One “weak” off, but back with the WEAK NOTES.

I had a lovely holiday, thanks for asking. Alternated between pool and beach, beer and mojitos and went for an early morning run where it was still inexplicably 22°C before 7am. Very relaxing, just what the doctor ordered. (I’m the doctor in question.)

Even my email backlog wasn’t too terrible when I got back and I only put on a kilogram despite abusing the all-in buffet. WIN.

I took a RISA travel uke (basically a plank with strings) and a Positive Grid Spark Go with me to stave off my guitar cravings and now I need to do two other things; First, re-string one of my other ukes with low-G because it’s great, and write post/demo of how amazingly good it can sound. It’s got an under-bridge piezo pickup so it’s always gonna be quite “attack-y” but it actually does a decent blues honk with a bit of overdrive on it. I’m properly impressed.

I also read the second book of Sylvain Neuvel’s Take Them To The Stars trilogy which I enjoyed so much I bought the third one on Kindle to read on the plane home. Bit alt-history space race, bit slow-burn alien invasion, all good.

I’ve mainly used an Apple Magic* keyboard the past few years (which is aggressively fine) but I frequently gaze from afar at the wonders of super futuristic/retro mechanical keyboards and the sheer level of clicky-switch pornography involved. Do I long for the mechanical thunk and additional tactile play of the heady beige IBM days? I don’t think so, as it mainly makes my RSI play up. I do like the sound though. I miss the sound.

I think that’s why this amused me: AI can identify passwords by sound of keys being pressed, study suggests (Guardian)

So, I think it may be time to get me a hot-swappable keyboard with a mixed bag of switches with different clicks, which I intend to unplug, shuffle in a bag and reseat at random once a week. Screw you, Terminator.

“Why did you spend hundreds of pounds on a keyboard from the 1980s, daddy?”

“The AI made me do it, son.”

*Spoiler - the “magic” is bluetooth and poor Windows support.

This is a short one, because I’ve mainly been sat by the pool and there’s not much to recount.

Goals achieved from the previous two weeks:

  • Do nothing. By the pool. With a beer. (After a couple more panicky days of work, no doubt.): Huge success.

Goals for the coming week:

  • I’m going to try and record one of the tunes I’ve got on the go.
  • Write that post on minimal travel rigs, and do some Listening Room posts.
  • Spend some time communing with a client to knock all the remaining fuzzy edges off a project.

Have good one, you lovely people.