#my Neo2 was $40

[draiochteve]

On Writers and Devices

I feel like I'm allowed to be frustrated seeing the new freewrite model come out and how absolutely subpar it is. I'm sure the supporters are tired of people comparing freewrites to old word processor devices from back in the day, but the fact of the matter is the "distraction free writing device" existed decades ago. To retread ground and charging premium for once was common place is imo very disingenuous. The original freewrite had its selling point despite being over $600USD. It was fashioned to take inspiration from typewriters. So there was different materials put in and it's an indie company. The cost, while incredible, was also for the novelty. Now, we are back to the plastic, flat, rectangle word processor with the small screen and the old tech does it better. The major benefit of the Alpha is the cloud support. "Don't call it a word processor. It's a draft-" Please stop buying this bullshit. It's a word processor. One stripped to focus on free flow writing, but a word processor. Like the ones before it. Like the ones you can find second hand still in perfect condition for anywhere from $15-$75 USD. Ones that have more folders than it, better screen, better response time...sure, no cloud, but transferring is easy and data loss is incredibly rare. If the freewrite devices work for you, that's wonderful. But I have to ask if people are using them so much because they do their job well or if because they've sunk so much money in them they feel obligated to use them. Or is it now a brand name thing? Or is it the, "If I just had this, then I'd be able to finish my novel." Which in that case, hello fellow procrastinators.

[sightofsea]

my alphasmart neo2 which I love dearly and is my #1 writing tool got some sand in it (friends dog excited at the beach incident) and now it won't turn on :( and I'm trying to get the screws undone but the big ones won't budge even with wd-40 a rubber band AND my micro bit screwdriver set :( or new batteries :( I might try buying a charging cable since I've been going purely off battery power but like dude if I have to plug it in all the time what's the POINT!!!!

[ahiddenpath]

Nanowrimo 2021

Whelp.  I did a thing.

I’ll be attempting Nanowrimo yet again, as I have since 2008 (except for 2011).  I’m exceptionally stubborn, so I’ve always pushed myself to write the 50,000 words in 30 days.  To be honest, this year I’m more worried about pushing myself too hard than about failing to hit 50k.  My project this year is Puits D’Amour.

The good news is that I have a lot of experience in how to do this, what rhythms work for me, etc.  Check out my Nanowrimo tips here.  I glanced over them, and I think my biggest change would be that I prefer an AlphaSmart Neo2 now over an AlphaSmart 3000, as the neo has keys that are easier to push.  About $30-40 shipped was a standard going price, hopefully they haven’t gone up.  

Oh, another strategy that I don’t think I mentioned in that post is that I’ve always had an easier time when I tackle a new project that will end up roughly 50k words long for Nanowrimo.  There’s just so much satisfaction in coming out of the month with a finished first draft of a fic, it provides sorely needed motivation.  Also, my expectations tend to be more manageable when I’m working on something new that I haven’t already invested a lot of time and effort into.

Anyway, I wish all wrimos good luck!  You might not see as much content from me on here during November, although I will still be checking in and queueing fan art as usual.

Tri: Integrity Lens update is still dropping in early November, or maybe this weekend, to save me time during Nanowrimo.  Please look forward to it!

[strouja]

Weekend April 10 - April 12, 2020

I used to send out long emails to the hard-core cycling people about upcoming rides that I was leading and I would give a lengthy life update. Since we stopped group rides because of the coronavirus for the past month, I’ll give an mini-update here.

Friday Night

I did not plan on working Friday night but thought of a few things we should make sure worked before our upcoming release and did some hands on keyboard testing and updating our official documentation.  I did this till about8 pm.

I stopped work and then decide that my wife’s old MacBook Air from 2013 or so has her photos and documented backed up before we ship it back to Apple to get $160 credit for it. I got her a new MacBook Air that just came out that has intel 10th generation core i5 cpu, 16 GB of RAM (I wanted 32 but they did not have that) and 1 TB SSD.  I backed her documents and photos to my Synology Networked Attached Storage (NAS).

