Month: August 2019

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Well isn’t this a nifty thing?

Caldigit ts3plus us20 ts3 thunderbolt 3 docking 1385844Albeit somewhat expensive…

With the new computer comes new connection issues. In the 7 years since my MacBook Air was born, Apple converted to a different connection method. The computer industry approved and introduced USB-C.

This is a FAST directionless connection that provides power, video, Hard Drive connectivity, Ethernet, and a host of other connection possibilities. In short, it’s neat.

BUT… what do you do with all your old devices? The plugs are incompatible and for those of us that like SD cards for photography and lose that nifty SD card port on the sides of our computers now, you’re kinda stuck using old USB.

You need little adapter thingies and lots of little adapter thingies are a pain in the ass.

Not to mention that your sleek new hotness of a computer looks like it’s got some kind of fungus with all the adapter thingies plugged in.

Unless… you pick up a hub. I’ve done a fair amount of shopping for hubs. A lot of it I’d done long before my MacBook Air died. I’d figured that if I ended up with some kind of new hotness, I’d get a hub and the hub I’d get was the CalDigit.

This nifty piece of technology allows me to connect everything all at once and charge my computer at the same time with a single cable.

It’s got an SD slot, USB ports, audio in, and out, optical out, Ethernet, and several USB-C ports to allow connection of newer devices.

You can even charge devices from the USB ports just like you always did and since the adapter that runs the hub is also the power source for the computer, you don’t need to buy another power adapter (As I had in the past). I always had one adapter in the backpack and one on the desk at home.  Now, all I have to do is plug my computer in to the hub and we’re good to go. I can keep the original power adapter in the backpack.

My old superdrive CD burner, and my little 1 TB backup drives all mount normally and well it’s a clean elegant system.

As soon as I get my desk cleaned up I’ll take a picture so you can see what the setup looks like when I’m home.

CalDigit did a nice job matching the Space Gray color of The TS3Plus to my MacBook Pro and the device’s enclosure is aluminum to help with heat dissipation.

I like not having to replace all my old hardware all at once just because I got a new computer.

Which is not to say that I’m not going to be consolidating data since I can connect all the hard drives at once and I can also do the same with the memory sticks that I seem to accumulate.

So if the change to USB-C is holding you back for fear of losing compatibility, Fear not… But open your checkbook.

This little jewel costs $300.

But replacing all your storage devices would cost you a lot more than that in hardware and time moving data.

Just food for thought.

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There’s always a price

That 9 hours of sleep last night is being offset by sleeplessness tonight.

Not entirely true. I did go to bed at a decent hour and I actually did sleep for a couple of hours. Then I woke up in a panic. I know I was having a nightmare, I don’t know what it was about. All I do know is I woke up in a panic and the adrenaline has me racing.

All is well in the house, everything is quiet and calm… except me!

I’ve made myself a drink and am sipping on it while writing this.

In another 6 minutes I will be another year older. Is that what it is? I’m sitting here in my birthday suit wondering what has freaked me out so much. No answers are forthcoming from my curdled brain.

I hope you’re all reading this at a decent hour over coffee and thanking your lucky stars that you were able to sleep the night.

I’m going to finish my drink and try to go back to sleep.

By the way don’t try reading the news at this hour… It’s not like you’ll find a bunch of fluff puppy or kitty stories. The news is all bad all the time these days. 

 

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9 Hours of sleep

That was different.

9 Hours, dreamless, uninterrupted sleep.That’s some kind of record for me, at least over the past few years.

I went to bed last night feeling poorly; something sinusy… I was expecting to be up & down all night but as it turned out being asleep was apparently what I needed once my body turned off it stayed off. Nice change!

DistractionsJust got up, trying to decide what to do today. I need to keep sorting and tossing junk but I’m honestly not much up for it. 

It’s been just about a week since the move was finished. I haven’t accomplished nearly what I wanted to and I’ve got to press on. That doesn’t imply that my heart is in it. 

I’m thinking I might be a little depressed, there are many tasks and each is daunting. I’m having trouble just choosing one to execute on. It’s easier for me to lose myself in little distractions, rather than chip away at the bigger tasks.

Well, off to attempt to get something accomplished.