Ethan Zuckerman on the original sin of advertising on the internet:
An ad supported web grows quickly and is open to those who can’t or won’t pay. But it has at least four downsides as a default business model.
His story is excellent and well worth the read. He does miss one significant downside of an ad-supported web: It’s not easy for small guys to make any money.
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This week a tragic thing has been ongoing and largely ignored in this country: a young man was shot, the police over reacted, and journalists were arrested for reporting — and so much more.
Amy Davidson sums up the spark for this tragedy well:
Michael Brown didn’t die in the dark. He was eighteen years old, walking down a street in Ferguson, Missouri, from his apartment to his grandmother’s, at 2:15 on a bright Saturday afternoon. He was, for a young man, exactly where he should be—among other things, days away from his first college classes. A policeman stopped him; it’s not clear why. People in the neighborhood have told reporters that they remember what happened next as a series of movements: the officer, it seemed to them, trying to put Brown into a car; Brown running with his hands in the air; the policeman shooting; Brown falling.
The response to this was absolutely fucking nuts. There was looting and rioting, which is very bad. But the police didn’t even come close to handling the situation well.
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When I initially setup my Mac mini server, I did so by using the Server.app IMAP tools and SPAM filtering tools. Things started off just fine, but after a couple of months the SPAM I was getting started to get out of hand. SPAM messages were coming right through the SPAM filtering Apple was trying to do and was dirtying up my inbox — SPAM was driving me nuts. This amounts to 81 SPAM emails per day and I would say Apple’s system caught 20% of them.
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Some of you may have noticed that a chunk of the writing here has once again been about productivity (beyond just Keyboard Maestro). Part of this is what I call ‘the natural cycle of human interest’ — a thing which ebbs and flows over time and topics bringing you back to the same topics you once thought to be fully explored. I think we have all experienced this at some point in our lives — things which were once near obsession are mostly out of our heads, only to pop back up years later.
I used to write a productivity blog, and a photography blog too. Those are still topics I know and love, but they aren’t what has captivated most of my attention.
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I used to be a patient person, or at least I think I used to be a patient person. I at least know that people used to tell me that I was a patient person, but I also know it has been nearly a decade since anyone thrusted that label upon me.
I was the guy that had no problem spending hours polishing and waxing my car. Now I often stare at that last fender wondering: “Does it even need wax, no one would notice, right?” I used to spend an entire month working on a problem and be happy when I finally solved it — never feeling the urgent need to half-ass it just to get it off my plate.
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After talking with CJ Chilvers on my podcast I couldn’t help but to keep thinking about the mantra that he puts forth for photographers of all skill levels to follow. Chilvers’ overall philosophy can best be distilled down to: worry less about what you use to take pictures, and more about what is in your pictures. And even at that: try your best to always tell a compelling story.
And I agree with him, well in principle, because when it comes to practicing his mantra it is a whole different ballgame.
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I like to think that there was once a point in time, in this country or the world, where humanity prevailed — and I also like to think that the ‘majority-rule’ screwed it all up by trying to be ‘fair’ to everyone.
Microsoft Word, perhaps, best characterizes this when it comes to software. Because at one point Word was a really good program, which was both powerful and easy to use and understand.
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Ok, we’ve been over this before, but we will keep going over it until people listen up.
Assigning a numerical “score” to any product review is misleading at best, and downright bullshit most of the time.
The Verge in their review of the Amazon Fire Phone ((No link because: The Verge)) gave the device a score of 5.9 — they then go on to show the breakdown of that score over eight categories.
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Today Jared Sinclair stirred up quite a frenzy by way of blog post about the sales of his RSS app, Unread (which is fantastic). Jared Sinclair:
Despite all of these circumstances, Unread still only earned $42K in sales ($21K after taxes and expenses) and is on a course that doesn’t promise much growth. I conclude from all this that anyone who wants to make a satisfying living as an independent app developer should seriously consider only building apps based on sustainable revenue models.
His post was eye opening in how little a very popular app makes in the App Store these days. And he is not alone as he was joined by a chorus of other developers talking about what they make, and/or how to make money, as a ‘indie’ developer.
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The Fourth of July is one of the best holidays in America, and my absolute favorite (and among adults one of the more favored too). Most people around the world know it as our Independence Day, but to me it’s the most family centric of all holidays. There’s very little stress because (for a change) there’s really no gift giving — and it’s a well accepted holiday throughout the country. It’s not uncommon for many stores to close.
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Michael Lopp recently wrote a piece titled Hacking on Mtrek where he says:
My version of hacking at the time was, “Oh shit, how am I going to write this code in a language I don’t know against a codebase I don’t understand quickly enough that this guy who I respect doesn’t think I’m an idiot?”
Lopp’s article is a fantastic read which mimics my learning of code closely. I’ve never taken any computing courses (outside of typing when I was in like 4/5th grade), but I have written plenty of WordPress themes, and am known for my massive CSS files that serve what are otherwise straightforward and simple sites.
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When I went to launch the new Podcast, I also went through a lot of trouble of trying to find a good chat system. After I killed the idea of recording live I figured there would be no use for a chat room so I dropped the idea. And then at the last minute I decided to toss up a Glassboard where I could host a ‘delayed’ chat — really a comment room instead of a chat room.
