Evening Reading: 3/6/14

complicated door

OK, some of these are pretty funny.

The bad news on retirement. On top of that, I think 300 is too low.

I’ve talked about flow before. The related podcast is very, very interesting. I have been aware of this concept/experience for a long time. It’s good to see someone study it. Here’s the podcast.

10 URLs That Every Google User Should Know. Unfortunately, the one I want to use the most doesn’t work with Google Apps: “You are trying to access Inactive Account Manager from a Google Apps Account. Inactive Account Manager is only available for Google Accounts.”

I just love WordPress.Com (where this blog is hosted). Yesterday, Getty Images makes a lot of images free. Today, WordPress enables easy embedding.

I can’t believe I’d never heard of sonder before. It’s early, but I think this might be important. I’ve been thinking about it.

sonder n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, worries and inherited craziness—an epic story that continues invisibly around you like an anthill sprawling deep underground, with elaborate passageways to thousands of other lives that you’ll never know existed, in which you might appear only once, as an extra sipping coffee in the background, as a blur of traffic passing on the highway, as a lighted window at dusk. (via Reddit, with what may be a really good example)

I think maybe it’s important to be a good extra.

Evening Reading: 3/5/14

A friend lost her husband this week. I saw this song on Reddit. For all that have gone…

One of the things I have learned over the years is that if I buy a stock, the price will go down. If I love an application, someone will kill it. So when I started to really enjoy and rely on Zite, it was only a matter of time. Flipboard is OK, but there’s something about having my preferred application nuked in the hopes of forcing me to become a Flipboard user that rubs me the wrong way. TechHive has more on the likely results of this acquisition.

While I will miss Zite, I wouldn’t miss optical drives at all. I can’t remember the last time I loaded a DVD on a computer or a DVD player.

The SAT, like the times, is a changin’.

Speaking of things that I (at least used to) love whose days may be numbered. I ported my mobile number to Google Voice years ago. Google doesn’t seem to be doing much with it, which is never a good sign. I also find that I use Google Voice less and less, because it still doesn’t fully integrate with my iPhone. Would I do it again? Probably not.

Run, hide, fight. Sadly necessary advice.

16 Family Feud Answers That Caused Steve Harvey To Lose Faith In Humanity. Cupine was priceless.

“For those who disagree, I can only say that I am doing what I think is right. In the final analysis, I had to make a decision that I could be proud of — for me now, and my daughters’ judgment in the future.” I wish more politicians would think and act this way.

Evening Reading: 3/4/14

That was the first photo I uploaded to Flickr, on June 20, 2005 at 11.23 p.m. CST. Anyone else remember my failed Flickr experiment?

OK, so you think you’re not tech-savvy enough? Trust me, you’re good. 27% of respondents identified “gigabyte” as an insect commonly found in South America.

June Squibb was excellent in Nebraska. Highly recommended.

Which TV series from today will stand the test of time? Assuming today means the last 10 years or so, The Sopranos, The Wire, The Shield, Sons of Anarchy, Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, and (at least season 1 of) True Detective.

10 mysteries of the Bible that we’ll never solve. Well, John Prine solved one of them.

I finished the new Kent Haruf novel, Benediction, last night. I really like rural literature and Kent is a great writer. Having said that, this is an easy, but pretty shallow, read. It’s an OK way to kill a few hours, but it’s not his best.

TV Streaming Head-to-Head: Netflix vs Hulu vs Amazon Prime. I haven’t tried Hulu in a while, but when I did, the ads were an immediate deal-stopper for me.

Free Up Bathroom Counter Space with Mounted Mason Jars. This is really cool. I’m going to do this, soon.

It’s probably piling on (given my numerous earlier rants), but why are people still trying to make us take Bitcoin seriously? I’ll tell you the only logical reason I can think of- because they think they can make money off of it.

Living off the land, 1950’s style.

Evening Reading: 3/3/14

spacechimp

I tried IFTTT a while ago, sort of forgot about and, then recently rediscovered it and have become a heavy user. Lifehacker has some good uses for IFTTT and RSS feeds.

Here’s a list of documentaries someone doesn’t want you to see.

