Gabe, Potatowire, and Erik talk about Coffee DRM, Breathalizers, Python, Ruby, Pythonista, Editorial, thumb typing, iOS and Android app cultures, styluses, and spider bites.

Truth in Advertising

• Fussy coffee. Exemplar
• The move from crack to fine coffee roasting
• The inevitable slide towards coffee mediocrity
  • Tonx
  • Blue Bottle
  • K-cups
• Coffee with DRM
• HP Ink coffee synergy
• Did someone ask for an avenging angel to be added to Boards of Directors?
• Board of Average People

Drunk Modes

• Temper tantrums overhead
• Shell inception
• sudo
• Dagerous commands
• Gmail Goggles
• Breathalyzers
• Legally drunk
• PSA (with bonus callback)
• Hazel needs a drunk mode

Python Guy

• College nicknames
• Pythonista
• Reasons to use Python
  • Good science support
  • Whitespace matters
  • AppleScript is a dumb language
• Node.js and learning through problem solving
• Ruby
  • _why or why the lucky stiff (not unknown anymore)
  • Nothing really disappears from the internet
  • why’s (poignant) Guide to Ruby
  • “Some jerk researched him”; Lots more
  • Sad hipster
  • Related, anonymous people on the internet are weird

Seriously, Back to Python

• Resizing and cropping images for fun and profit
• Macdrifter Editorial workflow for images
• Workflow distorts images
• The fiddler
• Breaking iOS within the Rules
• Ruin your life with Pythonista
• Doxing oneself
• Peak scripting
• “Exhaustive” app research instead of scripting
• Kids ruin Daddy’s concentration
• Actually creating script on iOS
• “It’s all Ole”, i.e. genius
• Tasker as Android’s uglier utilty tool
• Scripting: The Nerd’s Song
• Inability to read documentation indicates a lack of seriousness
• “Big-boned phone”

Forcing Apple Evolution

• Constraints foster creativity
• Android’s freedom and iOS’s artisanal app market
• CyanogenMod
• Android text editors are nothing special, however, ssh plus Vim is wonderous
• iOS-only as clickbait
• Quitting the internet as clickbait
• The misjudged Federico article
• Peak iPad
• Thumb-typing

Rumors!

• 12” MacBook Air
• We want a small device with a built-in keyboard
• 13” MBPr vs. MBA
• Airline seats are getting smaller](http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-narrower-airline-seats-20150206-story.html)
• “And Leon is getting larger”
• iPad apps that should be on OS X
  • Editorial
  • Pinswift
  • Mr. Reader
  • Drafts
• Rosetta
• Android apps on Chrome OS
  • Some officially
  • The rest unofficially
• Webapps are fine (or awesome)
  • Fastmail
  • Feedbin
  • Trello
  • Slack
  • Pocket Casts

Styluses…Stylii?…Digital-Marker-thingies

• FiftyThree
• Wacom
• Bob’s Surface Pro 3 replacement
• Finger-painting
• The software is better even if the hardware isn’t

Spider bites and Farewells

• Blizzards in Boston
• Tauntaun survival
• Trains in the snow
• One-handed keyboards

Gabe and Potatowire brave the Storm of the Century to talk storms, taxes, Amazon Prime, movies, and Lego.

The Taxman Cometh

• Accountants
• Scary Letters
• Leaving money on the table
• The Man
• 1040EZs
• TurboTax
• Flat Tax

Navel gazing

• Asynchronous podcasting
• Recording under a bowling alley
• Sound booths and moving blanket igloos
• Podcast business models

Amazon Prime

• Delivering to USPS Shipping deals
• Uber for packages
• Add-on items
• Sharpies and beer
• Digital services
• Netflix

Movies and Kids Shows

• Thee-act structure
• Personal time management
• Other rental options
• Lucy
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Wrong opinions
• Avatar
• Tumble Leaf
• Wolf Children

Lego

• Legoing above one’s age
  • Step one
  • Step two
  • Step three
• LEGOLAND Discovery Center
• Lego Friends
• What if your daughter likes pink, purple, fairies, and princesses?
• “Expectations” on Invisibilia
• Turns out

Gabe, Erik, and Potatowire discuss file storage and time travel literature. Along the way, they touch on Erik's broken DAS, Crashplan restore speeds, Gabe's new Synology, WD Blacks vs. Reds, SMART Failures, two-factor authentication, building your own NAS from first principles, thumb drives, digital hoarding, bullet-time, hyperlapse, and the utopian optimism of Paul Verhoven's RoboCop.

Gabe, Erik, and Potatowire talk about bringing their mobile email workflow into the 21st century. Along the way, they discuss circumventing ancient work browsers with portable Firefox and Chrome, collaborative TaskPaper workflows, Erik's Sunrise, Evernote, Todoist, and CloudMagic combination, using enterprise Exchange servers with your iPhone, mobile email search, sorting email vs searching through the big bucket, FastMail on Mail.app, filtering email notifications, and how old everyone is now.

Gabe and Potatowire talk about home and personal improvement projects. Along the way, they touch on their basement offices, the dangers of electricity, plumbing, working with contractors, virtual assistants, outsourcing your life, oversubscribing to learning sites, and deciding to do something yourself.

Bob, Erik, and Potatowire are joined by special guest Gabe Weatherhead to talk about Dr. Bunsen's oddments.txt post, the stress of the holiday season, vacation projects, Bob's purchases, sales, and returns of the week, Authy, USPS deliveries, Uber Trains, and other compelling topics.

Bob, Erik, and Potatowire talk about their compulsive buying and collecting habits. What causes those collecting tendencies, how do they deal with it, and what makes the difference between what they keep and what goes?

It's the day after Thanksgiving, and Bob, Potatowire and Erik get together to chat about some of their newest devices. Erik laments that his WeMo stack is stuck at Bob's house, Potatowire ponders building a fleet of solar-powered Arduino-based WeMo replacements, then Bob explains why he's buying an NVIDIA Shield instead of the Nexus 9, discusses what it's like to use a keyboard and mouse with his 13-inch Wacom Cintiq, and talks about his new Note 4 doesn't disappoint him. Potatowire moves on to explain why he finally ordered a Nexus 6, before the guys discuss the pros and cons of the Toshiba Chromebook 2 vs. the Acer C720, chroagh vs. crouton, i3 vs. other window managers. Finally, Erik talks about trying out Nozbe, Mailbox, Cloud Magic, Acompli, and concurrent inbox management solutions.

