pmset -g log | grep ' wake'

I could see a lot of references to CSPNEvaluation with an hourly wake event. After looking around online I found a solution to this. In Sonoma, even with powernap disabled, the Mac seems to wake on a regular basis by design. If you want to override this function & stop your Mac waking, I recommend the following.

1.  In terminal, type the following command to create an override folder
   sudo mkdir -p /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/
2. Change directory into the folder with cd /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/
3. Create the following file & open the terminal editor with
   sudo nano powerd.plist
4. You will now be in the nano editor, where you need to paste the following code block to override (the folder & file you create as part of this can be deleted at any time if you want to undo it)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>CoreSmartPowerNap</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Enabled</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Save the file in nano & reboot your machine. The CSPNEvaluation issue should have resolved & your mac should stay asleep. I’ve just tested mine & it successfully stayed asleep for 10 hours.

A week later I had the OneOdio A30’s in my hand, and I was instantly impressed with this little gem. I wasn’t expecting great things given the sub £60 price tag, but I’ve got to say I’m blown away by how good these headphones are. My expectations were low due to price, but that was misplaced. They are wonderful.

They are on over ear design so the soft ear cups naturally block out a lot of ambient noise. Trigger the ANC switch though & you have 26db active noise cancelling which is brilliant. Like all noise cancelling, it is better at blocking out constant pitch of noise such as the hum of an engine, but these do well to block out most sounds, even sudden bangs and crashes in the environment.

Without the noise cancelling active, the sound response is decent from the 40mm drivers. Bass is punchy but not overpowering & treble doesn’t get muddy like it tends to on a lot of Bluetooth headphones. I’ve paired them with my MacBook, iMac, Apple Watch & iPhone, and they work flawlessly with each device, also allowing for easy switching between devices as they favour the current connected device which is outputting audio. Simply pause on one device and start playing on another and the audio source automatically switches. I have found that they work best without any EQ settings on iOS. I had a bass booster turned on for my earpods, but have switched it off for use with these. It was too bassy.

The multi function buttons on the side allow you to power on/off the headphones and also feature volume up and down buttons. Tap the power button to pause and resume and long press the volume buttons to skip tracks. The controls are always at hand, but I tend to use my Apple Watch to control my music, so not a function I use often.

One problem I did find was when pairing with my MacBook & iMac, the Bluetooth codec would default to SBC which is the basic Bluetooth reference codec & means audio will go out of sync with videos when playing. However, not stated on the box is that these headphones support the AAC codec which is the native apple codec on Mac/iOS devices. AAC is normally reserved for much higher end hardware & I’m surprised it isn’t advertised on the specs as it would make these even more desirable with apple users. Running the following commands in terminal on my iMac and MacBook enabled AAC support & audio/video streaming was in sync & the audio much better quality. I also enabled aptX for other headphones.

To enable AptX support
sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AptX codec" -bool true

And AAC support

sudo defaults write bluetoothaudiod "Enable AAC codec" -bool true

The headphones charge using a USB C cable which is supplied & the OneOdio A30 headphones also come with carry case, wired cable for use when battery is low or on older non Bluetooth devices & an airline adaptor to allow you to use them on a plane.

The headphones are made out of plastic, which doesn’t feel premium like the alloys used in other brands, but they feel robust and hard wearing. The ear cups are a comfortable synthetic leather & I haven’t had any issues with hot ears or itching. The headband is padded in a similar vegan leather and one aspect I really like is that the top of the headband where the logo is, is also padded. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve banged my beats against things like car doors and not wanted to look at the scratches & gouges. A nice touch.

Battery life is excellent. Specs quote that you will get 15 hours using Bluetooth and noise cancelling, while you should get 25 hours with noise cancelling disabled & 45 hours of just noise cancelling without Bluetooth switched on. This all from a 500mAH battery. For my usage, listening to music, meditating & watching films while I work, I find that I’m charging them once a week. I don’t tend to use ANC when sat in the office, but will when meditating or walking outdoors & I’ve found it a really handy feature. It really does help. These headphones also have mics built in for hands-free calling which is a feature I’m using a lot during lockdown.

For under £60 on Amazon these are a no brainer. Great price, great product and wonderful value for money. As good if not better than headphones I’ve used at 5-6 times the price. Their support of AAC makes them perfect for iOS & Mac users & if you stream from Apple Music, you will notice that the audio is crisp and pleasant as intended. A highly recommended purchase.

After a little use I noticed my CPU was constantly maxed out and I could also hear the HDD seeking a lot. Digging in I found 4 processes related to Apple’s new Music app running wild in activity monitor

The four processes in question where AMPArtworkAgent, AMPLibraryAgent, AMPDeviceDiscoveryAgent and AMPDevicesAgent. I assume from the naming of these processes that the first is used to download additional album and artist artwork, the second manages the library, the third looks for devices such as iPhones and Apple TV’s on the network and the fourth manages the wireless syncing of my old iPhone 4 in our kitchen dock which is used for music playback. The one that was causing the most trouble seemed to be the AMPArtworkAgent.

I had a look in my Music preferences and under the advanced tab I noticed that the Automatically Update Artwork tick box was checked. I unchecked this box to troubleshoot but still saw the process was eating up CPU cycles.

So last night I finally found a fix, but first a few caveats before you try this. My own library of ripped music is huge. I have 37k+ tracks stored locally & I used Cloud Music (formerly iTunes Match) to match and store them all safely in the cloud. I keep them locally because I listen to them all the time, I have the storage space, it allows me to continue to sync to my old iPod and iPhone, as well as play them back on my media centres and Sonos over NFS/SMB. Also, my iMac still works perfectly, but it is technically unsupported, so I went into this troubleshooting not knowing if it could be resolved given that the OS shouldn’t really run on my machine.

