Geoff Duncan

Seattle-based software/music/editing/otherstuff person. Not much for social media, bad at social networking. Twitter refugee; views expressed are my own.

#mac #guitar #bass #Seattle #MusicProduction #AudioProduction #infosec #CyberSecurity #TechPolicy #TechWriter #TechEditor

Formerly kind of somebody in the Apple universe. Also once lost on Jeopardy.

Public Key

npub166wrdkkgml5a9upx9lggd6vl7zsm0wcspwcyu4mnhntkd3ngu5zqly688q

NIP-05 Address

geoffduncan_at_mindly.social@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsdd8pkmtydl6wj7qnzl5yxax0lpgdhhvgqhvzw2aeme4mxce5w2pqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43q24wz2f

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub166wrdkkgml5a9upx9lggd6vl7zsm0wcspwcyu4mnhntkd3ngu5zqly688q

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Last Notes

2024-07-16 18:00:22

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Uh, I *was* in the general area yesterday evening.

2024-07-09 01:53:44

I grew up in a desert so, while I don’t enjoy the current heat in #Seattle—my preferred weather is overcast and under 70°F—I seem to cope better than some “natives.”
But the thing that might drive me to indoor air conditioning is not the heat. It’s the pot smoke from neighbors. And, presumably, the fire smoke that’s sure to come again.

2024-06-28 22:09:13

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
I knew one day you’d come around.

2024-06-27 14:08:09

Never expected to step outside in #Seattle and find a stranger sitting on our porch having a loud phone conversation. But that just happened, and they were doing it in a thick Irish accent, which was almost enough to make me look around for a camera crew.

2024-06-10 04:30:44

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@npub1zdp…vqv8
…and one of them had *so many good ideas* and gets tired of waiting for folks to die of natural causes and decides to, uh, help things along. :)

2024-05-24 01:38:40

When I was growing up, the future was supposed to be moon bases, flying cars, and looking to an upper corner of a room and saying “Computer, could an ion storm create momentary contact with another universe and interchange me with my counterpart there?”
Instead it’s 2024 and what I’m hearing from the other room is:
“Customer service. No. No! Customer service. SPEAK! TO! HUMAN!“

2024-05-21 20:27:58

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Yup. I still hear it "Nudist Ruptors."

2024-05-18 23:32:24

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@npub1zdp…vqv8
May I ask a probably-dumb question: what is a dubia? I'm guessing it might be a cockroach of some sort but I really have no idea what one feeds ants.

2024-05-17 19:31:36

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Surely AI and the blockchain will solve this by 2027.

2024-05-17 19:24:01

Today was the first weedwacker day of 2024! I try to time it so I only have to do it once a year.
So I'm going at it and a megabeard hipster walks by, points to the weedwhacker (which uses a nylon monofilament) and says "Thanks for all the microplastics, bruh! Nice job!" and flips me off.
An hour later the perfect reply came to me, so now I want to leave the weedwacker by the door and run outside with it whenever a bearded hipster walks up the street in hopes I'll be able to use it.

2024-05-14 03:33:14

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Clandestine AirTag d vices can use any of the billion+ devices on Apple’s Find My networks to check in. Devices inbound her ecosystems behave similarly.

2024-05-07 16:13:59

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@npub1437…ranm
Yeah. I do know people who will find those tools useful, but I'm not worried about losing any of my bass or keyboard session work.

2024-04-13 18:50:31

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@npub1lup…jra8
Both! The current method is about 30 mins with the lid on, about 20-25 more with the lid off.

2024-04-11 20:01:40

I go through many #guitar, #bass, and other strings, so I purchase in bulk and prefer suppliers that can fill less-than-mainstream orders.
Today one of them breathlessly announced they now accept Bitcoin. Paragraph upon paragraph about how "enabling" and efficient Bitcoin is as a purchasing tool, for the "unbanked" in developing economies, folks dodging authoritarian regimes, etc..
Not exactly their customers. And not one word about environmental cost, volatility, etc..

2024-03-26 15:59:34

Would it really kill Apple to put something on the screen during #macOS updates? Having the machine churn for half an hour with a black screen—then stop churning with a black screen and no sign of activity—does not inspire any confidence at all.

2024-03-08 18:29:12

The #ant war is escalating. We had a cold snap so they vanished for a bit, and now they're back.
There's an ant trap at the opening where they come in, but being extra grim I left a bunch of ant corpses there too, thinking they'd get the message.
Instead they've out-grimmed me, and gathered the corpses to build two footpaths at the ant trap: one for inbound traffic, one for outbound.

2024-03-02 03:09:07

Cheers, Hannibal!
#HashTagGames
#MashUpTVDramasAndSitcomsAsReboots

2024-02-09 21:42:11

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Dangit, I thought I might be able to use my powers for good *just one time*.
My troubleshooting experience with HomeKit is quite limited: if restarting the hub and the account logout/login didn't work, I'm basically out of my depth.

2024-02-09 20:56:02

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Ethernet or go home!
In all seriousness: solved a problem like this for someone by signing the HomeKit hub out of iCloud, then signing it in again.

2023-12-23 23:21:47

I am feeling a rant coming on about the interface of the #macOS update process. I’m not sure how we’re supposed to distinguish between 20 minutes of black screen and a completely bricked machine.

2023-12-20 04:21:05

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
I'll be curious how you get on with the Studio. A couple, uh, studios I work with have them and some of the experiences have been less-than-exceptionally-good.

