Ryan Sutter

Human LLM Codependency

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

One of my new hobbies is to have conversations with large language models both to analyze how they work and to just kick ideas around. Unlike the majority of people, I do not go to ChatGPT to do this. In fact, I don’t even go online. I have no illusions that a natural language engine is “smart” but I do know that this reflects the collective, synthesized, perspectives of a phenomenally huge mass of human writing and thought. It is worth investigating. Skeptically.

So… Bandcamp Has Banned AI-generated Music …

Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

My first response to this announcement was “Yes. We need at least one place on the internet for art and music that is not going to be overrun by computer generated slop.” and then I read a few rebuttal pieces by people who have embraced AI as a tool in their work and I had a change of heart.

Now I think we need MULTIPLE places on the internet that take an active stance against AI-generated slop masquerading as art. Because, here’s the thing: a person using synthetic media generation tools, even if they are using those tools in good faith to augment or bring to life their own creative vision from inside their own heads, can simply produce thousands of times more output than mere humans working through their artistic struggles the old fashioned, slow, tedious, and thoughtful way. It is simply far easier to have a half-polished brain fart and turn it into something that looks shiny and polished via prompting than it is to do the actual work.

I'll swing the hammer until the Empire Builder brings me home

Tue, 02 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I recently returned from my first cross country trip via Amtrak. I have always enjoyed the physical sensation of being on a train, the sounds, the movement, it triggers a lot of the same feelings in me as being on a boat. I am a little bit on the ASD spectrum and have certain sensory preferences for motion. When I was a toddler, I used to ride on a rocking horse until I fell asleep, fell off, got back up, and started riding again. I also love swings and hammocks.

Go, Go, Hugo, Gopher!

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I am sitting here and listening to The Cure’s classic album Faith from the year 1981. I love this record. This particular copy of the album is a vinyl release from a record store day a few years back. So satisfying to spin it yet again after all these years. I have no idea how long ago I first heard Faith but it never gets old.

Today I finally managed to do something that I have been wanting to do for quite a while: I rebuilt my blog with something other than Wordpress. I have wanted to ditch Wordpress for many years and I’ve taken many runs at the problem of converting the blog to something else but I have never gotten to my goal until now. As of this post, this blog is no longer a Wordpress blog and is now a static web site generated by the hugo static site generator, written in Markdown, and managed via a private git repository using Gitea. The next step will be to move the site from Bluehost, where it has lived for many years, and deploy it on my self-hosted Linux server.

So, I guess I'm writing a novel now

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Back in May I was doing some morning writing and an idea for a novel started growing. Afraid of smothering it with too much early excitement, I let it simmer for a while and then I found that it started to come to me, the characters, the plot, the outline of the whole thing, and I have been writing bits here and there. Unlike most of my previous attempts at writing any sort of book, this one seems to be interested in being written. I am not just deciding that I want to write a novel and then trying to coerce my brain into writing it. No, it’s just a story I want to tell and I am starting to get into telling it. It’s a new experience and I am enjoying the process. Feels a bit like how albums happen because, you know, in my process, new albums grow and occur when I decide to make the space for them and listen for songs to show up in my head.

The Future Is Human

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The tech industry is in the middle of the biggest gamble in it’s history. More money is being spent on the quest for artificial intelligence than has ever been spent on anything in human history. Nobody can really rationally explain why this is a good idea or how this investment will be recouped. It is irrational exuberance at it’s best.

The technologies that have been labeled “AI” to date are not intelligent. They are nothing more than giant databases of mostly stolen intellectual property being fed into algorithms which remix all of that stolen content into words, video, images, and sounds. These technologies have their uses, but are nowhere near the transformative, world changing, hopes and dreams of the people hyping them.

The Story Behind Capistrano

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I released a new album last year called Capistrano. I’ve written about it here before, mostly in terms of “it’s still coming” and “honestly, I know it’s been years but I’m still working on it”. Now, however, it’s out in the world and can be listened to on any major streaming service you care to mention. Pretty soon it will be able to acquire it on vinyl and CD and if you ask nicely I will happily tattoo the song lyrics on the body part of your choosing (your body, not mine).

Q3 Update

Tue, 30 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

2025 is now 3/4 of the way completed and for me, at least, it has been a really really good year. It started rough. 2024 was not a good one for me. I was happy to finally complete and release the album I had been working on for the better part of a decade, rebuild my recording studio, and revive the Nuclear Gopher label, but I was also extremely depressed, stressed, overweight, and just generally struggling physically and psychologically. Politics, caring for my elderly, sick, dying dog, getting laid off from the startup I was working at, and a general cloud of negativity that I had been living under since the COVID pandemic started all caught up with me, culminating in a New Year’s day where I was mourning my dog’s passing and sick with a 103 fever, feeling fed up with life, the universe, and everything.

Big Social Liberation

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The other day I dipped my toe back into the world of Meta social media platforms (you know…. Facebook, Instagram, those AI-infested, anti-privacy, trash sites). I did not visit as an active user/engager, per se, but as a lurker just to monitor the “Friends Feed” for any personal news or events that I would like to know about. Basically have added this to my morning inbox and news checking regimen.

OMB

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Several years ago I backed a Kickstarter for a guitar attachment called One Man band or OMB for short. this device could be installed on basically any guitar and turn it into a MIDI guitar and I thought that sounded kind of cool and I bought the kit version. When I received it I did not actually have a guitar that I found myself willing to install the device to. The reason being that installation of the OMB required that a certain amount of modification to the guitar be undertaken, so I went ahead and just held on to the device until I had a guitar that I was willing to sacrifice to the experiment.

Rebellion

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It is time for a rebellion.

The technologies that were intended to unite us, connect us, show us our common humanity and tear down walls and divisions have been coopted by bad actors to keep us fearful, angry, and misinformed so that as much monetary value can be extracted from us as possible.

Big Tech has become a synonym for no privacy, no decency, no security.

This happened not because tech companies got big, but because they discovered that it was more profitable to sell us to advertisers than it was to sell us products that empower us.

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-09-13)

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“Doggo in a donut.” or “Buckley in a blueberry.” Take your pick. Mamiya C330, medium format. #believeinfilm #dogsofpixelfed

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-09-13)

Sat, 13 Sep 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Some of my favorite 35mm scans from Porch Mud’s recording session weekend. Photos by (mostly) Trashpandia. https://www.instagram.com/porchmu

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-08-28)

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cappy loves to bring possums in the house. I don’t particularly enjoy it but I’m grateful that they play dead and Cappy drops them when I te

The Drift

Fri, 18 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have this tendency to drift. I start off with what I think is a pretty good plan or idea, but then I get distracted by another plan or idea that seems pretty good too and instead of finishing the first one, I add another project to the pile. Eventually, I’m starting a third, a fourth, and a fifth project, exploring new ideas, new things to learn, etc, and I have drifted away from the original thing I was interested in.

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-06-30)

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Self-portrait Zeiss Ikonta 521/2 (pre-war), 6x9 medium format, Ilford HP5 Plus #believeinfilm

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-06-21)

Sat, 21 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

One hot summer day in Hugo MN, 2025 with a 1966 Minolta 7s and a roll of Kodacolor 400 35mm film that expired in 2003. #filmisnotdead #belie

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-06-17)

Tue, 17 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Don’t worry, be Cappy. :) #rescuedogs #dogsofpixelfed #doggo #fedismiles #smile

Bye Ubuntu Studio, I'm Going Back to MacOS

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have a by now quite elderly Macbook Pro from 2013 which I call Wee Beastie. When I bought it in 2013 I had no idea that I would still be using it in 2025 but the simple fact is that it is still plenty useful for most things. Music and photography and internet and email and writing, I have no real complaints.

I also have a newer Macbook Pro, an M1, but it’s a bit large for my taste. The old 2013 is a smaller 14" model and the M1 is a 16". I got the M1 as a side effect of working with a previous employer and it’s a fantastic computer, but I really wish it was a smaller model. I’ve been giving serious consideration to selling it and moving to a 14" M4. Anyway, back to the 2013 Mac.

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-06-11)

Wed, 11 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was looking at some my my earliest digital photos the other day and I noticed that my first couple of digital cameras back in the early 00

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-05-24)

Sat, 24 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Sunset over the bog. #landscapephotography #sunset

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-05-22)

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Underbite. Model: Rosita Camera: Nikon DF #dogsofpixelfed #pets #petphotography #rescuedogs #blackandwhitephotography

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-05-22)

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My world in one photo. #grumpy #dogsofpixelfed #rescuedog #rescuedogs #petphotography #dogphotography #blackandwhitephotography

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-05-20)

Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rosa says “Good morning!” #dogsofpixelfed #smile #fedismiles

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-05-19)

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

It’s the rare “full house” photo. My wife working on her laptop, all three dogs, and BOTH CATS on the pillow behind her. This. Never Happens

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-05-19)

Mon, 19 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Fallen cedar tree roots. Nikon D5100 #nature #trees #photography

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-05-17)

Sat, 17 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Pileated woodpecker + strong winds = $$

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-05-09)

Fri, 09 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

When you become a dog pillow and can’t move until he does. #dogsofpixelfed #rescuedogs #cozy #helpmeimtrapped

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-04-27)

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Kimber. 2025-04-26 #sigmafp #dogsofpixelfed #huskydog #petphotography #noirdogs

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-04-27)

Sun, 27 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“Hello ladies…”

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-04-25)

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Cappy/Buckley, off-duty/on-duty. #dogsofpixelfed #rescuedogs #barelyworking #dogs #watchdogs #spring #mylifeinonepicture

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-04-25)

Fri, 25 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The Deer Watchers. #dogsofpixelfed

Photo from Pixelfed (2025-04-21)

Mon, 21 Apr 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I hope your Easter/Passover/420 is as happy as Cappy! #dogsofpixelfed #rescuedogs #doggo #joy #photography #petphotography

Re-Platforming

Fri, 21 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have a lot going on at the moment and it’s good. I can’t say I’m thriving (yet) but it’s the first time in a decade or two that I feel like I have a plan.

Fall was rough. Got laid off from a pretty cool startup I was working for (so did 1/3 of the company, which eased the sting a bit, also it was my very first layoff so I didn’t take it personally but still, sucked). I found a new job, good, but the week after I started the new job my fellow citizens decided that they wanted to live in a fascist autocracy instead of a pluralistic democracy. Not good.

