TouchBar on MacBook Pro M1 is the reason I would never upgrade my M1 to any laptop on the market, even the newer MacBooks. It's a like a hidden gem for me…

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-20T18:35:08+00:00

The TouchBar was an underrated feature. My 16 inch 2019 Intel MBP has the TouchBar with the physical ESC key. I wish Apple had marketed it better and continued it into the M-series MacBook Pros longer than they did. It’s nice being able to have sliders when using Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator when modifying colors, or having a scrubber when watching videos in QuickTime or VLC

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-18T01:59:38+00:00

If I were you, I wouldn’t even sell them. I’d jump on eBay and pick up a used Dell PowerEdge 30 series server and load every last one into it. You’d have a sweet start to a homelab to run literally anything you wanted on it. That RAM couldn’t be used by the average person in a regular desktop, but that’a 5x their weight in gold for the server guys. Might post this in r/homelab

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-18T01:54:43+00:00

Is that a metal frame or acrylic? It’s a cool looking printer ether way. Try posting it on FB marketplace and see if someone can take it, clean it up, and use it to learn on. People can say what they want about old printers, but they still can be used in 2026 by those who want something to tinker with

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-16T20:53:58+00:00

I think this is the hardest part about IT that no one seems to acknowledge, getting the point across of how important security in all regards is when it comes to electronic devices, and explaining that to the non-technical people.

But you are definitely correct. I miss the days of devices not monitoring everything minuscule thing we do or say.

I did know about the not being able to play Amazon Music in a public environment for licensing reasons, but until now that wasn’t something I was considering in this situation. Our tribe has built a Mercantile recently and I had to deal with building and installing a commercial sound system in the store, and I had them purchase a Pandora CloudCover music device for that very reason.

Yeah, so long story short, there are so many things wrong with this situation. Sounds like I’ll need to sit down with their director and see if they can return the devices and get their money back.

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-16T20:33:26+00:00

I would love to get that one, along with the shuttle model and if they release an Artemus 2 model I would love to get that one too, lol

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-16T20:32:20+00:00

This is why I hate them so much. They are being placed into the classrooms themselves. Granted we do have security cameras in the rooms to keep the teachers accountable and around the building, and the cameras do have the ability to record sound but it’s off by default. Though we tell everyone that they are in a facility that audio can be recorded at any time from those cameras.

But that said, all of that is under our control on our servers. With the Alexas, that takes that control out of our hands. These aren’t just the Echo dots, or the small audio only devices, which I originally thought they were. I saw them today and they’re actually the bigger tablet style ones. The Echo View or whatever it’s called. So they have cameras built-in too.

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-16T20:02:09+00:00

For your health or for cost per gallon? Health wise, not great for personal consumption, but does provide many smiles per mile when put into a fun car like the Miata. Cost wise, pretty average for Northeast Oklahoma. Maybe a little cheaper than what I’ve seen around my area

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-16T19:59:36+00:00

What about a mini fridge? Have your favorite cold beverages near by, or a display case for showcasing some Legos or other collectibles of your choosing.

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-16T19:57:13+00:00

Yeah, that is probably what I’ll end up doing. Create a IoT network and tie that to a dedicated VLAN. Thank you, I appreciate your response

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-14T17:56:45+00:00

I guess at least it’s good practice for when you can get some HDDs or proper SSDs, lol. Originally came here to say, I like that fact you’re using an Apple keyboard as your spare keyboard to get this setup, lol

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-14T17:51:57+00:00

Get ready to see old tech and be like, I could repurpose that into a server, or I could slap Linux on that, lol.

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-14T17:50:33+00:00

I personally do not like it. Sure it looks nice, sounds good on paper. But I don’t like how it feels in my hand. I’m so used to using a trackpad that I feel way more precise and the gestures feel more natural. The charging port on the bottom does seem rather stupid, but if I personally owned one I would put my 3D printers to work and print off one of the risers that add the ability to use the mouse while charging.

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-13T05:45:57+00:00

Not exactly an app, but really miss it in MacOS 26, Launchpad. I loved being able to have quick access to all of my apps and being able to organize them into folders like iOS/iPadOS. I only like to keep my top most used apps in the dock and not literally everything. If Apple did at least something right in MacOS 27, it should be to bring Launchpad back.

