I’ve long struggled with how to transport small bits of cables. Since I primarily use the GORUCK GR1 these days, I’ve just been using the internal pockets in the bag to hold cables. This works well, except of course when you want to find a cable.
Often I struggle to find a cable as I buy short and stubby ones to carry with me, or give up assuming I left the cable at home. So I’ve needed a better system for some time now.
Shawn Blanc:
All in all, I’m so glad to have a native VSCO Cam app for my iPad. Though it’s not a life-changing revolution to my photography workflow, it certainly is something I’ll be using.
No extension (still) for use in Photos.app means it is still a Siloed area and there are far better options than VSCO cam at this point for photo editing on your iOS devices.
I’ll have a full post next week about how I am no longer using my Mac for photo editing.
Thord D. Hedengren:
The angle and strain of an iPad writing setup, featuring an external bluetooth keyboard, and a decent stand, isn’t a valid reason to use a laptop. They’re the same. No, scratch that, the iPad’s potentially better, since you can move the components around any way you like.
Amazing bit of work, bringing a lot of power to Spotlight.
Daniel P. Bolger:
What went wrong in Iraq and in Afghanistan isn’t the stuff of legend. It won’t bring people into the recruiting office, or make for good speeches on Veterans Day. Reserve those honors for the brave men and women who bear the burdens of combat.
Nice review of one of the neatest backpacks out there. I didn’t expect to like this bag, but I truly do.
Chris Bowler:
Although I switch tools far less often than I used to, it still happens. In this case, it feels like a change for the right reasons.
Ulysses is immensely good, starting to see the trend of a lot of writers switching to it.
Dan Goodin:
Researchers have uncovered a seven-year-old malware operation that combines advanced cryptographic attacks, zero-day exploits, and well-developed keyloggers to target elite executives staying in luxury hotels during business trips.
This is why I run a VPN if I am on any network that I didn’t build.
President Obama:
So the time has come for the FCC to recognize that broadband service is of the same importance and must carry the same obligations as so many of the other vital services do. To do that, I believe the FCC should reclassify consumer broadband service under Title II of the Telecommunications Act — while at the same time forbearing from rate regulation and other provisions less relevant to broadband services.
I’m glad he finally took the stand he campaigned on. This is the right and only move.
In my new role at MartianCraft I need a lot of windows open all at once — most of them communication related. It works fine on my 15” retina MacBook Pro, but it could be much better with more space.
Sure I could buy a $5k 5k iMac, but nope. And honestly my retina MacBook Pro still has a lot of life left in it (though the SSD may need to be replaced soon to get back some speed).
So I really think I need another monitor, but the entire reason I got rid of my external display was because I couldn’t stand that it wasn’t retina.
Decisions…
Speaking of Shawn Blanc, this is a great set of tips for getting the most out of OmniFocus. I just setup his Keyboard Maestro workflow and it is great, though I made one for my ‘Waiting’ perspective too. I also added in a bit of window moving magic to place them where I want.
Just be sure to not close out the main window, or you’ll have to add all that guff back.
That would drive me nuts, glad Shawn detailed this a bit.
Surprisingly good scores for FaceTime and iMessage, given how seamless and easy they are to use.
I’ve always been a fan of Seasonality for it’s massive amount of data that it can show you. If you really like to nerd out on all the weather data, this is the best app for that. I don’t use it everyday, but today we are having quite the wind and rain event. So I’ve been staring at the map view far too much today:
It’s a good app, and with version 3 (as you can see) it now works on the iPhone. The design leaves a bit to be desired for me, but you can’t argue with the data it shows — there’s a ton of it.
Note: You have to go to Map Settings and enable particle mode to get that wind chart, then zoom over to Tacoma, WA.
Micah L. Sifry:
On Tuesday, the company will again deploy its voting tool. But Facebook’s Buckley insists that the firm will not this time be conducting any research experiments with the voter megaphone. That day, he says, almost every Facebook user in the United States over the age of 18 will see the “I Voted” button. And if the friends they typically interact with on Facebook click on it, users will see that too. The message: Facebook wants its users to vote, and the social-networking firm will not be manipulating its voter promotion effort for research purposes. How do we know this? Only because Facebook says so.
As most readers of this site probably know by now, I was never a very big fan of mechanical keyboards. When Shawn Blanc started to get on board with them I would poke fun at him on our podcast on a regular basis.
I just never understood mechanical keyboards, because who wants a loud keyboard?
I was emailed a couple of Word documents to read through yesterday. I started to read through them on my Mac, and then I realized that it would be way better to read through them on my iPad with my feet kicked up. But the files were zipped in the email.
So I went ahead and AirDropped the files from my Mac to iPad. That froze Pages for 10 minutes. Then I put the files in iCloud Drive, they still haven’t shown up on my iPad.
And then I put the files in a BitTorrent Sync’d folder, but the BTSync app on my iPad started to crash on launch.
In the end, I just emailed the files to myself and read them, finally, on my iPad.
Insanity.
I would have been done far sooner if I never bothered with the iPad. And that’s the problem with the iPad — or more aptly — with Apple’s software.
Now that I have a new job I am having to adjust to a new set of communications tools (of which there are many). Something that I continue to notice is that many of the less ‘general’ consumer focused apps are very outdated. They work, but they aren’t updated for the latest and greatest gear.
The most prominent of those is the lack of retina ready tools for Mac users with many of these apps — let alone Yosemite-esques designs.
This will slowly drive me nuts.
Good collection, beautifully presented.
There is of course my year ’round list of things to spend money on here.