Let's All Fix The Internet Together

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I have been in a low key bad mood since August 21, 2012, the date I succumbed to pressure and joined Facebook. Prior to that date, I had been a regular and enthusiastic daily user of the internet for 17 years. I had a lot of systems in place to keep informed and entertained. I read blogs and had maintained my own blog for a decade. I subscribed to RSS feeds in a newsreader and podcasts as well to keep up with news and world events. I interacted socially with people I was close to via email, the phone, and IRL while interacting with the rest of the world via the vibrant and loud social web. Hell, I was even a regular contributor to Usenet groups.

The Nap

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Rosita (110 Color and 35mm B&W)

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A while back I ran across a 110 camera at an estate sale. I had memories of shooting with a 110 when I was a little kid. It was the only camera my parents would let me have. So, I got is as a curiousity thinking that 110 film was probably no longer available. Turns out that Lomo sells it! So, I bought some LomoChrome ‘92 400 ISO et voila! Here are two scans from the same batch, both of my girl Rosita. The 110 and a 35mm scans show quite a bit of resolution difference but the 110 has a pretty cool look, IMO. Also, Rosa is a great model no matter what film you choose.

Friends

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Hi Friend!

Do you know any of my friends? Maybe you want to become friends with them as well?

I have connected with my friends using WordPress and the Friends plugin. This means I can share private posts with just my friends while keeping my data under control. If you also have a WordPress site with the friends plugin, you can send me a friend request. If not, get your own WordPress now, install the Friends plugin, and follow me!

IndieWeb and The Fediverse

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The internet was born out of the cold war and the need to invent a computer network that was resilient enough to withstand a nuclear strike. The world wide web was born out of a desire to allow anybody anywhere to publish content and link to the content published by others via a decentralized hyperlink protocol. This combination of a decentralized network and decentralized content publishing changed the world. No longer were people stuck inside the traditional media content silos of broadcast radio and television networks. No longer did they need to limit themselves to the existing content silo apps such as America Online, CompuServe or Prodigy. On the web, nobody owned the network or controlled enough of the content to corner the market on thought. The browser was neutral, based on open standards. Email too. It was a new world.

Slain By The Spirit

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Lost my buddy, the mighty Finn, during the final week of December. So happy to have found him here, on a 35mm negative from a roll of film I just got around to developing from last fall. There is Finn, rolling on the ground writhing in the grass like some canine pentecostal, slain by the spirit. I miss you, you little lunatic. Every. Single. Day.

The Yawn

Mon, 10 Mar 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Another one from the recent 35mm development/scanning session… Probably taken with a Pentax K1000 but I’m really not sure of that…

Buckley doesn't like wearing the donut.

On Coffee

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

My parents weren’t coffee drinkers. I don’t even remember there being a coffee maker in the kitchen of my childhood. When we would visit my grandparents, sometimes coffee would be consumed, but that was the only time I would encounter it. Once or twice I was offered a sip and, like most kids, I didn’t care for it.

When I was a teenager, I got a job at a Chinese restaurant bussing tables and washing dishes. I was given unlimited access to the fountain drinks and it took me very little time to be burned out on sugary sodas. Instead, I started drinking tea and found it much more to my liking. Unbeknownst to me, I was setting myself up for becoming a coffee drinker.

A New Leaf

Tue, 28 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The last five years were among the strangest time periods in my life. At this time in 2020, I was returning to Minnesota from a trip to Uruguay after spending the previous Christmas in Portugal. I was feeling pretty good about the future. I was a bit nervous about the possibility of a Trump re-election but he had been such an unmitigated disaster that I figured all signs pointed to him losing next time. My job was going well, I was enjoying the band I was in, life was OK. Then, while on a layover in the Miami airport, I heard that Kobe Bryant’s helicopter had crashed and then I heard about some sort of respiratory virus that the CDC was concerned about called COVID-19.

The Internet

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

30 years ago I got online for the first time on some new thing called “the internet”. I immediately fell in love. My life was never quite the same after that.

I’ve spent a large portion of almost every day since that fateful beginning participating in the internet. Building parts of it, reading and arguing, writing and sharing, meeting people, making friends.

I’ve been there for every step of the journey.

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Wed, 06 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Humanize Your AI Generated Words: The Stupidest Arms Race Ever

Mon, 29 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Writing well is a challenging task. Whether you are the sort of person who meticulously plans their words for hours or days or the sort who writes off the top of your head and then spends hours or days editing, tweaking, agonizing, and polishing, getting from “thing you want to say” to “polished text” can take some time and some commitment.

It is also spectacularly, incredibly, worth doing. The time spent learning to write well, of improving what you write by understanding what works and what doesn’t, the commitment to being a better writer, the whole process involved, makes you not just a better writer but also a more thoughtful person and better overall communicator.

To Be An Activist or Not To Be An Activist

Tue, 28 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I was born to parents who had recently become members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and that was how I was raised.

When I was a kid, 15 years old, I was convinced that Jehovah’s Witnesses knew The Truth about life, the universe, and everything. I was sure that they had it all figured out and that the end of the world was rapidly approaching, so I got baptized.

When I was 30, I discovered that this was not, in fact, the case. They Watchtower Society was just a human religion with no more claim to “truth” than any other and much of what they claimed to be True was provably False. Well, darn.

The iPadOS Is a Joke

Wed, 22 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Another day, another rant.

I recently added an M2-powered iPad Pro to my life to go along with the M1 MacBook Pro and I have thoughts.

First thoughts…. Apple went ahead and revamped the iPad lineup shortly after I acquired my M2 iPad with the amazing new M4 processor. One might think that I would be disappointed to have missed the upgrade but the truth is that I am very happy with the one I have even if it’s not equipped with all the new fancy stuff because a) this one was a HELLUVA lot cheaper and b) there is almost no point to having an iPad with that much horsepower because there are so few apps that can even take advantage of it because iPadOS is garbage.

"AI art" and Creative Practice

Wed, 24 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When something seems to bother me an inordinate amount, I like to see it as an opportunity for self-reflection. I ask myself just why it is that the thing bothers me so much? What nerve is it touching and why is that a nerve for me?

I remember my first brush with social media websites all the way back in the olden times of MySpace. By the time MySpace launched, I had already been online in one way or another for a decade. I had built a bunch of personal websites and I was proto-blogging at sites like LiveJournal. Somebody told me about this new site and I checked it out and it felt… off. Like taking a sniff from a bottle of milk that is just beginning to sour. I did not feel compelled and, in truth, I didn’t want to use the site because of that initial gut reaction. It took milliseconds for my brain to construct a picture of a future in which people didn’t make their own quirky expressions of creativity on their own websites but rather they just dumped themselves into a pre-existing mold, a templated website that collected all the ephemeral human content into a nice pen where it could be commodified and corralled and monetized. I am not retroactively crediting myself with more foresight than I actually possessed. I had been a technology professional for a decade, and an enthusiast before that. I had read all sorts of books about future directions of networks and technology. I had been on closed community silos like AOL and CompuServe before I ever even heard the word “internet”. I knew what I was looking at the moment I saw it and I didn’t like it. It seemed like a harbinger of the end of the wild wild web.

This Sounds Like An Apocalyptic Hellscape

Tue, 23 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I just watched this:

[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKNCiRWd_j0[/embed]

I will one say that one person’s “amazing” and “hopeful” future is another person’s dystopian hellscape and this, to me, is a horror show. Nearly everything about “AI” sucks and I hate it because it’s already making things worse. There is more misinformation, more confusion, less creativity and thinking, more reliance on giant pirating remix engines instead of developing personal skills and intelligence. It’s not fear of Skynet happening that I find so awful, we’re still a millennium away from sentience, it’s the absolute shit show of what is happening with this technology right now. Namely, the marketing hype that is trying to sell us all on the idea that ChatGPT and generative image poopers are some sort of intelligence and that we need/want to have this intelligence embedded in every piece of technology we ever interact with. What the “AI” people have actually created are computationally massive software algorithms that can mimic human behaviors well enough (by stealing and remixing actual human creativity) that they can give the illusion of intelligence, sometimes, as long as you don’t examine them too closely. The AI techno-utopians have created the world’s most expensive and well-informed blind and dispassionate sociopaths. Code that is possessed of no awareness, no mind, no thoughts which is already enshittifying everything it touches. This is easily my least favorite technology development of all time. It’s auto-tune for your brain and what could be worse than that?

9 years, 4 months, and 23 days...

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Today, April 14 2024, I finished recording my new album, Capistrano. The album runs 38 minutes and 40 seconds.

I started working on the album on November 23, 2014 so that means that this one album of 39-ish minutes of music took me a grand total of 9 years, 4 months, and 23 days to create meaning this is officially the longest gestated album I’ve ever worked on, beating The Lavone’s 1999 album “The Hiatus” by about three years.

Altin Gün Are Great. That Is All.

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLayWDyFrAo

Holy crap I love Altin Gün. Makes me wish I understood Turkish… Also, I wish I had seen them before Merve Daşdemir left the band… Anyhow, if you don’t know them already, Anatolian Rock geniuses, Altin Gün. Enjoy.

My Creative Career

Fri, 12 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

For 30 years I’ve made my living in this world, paid my bills and my taxes, raised my kid, almost entirely from the writing of computer software. It’s a solid skill, always in demand, and I’m good at it. Both before and throughout that entire professional career I have also had a (far less lucrative but infinitely more satisfying) shadow career as an independent musician, writer, filmmaker and creator. I have a resume that details the technology career, but not really one that details my career as a creator. This is that resume. Kind of…

Building the new NuclearGopher.com

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been threatening to relaunch NuclearGopher.com for years. One rather ridiculous reason I have struggled to make this happen is that I truly and deeply find the modern style of website building to be boring, annoying, and uninspiring.

Setup a content management system (probably Wordpress but if you’re really unsure of what to do you can use something like Bandzoogle or Wix or Strikingly or something)
Install one of the myriad number of available responsive “beautiful” themes and change some colors and logos
Start cranking out “content”
For every special feature you want (comments, newsletter signup, blah blah blah) install a plugin and probably signup for some cloud based subscription service
To get statistics or visitor info add in Google Analytics or use an SEO optimizer service so your site can secretly track visitors and report the data to marketing firms

Congratulations, you now have a website that looks just like every other site on the internet and you are likely going to pay multiple monthly fees to keep it online!

