When I upgraded to iOS 9, I finally consolidated my convoluted note taking setup. Moving from Simplenote, Vesper, OmniOutliner, and a couple other notes apps to just Notes.app for everything. And I really like Notes.app, as it has come a long ways — but the UI leaves a lot to be desired and I often can’t get to what I need fast enough. Still, it synced perfectly, added a lot of features and generally worked well.
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Recent Articles
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Why Ulysses Is My App for Notes and Writing
Long story short, I had trouble finding notes so I moved everything to Ulysses.
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GQ and Forbes Go After Ad Blocker Users
From Techdirt: The war against ad blockers didn’t start when users began using the software. It started when online outlets refused to understand that content is advertising and advertising is content, and if any part of that equation is bad, the whole thing falls apart.
The war against ad blockers didn’t start when users began using the software. It started when online outlets refused to understand that content is advertising and advertising is content, and if any part of that equation is bad, the whole thing falls apart.
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Incase City Compact Backpack
A really great small bag for when the Bullet Ruck doesn’t fit your computer.
One of the things I love about the GORUCK Bullet Ruck is how small it is — for a daily carry bag, where your kit is very small, you really don’t want to have a large bag as your carry bag. The problem with a large bag is it will allow your stuff to swim around in the bag, and ultimately your gear will be out of sorts when you get to where you are going. The bag itself will also be heavier and take up more space than you need — both when you take the bag off, and on your back — which can get annoying when you realize just how little you are carrying with it.
The problem I ran into, which lead to this bag is the Bullet Ruck is too small for my iPad Pro, and with that being my main computer, I really needed something to replace the Bullet Ruck. As I dug through my pile of bags to see what would work, I began to realize the smallest backpack I had which would fit the iPad Pro is the GORUCK GR1. While I love that bag dearly, it’s a very large bag for runs to the coffee shop with just an iPad Pro. Luckily, Incase was running a massive sale over the holidays and I picked up the Incase City Compact Backpack.
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Some Follow Up on Newsletters
You’re just not going to convince me that they are better than a website.
I was a bit surprised at the feedback from my last post on Newsletters, not at the amount of feedback, as much as how black and white the issue seems to be. People were either in agreement with me, or were baffled by my conclusions. I asked those who responded in disbelief that newsletters could be bad, to provide me with longer thoughts, and there’s one article I think encapsulates the position in favor of newsletters well.
First, a point of clarification though: I used the term newsletter without specifying what the hell I meant. An error on my part. I simply mean an email newsletter that is filled with original content. What I don’t mean is emails, like this site’s daily email, alerting readers to new posts — in other words automated newsletters aren’t what I am talking about.
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Looking Back to NaNoWrimo
That thing where I am probably reading too much into a small sample size, and then handing out that information as advice.
A month has passed now since I undertook my own version of the NaNoWriMo challenge — writing and publishing over 50,000 words to this very site for the month of November. At the end of it I wrote a bit about the experience, but I don’t think it is until just now that I fully am able to realize the impact it had on me in a more long term sense. It hasn’t made me a better, or worse, writer — that’s all status quo. It has, however, helped my writing come far easier.
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LPT Request: Is There a Comfortable Position for Reading a Book in Bed?
How do people have that many pillows? This topic can double for using the iPad in bed. Now, excuse me as I head to buy 25 more pillows.
How do people have that many pillows? This topic can double for using the iPad in bed. Now, excuse me as I head to buy 25 more pillows.
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Outrage of the Week
They’re spying on me‽ The horror! Warrantless eavesdropping on people who have done nothing wrong – the largest system of suspicionless mass surveillance ever created – is inherently abusive and unjustified, and one shouldn’t need a report that this was done to the Benjamin Netanyahus and Pete Hoekstras of the world to realize that.
They’re spying on me‽ The horror!
