ErgoOrgo

My Digital Life, Filing part 3: Tags, Folders, or...

Sun, 19 May 2013 10:04:54 -0400

My Digital Life, Filing part 3: Tags, Folders, or Both

Intro

MacPowerUsers had a cool episode with Brett Terpstra talking about tagging vs folders. It encapsulated the debate well — do you rely on a:

non-hierarchical system of tags for your files; or
regimented system of folders to provide appropriate differentiation and order to your files?

The show described those who take the former approach as being hunters (finding files by searching, as the location is less relevant) and the latter as gatherers.

Brett was pro tagging, but not at the expense of folders, in fact he seemed to have as many or more layers of folders as I do (though as he works on his home machine, this may make sense).

My system aims to combine both.

Defining terms

Tags are non hierarchical keywords embedded alongside a file, often separately from the filename itself. They are in specific formats such as the open source openmeta format compatible (currently) with OS X. Each file can have many disparate tags.
Folders group files hierarchically by subject. You can have layers of sub folders to further constrain and define the files contained therein. Each file can only exist in one folder. They are natively in every non-mobile OS / file system. If an OS can read the relevant file system it can interpret the folder structure.

Folders

Folders are probably how most people organise their stuff (assuming they organise at all).

Pros

They are easy and ubiquitous
Quick to create, move, edit
Quick to select all items under one issue
Works across systems
allows people to often not to think about naming files with much precision (though I view this as bad practice)
Allow increasing or decreasing of the relative importance of a bunch of files as every folder (1 of 1000 files) has equal weight in the structure

Cons

Can make things easy to forget about if lost in a sub folder somewhere
Placing too much metadata in the folder structure, as opposed to the filename, can make the contents of the file unknowable when moved out of context.
Too many nested folders can be confusing
Can’t see links between files easily, which is supposed to be one of the advantages of a modern, digital filing system
Nested folders are not compatible with nvALT, my note storage system of choice, or with iCloud.

The solution: Synthesis!

My preferred approach is to take the best of both tags and folders.

Use folders to organize data in a structured hierarchy
Use a relatively controlled system of tags in the filename itself
- This preserves metadata in filenames, albeit at the cost of time and effort to set up and maintain the system (at least until you develop tricks and shortcuts). So, this may be gold plating it for many.
- It can allow for forming connections across folders if filename tags are done right.
- It creates some duplicate information — I may have both a tag and a folder called ‘money’ — but this allows for automated filing (e.g. using Hazel).

Folders definitely have their place

To separate types of data: photos, ebooks, documents
Within each data type, to provide separation of files at the broadest levels: for instance keeping photos separated by year, decade, or event
These folders can also provide equality across bulks of files, or relegate 1000 files (placed in a single folder) to be on equal footing to a single file in the same root directory. I find this very useful for maintaining focus on the files I should be focusing on, and not simply getting lost in a sea of files
- this getting lost is is the affect I get from Dougist’s approach).
- I see this approach as akin to outlining, where you can dive down a level to explore an issue, but then fold it up easily when you want to focus elsewhere

But tags are useful too

Tags, in my view, should be in the filename, to provide persistence
The number of tags should be kept to a minimum, and in a consistent way
I use a consistent prefix before tags of a dash
The tags I use are roughly hierarchical but not essential for them to be so

My Digital Life, Filing part 2: Life meets Folders

Sun, 12 May 2013 19:09:00 -0400

Intro

My life plan is a large outline of what I want to achieve or attain in life and the tools I think I need to get me there.
It breaks into large means of delivery that broadly align to how I (should) spend my time.
My filing buckets should align with these chunks.
As my focus in life shifts to help me meet my goals, my filing should adapt to help me deliver.

What is a life plan?

Focused
- A life plan is about the big stuff — what really matters
- It should focus on, from the top down, what you really, really want
- If you want world domination, ask yourself why
Specific
- Be as clear as possible about what you want from life
General
- Don’t get lost in the weeds or in things that aren’t really going to help you succeed in your life
- Start with the big picture - I think whole of life, not the next year
- Yes, it’s a plan, but be open to life moving you in unexpected directions
- NB: GTD, takes a bottom-up approach. I like taking a step back as I don’t trust myself not to get captured by the mini dramas of my life and plans and squabbles at work. The life plan process is supposed to be removed from those dramas, given broad perspective.
Structured
- Order never (normally) hurts.
- Below is the hierarchy I use, but there are many other ways. The top two bullets seem required.

Example perspectives or elements in the life plan

1. What’s your single goal in life

if you achieved this and nothing else you’d be pleased
mine is eight words ¹

2. A handful of results

if met they would allow you to achieve your life goal
- eg financial security
- eg affirmative relationships with others

3. A set of means, or areas of activity

they contribute to attaining the results
they represent the chunks in life I can practically focus on
- eg earn money in a fulfilling way (hits financial sustainability objective, as well as affirmative relationships, having a sense of satisfaction, being healthy)

4. Specific objectives

these break down each mean
they can be actions, possessions, connections, states (eg one’s position socially or geographically)
- eg having an enjoyable day job; in a field I like, that allows me to use my brain, with good coworkers, ability for high quality relationships with peers and/or customers, and that provides good work/life balance
- You can develop this into specific projects: how to progress from the current status quo.
- this is where the top down plan merges with GTD

Why have a life plan?

How can you get there if you don’t know where you’re going?
- Plans help work out direction
- They take thinking about, which evidences I don’t already have the answers
A plan increases the chance of success
- There’s a bunch of research on this
- A clear plan provides focus for how you spend your time (what to do but also what not to do)
- It helps you make trade-offs
A written plan provides a benchmark
- Use it as a kick starter for constructive debate with loved ones
- Review it to see if you are doing all you can or if you need to alter course in life

Some ideas for themes in a life plan

I’ve touched on this above, but some themes to kick about are:

Happiness
- ie long-term contentment and peace
Health
- exercise (or proactive prevention)
- good oral hygiene
- good insurance
Sufficient finances
- decent job
- sound investment strategy
- money for your retirement
- don’t waste money
- potentially other sources of income
Valued relationships with others
- remember people’s birthdays
- make the effort with friends and family
- care about others and don’t be selfish
- always listen to your partner and learn to compromise and communicate
Fulfilling ways to spend your time
- a day job you love
- a range of hobbies (inc things you learn from)
- enough time to relax and recharge
A positive environment
- live in a country you like
- in a town and neighbourhood you enjoy
- in a house or apartment that is right for you
Good relationship with possessions
- don’t let your stuff rule your life
- declarer
- consider a minimal lifestyle
Stay on top of things
- have systems for juggling all these different balls
- stay as organised as you need to be

Linking your life plan to your data

Your top themes should cover all the big stuff in your life, and therefore largely how you spend your time
Your data should be aligned to the themes, to help you readily access material relevant to each, or plan projects to meet your life goals
it also provides a sensible way of organising things, rather than starting from scratch.
it can help with diagnostics: files growing in an area not in the plan, signals you should either change your folder system, change your life plan, or ditch the project.

“Have a long, happy, healthy life with [name of partner]”. As an aside “long” and “healthy” are not 100% in my control, with “long” being the hardest to define or realise in any single moment. I can, of course, assess my life now on happy; healthy; and with my partner. ↩

My Digital Life, Filing part 1: Why and What

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:45:00 -0400

Intro

Effectively capturing and storing information so it can be retrieved and used whenever and wherever needed is important. Especially so for those who geek out about being super organised, or who have lots of files. Lots is written about this and I’ve read much of it (note this excludes how librarians do it which feels too much even for me). I’m still iterating my system, but wanted to codify and share where I’ve got to. This is the first in quite a number of posts on the subject.