Anyway I finally managed to fix it & went the nuclear route.

1. Make sure the ‘Automatically Update Artwork’ check box remains unchecked in preferences > advanced.

2. De authorize your music app from apple. Head to Account > Authorizations >De-authorise within the music app toolbar.
3. Sign Out your Apple ID within music. Again Account > Sign Out.
4. Close the music app
5. Open Activity Monitor and search AMP. Force quit any processes beginning with AMP (assuming AMP is standing for Apple Music Player/process)

6. Go to your music folder and delete everything. Make sure you either have your own music stored in iTunes match or copy it onto an external drive for backup. This will delete any locally stored music, so if you don’t use match please do make sure you have backups of your own ripped music.

7. Go to the following folder and delete everything. This folder contains the SQLite that seems to control the artwork caches and also stores the artwork which Music caches from the embedded artwork in music files, probably to speed up UI rendering during playback/streaming.
~/Library/Containers/com.apple.AMPArtworkAgent/Data/Documents/

8. Hold the option key and click on the Music icon to open the app. Keep holding option until a dialog appears regarding your music library. Opt to create a new library and call it Music (if it asks you to overwrite please do).
9. Once music opens, before you sign in with your Apple ID, go to preferences and make sure the checkbox for downloading artwork is still unchecked. This is a must or you will have the same problem.
10. Click on account in the top toolbar, sign in and reauthorise your music app.
11. You should now see your Apple Music start to populate (if you subscribe) and your iTunes match/cloud music start to return. It will take some time for the artwork cache to refill so be patient. AMPArtwork Agent and the other processes will run for a while, but this is simply to extract the artwork embedded in your music files and to populate the cache. Give it time and all of your artwork will come back.
12. If you use iTunes match, start playing your music or downloading your tracks again. The same goes for Apple Music. All should be well.

I still have the AMPArtwork agent process running, but it doesn’t get out of control. My artwork cache is now fully populated after around 8 hours of idling and use. Music is fast & snappy again and I can use it without issue. I’ve always managed my own artwork for my own ripped music, so I can do without the auto fetching of artwork from Apples Servers.

My own impression is that the process starts to loop. It is trying to extra artwork from the mp3/m4a meta of my own music files & also trying to populate the cache with additional artwork while trying to update my artwork (if the Automatically Download Artwork services is checked). The SQLite database must start to choke and the process runs amok. Mine is purring along again with around 85% idle CPU when using Firefox and music. Even on my unsupported workhorse iMac its working perfectly again.

I hope this post helps some of you out. One thing that drives me mad is wasted CPU cycles & HDD seeks/writes, especially to fluff out meta I’d rather control myself. Let me know how you get on.

A few years later I bought a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and this became our main Kodi media centre, replacing the Apple TV 2 and coupled with a Rii keyboard. It was much faster & more stable running Libreelec.

A couple more years passed and I realized I still had my first Pi, complete with an awesome perspex case, so I had a look for projects to complete with it. I stumbled across the PiHole project and the rest is history.

PiHole is a network ad blocker/filter and DNS server. It has a great browser interface & you can add lots of adblock/ublock blocklists to the pi, to block ads on all devices on the network at a hardware level. Unlike adblockers on a browser which use more cosmetic ways of blocking ads, the pihole blocks them at DNS level, meaning a request to the ad/blocked server never leaves the network. From a privacy standpoint this is huge. It also means I can control traffic/trackers on devices such as our Smart TV and iOS devices. It’s surprising how many requests these devices make without your knowledge.

PiHole’s web interface shows all traffic & destinations and allows you to whitelist or blacklist IP’s & domains for fine-grained control over outgoing traffic on your network.

I took my setup one step further & coupled it with DNSCrypt 2.0 to encrypt all of my outbound DNS traffic. DNSCrypt coupled with PiHole on the pi & HTTPS everywhere in my browser ensures no unencrypted traffic leaves my browser. All DNS lookups are encrypted & I use non logging DNSCrypt Servers for my DNS lookups. This adds an extra layer of protection for my network traffic & prevents eavesdropping & sniffing of my traffic.

The Pi Hole raspberry pi sits in a cupboard downstairs and filters all of our network traffic. We have around 20 Wi-Fi connected devices on the network & around 10 hard-wired devices & it copes fine. It’s running 24/7 and the blocklist contains almost 1.3 million blocked domains without a hitch. Even with DNScrypt running alongside Pi Hole (which are both Python based) and a MySQL server for Kodi, the old Pi with its modest hardware isn’t stressed, runs silently, uses very little CPU time and has a 50% memory footprint. It’s even running the original SD card which has been in use since 2012.

This is a great solution. It’s silent, uses only a few watts of power & saves thousands of extra requests per day, not to mention the amount of data which is never downloaded. Browsing is generally much quicker on my home network & an added benefit is that we don’t see advertising on catch up TV services on our Smart TV.

I’m going to do a full post on setting up the pi for this usage, so if you would like to see that, check back soon.

For those of you willing to dive in, you need a Pi running raspbian. You can install Pi Hole using the instructions on their website

I used these instructions to install DNScrypt 2.0

First I tried blocking the individual IP’s, but this seemed to make the bot more aggressive & requests went up as high as 800 every 30 seconds. The range of IP’s seemed endless, which seems to suggest some sort of bot farm or a whole range of compromised machines which are used for DDOS.