Then I decided to get on the NAS and actually find the back-ups. They were under my folder and not hers b/c of the way I  set it up.  I then decided to delete some old large files that were taking up space on the NAS that I will now longer need.  I had .ISO files for many variations of Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 2012 Server, Windows 2008 Server, Windows XP, Microsoft Office from many years ago.  I did all that clean up

Since my NAS was about 74% used I decided to take the 8 TB drive that was not being used in slot 8 and included it in my storage pool. 

Now I’m ready for bed and done fore the night.  I decide to do more work for IBM and pull out the laptop in bed and work for an hour or sol

I set my alarm for 10:10 on my phone to get up for 10:40 am Zwift race which I’m not looking forward to

Saturday

I get up before my alarm and make some coffee, water jug, and energy drink and start getting ready for the Zwift Race.  I get on 10 minutes before the race and try to get things sorted and talk to team on Discord and what not.

The race starts and it is full gas from the start. I am doing 400 watts and getting passed.  I settle in at 350 watts for several minutes and then to about 320 watts.  I find myself getting dropped from 1st group.

I push 300 watts for next 5 or 8 minutes in 2nd group and then start getting dropped.

I hang in 3rd group pushing near 300 watts and then find myself barely hanging on.

I then soldier on and then see i only did about 6 miles and we have to do 23 or 28 miles.  I decide after 20 minutes to pull the plug.  I am not up for an hour of going all out as this race would require.  I could not wait to get off the bike.

I recover on my stairs for a while, shower up, then take dog out for long walk.

Saturday afternoon I decide to take my new Trek Madone with Power2Max power meter on it and put on my Tacx Neo2 to see if it reads similar power to my Neo2.  My fuji bike with brand new generation 3 stages power meter reads 8 to 10% higher than my Neo2.

Since my Fuji bike that is on the bike trainer is 10 speed cassette and my trek is 11 speed I have to take my only 11 speed cassette of my Trek Madone.  I take off chain of Trek Madone and clean it with ultrasonic cleaner and degreaser. 

My cassette won’t come off and i text Luke Pingel and Ray Plewacki.  Luke immediately responds and helps me get it off and informs me I have to buy a new freehub as it has indents and the cassette won’t come off easily without a lot of prying. 

I manage to put newly cleaned chain and cassette on Neo2 and find that Neo2 read 245 watts vs 255 watts from the power2max on my trek.  I’ll do some more testing but my IT band on left knee is pretty bad right now and I can’t ride that hard at all now.

Saturday night I do some more testing and documentation for IBM.

Sunday

I wake up and do some more testing and find things are broken for IBM.  I chat w/ team on Slack and they give me an update on why things are broken

I get a call back from Yasir Saleem. He is an old buddy I worked with at IBM and we catch-up on the phone for about an hour or so.

I take Winston for long walk in the woods.  On the way back he finds a fox den and I never see him again on the walk.  As I’m waiting for him on the path I get a text from Linh that Winston is already home.

I get home and get William and Sophia to do the bike ride we talked about. We bring William’s friend Evan Gould.  I make sure all of our  tires are pumped up, we all have helmets and I wear high visibility 3M construction tee-shirt.

We bike to Vienna, then on the W&OD trail to Hunter Mill.  I discuss we can go to Herndon and buy smoothies or go up Hunter Station and come back.  Hunter Stations is an infamous bike hill that many riders hate because of its difficulty.  I explain this to everyone.

Since William only ate an apple this morning (we just biked 7.5 miles) and he was feeling nauseous  and Sophia did not want to go to Herndon, I take them up Hunter Station.  Evan and I go full gas up the hill, William faded and Sophia ended up walking up the steep parts.

We bike back to Vienna, William and Sophia get some food at Whole Foods. This takes 15 minutes.  We try to go to Jammin’ Java to get smoothies but it is closed, this was a place Sophia had in mind.  We bike back to Oakton via Courthouse Road again a go to Tropical Smoothies. We all get food and Sophia got food and a smoothie.   I wanted to buy bananas at Giant but they closed early for Easter Sunday.

We then bike home.

Sunday night

Now to watch Homeland with Linh, a series on Showtime.  Beforehand I do another test for IBM and the system is fixed and installs now.

Here is our ride on Strava

https://www.strava.com/activities/3291040390

Google photos

https://photos.app.goo.gl/jrCNgKiVFHNdRuXj7