Dan's Place

I always find that the day before term starts, I fire out of bed early.  Prep for the new term, working out what I am teaching, scouring schemes of learning (I should really know them…I wrote them, after all!) and collating to-do lists.

There is an indispensable tool for organising, based on the theory of GTD: Getting Things Done.  Now, I’ve never read the book on GTD, but there are many, many tools out there based on its tenets.

“Things” by Cultured Code, a Germany-based company is the one I opted for a good year ago and they have me hooked.  Organisation by tags, projects and areas means that once I have some thing to do in there, I rely on the synchronisation of the app on my Mac, iPhone and iPad to keep me up to date on what needs doing and when.

Now…there is no cloud syncing yet, which places The Omni Group’s “Omnifocus” ahead of it, but it is in beta testing and should be released soon.  WiFi syncing at the end of the day ensures that whilst it is a bit of a pain, my devices all stay in sync.

The Mac app is full-featured and a breeze to navigate around, but at £45 is a little pricey.  However, once you have got used to the iPhone app (at around £5) and then added in the iPad version (at around £13) it is a small price to pay.

The iPhone app is where the company shines.  My iPhone never leaves my side on work days and the comfortable feeling of knowing it will buzz at me when something crops up means my work world stays organised.

Well worth a look.

I am aware that I will only be blogging sporadically once I get into my thesis proper, so I have been taking advantage this week of some leisure reading, namely the Steve Jobs biography that was released on Tuesday.

I am not sure how I feel about it…here is a man that I have held up as an icon for so long and whilst aware that he had a temper and a fierce reputation, I had no idea just how far that went.

Steve was (on the basis of this biography) bizarre.  He was borderline crazy, in my opinion; ironic, considering his famous “Here’s to the crazy ones” advert.  He simply wasn’t a nice person.  Yet, he compelled those around him to achieve the best work they would have done so far in their lives.  

I will blog more once I have finished the book, I’m only about half way through at the moment.  The greatest revelation to me so far was to put to rest a grammatical bugbear that I hated about Apple; why the slogan was “Think Different”.  He hated the idea of the adverb describing the verb and preferred to think of it as a noun: as in “Think Beauty” or “Think Loneliness”.  

Some peace of mind on one point, at least.

Well, seeing as I have been off the blogging trail for so long and this is the first one I have come back to rather than starting over (I think this is my second or third blog), there have been quite a few tech updates in my life.

1.  Home Mac of choice.  Working at my iBook (2002-2005) and my Powerbook (2005-2010) took its toll on my back in a way that my original Blueberry iMac (2000-2002) never did.  About two years ago I completely revamped how I work at home.  I invested in a Mac Mini bargain from eBay that came with a monitor and full size keyboard (shunned in favour of the smaller and handier bluetooth wireless from Apple) and have a quaint corner desk to work from.  I spend a lot of time at it in Masters mode and for school work, but most other activity happens on the other Apple devices I own.

2.  iPhone 3GS: I spent a long time about a year ago (see earlier blog posts) choosing my next ‘phone, and after a poor experience with the LG Arena (worst ‘phone I have ever owned, and I’ve had a few) I had it narrowed down to the Blackberry Torch, the Sony Ericsson Xperia Mini, the iPhone 4 and the iPhone 3GS.  

I went with the iPhone 3GS for a few reasons: the 4 doesn’t “feel” like an Apple product.  It is a little harsh around the edges, something none of my other Apple purchases have been.  It felt like a harsh version of the original iPod, and I loved that product.  The hosted camera was the only reservation I had; the retina display had zero upgrade appeal considering the price, and I wouldn’t change for a 4 or a 4S even now.  I’ll wait for the 5, due once I will be out of contract in a year’s time.  If I have to wait longer, I will.

3.  iPad 2.  A friend that works at Apple HQ in Cupertino, San Francisco bought it as a family present but I see most use on it.  I’m still working out what kind of device I want it to be; so far it seems to be for work/Masters but there are some excellent downtime benefits to it, namely “The Times” app and Garageband.

Each Mac expo brings that rush regarding new products and intrepidation as to how much it will cost/will my hardware keep up.  Here’s the state of play for the tech geeks:

1.  Mac OS X Lion on my Mac Mini.  My tech specs stated that my mac mini could run it no problem.  Then it turned out that I had bought one with an upgraded Core 2 Duo processor that Lion didn’t support.  A little browsing, a FireWire installation from a Lion supported Mac and the addition of my Mac Mini’s serial number to the Platform Support.plist file before booting, and it is currently running the latest version of Lion like a charm.  No issues whatsoever.

2.  iPhone 3GS: Apple obviously learnt lessons about popular products, and despite it now being two generations back, it is fully supported for iOS 5 which is the best iOS yet.  Seeing as the new iOS seems to come out with each new iPhone, I won’t be behind by the time I’m out of contract.  

3.  iPad 2: I could never have justified spending the money on it with two kids, so I am over the moon to have one.  iOS 5 makes it a real work/play device and a joy to use.  iPad 3 rumoured for early next year, but I can’t see anything major happening in that incarnation.  It will be more like the iPad 2 “S” from what the tech blogs say.

So…despite being a father of two, all my tech is up to date!  Cashflow will be a problem in few years once the boys get yet more expensive (as if £1600 a month in childcare and school fees isn’t enough already) but I’ll deal with it when it happens.

One final word: with the sad passing of Steve Jobs, here’s a list of what he has persuaded me to part money with/convinced other people to generously donate to me.

Blueberry iMac

iBook

Powerbook

Mac Mini

Original iPod

iPod Classic

iPod Shuffle

iPod Touch

iPod Nano

Macbook

iPad 2

iPhone 3GS

3 Apple Mice

2 Apple Keyboards

Multiple Apple Cables

Software dating back to OS 9 from present day.

I don’t see it changing much in the future!

It’s a shame that the students that I teach don’t read up more on what their devices can do.  As long as they can access Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr etc. they are happy.  Why have a fancy ‘phone/computer is you don’t put it to use?  There are deals out there for perfectly good ‘phones/computers that don’t cost half the amount they get their parents to fork out that will serve their purpose just fine.  Their obsession with “Fruit Ninja” seems to fuel it.

This may seem hypocritical, but take note: I have a 10 year old iBook that I still get use out of.  The battery is dead, the processor shaky but an install of Linux Ubuntu for PPC and it can still do what they would need it to.

Kids, eh?

It has been a long time since i have posted a blog post (bad sentence formation…*slap*) and the last one I posted reveals a lot about what has gone on since I last posted.

I now have an iPhone, long after my raving about the iPod Touch…and Steve Jobs has passed away.  The “long live” seems so sad now.  

I am also a year into my Masters in Education study at the University of Cambridge and have passed both essays so far, just the thesis to go.  Just.  Hah.

It is comforting to be back on the blogging trail again.

Dan

Just testing that this still works and what I have it linked to. Blogging to follow later!