those thinner bezels. And this model is still around the same thickness as the 2015 15” MacBook Pro, an extremely popular model among the kinds of people who are the target market for this machine. It also weighs 4.3 lbs, heavier than the 4.02 lb current 15” model.

The display looks great, extremely crisp due to the increase in pixels and even more in your face because of the very thin bezels. This thing feels like it’s all screen in a way that matches the iPad Pro.

This thick boi also features a bigger battery, a full 100Whr, the most allowable under current FAA limits. Apple says this contributes an extra hour of normal operations in its testing regimen in comparison to the current 15” MacBook Pro. I have not been able to effectively test these claims in the time I’ve had with it so far. 

But it is encouraging that Apple has proven willing to make the iPhone 11 Pro and the new MacBook a bit thicker in order to deliver better performance and battery life. Most of these devices are pretty much thin enough. Performance, please.

Speakers and microphone

One other area where the 16” MacBook Pro has made a huge improvement is the speaker and microphone arrays. I’m not sure I ever honestly expected to give a crap about sound coming out of a laptop. Good enough until I put in a pair of headphones accurately describes my expectations for laptop sound over the years. Imagine my surprise when I first heard the sound coming out of this new MacBook and it was, no crap, incredibly good. 

The new array consists of six speakers arranged so that the subwoofers are positioned in pairs, antipodal to one another (back to back). This has the effect of cancelling out a lot of the vibration that normally contributes to that rattle-prone vibrato that has characterized small laptop speakers pretty much forever.

The speaker setup they have here has crisper highs and deeper bass than you’ve likely ever heard from a portable machine. Movies are really lovely to watch with the built-ins, a sentence I have never once felt comfortable writing about a laptop. 

Apple also vents the speakers through their own chambers, rather than letting sound float out through the keyboard holes. This keeps the sound nice and crisp, with a soundstage that’s wide enough to give the impression of a center channel for voice. One byproduct of this though is that blocking one or another speaker with your hand is definitely more noticeable than before.

The quality of sound here is really very, very good. The HomePod team’s work on sound fields apparently keeps paying dividends. 

That’s not the only audio bit that’s better now though, Apple has also put in a 3-mic array for sound recording that it claims has a high enough signal-to-noise ratio that it can rival standalone microphones. I did some testing here comparing it to the iPhone’s mic and it’s absolutely night and day. There is remarkably little hiss present here and artists that use the MacBook as a sketch pad for vocals and other recording are going to get a really nice little surprise here.

I haven’t been able to test it against external mics myself but I was able to listen to rigs that involved a Blue Yeti and other laptop microphones and the MacBook’s new mic array was clearly better than any of the machines and held its own against the Yeti. 

The directional nature of many podcast mics is going to keep them well in advance of the internal mic on the MacBook for the most part, but for truly mobile recording setups the MacBook mic just went from completely not an option to a very viable fallback in one swoop. It really has to be listened to in order to get it. 

I doubt anyone is going to buy a MacBook Pro for the internal mic, but having a ‘pro level’ device finally come with a pro level mic on board is super choice. 

I think that’s most of it, though I feel like I’m forgetting something…

Oh right, the Keyboard

Ah yes. I don’t really need to belabor the point on the MacBook Pro keyboards just not being up to snuff for some time. Whether you weren’t a fan of the short throw on the new butterfly keyboards or you found yourself one of the many people (yours truly included) who ran up against jammed or unresponsive keys on that design — you know that there has been a problem.

The keyboard situation has been written about extensively by Casey Johnston and Joanna Stern and complained about by every writer on Twitter over the past several years. Apple has offered a succession of updates to that keyboard to attempt to make it more reliable and has extended warranty replacements to appease customers. 

But the only real solution was to ditch the design completely and start over. And that’s what this is: a completely new keyboard.

Apple is calling it the Magic Keyboard in homage to the iMac’s Magic Keyboard (but not identically designed). The new keyboard is a scissor mechanism, not butterfly. It has 1mm of key travel (more, a lot more) and an Apple-designed rubber dome under the key that delivers resistance and springback that facilitates a satisfying key action. The new keycaps lock into the keycap at the top of travel to make them more stable when at rest, correcting the MacBook Air-era wobble. 

And yes, the keycaps can be removed individually to gain access to the mechanism underneath. And yes, there is an inverted-T arrangement for the arrow keys. And yes, there is a dedicated escape key.

Apple did extensive physiological research when building out this new keyboard. One test was measuring the effect of a keypress on a human finger. Specifically, they measured the effect of a key on the pacinian corpuscles at the tips of your fingers. These are onion-esque structures in your skin that house nerve endings and they are most sensitive to mechanical and vibratory pressure. 

