I’ve been trying very hard to adopt the iPad as a tool for Serious Work since at least 2013.

I’m not sure why.

It probably started when Federico Viticci (@viticci) started writing about switching to using an iPad only. He claimed to love, and actually prefer it, even though his posts were full of ways he’d learned to work around shortcomings in iOS and how everything was “fine”. Still, it sounded fun.

Many people seem to get along well with only an iPad. I envy them, but why? I’m not at all unhappy with having a desktop Mac or two, and a Macbook or Air or whatever’s relatively portable. What’s the rush?

I’ve had several iPads, starting with the original in 2010. I now have the latest 12.9” iPad Pro and it’s a wonderful, powerful, beautiful machine.

But…

It’s not a viable full-time device for me. Here’s why¹.

The iPad doesn’t multi-task well. “Yes it does!” you exclaim. No, it doesn’t. Not really. What it does is pretend to multi-task by letting me glue two apps side-by-side. That doesn’t count, unless your definition of multi-tasking is quite different than mine.

There’s no terminal. I don’t enjoy working on a device that doesn’t offer me a reasonable set of tools available using the command line.

I want a filesystem. I know, we’re supposed to be in a post-files era, but I’m not ready for that yet. Sending files between apps has gotten better, but it’s still awkward, slow, and inconsistent. Having to import photos from a card reader into one specific app just to get them where I wanted them in the first place is crazy-making.

The software I rely on isn’t available on iOS. Software such as…

• Tinderbox. There is nothing like Tinderbox, anywhere, on any platform. Tinderbox alone is enough to keep me forever on macOS.
• Capture One Pro. After flirting with Capture One several times over the years, I finally went all-in last year and it’s fantastic. Why would I want something so much less capable just so I can use an iPad? I wouldn’t.
• BBEdit. There are some nice, surprisingly powerful text editors on iOS, but they’re nothing like BBEdit. (or VS Code, or Atom, or Vim, or Emacs, or…) for dealing with text.
• DEVONthink. Yes, there’s DEVONthink To Go, which is nice and I rely on it on the iPad, but mostly as a way to get at the stuff I put into the macOS version. I use templates and AI and scripts all over the place in DEVONthink Pro. I would be worse off without them.

It’s not all bad, of course. I really love my new iPad. Here’s why.

Taking meeting notes and annotating PDFs with the Apple Pencil is fantastic. Once I learned to use Notability and LiquidText on the iPad, I’d never want to go back to doing those things on my Mac.

Photo retouching is more fun on a touch screen. I know I said that I rely on Capture One for processing photos, but for actually retouching them, the Pencil and fingers make great tools. I’m looking forward to doing more of it, but until there’s a way that I can reasonably manage photos on the iPad, retouching them there will be more work than it should be.

I’m doing a little drawing with Procreate. I have a soft spot for real sketchbooks and pencils, but the ability to freely experiment digitally is pretty great, especially since I’m not very good at drawing.

The iPad is great when I just want to go somewhere and write something. Calling the iPad “distraction-free” isn’t accurate. I’m always just a gesture away from many of the same distractions available on the Mac, but it’s just a little harder to get to them. On my Mac’s 27-inch screen I can often see three or four app windows at the same time². One of them is bound to hold something I can use to keep me from doing whatever it is I’m supposed to be doing. The barriers to multi-tasking on the iPad make for a “distraction-reduced” environment. And a darn fine environment at that.

All this to say that for me to do the things I want to do on a computer, the way that I want to do them, I still prefer using a Mac. The number of things I prefer doing on the iPad continues to increase, and some day it may reach a tipping point. Today, though, I’ll continue using both devices for the things each is best at. There’s no reason to push so hard at switching. It doesn’t have to be one or the other. I’m not sure why I find it hard to remember that.

December 2, 2018 ipad ios apple workflow Reply by email

Douglas Martin, The New York Times:

“The rotary dial is a step backward technologically, but it prevents a drug dealer from paging a customer or runner,” said Steven Marcus, a Nynex spokesman, who said the change was made as “an absolute last resort,” since the phones cannot take advantage of many new services, like voice mail, that rely on push-button phones.

I have to admit, I love stories like this.

November 26, 2018 analog Reply by email

There are tricks we use to convince ourselves to buy the newest, most powerful devices. I myself have an entire quiver full of these tricks.