Potatowire brings Erik along for a surprisingly coherent analysis of his personal tech setup. They discuss laptops, file servers and mobile devices. Along the way they touch on file syncing services, tech boredom driving purchases, Erik's work toolchain, Creative Cloud, Chromebooks, MailSteward, Linux, Solaris, FreeNAS, FreeBSD, BitTorrent Sync, Raspberry Pi Remote Backup Servers, Nexus 6 vs. Nexus 5 with a broken screen, Alarm Clock Pro, AMOLED vs. LED, unrealistic expectations, and whether you should pay attention to product reviews.

Gabe triumphantly returns to Dawn Patrol as he, Potatowire, Bob, and Erik explore their favorite naming schemes. From there they ponder the viability of the .plumber domain, Bob's late-'70s throwback pop-soul band, getting stuck in traffic at the checkout lane, Bitcoin, an economics discussion that is wrong on so many levels we won't go into it here, all the great shows on Relay FM, idea guys, what people tune in for, Bob coming out of the closet, listening to books, Bob's new mic, Potatowire's Raspberry Pi project, and Potato Sack, the Eventual Potato Syncing System, currently in Potato-beta 5.

Potatowire, Bob, and Erik think out loud about note-taking. Along the way, they touch on Gabe's new app TapCellar, Bob's decision to sell his iPhone 6 Plus, minimizing platform-dependent apps, plain-text workflows on mobile, Dropbox, Drafts, Editorial, things we want to use vs. the things we actually use, Evernote, Byword, Potatowire-Flavored Markdown, Google Drive, hierarchies, Calca, Trello, fancy notebooks with fancy things in them, and breaking free of tool fetishism.

With Gabe and Potatowire out, Bob and Erik trudge on by themselves. They talk about decaffeinating, fitness trackers, RSI, ergonomic mice and keyboards, learning to type, alternate input methods, VR, helmet mounted sights, modular smartphones, smartwatch battery life, devices that improve over time, discarding (not-so-old) devices, and what Erik's doing with his first-gen iPhone.

Dr. Drang returns to explore his background in computing from the late 1970s to today. Along the way we discover what happens when you mess up a punchcard, what Linux was like in the early days, why he uses a Mac today, and his perspectives on the near future of computing.

Our Favorite Internet Snowman

Dr. Drang is the pseudonymous and occasionally cranky genius-snowman-engineer behind And Now It’s All This. You can also find him on Twitter: @drdrang. We asked him to join us to discuss his personal computing history and share his thoughts on the future of Apple’s desktop and mobile platforms.

Dr. Drang didn’t begin using a computer until he went to college in the early 1980s. The lone computer at his high school was tied up by a data processing class, which was focused on teaching data entry via punchcards in a vocational setting.

The computing world was at the dawn of a revolution. While the Apple II had been for sale for a short while at this point, the Commodore 64 wouldn’t be released until 1982. Popularization of home computing had just begun, and the Xerox Star offered one of the first commercially available graphical user interfaces for a cool $75,000 ($195,000 in today’s dollars).

It was in this environment that Dr. Drang began his computing journey.

Punch Cards and FORTRAN

Dr. Drang’s first exposure to computers was learning FORTRAN in an Introduction to Programming course his Freshman Year of collge. He believes he was one of the last people to learn computing via punch cards and Keypunch Machines. Wikipedia has a thorough write up of the IBM style punched cards.

Punch cards were quite unforgiving, and if you made a mistake on the keypunch machine you had to go back and re-punch the whole card from the beginning. The top section of the card would print what you were punching in ink, and below that the rectangular holes punched into the card would allow it to be read when pulled into the computer. Often the ink would run out and you couldn’t tell what you’d punched. For some advanced students that didn’t matter because they could read the holes.

A Punchcard Before

A Fortran Punched Card After

One card was used per line of FORTRAN code, and they’d stack up in a bin. Then the cards would be taken to a special window where they’d be taken and run. Later (an hour or more later) you’d get the output back in stacks of folded printer paper.

“You’d take them to the High Priests of the Mainframe Computer”

If you discovered that there was a bug in your program, you had to go find it and repeat the process. As you’d probably guess, this process took a significant amount of time.

“So you’d only get about eight mistakes a day?”

Drang thinks that this process has possibly caused him to be more deliberate than he would if he learned computing in an interactive, terminal-based environment. He tends to write more before he tests.

Since time on the Keypunch Machine was almost as limited as time on the mainframe, students purchased special pads of paper to write programs out by hand first. Dr. Drang used them for a while before realizing that they weren’t much more helpful than normal paper.

Make Mistakes Faster

Rich Siegel (of BBEdit fame) used to work for a company called Think Technologies, which made Lightspeed Pascal and LightspeedC for early Macs. They ran an ad with a tagline “Make mistakes faster”, because it was one of the first interactive IDEs that gave you feedback when it experienced a bug.

There’s a nice interview with Rich on episode 36 of Debug in which he talks about his days with Think.

Thanks to Doreen Howell, who served as Marketing Communications Manager during Think Technologies’ merger with Symantec, Rich was able to find the original ad for us.

Enter the Terminal

Programming languages at the time were much less helpful and fluid than today. They had to be “closer to the metal” due to the limitations of the machines involved. Statements were closer in syntax to how a computer “thinks” about problems than how people think about them.

When Dr. Drang began working in a terminal in his second programming course later in his undergraduate years (1980-1981). The terminals available to students were “dumb” timesharing terminals that were either hardwired or modem-connected to the mainframe, and they were scattered around campus. He even had one in his dorm building. These terminals did have screens, but he could only edit one line of code at a time using ICE (Illinois Central Editor).

Line editors (like the better known ed) are the ancestors of more modern visual editors like vi. You could view up to 24 lines at a time and move back and forth in the program from the terminal, but you couldn’t easily edit multiple lines of code at once.

The DEC LA36 DECwriter II Terminal

DEC made some printer terminals at the time that used fan-fold paper instead of a screen. While wasteful, it at least allowed you to see all your code at once. They were also helpful for turning in programming assignments.

Programs and Languages

Dr. Drang was an engineering student rather than a computer science major, which influenced the kind of programming he was doing and languages he was using at the time. He started with elementary FORTRAN, learning loops and other basic programming tasks. CS students learned other languages that are dead now, but FORTRAN has remained in use.

At the time he took programming courses simply because he had to, but in his senior year he had a technical elective class available and decided to take a course in Pascal. That was the course where he feels he first learned programming, partially because his professor was young, energetic and interested in teaching the craft of structurecd programming.