Apple then created this specialized plastic dome that sends a specific vibration to this receptor making your finger send a signal to your brain that says ‘hey you pressed that key.’ This led to a design that gives off the correct vibration wavelength to return a satisfying ‘stroke completed’ message to the brain.

There is also more space between the keys, allowing for more definitive strokes. This is because the keycaps themselves are slightly smaller. The spacing does take some adjustment, but by this point in the article I am already getting pretty proficient and am having more grief from the autocorrect feature of Catalina than anything else. 

Notably, this keyboard is not in the warranty extension program that Apple is applying to its older keyboard designs. There is a standard 1 year warranty on this model, a statement by the company that they believe in the durability of this new design? Perhaps. It has to get out there and get bashed on by more violent keyboard jockeys than I for a while before we can tell whether it’s truly more resilient. 

But does this all come together to make a more usable keyboard? In short, yes. The best way to describe it in my opinion is a blend between the easy cushion of the old MacBook Air and the low profile stability of the Magic Keyboard for iMac. It’s truly one of the best feeling keyboards they’ve made in years and perhaps ever in the modern era. I reserve the right to be nostalgic about deep throw mechanical keyboards in this regard, but this is the next best thing. 

Pro, or Pro

In my brief and admittedly limited testing so far, the 16” MacBook Pro ends up looking like it really delivers on the Pro premise of this kind of machine in ways that have been lacking for a while in Apple’s laptop lineup. The increased storage caps, bigger screen, bigger battery and redesigned keyboard should make this an insta-buy for anyone upgrading from a 2015 MacBook Pro and a very tempting upgrade for even people on newer models that have just never been happy with the typing experience. 

Many of Apple’s devices with the label Pro lately have fallen into the bucket of ‘the best’ rather than ‘for professionals’. This isn’t strictly a new phenomenon for Apple, but more consumer centric devices like the AirPods Pro and the iPhone Pro get the label now than ever before. 

But the 16” MacBook Pro is going to alleviate a lot of the pressure Apple has been under to provide an unabashedly Pro product for Pro Pros. It’s a real return to form for the real Mack Daddy of the laptop category. As long as this new keyboard design proves resilient and repairable I think this is going to kick off a solid new era for Apple portables.

[theghostsalontapes]

Pushing Off From Shore...