Revisiting "Age of Propaganda" Now That Everything Seems To Be Propaganda...

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 00:00:00 +0000

When I was in high school I took a philosophy course and I have to admit that I didn’t think too highly of it. We learned about the debates over questions such as “What is truth?”, “What is beauty?” and “Does life have meaning?”

I was pretty sure I knew the answers to all the big philosophical questions and I was pretty sure that anybody who wanted to know the answers could just study the Bible a bit with a member of my religion and they could have those answers too. That is the thing about belief: it gives you the comfort of feeling that you have answers and can therefore get on with the business of living your life instead of wasting all that time in pointless debating like the philosophers.

Allen Iverson?

Fri, 22 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

A.I. is having a moment. Everywhere I look these days it seems that people are embedding the former Philadelphia 76er and Hall of Fame point guard into their products and… wait… just being corrected here… A.I. refers to “artificial intelligence”. Ah. That makes a bit more sense…

There are a lot of hot takes happening. Is AI going to steal all of our jobs? Is it good? Is it bad? Is it going to permanently erase any lingering traces of trust from the shattered remnants of human society?

Can an M2 iPad Actually Replace My Laptop?

Tue, 19 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

As a bit of a follow up to my mea culpa regarding the Apple M-series MacBooks and how impressed I am with them, I have taken the plunge and purchased my first new Apple product since the iPhone 7, an iPad Pro with M2 processor. The question: can this serve as a legitimate laptop replacement or, at the very least, a replacement for the majority of daily laptop tasks.

I have only had the new iPad for a few days but here are my first experiences.

Smartphones Suck.

Wed, 31 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

I am a notoriously difficult person to get a hold of. Texts are missed for days or weeks, emails too, my social media appearances are few and far between, if I don’t recognize a phone number I don’t answer the phone.

This is not because I don’t want to talk to people or because I want to make anybody’s life difficult, but rather because the thought of picking up a smartphone for anything, even to approve a multi-factor authentication request, has become repugnant. I have no positive feelings about the device. I resent it. I want to throw it in a river or toss it as high as I can up in the air and watch it smash on my driveway. It takes an act of grit and determination to remove it from the charger, unlock it, and check it for messages.

Back to the Future

Wed, 20 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I started a new job a while back where, for the first time in many years, I am back to doing full time software engineering work that involves me writing code. Frankly, I’m enjoying it. I spent the first twenty years of my career writing code and the last ten leading and building teams of other people who write code.

When it was me doing the coding, my days tended to consist of a lot of private battles with logic and problem solving. I felt mentally sharp and my brain felt alive with ideas and inspiration. Then I pivoted to leadership and I enjoyed it quite a bit too but in a very different way. I moved my attention from the very small details within a system, data and logic, up to the larger role that software development plays in the company and the world at large. When I thought about my work it was about how to make the team better, how to make the product better, or how to improve the user experience for the customer, not about the algorithms, scalability, or testability of a particular function, method, object, or data structure. I also focused on how to help other people become better developers, how to improve their interpersonal team dynamics, how to identify and hire great engineering talent, basically everything except the creation of software. I was very good at that and I built some great teams and together we built some great products. My technical role wasn’t gone entirely, I still provided high level architectural direction, reviewed and approved code changes, and even occasionally coded up a proof of concept for a new solution. But, when it came to writing the tens of thousands of lines of code that make up a software product, I was strictly hands off. I was a conductor, not a musician.

OK, Apple. I admit it. I was wrong about the M-Chip Macs.

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The post Steve Jobs era of Apple has been hard on me. I was such an Apple fanboi that I had friends who called me iRyan. I used Macs to design and print the inserts and labels to make the first Nuclear Gopher albums when I was a teenager. I bought the very first iMac the day it came out. For years I blogged using a vintage Powerbook 170, the perfect portable writing machine. I owned each of the first seven generations of iPhone and multiple iPods and iPads. When they stopped making products that I found appealing, I didn’t really know what to do about it because I didn’t like the alternatives all that much either. The iPhone went first, I moved to Android when they ditched the headphone jack and I still have no regrets on that score but, frankly, I despise smartphones in general so that wasn’t a very painful switch and I still prefer a phone with expandable storage and a corded headphone option and I will keep buying those as long as they are available.

Writing

Sun, 19 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I am a firm believer in doing the work required to maintain mental plasticity and for me this means writing.

I don’t have much of a publishing track record, I will admit. My only commercially published writing was over 20 years ago and was related to technical topics. My personal journal entries from the 2002-2006 period, covering the time period in which I lost my religious faith, have been available as a free Creative-Commons licensed e-book for years over on archive.org, but that’s about it. Most of my writing never leaves the confines of my personal journal.

Stunned.

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Today I awoke to learn that the funding goal set to launch “Witness Underground” out into the world was reached, two days ahead of schedule. Not quite under the wire but not exactly a chip shot either.

I will be honest here, I really dislike crowdfunding as a concept, I think social media is a social toxin, and I did not enjoy the actual process. I really stressed Scott out with my own stress about the process and I feel bad about that. The whole thing was well out of my personal comfort zone. That said, there was one upside to the whole thing and that was the amazing coalescence of a community of supporters, well-wishers, and fellow travelers.

Nuclear Gopher: Origins

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 00:00:00 +0000

People occasionally ask me about how Nuclear Gopher happened. There is sometimes a sort of wonder that even though Rhett and I were two nice Jehovah’s Witness kids from the neighborhood we started this crazy experimental band and then an underground record label. The assumption seems to be that we must have been rebels or trying to stir things up or “be worldly”, in Witness lingo. Honestly, though, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

Them Changes

Tue, 16 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

I may not have been born yet when the late, great, Buddy Miles sang about Them Changes but I like to think I know what he was singing about. Change is all there is, nothing ever really stays the same, not exactly, even in the most humdrum and repetitive phases of our lives. Even though this is true and all things are always in flux, it’s very easy as a passenger through linear time to see certain events and choices, times and seasons, as if they are the starts and ends of chapters in a book. A birth, a death, a move to a new home, a new city, a change in career, the end of a relationship or start of a romance, these are the easy markers, the ones that have dates and names attached. Most of our lives, however, are lived in the interstices between those big changes.

We Have Met The Enemy And He Is Us

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The hardest part about losing my religion wasn’t unlearning the teachings. Doing study and research enough to replace the baseless fantasies I had believed in with reality-based information was intense, sure, but I love learning and I enjoyed the thrill of discovery. Who doesn’t get a kick out of the mental buzz you get when you graduate from the childish simplicity of seeing the sky as a sort blue bowl over your head to understanding how light is being refracted and diffused through the atmosphere to create the illusion?

Another Long Overdue Album Update

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Back in September I posted a Long Overdue Album Update! and now here I am with another.

I have made a series of demo mixes of the album and done additional tracking since then, including hiring some session musicians to add some horn and string parts. I’ve also mocked up some cover art to use for the demo mixes although actual final cover art is still TBD. As you can see, I’m naming the album Capistrano, which also happens to be the proper name of the Very Good Boy gracing the cover. His nicknames are Cappy or Cap but his full name is Capistrano and he informs me that this is the first time anybody has ever named an album after him. Go figure.

Eno - Here Come The Warm Jets (1973)

Tue, 27 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to albums that have had a big influence on me musically, personally, emotionally, spiritually, intellectually, and in all other ways, it is hard to argue that any one album has been more influential than Brian Eno’s 1973 debut masterpiece, “Here Come The Warm Jets”. It’s a confounding, confusing, challenging, entertaining, absurd, sublime, surprising, dense, inscrutable, and completely unique musical statement. The title is a reference to peeing (and if you don’t believe me, just look at the playing card next to the pack of cigarettes in the cover photo), the songs have titles like Baby’s On Fire and Dead Finks Don’t Talk, it’s an album where every song sounds different and there seem to be no actual musical precedents for anything you hear and yet it’s all so clearly and consistently the product of one man’s mind, a coherent experience for the listener despite the lack of any obvious unifying principle beyond pure creativity.

Long Overdue Album Update!

Sat, 24 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In 2014 I decided to start working on a new solo album with the working title The wolf is at the door / let’s invite him inside / it’s getting cold out there. I thought I would probably complete the record in 2015 or 2016 because, unlike previous records such as Blood and Scotch/Valentine (2012) or Louder, Longer, Lobster (2007), I was not going to do the record as a one-month project but rather would take as much time as I needed to. I had no idea that would be 8 years.

Jehovah's Witness Dreams

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Last night I had another JW dream. They don’t happen all that often these days, but every once and a while I am reminded that I spent the first 30 years of my life in that religion and it is still a part of my make up.

I don’t exactly know why I would happen to have a JW dream now, there has been nothing occuring in the waking world that has made me think about my Witness past, but the subsconscious does what it wants. Perhaps it can’t help but stumble across that theme in it’s nightly wanderings.

COVID Vaccine Hangover

Sun, 11 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’m sitting in bed with a laptop and a coffee, and a banana and two Tylenol coursing through my veins. It’s rainy and weird outside. Perfect day for a COVID vaccine hangover, the fourth I have experienced.

The introduction of the new COVID vaccine that covers the latest variants is something I have been looking forward to for a while now. I got the original two shots, then the booster last November, then I got COVID itself in the spring, and not I’m boosted again. I should be pretty darn protected by this point but this is the time of year when I tend to get extremely bad lung illnesses, so, that’s exactly what I want, I want to be insanely protected.

Songwriting

Tue, 31 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The other day it occurred to me that the most uncommon interest I have, the one I am least likely to get into a conversation at work about, is songwriting. I know plenty of other people who write songs, I play in a band with three of them, and I have a lot of songwriter friends but as far as “normal” people go, songwriting is not a common activity. You can’t just drop “so, I wrote a new song the other day” into casual office conversation and expect anybody to say “Oh really? Me too! Have you recorded a demo of it yet?”

Ryan’s Rules For Living A Healthy Life in the 21st Century

Sun, 15 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

- Your time and attention are valuable and rare, only share them with corporate interests on rare and valuable occasions.

- Regular intake of news is bad for your mind, your body, and your spirit. Consume just enough to be an informed citizen but no more.

- Prefer physical experiences to digital facsimiles or fantasies. Engage all five senses. Move. You will remember more, feel more, live better, and perceive time at a slower pace.

