Commonplace

Backing up my Mac

At the end of 2021, I had the misfortune of needing to reinstall everything on my main computer. Something had crashed and the only way to get my computer working was to do a fresh install.

I was using Time Machine on a local HDD and a Popular Backup Service™ – let’s call it, I dunno, Blazing Backups – for remote backups. One of the attractions of Blazing Backups was that it also offered a service to send a physical drive in case of emergency.

As it turned out, neither of these worked particularly well and restoring was an incredibly time-consuming process. It took over a week to get things back to normal.

Restoration

Firstly, Time Machine completely failed. I’m a little fuzzy on the details now: I seem to remember the drive could be seen by the new device but it either wasn’t possible to restore from it or it hadn’t been backing up useful things. Either way, it was unusable.

And Blazing Backups was not a great experience. The online interface for manually accessing files was clunky and download speeds were incredibly slow. It took a few days of back-and-forth to get the files downloaded, on 200mbps internet, to download a little over 1TB of data.

I considered asking them to zip up the files on a physical drive and send it, but I was told it could take 2–3 days for this to even be dispatched. The packing time, shipping time to the UK and poor-timing of needing the service around holidays meant that delivery alone could have taken two weeks!

Of course, Blazing Backups can’t do anything about these things: it’s reasonable for there to be some time in preparation and shipping times are out of their control. But if you’re unlucky with holiday breaks when you need the back up, the physical disk option may not be as useful or quick as it sounds.

In some senses, my backup strategy worked: my first backup failed, but I was still able to get my files back. There will always be some disruption when your system is wiped, but this whole experience was incredibly suboptimal. I knew there must be a better way.

New strategy

Everything, except project files is stored/managed through Sync (not an ashilliate link – if you would like an extra 1GB use this link instead). It’s end-to-end encrypted and basically as easy to use as Dropbox local.

This entirely replaces my desktop. The beauty of this is that setting up a new computer is incredibly quick:

1. Download the Sync app
2. Choose the highest-priority folders to download
3. Sync other folders later
4. Download and install other apps as needed

I also use Super Duper for the local backup. This has the added advantage of also backing up applications not just files, something that Blazing Backups didn’t offer.

Project files are stored in git repositories, so those are synced very quickly.

Concerns

The only downside of Sync is that, unlike Dropbox, you can’t run multiple accounts on the same computer through the local app...yet. But I’m willing to trade that for the end-to-end encryption.

I also wondered about the environmental impact of going all-in on a cloud setup. But this may actually have reduced my cloud use as I was previously using Dropbox in addition to the Blazing Backups service, so everything has been consolidated to a single place – no duplication.

Check your backups

The advice is always to test your backups. In particular, I’d suggest checking out your remote backup’s interface for restoring files: if it’s clunky and slow, moving to a cloud service might be a better option in case of emergency.

Mac Recommendations

“Which Mac should I buy?” comes up fairly often in communities I’m in. There are a lot of options – especially as Apple haven’t completed their transition from Intel to the M-series chips yet – but here are some general recommendations.

All the usual caveats apply to this: your mileage may very, question all advice (even this), etc...

Don’t buy an Intel

Only buy a MacBook with an M1 or M2 chip. Support for Intels will decrease significantly over the next year or two and the M1/M2’s wipe the floor with the previous chips from a performance POV – a different ballpark altogether.

Avoid the 13” base model MacBook Pro

If you buy an M1 or M2, don’t buy the 13” base model MacBook Pro – these are the worst machines in the M1 and M2 line-ups (a spec-matched MacBook Air is usually a better choice despite the ‘Pro’ name).

Airs and Minis

Related to the 13” MacBook Pro advice above, M1/2 MacBook Airs and Mac Minis are excellent computers for most people. With upgraded space and RAM they’ll suffice for most use cases.

If you’re coming from an Intel, an M1/M1 Pro will likely be a huge upgrade from what you’re used to and it may not be worth spending more on a Max or Ultra. If you need that extra power, you’ll probably know.

Upgrade the M2 disk space

If you buy an M2 MacBook Air, be sure to upgrade the disk space to at least 512GB – there’s a bit of a performance dip on the base storage model (256GB).

Processor upgrades are optional

The old advice for Intels was “max out the processor”, but this is much less important than it used to be due to the way to M1/M2 series chips work. In lots of testing, the upgraded chips offer little-to-no real-world improvements.

If you can afford it, do it – if it’s a choice between that and extra storage or something else, the processor is probably less important.