In June of 2016, my wife/bandmate Denny and I relocated from North Carolina (a lifetime home for Denny and a longtime home for myself) to Memphis, Tennessee. We renamed our musical project from Lost Trail to Nonconnah to reflect the move and begin anew with a fresh slate, and in honor of Memphis waterway Nonconnah Creek. We soon purchased a home on the outskirts of Memphis, in rural Fayette County, which came complete with a spacious former beauty salon attached to the garage. This was to become our new recording space, and to remark upon its former usage, we named it Ghost Salon. Now, in April of 2017, as we near the end of our first year of adjusting to new environs and friends, that space is ready for use.   As I’ve said in interviews and in person, the new Nonconnah album is going to differ from Lost Trail’s work in a number of ways. Nonconnah will be more collaborative in spirit than Lost Trail, bringing in a number of musically-inclined (and maybe non-musically-inclined) friends from across the earth, but especially aiming to utilize the diverse musical community in Memphis as much as possible. The work will still be thoroughly experimental, but less hemmed-in by particulars of genre; ambient and drone are beautiful shades, but there’s many more colors to paint with. Most importantly, this is going to be a large-scale, long-form project. No more churning out endless streams of music like Robert Pollard on a meth bender. We’re taking the time to carefully craft what we do, and it will take years to get it right, probably with a host of leftovers to show for it. This is an ambitious project covering a huge number of themes and sub-themes, and it will incorporate many visuals and writings as well as a (surely lengthy) collection of music. I’ll expand on the feelings and moods behind the album as the recording comes together. Right now, it’s all a drifting haze of half-built comprehensions, and who knows where these sessions will take us?  I hope to alter many of my ingrained work habits in this project, focusing more on the particulars of layering and mixing than in the past, using a wider array of instruments, and re-learning how to read notation as well as (hopefully) improve my piano and vocal skills. I’ve purchased a whiteboard for longhand idea scrawling, and I’m starting this blog as a way to document the minutiae of the album’s sessions as they come together (I’ve tried this before and not stuck with it, hopefully this time will be different). Denny will also be contributing more in the way of instruments themselves on this album, in addition to her field recording work. In many ways it’s still Lost Trail, but in many ways it isn’t. I think our best work is yet to come. So let’s begin.  Today, 04/12/17, was the first day I spent a considerable amount of time in the studio. I had planned to start the recording process in earnest the previous week, but an unfortunate accident involving a pitcher of lemonade and my Macbook Air meant I was delayed while a replacement shipped to us. Now I’m working with an older Macbook Pro, which despite its age I’m enjoying much more than the Air (it’s more solidly built, with more memory and a DVD drive). Here’s hoping it survives these sessions. I spent today rebuilding my guitar pedalboard, a tedious but necessary task involving much yanking of velcro and untangling of wires. I have a good dozen or more pedals in addition to the ones now on the board, some of them ‘nicer’ than what I put in place today, but this is what I’m feeling is right for the beginning of this album (I’ll probably change everything in a month or so, anyway). For example, there’s considerable snobbery in the guitar pedal world concerning Behringer pedals, but they’re ample Boss clones as long as you use them gently, considerate of their cheap plastic housing. I had hoped to upgrade all my pedals earlier in the year, but life expenses got in the way. So it goes. I’m nothing if not an old pro at making do with what I have available on-hand, and I’m lucky to have a wealth of plug-ins on board, as well. As in the past, I’ll mostly be using GarageBand and Audacity for tracking, and my Zoom H2, in an effort to keep things simple. I’ll experiment with other DAWs as time goes on, though I’ve never liked being overwhelmed with options. The new signal chain follows... JHS Little Black Buffer>Raygun FX Super Fuzz Boy>Devi Ever Rocket Mangler>Behringer Ultra Feedback>Digitech Whammy Ricochet>Behringer Space Chorus>Boss Tera Echo>Boss PS3 Pitch-Shifter/Delay>Behringer Slow Motion>Digitech Element Multi-Effects>TC Electronic Flashback Delay>TC Electronic Polytune 2 Mini>Alesis Wedge Reverb Module>Digitech Jamman Stereo Looper I always use a number of accessories in my playing as well, such as a bottleneck slide, a flathead screwdriver, an E-bow, a violin bow, a broken computer speaker, various tape machines, a portable shortwave radio, and various toy laser guns. On this album I plan to play - electric guitar, acoustic guitar, classical guitar, banjo, dulcimer, glockenspiel, piano, accordion, harpsichord, chord organ, electric organ (I picked up a Baldwin Fun Machine not too long ago), drums, synthesizers, drum machine, music box, wine glasses, lap steel, Marxophone, melodica, violin, yerbonitsa, mandolin, hand percussion, bowed cymbal, bowed tape recorder (I built one myself), theremin and voice. Others, and Denny, will contribute these and other instruments. I’m going to mostly leave it in folks’ hands what they contribute. Though I own a number of guitars and amps, and plan to use them all, my main electric for this album will be my Reverend Ron Asheton signature, and my main amp will be my Roland Jazz Chorus 60. This is what I mostly use live lately, and I think it’s a setup that I’m comfortable creating with.

Before sleep tonight, I’m going to begin the long and arduous process of going back through my ‘demos’ folder and picking likely candidates to be fleshed out into full songs (this is also new for me, I’ve never demo’d for an album before). Since early July of 2015, I’ve been recording bits and ideas and rough demos with whatever instrument was on hand, wherever I found myself (a friend’s ukulele while house-sitting in Carrboro, NC, a broken piano by the side of the road in Snow Camp. NC). This, along with collected field recordings from the past nearly two years gathered by myself and Denny, has swelled into quite a gargantuan of .wavs. Now it’s time to parse strong ideas from weak; I hope I’m up to the task of judging these snippets. Tomorrow I plan to at least test out the new Apogee USB interface I picked up, and see if it’s as suitable for line-in recording as I hope. If I’m lucky, I may be able to find some time to begin proper recording before the end of the day. I’ll keep you posted as to my progress. Until then! ZC  Listening to: Do Make Say Think - STUBBORN PERSISTENT ILLUSIONS, The Robot Ate Me - ON VACATION Reading: Stewart O’Nan - SNOW ANGELS (again)  Watching: THE PATH, Hulu

[richmegavideo]

Does Apple even care about computers anymore?

Apple announced last week that it would no longer be releasing AirPower, its long-awaited wireless-charging pad. The company apologized, saying it had “concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project.”

Such rigid quality requirements don’t seem to be a concern for its laptop division.

Over the past four years, Apple has released three generations of laptop computers that have been plagued with keyboard issues. The company is facing multiple class-action lawsuits even after tinkering with the keyboard design multiple times.

Buyers have continued to experience keys that get stuck, become unresponsive, or even just fall off the $1,200-and-up MacBook, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro laptops released since April 2015. I wouldn’t be able to write this on my own three-year-old MacBook Pro, as my shift and command keys recently both stopped working. I have generally found these to be important keys when trying to type or…do just about anything on a computer. But maybe that’s just me.