So far the Glassboard has worked well, with only 50-60 users, and only a few that are active. It has been quiet most days, but things that are brought up I have found genuinely interesting.
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Tim Cook opened a never-healing wound when he relayed to Daisuke Wakabayashi:
Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook says he does 80% of the work of running the world’s most valuable company on an iPad.
I personally didn’t think much of that statement because my own personal experience lends me to think this is likely true.
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One thing I have run into of late is time zone questions when I am trying to schedule guests on my podcast. “Did you mean Pacific, or Central?”
It’s a bit annoying, and I’ve always meant to make a better way to do this. So I wanted to create something that grabbed my location, knew the time zone, and spit out the conversion — but I haven’t figured that out yet.
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This post on Jalopnik by Doug DeMuro caught my eye, as he discussed a little bit about the E39 M5 — a car dear to my heart as it is my daily driver. In fact, I drive a 2002 as was the vintage which DeMuro wrote about it. In the post, which is largely irrelevant for the sake of this post, he said one thing that got me thinking:
But most enthusiasts tend to agree there was something really special about the third-generation model, the “E39,” which was sold from 2000 to 2003. And it’s easy to see why: the E39 M5 looked perfect. It had the right power. It was the right size. It was solid and well-built. For many BMW fans, the E39 is the best M5 that ever existed.
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Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on July 10th, 2014:
At our core, Microsoft is the productivity and platform company for the mobile-first and cloud-first world. We will reinvent productivity to empower every person and every organization on the planet to do more and achieve more.
This is a widely circulated statement, and is clear direction for Nadella that the future of Microsoft lies in two areas: mobile and the cloud. That’s smart, because that’s where the future of computing really is right now.
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A few months back Matt Gemmell wrote a post titled “Small Screen Productivity” and it’s one of my favorite posts. What I love is that it’s not some exhaustive listing of the apps he uses, or the tricks, but rather a good look at how he is productive on a smaller screen. This one bit from Gemmell in particular is something I love:
I think that small screens are only claustrophobic if you feel you have to physically interact with the space. If you’re mousing around, you can feel the dimensions. The pointer can bounce off the screen edges, and you have a visceral sense of the area available.
That’s something I have personally found true, and even though my screen is 15”, there is still a lot of little things I do to maximize flow beyond just learning to leave the mouse be.
To me, what feels most constraining about any tool, or environment, are the things that inhibit your workflow.
I cannot focus when my kids are yelling at me, or when I am sitting in a coffee shop and I hear the conversations of others. I cannot bear down when I am uncomfortable, my arms contorted in an airplane seat. I need to be in the right environment, just as I need my tools to be setup in a way that works for me.
With that in mind here are some of the things which can make OS X feel all the more powerful, and custom tailored, to you, but a word of warning: you must use them correctly. Use them incorrectly, and confusion is all you will gain.
I recommend using a trackpad with your Mac because the addition of a trackpad makes for using the built in Spaces a lot better. On a small screen in particular it can make you feel like you have multiple displays.
I personally use a ton of spaces, but typically I have at least three going at any given time. Like Gemmell I like to define my spaces for what I do in each space, typically:
Another key is to let Apple arrange the spaces for you. In the Mission Control preference I allow the spaces to be rearrange based on recent use. This is great when you go to swipe from Space to Space as you can keep the spaces you are actively working on grouped closely together.
It can be a bit overwhelming to use Spaces at first, but once you get going it negates the need to minimize and hide apps. Which is really killer. It also allows you to achieve better focus on a per app basis — much like the focus you gain when using iOS — without having to force the app into fullscreen mode.
Speaking of which, in the same vein as Spaces is fullscreen mode for apps. I’ll caution you a bit about fullscreen mode, because fullscreen mode is not equally great. While I typically always have Ulysses in fullscreen mode, I never have OmniOutliner in fullscreen mode because the latter just seems more cumbersome to use in fullscreen mode.
There’s two types of fullscreen mode, as far as I can tell:
It’s my sincere hope that more Mac developers start paying better attention to fullscreen mode — as there is a lot to be improved here.
Of the apps I use regularly, here are the ones that typically live in fullscreen mode:
Of those Ulysses is the only app with an excellent fullscreen mode — the rest are just easier to keep in fullscreen mode rather than seeing their window in a Space. and fullscreen mode is useable for those apps.
I find fullscreen mode good for apps that: are writing oriented; or you need to be able to bear down and focus on; or are just apps that you want to always keep open, but don’t always want to see.
Justin Blanton on the iA Writer look:
In fact, I’ve become so enamored with its aesthetic that I’ve spent a ton of time trying to replicate it across a few of my most-used apps–including the Readable bookmarklet I use for reading (long) web articles in a browser–and, I think it’s safe to say, I’ve succeeded.
iA Writer was a revelation for me too, and like Blanton I have taken a lot of time since then to customize the look and feel of the apps which allow it. For me that means using a standard set of colors and fonts where possible:
Any app that allows me to tweak the colors of it, that’s what I set the theme to look like.
