APPLE VENTURA 13.2.1OS Personal thoughts on it

I have now been using Ventura for about 3 weeks now. The version I have installed is numbered 13.2.1 as I have already had updates, firstly from the pervious Monterey which was installed on my MacBook Air  when I purchased it and really didn't get a chance to see what that was like.  

As far as I am aware Apple Macs of all types come with a version of the Apple Operating System already installed and the newer the hardware then the newer the system installed will be. The same with Windows PCs or other types of hardware makers will have their own Operating Systems on them. There are many reasons for this and this is not the blog to go into details about the whys and wherefores, this is the case. 

Perhaps the first thing you notice about Ventura is how different is to Windows, which takes some getting used to at first, then it all makes sense and I have found it didn't take long to get used to.  If you are using Windows 11 then you will be quite familiar with the "dock" which is where your most used applications are placed for easy access.  You can add or takes things away as required. As you open things to use they will appear on there and if you use them regularly, like for example Libre Office as I do it is a good idea to leave them there.  Only Finder, Launch Pad, System Settings and Bin can not be removed from the dock and there is no why you should really want to do so as they are very useful things to have such quick access to.  

Another big difference to windows is that rather than having to date, wireless, battery and power options along the bottom, these are at the top of the screen and are hidden if you use an application in full screen mode.  I like this as it means that you don't accidentally change a setting while doing other things as I have done so in the past. You can easily access these things should you need to do so, by moving the cursor to the top and it will drop down slightly so you can see them.  If you need to bookmark a page quickly you can also do so, by moving the cursor to the lefthand side where a panel will open with your bookmarks in and it that way, so you have two ways of doing so. 

 Setting up my printer was easy and while it was a bit more of a problem to find out how to connect with Bluetooth, once I found out how to do so it was okay and now using it, it is far quicker than the connection I had on Windows.  Connecting the wireless was also very easy and I had no problems at all doing so. 

Ventura does come with what I suppose we could call an office type application, it is not all in one place and called very different things.  Pages is similar, to Word and you can use it as such as it also comes with many different templates,  there is also Keynote and Freeform, which from what I can gather are similar to things in Microsoft Office, which I have never used apart from when doing a course many years ago, so can't really make a judgement on them.  If you really need to use Microsoft Office then it is available in the application store (AppStore) or you can get it directly from Microsoft or through the official Apple website.  I only use Libre Office and while it is not official recognised by Apple it works works well and I am certain will be soon (or I hope so). 

On the subject of Applications,  I hate the word Apps as it is lazy,  Apple is very security conscious and so they have to be approved by them to be added to the Application (App)Store, so they don't contain any nasty surprises.  You can down load things from outside the store as I have, you will be reminded that they've not been approved and asked if you really want to do so.  The only time I have found this to be a problem is when I used UMark watermarking software which I had done so on Windows as a free version, it stopped working after the trial version ended and tried to force me into buying the Professional version which I didn't want as I don't use it that often enough to warrant the cost. 

I would suggest that if you are used to using Windows as I am that it is worth investing in book guide and the one I would recommend is Teach yourself Visually MacBook Pro and MacBook Air, by Guy Hart-Davis.  I have the 6th Addition which while slightly out of date as it was publish before Ventura was out, it still is invaluable as there isn't a great deal of difference in the Operating Systems that make it redundant.  WH Smiths also have The macOS Ventura Manual 2023 in stock, or did and I also got that for reference.  

CONCLUSION

In the time that I have used Ventura,  I have found it to be great,  I  love it and the more I use it, the more I understand it and the better it becomes.  I really think that those behind it have thought about the people who will use it not what they think that people will use it for.  The inbuilt help is great as is the online help from Apple, by far the best that I have ever seen before.  I actually like the extra layers of security that are built in.  While I can use alternative browsers, I am using Safari most of the time, because it is that good and in my experience far better than most other browsers.  Generally, I have found it relaxing to use with very few frustrations and even the system updates (which I have experienced one of) are quick.  Personally I have been able to fault it on anything that does or that I have tried to do with it.  

I can not say what it would be like on other hardware, in fact I do not know if it is available on other hardware.  On the Mac hardware which it comes from it is a perfect match.  

One final thought don't try to turn Ventura into Windows, because you are used to using Windows, as I did at first, forget Windows and just enjoy Ventura as Ventura. 