I’ve done this in an annotated outline kind because it is:

quicker to write
more aligned with my thought process
hopefully quick to read and refer back to

Aims for my filing system

First off, before starting any process, you define your goals. Here they are.

Clarity
- files and folders all do what they say on the tin
- clear understanding of the system and how it operates
- there are as many folders and tweaks as useful, but not more than needed
- consistency of rules and systems
- all elements of a filename should be visibly distinct using clear syntax
Orderly
- files and folder are logically organized, structured and labelled
- folders aid organization, and equalize the relative prominence of a group of files in a folder to other files or groups in the same root (want more prominence, open the folder, less close it)
- filename elements follow a logical order
Persistence
- over time — ie the information is future proof and likely to be understandable when reviewing or searching in five years time
- across different systems, importantly for me, this includes OS X, iOS, and ideally the web, and Windows
Adaptability
- changes can be made relatively easily to both file names and folders
- there is scope for the system to expand or shift over time without its basic principles or rules needing to be rewritten
- filename elements are not all required in every single filename where not useful. Missing elements out will not cause problems. I.E. no single element is essential to gain meaning or search
Speed
- search is fast, requiring minimal keystrokes or mouse movement to find required item(s)
- browsing the structure is likewise quick to get to the right place
- filenames can be entered or changed quickly
- files can be moved relatively quickly (eg with tweaks to automated rules or because of limited folder depth and complexity)
- limited need to change the system and spend time renaming
- filename elements should not duplicate information of other filename elements - ie entry and metadata is as economical as possible, while maintaining richness
Ease
- rules for management are not complex enough to be confusing or trying
- where complications do exist, use shortcuts to carry out tasks (eg smart folders, text expansion, folder rules)
Resilience
- the system can function across applications, OS’es, and relies on as basic types as possible — ie minimal use of proprietary systems. Where these are used, exports options are available.
- files’ contents are knowable independent of their location: folders aid navigation and provide one dimension of context, but filenames provide sufficient information to effectively identify contents, if divorced from its folder
Useful
- makes finding things easy now and in the future
- allows seeing cross-links between files that not apparent by immediate context
- provides focus on current open loops to better manage time and aid wider review
Alignment
- the structure and patterns match important areas in my life

Scope of the system

Go broad: it should cover all areas of data storage and retrieval. Some of the aims above will be relevant to only some parts of the system - depending on the degree of control one has over filing and metadata, as well as whether retrieval is for practical use or manipulation vs straight up consumption.

Documents (here, control should be absolute and all rules apply)
- notes
- scans
- spreadsheets
- work files
- downloaded articles of interest ¹
Media (a mix of self-created and external media. Clear structures are especially important for your own data. Dedicated media apps can help. Most self-created data should use some of the detailed naming and folder rules of my system)
- photos
- home movies
- ebooks
- music
- videos
Data stored in dedicated systems (systems with information that reside in dedicated environments. But they can still conform to parts of the system)
- email
- personal finances
- password and secure information management
- task management
- link management

Downloaded articles sit here in my system but could sit almost anywhere. But I’ll explain why this works for me ↩

You don't need to type www or .com in iOS Safari - cool timesaver

Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:21:43 -0500

You don't need to type www or .com in iOS Safari - cool timesaver

onethingwell: CheatSheet shows you the available shortcuts...

Wed, 28 Nov 2012 10:50:39 -0500

onethingwell:

CheatSheet shows you the available shortcuts of the active application after holding the command-key for 2 seconds. Then a panel will show up displaying the shortcuts of the application you are currently working in.

I can see this being incredibly useful to folk who are new to OS X, and existing users who are learning a new, complex app.

Mac App Store

Twine

Mon, 26 Nov 2012 22:21:27 -0500

Twine:

onethingwell:

A cross-platform tool for writing and publishing interactive fiction, text adventures, &c..

GUI apps are available for OS X and Windows, or you can use the twee CLI and write in your text editor of choice.

JDU Themes: How to make custom photoset layouts WITHOUT installing Greasemonkey script

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 19:00:59 -0500

JDU Themes: How to make custom photoset layouts WITHOUT installing Greasemonkey script:

jduthemes:

Chances are that you’ve already seen examples of photosets with special layouts (e.g. 3 rows, 3 columns or 4 rows, 1 column) made by certain individuals on tumblr, and you might have asked yourself how they do it. One way is to install a Greasemonkey script that someone developed, and if…

Many thanks for the incredibly helpful tips on how to get some completely custom photo layout in Tumblr

laughingsquid: Etón BoostTurbine2000, Hand Cranked Backup Power...

Wed, 14 Nov 2012 10:29:36 -0500

laughingsquid:

Etón BoostTurbine2000, Hand Cranked Backup Power for Smartphones

This thing looks like a great solution to power when the grid is down or you are travelling.

BUT… The hand crank is meant for small top ups only - it looks like it would take hours to fully charge it with just cranking. Not really viable for more than a short emergency in my view.

Review of stock iPhone apps: the Contacts App

Sun, 11 Nov 2012 19:02:00 -0500

What I like about the app

This is a capable app that does almost all I could really want:

it syncs with my Google contacts (everything marked as in ‘My Contacts’ anyway)
it integrates seamlessly with the Mail, Messages and Phone apps, as well as Spotlight
it is straightforward and clean. In particular, the quick select letter and search bar on the right was a great innovation
it is very quick to edit an entry
the iPhone version doesn’t have the ugle chrome of the iPad version

What I don’t like about the app

The sync with Google is not yet 100% with some email, phone and relationships / related people (as Apple calls it) not syncing over. Google lists a page of known sync issues which states: > “The iOS device can synchronize up to 3 email addresses. Phone number synchronization is limited to 2 Home numbers, 1 Home Fax, 1 Mobile, 1 Pager, 3 Work (one will be labeled ‘Company Main’) and one Work Fax number.”

The relationships limitation is something Apple has acknowledged as being a limitation of syncing over Exchange. So if you have very detailed contacts, with lots of dates, addresses, etc you will feel hampered or frustrated. This is one of the reasons I have actually switched my contacts to iCloud.

And though more options would introduce clutter, I would like to see the app being able to:

show photos more prominently in the default list;
use the search field for more than just names - e.g. if you want to find the name of that business you know is on Main Street - either by default or as an option
see which contact belonged to which group to more readily scan friends vs family. This could be done using a light colour system as Apple uses in the Calendar app.
add or change contact group information right from the app

Some tips and tricks

Managing multiple address book sources using “Linked Cards”

If you have contacts from different sources (say google and outlook or MobileMe) you may see duplicate entries. This can be annoying. But there is a solution. Duplicate entries can be merged on screen using the “Linked Cards” fields.