The capstone project of the class was to write their own line editor, then use it to edit its own source code. This is called “dogfooding” which is an expression that has risen to popular culture out of nerd culture at Microsoft. It generally means using your own creation for real work and not just as a QA target. The expression represents something that is fairly commonplace now in software development. Dogfooding can often reveal bugs and awkward interactions models that scripted testing may not.

The Computer as Tool and Toy

The first time Dr. Drang remembers using a computer as a tool rather than an end in itself was during graduate school. He was assisting his professor in teaching a masters-level class, and wrote a program to do reliability calculations to help create assignments for the students.

“If you really want to know a topic… sign up to teach the class”

What this experience helped him realize is that he had to first teach the computer to do the problem, and discover all the corner cases the problem could encounter. This is the best way to really understand how a process works. It makes you get past all the hand-waving and get to the core of the process and all its exceptions.

“The key with programming is that you have an absolutely unforgiving student”

Dr. Drang’s first personal computer was a Commodore 64 he bought in graduate school, but his first Mac was a 512K in spring of 1985.

Drang’s First Mac

He wrote his PhD thesis and many of the supporting programs for it on the 512K using Mac Pascal. It was the machine that started him down the road of playing with computers for fun and work.

My First Computer

My first computer was a calculator. It was a Texas Instruments TI-74 pocket computer. It was hard to call it a computer even then. But it was programmable using BASIC and it was the first time I could write down logic and have it repeatedly executed with different input. It was a computer.

Programming that little piece of plastic was not fun. It displayed one line at a time and forget any reasonable stack trace. But it made me think and plan my programs carefully because for that exact reason. Dumb mistakes were even less fun than now.

Fun with UNIX

In 1996 Dr. Drang was getting tired of the Mac OS and its multitasking limitations. It used cooperative multitasking which was nearly the same as no multitasking at all. Programs had to grant time for multitasking explicitly in the code, which was inconvenient at best and unstable at worst. Crashes were common.

At the time Apple was looking for another company to purchase. It ended up being Steve Jobs’s NeXT with its NeXTSTEP operating system, but was rumored to be Be, founded by Jean-Louis Gassee’s and the maker of BeOS. Regardless, Drang took that as a sign that Apple was aware that they didn’t know how to write a good OS and wouldn’t for a few years. He started looking at alternatives.

He chose Linux, which was as informative an experience as his first class in Pascal. He enjoyed returning to the command line, as well as the UNIX philosophy where single purpose tools are strung together to do more powerful tasks. That philosophy has stuck with him to this day.

Red Hat Linux 4.2

In the late 1990s, Linux was young but tremendously stable. His first distribution was Red Hat 4.1 or 4.2. While it was stable, it wasn’t incredibly user friendly, and when he switched back to a Mac in late 2004 it was because he’d grown tired of being his own system administrator. At that point OS X had reached a point where he could keep his UNIX workflow while being freed of the “fiddly” parts of running Linux as a primary OS.

Nevertheless, the pain of managing his own Linux system taught him a great deal about how to work in the UNIX environment. Those skills have helped him through the present day, both personally and professionally. Most of his report generating workflows rely on the command line and they’ve been stable for more than a decade.

Back to the Mac

After returning to the Mac, Dr. Drang’s workflow has evolved a greater balance between command line and GUI programs. He started using BBEdit alongside his terminal, and could work with those programs to get his day-to-day work done. He used to make graphics directly in PostScript, but now uses OmniGraffle. Acorn is his go-to image editor for photographs if he needs something more capable than Preview.

• BBEdit
• Specifically crafted in response to the needs of Web authors and software developers, BBEdit provides an abundance of high-performance features for editing, searching, and manipulation of text.
• Price: $49.99
• Developer’s Page

• OmniGraffle
• Need a diagram, process chart, quick page-layout, website wireframe or graphic design? OmniGraffle can help you make eye-popping graphic documents quickly.
• Price: $99.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• Acorn
• Everyone needs to edit images at some point, but not everyone has the time to learn complicated super pricey image editing programs. This is why we created Acorn.
• Price: $29.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

All that being said, Dr. Drang still keeps the Terminal app alive so he can get one at a moment’s notice. He’s a Mac user not just because it’s a Mac, but because it’s UNIX plus.

“If the terminal is no longer available I have to leave”

The Near Future and Recent Past of the Mac and iOS

Gabe, Erik and Dr. Drang proceed to discuss the near future of the Mac and iOS platform in light of the history of Apple and the Mac platform.

Mea Culpa

It’s been a tough summer for the Technical Difficulties team, and while the show was recorded in early August it’s taken a little while few months to get it out the door. This discussion took place before the Fall 2014 Apple product announcements, so we hadn’t yet seen the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, not to mention the Apple Watch, iPad Air 2 and Retina iMac.

While I think the discussion is timeless and still highly relevant, we’d like to apologize to our listeners and (most especially) Dr. Drang for our laziness.

“I have no idea when you’re going to put this out”

“Neither do we”

They continue by discussing the difficulties Apple has experienced with network applications and syncing, and how that’s made it tough for developers historically to rely on their infrastructure. This put Mac-first developers of applications like Yojimbo in a tough spot, and allowed the rise of cross-platform competitors like Evernote.

What would you miss most?

Next Dr. Drang talks briefly about the applications, services, and toolkits he’d miss the most if he did have to leave the Mac (something he himself admits is extremely unlikely). Highest on the list are BBEdit and AppleScript (the functionality, not the language itself).

“If Apple isn’t supporting AppleScript itself, then why should you as a third-party-developer do it?”

On top of all that, the Mac still is the only platform that works right out of the box. It’s an extremely consistent platform that has no parallel in the Windows or Linux world.

Audio Engineer’s Note

If you have – or hear – any feedback, let me know on Twitter @takitapart, or email bob at vanderclay dot com.

Producer’s Note

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Gabe is nowhere to be found, but Bob, Erik and Potatowire charge ahead anyway. Together they discuss why there wasn't an episode last week, Bob's new fanny pack, the Toshiba Chromebook 2, Chrome OS, touchscreens, platforms, commuting, and Heretics.

With Bob out on his honeymoon and Erik calling in from the front seat of his car in a hotel parking lot, the guys look at the state of desktop and streaming audio services, and talk a bit about wireless service provider lock-in.

Along the way, they try to figure out if Elon Musk knows how many submarine cars he may (or may not) own, and discuss getting buzzed by a quadcopter in a kayak, podstalkers, TV dramas and their understanding of the inner workings of the Air Traffic Control system, Gabe’s wife stealing his iPhone 6 Plus, where to draw the line between a tablet and a phone, accidentally deleting your iTunes library, and most importantly whether Potatowire is a hipster.