After giving it some thought & checking the raw access logs, I could see a pattern in the user agents being used by the malicious traffic. Below are a few examples of those user agents:-

Mozilla/5.0(Linux;Android 5.1.1;OPPO A33 Build/LMY47V;wv) AppleWebKit/537.36(KHTML,link Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/42.0.2311.138 Mobile Safari/537.36 Mb2345Browser/9.0

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.0; FRD-AL00 Build/HUAWEIFRD-AL00; wv) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/53.0.2785.49 Mobile MQQBrowser/6.2 TBS/043602 Safari/537.36 MicroMessenger/6.5.16.1120 NetType/WIFI Language/zh_CN

Mozilla/5.0(Linux;Android 5.1.1;OPPO A33 Build/LMY47V;wv) AppleWebKit/537.36(KHTML,link Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/43.0.2357.121 Mobile Safari/537.36 LieBaoFast/4.51.3

Mozilla/5.0(Linux;U;Android 5.1.1;zh-CN;OPPO A33 Build/LMY47V) AppleWebKit/537.36(KHTML,like Gecko) Version/4.0 Chrome/40.0.2214.89 UCBrowser/11.7.0.953 Mobile Safari/537.36

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; Android 7.0;) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Mobile Safari/537.36 (compatible; PetalBot;+https://aspiegel.com/petalbot)

I broke down the user agents above & added a new rule to my root .htaccess file as follows:-

Options +FollowSymLinks
RewriteEngine On
RewriteBase /
RewriteCond %{HTTP_USER_AGENT} Mb2345Browser|LieBaoFast|zh-CN|MicroMessenger|zh_CN|Kinza|Datanyze|serpstatbot|spaziodati|OPPO\sA33|AspiegelBot|aspiegel|PetalBot [NC]
RewriteRule ^ - [F,L]

This rule uses a regular expression to block a user agent containing any of the following strings:-
Mb2345Browser
LieBaoFast
zh-CN
MicroMessenger
zh_CN
Kinza
OPPO A33
Aspeigel
PetalBot

The first two seem to be used commonly by Chinese crawlers, but as mentioned earlier, we do not ship products to china, so I’m not worried about blocking those browsers. The ZH-CN strings refer to Chinese specific localization settings such as OS & Interface language. Micromessneger is related to WeChat – but again, I’ve never had a customer browse/buy from within the WeChat app so that can be safely blocked. Finally, Kinza is related to Russian email spam. I believe the Kinza browser is an obscure Japanese browser, but on our site is commonly misused in the user agent string by Russian email spam.

This seems to be quite a simple solution to block traffic. Many spammy users will have something in the user agent string which isn’t common to the popular browsers such as chrome, safari & Firefox on common devices. You will have to cater this to your own websites needs, but I’ve no doubt I’ll be adding other reg ex arguments from obscure user agents in the future to keep malicious users off the site.

I hope this helps & if you have anything to add, please get in touch or leave a comment.

Through the years I’ve adopted more of these platforms and integrated them into my life. I’ve continued to study them from both a personal & a societal point of view, and in the last few years my view has shifted radically.

The networks which started out with so much promise have turned sour. The tools given to us to allow for greater collaboration & communication, have been turned against us.

First came the overwhelm with platforms. I used to only manage my twitter account, which was a massively different beast. Back then, you could post a 140 character micro blog, which included links in your character count. A re tweet meant writing RT and then including someone’s handle. We didn’t have the trending bar. Hash tags where used sparingly. Brands and businesses didn’t bother posting at all. We didn’t have an app, or smart phones.

Fast forward to 2018 & I have Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Last Fm, Good Reads, Google+ & Spotify. I still have a Facebook account, but this has lay dormant for around a year. With all of these extra accounts to manage I feel like I’m spread too thin & duplicating posts. I feel more like a manager now than a user utilizing a tool. The platforms themselves have become more complicated, sapping more attention than I can spare.

Take for example Instagram. Instagram used to offer simple tools to filter & post an image. The image could be filtered with an array of real time filters & the initial offering was Insta-nt. It would take a picture, in the moment on your phone camera, filter it & post it. Now we have Inbox, we have instagram stories, IG TV, video posts, multiple image posts & enough hashtags to make descriptions feel more like codewords.

Instagram also allows the use of pictures taken on any other device. Photographs can be taken in studios, or with professional grade camera equipment, edited in lightroom and posted to a standard previously reserved for glossy magazines. The instant element of insta(nt)gram have been lost, and much of the human feel of the platform has been lost as a result.

This bloat is reflected across all of the networks. Twitter is a mess of “such a person liked this” or “you may like this” or “trending topics”. The introduction of advertising tweets, algorithmic twitter feeds, extended text & the like button have made twitter bloated beyond recognition when compared to the initial simple offering. Another massively bloating feature is the re-tweet button, which allows all users to re-tweet all tweets ad nauseam, filling everyone else’s time lines with irrelevant and distracting content. The simple addition of a like button and re tweet button have turned an endorsement or recommendation into an almost obligatory spamming tool.

Another addition which has ruined twitter (in my opinion) is the tweet thread. What once would be a conversation between two users, which would largely go unnoticed by the Twitterati at large has become an arena to attack peoples views or jump into a conversation which doesn’t concern anyone other than the people holding the conversation. It has made general conversation & collaboration via twitter something to avoid, and even means users are guarded with what they say, for fear of awaking the trolls or critics.

The last nail in the coffin of social media in general is money & stealth advertising. Social networks started as as just that, social. A means to communicate & converse with those in your circle. A way to start conversations with like minded people & develop new friendships. Much like the forums and instant messenger apps that went before them, social networks promised to connect like minded people and allow users to trade ideas and knowledge. Twitter, for instance, was actually known as a micro blogging service. Now, I fear we have entered the commercialisation of social networks.

The money rolls in, from brands, from political actors, from foreign governments & big business. Users proliferate ideas or recommend products as an all expenses paid lifestyle. A recommendation via a twitter user or Instagrammer has lost credibility in the age of ‘the influencer’, and it is this money which has tainted the platforms and also our psychology.

Social Media quickly developed into a tool to show off with. Humans are inherently competitive animals, and we like to show off to establish our social standing. This used to mean buying a fancy suit for work, or perhaps a fancier model of car, but social media has amplified this social one-upmanship to new levels.

