It was a good day.

yeah that was good enough.

#MVP

I hope you like it ❤️

I update this playlist sometimes.

Pop Punk Lives!

Listen on Spotify: Deer Pop Punk, I love you. I miss you. Cheers, Paul

Spotify

Yeild: ~220g / ~8oz
Total brew time: 60 seconds

Prep

• Coffee: 30g
• Water: soft, filtered
• Filter: paper, doubled
• Brewer: inverted

Process

1. Heat water to ~98°C / 210°F
2. While water is heating— use this water to rinse filters in cap, set aside.
3. Grind coffee to ~7 or 8 out of 10, where 10 is the most coarse. Add grounds to inverted press.
4. Start pour from an outer rim of the grounds, creating a dry floating island of grounds in the center just before completing ~80g to 100g pour, just after all grounds are saturated. Pour should take ~10 seconds, start to finish.
5. Stir ~2 rotations per second for 10 seconds.
6. Steep timer starts after stirring = 40 seconds.
7. Install filter cap. Gently press out excess air.
8. Just before steep timer completes, use scale to tare the weight of your coffee cup to zero. *To avoid damaging your scale, do not press coffee into this cup while it is still on the scale.
9. At steep timer completion, flip and press into cup. Place cup back onto scale, revealing your raw yield.
10. Add water to achieve a total yield of 220g, more or less to taste.
11. Cool coffee by decanting between two cups, until desired temperature is reached.

Enjoy :)

Snowboarding in Sugar Mountain, NC

This was my first time ever snowboarding. So much fun! These are all just shots from the car on the way home. I was way too busy falling down to hold a proper camera while on the mountain.

Fourth generation, introduced in September 2020.

The Skinny

• The model "starting" at $599 is such a waste.
• Go cellular version or go home. It's $130 extra.
• Buy it from T-Mobile.
  • T-Mobile includes 500MB free data per month with every iPad.
  • $10 gets you a month of their data. Commit to the monthly charge and forget about it or manage this as-needed (#NoContracts) along with your WiFi + 500MB usage.
• 64GB internal storage is the cheapest available and will be sufficient for casual to moderate users.
• 256GB internal storage = $150 upgrade. Well worth the cost if you're considering heavy professional use. It's also FAST storage and that's important to consider.
  • If you're struggling with this decision, remember the USB-C port! Check out this simple guide to building your own super-fast external USB-C storage. This option will net you a full 1TB of storage for the same $150(ish), not to mention the flexibility of moving files, photos, videos, etc. from your iPad to ... anywhere else you might need those files.

1TB 10Gbps USB-C: How To DIY

Build the fastest possible USB drive in 2020.From scratch.It’s easy. I promise you are 100% capable of building this at home, on the road,in a car, near or far, with a fox— twice the speed of SATA SSD, in one tiny box. Spoiler Alert> It’s fast.Drink in the nerdy bits or fast-forward to see the…

oneForSafetyoneForSafety

All In All

$879 is the cost of a maxed-out iPad Air. Not bad at all, especially if you pay for it over 12 months at T-Mobile. $729 from T-Mobile is what I'd recommend to most people. $729 gets you the 64GB base storage with a free 500MB of cellular data per month. This is the most flexible and cost-efficient option, period.

My wife works for T-Mobile so I am submerged in this information ad nauseam. I don't work for T-Mobile but we do employ them for our cellular devices. After having cellular services from both AT&T and Verizon, I have many pros and cons I could makes lists about but the skinny version is— T-Mobile wins my business today.

Speed

Apple's cellular model of this 4th Gen iPad Air is also compatible with gigabit-class LTE. Gigabit-class LTE is the fastest LTE money can buy before getting to 5G. T-Mobile introduced their gigabit-class LTE services in November of 2017 and their 5G services in December of 2019. If it's speed you're looking for, you've found it here.

Recommended Accessories

Apple Pencil (2nd gen!)

$129 means not everyone needs an Apple Pencil but, after dropping mine a hundred times and replacing the tip three times, I can confirm that you want one.

Buy Apple Pencil (2nd generation)

Apple Pencil (2nd generation) lets you write, draw, and more with ease. And its touch surface supports customizable gestures. Buy now at apple.com.