I want to be clear about this. I am very close to either dumping satellite TV altogether or paring back to basic channels only, and using the huge savings that would result to buy the things I want to see on demand, via Apple TV, etc. The minute I can’t fast forward through commercials, I will. I promise. I don’t like hate- the word or the emotion, but I frickin’ hate anyone who wants to force me to endure ads of any kind.

Giant snake vs crocodile. SyFy movie or news story?

ETA looks like a useful app. If I left the farm for home right now, it says it would take me 1 hour and 49 minutes. In reality, it would take about 1 hour and 20 minutes. The problem with these driving time apps is that they don’t have an accurate way to estimate driving speed. In low traffic conditions, people drive varying amounts over the speed limit.

When did Christians become so un-Christian-like? I believe in God and pray every day. But if I were to mount an argument for atheism, it would be the fact that God has not struck down all these jackasses that purport to speak for Him. At the rate we’re going, religion is going to turn more people away from God than all the sex, drugs and rock and roll combined.

I’m doing my part to give squirrels the opportunity to show their kindness and adopt orphans, by shooting the ones who repeatedly raid my bird feeders. So far, I’m only using a BB gun, but if a little pain in the butt doesn’t work, I will move to the .22. The bigger problem is the raccoons who empty even the most squirrel-proof feeders in the middle of the night.

Evening Reading: 2/28/14

lucky0214

I don’t have many rules, but one of them is never get between two angry bulls. I’ve seen them take out more than one fence. I just about got caught up in a melee this afternoon on my walk.

I could not agree more that Apple needs to fix its photo workflow, and not just as it relates to sharing. I love iPhoto. I have two iMacs, a MacBook Air, and iPhone and an iPad I use regularly. And I have four (all but the iPad, with which I take no photos) overlapping, but separate iPhoto libraries. The idea of trying to lasso and organize four separate iPhoto structures into albums and folders is overwhelming. I’m never going to do it. I want all my photos on (at least) the iMacs, and I want folders and albums to be synchronized.

Lifehacker has a really good read on talking to your kids about drugs.

Here’s how to share your Mac’s wi-fi connection. Good for hotels and airports.

Am I the only person who is completely uninterested in the Oscars? My level of apathy with respect to these sorts of awards is only slightly lower than my level of apathy about the train-wreck that is Wake Forest basketball.

If you’re looking for a good, reasonably priced bluetooth wireless speaker, this one from Amazon is so good I bought three of them and placed them all over. Like reading glasses.

Everyone, and I mean everyone, in my Facebook news feed needs to study this post.

Tim Cook tells climate change deniers to get out of Apple stock. Can they take the 5,000 year old earth believers with them? I guarantee you the overlap between those who don’t believe in global warming and those who believe in literal creationism is huge.

Reason number 537 why I love Reddit.

Evening Reading: 2/27/14

grainsilo

This is why I will never, ever and without exception no matter what make a donation to anyone who calls me on the telephone or knocks on my door.

True Detective is a phenomenal show, maybe the best thing on TV. If you aren’t watching it, consider yourself lucky. You can binge watch in one marathon session.

Fred Wilson is a smart dude, so maybe I’m being chicken little about this Bitcoin business, but I still don’t see why we need some super-secret currency that no one understands, and which is guarded by the keystone cops. I just don’t see how this is ever going to go mainstream, why I should care if it doesn’t and how it would improve the world if it did. More from PandoDaily. Even more, from Re/code.

Now, for something that really matters. Joby Ogwyn is going to jump off Mount Everest in a wingsuit.

mirskywoth gHacks has a good read about tech blogs that have shuffled off (more or less) this mortal internet. I was a big Download Squad (death by AOL) fan, and a regular CyberNet News (I see that Ryan Wagner is still around) reader. I would try to think of some more, but every time I start thinking about shuttered web sites, I start missing Mirsky’s Worst of the Web again.

bradybunch

I was (am?) a huge Brady Bunch fan. I’ve seen every episode at least once, and I’ve read Barry Williams’ book. I think it has to do with the way they turned two bad situations into a good one. And I liked that attic bedroom. And Marsha. Here are 14 Facts You Might Not Know About the Brady Bunch. I learned four new things. Including number 7. Chatty Cathy, who knew?