We are nearly all guilty of curating our best selves on social media. Presenting our lives in the best possible light. Posting pictures of our awesome lunch or an amazing hotel room, to compete with our peers. I’ve lived on the south coast of England for years, and the small harbour village I live in is very picturesque. I’ve posted so many pictures of emerald green seas and coastal walks for the sole purpose of showing off. It shames me to say it, but I don’t think enough of us admit why we are doing these things.

Self expression has rapidly mutated into self promotion. Individual identity has morphed into the human as a personal brand.

The problem we face now is that money & funding is often opaque online. We are bombarded with perfect, luxury lifestyles, amazing holidays, fancy clothes & cars and we believe (as outlined by establishing our social status as humans) that we are somehow less successful than those posting the pictures. This false representation is terrible for our psychological well being.

You can see this in action every day. Just take a look at your friends & neighbours car, the clothes they wear, the lifestyle they exude. Many people are clamouring to keep up with the influencers, and in doing so are falling into huge amounts of debt and stress. But the lifestyles we try to imitate are not real.

Social media influencers are able to quickly grow on social networks. They are favoured by algorithms because they receive a lot of engagement. This is due to the fact that their perfect pictures & lifestyles appeal to users who are trying to prove their worth in the social media age. We follow them and like their pictures in the hope of mimicking the perfect travel & lifestyle. What we aren’t told is that the flights & hotels are all paid for by brands, the clothing is all free, the links are all affiliate links and the influencers themselves are essentially stealth advertisers.

This taints our own experience of life. How can our car, our house, our travel or surroundings ever match up to the all expenses paid luxury lifestyles which now parade on social media as normal?

Think of an influencer as a living television advert. They are a brand, they cultivate themselves as a brand and they push products and services onto an often unsuspecting public. The difference being, a television advert is obvious whereas an advert masquerading as one of our social peers is a dangerous development in our social hierarchy.

The same goes for political influencers such as populist politicians. Often their funding is opaque, but they masquerade as a champion of the people, while being funded and guided by the wills of the rich & powerful. Social networks have allowed such bad actors to copy the template of the influencer, but they are pushing a political agenda disguised as opinion & distorting the public debate.

The cumulative affect of this can be seen in our now polarized & highly competitive societies. Social justice and social progress are being discarded in favour of personal development & greed. Forced to compete under a microscope with peers who are not our equal is extremely damaging to our psychological well being as I’ve experienced first hand.

This article is based purely on my own experience of social networks & my studies over the years, so you may have a different view entirely, but for me social networks have caused extensive stress which dates back now around 6 years.

I’ve found myself unable to create new work. My ideas have been subliminally altered by exposure to social media & I’ve found myself less interested in my academic work and more interested in cultivating an on line persona. Even knowing how addictive social media can be, I was still unable to make the connection with a decline in my own mental health & the proliferation of more distracting social media tools.

I honestly believe that social media could have been used as a great collaborative & creative tool, but the profit motive from data collection & advertising has meant that engagement and eye ball time has taken precedent over user health and well being. The networks are now competing with each other for our attention & they are turning to more nefarious ways of monopolising and holding our attention, including employing large quantities of neuroscientists & psychologists to perfect the tools to work against our best interests.

The introduction of professional social media influencers has only compounded the psychological harm done by social media. When your peers & friends become human advertising, its hard to trust the networks & the social element starts to break down. By presenting impossible lives to everyone, we can’t help but fall into depression, anxiety & debt. Without the transparency of funding, it isn’t possible to differentiate between a paid editorial user and a genuine peer.

We also don’t know if the friend we have made, who we believe holds similar values, is a bot, a user funded by a foreign government to disseminate disinformation, or a paid influencer. Money has tainted the experience & I do believe the days of social networks as we know them are numbered.

I continue to research social media & I implore all readers to regain control of their online lives. Limit your social network circles to those who you know & trust, or to those who you have been referred to by close friends & trusted acquaintances. Always be sceptical about those selling a lifestyle & try not to use the networks to turn yourself into a brand. Post honest content & try to enjoy the moment. If you ever feel like you are posting for the wrong reasons or to show off, just take a moment to ask yourself if that post will be valuable to others, and also ask if it might contribute to someone else’s stress.

I’ve since removed social media from my mobile devices & unfollowed the majority of accounts which don’t bring me value. I no longer follow brands or aspirational accounts. I’ve unfollwed all aggregating accounts and those which tend to repost. I’ve tried to reintroduce the human element to my usage. If it’s not an individual, I don’t follow them.

I’ve also limited myself to twitter & instagram. I’ve deleted my other accounts & find I have much more time & less stress. I also worry less about my situation & I don’t compare myself to others. I feel much more confident & able to write. I’ve started making notes for future work.

But the biggest change I’ve made is valuing the open internet. I’m not interested in apps. I don’t want walled gardens. I’m trying to avoid comparison sites & middle men sites. The internet is full of wonderful websites, blogs and resources.

I’ve logged back into my favourite forums and enjoy discussion with those I share an interest. A forum is great because it is self moderated & inherently more human.

I’ve also started calling & texting people directly. Conversation strictly between a closed group of people is much more open & fluid than a discussion in front of the entire world, and the small nuances you get from voice and body language make the experience much more human. Conversation is also good for your brain & general well being.

Social Networks are a walled garden of signed up users, but there is a whole world out there online. Leave behind the walls of social media and get out exploring the open internet again. It’s a wonderful place.

This video is over an hour long, but goes a long way to explain the direction in which our technology (and the companies who run them) are going. If we leave it to the quasi-monopoly companies we have already, we are in for a rough ride. Recommended for any internet user, especially those with a penchant for smart home devices (he outlines some good real world hacks, including hacking a pacemaker). A great advocation for ignoring all of the apps & walled gardens & returning to the open internet.