I could, theoretically, take it into an Apple store to get it serviced, as Apple is offering to do for free on most of its affected laptops. As The Wall Street Journal’s Joanna Stern (paywall) recently noted (while experiencing similar stuck-key problems), service could take days or weeks to fix and Apple stores aren’t really the well-oiled consumer experiences they used to be. (Instead I’ve given in to having it look like ee cummings has taken hold of my laptop’s output.)

Apple’s other computer problems

In 2017, Apple said that it would launch a new version of its high-end Mac Pro desktop in 2018. It’s 2019 now, and Apple just had its spring launch event with no information about the computer. Even if it does show off a prototype at its annual developers conference in June as rumored, it would still be a year late.

There’s also the iMac Pro, released in late 2017, which is less upgradeable than the old standard iMac, and any changes need to be made by an Apple-certified service center. The iMac Pro starts at $5,000.

Conversely, the latest iPad Pro is a great machine. I bought one almost as soon as they were released, and it has become a staple of my home and travel use. The keyboard, albeit small and squishy, never has a problem with keys that stop working.

Is this a cynical plot from Apple to convince more Mac users to switch over to iPads? Probably not, but then, after years of everyone thinking Apple was slowing down their iPhones and the company saying no, it turned out, it was. So maybe it’s not that outlandish for consumers to imagine another scheme is afoot.

Apple is struggling to figure out what it is

Phone sales are slowing, and Apple is making a massive bet that sales of entertainment services can cover any shortfall in the product that made it a global behemoth in the last decade.

The perennial question remains about what comes after the iPhone for Apple—it may be voice computing, health tech, or vehicles. During transitions, the company could rely on the iPhone and the computer business it’s been running for 43 years to help ease the path.

Even if resources are being shifted to help figure things out and businesses aren’t being monitored as hawkishly as they used to be, it now seems that computers feel more like an afterthought at the company that used to be called Apple Computer.

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[techfeels]

Thoughts on the New MacBook Air

Here's what I wrote two months ago about the rumoured MacBook Air redesign:

So here’s my best guess, and also what I’m kind of hoping for: The price will start at $999, for a 128GB SSD and 8GB of RAM. It will have a new chassis, smaller in size than the current Air, but with the same teardrop design. It’ll have a 13-inch Retina display, with the same resolution as the 13-inch MacBook Pro (2560x1600), but it won’t be True Tone, or have a Touch Bar or T2 chip — these will be reserved for the Pro laptops. The processor will be whatever the latest Intel 15W dual-core chip is. It’ll have the 3rd-gen butterfly keyboard from this year’s MacBook Pros, and a Force Touch trackpad. Ports-wise, I’m predicting two USB-C ports, which it’ll also use for charging — no more MagSafe — as well as a USB-A port, SD card slot, and headphone jack. It will probably come in the same colours as the MacBook: silver, space grey, gold and rose gold.

Overall I was pretty close — just let down by some wishful thinking/naiveté regarding the addition of legacy ports, and the price. Regarding the increased price, it seemed like a common refrain in yesterday's announcements was, 'we've made it better than the old version in a bunch of ways, but now it's $200 more expensive'. $1200 for a laptop with a measly 128GB storage capacity is pretty outrageous, in my opinion. The price gouging has certainly been reaching new levels in the last couple of years — the Mac mini used to start at $500, now it's $800. The cheapest laptop (with up-to-date internals) used to be $900, now it's $1200. The original stainless steel Apple Watch started at $550, now it's $700. I guess this is what happens when you have a bean counter at the helm.

Back to the MacBook Air, the Intel processor they're using is actually not in the 15W class, as was the case with previous versions — they've apparently switched to the same (weak-sauce) line of processors used in the 12" MacBook, but running at 7W instead of 5W. This means the battery life will be good, but it won't be a particularly powerful machine. 15W always seemed like such a good compromise between power and battery life, so it's a shame they've moved away from this class of processor — but it might not be a problem in day-to-day use.

I'm impressed they've put in a Touch ID sensor next to the traditional function keys for the first time, rather than persisting with the idea that it had to be tied to the (I-think-we-can-call-it-a-failure-now) Touch Bar. This is what I feel the majority of people, including myself, have been clamouring for. Great to see the T2 chip included as well; going forward I think we can expect to see it (or an improved version) on every Mac released from now on. Shame that's not also the case for True Tone, which seems to be a MacBook Pro (Touch Bar) exclusive for the time being.

Before these announcements, there was a sense of hope that this would be the event where Apple would tidy up its laptop line. But, alas, it's now even more of a convoluted mess than it was before. There are now five different options around the 12-13" screen size: 12" MacBook, 13" MacBook Air, 13" MacBook Air (old version), 13" MacBook Pro (Touch Bar), and 13" MacBook Pro (non-Touch Bar).