First of all, iOS makes a stab at linking contacts automatically and so you may not have any problems
If you have duplicates, select one of them, and tap the “Edit” button from the top right
Scroll all the way to the bottom of the edit screen and you will see an area marked “Linked Cards” with a red plus sign and “Link Contact…” text field beneath
Tap on either the plus sign or text field to bring up a list of contacts. By default this will bring up only the contact group you have selected and if you are not in the right group / all contacts then you can tap the “Groups” button at the top right to bring up the list. To save time, my tip would be to start off the exercise in your “All Contacts” view. Don’t be worried about knowing which “Joe Bloggs” you are looking at and which you want to link to: the one you are currently in will be greyed out.
Select the contact to link to.
Add another link if required
Tap ‘Done’ from the top right. This will now merge the two (or more) contacts you have linked and you will see one unified contact: if one source has phone numbers and the other email addresses the contact will show it all together. However, the information is only merged on screen and will not be reflected in the original data source.
If you want to unlink a contact (including if iOS has incorrectly linked contacts) go back to the “Linked Cards” section on the edit screen, tap the red minus sign by the account to unlink and then tap “Unlink”, followed by “Done”.

Note: You can use this feature to merge contacts from the same group (e.g. if you have multiple entries in your google contacts for someone). This may make sense, but if using Google you can also properly merge contacts together (and Google has a guide to help you merge contacts.

Using SIri for all your personal relationships but still use Google contacts

One particular offshoot of not all relationships being synced if you sync with an exchange account (e.g Google contacts) rather than iCloud is that if you have a Siri capable iPhone you won’t be able to say things like “Call mum”. However, there is a workaround. In short, you need to create an iCloud contact of yourself which can then have lots of relationships.

First, you need to set up iCloud. There is lots of information about this, including a simple iCloud setup guide from Apple
Go to Settings / iCloud and make sure ‘Contacts’ is set to ‘On’
In the ‘Contacts’ app tap on ‘Groups’ at the top left and select ‘All iCloud’ from the ‘iCloud’ group.
If you have already set up a contact of yourself through your Mac or via the iCloud website then you should see a single contact here of you. If you haven’t set up a contact of yourself, add one (tapping the plus button at top right). You don’t need to add much detail here, just your name for now.
Tap on ‘Groups’ button again at the top left and select ‘All Contacts’ from the top.
Scroll down to your name. If you have your contact details already there from your Google contacts (I store all my details in a contact), you may see two names. If there are two contacts for you link the two together (using the ‘Linked Cards’ approach outlined above.
Once you have a single contact for yourself, go into it, tap ‘Edit’ from the top right and scroll down to ‘add field’ and tap on it or the red plus sign.
Scroll down to and tap on ‘Related People’
For the first contact, by default iOS selects ‘spouse’ as the relationship, but if you tap on it you will bring up a long full list of relationships that you can choose from.
To get Siri to work smoothly, tap the blue arrow to the right of the ‘Name’ field and select the contact for your mom, brother, spouse, etc.
Repeat with your other key relationships
Tap ‘Done’

Now when you view your contact it should have all the right relationships, linked to the right contacts.

Note: If you have a Siri capable iPhone then you can get Siri to make these links for you, but it will still require an iCloud contact for yourself.

Alternatives

I should start by saying that I have not felt the need to really look for or try out and alternatives. However, there are a couple of decent looking apps that can deal with some of the issues dealt with above. ABContacts seems like a strong choice and gets good reviews. Specifically it provides: a more powerful search, shows contact pictures, dynamic filtering, create smart groups, quick send email or message to a group of contacts, calling contacts through a range of apps (skype, Phone app, GVoice). The developer also makes other apps specifically for sending to groups of contacts, which you may like if you would use this feature a lot. At $5 or so I have not felt the need to gain the extra functionality of ABContacts.

Review of stock iPhone apps: the Calendar app

Sat, 10 Nov 2012 19:02:00 -0500

Every iPhone owner can do the basics on the device; that’s the beauty of its intuitive simplicity. But there are plenty of power tips for savvy users to discover. This post gets under the skin of the iOS Calendar app, what I like about it and don’t, how to make the most out of it, and ideas for alternatives when it just doesn’t cut it.

Review of the iPhone Calendar app

The Calendar app does just about everything I need. At its core it’s a solid, simple, intuitive, useful and useable app. I particularly like:

that it can manage invitations received over email
that it is easy to manage a range of data about an event easily and quickly
that the app icon on the home screen changes to tell the day and date: this is pretty valuable and is the only app with a dynamic icon like this
that — since iOS 5 — you can click on a location in an event and be taken straight to the Maps app
that it can readily view multiple calendars (e.g. from Gmail), as well as from multiple accounts, public ical calendars and iCloud (of course). However, it is also the app (besides Notes) that I would most consider switching away from. While the app is simple and entering information has got better over time, Apple, in my view, could have done a better job fitting a Calendar to the small screen. For instance:
When in month view, tapping on a day shows events at the bottom, but it shows little more than one event and scrolling is fiddly on anything other than an iPhone 5 where you get just enough lines for me not to jump ship.
When in day or week view only seven hours are visible at one time - i.e. 9 to 4, not even a full 9 to 5 work day. There is no way to customise this. Extra scrolling is therefore often required (a fundamental to good design in iPhone apps should be ensuring the minimal number of taps or scrolls)
I think that week view would work better if it (also) had an agenda view for each day instead of/as well as the timeline view
You can only search for events while in the List view, where the search box is visible at all times (this is not the case in apps like Contacts). The reason for this is that there is no obvious top/start to the list of dates, but there must be a more logical solution, including one that frees up more screen real estate
Given the imposed space constraints, it seems inelegant to permanently have both one bottom menu bar and two top menu bars (the top bar is consistent across all views and the one beneath varies by view).
Being very picky (well more so than so far ), I find it odd how clicking on “Today” only visually scrolls in agenda view.
Finally, another mild annoyance is that you cannot duplicate events, beyond setting up a recurring event.

Three iPhone Calendar tips and tricks

1. Changing colors of different iPhone calendars

For a while you have been able to display multiple calendars but not to control their color. This can make reviewing events a bit tricky (especially if you are color-blind like me). But iOS 5 added this feature.

Go to the list of your calendars (by tapping “Calendar” at the top left)
Tap “Edit” at the top left
Select each calendar you want to alter, bringing you to a screen where you can pick the color from the list
You’re done!

Note: I find the pastel colors all rather similar (bolder choices would be better for accessibility), so I’ve grouped my calendars into three easier to see blocks: yellow, blue and red for public, mine and family members respectively.

2. Birthdays

This is another obvious one that can be pretty useful: iOS displaying the birthdays of people in your contact list.

For each contact you can add a birthday field (I use Google contacts, which syncs birthdays but not quite everything else)
Once these are setup, go to the Calendar app and tap Calendars (top left) to show a list of available (you guessed it) calendars
Scroll down to ‘Other’, where you will see the little gift box symbol next to ‘Birthdays’
Tap to select and you are done - they will now show up automatically with the little gift box symbol

Note: While this may be useful to some I personally don’t use it. This is because, Google Contacts has its equivalent (‘Contacts birthdays and events’). This includes other dates, like anniversaries, and allows custom reminders (eg 6.5 days early to remind me to get presents). As Apple’s Birthdays calendar has neither of these functions, I hide it to avoid duplication.

3. Sync only selected Google calendars with iOS

A great thing about Google calendars is that you can sync the particular calendars you want and not the others. For instance, you may not want to sync you work calendar to your personal phone (yes you can still hide them in the Calendar app, but this would still take up bandwidth and clutter).

