Big Announcement Time!

6FPS V5#7: July 5, 2023

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Welcome to the new issue of 6FPS.

So… look below to this issue’s essay for a really big announcement.

We’ve shifted from Spring to Summer here, and we’re seeing many baby birds around the property and starting to visit the feeders. I’ve confirmed six species having successfully fledged chicks here this year so far, including Common Ravens. There are at least two more I expect to see chicks of, and I believe the Pileated Woodpeckers as well, but with the suet feeders put away fro the season, we hear them around but we aren’t seeing them reliably, so I may or may not actually see the chicks.

We also keep being visited by the bears, and yes, we now have two bears looking for quick snacks at the feeders. We did lose one, but we’ve won a few rounds as well. Just an on-going annoyance overall.

I was also, a couple of days ago, sitting here in the office working when I looked out my window and watched two Black-Tailed Deer walk through the yard and spend a bit of time munching on the wildflowers I planted over the septic field. It looked to be two females, one younger than the other, so maybe last year’s daughter, since deer will keep the kid around for a while as it matures. Incredibly graceful animals to watch. We hadn’t seen any here in a few months, but it was a pleasant surprise.

I bought a Mac Studio 2

And I’m loving it. I had been close to buying myself a 3D printer as a birthday present to myself this year, but as soon as I watched this year’s WWDC keynote, I realized a better thing to get was the Mac Studio 2 (and no, I’m NOT getting both, not any time soon). The Mac Studio now lives down here in the office, which allowed me to undock the laptop and start using it as a laptop again, and it now lives upstairs, so I have a Mac available when I don’t feel like coming downstairs to work — which, especially in the evenings, means I now have a writing tool upstairs with me again.

Because, yeah, while I love the iPad for consuming content and generally carrying around as a quick reference devices, I have tried, multiple times, to get myself comfortable writing on it with many different keyboard variations, and failed every time. So I finally gave up, and I’m happy to be using the iPad for what it is good for (for me), and that I now again have a Mac available for times when I’m away from the office, because the reality is, the act of undocking the Laptop and hauling it upstairs meant I basically never bothered.

Other Apple Announcements

I really like the new Macbook Air, and if/when I decide to replace my current 14” Macbook pro, it’ll be with an Air. The Mac Studio 2 is pretty much the computer I think Apple was looking to build when it promised us a new Mac Pro a couple of years ago, but there was no way they were going to name this unit Mac Pro. I know the Mac pro they announced at WWDC has gotten a fair bit of criticism, and I understand that — to a point — but I think Apple made some very smart choices with that device.

Almost nobody needs it. It’s a very interesting but niche device, not cheap, but to me even more important, not just a Mac Studio 2 re-clothed in Mac Pro outerwear. It’s going to sell very few units, but will be very useful to a small audience. And it allows Apple to say it kept it’s promise to ship a new Mac Pro. It did, and I expect this will be the last, although I could see a generation or two of basic updates to CPUs/etc before it retires.

But I feel like most of the criticism of that box misses the point, and comes from folks in the “I always buy the best! computer” camp, which is often more ego than common sense (and to be honest, for many years, I was living in that camp and many of them are my friends). The Mac Studio 2 is really the high end device most of us should be wanting, and should get, if we want the powerful beast. I’m not seeing any compromises to it, and I bought a base model with a 2TB SSD, not the upgraded build.

Lightroom and Photoshop are incredibly fast, much faster than on the laptop, which makes me happy. And it’s incredibly quiet; the only fan noise I hear in the office now is the Synology NAS, which in all honesty I’m considering relocating to another room.

And about the Vision Pro: there is zero chance I’m buying one for a year or more. I expected, going into the keynote, to not be that interested, but I think Apple nailed the concept in ways I hadn’t really considered until I saw how they spun the story about the product. A big issue for me with all previous headsets was the isolation it enforced, and Apple, bless them, understands why that’s a bad thing and designed a problem to enhance what’s around you, not exclude it, and I love that idea.

How well will it be implemented? We’ll see, over time. How well it’ll work with people with funky eyesight like mine, we’ll also see. I’m happy to let others play early adopter on this one, but instead of it being a product line I have no interest in, I’m going to be keeping an eye on it and see what the reality of it is once it’s out in the real world.

Free Prints to Subscribers

Anyone who’s interested in a free 8x10 print of one of my images si welcome to it. All you need to do is check out the images in one of the four portfolio galleries on my photography page, and then send me an email with the request, including the title of the image (or URL to the image), your name and a mailing address. My only requirement is that the email the request comes from must be a subscriber to 6FPS when I get the request. I will mail these out at no charge worldwide for any request I get during November, as quickly as I can make the prints and get them packaged up.