It's Bob's wedding day, but he and Erik are still up for talking about phones and quadcopters at 5 AM from the lovely Double Eagle Lodge in June Lake, California.

The guys start with some follow-up on the iPhone 6 vs 6 Plus, then charge ahead into the challenges of iCloud Family Sharing, avoiding phone-killing updates, fun with quadcopters, and privacy. Along the way they discuss yeti hands, the dangers of cleverness, transcending iOS, and hybrid toast-cat perpetual motion generators.

Stuck in a hotel room in San Diego, Erik tries to find a working microphone and cell connection. Eventually he joins Dawn Patrol for their second episode, which largely focuses on Gabe's shiny new iPhone 6 Plus and its implications for the future of humanity.

While sorting out Erik’s Skype issues, the guys ponder the possibilities and challenges of microphone helmets, idea guys, the King Fire, the microphone show redux, Potato Hacks, what potatoes drive, and the frightening dangers of irresponsible anthropomorphization.

Then they get down to business, discussing Gabe’s first foray into mobile macrotelephony, Potatowire, Bob, and Erik’s experiences in the world of Android, whether many of the greatest iOS apps would ever have been developed on Android in the first place, and whether the new phones and iOS 8 are cool enough to make any of them want to switch back.

In this inaugural episode of Dawn Patrol, Gabe, Erik, Bob, and Potatowire gather early on a Saturday morning to catch up on a wide range of unrelated and uninteresting topics.

After helping Potatowire learn how to add friends to Skype, the guys discuss how much they want a Dr. Drang bobblehead, catching up on Roderick on the Line, Heretics, the mirror universe, the definition of “in the can”, the TD fall schedule, self-muting, peerage within the Potato Kingdom, the  Watch, the roots of fanboiism, and lock-in.

This week, we take a detailed look at why Gabe switched to and continues to use FastMail. We introduce the webapps, basic searching and filtering, and discuss some of the service's lesser-known but still compelling features.

Introducing FastMail

FastMail(affiliate link) is an online email provider that is a compelling alternative to Gmail and iCloud (seriously?) mail.

“That sounds like an accusation”

An Australian company offering a paid service with a strong feature set (even if they are based in a Five Eyes country) their strong suit is their highly responsive support model, which uses real human beings.

Types of Accounts

On their lowest plan, you can use one of several different preexisting domains, but you can pay more to use your own. At the time of writing, the pricing for FastMail personal accounts breaks down like this:

• $10/yr for 250MB of email
• $20/yr for 1GB
• $40/yr for 15GB
• $120/yr for 60GB

You can also purchase more storage space as needed.

FastMail Accounts

FastMail supports several levels of individual accounts. Most of the difference between the individual account types can be chalked up to storage space allocation. If you need tons of mail storage then you’ll need to pay for it.

The FastMail web app allows multiple accounts, with fast access to any account right on the landing page. There’s no real reason to logout before accessing a different account.

I’ve also used the business account from FastMail. It’s a nearly identical experience except for two differences:

1. There’s an option so email between employees on a business account stay on the FastMail servers.
2. As an administrator, you get control over granting, locking and archiving employee accounts.

I have not used the Family plan. It allows you to combine multiple personal accounts under one bill but you also get the option to share contacts and calendars as well as administer and monitor accounts for the kids.

For the security conscious (and who isn’t these days) you can set up Two Factor Authentication. FastMail has a very sane view of security, which is evident in its communications on the subject. They do everything possible on their end to maintain the security of your email but take care to point out that without using email encryption software such as Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) or [Secure/Multipurpose Internet mail Extensions S/MIME), webmail remains flawed from a security standpoint.

A good indication

In reality, webmail is as private as a postcard, and efforts to claim otherwise are disingenuous at best. As FastMail’s security page points out, Hushmail turned over unencrypted email to the U.S. Government when served with a court order, in accordance with their privacy policy. Take note of this, a privacy-oriented email service stores your unencrypted email. I much prefer FastMail’s take on security than one that can’t really deliver what it promises.

With their robust featureset, and a quick webapp, Gabe thinks FastMail actually can make email fun again.

“I actually really love email”

So Many Email Accounts

Let’s clear the skeletons out of the closet. Over the years I’ve used AOL, Hotmail, Yahoo, and Gmail for email. There have been many more through various university accounts. It’s almost all out of my reach now. But for the past 5+ years I’ve primarily used my own domains for email. That makes it mine more than any other service. I highly recommend owning your own domain and getting an email address on that domain. Your email address will always be yours and you can point it to a new email provider, usually with little effort.

The FastMail Web App

Gabe started off with FastMail by using regular email apps and connecting through IMAP. Eventually the FastMail Web App won him over, with its speed, design, and liberal use of keyboard shortcuts.

FastMail Web App on the Desktop

The FastMail Web App has some impressive keyboard shortcuts on the desktop. Here’s an incomplete list:

• j and k - move to next and previous message, as in Vim
• / - search, also as in Vim
• x - select current message
• d or # - delete message
• y - archive message
• m - move message
• ! - report as spam
• . - mark, then r for read, u for unread, p for pin, etc.

Keyboard Shortcuts or GTFO

Anyone that’s proficient with Gmail will tell you that the real power is all in the keyboard shortcuts. Gmail has a huge variety of shortcuts and many of them are derived from older email tools. But the most important shortcuts are the ones that get the email read and moved out of the inbox. FastMail has a rich set of shortcuts that either mimic or duplicate the Gmail shortcuts. Moving from Gmail to FastMail is pretty easy but there are some differences that will require some brain re-wiring, like y for archiving.

If you are a point-and-click kind of person, the FastMail web app also has you covered, with features like drag and drop for moving messages and dropdown menus for accessing all email operations.

The mobile web view is impressively capable, giving the impression that it’s a native app with some features you couldn’t find natively. Gabe uses 1Password to quickly get to different parts of the webapp, for example.

GUI too

Web vs. Native

The arguments about native vs. web app have torn families apart and divided nations. I lean more toward native apps if I can use it where and when I like. There are plenty of native mail apps that work very well and plenty of web apps for mail that stink. I was very skeptical of the FastMail web app until I tried it.

