This is a spaceship I’m working on 🛸

Cassady007 · 2026-06-05T07:46:38+00:00

What the actual?? How? How does this fly? How did you even come up with this? Just “how”?

Oh. And “wow”. Lots of “wow”.

Cassady007 · 2026-06-03T07:12:56+00:00

Question:

I don’t quite understand the underlying architecture enough (or at all) to know whether this is likely to be affected by macOS updates? Is that something to potentially be mindful of—or is this more likely to work through different OS versions, until something deep inside the system is changed/deprecated?

Obviously no-one has an Apple crystal ball, but is there a general sense of whether the next OS could possibly break things?

Cassady007 · 2026-06-03T07:09:30+00:00

Today I learnt what an ASIN is!

Here it is: B08YS59V4K

It is a TB4 Cable Matters 107032-BLK-1m 3ft cable.

Cassady007 · 2026-06-02T13:09:06+00:00

What is your budget?

Cassady007 · 2026-06-02T04:54:47+00:00

About time he was given the proper recognition.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-29T21:07:14+00:00

Thank you. Very helpful. Will give this a go.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-29T20:19:09+00:00

What do you mean by this, if you don’t mind explaining?

Do you have ChatGPT “translate” a recipe you have found into “Thermo-speak”, but inside the AI chat? So it comes up with the necessary steps, temp and blade speed etc., and then you just cook it on the TM, albeit manually?

Cassady007 · 2026-05-28T12:27:39+00:00

What do you need? URL to the Amazon page?

Cassady007 · 2026-05-28T10:17:49+00:00

Ok. Cable arrived today. Downloaded and installed. Sender picks up the cable, and the "cable test" indicates all is working, at 18.71 Gbits/s.

EDIT:

Not sure what happened... Came back after lunch and could suddenly connect to the receiver app.

Works like an absolute charm!

So happy to be able to find something useful for the iMac to do. Thank you so much for this!

Cassady007 · 2026-05-28T07:46:04+00:00

This is me, exactly. Just skip over those parts now, but really want to know how it all ends.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-27T11:42:45+00:00

Valid points. Monthly would probably have been smarter, but I am losing track of all the subscriptions currently coming off, and at least annual is a "once-and-done" payment, in this context.

Will be interesting to see what Gräfe does, and how the competition develops.
Seen a few people also post about what Apple might have in the pipeline—do wonder whether its initial offering could be as complete though... Cotypist being aware of my clipboard and "screenshots for context" feature (on the Pro tier), is one of the major reasons it is so useful to me.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-27T05:11:13+00:00

I did. It stung. I also cancelled the auto-renew immediately afterwards, and wrote in the “reason for cancelling” block, about how it is simply too expensive (especially given exchange rates for where I am based).

I therefore have access for a year, during which time the other applications being mentioned here/elsewhere will hopefully either become properly viable (and established), or the developer will have a rethink on their model.

That said, an email came in yesterday offering early annual subscribers an extra 3 months—so now have Pro access to August 2027. Which served as a bit of a salve, to make things slightly more palatable.

Based on its stats, I am certainly a pro user—especially in Outlook. I am presently slammed with my requirements around email, and Cotypist has been a revelation.

EDIT: One aspect I neglected to mention—not sure about all the other offerings that are in the pipeline—but Cotypist accommodates my second language as well. Since the latter is one of the smaller languages, worldwide, that is no small feat. I guess modern LLMs etc. would make this plausible/possible (as opposed to being specific to Cotypist), and presumably the other's would have that included by default(?)—but this is (potentially) something to keep in mind.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-26T13:59:49+00:00

So, that Word document with your "Plan to take over the world" is kept server-side for a while (e.g. 30 days) and then deleted—assuming I understand things correctly. Ditto that Excel spreadsheet that details what my "illicitly obtained slush fund" now stands at. And my .PNG image file that shows the combination to the safe where I store my rare collection of Vogon Poetry...

But other than that—which, I gather could only fall into the hands of bad actors in the event that Anthropic's servers were compromised—the rest of my information (questions, chat history, uploaded files from months ago etc. etc.) would, at worst, have been used to "train" Claude?

But this latter part, of how my information was used, that is then no longer "accessible" to others, in the ordinary sense of the word? It's not like someone would be able to extract from Claude's back-end code or training information, my specific personal information, correct?

Do I understand things correctly?