This is insanity. Why on Earth wasn't the 13" non-Touch Bar model discontinued? The differences between it, the 12" MacBook, and the new 13" MacBook Air are extremely slight: they all cost about the same, are all thin and light, have either one or two USB-C ports, and all have quite-low-powered processors. If you forget about the fact that this new laptop is called the MacBook Air (because, really, it bears almost no relation to the device it replaces), it's hard to see how this isn't just a rethought 13" MacBook Pro (non-Touch Bar).

And if ever there was a time to finally retire the old MacBook Air, last meaningfully updated in March 2015, you'd think the introduction of a new MacBook Air would be it.

But no. It's still here.

[zitseng]

New Post has been published on https://zitseng.com/archives/16395

Free Keyboard Fixes From Apple

This could be good news, at least for some Mac users of the affected product lines, that Apple has acknowledged their new butterfly switch keyboards are problematic. Of course, the better news would be that there weren’t any problems at all to begin with.

However, if you know what goes into a keyboard replacement, you might start to like it, especially if you don’t have to pay for it. First of all, you get a new, spotlessly clean, keyboard. This itself is not bad, eh? Swap out an old, used, stained, keyboard with a brand new one.

On top of that, to change the keyboard, Apple actually also needs to swap the entire top case of the notebook. Yeah, so not only do you get a new keyboard, you get a new top case!

The best part of it, though, is that all those swapping does require Apple to also give you new batteries. I think this is the most important benefit. Batteries deteriorate over time. if you’ve used the notebook for some time, surely the battery isn’t at its best performance anymore. When your keyboard gets fixed, you’ll also get a brand new battery!

Of course, this free repair offer is limited only to specific MacBook and MacBook Pro notebooks that use the newer, second generation, butterfly switch keyboard. The affected products are:

MacBook (Retina, 12-­inch, Early 2015)

MacBook (Retina, 12­-inch, Early 2016)

MacBook (Retina, 12-­inch, 2017)

MacBook Pro (13­-inch, 2016, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

MacBook Pro (13-­inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

MacBook Pro (13-­inch, 2016, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

MacBook Pro (13-­inch, 2017, Four Thunderbolt 3 Ports)

MacBook Pro (15-­inch, 2016)

MacBook Pro (15-­inch, 2017)

It should be noted that the keyboard is merely being repaired. The underlying design problem isn’t actually being rectified, so the problem may indeed return again.

The trouble with these new keyboards is that the keys are so thin, that whenever tiny particles of dust get caught in the mechanism, they jam up the keys so they won’t work properly anymore. Apple’s support document describes the following behaviours:

Letters or characters repeat unexpectedly

Letters or characters do not appear

Key(s) feel “sticky” or do not respond in a consistent manner

I have personally experienced this, twice, on my 2016 13-inch MacBook Pro. I had been able to get Apple to replace the keyboard (along with the top case and battery) both times, so I wasn’t too angry. I was fortunately enough to have AppleCare, otherwise I would have been extremely upset.

Previously, Apple tried to “teach” users the proper way to clean their keyboard by using compressed air to blow under the keys while the keyboard was tilted at various steep angles. It’s a hack. It’s ridiculous to see Apple trying to get users to self-fix the problem, but I suppose some users would rather get the problem fixed immediately than having to turn in their notebook for servicing.

This free servicing is available regardless of whether AppleCare has been purchased.

If you’ve been putting up with some keyboard issues on your affected MacBook or Macbook Pro, you should go get it repaired now.

[gilbertineonfr2]

Hacktivity 2017 Wrap-Up Day 2

Let’s go for more wrap-ups. The second day started smoothly with Haroon Meer’s keynote. There was only one track today, the second room being fully dedicated to hackerspaces. Harron is a renowned speaker and the title of his keynote was “Time to play ‘D’”. The intro was simple: Nothing new, no 0-day, he decided to start his keynote based on his previous talks, especially one from 2011: “Penetration testing considered harmful“. Things changed considerably from a hardware and software point of view but we are still facing the same security issues. Example: a today’s computer is based on multiple computers (think about the MacBook Pro and its touch bar which is based on the same hardware as the Apple watch). Generic security solutions fail and an AV can still be easily bypassed. He gave many good facts and advice. Instead of buying expensive appliances, use this money to hire skilled people. But usually, companies have a security issue and they fix it by deploying a solution that… introduces new issues. He insisted and gave examples of “Dirty Cheap Solutions”. With a few lines of Powershell, we can easily detect new accounts created in an Active Directory. Aaron gave another example with a service he created: canarytokens.org. You create files, URLs, DNS records that are linked an email address and, in case of breach or unexpected access, an alert is sent to you. Another one: regular people don’t use commands lines ‘uname’, ‘ifconfig’ or ‘whoami’. Create alerts to report when they are used!

