Hitting The Links: 1/28/24
The Great Tech Cull, a Rat King of cables & connectors, a Heap of Broken Memories, a ton of links, and potential internal decapitation
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Missed Connections
I finally cut the cord (or dish) a few weeks ago, after the monthly TV bill climbed a few notches past my cutoff point. Even paying for some of the streaming platforms that had been included free in the TV package would come out to less than I was spending, so snip.
Soon after, Amy noted that she wasn’t able to watch the Emmys in realtime. I decided to buy an HD antenna so we could get the free OTA channels. Looking over the TV configuration, I realized we could also use an optical audio cable to run from the TV to the soundbar, to get better audio when we use the antenna.
I figured I must have an optical audio cable somewhere, and since I’m not one for instant shipping, I had a few days before the antenna arrived in its consolidated Amazon order — no books, just electronics, toiletries, and some snacks — which gave me time to explore the . . . Crypt! Of! Cables!
See, there’s this storage area under the stairs, and when we were kids my brother & I were convinced there were giant spiders or other monsterfolk in there. It was a rite of passage to get far enough in just to reach the light-bulb string. As in, I was pretty sure my brother would slam the door on me once I was that far inside, and I was afraid of the dark, but hey. (Yes, yes, I live in the house I grew up in: what of it?)
ANYWAY, it’s 2024, and the contractor who built out my whole library-office down here put the light on a switch by the door, and put in a second light along with some shelves, so it’s less scary. Still kinda cramped, what with it being under the stairs, though.
I pulled out a box of cords, cables, connectors, etc., one of many that had accumulated and/or multiplied over the years. I searched fruitlessly for an optical audio cable, and was disheartened at what I DID find: a collection of connections I hadn’t used in more than a decade and likely would never need. It’s possible I have more DisplayPort cables than there are DisplayPort devices. And don’t get me started on the 30-pin iPod cables & docks, the VGA connectors, the obsolete USB hubs, the multiple FireWire cables.
And so the Great Tech-Cull began. I pulled box after box out of the storage space, untangled cords, organized by type (data, video, audio, Apple vs. non-Apple), and thought about when we did this at my dad’s place many years ago, and had no way of finding out what was on all those 5.5” and 3.25” floppy disks.
Once the last box came out — still no optical audio! — it was time to pull out my heap of broken memories, a.k.a. ALL The Hard Drives!
How many backups of long-dead computers had I made? Some had notes taped to them about their size, the computer they were from, the years they covered. One had “1999” attached to it, and again, I thought about all the things I have had zero occasion to look for in all these years.
On the off-chance that I have to recover something from them, I decided not to throw out any of the drives. I even managed to consolidate all of them in — I swear I’m insane — the big box that my Drobo storage device came in. Because of course I couldn’t throw THAT out at any point in the past eight years. I mean, I might have needed to ship it back to the company that no longer exists.
Oh, did I mention that all of these drives and various other peripherals all have chargers that God forbid I ever throw out? No? Well, they managed to fuse into a Rat King that would need sorting & purging, too.
As the purge progressed, I texted a couple of pals from my old office; we’ve all moved on from there, but share the occasional tech-joke. They laughed over the stories & photos of what I was pulling out of the storage space. One told me that he had an attic fire that destroyed most of his Crypt! Of! Cables! last year and I texted, “That gives me an idea. . . .”
But I thought better of a burn-pit, and organized & systematized as best I could, figuring out how many cables were duplicates of each other, saving only 1 or 2 of the few that I might conceivably need, purging the rest. I separated the Apple stuff, hoping that they’ll take all that for their recycling program, including the backup charger for a 20-year-old laptop. I held onto the 20-year-old laptop. Because you never know. (It's a 12" MacBook, and it weighs more than a 16" MacBook Pro today.)
Then I put the few keeper-cables in labeled baggies, put those back in storage space so the giant spiders can still use their DisplayPort monitors, and found I had freed up 4 storage bins.
The HD antenna arrived on Wednesday night, in an Amazon shipment that also included a 4tb SSD and a pack of 4 AirTags. Because that’s how the great cycle of tech-hoarding continues.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go order a goddamned optical audio cable.
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And now, let's hit the links!
Links & Such
Recent Virtual Memories Show podcasts: David Thomson • Sammy Harkham • Ed Subitzky • Chris Silverman • Silence (monologue) • The Guest List
RIP Norman Jewison . . . RIP Charles Osgood . . . RIP Gary Graham . . . RIP David Skal . . . RIP Dexter Scott King . . . RIP Jon Franklin . . . RIP Richard Berdnik (our county sheriff, who (apparently) committed suicide last Tuesday in a restaurant; here’s more about that)
Here’s Michael Gerber’s remembrance of Brian McConnachie.
This is a WONDERFUL interview with the actor Gary Farmer by Matt Zoller-Seitz. Side note: I can’t believe that when David Thomson asked me for a show to watch in last week’s episode, I didn’t blurt out “REZ DOGS!”
Tom Holland + Tom Hollander = TOM HOLLANDEST!
Per those recent Warren Ellis-noted items about getting back to blogging sans social media, he linked last week to a guy who has figured out how to make a blog that’s an RSS feed WITH NO CORRESPONDING WEB-PAGES. You literally only receive the entries by subscribing to the RSS feed. Which sounds awesome.
I only keep track of All The Books I've Finished Since 1989 (prose, poetry, not comics); Steven Soderbergh is much more comprehensive in his “what I read-watched-attended” records. Here’s his 2023 log.
No word on who owns the SI Cover Jinx.
They’re closing down the theater where I saw Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
It took more than a century to find the Klimt.
Yet another What Is The Future Of Podcasts? piece that doesn’t mention the sort of interview/conversation show I make, but whatever. MOAR TROO MURDERZ, I guess.
Current/Recent Reading
Underworlds - Stephen Ellcock
The Furies: Women, Vengeance and Justice - Elizabeth Flock
My Struggle, Book 1 - Karl Ove Knausgaard
“That is why I no longer drink. I do not want anyone to get close to me, I do not want anyone to see me, and this is the way things have developed: no one gets close and no one sees me.”
—Karl Ove Knausgaard, My Struggle, Book 1
In the 2023 edition of The Guest List episode, Sara Lippmann asked whether I’ve read Knausgaard, so I think I’m going to try the whole 3,600-page shebang as my 2024 project, and get back to her by the time I make the next Guest List show.
Sound Body, Fractured Mind
Last week, I got through my full 5-day weights/yoga cycle, but I screwed up my neck pretty badly a week or so back (driving: don’t ask), it’s getting worse, and I’m afraid I’ll aggravate it with most of my exercises. So I passed on Friday’s weights, but I was going nuts so I did my full yoga workout Saturday evening and it didn’t cause any problems or internal decapitation. We’ll see about weights today. I’ll probably go to a doctor next week if it’s still bad.
Until Next Time
Thanks for reading this far! I’ll be back on Wednesday with a new episode, maybe some art, and on Sunday with links, books, & workout craziness, & who knows maybe a little profundity or something.
Diode, cathode, electrode, overload / Generator, oscillator / Make a circuit with me,