But why is that important for making your Mac workflow better? For me, as everything starts to feel more consistent on my Mac things feel more comfortable.
Changing fonts and color schemes isn’t about being custom, it’s about being comfortable. Find something you love and plaster it everywhere so that every app feels like home. Just as the right decor in your office is important, so too is the right font, in the right colors.
I am a huge power tools user, as in powerful apps that extend and automate functionality on your Mac. This isn’t the time or place for exhaustive reasoning on these apps, instead I recommend that you get at least one power tool app and learn how to use the piss out of it.
Doesn’t really matter which one, they are all very good helpers. There’s five that I would choose between if I were to start out again: Alfred, LaunchBar, Keyboard Maestro, and TextExpander.
Again it doesn’t matter which one you pick, just pick one and stick with it until you are finding yourself unable to use a computer that doesn’t have it installed. Then you can move on to another power tool app.
Here’s the power tool apps I use, and how I use them (in brief):
Whichever app you pick, the app won’t make you instantly better — you have to learn to use these tools by integrating them into your daily workflow. But once you get the hang of them you will be saving a lot of time each time you use your Mac. If I use a Mac missing anyone of those tools, I feel like I might as well be on Linux. ((Next year is the year of Linux right?))
Not to be overlooked is a built-in power tool in Automator. It’s not as powerful as the others listed above, but it does have one huge advantage: it can integrate with services in Finder. Which means you can use a fairly easy to understand graphical interface to build actions for files.
I have a few that resize images, and I can do that just by right clicking a file and navigating to services. All-in-all this is very handy, and if you want to get started on the cheap — don’t pass this up. It is also very easy to learn, so you won’t need to do anything but play around with it.
I’ve relentlessly pursued streamlining my workflow over the years, and the one thing that I have found to be true is that you must do it one bit at a time. Creating twenty new workflows may be faster, but you won’t remember how they work, or when and how to use those workflows.
And thus you’ve wasted your time.
Instead, I’ve found that I tweak and work on one workflow change until it is second nature and working perfectly. Then I move on to the next. Like sanding a piece of wood, you have to go little by little until you have a smooth board.
I’m doing a new thing over on ye olde podcast, as I have decided to only sell one advertiser spot per show instead of the originally conceived two spots.
There’s two reasons for this:
That better use is that I will give away the second ad spot to any indie developer that wants it, but they have to meet my criteria:
So far I have done this once, and am about to do it again. The podcast has just over 2,700 listners at this writing, but it’s growing daily. This seems like a good use of everyones time as I have been finding some really great little apps because of it. Not all make the cut, but of the ones that do, I pick randomly the order I feature them.
If you want to be considered just get in touch with me. If you don’t qualify, but want to sponsor the show, there are deals to be had for multiple shows — current rate is $300 per show. Get in touch if you want to talk about that.
Thanks for your support, and here’s to hoping that we all find some great apps, from some developers who are deserving of a little more attention.
Every summer I run into the same problem with every backpack I use: the backpack wrinkles up my shirt and makes my back sweat. My shirt gets wrinkled not just on the back, but on the shoulders and anywhere else the straps touch. And these wrinkles set because they are effectively being steamed in from the sweat off my body.
So I end up carrying a backpack that I love, but it making me look like a sweaty disheveled guy. That’s just not ok with me. I like looking put together, and that doesn’t seem possible on hot days with a backpack.
The thing about this is that it’s not really something that can be solved or designed around. Trust me, the lightest and meshy-est of hiking daypacks cause the same issues. It’s just a fact of backpack life it seems.
There are none, except to do what I do on hot days: use a shoulder/briefcase. It’s not ideal, but when I know the weather is getting up there I simply switch bags (to the Founder’s Briefcase right now). I’d rather use a bag that doesn’t make me look disheveled than one that can’t help but make me look disheveled.
Still, it drives me nuts.
Interesting thoughts from Mathis on the Surface Pro 3 and why he likes it. I personally find the Surface Pro 3 to be very compelling because the software my company uses is Windows only. I almost bought the Surface Pro 2, and I came very close to the Surface Pro 3.
Mathis may like the device, but the bad he pointed out turns me off from it completely. My biggest fears about trying to use something like the Surface Pro 3 are:
The iPad is an outstanding device, as is my MacBook Pro. So then the only use I would have for a Surface is as a secondary device to remove the need for VMware running Windows.
But then we are talking about $799 for a base model machine and I still have to buy the type cover. So really $928 all in. All that for a device I may not even like.
For less money I can buy an 11″ MacBook Air and install Windows on it (I already own Windows) in a native Bootcamp partition. Even if it turns out I don’t use Windows on the MacBook Air, I still have a MacBook Air. And I know the MacBook Air is outstanding with excellent battery life and something I will use with or without Windows on it.
And this is the problem Microsoft faces: I am someone that should buy the Surface, and yet every time I go to buy one I stop and think about it. Every time I come to the same conclusion: buying another Apple laptop makes more sense as it is better and cheaper than buying a Surface Pro. Until Microsoft can solve that for people like me, the device will continue to struggle.