Apple

Keyboard Case

$299 is quite possibly the most infuriating accessory cost that I have personally swallowed. I tried the iPad's external 4K monitor support— it's neat, not yet great. Typing on my $179 Smart Keyboard Folio was great when there was plenty of light, but exhausting if the lights were off or dim. I wanted to use the iPad's USB-C port for my external SSD storage but was forced to stop working when the iPad died. This Magic Keyboard solved my iPad workflow problems by including a back-lit keyboard and adding a second USB-C port. The case itself doesn't have a battery but it's USB-C port does facilitate charging the iPad. With the iPad's included USB-C port now available for ... literally anything else, I am now able to work from my iPad all day. I bit. I swallowed. I love it. It just works.

Magic Keyboard for iPad Air (4th generation) and iPad Pro 11-inch (2nd generation) - US English

Magic Keyboard delivers an amazing typing experience, has a built-in trackpad, and provides front and back protection. Buy now at apple.com.

Apple

$159 is a much easier price to chew. While I've not used this specific Logitech case, I have enjoyed other Logitech cases in the past. This one looks awesome.

Logitech Folio Touch Keyboard Case with Trackpad for iPad Air (4th generation)

Logitech’s Folio Touch features a precision trackpad, a full-size keyboard, and four use modes for extra versatility. Buy now at apple.com.

Apple

NVMe Is The Future

It's easy. I promise you are 100% capable of building this at home, on the road, in a car, near or far, with a fox— twice the speed of SATA SSD, in one tiny box.

Spoiler Alert

It's fast.

Drink in the nerdy bits or fast-forward to see the parts list.

Terms, acronyms, storage & speed ratings— oh my!

In the beginning was the data and the data was made of bits and therefore thedata was bits.Perspective is fun, I promise. When reading both data storage and speednotations it is extremely important to remember your upper and lowercase b’s. * b = bit * B = byte 8b = 1B1B = 8b After these fir…

one For SafetyoneForSafety

Don't worry, we're just snapping together two purchases by the end of all this.

Nerdy Bits

NVMe

Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVMe) is actually a specification, and that's just it's nickname. It's full name is Non-Volatile Memory Host Controller Interface Specification (NVMHCIS). This spec is like a set of hardened rules, defining how our apps will communicate with the nitty-gritty bits across the physical PCI Express® (PCIe®) bus/lanes ... which is about as technical as I'll take this particular explanation. Most of this is not worth remembering, that's why this article exists! Some additional notes:

• "Traditional" SSD's work over SATA protocol, not NVMe
• SATA 3.0 (the current SATA standard) has a physical speed limitation of 6Gb/s
• 6Gb/s = .75GB/s = 768MB/s ... and that's just theoretical numbering. In reality, even the cream of the crop Samsung EVO 970 SATA SSD's are only pushing 550MB/s
• NVMe protocol works over PCIe, not SATA
• Every CPU has a finite number of PCIe "lanes" (Modern CPU's typically have a minimum of 16+ PCIe lanes so don't worry about running out ... yet. That's a conversation for the multi-GPU inclined custom PC's and Mac Pro Desktops of the world.)
• Introduced in 2010, PCIe 3.0 has a transfer rate of eight gigatransfers per second, written as 8.0 GT/s. Over a single (x1) PCIe lane this equates to 0.985GB/s
• Introduced in 2017, PCIe 4.0 (today's/2020's current standard) has a transfer rate of sixteen gigatransfers per second, written as 16.0 GT/s. Over a single (x1) PCIe lane this equates to 1.969GB/s
• Introduced in 2019, PCIe 5.0 has a transfer rate of thirty-two gigatransfers per second, written as 32.0 GT/s. Over a single (x1) PCIe lane this equates to 3.938GB/s
• PCIe can use more than one "lane" at a time, which is where you'll oftentimes find advertisments for "x4" or "x8" speeds which are linear multiplications of their base x1 speeds.

Boiling that down to the numbers we're working with today:

A 1TB Samsung EVO 970 M.2 NVME with it's PCIe 4.0 spec can function upwards of 3,500MB/s

USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 has a max throughput of just 10Gb/s = 1.25GB/s = 1,280MB/s

As you can ... C ... our USB 3.1 Gen 2 connection can't handle everything the NVME drive is capable of. BUT! USB 3.1 Gen 2 can easily handle more than the 550MB/s maximum that we find in traditional SSD's and their SATA protocol. Upgrading from SATA to NVME might not garnish the full benefit of what PCIe has to offer, but ...

1. It's still twice the speed. #winning
2. We haven't even touched on the fact that Thunderbolt 2 has a max throuput of 20Gb/s = twice as much as USB 3.1 Gen 2 and that's OLD tech compared to Thunderbolt 3 which works over the USB-C form factor and is capable of 40Gb/s which ... drumroll please ... allows us to achieve up to 5GB/s = 5,120MB/s = plenty enough headroom for an NVME PCIe 4.0 drive.