APPLE MacBook Air M2 my review

 In January this year, 2023, it was suggested to me by my wife that I might like and iPad, which is not something I had considered before and didn't really think I would benefit from having.  However with that suggestion in mind I began to look at the possibility of getting one. 

Research

I began looking at the various iPads, which I thought was the generic name for them, only to discover that that this isn't the case and the generic name for them is Tablets  and there are a vast amount of them made by various companies. There is equally a vast price range as well, from what I could find out by looking at various websites,  the very cheapest for under £100 to the most expensive nearly £900! 

There are really only two main competitors in this market that come top of every list that I could find and they are Samsung, whom I am familiar with due to having a mobile telephone and Apple which I had never used and new little about apart the name. Samsung works using the Android operating system which was developed by Google amongst others and is based on the Linux Kernel. Apple has a different operating system called ISO which is  UNIX like (source of information from wikipedia) and is exclusive them and used across their hardware. 

With this information I further researched as to which was in the opinion and I stress here opinion of most of the trustworthy and perhaps most independent review sites and from my reading of them all it seemed that Apple and the iPad was the best of all of the Tablets, which seemed to make sense as with the little knowledge that I had they seemed to have been doing them the longest. 

Please note that FULL SPECIFICATIONS ARE ON THE OFFICIAL WEBSITES AND IT IS IMPORTANT TO READ THEM. THESE SITES ALSO SHOW YOU THE LATEST ITEMS AND WHAT YOU COULD EXPECT TO PAY.  

Final Choice and why I made it

Having been around various places,  I eventually went to iQ the official Apple reseller on the Isle of Man, where I was guided, not pushed into seeing the difference between the MacBook Air with the M1 chip and the M2 chip and other differences, which can been seen on the official Apple website, however it is best to see them in real life from my experience to fully understand them.  There is a price difference of £250.00 between the M1 & M2, which seems a lot and yes some might bulk at that, but for me personally I thought the additional specifications were worth it for what I would use it for, so I went for the higher priced and better (in my opinion) specifications. 

My thoughts on it

What you get in the box is just the MacBook Air and the mains contection with the lead, which is really only what you need.  

There are various colours that you can get, I think I got Space Grey, whatever that is, probably just a fancy name for a shade of grey!

I have found it really light in weight compared to my previous lap tops and also I estimate about half the depth. 

The build quality is super, it feels solid and while I would not suggest doing so, if you dropped it accidentally, I think it would probably survive without too much damage.

The keyboard while familiar in someways, it is different to the Windows keyboard. The function buttons are in the same place, but  there are control, option and command as well as a fn key as well.  The two other things that take some time to get used to is for the # it is not in the same place, it is beside the number 3 and you have to press option and 3 to use it.  Also the @ is above the number 2 so you have to press the shift key to use.  It doesn't take long to get used to do this.  While making comments about the keyboard, it is really a delight to us, the best I have ever used. 

I am not really someone who likes the touch pads,  this has changed my mind to a certain extent as it is so easy to use and very responsive.  Having said that I did use a wired USBC mouse at first until I purchased a bluetooth one which works a lot better without any lag that I can notice.

The display is super and I have no problems with the clarity of it and I have not suffered from any eye strain.  The slightly smaller (than I am used to using) screen size is more than made up by these things.

There is no noise at all as it doesn't have a fan, nor does it get overheated even after a few hours usage. It is wonderfully responsive and you can do a lot and it just copes.  I think it is the quickest that I have used. 

Final Verdict - Is it worth it

Is it worth it,  for me the answer has to be yes.  Apple have taken great care to design and have built the Mac Book Air and it really shows.  Since my purchase I have looked at other Lap Tops in this price range and while the seem to have everything but the kitchen sink in them,  I really think I would have regretted getting one.  This scores in that it does everything well, without having all the extras, which most of us will never use.  It scores very highly on the portability as well with it being so light. 

Okay slight niggles, but then realistically technical development has moved on in that it doesn't have card reader port for me to use from my camera, but then perhaps I can transfer my pictures from it wirelessly or through bluetooth, I have not tried that yet.  There is always a workaround.

Honestly this is the best laptop I have ever used and I really love it.

