It was only a couple of weeks ago that I bailed on TextExpander and moved my text snippets to Alfred. It felt good to be rid of a monthly subscription and to run one fewer app on my machines.

But, and Dr. Drang nailed it, I miss having text expansion on my iPad. I’m writing this in Ulysses on the iPad and just wanted enter the date and time for the post. Instead of typing ,dt and getting 2017-08-07 08:05 PM, I had to type it all out like an animal. I don’t know of any reliable, integrated, and easy-to-use expansion utilities on iOS other than TextExpander, so, like Dr. Drang, I’m going back. I’ll just pay for a year up front so I’m not reminded that it’s a subscription for a while.

August 7, 2017 app workflow Reply by email

Ron Chester

There are no visible scores on Microblog. This is a very good thing. It means I can just concentrate on posting things others might find interesting and then being interested in things I might find posted by others. There’s no way to tell who’s popular, nor a way to game a system to look more popular. I hope that doesn’t change.

Social networks benefit greatly from encouraging users to “game the system” any way they can in order to bump their “score”. I’m in full agreement with Ron that hiding any sort of popularity metric is a great feature of Micro.blog. I hope Manton and Co. can resist the urge to change it.

August 7, 2017 Blogging Social Reply by email

I spent the morning trying to make it easier to get things done using my iPad. It went pretty well. I now have a workable Vim setup using Blink Shell. I have Bear all synced and organized. Tasks are back in OmniFocus. And so on.

In a stroke of ironic misfortune, the hard drive in my iMac died shortly after doing all of the above. This left me with the better part of a Sunday having no desktop machine, so I went for a walk. I played with the dog. I even rearranged my records.

It’s good to be offline, for a while, but I had my heart set on catching up on email, RSS feeds, GTD stuff, and just generally tinkering on the internet. So that’s what I’ve been doing, on the 10.5” iPad Pro with keyboard.

You know what? It’s not terrible. I think maybe if I learned to approach things differently, and added a dash of Workflow, this could become an acceptable way to get things done.

August 6, 2017 ios workflow Reply by email

In “Why you should quit reading paper books”, Andy Sparks writes:

When you read on Kindle and highlight passages that you find beautiful, interesting, or challenging, you’re sending your future self a hell of a gift

That’s true, but here’s my version:

When you read a paper book and write in the margins or highlight passages that you find beautiful, interesting, or challenging, you’re sending your future self and generations to come a hell of a gift.

My version is better.

I’m 100% certain that the electronic versions of Kindle highlights, no matter how many backups or exports exist, will disappear with my death, or shortly thereafter. Browsing a loved one’s old books and reading the margin notes and seeing the highlights is a wonderful experience, and will remain so for decades to come.

I’ve found that the ability to electronically search highlights is over-rated and seldom used. I peruse dog-eared pages and passages from my real books (I call them “real” books because that’s what they are) whenever I need inspiration or to refresh my memory of a book.

If I think I’ll want to recall some specific fact or quote later, I write it manually on an index card, my commonplace book, and/or type it into DEVONthink. The act of rewriting important passages has the added benefit of helping it stick in my memory.

For me, the benefits of paper books far outweigh any minor inconveniences. There’s a reason ebooks are losing.

August 5, 2017 reading analog books kindle Reply by email

I spend what many would call a ridiculous amount of time tinkering with my “systems”. I enjoy it, but I also like to think it helps me work smarter and faster than those unfortunate saps who just toss a bunch of files into a folder and keep a single TextEdit document open. Or worse, people who manage their lives by setting and un-setting flags and unread statuses in their gmail or whatever. ::shudder::. I goggle at the insanity of living inside an email client. I know better than that!

But, I’ve noticed something lately while standing behind these workflow?-what-workflow? types. I’m astonished at how quickly and efficiently they do things. Their “system” (it shouldn’t even be called that) is a mess, and yet they find everything easily and quickly.

This is very upsetting. After years of trial and error all I seem to be able to find quickly is error. “Now, where did I put that thing?” “Hang on, Emacs won’t start for some reason.” “This app is usually so fast, I’m not sure what’s going on today.” And so on.

Considering all of the time and effort I’ve put into this, I have to question the whole concept of having a “productivity system.”

It’s making me think, and I don’t like where it’s going.

August 5, 2017 productivity Reply by email

I love trying new things, but I’m not sure why bother. I’ve had most things figured out for years.

Here’s a quick, incomplete list of software and hardware that have continued to work for me, doing what they were designed to do, without much fuss or trouble, for a very long time. In no particular order.

Software

Apps and formats that have been around a long time and have burned themselves into my life. These are the things I always come back to.

• BBEdit
• Tinderbox
• DEVONthink
• Text files (a la Markdown)
• nvAlt
• Photo Mechanic
• OmniFocus
• Vim
• Dropbox
• Files and folders, organized neatly, viewed in Finder (or Pathfinder)
• Transmit

Hardware

I look for newer, better, faster all the time. Sometimes I find it, but mostly I just keep using these…

• Leica M6 w/50mm Summicron and Tri-X
• Domke satchel
• DVDs (or now, Blu-ray)
• Manual typewriters (Olympia SM3, mostly)
• iPhone
• Pen and paper
• Watch (automatic)

August 5, 2017 software Reply by email

July 30, 2017 Reply by email

July 30, 2017 Reply by email

This is just a test post from emacs via Blot.

Update: This update is being written using NeoVim hahahaha (sorry).

July 20, 2017 blogging emacs Reply by email

I didn’t realize that Blot had been open sourced. The README mentions the possibility of self-hosting. That pretty much removes the fear of the service going away and leaving this content stranded. I could just stand up an instance and move everything there instead. Hmmm.

July 20, 2017 blogging blot Reply by email