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Category: Technology

March 1, 2020

Why Does my iMac Turn Itself on at Midnight?

If your Apple computer independently starts its day in the wee hours of the morning without your involvement, you should check this setting.

I was out late the other night, and when I got home around midnight, I walked into in my home office before I headed off to bed. All was quiet. Then, I heard a sudden but familiar brief whooshing sound from the direction of my desk. I instinctively turned my head.

My iMac was booting up as if Skynet had taken over.
It was pretty freaky.

I glanced over at my Marathon clock that was positioned close to my iMac, and it eerily displayed 12:00am… on the dot.

Hmmm. That was interesting.

I took a breath and looked at my clock again. I felt that this clearly wasn’t some random moment where my iMac had decided to misbehave.

Turn Off the Schedule Mode
Was there a hidden setting in my iMac’s System Preferences that was telling my iMac to independently boot up?

I took a look, and in fact… there was. My iMac was ‘scheduled’ to turn itself on at midnight.

So, here’s what I did to turn that off:

  • Click on System Preferences
  • Click on ‘Energy Saver’
  • Click on ‘Schedule’ on the bottom right
  • Unclick ‘Start up or wake’
    (which had defaulted to 12:00am)

Problem solved.

Living with your Gremlins
I suppose the lingering question is why that scheduled action was clicked in the first place.
I certainly hadn’t done it.

It’s an issue for another time.
For now, my iMac should behave…as directed.

Thank you, HAL.

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February 23, 2020

How your Timelapse Videos will Reveal a Different Reality

Shooting timelapse videos will remind you about the very nature of existence. Here are a few of the ways they can expand your perspective.

Capturing that perfect moment with your camera can be a life-long ambition. Along your photographic journey, you might want to also consider the opposite exercise. Explore the opportunity to scoop up the ever-changing landscape in front of you… across time.

Use Your Camera as a Time Machine
Many cameras and smartphones today can act as a time machine and perform the trick of timelapse video capture. You’ve just got to give some thought to which environments you’d like to explore and how they might look when you squeeze twenty minutes down to twenty seconds.

Shooting timelapse videos is easy to do. You’ve simply got to keep your camera steady and allow it to slowly snap a frame of video every two or three seconds. Along the way, it stitches the frames together to generate a scene that moves at lighting speed when you play it back.

Beyond the exploration of timelapse video as an art form, this technology is also exciting, because it bottles up time and then reveals your world in ways you’ve never experienced before. It’s a whole new way to experience reality.

Here’s what I’ve learned from these timelapse videos I’ve recently shot.

So Many Rushing Clouds
I’m always impressed by the hidden intensity of ‘normal’ weather conditions in timelapse mode.
Clouds Timelapse at Calf Pasture Beach
Clouds do not lumber along. Here on a beach, I see that they are clearly on a mission to quickly reach some important destination.

Our Fleeting Existence
When you speed up time, people become momentary blips. While this video’s final form creates a dance of frenetic fun in a snow storm, it’s also a sobering reminder of our own brief presence in space and time.
Snowy Day Timelapse at Cranbury Park
So, always remember to enjoy the dance.

Your Own Sunrise
Capturing a quickly-moving sun at dawn is hardly an original concept. It’s a scene we’ve all be exposed to countless times on TV and at the movies. Still, there’s always a way to make a sunrise your own.
Sunrise Timelapse by Saugatuck River and Route 95
Where you choose to experience your sunrise is always the unique factor.

Adding Motion
You may have noticed the panning movement in my time-lapse video examples. This trick is courtesy of the ‘motionlapse’ mode in my DJI Osmo Pocket Gimbal camera. After every snapped frame, the gimbal auto-pans a wee bit as part of a preprogrammed move. And that creates the effect of a smooth pan across the shot.

Patience
Timelapse videos are fun to do and usually generate amazing results. Just don’t forget one important variable. These videos will take a while to shoot. So plan ahead.

Capturing time takes time.

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February 16, 2020

How to Walk Across the Hudson River with Your Family

Where can you get this spectacular view of the Mid-Hudson Bridge in Poughkeepsie, New York? You’ve got to hoof it to the middle of the Hudson River. Here’s how…

Yesterday, my family and I jumped in the car for a fun day trip. We went to Poughkeepsie, New York to walk across the Hudson River (and back).

We drove to the ‘Walkway Over the Hudson,’ the world’s longest elevated pedestrian bridge, which was originally built in 1889 as the Poughkeepsie-Highland Railroad Bridge.

After a 1974 fire destroyed the tracks, the steel cantilever bridge was eventually transformed into a pedestrian walkway and re-opened in 2009 as the
Walkway Over the Hudson State Historic Park.

Walking Across the Walkway Over the Hudson
We drove to the bridge’s parking entrance at 61 Parker Avenue in Poughkeepsie. We found an unpaved lot, and it was free to park.
(There’s a sister parking lot across the river at 87 Haviland Road in Highland, New York.)

My wife, nine-year-old son and I jumped out of the car, and we began our trek. It was a 1.28 mile walk across the bridge each way. (You can also bike or jog across.)

There was barely a cloud in the sky, and it was quite simply an exhilarating experience. The views up and down the Hudson River were spectacular.


The Value of No Destination
I should admit my better half put this inspiring family activity together.

At first, I didn’t quite connect to the attraction of driving for an hour and twenty minutes to walk across a repurposed train bridge on a frigid February day. And then… walk back again.

Throughout my life, I’ve sometimes had to be reminded that the journey is often more important than the destination.

When I was a kid growing up in New York City, my parents would occasionally rent a car from the Hertz garage down the street to go for a drive for the day. I would ask them where we were going, and my dad would say, “nowhere.” And I absolutely couldn’t understand the value of driving around without a destination in mind.

Sure, I was just a kid, and I didn’t comprehend getting out of Dodge for the day and simply driving in the countryside. It seemed pointless. And of course, I was missing the whole point.

Fast forward to adulthood.

Walk across a bridge. Walk back.
Why?

Well, I still needed to actually do it. But this time, I got it.
It’s all about the experience.

Never Forget Your Journey
Walking across The Walkway Over the Hudson is a must-do activity for kids of all ages. It’s certainly invigorating in the cold, and I look forward to the opportunity to also experience it in warmer weather.

The exercise is also a valuable reminder that destinations can often be fleeting. Instead, it’s the experience of the journey that we should always hold onto.

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