The Lathe #3
A new workstation
No one asked for a newsletter summing up my week, but here you go, anyway.
A new workstation
If given my way, I’d remove most of the furniture and fill the house with desks. I love desks. Since I live with other people, I’ll have to settle with just the one, for now.
Ok fine, I can’t have more desks, but I can certainly improve the one I have.
The first thing I did is order a new M1 Mac Mini. As long as I can remember, I’ve used an iMac on the desktop, but reading about the new Mini got me wondering about separating the CPU from the display. My 2017 iMac cost $3,700. The new mini (with 16GB Ram and a 512GB SSD) totaled $1,199 including AppleCare. This makes the prospect of upgrading to whatever’s next (an M2 chip?) more feasible.
For a display, I have a 32” LG UltraFine Ergo. This is nice a 4k monitor that comes with a flexible vesa-like arm. I love how flexible it is and that it makes the display seem like it’s floating above my desk. It’s “only” 4k and is slightly less sharp when viewed very close compared to the iMac’s 27-inch 5k Retina display. But it’s significantly larger, and this is more important to me than the slight difference in resolution.
What’s great about this is that I can swap either of them out for something bigger-better-faster-more any time without having to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I find this comforting.
Another addition is a wood desk shelf and wool felt pad from Grovemade1. The Grovemade products look great and are handmade in Portland by people who seem to care, which is nice.
Two other peripheral additions are the CalDigit TS3 Plus Thunderbolt 3 Dock2 and an 8TB Lacie (7200RPM) USB-C external drive. The CalDigit dock is the one recommended by basically everyone, although it’s rather expensive. A couple things about it attracted me. First is the front-mounted high-speed SD card reader. No more reaching blindly around the back of the iMac looking for the card slot. Another plus is that it supports Apple’s SuperDrive, which I use to rip CDs occasionally. The big drive is for media and will be backed up to the Synology nightly.
I’m still waiting for the Mac Mini ad Grovemade stuff to arrive. I’ll send pics :)
The Leica SL dilemma
I’d only owned the Leica SL for a short time before the SL2-S was announced, but in that time I’d grown to like the SL very much. I liked it so much that I decided to replace the SL with the new SL2-S. The SL2-S arrived and the SL was listed for sale. Then I chickened out and decided to hang on to the original SL. I wrote about this in more detail in Keeping the Leica SL. For now, I am the undeserved owner of two fantastic Leica digital cameras.
Reading and watching
Rewatched Punch-Drunk Love. One of PT Anderson’s best.
Rewatched Mulholland Drive. Wow can Lynch mess with my head in the best possible way.
Watched Psycho Gorman. Looked fun but was disappointing.
Watched The Dig. Carey Mulligan is on a roll.
Watched Some Kind of Heaven. Retiring to Florida looks like a nightmare.
Reading The Scar by China Miéville. Half-way through this on and it’s terrific. I love how he writes.
Reading Handmade: Creative Focus in the Age of Distraction. If I were a different person I would be a woodworker.
Read Zoey Punches the Future in the Dick by David Wong. I love David Wong books. Weird, wild, and very funny.
Odds and Ends
I caught up with my paper movie log: Analogging.
I’m still all-in with Roam, but have been having doubts about whether I actually need it. Yes, I’m always questioning my note-taking routine. I don’t expect that to end. Ever.
After months of resisting it, I ordered a Remarkable 2 tablet. I’ll have more to say about this after I get it.
Photo of the week.
Here’s one of Alice.
Until next time, stay safe.
I too don't know whether you enjoyed writing this (as you put it on TiddlyWiki), but I enjoyed reading it, so thank you... 😀
I'm particularly interested in your buying the M1 Mac Mini, because I'm getting very tempted to do the same. I too have a 2017 iMac from near the top of the range, and in the ordinary run of things would probably keep it going for another couple of years (it's fast enough for everything I do in all honesty). But... new and shiny beckons, and the idea of keeping a high quality monitor with more frequently changing Mini is attractive. The idea of a 32" monitor instead of 2 smaller ones does sound attractive.
So, if you do post further when the M1 has bedded in, I'd be really interested in hearing how it compares to the iMac for performance, and how you get on with the (slight) reduction from 5k to 4k.
As your main use appears to be identical to mine (a computer is merely a device to play out the eternal Emacs Adoption/Rejection Cycle...😀) I'd love to hear what you think.
Many thanks!