There are times algorithms are of great use, such as those used by search engines to gather up millions of documents, sort them & hopefully present the one closest to your search term. I take issue with the algorithms developed by the likes of Google, but more with respect to how they censor results & control information flows. Their information retrieval techniques have always been astonishing & their ability to sort & serve data with algorithms is commendable, however, they are now straying into the murky territory of policing the information we see which is disconcerting. I very much recommned switching to https://www.startpage.com/Start Page for your search. Google results without google & their creepy data mining.

However, on the whole, the Google search algorithms aren’t the ones I’m concerned most about. That dubious award goes to the likes of social media algorithms. I was a major fan of the original Twitter for example. Back when Twitter started, we had a simple, chronological timeline. Tweets were shown in order of post time and it was impossible to miss a tweet. We didn’t have access to a retweet button, you had to do that manually with an RT and copy & paste. This meant twitter was much less spammy as it took the actual effort to retweet. We also didn’t have the like button. If you liked something, you either smiled to yourself, or you replied & started a conversation. It was social.

Fast forward to 2017 and Twitter is an algorithm infested quagmire. If you use the official app or a web browser, you are presented with a hideous mess of tweets you may like, based on tweets liked by people you follow. You also have a selection of tweets you may have missed and a whole bunch of other crap tweets you have no interest in. Combine that with sponsored tweets & Twitter have quietly achieved infinite scroll. You literally can’t catch up on all of your tweets as it will just keep presenting you with content which you never asked to see. They have also introduced the quick retweet buttons and threaded conversations, meaning your timeline is now chock full of noise and junk. The simple & easy to follow timeline of the past is now an algorithmically controlled advertising & data mining leviathan.

I personally try to limit the amount of noise I see online. I’ve read hundreds of books from the fields of tech & psychology which all suggest that we are suffering from information overload. The ‘attention merchants’ as many like to call the social media companies & content creators are finding more ways to aggregate data & content in order to keep your eyeballs on their platform. Numerous academics suggest that human beings simply haven’t evolved & developed the mental capacity to take in so much data. Our brains simply aren’t able to deal with so much data, leaving us lethargic & burnt out.

I personally felt like there was a rapidly diminishing return on the value of Social media. I gave up Facebook completely over 6 months ago due to their algorithms & the febrile political and social atmosphere developing on the platform & I also deleted all Facebook apps from my smartphone. Snapchat is gone. I now stick with Twitter & have closed down all of my other social accounts.

I found that the algorithmic changes implemented by tech companies worked too well. I was hooked on social media and constantly trying to absorb stream after stream of information & content. With no end in sight & the possibility of infinite information & an infinite scroll in apps, I decided to take control of my social media usage. Add into that trendint topics & hashtags & recommended users to follow & you are combarded with information you didn’t seek.

I initially considered stopping using all forms of social media but decided instead to focus on using only Twitter and tailor my experience away from their algorithms & back towards something I can use. This meant making some changes to the way I use the platform.

The first thing I decided to do was to unfollow all but my favourite friends on twitter. No more companies, no spammy content, no people I’d added through curiosity or after a single exchange. I wanted a concise list of people to maximize the value of twitter & minimise my exposure to information. I managed to get down from 1400+ people I was following to around 300. I’m constantly reviewing this list but find it manageable. I unfollowed all news outlets and breaking news accounts, I stick to reading that on news websites when I choose to.

The second step I took was to turn off retweets for everyone I follow. No exceptions. I was interested in original content & I’ve found that links people actually take the time to recommend with a tweet and a link are much more valuable to me than those which are simply retweeted, often blindly. It took a while to click-through to everyone to turn off their retweets, but this dramatically changed my twitter experience. Now, when I wake up in the morning I may have 40 tweets to catch up on which takes a matter of minutes. Before I literally couldn’t catch up so I would give up and potentially miss important tweets. The first major problem with algorithms, they decide what I’d like to see rather than letting me decide.

My next step was to ditch the official website & apps altogether. Twitter bundles its algorithm features and sponsored tweets directly into the apps. This means that even with a small following count & no retweets, it will still show you algorithmically gathered content & bombard you with noise. The key is to use the Twitter API. I’ve used the Tweetbot app on ios for years and ideally, it shows everything on your Twitter timeline in chronological order. No algorithm junk, no sponsored tweets. The great thing I discovered was that TapBots have a version of Tweetbot for Mac OS. This means I can get the same ios style twitter interface directly on my mac. Whats more, I can use iCloud or Tweetmarker to sync my apps across all devices so it remembers where I left off reading on the timeline. I decided to go for Tweet Marker as this is an open & cross-platform service and can be used on Linux and other platforms I use regularly.

With tweetbot, I can now effectively manage my twitter experience & also reduce data overload. I’ve found my social media usage is back to early day twitter. I can check in a few times a day when I have a moment & get caught up on everyone’s tweets. I can then step away and do other things & resume later in the day. It is the perfect workflow for me.

Other advantages of Tweetbot include the ability to mute hashtags or keywords. Any keywords you add will allow Tweetbot to filter out entire tweets from your timeline which contain those keywords. These ‘mute words’ sync across your tweetbot apps. I have a few setup now as in 2017 my twitter was becoming a shouting match for politics instead of a useful resource. By adding a few simple mute words I can rid my timeline of the politics, saving me getting into a rage with fellow Twitter users. If 2017 has taught me anything, it is that political discussion & social media do not work. Without face to face discussion debate isn’t possible. So I now filter out the politics & stick to reading news sites without the debate & I chat to real people in person about the state of the world. Much more productive.