Nuclear Gopher Hay Factory

Sat, 14 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Nuclear Gopher recording studio started life in the basement at my parent’s house where I spent most of my formative years. We moved into the house when I was 7 and I lived there until I was 19. One particular room in the basement was always “the music room” and contained a drum kit and various instruments that my siblings and I used extensively to learn to play instruments and make and record music. It was, frankly, a great way to grow up.

Creativity, COVID, Connection, and Other Random Thoughts

Wed, 04 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I have COVID. It’s something I had managed to avoid up to this point because I have a history of chronic bronchitis and pneumonia as well as asthma. A killer lung virus was not high on my Christmas list. The good news is that I managed to avoid a COVID infection for over two years and in that time the medical treatments for COVID have advanced to the point where my case is so far been manageable. I was quite sick on Friday afternoon and by Sunday I was quite worried about developing severe complications so I did the smart thing and went to the Urgent Care. The doctor agreed that I needed intervention and prescribed the new anti-viral for COVID, paxlovid. Since I started taking it I have noticed a trend towards getting better rather than getting worse and I couldn’t be happier.

Recording My New Album, Day One

Sun, 20 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been planning and planning to record my new solo album for seemingly the last 7 years. I’ve written tons of songs and laid down demos and even released a few of them as singles with videos and everything but, and this is a big but, I haven’t recorded anything that I was certain was for a new album. I have basically been in a sort of creative limbo.

A few weeks back I thought of a way to finally get the ball rolling. I went through a bunch of old voice memos, iPad demos, recording sessions, and assorted odds and ends from the last few years and found out that I had dozens of potential tracks for an album if I could just get myself to knuckle down and do the work. Today I finally started doing the work by tracking the basic tracks for the first song I’ve chosen to work on. I’ve decided on the sound and artistic direction for the album and given myself a few parameters for recording it that ought to make it an interesting challenge.

Photography

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 00:00:00 +0000

I am not a photographer. Let’s just get that out of the way first off. I am a musician, I am a software engineer, I even go so far as to classify myself a writer of sorts, but I have never claimed to be a photographer. Like sculpture, painting, poetry, screen printing, jewelry making, and the many other forms of artistic creativity available to the interested individual, I have dabbled over the years. I took some photography classes in high school. I have shot and edited short films and god knows I’ve taken thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of photographs but I’ve never truly stopped to become informed or deeply involved in the craft. I’ve been a dilettante at best. More interested in photography as a way to document my life visually than as an artistic medium.

(Almost) All of The Guitars I've Ever Owned

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The title should be fairly self-explanatory. Here is a run down of every guitar I have ever owned, to the best of my knowledge. I still own some of these. The pictures are not my actual guitars unless noted.

1985 Squier Katana

This was how it began. The year was 1986. Rhett and I had just decided to form The Lavone. I need a guitar. With $160 in hand I went to the Burnsville Center, walked into Schmitt Music, and walked out with the COOLEST FUCKING GUITAR THEY HAD. At least, that’s how I saw it. I was 12. I liked Lamborghinis. This was obviously the coolest guitar. I mean, just look at it. It didn’t sound good or play good but neither did I. For the first three years of The Lavone, it didn’t matter, this was my axe. Then, in 1989, I got The Black Ric.

Witness Underground

Sun, 14 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

It is shortly after 8:00 AM on a Sunday morning and I have coffee brewing in the next room. Last night was the first snow fall of the year. We got maybe an inch, it is unlikely to stick around but driving home in it last night was a bit treacherous. Two days ago I had the experience of sitting in a large, beautiful, theater filled with friends, family, and strangers, and watching them watch a movie that is heavily based on my life and in which I feature prominently. The film is called Witness Underground and it was showing as part of the 22nd Annual Sound Unseen film festival. This was the Minneapolis premiere and a lot of people turned out for it.

From the Vaults: Vioman #1

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Going through some old files today I ran across a comic book I drew back in elementary school: Vioman #1. Now you too can enjoy my 5th grade comic book dreams…

Vioman #1 (PDF)

New Video: Never Replace You

Sun, 29 Aug 2021 00:00:00 +0000

https://vimeo.com/593972400

Enjoy.

(From the soundtrack to the film Witness Underground)

An Unabashed Product Endorsement for JLab Frames

Tue, 27 Jul 2021 00:00:00 +0000

I am an owner of many many pairs of headphones. Bluetooth, wired, bone conduction, over-ear, studio reference, open-back, light-weight, waterproof, you name it, I have probably got it. I’m not really a major audiophile, I don’t spend absurd amounts of money on fancy equipment, but I listen to music nearly non-stop when I’m not doing other things.

I’ve always been an avid music consumer and have lived with glasses on my face and a pair of headphones around my neck since I got my first Walkman back in the 80’s. I say all of this to highlight the fact that it takes a lot for me to be surprised or impressed by a pair of headphones but here I am.

I Wrote This Blog Post On An Italian Typewriter From the 1960's, And I'd Do It Again

Sun, 09 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

At the risk of overgeneralizing, there are two major categories of technologies in the world: special purpose and general purpose. Would it help to have an illustration? OK. A typewriter is a special purpose machine that does one thing and one thing only; it puts words on paper. In contrast, a computer is a general-purpose machine that does many things including, but not limited to, putting words on paper. There are countless examples I could cite. The filet knife, special purpose. The Swiss army knife, general purpose. The digital SLR camera, special purpose. The smart phone, general purpose pocket computer that also has one or more cameras. It is often, though not always, the case that a special purpose tool will be better at accomplishing a task than its general purpose alternative. If one wishes to filet a fish, a dedicated filet knife will be infinitely better for the task than a Swiss army knife (no offense to the Swiss army).

New Coding Project

Mon, 21 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The first computer program I ever wrote was in BASIC on a Commodore VIC-20. I was in second grade.

Many years and many programs later, I have now worked in software engineering for over 25 years (going on 27, actually) but I don’t code much anymore. Years ago I moved into “leadership” positions. Architect, team lead, technical director, and finally just plain director, which is a purely managerial position which I have held for over five years. I haven’t committed any code to any production software since I moved into that role. Admittedly, my days of regular heads down coding had been long gone before I completely moved into leadership, but it was initially a bit of a shock to no longer have even a small amount of coding in my day to day job.

Typewriters

Sun, 20 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[](https://ryansutter.net/2020/12/20/typewriters/klein-adler/) 1933 Klein-Adler 2

Yesterday I drove to an estate sale in southeastern Minnesota and purchased a 1933 Klein-Adler 2 typewriter. I am not even sure how many typewriters I now have in my possession. This year of our lord 2020 has turned into “the year Ryan started collecting old typewriters”. I blame the pandemic. Why not?

It started innocently enough. I had a lot of pandemic downtime on my hands and when I have idle time I tend to write. I write almost every day. I type, I scrawl, I scribble. Pens, computers, typewriters, I use them all. I seem to have a non-stop need to be saying things and when there isn’t anybody there to say them to, I write them down.

The macDevice: Why The Apple M1 MacBooks No Longer Qualify As Full-Fledged Personal Computers

Fri, 11 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

“If it has to be jailbroken and side-loaded in order to run approved code, and then disposed of when it’s reached it’s pRE-determined end of life, what you’ve got there isn’t a computer, that’s a Smart Device.”

When Steve Jobs debuted the original iPhone it was clearly a very small computer. There was a CPU, a screen, memory, input, output. Almost every device we use these days, from televisions to watches to vacuum cleaners, is some sort of computer. I have smart light bulbs that are technically computers. I say this because I want to make a distinction between a Personal Computer (PC) and a Smart Device (SD).

Around the Rhett in 7 Songs

Wed, 02 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

[](https://ryansutter.net/2020/12/01/around-the-rhett-in-7-songs/10495339_324410774375173_628950964692204106_o/) The legendary Lavone, me on the left, Rhett on the right

My elder brother, Rhett (1972-2005), was a musical prodigy who explored and experimented with music from pre-school until his untimely death from blood clots in his lungs at the ridiculously young age of 32. I grew up in his musical shadow and I constantly wonder what songs he would be making today if he was still here to make them.

Paranoia Will Destroy Ya

Mon, 30 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The first time I ever encountered a conspiracy theorist I was 16 years old and out in the door to door ministry with some fellow teenage Jehovah’s Witnesses. It was mid-summer, a really hot one, and I was paired up with Bobby Norbohm. We went to a door and knocked and a little old man answered the door. He was short, slim, rosy skin tone, a halo of white hair, and oddly enthusiastic about our visit. He invited us in to his air conditioned living room and offered us beverages. Witnesses face a lot of rejection in the door-to-door game, quite a lot, so a cool room on a hot day with a friendly face is rather welcome. Also, Bobby’s green 1970-something GM Behemoth didn’t have air conditioning, you just had to roll the windows down and sweat all over the pleather.

Do A Thing

Mon, 16 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Last week I was pretty depressed. I didn’t really want to do much of anything. I laid around the house, played video games, felt like garbage most of the time. One thing I have learned is that when I am feeling that way it can be beneficial to pick up one of my many languishing projects and attempt to make some sort of progress on it. This can mean taking a half-build model car and painting a few pieces, or soldering some bits on to a circuit board for a guitar pedal that I never finished making, or maybe performing a small repair on something. Whatever IT is, I have found that performing some small task that feels like progress can be like blowing a little air on last nights embers when the fire feels like it’s mostly burned out. When I’m really low I don’t even want to do that much but if I make myself take the first step, I tend to fall forward to the next step.

Some Exercises For Living In The Modern World

Fri, 30 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I keep seeing advertisements online for lite/small/basic/dumb phones. These are usually promising to break the user away from the mind-numbing addiction to the doomscroll and allow them to once again see the world around them. I am guessing that none of these products actually have much of a likelihood of succeeding in the marketplace because, at the end of the day, they are the electronic equivalent of a healthy diet and we all want pizza.

Operating System Endgame: Mac, Windows, BSD, Linux, oh my

Fri, 02 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Hold tight, this one’s gonna get nerdy.

Let’s take a little trip in the way-back machine to the dawn of the desktop computing era, that time period that we seem to be incapable of escaping: 1984. It was in 1984 that Steve Jobs famously unveiled the first “modern” computer, the prototype forerunner of all we use today, the original Macintosh. It wasn’t the first GUI, but it was the first commercial application of the idea that a computer has a mouse and desktop and icons and a What You See Is What You Get user experience.