Warrantless eavesdropping on people who have done nothing wrong – the largest system of suspicionless mass surveillance ever created – is inherently abusive and unjustified, and one shouldn’t need a report that this was done to the Benjamin Netanyahus and Pete Hoekstras of the world to realize that.
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The All-in Party
Fraser Speirs is making his iPad Pro his only computer: The iPad Pro was just the icing on the cake. It took everything that was good about iOS 9 on the iPad Air 2 and made it much, much better. The iPad Pro is fast, capable and packs a screen basically the same size as…
Fraser Speirs is making his iPad Pro his only computer:
The iPad Pro was just the icing on the cake. It took everything that was good about iOS 9 on the iPad Air 2 and made it much, much better. The iPad Pro is fast, capable and packs a screen basically the same size as the laptop I just sold. This is how I want to work.
Makes me feel ashamed I had to keep my MacBook. Though to be fare I charge my MacBook once a week because I rarely ever use it.
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Ginter’s iPad Pro
I think the way Josh Ginter is using his iPad Pro at work is great: I use a laptop PC at the office with an external monitor, but my desk has a keyboard tray. I don’t want my personal email flooding my work computer, and I have no way of sending iMessages on the laptop.…
I think the way Josh Ginter is using his iPad Pro at work is great:
I use a laptop PC at the office with an external monitor, but my desk has a keyboard tray. I don’t want my personal email flooding my work computer, and I have no way of sending iMessages on the laptop. So instead, I put the iPad Pro flat on its back on that keyboard tray and have Messages, Outlook, Slack, and Omnifocus running in Split View throughout the day. If an email comes in, I pull out the keyboard tray, print out any documents to my wireless printer, and tap a quick reply to the email before sliding the keyboard tray back in and getting back to the task at hand. If something comes through Twitter or Slack, same thing: tap a response and get back to work.
This is kind of genius.
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More Gun Taxes in Seattle
This new gun tax in Seattle is great: At least some of these new revenues, moreover, will be used to throw a handful of sand into a canyon dug by pro-gun lawmakers at the federal level. Though some portion of the funds will go to research on gun violence, such research is sparse because of…
This new gun tax in Seattle is great:
At least some of these new revenues, moreover, will be used to throw a handful of sand into a canyon dug by pro-gun lawmakers at the federal level. Though some portion of the funds will go to research on gun violence, such research is sparse because of a 20 year-old ban on federal research into such violence.
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Touch ID Is Too Good
Dr. Drang on the notion that Touch ID is too fast: So these “edgy” interface fans want to unlock their phones by pressing the home button, swiping on the “slide to unlock” area, and then putting their thumbs back down on the home button for Touch ID. I’m sure Apple will get on that right…
Dr. Drang on the notion that Touch ID is too fast:
So these “edgy” interface fans want to unlock their phones by pressing the home button, swiping on the “slide to unlock” area, and then putting their thumbs back down on the home button for Touch ID. I’m sure Apple will get on that right away.
The idea that Touch ID could ever be too fast is moronic.
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Opting Out
The greatest control Americans have had over the abusive and pointless security theater of the TSA has been to opt out of body scanners. That has now changed: Indeed, the only thing the TSA is alluding to is the fact some passengers will be denied the right to opt-out “in order to safeguard transportation security,”…
The greatest control Americans have had over the abusive and pointless security theater of the TSA has been to opt out of body scanners. That has now changed:
Indeed, the only thing the TSA is alluding to is the fact some passengers will be denied the right to opt-out “in order to safeguard transportation security,” something we know is a sham since the body scanners have a 96% failure rate.
I highly doubt that I have anything to personally worry about. But if I were — and I’m guessing here — say a person of middle eastern descent, I’m guessing they won’t be allowed to opt out. Which is infuriating to write, but this wreaks of racial profiling. I hope they get their asses handed to them over this.
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Newsletters in 2015
You told me newsletters are great, but all I see is a way to fragment my readership.