Wow. It’s just so good everywhere. The FastMail web app is responsive in the best way. It works right on a mobile device without having to zoom and pan. It’s also very fast. Importantly, the FastMail web app provides features not available in most native apps, like powerful search and keyboard shortcuts for things I care about. There are three advantages of the FastMail web app on mobile:

1. I can access it through a 1Password entry, making login to multiple accounts easy and very secure.
2. I can have separate accounts open in different tabs, thus avoiding mixing business with less painful business.
3. It supports gestures where they make sense. Slide right to left to delete, tap and drag to move, or slide left to right for archiving.

There’s a lot to like about the FastMail web apps and I appreciate someone giving mobile the attention it deserves. They’ve considered the difference between screen size on a phone vs. a tablet and provide access to additional menu controls by tapping the message on the phone. File drag-and-drop works with the web app on a desktop.

However, there are some things web apps aren’t good at. The biggest issue is offline use. After caching the inbox list, you can browse while offline. You can even create a draft message and save it to the local cache in Safari for iOS. When you reconnect, the draft will be uploaded to the server but often with variable results like duplicate drafts. Native apps also get special treatment when interacting with other native apps. For most of my use, these aren’t important detractors.

FastMail Web App on Mobile

Searching

One of FastMail’s more famous features is the powerful search syntax. It follows a familiar phrase-type of syntax. Searching in:verizon statement will search only in a folder named verizon for a substring that contains statement. There are a variety of phrases that allow very precise searching across dates, recipients, senders, even headers. You can find some more tips at Macdrifter.com

Search terms are combined using boolean operators. For example, searching for messages received within the last two weeks that are not in my __Bacon folder uses this simple phrase:

after:"2w" NOT in:__Bacon

Server-side searches can be saved as smart folders. The search is executed when the folder is accessed. In this way, it is easy to have quick access to all emails with attachments or messages received in the past week, regardless of where they’ve been filed.

Tip: Saved Search URLs

Create a search. Locate a message and right click (or tap and hold on iOS) and copy the URL. You’ll get a URL like this:

https://www.FastMail.fm/mail/search:after%3A%222w%22+NOT+in%3A__Bacon/55ccdd75d9cb2f764-e68088183u4885?u=5sf94300

The URL is a shortcut to that exact message within that search result set. Clicking the link later will reload the search and that specific message in the result set.

It’s hard to go back to a lesser client on iOS or even the Mac, which is one of the reasons I really enjoy FastMail. The web app is so good, I can use it on my phone and have access to all of the searching power I use on my desktop.

Spam, Ham, and Server-side Rules

You can’t really control what email you get, but you can control what happens after it is sent but before it reaches you. FastMail handles some of that itself spam filtering, and it provides a rich toolset for user personalization.

Spam

The spam filtering in FastMail is excellent. It’s tough to tell if it’s better than Gmail. I think Gmail accounts get much more spam in general than a custom domain. It’s probably pretty easy to send millions of messages to randomstring@gmail.com.

FastMail spam filtering uses SpamAssassin to score messages. Obvious spam is removed from the inbox. You can also mark messages as spam and FastMail will learn about what your spam looks like. The more you mark, the better it gets. You can also tweak how aggressive spam filtering will be.

There are also tricks for avoiding accidental spam filtering. Adding a domain such as *.macdrifter.com as an address book contact will prevent any messages from that TLD from being sequestered. You can also provide a secret word to people you like and their messages will always be assumed safe AND will bypass all mail filters.

Spam Protection Settings

“I didn’t know how many meat products were involved in technology”

So good

FastMail gives each user an individually trainable Bayesian database, but since they seem to think of everything, you can specify certain folders as spam/non-spam training folders in the event that you prefer to use native mail clients.

FastMail is also very tough on spammers that might try to use their service. They recommend that you get written consent from recipients to do things like newsletters before sending out a blast. If they get reports of spam on an account and the owner cannot prove that the email was requested, they will boot the user off of the service.

I Get No Spam

Mail rules are a must. Using rules inside of Apple’s Mail.app was a blessing for filtering out junk from friends as well as non-spam advertisements. But when my Mac was off, the rules were useless and this was only exacerbated by processing more of my email through my phone. FastMail’s server-side rules were a huge step forward in convenience but a small step back in complexity.

The FastMail rules are easily configured through a basic GUI and a lot can be accomplished this way. I manage all of my rules through the basic mail filters. But if you want control on par to Mail.app then you’ll need to master the Sieve language. If you do, you’ll be a wizard with your mail.

FastMail permits a pretty full set of rules making through its logically laid out Settings page.

Rules Settings

Choosing “Rules” from the left sidebar provides four basic categories of actions which can be taken when new mail arrives:

1. Discard - Deletes before delivering to the user
2. Forward - Forward to a different email address
3. Autoreply - Out-of-office type of notifications.
4. Organize - File, pin, or otherwise act on new mail

There are various options available here, but in general, it is the organization actions that provide the most flexibility. Behind the scenes, this GUI method of rule setting is really just creating a Sieve script. FastMail provides a good rundown on their rules system, but they also allow access to the script itself so that you can edit it manually

The first rule of email

A number of years ago, I decided that I needed my own email address. I liked the idea of having a completely personalized address, sure, but I also wanted to completely own the way that so many people communicate online.

The stories of being locked out of Gmail were still relatively rare, but I still wasn’t happy relying only on Google, even though I felt I deserved some nerd cred since I joined Gmail when account creation required an invitation. If I had my own email address, I could take it with me anywhere or even host it myself. Google Apps was the first provider I tried (I really stretched my comfort zone, huh), and it was great.

I did have a brief freak-out about Google a few years ago though, and decided to try to find a dedicated mail provider. I tried FastMail and the rest is boring history.

Once I made this switch, and my email began all coming to its new home, I was left with a messy inbox. This led to rules in Mail.app, which was okay, but come on, the system relied on Mail.app.

Some time later, I made a rule in the FastMail webapp while away from my Mac, and it was easy with some advanced options, but the last thing I wanted was to begin relying on some other proprietary system.

That’s when I noticed that the FastMail email rules were just implementing the Sieve language behind the scenes. This changed everything. If I ever decided to leave FastMail, I could easily bring my rules with me. FastMail being characteristically awesome, they made it easy to get the script out of the settings page (Settings → Rules → Advanced).

Un-nerding

This will also cause the old script to be sent to you (by email, naturally, as an attachment). Since it is just plain text, there are plenty of ways to back up or even move on to a new provider, in addition to being very easy to version control.

Having been thus convinced, I dug into the language and found out how flexible it is. I don’t do much that couldn’t be done using the web interface, but I will someday. In the meantime, here are some basics to get you started.

