Week Five A Whole NEWWW WORRRLLD! la la
Yes, welcome to my first column typed upon white keys. I am yet to learn a whole slew of new stuff and have one or two new ways to do things to get a grip of but Mister Qwerty remains my chum, even though I am now an Apple computing bod. The truly hellish bit as I expected, was not the huge effort of setting up my data transfer and keeping it all safe in the meanwhile, (I have been using a WD 1terabyte hard drive as backup) not the removal of old computing kit and not even a whole new word processor, when I have resisted the flying fabulousness of a new version, for ever! No, it was the wrestling with mains pluggery deep under my desk and finding ancient crystalline cat pee, then disconnecting one IEC lead too many after heaving the cardboard box of ancient magazine softcore top shelf magazines from the eighties out of the way, only to realise it was the one to recharge the AudioControl SA-305S RTA (which itself needs a service) and to have to do the whole process again. Annnd breathe
My BT Optical hookup box was fixed to our partition wall with tiny fixings and the box fell off while I was messing about down there, so I had to stick insulting tape around the tiny screw and weeny wall plug and ram in back into the powdery plaster with my thumb, then hang the box back up.
No, worst of all was removing and replacing then rehoming a hooraw’s nest of memorabilia; of pottery my lad made, daft trophies I was given and heirlooms from my folks’ house. It took hours and this part, working at last again, is an utter delight.
I will do my best to shut up on the subject and try to make the better computing kit and and my new photography ordnance show their presence by a better output!
So, no, it wasn’t a magic carpet ride but I can feel that I am in Aladdin’s cave and will have riches beyond compare, tools-wise, just as soon as I can get a decent torch light-a-sputtering and SEE in here.
Tomorrow, I am off to go do a rare-but-vital quick check on the top end of OEM car audio, or Original Equipment by Manufacturer car sound systems. I have been inside Audis, Mercedes, Jaguars, Range Rovers, Lexuses (Lexii?) and even Maseratis before, with Bowers & Wilkins, Harman and Bang & Olufsen, as well as Mark Levinson. And it is Lexus and Levinson on the morrow. I had gotten a little madammy with the poor PR exec on the case as I kind of got the wrong end of the stick and she was beyond patient. (What me, never?)
It has to do with a new Mark Levinson system with what’s called Clari-Fi, or some such. By this time tomrrow, I shall be an expert. I do like the way that these OEM videos really burn across the plate on my Presenterbloke channel on YouTube, since their viewing figures are huge compared to many of my regular clips.
Talking of which, I am still fighting back the last bits of office messery from a horribly overdue pull through (trans: bit of tidying up still to do) and am then going to embark upon a new way of doing reviews. I can and will go into detail – on video. First will be the verdict and the why, with the on-the bench testing going on, as these seem to go down well. Each review video will then embed into a sensibly short word-count page fully introducing it, as well as showing the results right at the top of the page.
Judging by my sheer output from Las Vegas, (although the format was far too rich in copied words, I thought and so I went back and edited them) this aughta finally be the key I have sought to get the absurd backlog done and forge forwards again. The whole plate -spinning thing can only be managed by working smarter. Plus, that suggestion above gives a choice of routes of attention span from all but nil to reading the page, then seeing the video.
The obvious advantage is to up the quantity of reviews, without denting the quality. I am off to go try. Oh and while the new learning curve is a bit of a pain, the new 5K Retina screen is making this look EVER so pretty!
Like I said last week: ‘SighI almost feel guilty for leaving the PC culture and engaging with The Smug.’
Almost.
Adam Rayner On Line Editor