Music, Memory, And The Miasma

Thu, 01 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I had a bit of an epiphany last night. I don’t know if it’s particularly profound, but I feel like my eyes were opened to a few truths that I have long known and simply forgotten to apply in my life.

First thing. I have been a music person my entire life. I have listened to music, thought in music, sang to myself in the car, in the shower, written my own songs, recorded music, performed music, learned instruments, collected music, obsessed over music. I know people who maybe own two or three CDs and casually listen to Spotify, you know, normal people. In contrast, I have literally thousands of albums in numerous formats: vinyl records, shellac 78s, CDs, cassettes, reel to reel tapes, digital files, you name it. OK, I don’t have any 8-track carts, gotta draw the line somewhere, but I do actually own a functional hand-cranked Columbia Grafonola record player.

Unreason

Thu, 09 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I often find myself wondering how people can live in the 21st century, using computers and smart phones, benefiting from modern medicine and transportation, seeing the very fruits of scientific discovery in their daily lives EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. while continuing to deny science and reason.

I once had an infuriating conversation with somebody who believed in the flat earth. When I asked him if he ever used the GPS on his phone he said that or course he did. When I explained that the very existence of GPS demonstrated that the world was not flat he proceeded to give his imaginary explanation for how the GPS system “really” worked using cell towers, not satellites. When I explained to him that a) I am an engineer and I know first hand it doesn’t work that way, b) GPS works even when you are nowhere near a cell tower, and c) the GPS system predates the cell towers in the first place he was completely unmoved. He had seen a video on YouTube and that was all the evidence he required. Speaking to a person he knew who had first hand knowledge of the topic was not as convincing as his “research”.

Amateurs by Nova Pill Beam

Mon, 02 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I’m proud to announce the completion and pending release of a new album. I have once again joined creative forces with Lemuel “Ace” Herlihy (aka: Michael Heuer) and a new album, entitled Amateurs is the result. Our last album was called Nininger and was released six years ago. On that one we each contributed a 35+ minute long ambient/noise piece under an anagram-derived moniker. I was listed as Tasty Rerun and Michael as Lemuel “Ace” Herlihy. This year we collaborated much more closely, composing and recording together in a series of studio sessions to create a very different beast. Also this time out Tasty and Lem have decided to band together under the name Nova Pill Beam.

Politics (And How Not To Lose My Mind About Them)

Tue, 25 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

I have been eligible to vote in American elections since the early 90’s but the first time I actually voted was in 2004. I hadn’t previously voted because I was a member of a religion which specifically prohibited voting. Weird, I know. As soon as I was no longer a member of that group, I got excited about the opportunity to vote and that year I supported John Kerry in his failed bid to unseat incumbent president (and Rove/Cheney ventriloquist’s dummy) W. It was an extremely disappointing experience that left me profoundly disturbed. I found it very hard to understand why anybody who was even marginally conscious about anything happening in the country could ever vote for a man with the apparent IQ of a sea cucumber, but clearly I misunderestimated my fellow citizens. It wouldn’t be the last time.

Holly Golightly

Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Two blog posts in a row, what??

This morning I finished reading an anthology volume called Great Modern Short Novels or something to that effect. The novellas were:

Lost Horizon (James Hilton)
The Red Pony (John Steinbeck)
The Third Man (Graham Greene)
A Single Pebble (John Hersey)
The Light In The Piazza (Elizabeth Spencer)
Seize the Day (Saul Bellow)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s (Truman Capote)

I had never read any of them and I enjoyed them all. I had seen the film adaptations of Lost Horizon, The Third Man, and Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but even those held some surprises in the reading. Breakfast at Tiffany’s specifically is much more modern than the film version would have you believe.

Music Is Being Made

Wed, 12 Feb 2020 00:00:00 +0000

That’s a lot of knobs and sliders and wires…

I haven’t released a new album since The Coal Room EP in December of 2014 but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been musically active. The last six years have been rather productive, actually. I spent some time as a member of the band Robots From the Future, also a stint in the band Fistful of Data’s, I played a handful of solo sets, I released a couple singles with music videos, I sat in on drums for a couple “adult jam” style gigs with friends, and then I joined up with my current band, Awkward Bodies and we have played some great shows and released a few singles as well. Still, I have missed being a recording artist unto myself so this year I hope to change that a little.

Fixed

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I haven’t updated this here blog for a few months because I couldn’t. The admin login was broken and I kept meaning to find time to fix it but failing. Today I am happy to say I figured it out, got the site updated to Wordpress 5.3, and switched the theme to the new Twenty Twenty theme. I plan to tweak that a bit, but hey, at least the site is fixed. Woot.

How I'm Learning To Love Computers Again (Or At least Hate Them Less)

Tue, 03 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I will never forget the first time I encountered the internet. It was 1994 and I was working at my very first computer programming job at a small sales-lead management company near Minneapolis. I had written a DOS program called EDT that used a modem to dial up to various magazine publishers and download their sales leads over the phone. One day my manager, Michelle, entered my cubicle and handed me a piece of paper and said, “I am not sure how this works, but this publisher says that they want to provide their files over something called the internet. Can EDT do that? I signed us up for an internet service account, these are the instructions to get started with our username and password.”

Ketchup Buffet (Or How Auto-Tune "Revolutionized" the Sound of Popular Music)

Thu, 11 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I am a person who listens to new music. At all ages, at all stages in my life, I have made a point of exploring current music, new releases, the latest things. I try not to discriminate by genre or popularity level when exploring new music because, hey, you never know. Every couple of weeks I bring up Spotify (and before that, Rhapsody) and I hit play on all the new releases, seeking treasure. I will give most songs anywhere from 20-60 seconds to provoke a positive or negative response before moving on, the ones I don’t mind get listened to all the way through, the ones I really like get added to my Library.

It's Not Nostalgia, It's Something We Have Legitimately Lost

Wed, 12 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I read this article today, The Cost of Living in Mark Zuckerberg’s Internet Empire - The Ringer, and a few things jumped out at me:

“I believe that almost everyone actually hates almost every interaction with almost every algorithm online”

and

“I miss the human internet with an intensity that borders on homesickness”

These two statements most definitely reflect my feelings. I’ve been struggling to really describe what happened to the internet, but I think it’s accurate to state that the internet as experienced by the majority of users has effectively transitioned from the “human internet” powered by millions of individuals and entities into the “corporate internet” in which the Big Five (Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft) have become so pervasive that is effectively impossible to use the internet without them. This, in turn, has lead to a world in which the priorities of those companies define the landscape for everybody else.

Games I Have Beaten/Completed

Sun, 17 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I just finished Orwell: Ignorance is Strength and it got me thinking about all the games I’ve actually managed to complete or beat in my life. It’s not a long list:

GORF (Commodore VIC-20 version)
Taipan! (Apple ][e version)
Space Quest I/II/III
Kings Quest IV
Myst
Every Monkey Island game (including the Telltale ones)
Resident Evil IV
The Legend of Zelda:
- Original NES
- Link’s Awakening
- The Ocarina of Time
- A Link to the Past
- The Wind Waker
Zork (Text Adventure)
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (Text Adventure)
Bureaucracy (Text Adventure)
Stories Untold
Oxenfree
Limbo
The Wolf Among Us
Jurassic Park: The Game
Batman: Arkham Asylum
Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
Portal
Portal 2

There are also a few games that you can’t “beat” per se, but that I’ve played so much that I have mastered them. Sports sims:

2018 Retro

Tue, 01 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Hello and welcome to 2019. So happy we could all be here.

As a professional practitioner of agile software development practices I have a tendency to want to stop at various checkpoints and look back in order to reflect on what worked and what didn’t and try to use that information to calibrate myself for times ahead. We call this a “retro”. At my job this is a step taken every two weeks or so. Today I am going to go ahead and use the fact of it being January 1st 2019 to do a personal retro on the year that was.

Ostrich

Tue, 11 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

https://vimeo.com/305625906

New music! And a cool video. Woot.

Reviews: The Lodgers, Mailbird, Forza Horizons 4

Mon, 26 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

What do a movie, an email application and a video game all have in common? They are all new parts of my life over the last few days and I am going to take a moment here to record my initial thoughts, starting with the film…

The Lodgers : Directed by Brian O’Malley, 2017 (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4399952/)

Last night I watched the (alleged) horror film The Lodgers. If there is such a thing as too much mystery and subtlety this film has it. Despite making it all the way to the end of the film, I still have no idea what the titular “lodgers” actually were or why they did anything they did or what exactly was going on at any point in the movie. The ambiance was solid, the performances were good, the house was spooky, but seriously, no idea what was actually happening. Are the ghosts? Vampires? Lamia? Sirens? No idea. If you happen to watch this (it’s on Netflix) and you understand what they are, please tell me. I am dying to know.

Making Things

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I am the first to admit that I have an unusual number of interests, hobbies, passions, that revolve around making things. Software development, wood working, audio and video production, and automotive restoration, to name just a few. Sometimes people are surprised to learn that I have almost no formal training to speak of in any of these areas. I’ve made my living working in software development since 1994 and written tens of thousands of lines of code for more systems and apps then I can recall and worked my way up from Junior Programmer to Director but my actual education? The BASIC programming book that came with my Commodore VIC-20 when I was 8, computer lab at Valley Middle School, the computer programming math elective in high school, and 13 months at CDI Computer Academy to learn the fundamentals of DOS, Unix, and C. That was it. Everything else? Self-taught.

Making Things

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Recent Reads

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

It has recently been suggested to me that I might want to keep a running tally of things I read. I kinda dig this idea. Seems fairly mindful.