Ubuntu smart phone? Really? Don’t get me wrong, competition is good. But, really? Maybe it will dual boot with Tizen.

My 10 Most Important iOS Apps

bestiosapps Like a lot of people, I have come to rely more and more on mobile applications, and less on desktop programs. I still love my iMac, but the list of things I use it exclusively for (video editing, songwriting, maybe one or two other things) continues to shrink.

One of the by-products of this has been a simplification of my iPhone and iPad app use and flow. Rather than a hundred apps on my devices, stashed away in folders, I have moved towards having many fewer apps easily accessible from the screen.

iphonescreen

Here are the 10 apps I use the most. For purposes of this exercise, I’m not going to count the pre-installed apps, like Camera (95% of my photos and videos are now taken with my iPhone), Mail, Calendar, Contacts, Messages and Phone.

Swell

swellapp

I’ve already covered this great app in detail, so I’ll just restate that I use it all the time, and more than any other app, including the pre-installed apps.

Life360

life360

Largely because Find My Friends, an Apple app for crying out loud, is so completely unreliable, this has become our family’s default and oft-used “where the hell are you” app. It’s not perfect, but it works.

Dark Sky

darkskyapp

I’ve tried many weather apps, and this one comes the closest to the balance between minimalist information and useful data. I never use the map, which is what got it on the app map initially, but I like everything else about it. It’s been my weather app of choice for a good while.

Facebook

facebookmeme

While not pre-installed, this is the functional equivalent of a pre-installed app. I’m not a heavy Facebook user, but it has all the people and they aren’t coming to me. It’s the virtual water cooler where one must go if one wants to interact with others. I hate, with a passion, the way Facebook keeps jacking around with my news feed (for example, by changing it back to top stories rather than most recent), but there’s not much to do about it (except immediately change it back).

Fitbit

fitbit2013

I am a big fan of the Fitbit One. I’ve worn it for over a year, and I check my stats multiple times a day. Seeing that you’ve got your miles in before the last workout of the day (would otherwise occur) is like waking up at 4:00 in the morning and getting to roll over and go back to sleep.

Evernote

I’m not big on entering notes from my iPhone or even my iPad. For all its awesomeness, the Evernote apps- and even the desktop program- are hot messes of too much information on the screen and chaotic navigation. But it has long been my primary file cabinet, and I access stuff all the time.

Spotify

spotifylogo

iTunes is a horrible train-wreck of an experience and probably always will be. Spotify is the one and only music application you need. I listen to 90% of my music via Spotify, and the rest via Google Music, which will not increase its share unless it removes the frustrating 20,000 song limit.

Here’s a short little playlist, via Spotify.

Yahoo News Digest

yahoonewsdigest

At first, I loved the simplicity of this app. Eight stories in the morning and eight at night. I still use it, though I find that, more and more, I am reading things I already know. But if you want a simple but elegant news app, this is the one.

Feedly

feedlylogo

Feedly is the best Google Reader replacement, and in many ways an improvement over my long-lost love. I don’t use it much on my iPhone (the screen is just too small for optimum content consumption), but I use it all the time on my iPad. Reading my feeds is one thing that has moved very decidedly from an iMac thing to an iPad thing.

Dropcam

dropcamlogo

I have had more than one frustrating experience with Dropcam hardware, but it’s getting better, and I use the app daily all the time to view my various security cameras. I pay for the cloud storage of the video feeds and I like the ability to get alerts when the camera senses motion. As soon as they come out with the long-rumored weatherproof camera, this app will be the only security service you need.

Honorable Mention: Skype (the best way I can effectively video-chat with my teenagers from afar; I prefer FaceTime, but young people seem to prefer Skype), Hue (the hardware is way too expensive, but, you know, colored lights can hypnotize), HBO Go (I use it all the time on my Apple TV- Sopranos FTW), Instagram (last year, it would have been at the top of the list, but it’s fading fast), Kindle (if this were an iPad only list, it would be near the top).