The first regular talk was given by Tobias Schrödel: “Hacking drones and buying passwords in the Darknet“. What’s the relation between them? Nothing, Tobias just accepted to cover these two topics! The talk was very entertaining and Tobias is a very good speaker… The first part (drones) was made in a management style (with a tie) and the second one with a t-shirt, classic one. Why hacking drones? In Germany, like in many countries, the market for drones is growing quickly. Small models (more classified as “toys”) are using Wireless networks to be controlled and get the pictures from the camera. Those drones provide a SSID, DHCP and are managed via a web interface. So they can be compared to a flying router! There are different ways to take down a drone. The safest solution is to use eagles because they can drop out the drone out of the zone that must be secured. The attack he demonstrated was a simple de-auth attack. The second part of the talks focused on the black market. Not a lot of people already bought stuff on the Darknet (or they hide it) but they are nice webshops where you can buy passwords for many official shops like eBay, Zalando, Paypal, etc… But why a company should buy passwords on the Darkweb? A few years ago, Dropbox suffered from a mega leak with millions of passwords in the wild. That’s bad but even more when corporate email addresses are present in sensitive leaks like Ashley-Madison. In Germany, a big company found 10 email addresses in this leak. If employees are free in their private life, this could have a very huge impact in case of blackmailing: “Give us access to these internal documents or we make your wife/husband aware of your Ashley-Madison account. This is a way to protect its business.

Then, Adrian Vollmer presented “Attacking RDP with Seth – How to eavesdrop on poorly secured RDP connections“. Adrian explained in details how’s working the RDP protocols to authenticate users. In the past, he used Cain & Abel to attack RDP sessions but the tool is quite old and unmaintained (I’m still using it from time to time). So, he decided to write his own tool called Seth. It exploits a misconfiguration in many RDP services. RDP security is similar to SSL but not exactly the same. He explained how this can be abused do downgrade from Kerberos to RDP Security. In this case, a popup warning is displayed to the victim but it is always ignored.

After the morning coffee break, I expected a lot from this talk: “A heaven for Hackers: Breaking Log/SIEM Products” by Mehmet Ince. The talk was not based on ways to abuse a SIEM via the logs that it processed but based on the fact that a SIEM is an application integrating multiple components. The methodology he used was:

Read the documentation

Understand the features

Get a trial version

Break it to access console

Define attack vector(s)

Find a vulnerability

He reported three cases. The first one was AlienVault. They downloaded two versions (the latest one and the previous one) and make a big diff in the files. Based on this, three problems were found: object injection, authentication bypass and IP spooking through XFF. By putting the three together, they were able to get a SQL injection but RCE is always better. They successfully achieved this by created a rule on the application that triggered a command when an SSH denied connection was reported. Evil! The second case targeted ManagEngine. The product design was bad and password to connect to remote Windows systems were stored in a database. If was possible to get access to a console to perform SQL queries but the console obfuscated passwords. By renaming the field ‘password’ to ‘somethingelse’, passwords were displayed in clear text! (“SELECT password AS somethingelse FROM …”). In the third case, LogSign, it was more destructive: it was possible to get rid of the logs… so simple! This was a nice talk.

Then, Ben Seri & Gregory Vishnepolsky presented “BlueBorne Explained: Exploiting Android devices over the air“. This vulnerability was in the news recently and is quite important:

5.3B devices vulnerable in the wild

8 vulnerabilities,  4 critical

Multiple OS: Android, Linux, Windows, IOS

No user interaction or auth

Enables RCE, MitM and info leaks

They reviewed the basic of the Bluetooth protocol and the different services (like SDP – “Service Discovery Protocol”). They gave a huge amount of details… The finished with a live demo by compromising an Android phone via the BNEP service (“BT Network Authentication Protocol). Difficult to follow for me but a huge research!

After a lunch break and interesting discussions, back to the main theatre for the last set of talks. There were two presentations that I found less interesting (IMHO). Anto Joseph presented “Bug hunting using symbolic virtual machines“. Symbolic execution + fuzzing a winning combination to find vulnerabilities. Symbolic execution is a way to analyse the behaviour of a program to determine what inputs cause each part of a program to execute. The tool used by Anto was klee. He made a lot of demos to explain how the tool is working. It looks to be a great tool but it was difficult to follow for my poor brain.

