Let me share how my obsession with all things Apple in no way protects me from making massive technology bloopers.
For the last week, I’ve had a task on my ToDoist daily list to upgrade my home iMac to macOS Big Sur. I have an iMac at home and one in my office, which was updated almost as soon as Big Sur was available. Talk about living on the edge!
The upgrade in the office went very smoothly and I was quickly exploring all the deliciousness of Big Sur.
Back at home, it didn’t look like the update was available on my iMac. I kept refreshing, to no avail. I then started googling solutions, exploring any possible reasons why a perfectly good iMac couldn’t be upgraded to the latest macOS software. Each day, I ran out of time and the task ran over into the next day.
Note that this wasn’t a panic or a must-have, but the completist in me wanted my iMacs running on the same version of macOS. Also, I didn’t want to have to readjust every time I sat down in front of one of the computers, looking for settings or icons.
Can’t believe I missed it…
Yesterday afternoon, I discovered why. Days too late, I actually checked to see if my iMac model could be upgraded and was shocked to discover that, as it’s a 2013 model, it doesn’t get Big Sur. I wasn’t shocked at the upgrade (or lack thereof) more that my iMac is now seven years old. I honestly carried around a kind of mental model where both iMacs are a couple of years old. That seven years has gone by extremely quickly.
So now I’m left with different versions of the OS on my two iMacs. Not something to lose any sleep about, but actually an opportunity to make some changes. The plan is to actually sell the iMac at home and replace it with a good quality monitor. Each of us have new, excellent laptops and all we really need when working from home is a large display.
Another reason for this is that the new desk I bought earlier in the year is quite shallow – intentionally so. But it’s difficult to have both an iMac and a laptop on it. However, a laptop plugged into a monitor will work just fine. A laptop plugged into a wall-mounted monitor will be even better.
So @TheFrankFlyer has been busy researching large monitors and checking how much the iMac will go for. While I’m looking at webcams and docks for the laptops. We’re aiming to make the set up as minimalist and cable-free as possible, as we don’t want the study to look like someone’s office.
Working from home, at least semi-regularly, is here to stay it seems. So I want it to be a comfortable, but also pleasant to look at experience. Wish me luck!
MacPsych on the move 
I had the same realisation with my iMac, though as I’m currently working off a loaner MacBook Pro from my employer, I was able to play with Big Sur anyway. Next year I’m moving to a Mac mini, plus I’ll be adding a Windows device back into my home computing configuration for the first time in nearly 15 years. This time next year, if all goes according to plan I’ll be leaving my employer and freelance work of some kind may feature in my working life from that point on. I’ll need a Windows machine to keep work options open, I feel, and I also want to keep my gaming options open too.
That said, I could go with the latest and greatest iMac in 2021, and keep a Windows laptop…hmmm…
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Lots of options! And big plans, by the sound of it?
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Well, along with all my colleagues I was made redundant in December 2019. But I got an ‘extra life’ of 2 years to work on a project. The 2020 pandemic upset that somewhat, however there’s still plenty of work for an enterprise that’s rapidly switching to an ‘agile’ working methodology, so I’m still very gainfully employed and busy. However, my redundancy is substantial; it affords the opportunity to move on to the semi-retired phase of life we’ve been thinking about for the past number of years, ahead of schedule. Living abroad for several months of the year is part of that life, we believe, and soon we’ll be in a position to try it out. However living away from Ireland for part of each year means that any paid work I continue to do will have to be on a part-time or freelance basis. Will it work? We don’t know! But we’re going to try it out, and that time will be from February 2022 onwards. Still, if 2020 has taught us anything, we’ll be flexible, and we’ll be ready for anything.
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That all sounds amazing!! I have my fingers crossed for you guys that all plans come to (delicious) fruition.
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BTW I’ve been playing with Craft.app, as recently covered in ‘Coretex’ podcast. Have you seen it? It’s yummy… I’ll never leave Apple Notes as it’s core to the OS(s) I use. But Craft is beau-it-ful, like you won’t believe, and packed with features that make it more like Notion than, say, Bear. Very impressive for a version 1.0 app. I love my eye-candy, and I’ll use an app if it simply looks beautiful. Craft really presses that button for me, it makes it easy to produce beautiful documents with full Markdown support, so I’ll definitely be adding it to my tool-belt, if not actually ‘switching’ to it.
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I’ll have to take a look. Might review it for the new blog 👍🏼
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Oh yes – I’m working through my reader list so I haven’t jumped on that yet! I’m off for a few days and catching up on all this stuff, so I’ll check out Fanboy in a little while! Best of luck with the new blog!
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Enjoy your few days off!
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