Over the Christmas period, I’ve decided to protect my tweets. This is for personal reasons, but mainly because I’d rather not have the whole world & people I no longer talk to gaining an insight into my time with friends & family.

The above workflow for Twitter is the ideal way to regain control of your social media from algorithms. It’s the main reason I stuck with Twitter. It’s not possible to apply a similar workflow to Facebook because of a lack of API access, so Twitter is the ideal platform still available to tailor in this way. By reducing the algorithmic noise you really will feel better about social media again.

I find Instagram is now unusable because of the algorithm, I miss so many people’s photos. A lot on Instagram is time sensitive, such as when someone posts and they are local to you, but you don’t see the post until days or weeks later so youuo can’t comment or meet up. I find that it is a much less social platform. It’s fun to browse pictures, but as a social platform, it fails miserably. I now also find that every other Instagram post is sponsored or an advert, so again information overload starts to creep in & the time sucking ability of social media begins to affect my productivity.

I’ve found modern social media to be anything but social & I’ve also discovered it becoming more addictive, with many of the negative side effects of addictive behaviour, from reduced attention span, to full-blown anxiety. It feels so nicely to wrangle it back into a usable technology.

Obviously, the issue of algorithms is a vast one. I’ve still not discussed those used by music streaming services or video streaming services, not to mention online shopping sites, but I’ll address these in future posts. I really just wanted to get some thoughts down on paper while I’m still reading around this subject & working out fixes.

I’d love to hear your hacks for getting around modern algorithms, especially in social media. I could take about this subject for days on end, but I’d much perfect to hear your thoughts.

*A fix has been issued for Kodi, if you download this experimental High Sierra remote fix version, install and reboot your mac you should regain apple remote functionality, at least within Kodi.

This issue is driving me mad with Kodi as the remote is now essentially useless. I’m working on a fix and pulling a few things apart in the OS to see if I can figure out what is going on. It doesn’t help that the official Kodi forums seem to be ruined after a ruined MyBB upgrade so I can’t hop onto the forum to discuss with other High Sierra or Kodi users. The fact that the apple remote isn;t working with high sierra is quite a big issue for my daily workflow as I control Kodi with the remote while working.

As a stopgap, I’m using the Kodi remote app on my iPhone to control Kodi. It works, but means I have to be looking down at my phone & then up at the Mac. I miss how simple & intuitive the apple remote is for controlling Kodi, but until a high sierra remote fix is complete I’ll have to make do with a software remote.

If you have found a fix, leave a comment below & I can try it out and update this post as necessary.

If you would like to try the Candelair driver, you can download the preference pane for free on their website.

A speaker that caught my eye right away was the SoundPEATS P4 speaker. The speaker itself is a cylindrical speaker, much like the amazon echo. The product itself looks amazing but the most surprising thing for me was the price. At under £34 delivered it seems too good to be true. SoundPEATS wasn’t a brand I had heard of before browsing Amazon but the reviews seemed to be overwhelmingly good and the speaker itself looked pretty solid. A few days later I took delivery of the SoundPEATS P4.

I was instantly impressed.

The package came extremely well packed from amazon which is always a worry with speakers, as any cracks or breaks in transit will rattle for the life of the speaker. The soundpeats packaging itself was very snug and secure. The speaker was much heavier than I thought, but in a good way. The housing feels robust and well made and the lovely fabric mesh covering reminded me of premium hifi speakers. The speaker feels like a premium product and the finish is brilliant.

The box contains the SoundPEATS P4, along with a micro USB cable for charging, a 3.5mm aux cable for use with older & non bluetooth devices and a concise instruction manual. I didn’t need to use the instruction manual as it was very intuitive to get started. The P4 came with a full charge, ready to go.

When you first turn on the speaker, it plays a harp sound to let you know it is on. Following that, for the first minute the speaker plays an audible beep, much like a submarine sound effect. This lets you know that the bluetooth is in discovery mode, allowing you to pair a new device. If the speaker already finds a paired device when it is turned on, it will automatically connect.

I connected the P4 to my iPhone 6 via bluetooth and instantly I was up and running using the P4 as my audio output device.

The first thing that struck me as soon as starting music playback was the level of bass. This speaker produces a lot of bass for a device of its size. I found that I had to turn off my bass boost EQ setting on the iPhone and I opted for the rock EQ to level out the bass and allow for a little more treble. I would suggest you have a play with your EQ settings as the natural bass this speaker produces is a little beyond even my expectations. It has a lot of low bass grunt.

The SoundPEATS P4 has very few external buttons, making it very easy to operate. It has a power button on the base which also allows you to answer bluetooth calls via the speaker. On the top of the speaker is a volume crown, allowing you to increase & decrease the volume. The P4 has its own small amp built-in, so the volume on your bluetooth device and the volume on the P4 work independently. I would recommend max volume on your device & then controlling volume from the P4 crown, but you can see which you prefer. Controlling volume from your music device might be prefered if, for example, your phone is in your hand and the speaker is mounted on a table.

The crown also features a touch sensitive skip button for skipping to previous and next tracks. This controls your device over bluetooth and is very responsive.

The battery life of the P4 is exceptional. I’ve been using it off & on all day and haven’t yet had it run out. The Micro USB for charging means you can charge the speaker from almost any USB port. I’ve been opting to charge using a spare apple USB wall charger and the supplied cable. The P4 has a 2000mah battery built-in which is rated for at least 6 hours of continuous playback. I’ve yet to find out how long it will actually last as it just doesn’t seem to run out in my regular every day use.

The P4 features Bluetooth 4.1 so is very low drain on devices such as smart phones, and allows for the extra features such as track skip and call answering. The cylindrical design allows for 360 degree sound and the two built-in speakers along with bass cavity allow for decent clarity & very thick bass.

