Ed Bilodeau

iA Writer hack: I use authorship to colour/differentiate text. I've created authors called 'highlight' and 'highlight 2', and when I mark text with that author, iA Writer will change the colour of that text. I can't customize the colour, but it is something.

Blech… #ottawa

Tried to add a text file to a Copilot notebook and got the following error (see below). Workaround was to create a new page in the notebook and add the text content to that page. #copilot

Exporting spaces to PDF is much, much slower with Atlassian-hosted Confluence than it was when it was running on our own servers :/

Still considering the MacBook Neo as my eventual on-the-go computing option. Every time I find myself wondering whether it will be powerful enough, I remind myself that my main work computer is a 5-6 year-old iMac running a 3.8 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i7. So I should be good.

Good news for libraries in Canada! The federal government has reinstated the protection for the Library Book Rate that supports interlibrary loan. #canada #libraries

https://librarianship.ca/news/bill-c15-update/

Walked in to work this morning. 4.75km across OOE, Glebe, and Ottawa South. Wet, cold, windy, but zero ice accumulation that I could see. #ottawa

I won't expect it to be Storm Corrosion 2... but I really want it to be Storm Corrosion 2.

https://www.loudersound.com/news/steven-wilson-opeth-mikael-akerfeldt-constantly-talking-new-music-storm-corrosion-2026

MacOS Tahoe reminds me of one of those poorly implemented Mac skins for WindowBlinds that we use to run into back around the turn of the century. #apple #MacOS

RE: @LibrarianshipCA@mstdn.ca

87 FTE positions over three years, which according to the article is "a 32% reduction in staff working on access- and privacy-related files over three years, in addition to a cut of 23 FTEs that occurred over the past fiscal year".

#libraries #canada

The melt….

Going to risk wearing running shoes for the walk in this morning. It’s already above freezing and I’m fairly certain the sidewalks between here and work are dry.

The upside of the time shift is of course the gorgeous light at the end of the working day.

Thought I would try to use Automate > Flows > Create PDF Copy of the OneDr... to convert a Word doc, and was shown the following dialog. I'm already logged in, and if I re-authenticate to any one of these am I good to go, or do I have to log in to all three somehow?

Maybe some other time, OneDrive. I don't have time for your shenanigans today.

Monday starts with three hours of listening…

Music for doing the dishes… https://open.spotify.com/track/20Te7PjqlmnIWYBrPVh0kb?si=RwALN-3nRi6zOhTC26w65A

@robchapman@ohai.social Then why bring up the books?

I needed to quick scan of a document into PDF, but couldn't find the scan feature in Apple notes. I'm sure it used to be 'right there' whenever I opened the app. Hrmph... :/

In any case, OneDrive to the rescue!

RE: @grammargirl@zirk.us

Less sleep! Yay! Overall I find I've been getting too much sleep, so I'm glad that as of tomorrow I'll have less of it. Yay! Yay!

Warmer weather means that plowed sidewalks become long canals of water bordered by uneven, wet, icy mounds. The water is usually only a few inches deep, so not a problem if you have waterproof footwear. Still, it does make walking around interesting! #ottawa

Short walk through a slightly soggy morning, 5 km there and back, carrying an extra 40 lbs of groceries for half of it.

I'd like to encourage everyone to learn more about past waves of technological change & the impact they had on people, communities, and the environment. Not to show them that change is inevitable, but to help them appreciate that the way of life they cherish & are trying to preserve was built on the disrupted, damaged, & destroyed lives & lands of people that came before them, and from this understanding to then face the challenges of our time with far less righteousness and a bit more humility.

Today's the 26th anniversary of the first blogger meetup in Montreal!

#blogging #montreal

history: https://www.blork.org/blorkblog/yulblog/

photos (Mike was taking the photos and so wasn't in them): https://www.flickr.com/photos/mikel/albums/72057594085757254/

Having the skill and discipline required to maintain an email thread is something I appreciate.

I know the current pitch is "message anywhere, put your files anywhere, use AI to find it all, don't worry, be happy", but I'm not falling for it. This is my craft.

Working from home today has me thinking that if I truly want to make "simplicity" the goal of my office workstation, I should just get an iMac and be done with it, smaller screen and all.

How it's going: coffee + riffs + screaming #music #meshuggah https://open.spotify.com/album/04NtJiGUlXvRdQSFPOSbX2?si=-Wkrk4RwSgyXAfr81Fb4NQ

Freedom to Read Week poster, McGill SIS, March 5, 2009. Lots of familiar faces! #mcgill #mlis

Working at home on the weekend. St-Lambert, QC. March 4, 2012.

You can tell its an old photo because we have a TV.

The Neo is the same weight as the Air (check) and slightly smaller (although every so slightly thicker) than the Air (check), and easily half the price.

So now I'm wondering if I would be better with a Mini + Neo than a maxed out Air. Best to wait for the hands-on reviews.

I'm checking out the Neo and the first thing that hits me is the typeface on the landing page, then the overall layout of the page, the spacing, those white horizontal bars... what the hell am I looking at?

I haven’t dug into the specs, but the $799 price point got my attention. Could be interesting as a secondary portable machine to compliment a non-portable workstation at work.
https://www.apple.com/ca/newsroom/2026/03/say-hello-to-macbook-neo/

Switched to my lighter winter jacket this morning.

Exploring…

PSA: The Spaniel's Tale is moving down the street! Date of the move TBD.

#ottawa #bookstores

https://thespanielstale.ca/our-new-location

The updated Studio Display also means that I can go ahead with that purchase without regret. Now I just need to sort out when I want to take on the work of setting up a new workstation.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-unveils-new-studio-display-and-all-new-studio-display-xdr/

I was considering getting a MacBook Pro as my next machine only to get longer life out of it, but Apple's upping the Macbook Air to M5 means that I'll probably go that route instead.

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2026/03/apple-introduces-the-new-macbook-air-with-m5/

RE: @pbinkley@code4lib.social

PSA to anyone contemplating abandoning the biannual time shift, science says that settling on Daylight Savings Time is wrong choice.

RE: @cbcottawa_mirror@mastodon.hongkongers.net

Damn... looks like the very recent promise of more financial support from the province was not enough to convince them to keep these programs. #ottawa

Intermittent Finder issues:

Sometimes I can't drag a file. Workaround is the close the Finder window, open a new one and get back to the file in question. Usually works, but why?

Also, sometimes I can [spacebar] to rename the selected file, and sometimes I can't.

#MacOS

I was just thinking this morning that there is a trove of valuable information in the printed bibliographies that were once core to doing research, but that were largely abandoned when computer-based information retrieval came along.

#libraries #academia #research

Photo taken at the McGill Library, March 2, 2017.