2023-12-20 00:52:21

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
I feel like if I say something right now just my proximity to your Mastodon feed could jinx it.

2023-12-18 17:54:10

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Agreed. Examples like these don't seem hard to find, but translating from them to broader trends is a difficult job, and by their nature those even the most rigorously analyzed trends won't precisely reflect on-the-ground reality at a location, well, anywhere. Such are stats.

2023-12-18 17:25:53

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Gotcha—thanks for the context.
My experience is (obviously) hyper-local and anecdotal to a few business owners I've spoken with. One comment that stuck with me was along the lines of "We no longer report anything unless insurance requires a police report," but that business is in a fairly chancy location: I wouldn't generalize from any of it.

2023-12-18 16:25:58

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Do you have any sense of how reliable the "actual stats from the police" are? The phrase makes me wonder about a who-watches-the-watchers situation.

2023-11-15 02:55:34

It's pretty rare I look at #YouTube (because the first step in Starving the Machine is Not Feeding the Machine, right?) but a producer referenced an old track so I pulled it up to remind myself of one of Andy Summers' feedback-laden #guitar moments on a #Police record.
And YouTube confidently tells me I could get tickets to The Police's upcoming show Saturday at 9PM at (checks notes) Rumba Café in Columbus, Ohio. $12 at the door.
You know…I'd think I'd have noticed if they were touring again?
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/111/412/301/598/337/978/original/2a859121060031ad.jpg

2023-11-13 00:27:31

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@npub1lup…jra8
My usual line is "I'll play anything I don't have to breathe into" but mostly bass/guitar (and related things: banjo, mando, oud, lute, etc.), keys, percussion, bits of bowed strings, occasional drums, etc. I've been at it pro- and semi-pro since my teens so there have been lots of weird "hey, can you play this?" moments.
I should note that being able to futz my way through a recording or something is not the same is truly being able to "play" most things. I just fake it.

2023-11-12 23:56:46

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@npub1lup…jra8
True story: I have been paid not to sing! ;)

2023-11-12 23:53:33

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@npub1lup…jra8
Oh no. I established a pattern in middle school and I've stuck to it. If there's a dance, I'm in the band. :)

2023-11-12 23:50:42

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@npub1lup…jra8
No, I've seen other people doing it. ;)

2023-11-04 17:18:23

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
I doubt it’s a single packet but there’s no real way to know without doing detailed traffic analysis (which is getting beyond even my willingness to deep-dive lately). I’ve seen things in the past that created race conditions in routers (we used them as attacks), but that’s usually a “bake until fail or restart” scenario, not intermittent failure.

2023-11-04 16:39:18

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
My only good experience with Netgear is a little four port Ethernet hub that keeps on ticking.
However, I did have a TP-Link router age out. Was getting weird intermittent failures I couldn’t explain until one happened while I was in the closet next to it: the whole thing rebooted three times. So I monitored that and yep: every couple hours a flurry of crashes and reboots. Replaced it, so far so good.

2023-10-18 00:05:09

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Yes. May I pass along your public contact info?

2023-09-03 02:20:42

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
The bad thing about Mastodon is that we'll never have analytics on how many people read this toot and searched on "Frank Grimes," let alone how many people did the search and still don't get it.

2023-08-25 15:58:34

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
Everyone knows. ;)

2023-08-25 15:48:19

I see it's going to be another one of those days in the #Seattle fediverse when the rich people congratulate each other over their heat pumps and air filters.

2023-08-23 17:14:46

Shocker.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-66599733

2023-08-03 17:51:02

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@npub1u5h…9wm3
Congrats! Its interesting how that works sometimes: the stars align and what ought to be a budget guitar turns out to be a gem. It's always a pleasure to hear when someone finds one.
A friend has a Yamaha FG-something dreadnought from the 1970s that he picked up for a mere $45 in the 80s because it had been left out in the rain. Yet I swear that instrument is the best-recording dreadnought I have *ever* dealt with.

2023-07-19 00:31:09

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@npub1x9q…80je
Years ago I played in a blues/r&b outfit with a bassist who had a fretted L2000 (trans red, maple fretboard). He could never tell me what all those switches did, and I don't think he knew.
Eventually I was asked to take over bass in that outfit, but all I had was was a cheapie P/J. I scoped out G&L but wound up with a weird HS Sterling. The L2000s are still a mystery to me, and I've always meant to take a better look at them!

2023-07-13 16:14:04

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@npub1hvd…9sq9
It's been fun vicariously watching this process from your posts. I can tell you're in a corner of nerd heaven. ;)

2023-07-09 18:41:29

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@npub18yv…xxyn
I have a little experience with FA-15s and a JR-2 (both belonging to friends' children—I did restringing and cleanup). Intonation was OK on the Yamaha and one of the Fenders; fretwork and overall tone of the JR-2 were much better. (Or, perhaps more accurately, the FA-15s sounded dead and one needed some fret/nut work).
Of course, as luck would have it, the kid with the really-not-great FA-15? So far she's still playing! The other two have apparently switched to other interests.

2023-06-20 16:12:15

Spare a thought for the three or four of us who will probably consider this the last day of “good” summer weather in #seattle this year.
https://a.mindlycdn.com/media_attachments/files/110/577/413/191/029/087/original/f1ce21fb24fe3e9d.jpeg