You set this up via Safari on your iPhone. Here are the steps:

Go to Safari on the iPhone and visit m.google.com/sync/settings/
Log in to Google if not already logged in
Hopefully you will see a list of portable devices you sync with, including your iPhone.
Select the iPhone from the list
On the next screen tick which calendars you want to have the option of viewing in iOS
Tap ‘Save Changes’ at the bottom right.

Note: There is a right and wrong way to set up Google services on our iPhone. Unfortunately, the best way (giving push email and multiple calendars) is not the most obvious one. If you’ve not already set thing up properly, Lifehacker has a useful guide.

Alternatives

As you’ve seen above, I don’t love the Calendar app, but I still use it — I’m not a heavy enough user for switching to seem worth it (I have a separate system for work and I don’t like app clutter). I am just patiently waiting for Apple to make improvements.

However, there are a number of very compelling and elegant alternatives that both make better use of the screen real estate and make it quicker to enter and easier to view events. A great thing about these alternatives is that they can plugin directly, seamlessly and in the background, with the Calendar app - so any changes in one are reflected in the other.

Here are the top contenders that I’ve read great things about and look like solid options for only about $3. For more analysis take a look at the excellent Lifehacker article on the best iPhone calendar app.

The developer Mysterious Trousers have a range of great looking, clean and useful calendar apps. Their emphasis on minimalism and on minimising taps and movement is to be commended. However, the different versions are confusing and I’m not sure which, if any, version would best suits my needs.
Week Cal by Utilitap is recommended by Lifehacker and I can see why: it looks clean; makes better use of the screen real estate; addresses all (I think) of the issues I mentioned above; has a seemingly insane number of options and tweaks; and finally it’s pretty cheap. However, it seems fiddly and not necessarily very streamlined.

Conclusion

I hope this run-through has been useful and shown that the Calendar app is useful, but best suited to light users. For those demanding more, seriously consider switching to an alternative.

Review of stock iPhone apps: the Music and Video apps

Fri, 09 Nov 2012 19:01:00 -0500

Introduction

Every iPhone owner can do the basics on the device; that’s the beauty of its intuitive simplicity. But there are plenty of power tips for savvy users to discover. This post gets under the skin of the iOS Music and Video apps, what I like about them and don’t, how to make the most of them, and ideas for alternatives when they just don’t cut it.

Review of the iPhone Music and Videos apps

I came to readily transportable, moveable digital music a few years too early: in the late nineties the technology was not mainstream enough to be cheap or small enough for the poor student that I was. So I ended up in the odd situation of collecting MP3s (oh that heady first summer with Napster), but recording them to minidisc (which had to be done in real-time), then deleting the MP3s. It was a good few years before the iPod became the logical and financially viable option for my CD collection. Forward to the iPhone and the easy experience of playing music was a vital part of the transition to full on touch; and my compelling reason to upgrade from the iPod — not just a smartphone but a great convergence device. Using the iPhone for multimedia is about the artwork and touch scrolling, but it is the little things that make the Music and Video apps a pleasure to use:

the way the volume fades when making or taking a phonecall, and fades ever so slightly and quickly when pausing or stopping.
the way the last few seconds of videos or the last second of music repeat if it has been more than an hour or so since they were played.
how often I use the external speaker, despite this never being something I wanted when I had an iPod.
the more recent ability to make and edit playlists directly on the device (though with large music collections this can be a little fiddly).

On the downside, a few things niggle me about the two apps, that if changed would improve the experience even more:

first is coverflow (Music app only). It kicks in persistently in landscape mode, even while playing music. This could be acceptable but for it displaying a seemingly random flow of all my music at once, not the selection I am currently in. For anything other than the smallest of collections it is suitably annoying. I would, at the very least, like to be able to turn it off and switch to a more normal horizontal view.
While the Music app has an annoying landscape mode, the Videos app doesn’t have one. Apple is right to default to portrait browsing in the Videos app (as you enter the app from the home screen in portrait mode) but as videos are only viewable in landscape, landscape browsing would make switching between videos far less jarring (currently requiring rotating the iPhone back and forth).
It could just be a fault of my now ageing iPhone, but scrubbing has become more quirky and sensitive since the iOS 5 upgrade (i.e. pressing the circle for the current location doesn’t always catch).
I am not sure why there remains a separate YouTube app now that Videos has a sparsely populated app all of its own, which doesn’t even have a bottom icon menu but readily could. Why not merge the two and throw in other streaming video services too (Vimeo, even Netflix). This would move to converge the Video app with Apple TV.
And finally, there is the perennial formats issue, particularly for videos, where the Apple format is not ubiquitous like MP3. As the power of iOS devices approaches laptops, supporting more formats should be possible (as it is with QuickTime), but I expect this to remain on the wish list for a long time.

Four tips and tricks for the iPhone Music and Video apps

1. Scrub through music or videos at different speeds

This is a great feature that is really intuitive and simple: built-in to the scrubbing bar to skim through playing items is the ability to control the speed at which you scrub. The tip is now built into the app: you just press the little circle so that a little halo appears around it and then do as you are told.

As you move your finger down the rate will slow, so you can easily fine tune your position. This is used in the Music app and wherever video is played through the built-in player (Videos, Photos app, the web).

2. Customising your shortcut buttons in the Music app

At the bottom of the Music app are five buttons on a black background, which you use to quickly access different types of audio. However, there are more than five ways of slicing and dicing your audio, so the right-most button displays ‘More’. A tap will reveal six extra categories. You can edit what the four leftmost buttons (and what is left in the ‘More’ bucket) to give you fast access to your most used options.

Tap on the ‘More’ button on the far right.
Tap ‘Edit’ from the top left, which will bring up a screen showing the text and icons for all ten types, with the bottom bar of five buttons still present.
Tap and drag the icons you want from this list over one of the bottom left four buttons until it glows. Release to replace.
You can also reorder the buttons at the bottom by holding and moving as desired.
When finished tap ‘Done’ at the top right.

NOTE: You cannot have the same button more than once, nor can you have fewer than four buttons, on top of the ‘More’ button.

3. Deleting videos and music straight from your iPhone

If space is at a premium on your device, it can be useful to delete audio or videos once watched to free up space. This is obviously more significant as we move towards having devices completely independent of a desktop. The steps, requiring iOS 5 or above, are:

Go to Settings / General / Usage
Wait for the ‘Storage’ section at the top to update itself
Tap on the ‘Music’ label to show your audiobooks, iTunes U and podcasts sources and the space they take up.
For each entire book or podcast that you wish to delete, swipe left or right and then tap on the red ‘Delete’ button.
You can then do the same in the ‘Videos’ item to delete individual movies, or individual TV episodes.

NOTE: You can also delete movies or TV episodes directly from the Videos app, as well as podcasts and iTunes U episodes from the Music app, with a simple swipe left/right to bring up the delete button.

4. View more information about a track in the Music app

I learnt this via ‘Thisisme’ in a Lifehacker tip: if you press and hold on a selection in the Music app it will pop up a blurb with the full name and artist, which you can then drag up and down through the list.

Alternatives

I see no reason to get a complete replacement to these apps, but there are features that some people may use enough to warrant getting a complementary app (though I have not tried any of these personally).