I have not included the Operating System in this review, because since I got it, it was updated and I want to do a review on that verses Windows 11.

My review of How Psychology Works, Consultant Editor Jo, Hemmings

I am always honest with my reviews, which I have learnt is sometimes upsetting to the author. I have a responsibility not to the author who may have written a book, but to the potential readers of that book who may come across it. Okay, being differently abled to others, I am told I come across quite harsh and should perhaps be kinder to the author, but honestly some of the authors would be better using their time to repair the pot holes in the roads rather trying to write. 

 First I must declare an interest, that being that I have followed Jo Hemmings on twitter for some time now and therefore she is my twitter friend.  That is how I came to learn about this book, How Psychology Works,  for which she is the Consultant Editor.  Having said that I follow Jo, in all honesty I didn't really know what she did, I knew the label, but not much more and I really doubt that most people will actually know beyond the label. 

So, let's start with the cover of the book, yes I know you are not meant to judge a book by the cover, or so we are told, but most of us do so anyway! This cover is simple, just a head, but inside the head are, forgive the pun, headlines of what the book is about, a teaser of the treats it holds.  Now most books I have seen on the subject of Psychology, well their cover turns you off them right away and you know that they are going to be boring and so if you're at all like me, you'll leave it on the shelf and get another book.  I will make a bold statement here and say you won't with this one and if I had seen it in the book shop I wouldn't have done and while I ordered it at the same time as 3 others it was so inviting that it was the first one I turned to to read. 

I really could go into great depth about the wonders of this book and here wonders is the correct word, because I found that there was something new to learn on every page and the number of times I went Oh that makes sense, or I didn't know that, or that is why, you get the idea.  The illustrations and the writing are perfectly matched no matter where you go to and you don't have to start at the beginning and work through to the end, you probably won't want to do so any way as you might find a section that you're more interested in and go to that first.  This is the great thing about this book, you don't have to follow the order that it has been written in. 

I have already learnt so much from reading it, for example I have used terms that while in general use I didn't really know the full meaning of and another example was quite surprising to me was how retailers of all kinds use psychology to get us to buy things.  I had always thought that psychology was just about the mind and mental illness, not about emotions, reading the opening pages I quickly learnt how wrong I was about that.  

I am trying to think of any reason why I don't like this book and the truth is I can't find a negative thing to say it is that good.  I have been further trying to narrow it down as to who the readership of the book would be, who it is primarily aimed at,  I have had to conclude, that I can't do that as I think everyone would enjoy reading it.  If you are a student, teacher, parent, guardian,  I don't think there is an age range or profession that would get not find something of interest and benefit from having it in their library, not that it will remain there as many other books often do, because you'll find as I have done reaching out for it to discover something new!  

To conclude my review of this book: It is the most accessible, readable book on psychology that I have ever read and I have read a few in my years of trying to understand myself and events in my life and get clarity of them.  If I were starting that journey right now and for those who are, or those who just want to know, this is the book I would want to read and I would recommend reading first.  As much as I hate to use the term must have, this really is a must have book!  To the publisher, the contributors and the Consultant Editor Jo, thank you for a great book and I've nowt more  to say now apart from to the people who might read this, BUY IT. 

I wish - (the child talking)

 

I WISH(the child talking)

I wish I could believe

the words

you say

Then I hear

the words of yesterday

You didn’t know me then

You don’t know me now

I wish I believed that

hurt won’t happen

again

but I know it will

I wish I believed in family

but I don’t

for there was always

them and us

but not me

I wish the child inside

never had learnt to hide

the tears deep inside

I wish

but wishing is just fantasy

not real

just me

the shadow of the past

Oh you may think this is about

me

then you never read my

poetry as other

than words

it is just a wish

or is it a heart talking

©meirmaat2023

And so he cried

 And so he cried

when no one could see him

he cried for a mother, a father, family

he cried why does no one love me

And so he cried as they all remembered his growing pains

he cried because he knew he was different

he cried wondering why he had been born

he cried where no one could see him nor hurt him any more

he cried for the scars on his body and his soul

he cried for the wounds that would not heal

he cried because no one understood

he cried because no one ever would

he cried for others just like him

who were crying still - just children really

no matter what their body may say

the children are still crying inside

the poet writes his words for them and for me

for while a single child is hurting

it is his duty

to be the page for the child who cried

(c)merimaat 2023

Summer of '72

 SUMMER OF '72

Oh how I wish it was back in the summer of '72

when we sang Metal Guru, danced to Bowie and were the Young Dudes of Mott the Hoople

