October 29, 2023

How is that 2013 Mac Pro?

I’ve loaded some apps, I’ve worked on some projects, so how is the 2013 Mac Pro? To jump right in, I have no regrets buying this older model Mac. It’s fast, capable, and runs all the software I want it to. My current software licenses work just fine without having to invest in a ton in upgrades. Yes, it taps out at macOS 12, but that isn’t an issue for me. Nothing I use is OS13 only, at least not yet. That’s pretty much all machine learning stuff or some high end apps that don’t cater to me. The 2013 is handling all the jobs I want from it so in that respect I’m extremely pleased. Yes, Apple Silicon is even better, but I have no complaints with this setup. There are some other nice features of the 2013. It’s whisper quiet even when exporting video files. I can’t tell it’s even on 98% of the time. There are a […]

October 26, 2023

Getting life back in order with TaskPaper and 2Do. Write down the simple stuff.

I’m not sure when or why, but at some point I let my 2Do list become obsolete. Things got worse when I put TaskPaper away for reasons I don’t have an excuse for. This was the start of my downfall. With a lot of things going on, and a slew of distractions, I’m easily taken off course for the day and the week. Things I plan to do, I forget, or I don’t do them when I should, and other tasks fall behind. While handling a task, I realize I need to take care of a related task over the weekend. The weekend comes, I forget what that task was because I didn’t write it down. I think working on Windows has made my brain soft. In reality, it’s a couple of issues related to the neighbor and his miserable dogs. All those distractions take me off course and I’m not taking care of my business. Simple fix, 2Do and […]

October 22, 2023

Recording streaming audio with Piezo

There are tools to download audio and video. There are tools for converting between formats. And there are tools for splitting and joining files. So, what’s the correct tool for capturing audio when you can’t download it? While there are several tools to handle the job such as QuickTime and Audacity, if you want the quick click option, Piezo by Rogue Amoeba is the best choice. Piezo is capable of capturing system audio generated from a specific device or application. For example, you can capture audio from Safari and Firefox independently. This avoid system dings and notifications. Or you can capture from another application such as Teams, Discord, or Slack. That last one needs permission from the participants, let’s not overlook that. But, there are plenty of Live streams on YouTube where the music plays in a loop, and the stream has been running for several days. With Piezo, it’s possible to capture that audio so you can listen to […]

October 19, 2023

Merge, Join, Stitch together video and audio with Permute and Focus Video

Easy Record and Trim can split an audio file, and Video Cut, Crop and Join can split a video file, but what’s the tool for merging files back together? Even though Video Cut, Crop and Join has “Join” in the name, and it can indeed join or merge videos together, it’s not an intuitive process. It can be done by adding files to the task queue, even though you aren’t processing them, selecting the files in Task List, then right click and select Merge Videos. Give it a few minutes and the job will be done, even though it doesn’t look like anything is happening. The process isn’t intuitive, it duplicates files and uses up space, and the output progress window is basically non-existent. Disappointing to be sure, but there are alternatives for this job. If you have Permute for converting and extracting audio and video, you already have a tool for merging video and audio, it just may not […]

October 17, 2023

Trimming audio with Easy Record and Trim

One of the hurdles I’ve faced when working with audio is handling a 12 hour audio file. Not only is it a gig in size, it’s more than I can listen to in a single sitting, even if that sitting lasted a week. It would be great if I could simply grab the first hour. That’s a good amount of time for study, to help me fall asleep, or to use a timer while getting chores done. What I don’t want to do is wait for the file to load, select the part I want, then wait for it to reprocess. I simply want to create a file from the first hour. With Easy Record and Trim I can do that just that in about 5 seconds. Easy Record and Trim uses a Lossless Cut feature, similar to Video Cut Crop and Join, to quickly make a new file of the length you specify. I’ve started using this for the […]

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