The most significant is a video player that plays a wider variety of formats, including even streaming from your network. It’s Playing is a $2 smooth and clean app, but only for the iPad, or AcePlayer is available for all iOS devices for $3.
For those who need more powerful podcast management then Lifehacker recommends Downcast, which looks to do all one would need for $2 and have a clean, native feel to it.
For those who want some extra features while listening to music, particularly things like browsing band info, viewing lyrics, looking up gig dates, etc. Soundhound looks like a strong, if expensive option.
You can even use the iPhone as a set of decks to be a DJ. Apps like Djay could suit you.
Finally, there is a growing trend towards music streaming or music locker models. Streaming apps offer more significant additional functionality, such as Pandora or Spotify.

Review of stock iPhone apps: the Clock app

Thu, 08 Nov 2012 19:00:00 -0500

Every iPhone owner can do the basics on the device; that’s the beauty of its intuitive simplicity. But there are plenty of power tips for savvy users to discover. This post will cover:

what works well
where things can improve
tips to squeeze that little bit extra out of the app
potential replacement or complement apps (though usually, for me, the app’s simplicity, speed, clarity, and tight integration with the OS win out).

Review of the iPhone Clock app

a clock with multiple time zones
multiple alarms
a stopwatch
a timer Like many of the built-in apps, the strength of the Clock app is its clarity of purpose, interface simplicity, and strong functionality. It does just about everything I need. Aside from some perhaps less obvious functions (discussed below), aspects I particularly like in its design are:
how the world clock shows a black clock face for zones where it is currently night time
that you can customise alarms to only ring once, every day, or on certain days - this is great for having a set it and forget it alarm for weekdays
that alarms can each be set with specific names - you can use these as reminders or for a little inspirational message in the mornings
how quick, accessible, and easy to use both the stopwatch and timer are (in a couple of informal races setting and starting either against an Android user I’ve won)
although there are lots of alarm clocks or nightstand apps, these have never seemed necessary, not least because the lock screen has that big clock on it (and pressing the Home or Power button to check the time in the middle of the night is never a big deal).

The app could never do everything one could want regarding time and I consider some options for managing special functions below. However, there are a number of ways that I think the Clock app could be improved, while staying true to its simplicity:

Selecting or viewing world clock locations could be done with an interactive map (the app’s half visible map logo behind the clocks is a static, albeit muted and tasteful, teaser). This would be clearer, simpler and more efficient than having to type in a city (especially as the database does not have every location, even on the Eastern seaboard)
This map-based approach would also be useful for picking a manual current time zone
Editing alarms and world clocks requires tapping first on Edit, then on the alarm. It would be quicker if it also made use of the now established swiping
There is no way to export or save data from the stopwatch, which is limiting. There would likely be space for an edit or send-to button in the bottom half of this screen (the top half needing to remain large for ease of use and viewing)
My final and least elegant idea is, as there are only four bottom row buttons to the iPod’s five, a fifth could be squeezed in. This could be called ‘More…’ and be used to manage multiple timers or stopwatches

Four iPhone Clock tips and tricks

i. Easily turn off an alarm or timer

This may be obvious, but I only just worked it out. When an alarm or timer goes off the iPhone screen pops up with a slide to turn off notification. But there’s an easier way: just press one of the volume buttons. This makes it possible to turn off an alarm when bleary-eyed in the morning, or from my pocket when cooking.

ii. Automatically turn off music

I use the Clock app to turn off music after a set time to fall asleep listening to music or as a way to smoothly end something like a run. It takes a few easy steps:

Go to the Clock app
Tap on the Timer icon
Tap on the “When Timer Ends” button in the middle of the screen
Scroll to the bottom of the list and select “Sleep iPod” (presumably at some point they will change this to “Sleep Music”)
Set the timer, press start and play those tunes.

Note: it would be great if you could also turn the iPod on with an alarm

iii. Automatically set the time zone

This is another easy one. To change the time, date or time zone go to Settings \ General \ Date and Time. If you want the time zone to get picked up by your network flip the switch on “Set Automatically”.

iv. Using alarms as reminders

Although task apps or the new-with-iOS5 Reminders app can provide an alert for a specific task these are normally subtle. So instead, try using an alarm from the Clock app. The benefit? You can select the noise, exact time, and even if the phone is set to silent you will get a loud, repeating, nagging noise to remind you. It is also quicker to set up - a minimum of four taps, where the Reminders app takes eight taps.

Alternatives

As mentioned above, there are a range of things that the Clock app is not designed to do: it is not a complex timepiece for every eventuality. It is therefore no surprise that there are so many alternatives in the AppStore. For me, there are two types of apps that offer functionality similar to an existing app: the replacement app and the complement app. Most of the alternatives for the Clock app I see attempt to excel at unitasking (and I am sure some succeed); in other words they are complement apps. As an organising neat freak I try to keep complement apps to a bare minimum but let’s look at a couple.

i. exercise timing

Sometimes when training, you want an autorepeating timer (rest, exercise, rest, exercise etc). If, for instance, you wanted to do 40 seconds exertion, 20 seconds rest, for 8 reps, what would you use? Many people buy Gymboss physical interval timers, which cost $20. However, the company also has a free app that works really well (however, as of December 2011 it crashed under iOS 5, but a fix is in the works).
at other times you want to keep a record of how long you have exercised, to track your progress. RunKeeper is a well-regarded example. However, I prefer registering exercise data using a more basic, but transferable, data log app (such apps will be the subject of a future post).

ii. Time logging

There are also a range of great time-logging apps, to monitor, for instance, your work hours. I have not had any experience with such apps.

iii. Using multiple timers at once

If managing a range of time sensitive tasks at the same time (for instance lab work or cooking), setting multiple timers can help keep track of everything. I have installed a number of these apps but for some reason have not used them: either my life or cooking aren’t complex enough, or the apps are too complex. However, a couple of elegant (and importantly free) ones you could try are:

Cookery School multi-timer looks good, and can save multiple items for quick creation of timer sequences (which of course need not be limited to cooking). A sequence of timers all sync to a single end time (i.e. meal time), and start times are staggered automatically. However the app only works in landscape, crashed too much for me, and didn’t seem to make alarm noises.
Timer is another clean-looking app, styled after the Clock app. The free version is ad-supported but otherwise it provides an easy interface. You can enter multiple timers on one screen and see the timers counting down on the second screen - with custom names. The model here is that each timer starts when you press start: obvious really.

Conclusion

I hope this run through has been useful and shown that the Clock app is super useful, despite it often being ignored (and not changed by Apple in a least the last two years).

Batch rename and edit Simplenote notes on Mac OSX

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 19:01:00 -0500

Introduction

I want to share some useful tips, for those who use both Notational Velocity (or nvALT) on the Mac and sync it to Simplenote. If you don’t use this workflow it comes highly recommended and is great for managing plain text notes.

The problem: you use a Mac and want to batch edit either the content or the title of your Simplenote, Notational Velocity, or nvALT notes – there is no way to natively do this in these apps.

The solution: store your notes as individual files, so you can edit them using Finder, Automator or third party apps (bear in mind that renaming is a bit fiddly).

Why would you want to batch edit notes?

Perhaps because:

You have a series of draft blog posts where you want to change the title schema
Your notes are titled based on a naming convention, which you decide to tweak
Your notes have links to your website that need to all be updated when you shift domain

You can batch edit tags right in the app. Select multiple notes and: either right-click, select tag; or press shift-command-T. These changes will sync to Simplenote automatically.