The official stats are as follows

• [360° omni-directional premium stereo sound]: Cylindrical design with dual opposite facing speakers offers a clear, 360° stereo sound from all directions. Enjoy HD stereo sound with an impressive volume whether you’re lounging around the house, partying, walking around, camping, hiking, or even biking
• [Unique touch and rotate control]: The built-in touchscreen and volume dial make switching between songs and changing the volume easy. Simply swipe across the center display with your finger to change tracks, or rotate the dial to adjust the volume of your music
• [Long Lasting Usage]: 2000mAh battery capacity provides you with up to 10 hours of playtime. It also features a great built-in micro USB charging port, which can even be charged by a power bank at any time during an emergency.
• [Portable and Light Weight Design]: The speaker measures 6.85*2.83*2.83 cubic inches and weighs only 17.98 ounces, making it portable and easy to carry anytime and anywhere – especially when you are out bike riding, hanging out at the beach, camping, or even showering indoors
• [Built-in Microphone]: Enable this function to use this Wireless Bluetooth Speaker as a speakerphone, so you can enjoy hands-free calling as well
• SpecificationsBluetooth Version: Bluetooth 4.1Output Power: 10W

  Frequency: 180Hz-20KHz

  Maximum Working Range: Up to 33 feet (10m) in open space

  Battery Lithium battery: 2000mAh

  Working Time: 6-8 hours

  Charging Time: 4 hours

  Dimension (L * W * H): 6.85 x 2.83 x 2.83 inches / 174x 72 x 72 mm

  Weight: 17.98oz / 510g

  Package Content

  1 x SoundPEATS P4 Bluetooth Speaker

  1 x Micro USB Cable

  1 x 3.5mm AUX Cable

  1 x User Manual

My only criticism of the P4 would be the volume when using it outside. You really need to position the speaker close to a wall or another object to allow it to direct the sound at you. The only time I had an issue was on the beach with nothing to position the speaker against. The music was still audible and perfectly acceptable but it lost a bit of the punch you will experience when using it indoors. I’ve found this to be the case with most portable speakers, so more of an observation than a criticism.

Also the bass is very strong, so play with your EQ. This isn’t a criticism but if you are going to get the best clarity and sound from the speaker, turn down the bass on any EQ settings you use on your smart phone. On the iPhone I’ve found the rock EQ to be the best for overall clarity, although you can turn off your EQ and let the P4 manage the sound for you.

A lot of my usage of the P4 is using the aux port. I use my 128GB iPod with the speaker and I can play music in the kitchen or the shower & quite often in the bedroom. I’ve also used the P4 with my Macbook when travelling for music and to output all system sound for watching YouTube videos and movies. It works really well for that over bluetooth, although I prefer the AUX port and cable for Macbook use as the Macbook bluetooth sometimes struggles when using a magic mouse and another device over bluetooth.

I would recommend this speaker to anyone and a few of my friends & family have already purchased one. The price is just too good for the quality of the speaker. For under £35 you are getting great value for money and quality which can rival speakers 5 times the price. The speaker is currently on sale over on Amazon so go and Check it out by Clicking Here.

Then came iPhones, smartphones, tablets and smart watches. All relying on a 3G or 4G signal and constantly connected to the internet. People stopped syncing content to their devices and started relying on mobile connectivity. For many reasons, this was the prefered business model for all hardware and software vendors. It meant services like Spotify could rent music to you without ownership ever being offered. People could stream from Netflix and Amazon prime without ever owning their content. The media software companies had a lucrative never-ending revenue stream and the mobile network vendors had endless data usage to keep them in cash. Nirvana for those who would rather lease content than own it.

Having been born in the early eighties & being interested in tech since the ZX spectrum, I’ve always approached things differently. I prefer ownership, I really dislike streaming anywhere other than on a solid broadband connection, I like to have content which is available offline. I travel a lot, I like my MP3’s to be stored on my iPod, my ebooks stored on my kindle and my laptop to be stuffed with movies that are available offline. I like ownership of my content. No chance of changing terms and conditions, and access anywhere on the planet regardless of connectivity.

So we bring it back to RSS. With my web content I’d moved more towards the Spotify model. I would visit websites as & when I remembered, but I’d only have access to that content while online, so often I failed to even check websites from one month to the next. I forgot about many of the gems I used to read daily with RSS. The blog posts I’d read on my XDA or my Palm IIIc while traveling (because the wider internet & social media weren’t available on the go, so I’d actually read real in-depth content). I had become a 140 character junkie, only ever reading a synopsis or an extract. I became aware of a lot of subjects but an expert in non of them. It was time to find a new RSS reader & start reading full length content again.

I searched high & low for a decent RSS reader & I finally settled on Reeder for OSX and OS Sierra. I also have the same app for my iPhone, but I’ll review that separately. Reeder is a fully featured RSS reader. It can show standard RSS feeds, but it can also download full articles, even when the RSS feed is extract only. I guess it does this by visiting the websites canonical link and downloading the full article. Reeder displays your RSS feeds much like an email client. You get all of your post titles/headlines in the left pane and you get the article text in the right pane.

The advantage of an RSS reader like Reeder is that it strips out formatting and presents text in an easy to read format, complete with pictures. It does strip out adverts from content which can be a plus, especially when saving bandwidth & from a privacy standpoint.

With regards features, one of the features I most use is the integration with Feedly. To save me setting up my RSS feeds on every machine I use, I setup a free feedly account and added all of my RSS feeds to the one account. Then, using your feedly credentials in Reeder, you can sync your feedly account and view all of your RSS feeds in the reeder app. Reeder downloads all of your RSS articles for offline viewing & can be set to sync at intervals of your choice. Articles can be set to disappear when read, enabling you to concentrate on fresh content. The built-in mercury reader is ideal for displaying richer full text articles & the reading themes, much like you get in an e-book app or within a reading extension like reader view in Firefox allow you to set the page and text colour and adjust font size and style for easier reading. I find a larger font on a black background allows me to read a lot of content without fatigue. I do like the formatting controls available.