Anyhow, a few recent reads and brief thoughts on them:

Uplift Series by David Brin: I have read Sundiver, Startide Rising and I’m currently reading The Uplift War, all part of the Uplift series by David Brin. Pretty decent sci-fi series in which species are “uplifted” to full sentience by other species and shenanigans ensue. Humans, for example, have given chimps and dolphins a genetic bump up the old ladder so they are now doctors and scientists and star-ship captains. Great concept, sometimes slightly bad writing, I expect it gets better.
Purity by Jonathan Franzen: I’ve only ever previously read The Corrections so I’m not exactly a JF fanboi but I did actually enjoy this one too. Very modern and relevant plot, kind of dark comedy, enjoyable read. Girl with mysterious past gets involved in an international conspiracy, but not what you might expect.
The Prague Cemetary by Umberto Eco: This was a difficult book to like if for no other reason that the main character is an anti-semitic lunatic with multiple personalities who is personally responsible for developing the concept that the Jews should be eliminated via The Final Solution and he is NOT Hitler, he’s an earlier fictional character in the late 1800’s. I hated him throughout the book and at the end when the author stated that he was the only fictional character in the book and the rest of the stuff actually happened it made me kinda ill. As usual with Eco, it was enthralling and you couldn’t turn away, but still…
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon: Sometimes with Pynchon I can get into the book and even enjoy it by the end, and sometimes I am just thinking “dude, wtf?” This book was the latter. I will be honest, I didn’t go to the end. I got 2/3rds done, wondered why I was bothering, and abandoned the read. WWII intrigues around a guy who has been conditioned to get a boner whenever a rocket is about to strike. Ha ha, except, not really. Weird but not enjoyably so. I have read Mason and Dixon, Inherent Vice, The Crying of Lot 49, I basically know what I’m getting myself into with TP, but still, this one just didn’t do it for me and I bailed.
Fight Club 2 (Graphic Novel) by Chuck Palahniuk: I had no idea there was a FC2 or that it was a graphic novel until I ran into it at a bookstore in Marquette MI a couple weeks ago. Color me intrigued. Devoured it in one sitting and I have to say I enjoyed it until the end where I felt it got a little too clever, a little too deus ex machina, a little too silly. Would it stop me from recommending? No. Would I re-read it? Almost certainly. I loved Fight Club, both the book and the movie, and I have loved some other books by this author, so, sure, why not?
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick: I love me some Dick. Seriously. (Shush, you.) He’s a great writer who strikes a really great balance between unique ideas, entertaining writing, relevant and thought-provoking concepts, and frankly, being funny. His books are always weird and worth it. ASD is no exception. A story about a cop who gets involved in the use of a drug called Substance D (aka Slow Death), it’s really a disturbing, sometimes funny, very strange exploration of drug culture. Normally I shy away from stuff like that. I am not a fan of Trainspotting. But in this case, well, I can see why this is one of his more popular and better known works. And speaking of Dick…
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick: Immediately before I read ASD I read The Three Stigmata… and everything I said above applies but perhaps it’s even more bizarre. ASD goes into a drug culture that is more like opiate addiction but T3SOPE is more like LSD, with Barbie dolls, and pottery, and space colonies, and aliens, and religious symbolism, and… well… Just read the damn thing. You’ll see what I mean. Perky Pat my ass…
Ready Player One by Ernest Cline: I didn’t see the movie but after reading the book I would sure like to. What a fun read. Probably the most entertaining full-length descent into 80’s geek culture ever, in which everything from John Hughes movies to Zork is relevant and the stakes are high no matter how basically silly the core concept is. I don’t care whether it makes sense, I had fun. Let’s all live in a lifelike virtual world in which everything is possible and spend our lives fetishizing 8-bit video games as if Joust has some sort of ultimate value. Why not? It’s fun. At least, as a book it is.
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements by Sam Kean: God I loved this book. Did you know that you can buy spoons made of gallium that appear to the casual observer to be standard metal spoons but dissolve in hot tea? No you didn’t. Except you, James. I know you knew that because you’re you. But the rest of ya… This book tells a story about each element in the period table and it’s just fascinating reading. Doesn’t hurt that the writer is funny either. Highly recommend. Especially if you like Mark Kurlansky’s work (Salt, Cod).
Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe by Simon Singh: You are here. Science has gone through a fairly massive effort to try to figure out how that happened. This is the story of the path that lead to the current best understanding and it isn’t what you think. Somebody didn’t just say “Big Bang, we don’t need no stinking God, Darwin FTW!!!” There is a long and fascinating backstory and many many people who contributed and Simon Singh tells the story very well. Read this book, and then The Disappearing Spoon. They actually go quite well together.

I could keep going, there are a few more recent reads worth sharing. Hidden Figures by Margot Lee Shetterly and and A Brief History of the Dead by Kevin Brockmeier both come to mind, but other than saying they are both quite good, I’ll leave off here. Maybe I’ll do this again as I read more books. Maybe…

Spider, Spider, Spider

Fri, 28 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Two years ago, in July, I bought a blue 1978 Fiat 124 Spider 1800 convertible for $300. It was cheap and looked very pretty from the outside. Unfortunately, it was, to put it mildly, a mess. There were plants growing in it. The floor was a hole. Animals had lived in it. The top and interior were rotted away. But, I didn’t care. I have had a crush on the Fiat Spider since I was a kid and I had never owned a classic convertible of any kind or in any condition so bringing home an old dead one was still inspiring. Plus, I wanted to learn how to restore cars. The best way to learn is to do, and here was my entry into auto restoration school.

MBV Night

Thu, 26 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Last night I went to the My Bloody Valentine show and this was my evening.

I arrive about 7:00, Michael is running late. As I’m driving to the show, a few blocks from Palace Theater, Jan Witte crosses the street in front of me. I roll my window down and yell “Hey Jan!” and he stops, looks confused for a second, recognizes me, and says “You going to the Palace?” and I laugh and say “Yeah, I’ll see you there!” and he keeps running.

The Television-Internet?

Mon, 18 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I used to be a blogger, now I have a blog. And it’s a goddamn ghost town. Before blogging, I built and ran various websites. Small communities formed, people were passionate, it was great. The Web was a helluva place. I don’t even know how to find that Web anymore. Social media, Apps, and The Stream have taken over the world and snuffed out what was once the worlds most interesting form of human communication. It’s not that the Web as an underlying piece of technology doesn’t exist anymore, but it has rapidly been relegated to the status of Usenet.

Update on The Fiat Spider Project

Sat, 02 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

As I’ve previously shared on this blog, I like cars. Especially old British and Italian convertibles. Last July, after a lifetime of reading car magazines and drawing pictures of them, I finally got my hands on my first one. The reasons behind the long delay are not interesting. Suffice it to say, it’s been a fun year. Here’s an update.

[](https://ryansutter.net/2017/09/02/update-on-the-fiat-spider-project/6-2/) Arrival.

July 2, 2016: I purchased a blue 1978 Fiat 124 Spider for $300 off of Craigslist. The body was fairly sound, except for the floor and driver’s side front inner fender. The engine was running, but the vehicle was not drivable.

In Defense of Obsolete Devices

Sat, 22 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

I work in software development. One of the things we strive for in my line of work is the ability to incrementally and perpetually improve our product. We have a word for it, Continuous Delivery. In this model, if you sign up for a website or download an app or what have you, you anticipate UPDATES. The web site will change over time, App on your phone will get new versions, sometimes monthly, sometimes weekly, sometimes daily. This entire industry, this entire professional discipline, seems to be dedicated to constant improvement, constant evolution, and constant change. And I get it, I understand why we do this more than most people do because it’s what I do for a living, but here’s the deal… I’m sick of it. I’m sick of having updates installed every single time I turn on my phone, every time I boot up my computer, every time I turn on my television or turn on my XBox or grab my iPad. I literally experience 10-20 minutes (minimum) of software update time every single day. And let’s be honest here, 99% of the time I do not notice any particular change. I probably never encountered the bug that was fixed or I don’t use the software often enough to have discovered the new features they added or whatever. Most of the time, an update is just a pain in the ass with little practical benefit. And this is one of the reasons that I’ve started to prefer working with “obsolete” devices.

Donald Trump: Cult Leader?

Thu, 20 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I grew up in a cult. I spent much of my adult life in a cult. My family is still in the cult I grew up in. So, I write from some experience. I have asked myself if my particular experiences have colored my perceptions or led my thinking astray on the subject I am writing about here, and I’m certain that I have a bias shaped by those experiences, but I also think I am in a good position as a former cult member to recognize cult thinking, cult indoctrination, propaganda techniques, and psychological manipulation in action. I don’t see them often but when I do, I recognize them immediately. People under the influence of a cult are unable to see it, but once you know what to look for, it’s not difficult. As the current American political race has progressed, it has become more and more clear to me that what we are witnessing is the rise of a cult leader and I’m seeing people I know and love fall under the sway of this leader, and I want to take a moment, pull back the curtain, and talk about what is happening with one Mr. Donald Trump.

My Traditional Fall Illness

Sun, 18 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I am writing on this, my birthday, from the place I generally find myself in August/September… Laid up sick in bed with a respiratory illness. Since the first time I fell ill with pneumonia as a teenager until today, I have found that most years I get one serious lung infection a year, complete with fevers, body aches, secondary infections, coughing, lungs filling up with fluid, the works. It’s not a normal cold or flu, it’s something that starts with allergies and asthma and then I pick up some sort of virus and within a few days I also pick up a bacterial infection, and it’s generally only when I have a fever in the 103+ range and find myself unable to breathe that a doctor is wiling to bestow upon me antibiotics, which unerringly clear the whole mess up in less than 24 hours.

Cars

Fri, 19 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Most of my friends probably don’t think of me as a car guy. I don’t have a Chevy belt buckle. I don’t have a NASCAR hat. I don’t have many of the identifying characteristics of the American Car Guy. Hell, I don’t even drive a particularly interesting car. But the thing is, I’m a car guy.

It started long before I could drive. Maybe kindergarten or first grade. It started with model cars. Specifically, a glueless “snap together” model of a Camaro Z28 not unlike the one pictured in the lower left hand corner here:

Three Listens #1: Angst Is Fucking Boring (Single) by Ghost Army

Tue, 05 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to a new thing I hope to do, I’m gonna call it Three Listens. Here’s the rules. I find some new music from some local band, I give their stuff three listens and document my responses to each listen and them summarize it up with a review at the tail end. Might be a single, an EP, an LP, but I will give it three solid listens. The philosophy behind listening three times is as to give the music a chance to do it’s thing. On first listen everything is new, layers may or may not be immediately apparent, some songs may underwhelm while others may seem better than they are. On a second listen the landscape should be known, the song should feel familiar. If it doesn’t that means it didn’t really register the first time, which might not be so awesome. But a second listen let’s you experience the song without the analysis that sometimes happens during the initial listen. Listen number three is really necessary to form an opinion of the song. If there is more there, you’ll want a fourth, fifth, infinity listens… If I don’t want to hear it again after three, it’s probably not working for me.