Now, to burst your gluttonous bubble ... we're not building a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure today.

1. The USB-C enclosures listed below are all under $25.
2. Thunderbolt 3 is still pretty pricey tech.
3. Thunderbolt 3 can be found on all Apple computers for the past couple years, but is not nearly as common in the PC market.
4. We are building a teeny tiny USB-C enclosure that will still get you twice as much performance as a modern SSD so cool your jets. It's really fast!

M.2

There are two main form factors for using NVMe:

• U.2 (SFF-8639)
• M.2

In this project, we are using the M.2 form factor of drive with the size/length of 2280.

M.2 is a form factor, not necessarily of NVMe specially. "Factor" as in, something to consider. There are several forms of M.2, we sometimes refer to these forms as sizes/lengths. M.2 itself is type of hardware form factor. There are three main types of "keys" or "notches" associated with M.2: B, M, & B+M. While there are actually twelve total key ID's, these are the only three we need to know about today.

Think of it like this:

B = SATA
B+M = WiFi Cards
M = PCIe

Our NVMe drive and it's enclosure both need to be M key.

Try! Build!

Part 1 of 2

one Tiny Box

AKA: M.2 NVME USB-C Enclosure

Enclosures are, like most products, offered in a great number of shapes and sizes. I like my enclosures to be as sleek, small, and as brand-free as possible. The links below are all (effectively) to the same product— my favorite tiny box, sold by several different merchants. Some come with one cable and an adapter, some come with two cables. The USB port on these enclosures is type C, which is what you'll find on at least one end of any included cable. The other end of that cable will either be USB-C or USB-A. Those that include the USB-C to USB-A cable will also include an adapter for the USB-A side, in case you need USB-C on both ends. USB type C is what you'll find on Apple's 4th Gen iPad Air (September, 2020), iPad Pro, and every mac laptop or desktop sold in the past few years. USB-A is that standard rectangle thing that the majority of PC's still use. These also come included with the tiny screwdriver you'll need in the next step.

Take your pick of price and color.

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure M.2 NVME to USB3.1 Type-C GEN2 10Gbps Enclosure NVMe PCIE M-Key Aluminum Adapter Solid State Drive External Enclosure for 2230/2242/2260/2280 Support UASP with Two Cable (Gray): Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure M.2 NVME to USB3.1 Type-C GEN2 10Gbps Enclosure NVMe PCIE M-Key Aluminum Adapter Solid State Drive External Enclosure for 2230/2242/2260/2280 Support UASP with Two Cable (Gray): Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME to USB3.1 Type-C GEN2 10GBPS Enclosure M.2 PCI-E SSD Hard Disk External Drive Box M.2 M-Key SSD to USB-C Adapter (Pure Black): Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME to USB3.1 Type-C GEN2 10GBPS Enclosure M.2 PCI-E SSD Hard Disk External Drive Box M.2 M-Key SSD to USB-C Adapter (Pure Black): Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure M.2 NVME to USB3.1 Type-C GEN2 10Gbps Enclosure NVMe PCIE M-Key Aluminum Adapter Solid State Drive External Enclosure for 2230/2242/2260/2280 Support UASP with Two Cable: Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure M.2 NVME to USB3.1 Type-C GEN2 10Gbps Enclosure NVMe PCIE M-Key Aluminum Adapter Solid State Drive External Enclosure for 2230/2242/2260/2280 Support UASP with Two Cable: Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure NVME to USB3.1 Type-C GEN2 10Gbps M-Key Hard Drive Caddy External Case for 2230/2242/2260/2280 Support UASP NVMe PCI Expres Aluminum Adapter Portable Enclosure (Silver): Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME SSD Enclosure NVME to USB3.1 Type-C GEN2 10Gbps M-Key Hard Drive Caddy External Case for 2230/2242/2260/2280 Support UASP NVMe PCI Expres Aluminum Adapter Portable Enclosure (Silver): Computers & Accessories

Ezvid Wiki

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME PCIE SSD to USB 3.1 External Enclosure Only M.2 M-Key to Type C GEN2 10GBPS Adapter M.2 PCIE SSD Hard Disk Box(M.2 NVME(PCI-e) to USB3.1): Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: M.2 NVME PCIE SSD to USB 3.1 External Enclosure Only M.2 M-Key to Type C GEN2 10GBPS Adapter M.2 PCIE SSD Hard Disk Box(M.2 NVME(PCI-e) to USB3.1): Computers & Accessories