RAM

Similarly, your RAM needs on an M-series chip may be lower than previous Macs. I’d still recommend buying the maximum you can afford, probably a minimum of 16GB unless your laptop use is incredibly light and/or not business critical.

Any 14”/16” M1 MacBook Pro should be good!

The choice mostly comes down to screen size.

Laptop or desktop?

With Apple’s transition to M-series chips, there is no real performance difference between a desktop and laptop machine equipped with the same chip (i.e. an M1 Max Mac Studio vs an M1 Max MacBook Pro). So if you’ve previously had a desktop and laptop, you might be able to consolidate the machines.

Apple Studio Display

The main reason to buy an Apple Studio Display over other options is that it’s one of the only displays on the market that offer a 5K resolution at a native size. That means that the pixels aren’t scaled up like they are on 5K displays at bigger display sizes.

The build quality is excellent and, despite the poor reviews, I regularly get comments on the quality of the camera – despite previously using a front-facing iPhone 7 camera.

Last updated: 26th August, 2022

182.5 days alcohol-free

182.5 days ago, I unintentionally gave up alcohol for good. For now, at least.

I had no intention of joining Dry January, but by the middle of the month I’d decided to give alcohol a little break. Nothing in particular triggered it, but I downloaded a copy of The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober and started listening.

A few interesting takeaways included:

• The author, Catherine Gray, talks about where she was on the scale of alcoholism (1–10), which is an interesting concept in and of itself
• Recognising that alcohol intake – and one’s position on that scale – often creeps up by the breaking of small, seemingly inconsequential rules. “I’ll have a dry night…ok just one…ok just two…”
• Everyone knows that alcohol is an addictive substance, but society doesn’t recognise it. There should be no shame in abstaining because drinking in moderation might be difficult due to its addictive nature.

As Gareth K Thomas put it, I’m an abstainer, not a moderator (origionally inspired by Gretchen Rubin).

Gray recommends that anyone interested in reducing their alcohol intake takes at least 90 days off. If that seems too difficult, start with 30.

So, in mid-January, I decided to take a break for 30 days and go for 90 if that went well.

Here’s what I’ve learned:

Substitutes

Alcohol-free beers are amazing, and I wouldn’t have got this far without them. Lucky Saint, Beavertown’s Lazer Crush, Free Damm and Brooklyn’s Special Effects are all worth a look. Even Heineken’s alcohol-free beer isn’t bad.

Update: The Guinness 0.0% is incredible. I rarely drank Guinness, but this AF version is pretty close: it tastes great and has something of an ale-y quality. Easily the best AF beer I’ve tried.

A key realisation for me was that drinking alcohol-free beer gave me about 70% of the enjoyment and relaxation compared to an alcoholic beer. Of course, it’s not the same, but it’s close enough. And, for me, the downsides of drinking aren’t worth that extra 30%.

Day tracking

I never thought that day tracking would be for me, but I’ve found it incredibly effective.

At the beginning of my alcohol-free stint, I hit lots of mini milestones. These generally prompted one of two thoughts:

1. “I don’t want to break this streak”
2. “I don’t want to have to start this streak again”

It’s so helpful I’m now day counting a reduced sugar intake. As I write this, I haven’t eaten chocolate in three weeks.

I use Days Since.

Day 40

About 40 days in, I realised I didn’t miss drinking at all and I was going to give up for the foreseeable future. It’s amazing not to ever wake up with a slightly hazy head, regret having that extra drink or saying something stupid while your inhibitions were suppressed.

There’s something wonderful about waking up each morning with a totally clear head. It’s not impossible that I’d drink again at some point in the future, but for now I’m enjoying life alcohol-free.

There’s no decent red wine alternative

Or not that I’ve found. The only time I ever miss alcohol is when food would traditionally be paired with a red wine – but now that feels like a taste thing rather than desiring the alcohol per se.

If you know of a decent alcohol-free red wine, I’d love to hear about it!

Alcohol is no social lubricant

Like many people, I felt that alcohol helped me in social situations. But I’ve realised I feel no more relaxed or less awkward with an alcohol-free option.

Over the past six months, my choice of alcohol-free beverage has prompted lots of discussion about giving up alcohol. Almost everyone I’ve spoken to has said they want to cut down, it crept up over the pandemic, etc.

It turns out that ‘The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober’ is a brilliantly accurate title for the book. I didn’t even finish it as I’d decided to give up forever when I was about halfway through.

I’d wholeheartedly recommend it if you’re thinking of taking a break from alcohol for any reason. It’s honest, relatable and full of revelations on how we view alcohol and the pressures around it.