Blog
Writing helps me think more clearly. This archive is longer posts; quick updates now live in notes.
Topics: AI, blogging, photography, programming, projects, Signboard
Back in October Kyle Ruane (Plain & Coalwork co-founder) put together an opening for Great Scott! A Back to the Future art show that he held in our space at Coalwork. He did a fantastic job with the opening and I’m glad he’s written about what he learned on Plain Text and also put the art that is…
Ben Brooks on his own stinkin’ blog: In short: never give your writing away for free. Even if you don’t make money on your site at the moment, don’t give your writing away for free. On more time, all together now: don’t give your writing away for free. Read his entire piece. You’ll come away thinking that in…
The running theme the last few weeks is how many people, including myself, are leaving Evernote behind for either Apple’s Notes or Simplenote. Anecdotal evidence suggests that the people that are leaving Evernote are those who first started using it when it was still simple and mostly text-based. So while there are likely thousands and thousands of people who…
Kerri Krueger on her blog: What was once fast and simple suddenly…wasn’t. Evernote’s beautifully slim and functional former self disappeared into a bloated garbage fire that rendered it all but unusable. Yesterday I switched from Evernote to Simplenote for the same reasons as Kerri. See also: Evernote vs. Notes, Chambers, Pogue.
Brady Forrest on Medium: The goal was to have a night where geeks could share their ideas. We gave the speakers just 5 minutes on stage with 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. I remember going to my first Ignite in early 2007. I went to three more that same year I think (Philly, Austin, Phoenix?). It…
Terry Myerson: Today, we reach our next milestone as the first major update to Windows 10 is now available* for PCs and tablets. With this update, there are improvements in all aspects of the platform and experience, including thousands of partners updating their device drivers and applications for great Windows 10 compatibility. Looks like a good update especially…
Speaking of very different use cases for the iPad Pro … how about as a 3D sketch tool? uMake makes a pretty compelling use case I think. Obviously this sort of thing can be done with a Wacom tablet or even with an older iPad. But with a Wacom tablet you’d need to bring along the accompanying computer…
Horace Dediu of Asymco “reviews” the iPad Pro in this video by going through the evolution of the “desktop computer” as Apple has posited it over the last 5 or 6 years. Horace attempts to be funny in this which I think misses (no offense Horace) but the point he makes about the iPad Pro being used in a fixed…
Firefox for iOS just hit the App Store and will work on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Why would you use Firefox for iOS? Benjamin Mayo of 9to5Mac: You might want to use Firefox for iPhone and iPad if you use Firefox on the Mac, due to UI similarities for the browser chrome or just for syncing convenience….
Lee Morris of Fstoppers sits down with the Surface Book and Surface Pro 4 side-by-side in this video review. He also has a short write-up on their site when they compared the Surface Book to the MacBook Pro. At the end of the day the Surface Book is an amazing achievement. I don't understand how they made that…
You can see why I believe Apple is going to regret not making OS X available on iPads by reading some of the points in John Gruber’s iPad Pro review: First, when the iPad Pro is open with the keyboard attached, holding your arm up to touch the screen for anything longer than a moment or two is…
Mary Rose Cook: The essay focuses on the graph structure that underpins Git and the way the properties of this graph dictate Git’s behavior. Looking at fundamentals, you build your mental model on the truth rather than on hypotheses constructed from evidence gathered while experimenting with the API. This truer model gives you a better understanding of what…
Josh Ginter: It’s taken a little while, but OS X El Capitan’s split-screen multitasking (see also, iOS 9 for iPad) has become one of my favourite features of Apple’s latest desktop OS. Ditto.
Mike Vial on his blog about using a pen or using a computer to write a song: They may be right, but I’ve tried abandoning my computer many times to no avail; I always come back to the laptop, breathing a sigh of relief. See also. I see this as a shift. My mom? Pen over computer. My…
The aforementioned Nick Semon on his attempt to pick up a bike plate today: I stopped into the Licensing, Inspections, and Permits office today. They handle everything from building permits to food trucks to entertainment licenses. But all three of the friendly folks had never even heard of a bike license plate. Scranton Pennsylvania does not understand bicycling. Spend…
Nick Semon, fellow Coalworker, has started a blog called Mock Nines. This from an entry on Apple Cider Donuts: I type this in the immediate vicinity of an empty bag, which previously was the second-to-final resting place of a half dozen of these not-actually-apple-flavored fried innertubes of spongy delightfulness. They now rest in pieces, masticated and savored on…
In late-September Eliza and I drove to Sandbridge, Virginia for two weeks with a bunch of friends, food, beer, and of course the kayaks. The first week was a wet, raining, windy disgusting mess. But that didn’t stop my niece from Florida, Leyana, and I from getting out and doing some paddling in the rain. I remember Leyana…
Twitter is pulling a switcharoo on Favorites and is now calling them Likes and using a heart icon rather than a star icon. People went a little nuts about this for a variety of reasons but I’m writing this post to point to when/if people ask me why I liked, or didn’t like, a particular tweet. Like John…
You’ve likely heard of NaNoWriMo. Ben Brooks wants to take part but in his own way: I would write a novel, but honestly I have no good ideas for one, and did not have time to plan out a novel before November. I only decided to do this thing a week ago. I could probably come up with…
Sarah Pressler, also a fellow Coalworker by extension via Texas since she is our Project Manager at Plain, writes about giving up note taking on paper: I’m not willing to give up on my love for paper, planners, and photos from film, but I think it’s time I join the 21st century and stop taking work-related notes on…
Joanne Wilson, blogger, entrepreneur, traveler, investor, uses her Monday morning blog post to feature a woman entrepreneur. Great idea — especially given her perspective. My only critique would be that she doesn’t link to the women’s Twitter, web sites, company web sites, etc.
David Pogue on his Tumblog: But here’s the thing: Over time, Evernote has grown bulky, complex, and buggy. He also shares how he moved to Apple Notes using an AppleScript. See: here, and here.
Ben Brooks: If you are starting a new blog, or have one already, the best thing you can do is turn off all analytics. If you are worried about knowing when your site is “big” then worry no more. Trust me when I tell you: you will know when you site is big, with or without analytics, I…
Above: A panorama I took at White Oak Pond on October 20, 2015. My favorite place to paddle within 25 minutes of my front door is White Oak Pond in Waymart, PA. And now, due to the dam in the area being structurally unsound and having no budget to fix it, it is being drained. Peggy Lee at…