Can't believe its been over two years since my last post on here. Sadly lots has happened since then. My mom passed away in early 2025 and thus ending my nearly 4 1/2 years of being her primary care giver. Mom, i love you and still miss you!!! So at the moment I am jobless and just getting my solo life back together and also getting my geek life back up to speed.. So.. geekwise what have i been up to since 2023? oh boy.. A LOT!!! here we go!
First thing I did in late 2023 was revamping my condo's home automation/ecosystem. I completely ripped out everything Amazon; Echos, Shows, Speakers, Apps. Gone. Thankfully nearly all of the items i have are homekit compatible and the one's that aren't were Home Bridge compatible/had a plug-in. This project also got me to fully utilize my synology nas servers too. I setup docker on one of them and learned how to use docker containers and now am running Home Bridge (use to add non-homekit devices to apple home/homekit) and also Home Assistant server (to replace amazon echo/alexa and smart home automation, mainly information display like the echo show, more on this).
So currently I have all items running in Home Assistant but mainly use Apple Home to control. I use Siri and Shortcuts to replicate Amazon Alexa routines (ie say "Hey Siri, good morning" and siri triggers shortcut that will trigger apple home scene to turn on lights and then runs an automation in shortcut that has siri tell me good morning, read me the weather and tell me stock/crypto prices). Apple really needs to make what i am doing in shortcuts native in apple home and EASY! why can't i have automations in apple home read/speak me information??? seriously apple is so far behind on home automation basics.
As for computing. Sold my GPD Pocket 3 and all accessories for about 3/4 of what i paid!! not bad eh?? i then bought a used Lenovo M90q Gen3 on ebay for super cheap to replace my very old Dell 9020 at the condo as my remote access device. Not a bad setup. Up until last month, my main laptop then became my 2015 Macbook Air 11" with a sad mobile i7 and a measly 8gb of slow ram and a horrible iGPU. ran OCLP on it so i could run sequoia. actually ran it decently and gave me a taste of modern macos and i liked it!!! thus began my next search, an M based macbook pro/air upgrade.
After my mom passed, i had a bunch of free time and wanted to get my mind off those things for a bit so i did some major researching on the M1 - M4 based chips, how each performed, the variants of each (base, pro, max, ultra) and also config/hardware differences. after about a week of non-stop reading/watching, i came to the conclusion that basically any chip from the M1 Max and beyond would be more than enough computing power for my needs. However, after doing more and more research, i had my target set. i wanted a crazy maxed out M1 Max setup. Seeing the M1 Max vs M4 comparisons as of the M4s release, reminded me about how good the M1 Max chip was. It still has faster memory bandwidth than the base M4 and its over 4 years old now.
The most important specs for me on my next mac purchase was: RAM and Storage, LOTS OF IT!!!
Initially I went on apple's store and spec'd/built a new 14" M4 Pro w/nano texture screen, 24gb ram, 1TB ssd and it was around $2,400!! my budget/money i set aside was up to $2,500 so i put in my order, it would take about 3 weeks to build and ship since it had the nano texture screen.
fast forward a week later, after another week of watching more reviews on the m4 pro i decided to cancel my order.
MY WORKFLOW IS NOTHING LIKE THE YOUTUBERS I WATCH!!! who am i kidding. i am a power user but not that kind of power user. i do basic 4K video stitching at best, some cropping, maybe some photo/video collages. nope, i do not need a new M4, let alone an m4 pro!!
so.. to ebay i went. my search criteria: M1 Max, 32GB Ram or more, 2TB or more of storage and 14" form factor. Color didn't matter, but condition should be gently used (nice screen, body can show wear) and battery healthy (90% or better health).
intially searches yielded configs in my criteria in the $1800-$2200. ok, decided to setup multiple saved searches and have ebay email me when new ones are listed. get an alert at 3am. whoa!! its a M1 Max, 10core cpu, 32core gpu, 64gb ram and 4tb ssd for $1800. ok.. wait, it has a "Make Offer" option?? hmm, figured what the heck and threw a crazy lowball offer of $1300. next morning, congrats your offer was accepted. WHAT???!!! something def had to be wrong right? well.. guess i'll see in three days.
Received it and... ITS PERFECT. LIKE NEW. No MDM locks, no itunes locks. wow!!!! this baby retailed for about $4500 in 2021.
so there is my story of how i got my 2021 macbook pro 14". later that week i wanted to get a new docking station since i needed one that supported 1080p 120hz hdr and well.. good luck trying to figure that out based on what specs the manufacturers publish.. so i decided to take a risk on the Ivanky FusionDock Max 1 for apple silicon macs. omg, figuring out multi-monitor support for macs SHOULD NOT be this much work. windows you win this fight for sure!!
anywho, so back to ebay we go. well, last strategy seemed to work so i repeat and setup email alerts. this time i find an open box but new dock for $279 but.. it has a "Make Offer".. you know what i did, i put in an offer for $200. Next morning got the congrats email!! man!! this dock retailed for $430 new a few years ago and now is about $379 new.
well.. it arrives.. yup, completely brand new. seals never broken, box has a small little pushed in corner. got it all setup and power it on.... BAM!! 1080p 120Hz HDR shows up in macos and on screens OSD!! sweet!!
and here i am, back on MacOS and loving it. not missing win11 at all and reason why i am on a mac. also battery life of macbooks are crazy good and the power per price for this setup is crazy good!!!!
that is all for now. i'll have more updates more often for anyone who might read this. ;) peace out
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