New Album Plans

Thu, 28 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Most nights I set an optimistically early alarm. I don’t know why I always think the following morning will be THE MORNING that I will wake up an hour or two earlier, take advantage of morning peace and quiet, have a cup of coffee, finish a thing or two, maybe do some writing, perhaps even exercise. I always assume tomorrow I will do it and today… I did. Woot! So here I am, sitting in my new command and control center, continuing my preparations for the work ahead, the work of 2016.

Wed, 13 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Last night I spent some quality time in my music room downstairs and decided to really get it tidy. This involved moving several boxes of things that still need to be unpacked into closets, but the end result was satisfying and I got to spend some time feeding potato chips and lasagna to the dogs while listening to vinyl with my feet up. Nice.

The room features a kitchenette area with a sink, microwave, and coffee maker, a dedicated writing desk with a manual typewriter, a massive bookcase covering a 20+ foot wall, and a mixing/listening/recording/computer desk corner consisting of two Macs, a Windows PC, a bunch of screens (including a 23-inch multi-touch), two pairs of near-field reference monitors, MIDI controllers, a RAID backup, Blu-Ray burner, and multiple audio recording interfaces. Oh and some guitars, amps, drums, art supplies, assorted other musical instruments, a stereo with a turntable and a 400-disc CD changer… And my wood record bin filled with vinyl. All my microphones. And games. And puzzles. And electronics soldering and tinkering stuff. And a banjo. We’re talking about a Music Room here. The next room over has all the old video game consoles and stuff. If there is an advantage to being a tech hoarder, it’s that once you have the space to plug it all in, you can give yourself a lot of options to play with. I still have a Palm Tungsten down there. It works and everything.

Music

Thu, 07 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

My mother was singing in a band when I was in the womb which means that my first time on stage with a band was before I breathed air. I think that pretty much doomed me to the life of a musician. Granted, I realized early on that the musician thing wasn’t particularly lucrative so I started a career in software development to pay the bills, and it has done so admirably for my entire adult life, but I continue to do the musician thing. By my count, I’ve been involved in the production of over 40 different cassettes, CD’s or digital music releases as either a songwriter, musician, engineer or producer and I still love it. Performing and recording music is a central thread in my life’s story.

Rock Boy

Mon, 04 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

I have always been involved with music. When I was a little kid I attended gigs and practices for my mom’s cover band. Then my brothers and I started making our own songs and by middle school I even knew how to play guitar a little. Rhett and I formed The Lavone when I was 12 and spent the next 17 years writing and recording albums. During those years I founded an indie record label, ran a music website, pressed, sold and promoted releases, played shows, and participated in a number of bands. When I was 31, Rhett died and I started working solo, mostly, although I’ve also played in a few bands: The Eclectics, The Cindy Ivy Band, Trumpet Marine, Robots From the Future and now Fistful of Datas. I’ve also recorded seven LPs and two EPs in that time. So, I think it’s safe to say that music has been a major part of my life. Specifically, writing, recording, and performing music.

The Year of Heavy Lifting

Thu, 31 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

What a stressful year 2015 has been.

On the plus side, I joined a fun band and played a bunch of shows and good times were had. I moved to a new house with 20 acres of land, a heated workshop, and a barn that I will be perfect to convert into a studio. Work was insanely stressful, but we built a system, and we launched it, and now a major global hotel chain is running on our software 24/7. That has it’s own type of satisfaction at the end of the day but I’d be lying if I said I would do it all again. Too much personal time missed, too little work/life balance.

Bomb!

Sat, 19 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The recent controversy over the 14-year-old Muslim teenager who built a clock and brought it to school only to be arrested and charged with making a “hoax bomb” has brought to light a troubling aspect of our modern culture. It is an aspect of the culture that particularly hits home for me, and it’s not Islamophobia or racial profiling. I am a white male, and therefore not subject to negative racial profiling. I am not religious either, and though there are people who fear and/or despise atheists, we don’t have to deal with the ignorant mobs with pitchforks mentality that people in the Islamic community face. So, while this incident does indeed illustrate the Islamophobia and racial profiling in our culture, that’s not the part that hit home for me.

The Holy Grail Of Media Management

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In my life I have generated and hoarded a lot of media.

Audio recordings, photographs, written documents, presentations, software, video, film… It’s a little overwhelming.

I find it overwhelming in part because I’m a bit of a pack rat. I never want to throw away anything that I might want later. The longer I live the more cluttered my hard drives and shelves get. There are literally hundreds of gigabytes of files and hundreds of physical items.

Fistful of Datas: Chapter 1

Mon, 14 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

About six months ago I was on Facebook and I noticed a post from my friend Liz about a 90’s cover band. I said it sounded like fun. That Saturday, we had our first practice.

I had previously been in the band Robots From the Future with Liz’s husband Keith. In fact, I was singing and playing the guitar for them as they took their vows on-stage at the Kitty Kat Club at the end of a Robots set which happened to also be their wedding. Liz had started taking drum lessons and really wanted a band to play in so she could have a reason to keep practicing and playing. Keith was already on-board on guitars so I volunteered to play bass and keyboards. There was an obligatory “Craig’s List Guy” who showed up for the first practice (I was late, I missed him, he wasn’t invited back) and there was one more person to join the trio of myself, Liz, and Keith, a young man named Cristhian Arias-Romero who was a friend of a friend and came highly recommended as a singer and performer.

The Zipper Situation (A Story)

Wed, 05 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Hastings is this lovely little riverside town in Minnesota, a bit south of St. Paul. It’s the kind of place that looks like an HO scale train set blown up to real size. You wouldn’t be completely startled to buy an ice cream from Jimmy Stewart at one of the antique stores. I used to live there, in an apartment above an auto parts store, under the highway 61 bridge with a Bob Dylan poster on the inside of my bedroom door.

Evolution of The Nuclear Gopher Studio

Fri, 09 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

My last post was a photo tour of my recording studio, The Nuclear Gopher. This is a little history and background about it.

In 1980 my family moved into a house in Apple Valley, MN and I was enrolled in the local elementary school. Our new house had a room in the basement that was almost immediately co-opted for use as a music room. It was in that room that we attempted to erect a stage to play on out of scrap wood (it fell down) and where we successfully constructed a drum set out of cardboard and ice cream pails and tape. Rhett got so good on the fake drum set that my parents bought him real drums and he made his on-stage debut drumming “Swing Town” at a wedding reception in a blue tux.

My Studio - A Photographic Tour

Mon, 05 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Post by Ryan Sutter - Music.

The Year In Review

Wed, 31 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Today is the last day of 2014. As I think back on the year, I am suddenly struck by the fact that in my former life as a Jehovah’s Witness I was convinced that the “last days” had begun in the year 1914, which will now be over a century in the past. I was also convinced that the generation who was alive in 1914 would still be around to see the end of the days. Granted, the Watchtower Society changed that particular teaching about 20 years ago, but it still feels good to see 2014 come and go without Armageddon. A nice little reminder that I was absolutely correct to leave that silly religion a decade ago. Too bad my family members are still struggling under those false and dangerous beliefs. One of my on-going regrets in life.

Workin' In a Coal Room, Goin' Down Down Down

Thu, 11 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

My house was built in 1876 and while it does boast such modern amenities as plumbing and electricity, it also has some unique features including three limestone walls in the basement and a coal room where the fuel for the old furnace had been stored before the conversion to natural gas.

Since the basement is the home of The Nuclear Gopher as well as the furnace (which is loud when it runs in the winter) I occasionally use the coal room as an isolation booth. This past Sunday I decided to take that approach to some acoustic recordings for a new project I had in mind.

Monkey Mind (The Story of a Recording Session)

Mon, 24 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I woke up Sunday morning with the strong conviction that it was a day for recording music. I poured some coffee and adjourned to The Nuclear Gopher Too1, as the sign reads on the door to my basement.

Important pre-requisites for a recording session at NG include comfortable footwear (preferably slippers), a coffee mug (there is a K-cup machine in the corner so you don’t need to BYOC), and most importantly, most vitally for true productivity, coming into the session with no clue whatsoever what you are planning to do. This is a long-standing Nuclear Gopher tradition and explains most of the albums The Lavone recorded.

Kayak Fishing

Sat, 27 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This morning I went out on Holland Lake in Lebanon Hills Park Reserve in Eagan in my recently completed home-built kayak. It was the second time out in the kayak, the first time I fished from it.

I will admit that I was a tad bit nervous about fishing in a kayak. I was concerned about losing balance and tipping in the event of a fish. Well, I can report that this was not a problem, at least not for any of the bass I caught this morning. In fact, at no point did I feel unstable or unsure while reeling in a fish, and I had a pretty good morning on that score, landing six largemouth bass and an apparently confused bluegill sunfish who thought he could eat a Rapala longer than he was. Now, none of these were large fish. Two of the bass were in the 1.5-2 lb range, the other four were a pound or less, so this doesn’t prove much about what would happen if I hooked into a fish with any size, but as a gentle entry to the world of kayak fishing, this morning was perfect.

Blogging My iPod #1 - Wilco / A. M.

Fri, 06 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I’ve been more or less sporadically accumulating music in my iTunes library for ages. I’ve decided to make a point of listening to every album I have and saying something about each one. I’m going alphabetical by album title.

The first one to come up is A. M. by Wilco. I think I can safely say this is the least interesting, least “go to” album in the Wilco discography. I never wake up and think “man, I wanna listen to A.M.”. It’s basically only in my library because I love Wilco in general and I don’t want to not have one of their albums. Isn’t that why you have Pablo Honey? You know it is. You never listen to it.

A Day of Unity

Sat, 03 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

I will shortly be heading out to a day-long game development workshop called A Day of Unity which will give me an opportunity to port Flutter HD to Windows Phone. Flutter, if you’re unfamiliar, is the game that my buddy Travis and I recently developed, and you can check it out for most platforms, including playing for free on Facebook, at http://www.sheepshapestudio.com.