Twenty-fifteen started with a trend that was hard to ignore: newsletters were a big thing. I couldn’t for the life of me understand it, and perhaps I still don’t understand it, so I asked many of the people I know who run seemingly successful newsletters and they espouse how amazing they are. Each time I asked someone I felt like they looked at me with disbelief that I don’t see the way.
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RNI Films- an App Review
My takeaway from Erin’s review: this is as close as you can get to Fujifilm, film simulations with filters.
My takeaway from Erin’s review: this is as close as you can get to Fujifilm, film simulations with filters.
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Powered by WordPress, Proudly or Not
Don Melton on moving to WordPress: What I really needed was a publishing system easily accessible from anywhere — even mobile devices — to quickly create and deploy content. Which is the whole point of having a blog that people want to read. See, I just don’t understand people who bother using non-Wordpress blogging platforms.
Don Melton on moving to WordPress:
What I really needed was a publishing system easily accessible from anywhere — even mobile devices — to quickly create and deploy content. Which is the whole point of having a blog that people want to read.
See, I just don’t understand people who bother using non-Wordpress blogging platforms.
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The Future of Computing Is in These Three Computers
The MacBook, Surface Pro 4, and iPad Pro are moving use away from traditional laptops to the devices we really need.
The three computers I am talking about are: iPad Pro, Surface Pro 4 / Surface Book, and MacBook (12” retina model). You probably suspected the first two given what I have been focused on of late, but that last one you might be questioning. Allow me some context before you label me as having lost my mind for claiming the MacBook is a part of the future of computing.
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Fujifilm X100T- a Camera Review
Erin Brooks on the camera she stole from me: It’s so easy to use. Even not knowing all of the technical rules about cameras and photography, a person would be able to get fabulous shots using this camera. There aren’t a lot of settings that I need to tinker with, so I can have a basic understanding…
Erin Brooks on the camera she stole from me:
It’s so easy to use. Even not knowing all of the technical rules about cameras and photography, a person would be able to get fabulous shots using this camera. There aren’t a lot of settings that I need to tinker with, so I can have a basic understanding of how a camera works, and get the shot quickly, without much thought toward the set-up.
I miss my camera…
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THE BROOKS REVIEW’S WEEK IN REVIEW FOR 12-11-2015
I sent out a newsletter containing all the links and a general thought for this week. I am going to move to this approach instead of posting links on the site when I come across them. I’m not sure Friday is the right day, but it’s the day for this week. The link above will…
I sent out a newsletter containing all the links and a general thought for this week. I am going to move to this approach instead of posting links on the site when I come across them. I’m not sure Friday is the right day, but it’s the day for this week.
The link above will give you the web version of the newsletter, you can subscribe to the newsletter here.
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The Microsoft Surface Pro 4
I want to love it, so many good ideas, but that battery. BUT THAT BATTERY. And where’s the apps?
At the end of November I concluded with a post about how I was going to be all in on the iPad Pro and use it as my primary work machine. And then, as I was looking through Apple’s News app, I started to see a lot of people talking about the Surface Pro 4 versus the iPad Pro. The Surface Pro line has always intrigued me, and by all accounts many thought the Surface Pro 4 was the culmination of all of Microsoft’s work, and done very well at that.
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Standard’s Carry-on Backpack
It holds a deceivingly large amount of clothes and gear.
Note: This backpack was sent to me by Standard Luggage for the purpose of writing this review. Also all photo credits go to my wife, Erin Brooks, she’s way better than I am.
I remember when I was a freshman in college, my sister (she was still in high school at the time) made it to state finals for track — which meant she was competing in eastern Washington. I took a long weekend and travelled out with my family for the two nights. I packed a almost-full duffel bag.
Sounds like a reasonable amount of gear, right? It would be, except the bag I packed in was 72 liters. Mean it was huge and I basically packed for a weekend in it. ((Funny enough, this worked out great as a rain storm moved in and I was the only one with clothing for such an event — and extra clothing for my dad to borrow. Still though…))