FastMail doesn’t currently support the entire Sieve Spec, but it includes the common extensions:

• Relational Tests - Tests whether a field is greater than, less than, or has some other relation to another field. For instance you could act on an email with a certain number of people on the “To:” line.
• Subaddress Extension - Breaks up the incoming address into :user and :detail using some sort divider, like a “+”. This enables the subdomain addressing which follows.
• Copying without Side Effects - Allows actions to take place without affecting the original message. One example of the utility here would be to backup certain messages by filing or forwarding.
• Regular Expression Extension - This permits conditions to be set based on regular expressions instead of exact matches, globbing, etc. You’re unlikely to make anything as automatic and comprehensive as paid service like Sanebox but you can accomplish some amazing things with well considered rules and actions.
• Body Extension - Checks for a string in the body of an email. It can be further refined to look for plain text strings, html strings, etc.

FastMail also offers a custom notification extension, which allows an SMS to be sent based on incoming messages. This requires the purchase of SMS credits for 12 cents each, and rules to utilize this extension can be created via the GUI or by Sieve script.

This just scratches the surface of FastMail’s Sieve implementation, but spend some time browsing through the extension documentation linked above, and you will see how powerful this language is. Gabe previously wrote up how he uses his server-side rules too, and it is easy to find some inspiration there.

At the time of this writing, you are cannot use the web interface to adjust your rules once you edit your Sieve script manually, but the beta server does provide a way to have your cake and eat it too, through the use of “blocks” that combine auto-generated Sieve with user-created additions. Soon enough, they will roll this out to all customers.

Shout out to Sanebox

As an alternative to all of this, Sanebox is good but I canceled my account. I do most everything with filters and smart mailboxes.

Stupid Address Tricks

FastMail has great spam filtering but sometimes spam comes from companies that we have legitimate associations with. In those cases no automatic spam filtering will be effective.

Targeted email addresses

This is why I give out unique addresses to everyone that requires it. FastMail adopts the long standing Gmail option of plus addressing. Append a plus and some other word to your primary email address. It’s a very subtle way to mask your main email address. For example, gabe+verizon@technicaldifficulties.us is still sent to gabe@technicaldifficulties.us but now I know Verizon is the source of the spam. But even better than that, I can easily trash all mail sent to that address with a server side mail rule and never be bothered by their garbage again.

The other advantage to the plus addressing is that it’s a convenient way to automatically file messages as they come in. For example, if I had a folder somewhere in my FastMail hierarchy named verizon then a message sent to gabe+verizon@technicaldifficulties.us would miss my inbox entirely and be gently placed in the verizon folder.

Not everything is great about plus addressing though. Some email systems may refuse the format. In those cases you should use subdomain addressing.

Subdomain addressing is very similar to a plus address. In our example, you’d use the address verizon@gabe.technicaldifficulties.us where the user name is included as part of the domain. As with plus addressing, these messages will also be filed if there’s a matching folder somewhere in your account.

If you want to be even more elegant, then you can set up a new MX record at your host to handle all email sent to any recipient at your TLD. Most hosts make this simple and FastMail has some easy to follow directions. This means people can send a message to any address at your domain, like our example verizon@technicaldifficulties.us. Of course, this is the way to go if you have your own domain.

No plusses

I essentially do the same thing, but because I have all mis-addressed email (i.e. not associated with an alias), I just change the whole email address. This means I can redirect my email with a more natural-sounding address, in case I ever have to say it or share it with my wife (i.e. netflix@potatowire.com) but I still use suckitspammers@potatowire.com if the situation calls for it.

I also use purpose-oriented addresses to direct email without having to tinker with my rules, such as orders@potatowire.com and newsletters@potowire.com. Nothing innovative here, but it took me way too long to think of nonetheless.

Other Features

The primary reason to use the address book function in FastMail is for address completion and automatic white listing of addresses. Gabe still prefers to keep his addresses in iCloud since there are many more custom contact properties. But for an address book, it’s more than sufficient with support for photos, multiple contacts and addresses as well as automatic Gravatar integration for incoming messages. If you have a business account, you can even administer a group address book separate from the individual users.

Within the past few months FastMail added a feature rich web calendar included with a paid account.

It’s very close to the Google calendar service in functionality. As with their email, their calendar web app is stunning on both the desktop and mobile. It also provides two-way syncing with Gmail or iCloud calendars. If you’re looking for an option to consolidate a bunch of calendars in one web application, it’s a good option.

FastMail Calendar Invitation

Finally, FastMail provides a file storage option for accessing and using attachments. At the most basic level, files are stored on the server and easily attached to any outgoing message. This can be taken one step further and files can be shared with a generic link. FastMail also provides basic photo album creation and sharing too. If you don’t want to run a server but you want great email support and the option to share an occasional file, it’s hard to beat FastMail.

A Few Missing Features

FastMail is incredibly capable, but here are a couple of things that the service doesn’t (yet) offer.

Tags

Gmail isn’t really IMAP, and that’s why tags work there. IMAP uses the traditional folder metaphor, and consequently, you are not likely to see tags anytime soon.

Archive or File but no Tags

FastMail has a built in Archive folder and easily accessed archive buttons (like slide to archive on mobile). If you’re an archiver, then it’s no problem to move to FastMail. I happen to be 99% filing and 1% archiving. I archive things when I want to delay thinking about them. I guess my Archive is more like a temporary staging area and my folders are where I put my archives.

FastMail does not supporting tagging. If you just use it as an IMAP server and use an app like MailTags, you’re fine. But if you rely on Gmail tags, FastMail is going to be rough for you. I really prefer nested folders to define an ontology for my mail. The keyboard shortcut to file a message in the web app m makes it pretty easy to figure out the right folder. Auto-complete in the pop-up for filing also improves the efficiency of herding the messages.

Tags are a mindset, really, and folder use can have it’s own draw.

Useful Folders

Like Gabe, I use and adore the FastMail webapp. Besides the keyboard shortcuts, my favorite feature might be the ability to have folders in your sidebar be hidden unless you have new email in them. This is done very easily after clicking the “Create or edit folders” link in the sidebar. From here just utilize the dropdown box to change how the folder is displayed. It ought to look something like this:

Auto-hiding Folders

The reason that I like this feature so much, is that through the use of the server-side rules I have in place, only certain email goes to my inbox, but I can tell at a glance if there is something I need to process in my subfolders. If I am caught up, my sidebar will be clear of everything but my inbox.

External Address Book Sync

You’ve got to either use theirs exclusively, or manage contacts manually via import and export.

Push Notifications

Real-time push type of notifications are on the FastMail roadmap, so if you need this feature, consider an intervention, and look elsewhere in the meantime.