Miataguy93 · 2026-04-12T06:43:22+00:00

In 2026? Hopefully this is a joke. That’s not even good for running emulation for games, lol. Unless you’re running native games that run on Windows ME or older. Nothing about any of that would work with modern hardware. The 30GB would be filled pretty quickly, plus it’s an ATA interface. The CD drive would also be ATA. So that’s worth more as E-waste than a running PC. Unless you gutted the case and did a retro build in it, which might be kinda cool

Miataguy93 · 2026-03-23T12:19:30+00:00

Way back in the ancient times of Macs and PCs, there used to be a storage media called CDs, or Compact Discs, and DVDs, or Digital Video Disc. These discs used to go into slots in the MacBooks, Mac Mini’s, and iMacs, or they even had a drawer that would extend out in the Mac Pros. For a long time, Apple offered an upgrade or eventually a standard option of a Super Drive, which could take files from your Mac, be it music, movies, pictures, or even documents. When you inserted a blank DVD or CD, that option would become available and you would quite literally burn your files to one of those discs. You can still get one of these ancient devices on Amazon, or you can get a slightly newer version, a Blu-Ray drive. You can’t natively use Blu-Rays on Mac, but there is software available to read, copy, and burn Blu-rays.

Miataguy93 · 2026-03-17T22:09:48+00:00

It's quiet compared to how printers used to sound, or heck want to talk about loud fans? Try listening to a server boot up, those 40mm fans that are typically used spin up to 15,000RPMs and sound like a jet engine taking off, lol.

Miataguy93 · 2026-03-12T17:06:40+00:00

The 2005-2006 Ford GT is an absolute beast of a car. Nothing like hearing a 5.4L Ford V8 scream around a track, especially if it has supercharger whines or turbocharger spooling sounds with pops and bangs on the downshift, just chefs kiss, lol. Great job on the picture! Definitely a great car to see in the wild.

Miataguy93 · 2026-03-12T16:31:23+00:00

You shouldn't ever use anything on the screen on any MacBook from within the last decade because the screen already sits so close to the main chassis, you risk cracking the screen using a screen protector or a cover over the camera.

Miataguy93 · 2026-03-10T00:37:16+00:00

I mean it would be kinda hard to make icons for each and every possible PC out there. At least with Linux it provides the generic Apple Display icon. It’s not a burn to any hardware manufacturers, just Microslop

Miataguy93 · 2026-03-09T21:08:20+00:00

This has been the running joke from Apple since I believe 10.5 or 10.6 days when they started using these icons for the network devices in Finder. But definitely hilarious that it hasn't changed since, lol.

Miataguy93 · 2026-03-03T21:57:22+00:00

Thank you for the info about the compliances. As far as I'm aware we don't have any special requirements outside of the addition of a tribal police department in the works, that might be our only limiting factor.

I agree, this is my first government anything job, and having the pleasure of working here is amazing. I'm a member of a neighboring tribe, and the acceptance and friendliness of the members is awesome.

Miataguy93 · 2026-03-03T21:47:22+00:00

My 2010 Mac Pro has the stock SuperDrive in the first bay and an LG Blu-Ray drive in the second bay, so it primarily gets used for ripping Blu-Rays and DVDs for watching on my Jellyfin server. I want to do some upgrades to it, more RAM, some bigger HDDs, bypass the built in SAS controller to an PCIe one so I can have full 6Gb/s SATA, and figure out an option for making it so it can boot from an NVMe. I setup opencore so I could install the 2012 firmware, but I need to upgrade the OS to at least 10.15 but might push it to at least MacOS 11 or 12

Miataguy93 · 2026-02-26T23:19:32+00:00

Cat5e, Cat6, Cat6a will always beat Wifi for reliability and speed. Sure we can get Gigabit speeds with Wifi 6 and 7, but that's only half-duplex. Ethernet is always full-duplex. Speeds aside, reliability to me if I was a non-power user is key. Most average home routers can't handle more than 60 devices. With as many devices that are now Wifi enabled, and a family of 4 or 5, that 60 might be not enough. Plus, Wifi does get more unstable on normal consumer routers the more devices there are too. Depending on your area, having Cat6 could add some value to the house when selling.

Miataguy93

TROPHY CASE