The benefit of RSS is that I don’t have to remember to check websites for new articles. The content is aggregated, sorted and formatted for me to read. I rarely miss an important story in my field now & I’m generally more informed than I have been for years. I always relied on RSS during my university studies to stay current and at the bleeding edge. I’m disappointed that I let this habit of reading RSS be replaced by individual apps and a generally bloated reading experience & would recommend RSS to anyone wanting to regain control of their informative content.

Reeder has a ton of features which I’ve probably not even come across yet. My favourite so far is the Mercury reader. If an RSS feed is just a post extract, asking you to click to read more, simply pressing the G key on your keyboard will fetch the full text from the website & format it in seconds, without the need to visit the website.

Reeder also has extensive sharing features, so if you are an influencer or expert on social media, it’s a great way to find & share relevant articles with your peers. Sharing to services such as Evernote, Twitter, Facebook and Buffer are baked right into the application and allow you to share an article in seconds. Great for growing your online reputation as an influencer.

Reeder supports a lot of RSS feed services such as Feedly, Feedbin, feed wrangler and Feed HQ, and also allows integration into services such as Instapaper for read later functionality. If you prefer to manage your RSS feeds yourself, either for privacy or maybe you only use a single device, than you can add any RSS feed locally without the need for third-party support.

Overall, Reeder has completely changed my information retrieval habits. It’s a flashback to 10 years ago for me as I’ve strayed more and more into individual apps for news and neglected a lot of the awesome blogs & news sites I used to frequently read through RSS.

If you are new to RSS I highly recommend you check it out. The modern web can mean we are bombarded with information. Information overload can lead to people switching off completely from website content and just sticking to their social feeds, but I guarantee if you find bloggers & websites who write about subjects you are passionate about, you will benefit greatly from reading full text articles over tweets and snippets.

Reeder is the perfect choice for those already interest in RSS or those wanting to streamline their information consumption. Offline availability is vital to me. My feeds may provide 1000 articles a day, 100 of which I may read. Now that I can get them offline I can read them on the go. I can remain offline and read without distractions, I can catch up on them on the plane or train. If I’m delayed in an airport, I can read offline content rather than paying for overpriced wi-fi to access sub par apps and tweets.

Please do check out this app. It is a premium product for Mac OS and does carry a £9.99 price tag in the apple app store for Mac OS, but it’s a worthy investment and will radically change how you consume information.

Remember, you can always subscribe to this site via RSS, might be your first subscription

Now some pictures of Reeder in use.

Over the last few months I’ve had a crackling over the headphones when playing music, which steadily got worse. And only a few weeks back I lost all audio. I was gutted!

It turns out that the very reason I love this iPod, the wolfson DAC, was also the culprit. Over time, the audio chips de-solder from the logic board. This could be due to changes in temperature when using the iPod in hot conditions, such as in a car. I tried to reflow the logic board but to no avail. It was time for a new logic board.

This iPod is now 11 years old & spare parts aren’t easy to come by. I managed to find a Canadian seller on eBay who had a refurbished iPod video 5th generation logic board for sale. The board was £55 delivered & took around 4 weeks to arrive after getting stopped at customs (without extra charges).

Fitting a logic board into a 5th Generation isn’t for the faint of heart. It requires stripping down the iPod into its component parts, including un-pealing ribbon cables which are attached with glue & completely dismantling the chassis. It’s not an impossible task if you take your time, and I’d advise you take pictures along the way to keep track of component & cable locations.

Once I had the logic board in place I reassembled the iPod and plugged it into my iMac. I instantly had an issue. After restoring the iPod software in iTunes I found the iPod stuck in a reboot loop. The Apple logo would display on-screen, followed by the screen flashing and the iPod rebooting. This would happen indefinitely.

At first I suspected a faulty logic board, but I managed to get the iPod into Disk Mode and the screen displayed fine & was recognised by the iMac. This demonstrated that the logic board was fine. I then entered the diagnostic secret menu on the iPod and ran some self tests. Again, all came back as normal. I suspected a formatting issue, so I plugged the iPod in to the iMac in disk mode & used Disk Utility on my mac to format the disk. After formatting the disk iTunes again wanted to restore the iPod, I let it do its thing & the iPod booted first time. This could have been an issue with iFlash quad, or it could be that the storage device is somehow paired to the logic board. Either way, formatting in Disk Mode using disk utility, then restoring in iTunes fixed the issue.

I was happy to see my Ipod boot up quickly & I started to sync my entire library (over 140GB) over to the iPod. This takes a long time as the USB interface on these old iPods is slow. I let it sync overnight and came back to it the next day.

As soon as I started scrolling through the menus it felt different. Only slightly, but I noticed a search option. To my surprise I had been sent the logic board from an iPod 5.5 generation. These where the last of the 5th Generation iPods, the last with the Wolfson DAC which is so sought after, and the one with many improvements. We now have search & brightness controls, and the menus feel snappier.  This now means I’ve got a 5.5 Gen iPod with 256GB of flash storage and a fresh battery. Gone are the days of not carrying all of my music. No longer am I bound by 3G/4G signal for my music. This iPod is perfect for travel, ideal for the airplane. Last time I flew to Berlin when the iPod was broken, I only had my iPhone 6. To my dismay I only had 12 songs stored locally, which meant a long travel time with only a handful of tunes I hadn’t even chosen.

I generally hate streaming over cellular. It’s unpredictable, costly & dependent on Signal. It also ruins battery life. I’m so glad to have my iPod up & running again & I can see me using this for another 10 years. If you have a 5th Generation iPod & still use it, let me know in the comments.