1. How to batch edit Notational Velocity / nvALT note contents

First, you need to store your notes as separate text files, via “Preferences / Storage / Store and read notes on disk as:” and select anything other than ‘Single database’. This will mean you cannot encrypt your notes, but is a far more versatile system.

Second, you need either an app or the terminal for batch editing. The apps work in the same way: you prepare your batch changes, point it to the right notes, and you’re off. Once changes have been made, Notational Velocity / nvALT picks them up and they sync to Simplenote. Here are three top app ideas.

Option 1: The only free app option is the rather excellent MassReplaceIt. Its development halted in 2006 but it still works well. It focuses on replacing text, allowing multiple changes at once (including using regular expressions), filtering, and saving templates. I recommend it.
Option 2: The best paid option seems to be TextSoap. I’ve only used the trial, but it seems very powerful. It is too expensive and fiddly for my purposes but it is actively developed, has a drag and drop interface, and is available from the AppStore for $40.
Option 3: The terminal. I’m not an expert, but there is a good Lifehacker article on batch replacing text using the Terminal.

3. How to batch rename Notational Velocity / nvALT notes

This is the fiddly one. Having changed note names in Finder and Automator I happily saw that Notational Velocity immediately picked up the changes. Great! However, I realised that the changes were not picked up by the Simplenote sync. My (eventual) solution? Rename notes in Finder, Automator, or another program, but then bulk edit the files to make the files get picked up during sync.

Let’s break this down.

i. Renaming files

Yes this is easy in Finder for one or two files, but if you are doing many, you need to automate. While I hear great things about apps like A Better Finder Renamer, Automator does everything I want. If you don’t know anything about Automator, read Apple’s 101 guide.

The two basic Automator actions I use are ‘Get specified Finder Items’ and ‘Rename Finder Items’. The latter action has a good array of options, including: adding date and time; adding text; changing case; replacing text; and numbering.

If ‘Rename Finder Items’ isn’t enough, try the free, simple, and powerful Rename Finder Items by Pattern. This allows for complex rearranging of filenames - examples on their site.

ii. Force the Simplenote sync with the renamed notes

This is the tricky part. What I wanted was a way to edit the note, without changing the substance. I eventually worked out an elegant solution: find and replace every space in the note (as every note will have at least one space and replacing it updates the file, but keeps it unchanged). For this task I turned back to MassReplaceIt. The changed notes, with new name, will now sync to Simplenote.

So there you have it: I know this is a specific problem, requiring a two stage solution, but I hope its useful. Please let me know any other quirky tips or problems you have with these great apps via the comments.

Why I love and hate technology journalism

Tue, 06 Nov 2012 12:01:00 -0500

Introduction

Tech journalism has many great, thoughtful articles about the numerous gadgets and inventions that make up so much of our lives. While such writing has the power to educate, excite and inspire, much of it also diminishes us.

As a simple fan of tech and tech news, I want to draw a line in the sand about how amazing tech journalism can be, how dangerous it can be, and how writers and readers can make it better.

1. Why I love tech news and journalism

Tech journalism is our guide into the surge towards the future, through practical, tangible, purchasable products (see the afterword below for a short pontification on technology vs tech). It is a mix of product reviews, discussion, and gossip. Example articles include: which 3D TV we should buy and why; the significance of social media to the changing pattern of human interaction; and the tensions between Google and Apple and what that might mean for the future of the Internet.

At its finest, tech journalism can fill us with wonder, make the abstract of science and engineering close enough to touch, teach us a thing or two, and show us how new tech can enhance or democratise what we create and consume. The great articles draw us in, not with dry facts about ones and zeros, metal and plastic, but with stories of the inspiring process of design, creation, form and function. Of how our lives can be enhanced. Of how our personal goals can be more easily reached. Of the historical path that has led us to this place and how this path stretches into an unknown but hopeful future.

2. Why I hate tech journalism

Tech articles get on slippery ground the more they slide into consumerism journalism, tacitly encouraging us to buy the new, shiny object, playing on our desires and encouraging envy, dissatisfaction (in our possessions and ourselves) and unhappiness. Why does this grate on me so much in the tech world compared to other industries (which also want us to buy their new products)?

Every new generation is better than the last, putting pressure on us to upgrade¹. Pressure from tech journalism (i.e. product articles written with genuine enthusiasm or sometimes just to drive sales) can drastically increase our sense of dissatisfaction in our incredibly powerful but now slightly old existing device.
The gap between generations is incredibly quick: Moore’s law may not strictly hold, but there is still a rough doubling of performance every eighteen months (be it processor speed, memory, pixels, or more). This leads to a uniquely rapid rate of obsolescence in consumer technology².
The scope of the tech world is ever expanding. There was a time when computer magazines focused on, well, computers. Tech coverage now encompasses music, videos, photography, phones, books, and TV – everything that can go digital is going digital. This leads to incredible convergence devices, but it also means that more and more of our tools suffers from rapid change and obsolescence. While your digital camera will be out of date in a couple of years, your old 35mm manual SLR from 1970 is still current today (compared to other manual SLRs at least).
Our sense of the future and past can become easily warped when tech news and buzz becomes solely about the product, dislocated from history and society. The pace of tech change makes us: increasingly dismissive of anything from just a few years ago; increasingly looking to the future to fill the holes in our lives with the next new model; and decreasingly interested in the intrinsic value of the object we currently own (as it is likely almost obsolete). On one hand this represents an amazing optimism in the future – a more easy and natural vision than that of the 1950s and 60s, less rooted as it is in the insecurities of the Cold War and the recovery from the horrific pains of World War Two. On the other hand it makes us feel transient, insubstantial, disconnected.

3. Should I give up tech news and reviews?

No. Tech journalism may come with psychological risks, in some ways worse than in other industries, but it also comes with great rewards. There are however some principles for tech readers and writers that I think will improve the experience for all:

Four principles I’d love all tech writers to follow

Be honest in reviews about the real benefits of the latest model – not just is it better than the immediate competition but is it worth an upgrade.
Be aware of and respect your power to influence and the impact this has on the wallets of those who take your advice, and the mindsets of both buyers and wannabe buyers.
Appreciate tech history and industry: not every article has to have layers of historical, cultural, philosophical analysis, or be written as compellingly as the best of sci-fi novels, but at least help us understand the flaws and plusses of a vast, complex web of industries out to make money but where change is wonderfully creative and life-changing.
Be passionate: although I am sure this is tough when you have to write the tenth article of the day about the latest Apple product announcement, the less you enjoy it, the more I expect you will become a frustrated PR sellout.

Four principles us readers should read by

Be informed readers: think about the content and motivation for writing, but also what we want to gain from reading it. And of course, make sure to both do your research and think about reading around the subject if you want (whether it is science articles or sci-fi stories)
Try to not get sucked in: while gadget envy is to be expected, we should try to limit it, skipping articles if need be, or if not, maintaining a level head and sense of perspective.
Support great articles so that they can gain in relative popularity and the industry can keep on the right path.
Enjoy it: if you’re not having fun, move on.

A few examples

There are tons of great articles, but here is just a quick selection of ones I have really enjoyed or learned from:

Ars Technica’s Jon Saracusa wrote an immensely comprehensive review of OS X Lion. At 27,300 words it is neither brief nor dumbed down. Not only does it explain the features of the latest version of Apple’s desktop software, but it routes them in the decade long evolution of OS X, while at the same time indirectly teaching me about design, programming and the value of attention to detail.
There were a number of reviews of the 3rd gen iPad that are good examples of honesty and not getting sucked in – for instance Gizmodo’s iPad 3 review rather negatively tells us the new model is great, but not worth buying if you already have a decent tablet: reasonable, pragmatic advice that doesn’t push us to spend, spend, spend.
Gina Trapani’s site Smarterware is very thoughtful with many interesting, politically sensitive articles like Code as Activism.

