The bmannconsulting.com website

tags:

  • MacOS

I keep [[My Stuff in the Cloud]] so don't really do traditional backups of my desktop.

For this new Sequoia install1, I bought a LaCie USB-C 1TB hard drive and did move some files off.

  • Downloads is in iCloud, as is Desktop/Screenshots
  • Backed up both to the external hard drive
  • Trimmed to the last 2 months (so: deleted from iCloud)
  • Had Rogue Trader and No Man's Sky as large installs in Steam, so backed up their game files
  • Copied across the entire Photos Library, which synchs with iCloud anyway, but won't have to pull down ~100GB of photos
  • Copied across the entire Music folder. Will probably go direct from that external drive to [[Ampache TinyHome Install]]

I did the Erase All Content and Settings because I wanted to do a fresh install. Turns out this did get me back into Monterey, and then I had to download and install MacOS Sequoia.


OK, fresh Sequoia install, where do we go from here!

Setup [[Apple Intelligence]]. Hmmm. Not sure what if anything this does.

1Password, as it gates pretty much everything.

I also got new headphones, [[Sennheiser Momentum 4 Wireless]], so let's get [[Amperfy]] installed from the App Store so we can listen to music while doing setup.

Used Safari for a bit, then got Chrome setup. I sync Bookmarks (pretty much just visible ones in the browser bar, not like a collection or anything), Extensions, and Saved tab groups. Installed [[Squoosh]] as a PWA while I'm at it.

I want to be taking these notes in [[Obsidian]], so need to grab that. Oh right, it's in git, which triggers the Xcode CLI tools install.

Grabbing [[LogSeq]] too. I use it for all my private notes, sync via iCloud. Which barely works to get stuff on mobile. Side quest of figuring out what I can lean into with LogSeq. logseq-calendars-plugin (grab meetings from your calendar and enter as notes), Journals calendar plugin, Todo List.

Made the [[Developer folder]] where code checkouts will live.

Symbolic link for iCloud:

ln -s ~/iCloud -> /massive/path/to/where/iCloud/is

Not diving into this quite yet, but going to try [[Orbstack]] for local VMs / containers. It has a download...but also a brew install. In the same category, [[UTM]] I paid for in the app store to support their development. Downloaded.

[[Signal]] desktop installed.

Grabbed [[Nextcloud]] files desktop app. Also accessible over WebDAV. Oh. Went and looked at Nextcloud apps. They're all mostly bad?

Re-activated Internet Accounts. Nextcloud, Google.

OK, let's git commit and push this.

Ah yes, git config --global --edit we meet again. But first, the [[micro]] text editor, and our temporary friend export EDITOR="/Users/bmann/bin/micro". This is where [[walkah]]'s dotfiles would come in handy. Followed by git commit --amend --reset-author.

Good night!


At [[Z-Space]] for a couple of hours today, and need to follow my own past instructions for my mechanical keyboard. This time, I downloaded the manuals and am just putting them publicly on the [[RK71]] page.

[[Stacher]] needs ffmpeg, so I guess now is when I install [[Homebrew]]. Whelp. I've got a .zprofile now, and I'm straying further from the light of walkah's dotfiles.

ffmpeg installed. Stacher updated to use a custom ffmpeg in the ~/.stacher folder with a symlink ln -s /opt/homebrew/bin/ffmpeg ffmpeg.

Discord app installed so I can send a link to Stacher to [[Jonny Ostrem]].

Hmm. Learning some zsh tips about PATH management:

# append
path+=('/home/david/pear/bin')
# or prepend
path=('/home/david/pear/bin' $path)

I guess it's time for a non-terminal based code editor. Let's start things right and go straight to [[Windsurf]], hat tip [[Ryan Betts]]. Oh, I guess I'm signing up for a trial, let's see where this goes. It's based on [[VSCode]], so it's also just a regular editor.

A brief detour in remember colourized ll preferences.

alias ll="ls -lahG"

Markdown All in One recommended as plugin for previewing. I use Obsidian for editing the blog, but lots of Markdown in other contexts.


(back home for the evening)

Oh yeah, let's install some games! I bought a founder's pack early beta access to The Bazaar.

And Steam of course. Not really playing anything actively on the laptop, always down for a Caves of Qud session. Yes, my ice monk in [[Path of Exile]] 2 on [[Steam Deck]] is doing great, thanks!

Oh, OK, now I need Rosetta. I guess Steam is still really far away from a native Silicon client from some quick reading.

Jane Manchun Wong says I should install [[Ghostty]].

brew install --cask ghostty

My first cask install! I poked around config, and settled on duckbones as my theme.


It's New Year's Eve, so not doing much today! [[Fedora Media Writer]] installed via brew because I was thinking about it. Got to get back to my [[Bazzite]] install on the [[MiniPC PL63]].

brew install --cask fedora-media-writer

Installed GoLang in order to complete [[Migrating accounts to my own PDS]]. Added to path:

path+=('/Users/bmann/go/bin')

Happy New Year! Found [[Taildrive]] and worked on re-activating my [[Tailscale]] stuff. They have multiple ways to install on MacOS. I'll grab the package from them directly.

Re-familiarizing myself with what I have going on here. I have my old Mac Mini Intel at Z-Space that I connected. Which I should probably just get rid of.

Oh I know, I can connect to my [[BringYourOwn.Computer]] PDS, and backup repos from there.

Huh. Having issues ssh'ing into the server. Somehow this is grabbing different IP addresses because I have Cloudflare proxy turned on??? Ok, I'll set /etc/hosts with the IP address of [[BringYourOwn.Computer]].

Hit the [[Ghostty]] terminfo thing.


First 2025 day at [[Z-Space]].

Telegram via brew install telegram.


Things to Figure Out#

Email#

I still need to figure out [[Email Clients]]. [[Spark Mail]] has been a total fail for me. Either back to a new, personal [[Missive]], or I try [[Superhuman]]. Or...I try the Apple Mail app for a while? With Spark Mail not working for me, I've just been using Gmail in browser on desktop.

Mac Host Naming#

I've set Local hostname to Altaria.local, but "Boris's MacBook Air" still shows up in lots of places.

The "Use dynamic global hostname" looks interesting, too! I guess Dynamic DNS is built in.


  1. I was on MacOS Monterey, 12.7.6, the stalest OS install I've ever had. I got this laptop at Fission in 2020 and I kept putting off taking the time to do an OS upgrade. ↩︎