I’ve read a number of posts recently in which someone claims that buying the biggest, fastest iPad, iPhone, MacBook, etc. will “future proof” their purchase. I wish I’d have written them all down, but here’s one recent example from Federico Viticci at MacStories:

My First 48 Hours with the New 12.9″ iPad Pro

The way I see it, this year’s 1 TB iPad Pro is the iMac Pro of iPads — the very best that is going to serve me well for years to come.

That sounds like a good plan, and one I often use. But, and I could be wrong, I have serious doubts that he’ll still be using that particular iPad for “years to come”.

We should just admit that we like having the best option currently available, and will buy the latest, greatest model every year or so whether we need one or not.

November 25, 2018 hardware Reply by email

I tend to try each new generation of Kindle from Amazon and that remained true with the newest model, the 7” Oasis.

I don’t love the Oasis. Its metallic finish feels cold in hand. And sharp, somehow. I do like the larger 7” screen. It has hardware buttons for turning pages, which is a requirement for me.

I don’t have strongly negative feelings about buying from Amazon other than they’ve gotten a little big for their britches.

Lately, I have been buying “real” books from local independent bookstores and that feels good, so I started looking at non-Amazon eReader options. The only viable choice looked to be the Kobo series, so I bought a Forma.

Kobo Forma

I’ve been using the Forma for about a week and here’s a quick list of my first impressions, comparing it to the Kindle Oasis.

Pros

• I like the large, 8” screen
• It’s quite comfortable to hold
• Landscape mode is interesting, but I’ve only used it a short time
• It makes me feel good buying books from someone (anyone) other than Amazon
• Library support (via Overdrive, but of course my library doesn’t use Overdrive, so I can’t test this)
• I didn’t have to pay to remove ads (at least directly)

Cons

• It feels a little cheap (Could be the price I pay for non-metallic finish?)
• It’s quite expensive, which is emphasized by its cheap-ish feel
• The hardware buttons are “mushy”. The power button is especially finicky to use
• Hardware buttons are too far apart. I have to reach to hit the top one.
• No Goodreads integration
• Discovery in the Kobo bookstore isn’t nearly as easy as on Amazon

I’ve read two books so far, and my overall impression is positive, but I’m not sure if I’ll stick with it or pass it on and return to the Oasis.

November 24, 2018 hardware kindle Reply by email

She cracked a smile, the first I had seen from her since I joined the line. And she happily found me a seat on the next flight.

She was being rude. Yes. But that wasn’t the best version of her.

Farnam Street

November 19, 2018 Reply by email

I keep project information in DEVONthink, organized like so…

Clients
|->ClientA
|->ClientB
   |->Project One
   |->Project Two
      |->Tasks.taskpaper
      |->README.md

Lately I’ve been adding Labels to indicate status (“In Progress”, “Inactive”) and collecting them into one folder using DEVONthink’s “Smart Groups”. One problem with this is that a project folder named “Website Redesign” doesn’t tell me who the client is when viewed out of context, so I started naming project folders things like “ClientB: Project Two”. Also, the “Tasks.taskpaper” document, opened in TaskPaper, doesn’t show the client name either, so I rename the file to something like “Project Two Tasks.taskpaper”

Of course all that extra typing is exhausting! :)

Long story short, I thought I’d try automating the process a bit.

DEVONthink has a pretty fancy templating system, so I modified the existing “Project” template based on this tip from Jim Neumann. The template contents look like this:

Screenshot of template layout

Now, when I want to create a new project, I select the client folder, choose “Data->New from template->Client Project”. I’m prompted for a project name, and the project hierarchy is created for me. The project folder and Taskpaper document are automatically named the way I want them, e.g. “ClientB: Project Three”

I didn’t do this just because I’m lazy (which I am), but it also helps enforce consistency, which I struggle with.

November 18, 2018 devonthink app workflow Reply by email

I would like to edit photos on my iPad more often. I’d be interested in using Lightroom CC on iOS and macOS to do it, but I switched from Lightroom Classic CC to Capture One Pro a while ago on the desktop and am very happy with C1. Even if I were still using Lightroom Classic CC, I’m not sure I’d be ready to switch.

Lightroom CC continues to improve, though. I’ve been keeping a list of pros and cons and will be watching for a tipping point that would make it feasible for me to switch.