Afterword: Technology vs ‘tech’?

Technology is the application of scientific discovery to create objects with practical use. What started with fire and flint tools has today led to buildings, clothes, televisions, cars – technology pervades every inch and minute of our lives.

Tech represents a subset of technological tools: consumer objects and services based around microchips, transistors, code. This subset is distinctive because the next generation is clearly an evolution and improvement on the last**. This is in contradistinction to other industries where classics are often considered the best: think Bentley cars, Saville Row suits, or antique furniture. Tech is more clearly ever-improving – either incrementally as microprocessors become more complex, or in leaps and bounds when telephony first appeared.

Advances in tech epitomise the rapid surge towards the future, by providing a practical, tangible, purchasable way, of experiencing the possible. This surge began in some ways with the printing press and more fully with the industrial revolution. It is about new models of creating, consuming and doing.

There is, of course, the same sense of constant improvement in many industries, and every producer wants to give a sense of reinvention to encourage greater purchases (think New Coke). However, there are differences — let’s look at two examples. First, the auto industry: each new model is likely better in many ways than the last, but not always (hence the huge interest in classic cars) and car purchases are far less frequent, meaning one only has to worry about not having the latest maybe once every five to ten years, not every six months. Second, fashion: the drive to the new is not to have better, but to have the current trend, the most stylish — again classic pieces are still desirable (think little black dress or a tuxedo), but fashion is also cyclical meaning one has a few shots and getting value from using that paisley tie (just wait another twenty years). ↩
Compare the rate of change in the consumer space with industry where generations are expected to be many years: many decades for power station systems, or commercial and fighter planes. More extreme still perhaps is that the space shuttle, supposedly the most complicated machine ever built, ran on 0.5mb of RAM until 1991. It was then upgraded to 1mb. That’s all it needed. ↩

Going paperless in techy detail

Fri, 14 Sep 2012 11:55:00 -0400

Nine steps to declutter paper files by scanning into digital form

Select documents to scan: almost every document you have can be stored digitally in an effective way (from bills to notes, letters to certificates). However, there are some select physical documents that should be kept and Lifehacker has set out a great system for managing which paper files to keep.
Dip your toe into digital documents to get yourself in a good mindset with it:
- Experience accessing documents digitally - being able to accessing them digitally, everywhere and see if you ever need the originals
- See how much space you can save by getting rid of old / digitized papers
- Go all in and reap the real benefits by knowing all documents are digitized and saving more space
Scanning documents with a computer, scanner, and software (Image Capture or Preview in OS X; and apps in Windows like Picasa or XNView). Here are some tips to scan quickly and painlessly:
- Group your papers logically – by content and by paper size.
- Scan in full colour (it is easy to remove colours later but impossible to add back in).
- 200dpi scans are good enough for general notes and printouts
- Save the scans as jpegs or pngs.
- Be consistent with orientation and positioning on the scanner
- Review results to check you are happy
- Don’t yet throw away the originals until the very end of the process.
Optical Character Recognition (OCR) vs Pictures: OCR makes documents searchable but I have had mixed results with it, it is useless on handwriting, and I rarely actually need to search inside a scan (as long as they have good filenames)
How to reduce file sizes of scanned documents: you can get colour scans down to 10% of their size pretty easily so its worth doing with lots of scans. My tips:
- Get an app that can batch convert picture files. I use XNView
- Select the files you have scanned and go to Tools / Batch Convert. On the Outputs tab I save the photos to a new directory and convert to GIF.
- Set the conversion/s using the Actions tab: change the colour depth to binary, use Floyd Steinberg dithering
- Convert
- Review the results and batch convert the ones that looked bad in just B&W using more shades (say eight shades of grey)
- Continue with trial and error until satisfied for all images
How to combine pictures files into pdfs: thousands of scans = thousands of files. I don’t like the clutter of it and the best way to rationalise and organise scans is to combine them into PDFs (it’s reversible, quick, easy to share). I use “combine multiple images” in XNView on Windows and Automator in OS X.
Organising digital documents requires:
- integrating them with other similar stuff in relevant folders
- good, clear and consistent file naming (you can do a lot worse than a system like “yyyy-mm-dd topic-subtopic – title”)
- Make sure things get backed up routinely and automatically
Don’t forget to securely trash documents once you are confident you no longer need them:
- Use a secure cross-cut shredder if papers contain personal information (name, address, etc)
- Recycle normally if papers definitely do not contain any personal information
- Shred anything that you are unsure of to be on the safe side
Keep paper clutter away by reducing the friction in the process – make it as easy and painless as possible:
- Where you can, go paperless from the start.
- Automate the process, for instance Lifehacker outlined a one step process in 2008
- Organise your paper files clearly and review them regularly.
- Scan, archive and shred regularly

My seven principles of digitising documents and media

Thu, 13 Sep 2012 11:58:00 -0400

Seven principles for going digital the right way

Outputs: use as little digital space as possible: go for the lowest quality you can before you notice a drop in your enjoyment or its usefulness, while using good quality hardware. Do this because:
- Digitising a large media collection can take up terabytes of data
- Terabytes of data takes a lot of time and money to maintain
- Smaller files = easier to transfer or transport
Outputs: aim for good enough, not perfect: think about how file size, presentation, things like metadata affect your experience and aim for something:
- qualitatively similar or superior to that of the physical original;
- is efficient in size
- is well-ordered and readily-preserved.
- but find something that works, and don’t get (too) carried away - at least not on every potential parameter
Process: take time to set things up and to develop a process that delivers the outputs you are after, with a routine that works, by desiging, testing, tweaking a process that delivers now and into the future
Process: get an easy routine: i you are converting items in bulk, take the time to plan out your process into a clear routine (e.g. unripped CDs on the left of the computer, ripped CDs in a pile on the right). Make sure the routine is:
- Easy to repeat (eg using keyboard shortcuts, macros, or write it down)
- Easy to know where you are in the process for each item
- Hard to lose track of what has been digitised and what is left to do a lot of time and reduce errors)
Storage: take time to add important metadata at the time as this will help you find particular media easily (and better usually than their physical versions). It includes things like:
- location
- year
- artist
- title
- type/genre
Storage: keep your digital files tidy to make sharing, moving and backing up digital files easier and less error prone. Metadata helps as does keeping things together in clear folders and files. Make sure you use good names with these tips:
- Not more than three levels of sub folder
- Group similar files together by folder or filename
- Develop clear and consistent filenames, based either on metadata or a naming convention
Storage: ensure you have a good, automated backup routine otherwise all your other work may be wasted. Backing up takes thought, preparation, time, and money but means your collection can survive hardware failure, moves, floods, thefts or fire (physical media can’t say the same). Backing up is a big issue in its own right, but my top tips are
- Know where all your files are
- Back up to one local location regularly and fully automated (I use Crashplan)
- Back up to one cloud location and fully automated (I use Crashplan and Dropbox)
- Back up to one offsite location regularly, automated if you can

Declutter your home by cheating: digitising media

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 11:58:00 -0400

Garage mulch: nature’s nudge for me to declutter

I hate moving. I have too much stuff and I stupidly pack and move myself. One benefit of moving, especially emigrating, has been to act as a great catalyst for decluttering. Looking only at my media, I’ve gone from:

2003: three car loads of CDs, DVDs, books, files, papers, and photographs, that I rarely looked at and a garage full of boxes that got half ruined from damp, to…
2012: two portable hard drives and one car load full of books (I’m not at digital nirvana yet)

Then and now: how to cheat at decluttering

I started small. Scanning written notes, then photos, then CDs, more time consuming tapes, then eventually DVDs, and finally books where I am two thirds of the way there so far. Go me!

