Category: Articles

The iPad remains the most interesting product on the market, as it perfectly encapsulates so many of my childhood dreams. It is the Star Trek PADD, and did I ever love that device. In theory the iPad is all that most people need, but in practice we know that is far from the truth. My love for the hardware combined with the opportunity I see for the software, keeps drawing me in.

I read Federico Viticci’s ode to the iPad, on my iPad, while pacing around the room for a bit of exercise and I found myself smiling as I read the words of someone who so clearly loves the iPad as much as I do. My am I jealous of him that I have yet to make the jump fully to the iPad — ditching my MacBook Pro — but he has.

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Let me ask you something I find that I often ask myself: why doesn’t my amazing iPhone automatically turn off my alarm when I don’t have work?

And I don’t mean on the weekends — I mean on days off, or holidays, where I don’t have work, but it’s a day of the week where I normally would be working otherwise. These things are marked on my calendar, on my phone, as days off — so why doesn’t the alarm know this? The data is right there just waiting to be used.

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I’ve been a long time defender and lover of WordPress, and I could recount some pretty terrible stories of things that have happened to me, or people I know, running WordPress. The thing about WordPress is that it is big, like really big — it’s used everywhere. And it has gotten a bad wrap in nerd circles, mostly because it used to be that a link from John Gruber would bring a WordPress site to it’s knees.

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When I started work at MartianCraft I wasn’t really sure how or where I would work. I had a desk I knew I could use and make my own at an office, I had nothing setup at my home. I looked into co-working spaces, but where I live there is one and the price I would pay for what I get in return was absurd.

And so, I didn’t really know how things would shake out, or where I would end up working the most. I figured I would use that office, but I couldn’t stand, and it felt very rigid. I still use it, but typically only 1-2 days a week.

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The rumors of the 12” Retina MacBook Air reached a new level of stupidity. People writing about the computer as if it were real. As if it was the messiah coming to save them from wasting $5,000 on a retina iMac. Many proclaimed it would be the perfect laptop.

Which is just silly, because it’s not even real. Not yet at least.

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Josh Ginter has a fantastic post outlining the value of good lenses for any camera system. It’s a good read and you should go through it if you are just getting into photography.

There are a couple of things that I wanted to weigh in on though, that Josh doesn’t get wrong, but that I differ in opinion on.

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If you are a design oriented nerd you’ve likely run into a
the same conflict I run into it everyday, where ergonomics is constantly in direct opposition with a beautiful desk. The knowledge you possess tells you how things should be positioned on your desk and this positioning is never really how you want your desk to look.

Your monitor needs to be at this height, so that it is ergonomic, and your desk at this height, which all means your desk is always lower than your display. And now you need a stand for that.

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In part, because I am a nerd, I have a page on my blog where I list things that I’ve found to be the best. I pursue buying the best things in the aspects of my life where I’ve found that I use something very often, or need a new item to replace an old, or broken one. I try many options so that I may eventually say, with some sense of expert confidence, that this is ‘the best’.

Of course it’s likely only the best if you are me, after all, who’s to say what is the best weather app, radar app, PDF reader, or knife? Not me. It’s all subjective, and we could debate this all day, but it doesn’t matter.

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When I started at MartianCraft (a remote work company) I started at a time when my wife and I had just turned our home office into a playroom for our kids. Whoops. There are few co-working spaces available around me, and those that are, are above my budget for such a space (without offering a very good space).

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I’ve long felt mechanical watches are the only way to go, as they require no batteries and are therefore ideal because they keep working as long as you wear them — no finding dead batteries when you go to don the watch. A ‘win-win’ if you will. (more…)

I’ve written lists about X things that I learned in X years before, but those seem rather boring these days. I’ve not marked every birthday I’ve had on this site, but I felt like this was a good one to mark. Mostly because I’m finally at a numerical age which I like. ‘Thirty two’ rolls nicely off the tongue and that pleases me greatly.

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This is a list of the best, or my favorite at least, websites of 2014.

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Back in May of 2012 I posted about how I was using my Smart Alec bag from Tom Bihn as a diaper bag. There wasn’t much to the setup, and so I seem to always receive emails from people wanting to copy that bag setup. Truth be told I stopped using that setup when my wife bought herself a Kate Spade diaper bag.

Now I personally hate that diaper bag, but she liked it and she carried it most of the time — so I didn’t really have a choice in the matter. Additionally, a backpack as a diaper bag can be rather annoying at times.

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When I left my company at the beginning of this month, I had to cancel the Adobe Creative Cloud subscription that I had, and I did so with a little too much glee — because the next day I remembered that my copy of Lightroom was tied to it.

Oops.

It wasn’t for a few days that I found out Lightroom really never fully expires, but I was right fully worried — Lightroom was where I edited every photo I took.

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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.

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When I crowned my ‘best undershirt’ I chose UnderFit because it was modern, exceedingly comfortable, and held up well. That is all still true.

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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?

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I linked to my new site when I launched it, but I didn’t write about it much. I didn’t want to say too much, as I just wanted to see what happened. That and I was pretty busy at the time.

I do think it is worth taking a moment to address the site and some of the motivations, goals, and ideas behind the site.

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