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Too Hot, Need More Ice

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One of the unexpected side effects of the recent and prolonged hot and humid weather is the need for more ice. The refrigerator’s built-in ice maker just can’t handle the demand. With a family of Sahara water bottles, there are days when the ice bin goes empty, so it’s time to go old school with some basic ice trays.

Who knew buying ice trays are now so complicated. Silicon versus plastic. Covered or non-covered. Residue, freezer burn, cracking. I’ll go simple with this Rubbermaid Easy Release Ice Cube Tray.

BackBlaze versus Spotlight – Loser!

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For too long, my Mac Mini was sluggish. It’s a 2012 model decked out with 16 GB of RAM and an Intel Core i7 processor. But when my 2007 iMac running the bleeding edge Mac OS X 10.11 was snappier than my Mini, I had to dig deeper to see what was going on.

I always felt BackBlaze was involved with the slowdown but hey, offsite backups are worth a speed penalty right? But it never really made sense. Even with online backups complete, things were still slow as BackBlaze sat idle. Looking at the activity monitor, all the RAM was consumed and sometimes, the bztransmit process would utilize 100% of the CPU.

Finally, a Google search lead me to the answer. BackBlaze and Mac OS X’s Spotlight were essentially nagging each other to no end, making my Mac Mini crawl along. As backups occurred, BackBlaze would log the changes, and that would then trigger a resource-intensive Spotlight index process. As more files were backed up (and logged), the Spotlight index would launch again and again and again, overwhelming the Mini’s resources.

So the answer (that wasn’t already configured in my BackBlaze setup)? Exclude BackBlaze from Spotlight. That’s it. Immediately after making the Spotlight exclusion, my Mini came to life, much faster than ever before. What a loser! I should have researched this previously instead of waiting all this time.

Here’s a few more Spotlight exclusions that may help out even more.

Installing El Capitan

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I definitely didn’t see this one coming. I fired up my dormant iMac, the Mid-2007 model, and updated its software. Mac OS X 10.9 installed fine, so I kept going, recalling that the 10.11 “El Capitan” GM Candidate is available. A long time later, 10.11 is running on a 2007 iMac with 6 GB of RAM powered by Core 2 Duo processors.

el-capitan-install

Charcoal/Mint VH07V – I’m Ready

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Local kine company VH07V could* be releasing this charcoal and mint colorway of their signature tee.

Charcoal/Mint action. She go? #AlohaRevolution

Posted by VH07V on Monday, September 7, 2015

All I can say is when this color combo is ready, I’m ready (Dr. J too).

Dr. J approves of these @newbalance #kicks #mint or #pistachio

A photo posted by @geewhy on

Update* That was fast. This color combo is now available for ordering!

iPhone 6s Cases Already for Sale

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Ahead of the formal announcment of the latest iPhones, the rumored iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, protective cases are already available for sale. Spigen is advertising their pre-release selection on Amazon and at a reduced price. I don’t get how this is happening, but hey, Spigen is based out of Irvine, CA so all is good, right?

Of the current offerings, I’m leaning towards the Neo Hybrid EX with the clear back and colored bumper. Since we’re looking at the rose gold iPhone, the case needs to be transparent to showcase that color. My hesitation is that the bumper color won’t match the actual iPhone tone this early in production. But prices are nearly 50% off, so a $17 investment isn’t too damaging to protect a $700+ iPhone.

Wait, what? No free shipping on Amazon and not eligible for Prime?!? Add $5 for standard shipping with arrival in October? Pass for now…

But wait, Spigen has a store on eBay as well. Prices are comparable or even better than Amazon, and shipping is free (but still delayed until early October).

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