It seems amazing how much physical clutter I’ve got rid of, while still keeping all the actual data, accessible from hard drives. This is the great cheat of decluttering: to ditch your stuff, but still keep it. Anything that can be used while in digital format can get in on the cheat; anything that is an image, text, audio, or video (it doesn’t work on ornaments yet). I still have the same amount of things, just in a different, much more space-friendly format.

Why bother to rip, scan, record all this stuff

Many will look at the above and think: great, but that’s a ton of work and I don’t want the hassle. So what are the benefits?

It’s fundamentally an investment that makes my life easier and less stressful to manage, by providing beneficial – and ideally lower friction – structure
it’s made moving easier
it’s helped me be OK with a smaller apartment
it’s made it easier and faster to find and view stuff, even when not at home
it’s in the long run, it hopefully does free up time
it allows me to have backups of everything
it makes me less attached to and having less stuff

Lifehacker often writes on this topic and even provides a comprehensive all-in-one digitising your life guide, so go check it out.

Don't just buy apps. Fiddle. It's about how you work, not what with. Thanks for the insightful, intelligent article BetterMess

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 22:33:00 -0400

Don't just buy apps. Fiddle. It's about how you work, not what with. Thanks for the insightful, intelligent article BetterMess:

The App Mentality

Frankly, the whole app-driven mentality is flawed. When you think of these things in terms of what apps to use, you do it more from the standpoint of how are you going to best spend your money rather than how are you going to best accomplish your best work. Sites like this are probably partly to blame, but let me see if I can try to help clarify things a bit…

For those of you who read our sites (or any site that touches on productivity for that matter) and get caught up in the newest tricks and the latest app, try to take a step back from what we’re talking about in the minute and really look at what we’re trying to accomplish for ourselves in aggregate. We may talk about things one thing at a time, but that’s only because creating your own ideal workflow is overwhelming. The best sites and the brightest minds that I see writing about productivity today aren’t trying to steer you towards a new app. They aren’t advocating an app-driven approach to better work, they’re creating and sharing their workflow.

Brett, Gabe, Patrick and hopefully myself, are sharing what we discover, what interests us and what works for us with the hope that some of it will be useful in your own search. We’re hoping that by sharing our experiences, it becomes easier for you to find the tools worth trying and the systems worth considering. But no matter what we share, you’ll still have to go through much of the same pain we had to in order to find a workflow of your own. No matter how badly we may want to point you in the right direction, no one is going to be able to find the right workflow for you, except you. But hopefully, we can help along the way.

Run out of ice? Put those ice cube trays to better use

Tue, 11 Sep 2012 12:00:59 -0400

The 84 year old ice cube tray’s ten cool uses

Create, store and readily dispense clink-worthy cubes of ice, to keep drinks or other things cool
Ice in drinks dilutes, so freeze the drink itself (eg iced tea or juice) so as the cube melts it adds drink, not water
Store useful frozen portions of liquids and foods. (Note: one ice-cube is roughly equivalent to two tablespoons)
- Cubes of stock, wine, pesto, etc can save leftovers and time when next cooking: when needed, dispense 1-2 cubes into your pot
- Portion out homemade baby food into meals, for easy heating through
- Preserve fresh herbs in ice
- freeze individual leftover egg whites when a recipe requires yolks only
Use trays as mini food moulds for jellos, candies or chocolates (not in the freezer of course); or mini ice-lollies/popsicles.
Use trays as moulds for home-made soap
A full freezer is an efficient freezer (as keeping air cold is harder work than keeping food cold). If your freezer isn’t full of food, fill the rest with ice cubes [UPDATE: a scientist friend tells me air will cool faster, even if replaced each time the freezer is opened, than solids - due to few number of atoms per volume]
Cheap and handy organisers for small items
- Store jewellery, trinkets, screws, or loose change
- Hold and mix paint as a painter’s palette
- Organise snacks like berries or nuts in child size portions

The history of the computer - shown in cool Facebook timeline (which are the coolest usurper of Facebook platform)

Mon, 10 Sep 2012 22:50:45 -0400

The history of the computer - shown in cool Facebook timeline (which are the coolest usurper of Facebook platform)

ErgoOrgo

My Digital Life, Filing part 3: Tags, Folders, or...

My Digital Life, Filing part 3: Tags, Folders, or Both

Intro

Defining terms

Tags

Pros

Cons

NB

Folders

Pros

Cons

The solution: Synthesis!

Folders definitely have their place

But tags are useful too

My Digital Life, Filing part 2: Life meets Folders

Intro

What is a life plan?

Example perspectives or elements in the life plan

1. What’s your single goal in life

2. A handful of results

3. A set of means, or areas of activity

4. Specific objectives

Why have a life plan?

Some ideas for themes in a life plan

Linking your life plan to your data

My Digital Life, Filing part 1: Why and What

Intro

Aims for my filing system

Scope of the system

You don't need to type www or .com in iOS Safari - cool timesaver

onethingwell: CheatSheet shows you the available shortcuts...

Twine

JDU Themes: How to make custom photoset layouts WITHOUT installing Greasemonkey script

laughingsquid: Etón BoostTurbine2000, Hand Cranked Backup Power...

Review of stock iPhone apps: the Contacts App

What I like about the app

What I don’t like about the app

Some tips and tricks

Managing multiple address book sources using “Linked Cards”

Using SIri for all your personal relationships but still use Google contacts

Alternatives

Review of stock iPhone apps: the Calendar app

Review of the iPhone Calendar app

Three iPhone Calendar tips and tricks

1. Changing colors of different iPhone calendars

2. Birthdays

3. Sync only selected Google calendars with iOS

Alternatives

Conclusion

Review of stock iPhone apps: the Music and Video apps

Introduction

Review of the iPhone Music and Videos apps

Four tips and tricks for the iPhone Music and Video apps

1. Scrub through music or videos at different speeds

2. Customising your shortcut buttons in the Music app

3. Deleting videos and music straight from your iPhone

4. View more information about a track in the Music app

Alternatives

Review of stock iPhone apps: the Clock app

Review of the iPhone Clock app

Four iPhone Clock tips and tricks

i. Easily turn off an alarm or timer

ii. Automatically turn off music

iii. Automatically set the time zone

iv. Using alarms as reminders

Alternatives

i. exercise timing

ii. Time logging

iii. Using multiple timers at once

Conclusion

Batch rename and edit Simplenote notes on Mac OSX

Introduction

Why would you want to batch edit notes?

1. How to batch edit Notational Velocity / nvALT note contents

3. How to batch rename Notational Velocity / nvALT notes

i. Renaming files

ii. Force the Simplenote sync with the renamed notes

Why I love and hate technology journalism

Introduction