Sponsored Univeral Application: Support all 2230 2242 2260 2280 PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD of M-Key or M+B Key.Please Note: that it supports M.2 NVME PCIE-based SSD only. Not support SATA-based M.2 SSDIf you don't know this enclosure or your ssd very well, and have any question or problem, please contact with us! Please back up your SSD if you have important data.For the brand new SSD drive, it may can not find the drive, because the brand new SSD drive should be formated before first time using. And also need to make the ssd drive partition.Follow step is to find the brand new ssd drive:1. use your mouse right key to click "Computer"， it will show a drop-down menu2. use your mouse left key to click "Computer Managment",3. use your mouse left key to click "Disk Managment"After find the brand new ssd drive, please format it, and made partition. Then you can find the drive normally. Univeral Application: Support all 2230 2242 2260 2280 PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD of M-Key or M+B Key.Please Note: that it supports M.2 NVME PCIE-based SSD only. Not support SATA-based M.2 SSDIf you don't know this enclosure or your ssd very well, and have any question or problem, please contact with us! Please back up your SSD if you have important data.For the brand new SSD drive, it may can not find the drive, because the brand new SSD drive should be formated before first time using. And also need to make the ssd drive partition.Follow step is to find the brand new ssd drive:1. use your mouse right key to click "Computer"， it will show a drop-down menu2. use your mouse left key to click "Computer Managment",3. use your mouse left key to click "Disk Managment"After find the brand new ssd drive, please format it, and made partition. Then you can find the drive normally.

I own four of the enclosures listed above in both M.2 SATA (~500MB/s max) and NVMe (~1,000MB/s via USB 3 Gen 2) variants. Love them. I've not tried this next product myself but if anyone wants to lead the charge for Thunderbolt 3 ( ~3,000MB/s dependent on your choice of NVMe) at nearly four times the cost, let me know how fast and well it works!

Although the Thunderbolt 3 spec itself can handle up to 40Gbps / 5,000MBps, these enclosures advertise ~1,500MBps which seems like all-around false advertising if you ask me. Alas, 1,500MBps is still nearly three times faster than SATA SSD's so I'm still inclided to try :)

Amazon.com: Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure, WAVLINK NVMe PCIe M Key M.2 SSD Enclosure Aluminum Design Thunderbolt 3 Cable Included, SSD Case with Heat Sink (SSD Not Included): Computers & Accessories

Buy Thunderbolt 3 Enclosure, WAVLINK NVMe PCIe M Key M.2 SSD Enclosure Aluminum Design Thunderbolt 3 Cable Included, SSD Case with Heat Sink (SSD Not Included): Hard Drive Enclosures - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

Wavlink Thunderbolt 3 to NVMe SSD Enclosure( Enclosure Only ) Wavlink Thunderbolt 3 to NVMe SSD Enclosure( Enclosure Only )Ezvid Wiki

Part 2 of 2

Super-fast SSD!

AKA: M.2 NVME SSD

Several "brands" offer NVME drives. I have opinions. Here's my take on the "industry insight": Samsung is one of the only companies producing their own controllers— this is a mission-critical component. Many "brands" are licensing and using Samsung's controllers. This is kind of like how Sony makes most of the camera sensors that exist in the world.

Fun fact: iPhones and Nikon cameras are actually using Sony image sensors.

In similar fashion, most companies are licensing Samsung memory controllers and slapping their own code on top with a new label. When you're dealing with mission-critical data, just fork up the extra $20 (or whatever it is today) and get the name brand. It's worth it, I promise.

While we're on the subject, if you're in the market for spinning disk storage (the slow cheap stuff) don't buy anything that says "Seagate"— end of discussion. HGST was bought by Western Digital a few years back and I promise that's where you want to spend your money unless you just love wasting time dealing with DOA drives, early drive failures, and emails to terrible customer service and warranty departments.

Samsung 970 EVO

• M.2 / 2280 / "M" Key
• NVMe 1.3 PCIe Gen 3.0 x4
• Max Sequential Read Speed: Up to 3,500 MB/s
• Max Sequential Write Speed: Up to 2,500 MB/s
• Max USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 Speed: Up to 1,000 MB/s

Amazon.com: Samsung (MZ-V7E1T0BW) 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology, Black/Red: Computers & Accessories

Buy Samsung (MZ-V7E1T0BW) 970 EVO SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology, Black/Red: Electronics - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases

M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology, Black/Red: Computers & AccessoriesEBPMAN Tech Reviews