With Anne and Anne & best friend Gill and all the other girls too

When we worked hard and partied harder

when lost weekend meant Matron telling you off

And Dear Sister May frightened us all

When cherries were yet to be lost

and tits were were nice

but down below was paradise

When you wore glitter in your hair

and thought Patchouli covered the smell of a joint or two

When pay day meant going to the pub

and the record shop and Unisex shopping

talking all night

setting the world to right

Oh I wish I could go back to '72 and say to Anne we done the tits and that was nice now can we get to paradise and this time you don't say no

Back in '72 teenagers, the children of the revolution, free before the world crushed us and the glitter flew

When no one told us what to do

For all the children with the flowers in their hair

Let's go back to the Summer of '72

(c)merimaat 2022 50 years later

The Teenage Dream - 1970 -1977 for Marc Bolan with love and All those who made the Teenage Dreams alive

 As I write this it is 16th of September 2022, exactly 45 years since the accidental death of Marc Bolan just 14 days before his 30th birthday.  That was the day that my Teenage Dream finally ended, but not my love for Marc as that will never die.  I had turned 22 just 5 days before, but still not really ready to face the full force of adulthood. 

Marc wasn't the first star to give teenagers their teenage dream, far from it, perhaps there has always been a teenage dream as long as there have been stars who gave us music that stirred our souls and filled us with love.   Yet perhaps it has only really been since the mid 1950's when kids who reached their teens were no longer young adults, but this strange rebellious, tempestuous, hormonal creature called the teenager. 

In the mid 1950's a slang words for having sex, rock and roll became a familiar turn to describe a music and indeed now we don't think of it as having any other connotation other than that.  Yet sex  is at the heart of Rock and Roll, it may be covered up with such terms as love or whatever, yet it is still there. 

Elvis who is known as the King of Rock and Roll, didn't become famous just because of his voice and yes as we all know he had a great voice, even more famously he poured sexuality, the famous Elvis the Pelvis and became the biggest star in the world.  Others who followed were too squeaky clean or very poor imitations of the King and it really wasn't until the 1960s when four lads from Liverpool claimed the crown.  The Beatles, became the biggest band in the world and I doubt we'll ever see another like them again. Behind the nice lyrics there was pure sex and rock and roll lived on. Just listen to a Hard days Night and it is there.  Sadly, both of the above were limited by the age they lived in for the revolution or may be evolution had not quite happened. 

By the end of the 1960s and the end of the so called Hippie era, thanks to the pioneering work of those above the kids were ready for a new Teenage Dream, one of their own, the Children of the Revolution were ready for our hero and that was Marc Bolan.  Marc was overtly sexual, his songs were about having sex, having a good time without the sugar coating of love, well okay some sugar coating and some of the sloppy sentimental stuff.  As our hormone raged and we found our sexuality and over things Marc was our god as much as the previous gods had been to previous generations.  It was our time for fun before adulthood and adult responsibility.  This is why we still love Marc and why pervious generations and future generations loved their Teenage Dream makers. 

The Teenage Dream doesn't ever last for long, for me personally, mine ended on the morning of 16th of September 1977, when Marc was taken and my heart broke and the realisation there would be no more T.Rex, not more boogie apart from in fond loving memories.   Punk rock had already broken through and another load of kids had their heroes, heroes that Marc (as many acknowledged) open the door for. Even his great friend David Bowie had become a bigger star, but one whose love for Marc still shone through until his own passing.

John sadly was killed just 3 years later than Marc. Elvis, had gone and the stage was empty until the rise of Kurt Cobain who electrified another generation and while the Teenage Dream was different it was still the Teenage Dream share by a rebel, a pioneer, I am not sure of the word to use, whatever it is. Sadly as with Marc his life would end before his 30th birthday. 

We should all love our Teenage Dream even if we are now in the final part of our journey, because if we don't then we lose the happy part of ourselves, when we believed, lived and loved like tomorrow was nothing to be frightened or aware of.  We Children of the  Revolution owe it to all generations to become their own children of their revolution and to have their own Teenage Dream.