Stephen's Notebook

The new version of the Sonos controller app is getting slaughtered on the App Store and rightfully so. It’s a horrible buggy mess that doesn’t even work half the time. I wish I could roll back to the previous version.

Almost forgot about the upcoming Yes concert in Glasgow. My ticket for last year’s cancelled show is still valid. The current lineup gets a lot of stick (“Tribute band!") but as long as Steve Howe is still there I’m on board.

Listened to Life Of The Record - THE MAKING OF I WANT TO SEE THE BRIGHT LIGHTS TONIGHT - FEATURING RICHARD THOMPSON AND LINDA THOMPSON

For the 50th anniversary of Richard and Linda Thompson’s first album as a duo, I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, we take a detailed look at how it was made.

A fantastic deep dive into one of my favourite albums. 🎵

Logged into my old Gmail account for probably the last time time before I shut it down. I had to check that one important message source had stopped going there. The amount of spam in the inbox is incredible. It seems to flow in by the hour. Gmail used to have great spam blocking. Good riddance.

First tea of the day has great revivifying powers. Just needs a little milk.

Quick rule before signing up to any new online service - check how easy it is to find the exit door.

I became a full time laptop user this week after years of using iMacs as my main computer. My current iMac was the last of the 27 inch Intel machines and I’ve been a bit underwhelmed by the current lineup. My useage has also changed in a lot of ways and so I decided to go for the best MacBook Pro I could afford. I went for the MacBook Pro M3 (Pro) with the default memory configuration and I’m very pleased with it. There’s a lot more power here than I probably need but this thing will be good for years to come.

I always set up a new computer/device as a new user. It lets me get rid of all the rubbish and unused applications that have been taking up space for years. All the important stuff is backed up to iCloud. If I find myself missing something I can always download it again. So far so good.

The Guardian: Billy Bragg: ‘There’s nothing like going out there singing your truth. That ain’t changed’. Billy has always been a force for good and it’s great to see he’s still fighting the good fight. I’ve seen him live a few times over the years.  🎵

Link: Creative Good - To resist the robots, get a typewriter

Nice list of reasons for why typewriters are superior to robots.

“The length of a film should be directly related to the endurance of the human bladder.”

Attributed to Alfred Hitchcock. The older I get the more I agree with this.

There’s always plenty of money for more bombs and guns.

Another spectacular red sky here tonight. I’m thinking about using one of my extra micro.blog sites as a daily “view from my window” photo blog.

I changed my working hours last month and I don’t have to work Mondays anymore. What a difference it makes not to have that Sunday night dread of having to be up, and ready, early on the Monday morning.

Listened to the Mubi podcast.

Legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders returns to the show to tell host Rico Gagliano about his Cannes-winning, Oscar-nominated PERFECT DAYS—the story of a Tokyo toilet cleaner who finds joy in routine. They also get into a few of Wenders’s favorite things: Japan, travel, Nina Simone, and having time on his hands

Beautiful film.

I chose Qobuz as my music streaming service because:

• it prioritises albums over playlists
• it has good editorial articles by humans
• there are no aggressive algorithms feeding me more of the same
• it just suggest new albums that usually push me out of usual routines
• you can buy hires downloads from the qobuz store
• it isn’t a system to be gamed like Spotify
• it sounds great
• it doesn’t appear to be run by a creep like Daniel Ek

I expect to come back and update these thoughts after a few more months of listening.

Playing chess for the first time in years. I’m still not very good.

Another day of very Scottish weather. Heavy rain and wind in the morning. Bit of sunshine in the late afternoon. At least I didn’t have to turn the heating back on like yesterday.

Earworm of the week: Sisters Friends by The High Llamas. One of the best tracks from the new album. 🎵

Started to read: A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel 📚