i’m finally done with all coke products

I was born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia. Along the way I grew up on Coca Cola, starting with the little green six ounce bottles that sold for 5 cents. As I grew older I branched out into other soda flavors and brands, but I always remained loyal to Coke.

When I married and settled down I noticed how I was getting fatter, and so I tried to switch to diet replacements as an aid to keeping the midriff from bulging too much. The first, and worst for me, was Tab. I tried other diet sodas including Diet Coke, eventually developing an “acquired taste” for it. I didn’t start drinking Coke Zero until I started traveling to Japan, where that’s the only diet soda they serve. I learned to like that, and eventually preferred it over Diet Coke.

Now we’ve got a re-release of Coke Zero called Coke Zero Sugar. And I’m here to tell you that as far as I’m concerned it’s absolutely horrible. I know many have written they can’t tell a difference, but I certainly can. The taste may be different, but it’s not improved, not by a long shot. Since, for health reasons, I need to completely switch off diet sodas, now’s as good a time as any. Thanks for the motivation, Coke.

mac mini server upgrades

In spite of hurricane Irma, I’ve managed to upgrade my Mac Mini Server late 2012 with a solid state drive, and then with macOS 10.13 Gold Master. Here is how I accomplished it.

1. Using a USB to SSD/Sata III adapter, I plugged a Samsung EVO 850 SSD into the Mac Mini’s USB port and let the macOS Disk Utility format the drive.
2. Using Carbon Copy Cloner 5, I cloned the original HDD boot drive to the SSD.
3. Using directions from iFixit, swapped the HDD out and the SSD in. I reassembled the Mac Mini and it booted just fine after that.
4. Installed the macOS 10.13 Gold Master (I think).

I wanted to get the new SSD installed into the Mac Mini before the macOS update because I wanted the SSD converted to the new APFS (Apple File System) during the update process, which is only supposed to happen to solid state drives.

The system is running smoothly, and a good deal faster, than it did before. I attribute the majority of the speedup to the SSD. I look forward to this release of macOS, more than any other I’ve worked with so far.