Samsung 970 EVO Plus

• M.2 / 2280 / "M" Key
• NVMe 1.3 PCIe Gen 3.0 x4
• Max Sequential Read Speed: Up to 3,500 MB/s
• Max Sequential Write Speed: Up to 3,300 MB/s
• Max USB-C 3.1 Gen 2 Speed: Up to 1,000 MB/s

Amazon.com: Samsung (MZ-V7S1T0B/AM) 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology: Computers & Accessories

Amazon.com: Samsung (MZ-V7S1T0B/AM) 970 EVO Plus SSD 1TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology: Computers & Accessories

M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology: Computers & Accessories

Buy one enclosure + one NVME drive and then it's like connecting the dots. Legos, of sorts. It only goes in one way. The enclosures will come with a tiny screwdriver for the one philips screw you'll need to secure the NVME drive in place and the two phillips screws that hold the cover plate on the enclosure. Depending on your order, the enclosure will either come with two cables or one cable and one adapter. Either way, the enclosure comes with everything you need to connect to an iPad Pro, MacBook w/ USB-C/Thunderbolt 3, or PC with USB-C port.

Enjoy!

If you'd like a deep-dive elaboration of any of these terms, let us know somehow ;)

• USB-C
• USB4
• Thunderbolt 3

Perspective is fun, I promise. When reading both data storage and speed notations it is extremely important to remember your upper and lowercase b's.

• b = bit
• B = byte

8b = 1B
1B = 8b

After these first eight bits, notations will typically deal in multiples of one thousand ... sort of. Scientific notion's "Kilo" means one thousand and "Mega" means one million and, in a confusing number of cases, that is actually what they mean on the boxes advertising data storage and even speed/throughput ratings. However! Computer science deals in bits which effectively equates to base eight instead of a base ten system. It's also binary which means every bit is either a one or zero, but that's a topic for another day.

Common Bit Ratios— A Quick Reference Guide

8b = 8 bits = 1 Byte
8b times 2 = 16 bits = 2 Bytes
8b times 4 = 32 bits = 4 Bytes
8b times 8 = 64 bits = 8 Bytes
8b times 16 = 128 bits = 16 Bytes
8b times 32 = 256 bits = 256 Bytes
8b times 64 = 512 bits = 64 Bytes
8b times 128 = 1024 bits = 1Kb = 128 Bytes

Notation + Pre-calculated References

• K = Kilo

1Kb = 1,024b = 128B
1KB = 8Kb = 1,024B = 8,192b

• M = Mega

1Mb = 128KB = 1,024Kb = 131,072B = 1,048,576b
1MB = 8Mb = 1,024KB = 8,192Kb = 1,048,576B = 8,388,608b

• G = Giga

1Gb = 128MB = 1,024Mb = 131,072KB = 1,048,576Kb = 134,217,728B = 1,073,741,824b
1GB = 8Gb = 1,024MB = 8,192Mb = 1,048,576KB = 8,388,608Kb = 1,073,741,824B = 8,589,934,592b

• T = Tera

1Tb = 128GB = 1,024Gb = 131,072MB = 1,048,576Mb = 134,217,728KB = 1,073,741,824Kb = 137,438,953,472B = 1,099,511,627,776b
1TB = 8Tb = 1,024GB = 8,192Gb = 1,048,576MB = 8,388,608Mb = 1,073,741,824KB = 8,589,934,592Kb = 1,099,511,627,776B = 8,796,093,022,208b

• P = Peta

1Pb = 128TB = 1,024Tb = 131,072GB = 1,048,576Gb ... and so on through 1,125,899,906,842,624b
1PB = 8Pb = 1,024TB = 8,192Tb = 1,048,576GB = 8,388,608Gb ... and so on through 9,007,199,254,740,992b

One terabyte is equal to 8e+12 bits. That's eight trillions bits. 8,000,000,000,000! Or at least it is when you're buying a hard drive. When you're storing data, one terabyte is actually 8,796,093,022,208 bits! So if you've got a whole terabyte of data to store, you need at least 1,024GB of real raw capacity. A 1TB drive from won't work, it's literally not big enough to store an actual 1TB set of data— you'll need a bigger drive. OH! Don't forget to leave yourself at least 20% of headroom for operational performance and the like. A completely full hard drive will come to a screaching hault, not to mention all the risks of data corruption and even complete drive failure. One terabyte of storage has now turned into a purchase of at least 1.2TB / 1,228.8GB / 10,555,311,626,650b which would require a sticker-purchase / commercially advertised 1.32942TB which is absolutely infurriating if you ask me, but this is this world we live in.