Ligthroom CC Pros

• Pleasant to use
• Syncs everything automatically
• Looks and works (mostly) the same on all platforms
• People/Faces (Sensei)
• Easy web gallery sharing (to Adobe’s site)
• This is where Adobe is headed

Lightroom CC Cons

• Scrolling performance is poor, even on a brand new 27” iMac with 32GB of RAM
• No “show in finder” even though it knows I’ve opted to keep local copies
• No watermark on export (text-only on mobile)
• Limited sharing and export options
• A lifetime dependency on an Adobe subscription.
• No color labels
• Cannot rename files
• Limited Exif display
• No Smart Collections
• No side-by-side comparison
• No virtual copies
• No third-party plugins
• Did I mention the lifetime commitment to paying Adobe’s subscriptions?

C’mon Adobe, make it easier for me.

November 17, 2018 photography adobe workflow Reply by email

I’m infatuated with TiddlyWiki again. I’ve tried it a few times over the years, but it’s never stuck. One reason was that TiddlyWiki is a single, self-contained html file, and Safari has trouble saving itself to the file system. In order to save the thing I had to basically do a “Save As…” each time. Too much friction there.

Another snag has been that it’s kind of weird. Not weird in a bad way, but weird in a ‘what do I do with this thing?’ way.

A week or so ago I decided to dive back in. The first thing I learned is that TiddlyWiki can be run as a Node app. This means that each “tiddler” is stored separately as a plain text file.

So something like:

npm install -g tiddlywiki
tiddlywiki mywiki --init server
tiddlywiki mywiki --server

Visited http://127.0.0.1:8080/ in a browser and I was off and running. That solved the Safari problem. It also makes it possible to edit the wiki using whatever my favorite text editor is this week, if I were so inclined.

Getting over the strangeness of TiddlyWiki has been a matter of jumping in and using it. I’ve been thinking of TiddlyWiki as a Zettelkasten¹, and each tiddler as a “zettel”. This has helped frame things in a way that makes sense to me. Each tiddler represents a single topic or thought or idea.

I’m not sure how far I’d take TiddlyWiki as a Zettelkastan, though. If I were thinking of building a long-term Zettelkastan, I’d probably use something like The Archive.

The other thing I’m learning is that TiddlyWiki is more powerful than a casual look would indicate. Macros, plugins, filters, etc. allow all sorts of custom behavior. I’ve only scratched the surface.

So for fun, I’m occasionally entering stuff in a local wiki, saving the file, and publishing the result at http://wiki.baty.net/. I do this with a small Makefile that looks something like this²…

PUBLIC_DIR=output/
SERVER_HOST=static.baty.net
SERVER_DIR=/home/jbaty/apps/wiki
TARGET=Static

deploy: commit push
    @echo "\033[0;32mDeploying updates to $(TARGET)...\033[0m"
    mv ~/Downloads/Jack\ Baty\'s\ Wiki.html ~/Downloads/tiddlywiki.html
    rsync -v -rz --checksum --delete --no-perms ~/Downloads/tiddlywiki.html $(SERVER_HOST):$(SERVER_DIR)


build: clean

    @echo "\033[0;32mBuilding site...\033[0m"
    tiddlywiki ./ --render "[!is[system]]" "[encodeuricomponent[]addprefix[output/]addsuffix[.html]]"

commit:
    git add -A
    git commit -m "Build wiki `date`"

push:
    git push origin master

clean:
    rm -rf $(PUBLIC_DIR)

.FORCE:

TiddlyWiki is fun to play with, but I don’t know yet whether I’ll ever use it consistently. So far it feels like I’m using it to write a blog, and the last thing I need is another blog. Still, it has potential.

November 12, 2018 wiki tiddlywiki Reply by email

Since setting up my Roon system, I’ve been re-ripping all my CDs to FLAC format. My Apple SuperDrive stopped reliably ejecting CDs so I ordered another one, which developed the same problem. Every 2nd or 3rd disk would fail to eject and I’d have to retry a few times.

Finally, Slaughter’s “Stick It To Ya” (don’t judge me) simply refused to come out. When trying to eject the CD, the drive would click a few times and re-mount as if it was hitting something on the way out. As a last-ditch attempt, I turned the drive upside down and asked gravity to help.

The upside down trick has worked every time since.

November 11, 2018 apple hardware tip Reply by email

Kicks Condor:

Beaker vs TiddlyWiki. ActivityPub against Webmentions. Plain HTML hates them all.

I’m reasonably technical, but I am often confused by all the different indieweb components. Seems it’s not just me. Kicks Condor tries to sort things out.

November 11, 2018 blogging indieweb Reply by email