The next talk started late due to a video issue with the speaker’s laptop. Dmitry Yudin presented ” PeopleSoft: HACK THE Planet^W university“. By university, we mean here the PeopleSoft Campus Solutions which is used in more than 1000 universities worldwide. The main components are a browser, a web server, an application, a batch server and a database. Multiple vulnerabilities have been found in this suite, Dmitry explained the CVE-2017-10366. He explained all the step to jump from one service to another until a complete compromise of the suite.

After the last break, the day finished with two interesting presentations. Kirils Solovjovs presented “Tools for effortless reverse engineering of MikroTik routers“. Mikrotik routers are used worldwide and can be considered as a nice target. They are based on Linux, but RouterOS is based on an old kernel from 2012 and is closed source. So, we need a jailbreak! Kirils explained two techniques to jailbreak the router. He also found a nice backdoor which requires a specific file to be created on the file system. He explained many features of RouterOS and also some security issues like in the backup process. It is possible to create a file containing ‘../../../../’, so it was possible to create the file required by the back door. He released on the tools here.

To cloture the day and the conference, Gábor Szappanos talked about “Office Exploit Builders“. Why? Because Office documents remain the main vector of infection to drop malwares. It’s important to have “good” tools to generate malicious documents but who’s writing them?  Usually, VBA macros are used but, with a modern version of Office, macros are disabled by default. It’s better to use an exploit. Based on a study conducted two years ago, APT groups lack of knowledge to build malicious documents so they need tools! Gábor reviewed three tools:

AKBuilder: Active since 2015, typically used by Nigerians scammers and cost ~$500

Ancalog Exploit Builder: Peak of activity in 2016, also used by scammers. Price is ~$300 (retired)

Microsoft Word Intruder: used by more “high” profile, it can drop more dangerous pieces of malware. Written in PHP for Windows, its price is ~$20000-$35000!

A nice presentation to close the day! So, this closes the two days of Hacktivity 2017, the first edition for me. Note that the presentations will be available on the website in the coming days!

[The post Hacktivity 2017 Wrap-Up Day 2 has been first published on /dev/random]

from Xavier

[purplesurveys]

156

How's your day going? Sunday is always my least favorite day of the week so it’s been meh today. I have a paper due by 11:59 PM that I just can’t be bothered to start, and we’re also parentless for today since my mom had to accompany my sister who’s taking a college entrance exam. What shape is your face? Squareish. What sort of computer are you on right now? I’m on a MacBook Air. What's your favorite restaurant? I don’t have one. When I eat out I try a different place every time, so I haven’t been to any restaurant enough times to call it my favorite. What does your umbrella look like? I don’t really use umbrellas. Either I run in the rain or stay somewhere with a roof and wait it out.

Do you share a room with anyone? Nope. Unless you count my dog then yes. Are you superstitious? No. I’ve come under heat because of it several times, like how I don’t believe in knocking on wood. There was one time Gab and I got in an argument about a particular superstition – apparently there’s a Filipino practice that says after you go to a wake, you’ll have to stop by somewhere first, because that’s the only way you’ll prevent the dead’s soul from following you into your home. It’s called pagpag and it refers to shaking off dust, which is precisely the idea of the tradition. I had never heard of it, and when we came from a schoolmate’s wake she insisted we stop over at a nearby Dunkin Donuts for like 30 seconds so she can do the pagpag. I didn’t believe in it, so it was only she who got out of the car.

Do you believe in astrology? No. It’s great fun reading the memes though. Take the vowels out of your name. What does it spell? Rbyn. Do you eat breakfast every day? No, it’s an even rarer instance when I get to eat some. You can go back in time and slap one historical figure in the face. Who? Emilio Aguinaldo. Do you have socks on? Describe them. Nope. I don’t wear socks in the house. Pick up your cell phone for a second. Who's your first text from? My girlfriend, but her last text was yesterday evening. Fourth missed call? Gabie’s the only one who calls me, so her. Are you one of those people who has like a hundred apps on their phone? Not at all. I probably wouldn’t even reach 30 – other than the iPhone’s default ones, I have very few apps. Have you ever been to the ballet? Yes, I had ballet lessons when I was 5. Those didn’t last long, because it was quickly discovered that I didn’t have the build of a ballerina :/ I adopted some flexibility from the lessons though, and I’ve kept them to this day. Do you have good reflexes? Yeah they’re pretty lightning quick. My hands don’t react as fast though. Do you have many internet friends? I used to. Oh god I used toooooo. I had so many in the wrestling community. I had friends on Tumblr, then when I retired that I also gained many on Twitter. I’ve since lost all of them now, because I’m terrible at keeping friends. Do you think those friendships are on level with your real life ones? Well as I’ve said those friendships are gone now, so clearly not on the same level. Do you keep a journal? I’ve tried to, never worked out. Tumblr has always been the most effective outlet for me. Describe for me your ideal sandwich. I’m not a big sandwich person. A Monte Cristo should do it for me. What are some names that you like? It changes every time...Olivia, Isabella, Cassandra for girls, Jacob for boys. Is there something you're putting off doing in favor of this survey? HAAAAAAH YES. Maybe after this survey I’ll start forreals. Are your friends generally like you or different from you? Different. Link me to a picture you think is cute. Egh. Do you like blowing bubbles? Sure, but I find them very sticky after. What's the band that you love even though you know they're awful? I don’t think there is one. I think all the bands I love are really good, if I thought they were awful I wouldn’t waste my time enjoying them? Ever had a pillow fight? Maybe a few times as a kid. What do you usually pick in truth or dare? Truth because I never had a problem being honest.