Moving to FastMail

If FastMail’s compelling feature set has convinced you to give it a shot, moving from Gmail to FastMail is simple. The first thing to do is setup a Gmail forwarding service available in the Gmail settings. Every non-spam message sent to Gmail will automatically get forwarded to the FastMail account. We’ll cover how to send messages with alias from address later.

Gmail Forwarding

FastMail can automatically import all of your old email for you. In fact, they provide some simple to follow instructions for several common email providers. The first thing you’ll need to do is enable IMAP on your Gmail account.

Gmail IMAP Settings

Once that’s done, configure the import from the FastMail settings. All the messages will be imported over a period of minutes to hours, depending on the size of your Gmail archive. This runs unattended and you’ll receive a message upon completion.

FastMail Importer

Note that Google does not use folders. Tags are lost during the migration. I recommend importing Gmail messages into a new archive folder.

A “Personality” in FastMail is like a virtual “from” address. This allows a user to send email through an external mail server right from within the FastMail service. Combine a personality for sending messages with mail forwarding from a different email account and no one will be any the wiser that you manage all of your email from one FastMail account.

Here’s a simple example using my preferred web hosting provider Webfaction. Login to FastMail and go to the settings and then “Accounts”. Switch to the “Advanced” option. From here, you can create a new personality. Provide the “from” address you want to use for the personality. If you are using an external server, then you’ll need the SMTP connection details. For Webfaction it looks something like this:

Advanced Personality Connection

FastMail can now send mail as the external sender by choosing it from a drop down when composing new messages or replying. The recipient will not easily detect (if they care to check) that the original message was sent from FastMail.

If you want to fake it, you can avoid the SMTP connection stuff and just have FastMail assign a different sender address to the header. To anyone just using a dumb email client, it will likely look as if the message came from another account. However, digging just below the surface will reveal the FastMail address as the origin of the message.

If you’re all-in

If you are doing this for a domain that is already setup with FastMail, creating a new personality will be how you generate an originating email address that is different from your log in. You won’t have to worry about SMTP settings, since they will already be set. As I alluded to above, I use many addresses to only receive email, and if I do want to respond, I have to choose a different personality or stop and create it.

There are a couple different options for receiving messages from an external email through FastMail. The easiest option is to setup mail forwarding from the old email account. For iCloud, login to the iCloud web mail and open the preferences (gear icon in the lower left). Add your FastMail email address for the forwarding service. I prefer to keep all of the mail in iCloud and do nothing with it other than forward. I no longer use iCloud mail at all.

iCloud Mail Forwarding

Audio Engineer’s Note

If you have – or hear – any feedback, let me know on Twitter @takitapart, or email bob at vanderclay dot com.

Producer’s Note

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Gabe and Erik are joined by friend-of-the-show and new audio producer Bob VanderClay to discuss pens, paper, notebooks and why we can't seem to transition to an all-digital workflow no matter how many notebooks we throw in the wood chipper.

Why Paper?

“Hope I can do two things at once”

For Bob, it’s an issue of reliability and speed. Bob sketches out software architecture, and tends to keep his notes around even though he doesn’t refer to them much.

For Gabe it’s about the specific problem to be solved, and planning or meeting notes still lend themselves to paper. Gabe considers his notebooks as essentially garbage, to prevent thinking about them as too precious to use. After he’s done, Gabe dismantles his notebooks and scans them.

What Kind of Paper?

• Field Notes
• Our original 48-page memo book available in four varieties. Each book measures 3-1/2” wide by 5-1/2” tall and is bound with a rugged three-staple saddle-stitch process.
• MSRP: $9.95
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

“Do you take the shells of your dead moleskines, dry them out and hang them on the wall as trophies?”

Scanning Episode

We’ve done a scanning show before. If that interests you, then check it out

“Yeah, I throw them around the yard to ward off other notebooks”

Bob prefers plain loose-leaf paper (no lines). Gabe likes dots on the page. Erik likes grids.

• Moleskine Reporter Notebook
• The Moleskine Large Squared Reporter notebook has a cover that flips opens at the top, 24 detachable pages at the back for quick notes on the spot and can be used both horizontally and vertically.
• MSRP: $15.88
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Field Notes

Field Notes aren’t good because they are small or because they have modestly high quality paper. They’re good because I have a bunch of them and feel ok wasting pages. Having easy access to small notebooks changed the way I used paper notes. I previously coveted high end (and more expensive) hardbound notebooks and their preciousness made me conscious of how I used them. But Field Notes are available for about $3 per notebook on Amazon (I like the black dot grid but many other styles are available too). These aren’t the cheapest notebooks you can find, but you don’t want those. They’re a nice compromise between quality and quantity.

Beer Field Notes… Mmmm.

grid+lines

I use two types of paper (willingly). The first of these is Doane Paper, which I use for any day-to-day writing. I love this paper. It offers a great middle ground between paper with grid-lines and the usual lines of ruled paper.

grid+lines

Appropriately, “grid+lines” is Doane’s tagline. Depending on the product, the paper is either 70lb or 60lb recycled paper, that is a nice, bright white. It actually seems like it would be too bright, but I really like looking at it. It’s something intangible, I guess.

I always liked the idea off a pocket notebook, but in practice, they always annoy me (too small for my “big ideas,” with the inevitable anatomically-correct curve). For that reason, I use what Doane calls a Flap Jotter, which is the size of a common stenographer’s pad. I think these are portable enough for convenience, and I much prefer having the extra real estate. I like them enough to keep some spares on hand.

spares

The other type of paper I regularly use is Kokuyo Campus Loose Leaf Paper from the ever-dangerous JetPens. This paper is of the dotted-line variety, and I like it very much for any longer form (or more deliberate) note-taking and sketching, since I have it in the larger A4 size

Dotted Lines

I also have a few of the corresponding
“Slim Binders”, which are very nice.

• UI Stencils
• Balsamiq

Prototyping Electronically

Balsamiq is nice but the last time I checked it required Flash. UXPin and LucidChart make excellent products and both have some unique features that I think put them mostly ahead of Balsamiq.

Paper-Like Technologies

There are still some real concerns about feel and friction, even when using more expensive screen backed tablets like Bob’s Wacom Cintiq.