Reddit sets itself on fire

How Reddit crushed the biggest protest in its history: Remember how a few issues ago I said I was thinking maybe I should look at getting involved in Reddit groups a bit? I ultimately decided I just didn’t want more social networks taking up time in my life, so I didn’t.

And then Reddit management decided to open civil war with its users. So now, I’m really glad I didn’t waste my time on it, saving me the hassle of having to break off and stop using it again.

Reddit seems to be ultimately winning this fight, but I tend to think they broke things that can’t be fixed in the relationship with the users and mods, and over the long term I think this will hurt the site badly. If I were a mod, I’d be having discussions about moving to Discord and how to manage the loss of discoverability, which is the one big hammer Reddit has over it’s user groups.

But man, how they handled this leaves a huge sour taste in my mouth, and I’m not even sitting on the sidelines, much less involved.

Tweaking the Layout

I’ve made a couple of minor tweaks to the layout of the newsletter. If you notice them, let me know if you like them (or not).

And with that, see you next issue!

The Big Announcement

So…. I’m sending this issue out a bit early, because it’s time for a big announcement. July 5 is my birthday, and July 5, 2023 specifically is my 65th birthday. I guess I can’t get away with being middle aged any more.

The Big Announcement

Since I turn 65 today, I now qualify for both Social Security and Medicare. A few months ago, I made the decision I was ready to move to the next chapter in my life, so yesterday, as I write this, I said my good-byes to my co-workers, disconnected all my stuff from the work systems, unplugged my work laptop, and I left DomainTools (after 5 1/2 years with them and Farsight).

I have retired.

And by retired, I mean “please, no, I’m not interested in your contract work” retired. Although to be honest, if the exactly perfect opportunity arrives, I might actually consider it. “exactly perfect”, to be clear, must include “part time”, “remote work”, “birds”, “photography” in some enticing mix, and no, if you send it to me via LinkedIn, you just disqualified yourself. (Once this issue goes out, I’ll update my status on LinkedIn one final time, log out, and never look at that place again)

What’s Next?

That is something I’ve been pondering since the start of 2023, and to be honest, I’m not trying to over-think it. I get asked this a lot, and my general response is “more walking. more birds. more camera. less meetings”, which I think is a good starting point. Beyond that, we’ll see.

I do plan, once a week or so, to grab the laptop and head out to a random coffee shop in the area to sit, write, and start getting used to being around people again. If you’re in the Kitsap area and want to arrange to meet for coffee, drop me an email and we’ll chat.

I am thinking of a trip (or two) after Labor Day, probably fairly short ones. No extended travel right now, but I do think it’d be nice to get down to Merced and Sacramento NWR sometime between November and March. I might do a fall trip to visit Ridgefield and Malheur NWRs this fall. I want to reschedule my trip to Lake Crescent Lodge, but as of right now, they’re effectively booked; but since I’m at leisure, I can watch for a mid-week cancellation and not have to coordinate with five project teams…And Laurie and I are talking about a trip to Victoria, which would be nice in the early spring next year…

But mostly, this is me deciding it’s time to take the time I’ve been giving to my employer (who’s been giving me a paycheck in return, so no complaints), and refocus it on the things I specifically want to do. It also opens up my mornings, which makes for better birding — to be honest, when the earliest you can break free is 1PM, the birding gets kinda boring.

I am happy and proud to note I’m able to ride into the sunset at a time and place of my choosing, and not carried off on my shield instead. It’s been interesting to see the reaction of my (now former) co-workers, since it seems like retirement just isn’t something that’s common, or at least common enough to feel routine.

I’m not sure where this road leads, but I’m looking forward to finding out.

Recent Photography

As I create new images and re-process older ones, I post them on my site in the Recent Work area. Additionally, every Wednesday is Photo Wednesday on the blog, where I post one of my non-bird images, and the bird images are posted on the blog each week as part of Feathery Friday.

I finally got back to Big Beef for an hour or so with the Bald Eagles. I like that place, although it can be a zoo at times, but it sometimes almost feels too easy… Almost.

For Your Consideration

Birds and Birding

Photography

Science and Technology

Interesting Stuff

6FPS (Six Frames Per Second) is a newsletter of interesting things and commentary from Chuq Von Rospach (chuqvr@gmail.com).

Coming out monthly on the 2nd Monday of the month, I will place in your inbox a few things I hope will inform and delight you. There is too much mediocre, forgettable stuff attacking your eyeballs every day you're online; this is my little way to help you cut through the noise to some interesting things you might otherwise not find.

Some links in this newsletter may point to products at Amazon; these are affiliate links and if you use them to buy a product, I get a small cut of the sale. This doesn't make me rich, but it does help pay my web site bills. If you use the link to buy something, thank you. If you prefer not to, that's perfectly okay, also.

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