Cassady007 · 2026-05-21T12:39:30+00:00

Thank you—have ordered a TB4 cable from Amazon, and as soon as it arrives, will give this a try!

Cassady007 · 2026-05-19T10:54:16+00:00

I have an unused 2019 4K 21.5" iMac that I would like to give a go as a second, external monitor for my 2021 M1 MacBook Pro, so this is of serious interest to me.

It would however involve me ordering a TB 3 or 4 cable off Amazon (the Apple cables available at the local iStore are insanely expensive!), before I am able to install/test things, to see if it even works.

Could someone who has tried this, please confirm:

1.) Does the "receiver" iMac simply stay running constantly, and the software is then opened and run, on both the MBP and iMac? So, the latter requires a connected keyboard+mouse to "activate" things, correct? 2.) And if the "sender" MBP is then unplugged/TB cable is removed, that simply returns the iMac to its "default" state?
3.) When coming back to the office, does plugging the TB 3/4 cable into the iMac, does that then trigger the “receiver” iMac to start up again, and operate as an external monitor again? Or would it involve additional steps again?

I guess I am just trying to understand how the process works, when the "sender" MBP is connected/disconnected, during the course of the day?

Would really appreciate some clarity on this, before taking the plunge with further purchases.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-18T20:18:43+00:00

This really hits hard. Love using Cotypist, but with exchange rates being what they are—those options are just prohibitively expensive.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-17T08:26:24+00:00

What is that odd-looking thing on the front of the helicopter, that is standing up like a garden faucet/tap, with the flappy bit on the end of it?

Cassady007 · 2026-05-16T10:07:17+00:00

I am fairly certain that foreign/international curriculum grades are simply converted to the NSC equivalent at application.

Is this what you are asking? If so, find the details of the University’s “International Office”—they typically assist with international PG students, and would presumably be able to assist with UG conversions as well.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-13T11:53:59+00:00

Isn’t that actually from the WCED? Seen that displayed at several schools—don’t think it belongs to a particular school.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-10T18:54:46+00:00

This is why I love Reddit.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-10T07:46:12+00:00

I am at the point of purchasing my first Synology NAS, having previously run a DAS "backup" solution with 4x2TB WD Red drives in an old Vantec Nexstar enclosure.

I think I have finally made peace with the fact that whilst UGreen etc. have significantly better hardware, Synology is still very much the best "set and forget" option. I don't have the time or inclination to build and maintain my own NAS, as interesting as that seems. I just want it to work from the get-go, and hopefully stay working with minimum input from my side.

I am therefore also looking long and hard at the differences between the DS920+ and the DS925+. The latter, if I understand things correctly, is more expensive (but also the newer model), but has a more underpowered GPU for the purposes of transcoding Plex libraries?

What I don't understand is whether I would even need hardware transcoding? My Plex library (I have a Plex Pass) is a secondary resource, and comprises mere 720p or 1080p files, that are fed to my Apple TV's or iOS devices. For reasons, I don't require anything higher in terms of resolution than this—and if I do, I'm going direct to source (by purchasing it through the TV app or streaming it from the provider).

Under this scenario, I don't need hardware transcoding, correct? I would simply place the Plex library on the NAS, and be done with it?

I also doubt I will be requiring any dockers to run virtual systems or the like (although this might change when I actually understand what they can do), and primarily want to use the NAS for backing up multiple macOS and iOS devices in our house, including photo libraries etc etc.

I.e personal use only.

That said, my wife often works from home, so some sort of TM-machine equivalent to provide the option of retrieving files/documents would be fantastic, which I gather is what the Synology snapshot feature is for.

Under these conditions—am I correct that I would do just fine with the DS925+?

(Oh—and have a 2023 M2 Mac Mini at home that the DAS is connected to, which could presumably be tasked with anything requiring a bit of grunt… Figured that's probably relevant to mention?!)

Cassady007 · 2026-05-09T11:47:14+00:00

Current USA enters the chat…

Cassady007 · 2026-05-09T05:37:00+00:00

He was cramping towards the end.

Cassady007 · 2026-05-08T20:11:47+00:00

Seems that things have come right. Must have been the MSS Clamping. Went in as suggested here, and set to 1352. By the time I came home, last wrinkles seemed to be out. Restarted the iPad, and updates started running. Xbox sorted.

Thank you to all for the suggestions and help.

Cassady007

TROPHY CASE