The event is hosted by Microsoft and there was a time in which that in and of itself would be sufficient to make me question the value of the event. When I moved from Windows to Mac in 1997/98 it was kind of a big deal. I had built and owned a succession of Windows PCs going back to Windows 3.1 in 1993, I had a Windows NT laptop at work where I developed applications for, you guessed it, Windows. Growing up, of course, I rarely used Windows or even DOS for that matter. I had a Commodore VIC-20, then used Radio Shack TRS-80, Commodore 64, Apple II, and occasional Macintosh machines in school. I had a friend, Stacy Jackson, who had an IBM PC running DOS and she introduced me to Sierra’s King’s Quest series on it, but as a general rule I didn’t encounter Microsoft enough to have any opinions on them whatsoever. When I started working with DOS/Win 3.1 at CDI, it seemed a little primitive compared to the Macintosh, but it was clearly miles ahead of a TRS-80 and to my mind, a computer was a computer.

Plumbing, Gophers and Ghost Towns

Tue, 25 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This past weekend was a pretty productive one. We have had a leaky faucet in our kitchen for some time now. The garbage disposal under our kitchen sink had a crack in it that the previous occupants had “repaired” with duct tape which had also begun leaking. When we had a professional plumber out here to look at the situation, he balked at even touching it without bringing it up to code. Nothing in our house is up to code. The house was built decades before such codes existed.

The True Story of How I Joined Robots From the Future

Sun, 16 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

Tonight I am making my debut on stage with the band Robots from the Future. The first time I heard about RFTF I formed the mistaken impression that the band consisted of Keith Lodermeier, Reynold Kissling and Mitch Miller, played new wave nerd art rock, and had been around for a few years playing shows and putting out CDs. I believed that the description of the band at http://robomofos.com was mere marketing hype:

That Good Ol' Door to Door Religion

Sat, 15 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

It’s Saturday morning, around 9:15, as I write this. My morning so far consists of coffee, the Internet, dogs, spinning old Springsteen vinyl, wearing my TARDIS robe, and a little reading and writing. The conspicuous thing missing from my situation is guilt over the fact that I’m NOT out in a beige minivan, dressed in a moderately-priced suit and tie, carrying a book bag filled with Watchtower publications, with 4-5 of my “brothers” and “sisters”, looking for doors to knock on. It’s been nearly 10 years since my Watchtower de-conversion. Nearly 10 years since I tore my old life down and built a new one. Nearly 10 years since I last knocked on a strangers door to offer them the Good News about the New Order.

Neutral Milk Hotel

Tue, 11 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

My first encounter with Neutral Milk Hotel took place in 1997. I was working at Mortenson Construction as a contract software developer writing a time-tracking application in Visual Basic. I really wanted to be doing Java work but the language was too new and nobody had any jobs available. I was 23 and in my third year working as a software developer. On the day in question, I was sitting at my desk, listening to a streaming Internet radio station (which was quite a big deal at the time). “Song Against Sex” from the album On Avery Island started to play and immediately grabbed my attention. I wrote down the artist and the album name and as soon as I could I bought the CD. I wasn’t disappointed but it wasn’t earth shattering either. The remainder of the album, while good, didn’t grab me as much as “Song Against Sex”. Still, when I heard a new album was coming out the following year, I picked it up right away. That album was, of course, “In The Aeroplane Over the Sea”, and I thought it was perfect from beginning to end. I had a new favorite band.

Fun With Google Chromecast

Sun, 27 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

I recently acquired a Google Chromecast device. I didn’t know what I planned to do with it, because I wasn’t even sure what it could do, but at $35 I had to play with it.

Turns out, it’s a pretty sweet little addition to the old home entertainment center although I’ve had to solve a few issues to put it to best use.

Connection Issues (ports/audio): My HDTV has two HDMI ports on it. The easiest way to plug it in was to use one of those, but unfortunately this meant no ability to run the audio out to my older, non-HDMI equipped, surround sound receiver. When I bought my TV, I neglected to check for audio output and (thanks Samsung) there is none, so how to get the sound to my receiver?

Wee Beastie

Thu, 24 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Re-reading things I wrote 5-10 years ago is a fairly humbling experience. I find that is don’t like how I sound much of the time. I don’t like how I wrote about my mother, I don’t like how I came across much of the time, actually. Oh well, look forward I say…

Last night went to the Apple Store and picked up one of the new MacBook Pro laptops. I got a 13-inch Retina display model. I had really not been excited about getting this machine because of a number of factors. First, it looks nearly identical to the 2008 model it’s replacing. A little thinner, but other than that, it seems like there has been no progress on the form factor or design. Second, there is no optical drive. I don’t use optical disks all that terribly regularly anymore, but it still is mildly annoying. Not the end of the world, as I have a couple of external USB drives I can use if I need to. Third, no touch screen. This is significantly more annoying. I think touch screens on laptops are very nice. Apple disagrees. They’re wrong. But, the screen it does have, with the Retina display, was another annoyance for me. I felt like it added too much cost to the machine with too little value. That is, until I spent a few hours using it and then turned to look at my standard-definition computer monitor and realized that everything suddenly looked like crap. Retina displays are one of those things that you don’t know you want until you have ’em, I guess. Final annoyance: non-upgradable RAM. This is a PITA, but honestly these days 8GB of RAM (which is what I have in it) really does allow you to do just about anything you want. There is very little reason to upgrade that over the lifespan (4-6 years) of a machine like this.

Blogging

Tue, 22 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Long, long, ago (2001) in a galaxy far, far, away (DiaryLand.com) I started journaling online. A little later I moved to LiveJournal (remember that one?) and somebody changed the name to “blogging” at some point and I eventually had a WordPress blog at ryansutter.net.

Curriculum Vitae

Wed, 24 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

For love…

I’m a writer, an independent recording artist, and a media producer with extensive experience in audio engineering and recording, video editing, digital imagery, photography, and multimedia production. I have independently released several albums. I currently perform with the band Awkward Bodies and was formerly a member of the bands The Lavone, Trumpet Marine, Robots From the Future, and Fistful of Datas. Co-founder and proprietor of Nuclear Gopher Productions.

For money…

I’ve been working in software engineering my entire adult life. I specialize in the agile development and delivery of web and mobile applications. I began my career as a developer, then graduated to architect, and now work mostly in tech leadership but I still sling code almost every day.

Music

Wed, 24 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

[discography]

Videos

Wed, 24 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/71306712]

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/71021252]

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/60892572]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFxKpEm5p2E]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGArjjXkGBs]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vLfzRTggEs]

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lhQbjA6Btw]

About

Tue, 23 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

By the time I was 8 years old, several major patterns of my life were firmly established. I loved to read, I loved to write, I loved to make music, I loved to play with technology, I loved animals, and I loved to make things. Anybody who knows me today can attest to the fact that this list covers the vast majority of the ways I spend my time.

As much as I would love to devote all of my time to learning, creativity, and other things I am passionate about, I have to pay the bills too, so I have a professional side. I have worked in the field of software engineering since 1994, I’ve co-authored a few software-related books (none of which are still in print), I’ve run my own consulting company, and worked lots of places on lots of things with lots of cool people. When it comes to technology, I’m capable of being open-minded. I have Macs, Windows PCs, Linux boxen, Android and iOS devices. I use whatever I like.

The Day I Needed

Thu, 04 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

Last night, Esther and I setup a projector in the yard and a blanket and had an outdoor movie night. We listened to fireworks, traffic, dogs barking, and saw the occasional bat, while enjoying the cool evening air and Boardwalk Empire. I woke up at 7:30 this morning to let the dogs out. They were well-behaved in the yard as they took their morning constitutionals. I set a blue camping chair out under one of our maple trees and resumed reading “Sometimes a Great Notion” by Ken Kesey. At some point I went online, wrote a post on Facebook about Rhett, caught up with the latest status updates of my friends, and then I took to the green jungle that had previously passed as my garden. I weeded, I raked, I spread compost. I then started a fire in the fire-pit to burn the brush pile that had been lingering since last fall. Soon, Esther awoke and joined me in the yard on a second camp chair and started reading. After clearing the raised beds of weeds and grass, it seemed only fitting that I plant something there, so I transplanted two tomato plants and a Thai basil plant that I had been keeping in containers on the front step. I caged the tomatoes and gave treats of fertilizer stakes all around. A healthy watering and fingers crossed. I am confident the Brandywine will be fine, but the basil and the Better Bush are looking wilty.

User Experience Finally Matters

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

So, I’m involved in a process at work in which we are reviewing some mobile strategy presentations put together by Gartner. One of the big things that they keep hammering away at is that in this “new world”, user experience is really important. They talk about how it’s suddenly important to make user applications useful and meet your user expectations, even if (gasp!) the users are internal corporate users! OMG!

39

Tue, 18 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Today is the first day of my 39th year of post-uterine life on this planet. This means that it’s 365 days until I hit 40. Yikes.

It is common, I suppose, to start looking backwards at this time in a persons life. I suppose this because it is something I find myself more and more tempted to do. This is, in my opinion, a mistake. It I were to summarize each decade of my life according to my overall impression of what happened to me during that time, I would say this:

Pondering The Future of the Digital Presidency

Thu, 06 Sep 2012 00:00:00 +0000

President Obama has done a lot in his time in office. Whether you love him, like him, are neutral on him, or hate him with the fires of a million suns is not germane in the context of what I’m here to write about. Set aside for a moment any of the political, legislative, strategic, ideological, economic, or policy decisions he has made. That’s not what I’m interested in posting about. I want to talk about something he has done that is entirely unprecedented and may long outlast his tenure in the oval office. I want to talk about his software and new media strategy and what it means for the future of the presidency.

Prometheus

Tue, 12 Jun 2012 00:00:00 +0000

Two interesting things happened today. Thing #1: I started my new job at Capella University as a Senior Technical Architect in the content authoring software department. Thing #2: I saw the movie Prometheus.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about Thing #1 at the moment because very little has happened at this point. I went to Capella, met HR people, filled out paperwork, the usual new employee orientation stuff. A little over three years ago I was doing the same thing at HealthPartners, but at that time I was already pretty familiar with HP, having worked there as a contractor for some time prior. Capella is all new, a blank slate. I am thrilled to find that they have toasters and sinks in their common food areas and it is oddly exhilarating that I, having never previously attended a full-fledged accredited university, am now employed by one and have a shiny new .edu address. The strangeness of it all is about the only thing I can say about it.

Engagement

Sun, 08 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000

In 1989 I had my first experience with online bulletin board systems. I was house-sitting for a couple I knew from my local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses and they were the owners of an IBM PC. My friend Stacy Jackson showed me how to dial up to a BBS and partake in online discussions. I found the experience to be moderately interesting but hardly compelling. Yippee, I could talk to strangers. Alert the media.