Are you better at posing good questions or coming up with outrageous dares? Questions. I’m a journalist, dude. It’s so easy to come up with daring questions. Vinyl, cassette, CD or MP3? Vinyl just because Gab has rubbed off some of her hipsterness on me. Do you coo over other people's babies? Yes. A thousand times yes. What is something that makes you very squeamish? Needles. Anything that pricks the skin. Do you try those as-seen-on-TV things? Nope. If I had money to waste, I would buy them lol. Has there been a celebrity death that really affected you? Not a celebrity, but a very influential politician I looked up to all my life. We always call her the greatest president we never had. Do you get the dressing on the salad or on the side? Put that shit all over the salad. Do you make lists, or are you more of an unplanned person? Lists keep me calm, so they’re a necessity in my case. If you're out of high school, have you stayed in touch with your high school friends? If you're still in school, do you think you will? I have better communication with my high school friends than with people I know in college. Is there something you like to eat that most people think is gross? Yeah, I always go for the grossest things whenever I’m out on trips. I’ve eaten balut, isaw, frog legs, chicken feet, sea urchin, day-old chicks, etc. Do you have a lot of photographs of your friends? Yes. I have much more photos of other people than of myself. Do you dye your hair regularly? I’ve never dyed my hair. Do you think, if it came down to it, that you'd be able to kill someone? Thinking very hypothetically, if anyone killed either of my best friends, I’m guessing in my rage I could actually be able to, as long as we were in some alternate universe where I could get away with that. Are you good at rating things? Rating things? Like professors and films? Sure. What's a movie that you want to see? It. What was the name of your third grade teacher? We called her Ms. Adette. By the time the school year ended she migrated to I think Oman, so I barely remember her now except for the fact that I flunked her math test once. Are you a competitive person? Very. I have trouble accepting loss. Do you get into a lot of arguments? No. I hate confrontations; the only person I’m willing to get into an argument with is Gab. Do you like to go shopping? No. Can you knit? Absolutely not. We were taught how to sew and knit and crochet in Grade 6 home econ, but I couldn’t be arsed to learn it. Still ended up passing the class even if I didn’t pass any of the major requirements. Do you use the same username everywhere online or do you have a lot? Yeah, I use robyncanrana everywhere. It’s a wrestling reference, and fans usually compliment me on the username, so I’ve kept it ever since I started using it in 2013. What's something that you really like about yourself? I can tell if someone doesn’t like me or is faking it with me. I’m a wallflower, so through the years I’ve learned to read and observe people well because I was always in the background watching them. Can you pass for older than you are? Hah no. I rely on Gab if I want to sneak into bars without having my ID checked because she looks way more mature than I am. Have you ever been in a situation where that was necessary? I don’t think so, no. Do you talk a lot? Faaaar far from ‘a lot.’ Are you a Facebook creeper? Not at all. What is a smell that you hate? Fruits. If you don't set your alarm clock or anything, when will you wake up? 5 or 6. Do you even use an alarm clock, or do you just use your phone? I’ve only used my phone for alarms. Do you watch Maury or Steve Wilkos or anything like that? No, because we don’t show them here. What did you get your best friend for their last birthday? My time. Lol we don’t give each other gifts, just show up on their birthday and it should be fine. What did they get you for yours? Also their time. Are you capable of finishing a game of Monopoly? I don’t know how to play Monopoly. My impression of it is that there’s so many things going on, so I was never interested in it. What is a word or phrase that you overuse? I say sorry a lot. What's your favorite painting? Anything by Claude Monet. Oh and Frida Kahlo’s My Dress Hangs There, because I actually saw the real painting in 2015. Have you ever written to your congressman? I haven’t. Did you get sent those free AOL discs a lot? No. We were never sent those. Are you allergic to anything? Other than rich students my age, no. What are you going to do now that you're finished with this survey? Start on that damn paper I’ve been ignoring all week.