Evening Reading: 2/26/14

bredthauer0214

Oh what the heck. Let’s do one.

10 Dreadful Places Named For Horrifying Events: Let’s see what I can add. How about the Street Where I Had Oral Surgery. Oh, and That Place Where They Made Me Watch Sound of Music. I’ve got more.

duckindbowl-300x209 Well, I guess the Independence Bowl just went from the bottom of the bowl heap to the top. I don’t like some of Phil’s views, but I sure do love the show.

I’ve lived in four states: SC, NC, TN and TX. And I’ve never heard of 3 of the 4 favorite bands. I can’t tell any of those northeastern states apart, but they have the best musical taste.

I posted this on Facebook, but I love it so much, here it is again. What a wonderful speech.

Supercharge Your Gmail Filters with These System Labels. I’m going to learn all these just as soon as I clean up my Evernote notebooks. In theory, I could have a lot of information, easily accessible. Or I could just go on living my life.

TIL that Sriracha is rooster sauce. I’ve seen a lot of talk about it, but just realized they’re talking about rooster sauce. I put rooster sauce on just about everything that isn’t dessert.

You know, I try to be a tech savvy cat, but this Bitcoin business is the biggest brouhaha over nothing since Y2K. It’s sort of like the out after 2:00 a.m. rule- anyone doing it is either up to no-good or about to be subjected to no-good. I say ban it and let’s talk about something that matters. Besides, we don’t need another way for rich people and scammers to get our money. We have the stock market. I’m kidding about the stock market. Mostly.

How Swell Completely Changed My Listening Habits and Brought Me Back to Podcasts

I have been all over the board on podcasting. At first, I thought it was way too much work for way too little return. Then I started doing one, and I realized I was right. Later, I did the EELS show with Dave and Mike. That was great fun, but I didn’t have to do the back-end work.

Over time, my I lost my podcast mojo, So I sort of forgot about podcasting for a long while.

Until I tried a new app. Swell Radio.

swellapp

The story I read described Swell as the Pandora of podcasts. That was appealing to me, because I have found the hardest part- and in fact the deal-stopper for me- of podcast consumption is trying to find stuff you want to listen to, while avoiding the universe of stuff you don’t.

Swell claims to make that easy, with an algorithm that learns what you like, based on what you listen to, for how long, and a very Pandora-like thumbs up button. I started using it in my truck, on the way to and from work, and on the longer drives to the farm and back. In what seemed like an instant, I was hearing content I really enjoyed. Over time, the selections got even better.

I’ve listened to many more podcasts in the past month than I did in my other 639 months combined. Sure, part of it is that there are more choices now than in the past (NPR, for example, puts out a ton of great content ). I actually listened to (almost) an entire 90-minute (!) episode of TWIT while driving back from the farm. Swell has a very handy and necessary 30-second skip feature, which allows you to skip the ads and the Android topics.

Think I’m kidding about how much I like this app? I haven’t turned on XM radio in my truck in over two weeks and I haven’t listened to anything else in my shop in almost a month. This weekend, I listened to a great podcast about flow while putting together the best workbench, desk, awesome piece of furniture ever.

Words cannot describe how much I love this

My only complaint so far with Swell is that it doesn’t have Clockwise, which is my favorite podcast by a considerable margin. ~~Come on guys, get your excellent podcast on Swell~~. Update: It’s there, after all.

Yes, I tried Stitcher. I actually spent an hour or so searching for and adding podcasts that seemed interesting. It was OK, but it still seemed too hard. Swell makes it much easier to get up and listening, and I like the interface and experience better.

So, I’m into podcasts, once again. This time with feeling.

Napkin is the Best Image Capture and Annotation App

I’ve used a ton of image capture and annotation apps, from Evernote web clipper, to various Chrome extensions, to Snag-It and beyond. Today, while reading my feeds and trying not to freeze, I read about Napkin, via iMore.

I was a little skeptical, especially given the $40 price tag. But after reading up on it, I took a chance. I’m really glad I did. In sum, it does just about everything you could ever need a capture and annotation app to do. I made and shared this in about 60 seconds.

Napkin makes image annotation easy