• Wacom Cintiq 13HD
• Enjoy the natural creative experience of working directly on screen. Pressure (2048 levels) and tilt sensitive Wacom Pro Pen performs like traditional brushes, pencils and markers. Premium, 13.3
• MSRP: $15.88
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

• Papyrus
• Papyrus is a natural handwriting note-taking app that you use just like paper, but with the flexibility and advantages of modern technology. With Papyrus, you can go beyond paper!
• Price: Free (IAP)
• Developer’s Page
• Play Store

• Paper
• Paper is where ideas begin. It’s the easiest and most beautiful way to create on iPad. Capture your ideas as sketches, diagrams, illustrations, notes or drawings and share them across the web.
• Price: Free (IAP)
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• ZoomNotes
• ZoomNotes is the most comprehensive visual note-taking app with unlimited zoom. Make handwritten notes and sketches on virtual paper, PDF files, images and MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents (via GoogleDrive).
• Price: $5.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

ZoomNotes for iOS

ZoomNotes has a lot of features. You’d be hard pressed to not find the feature you are looking for. The biggest problem is that the design is pretty awkward in places. But where it beats every other sketching app on iOS is the zoom sketching that allows you to draw detail by zooming in. There are also quite a few ways to get the content out. ZoomNotes is constantly updated (just about every week something new is added or improved) even though it’s been on the App Store for a couple of years.

• Livescribe seems like a great idea, but is less useful in actual practice.

Getting ideas out of Paper

Bob tends to use his notes as a temporary platform to get ideas out of his own head. After that, he occasionally scans his notes and puts them into a folder in Dropbox. For Bob, the paper is a short-term tool, which is probably why he sticks with the cheap loose-leaf kind.

Erik has a similar approach, but uses paper for even more temporary things like lists.

Gabe uses one of several iOS scanning apps to add his notes to Dropbox.

What kind of Pen?

“Let’s be honest, this whole thing is about buying really cool pens.”

Bob loves using fountain pens at home, but they’re more problematic on the go. For day-to-day use, he prefers Micron pens.

• Sakura 30062 6-Piece Pigma Micron Ink Pen Set, Black
• Fine point pens ideal for drawing and writing. Archival quality ink for use in acid-free environments. Includes 1 of each size: #005 (0.20mm), #01 (0.25mm), #02 (0.30mm), #03 (0.35mm), #05 (0.45mm), #08 (0.50mm).
• MSRP: $8.90
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Gabe appreciates a good cheap ballpoint, and loved fountain pens, but they were too messy for everyday use. His favorite is his space pen.

Erik prefers Uniball gel pens after years of being forced to use cheap government ballpoint pens for years at work.

Flying with Pens

Writing is something a pilot does almost constantly. It seems like there’s always something to jot down, whether it’s radio frequencies, headings, altitudes, transponder codes, or times. In the jet, we typically used kneeboards as our writing surface. A kneeboard is just a small clipboard strapped to your upper thigh. My favorite is a popular model by Hendricks called the 9G.

My 9G with standard Skilcraft pen and very-non-standard iPad mini

Many pilots tie a government ballpoint pen to the top clip with a string so it doesn’t fall off and get stuck in the controls (that would be bad… very bad).

• Skilcraft U.S. Government Retractable Ball Point Pen, Fine Point, Black Ink, Box of 12
• Designed to write anywhere regardless of climate or altitude. Ink does not skip or smear. Will write for one mile.
• MSRP: $14.05
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

There are a few problems with the standard Skilcraft pens, among them the fact that it easily twists apart into a bunch of pieces, it doesn’t have a loop for the aforementioned string, and it only writes in black – inconvenient for keeping track of who’s who in a complicated dogfight. These flaws have been almost completely overcome by the remarkable Bic 4-Color Pen.

• BIC 4-Color Ball Pen, Medium Point, 3 Pack, Assorted Ink
• Get 4 Colors In One Pen. Black, Blue, Red & Green Ink. Perfect For Recording Data.
• MSRP: $5.49
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

The 4-Color has a loop for a string, solid construction, and fighter-friendly multicolored ink: blue (good-guy #1), green (good-guy #2), red (bad-guy #1), and black (bad-guy #2). I never migrated to this highly upgraded piece of cockpit technology, but I know a lot of guys (especially weapons school graduates) who swore by it.

A US military flight suit has slots for two writing implements on its upper left sleeve. Most people kept their daily use (non-flying) pen and pencil there, and I was no exception. In 1997, when I finished ground school and received my first flight suit, my dad gave me a Cross Classic Century Pen and Pencil set in 24kt Gold and Matte Green.

Cross Classic Century in Green

I took that pen and pencil with me on every flight over 17 years – including two combat deployments – and I still carry them in my flight suit today. There are those that say that the best tools are the ones that get used the most. Of all the writing tools I’ve ever owned, these are the ones with the most mileage.

The Pilot G2 Gel Ink pen was a revolution in the late nineties. Hardly anything else felt like writing with gel ink but they were notorious for clogging and smudging.

• Pilot G2 Retractable Premium Gel Ink Roller Ball Pens, Fine Point, Black, Box of 12
• America’s #1 selling Gel Ink Pen - Writes 2X longer than other branded gel pens
• MSRP: $10.55
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

The Lamy Safari is a nice inexpensive fountain pen.

• Lamy Safari Fountain Pen - Charcoal - Fine
• Charcoal Black ABS coloured plastic body. Black coated steel nib; fine point. Includes one Lamy T10 Blue Cartridge.
• MSRP: $22.50
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

“So I’m the only one who doesn’t have a little folio of various pens?”

Field Notes Wallet

I wholeheartedly recommend the Field Notes wallet even if it is almost $90. It’s my everyday wallet and like anything good, changed some of my thinking for the better. I greatly reduced what I carried in my wallet because it has fewer pockets than a regular wallet. I also now have a notebook with me everywhere I go which means it’s pretty easy to scribble any idea at any time. It’s my spiritual successor to the DayRunner of days gone by.

Field Notes Wallet

Bob also likes the TWSBI Diamond Mini:

• TWSBI Diamond Mini Clear Fountain Pen F nib
• Piston filler type fountain pen.
• MSRP: $55.00
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

My Precious Pen Case

It’s a little ridiculous that I have put any effort into assembling this kit, given I work almost exclusively from home. I suppose now that it’s almost full, it might keep me from buying anything more. That’s what I’m telling myself.

The case itself is a Maxpedition E.D.C Pocket Organizer.

On the right side, I keep a small sketching kit. It comes in very handy when working through interface designs. I’m a huge fan of Copic Markers. I really like the brush tip on the Sketch version, which works well for both fine detail and large areas. No fountain pens on this side, the Micron’s pigment-based ink is essential to withstand coloring over with the alcohol-based markers.

I purchased the Copic stuff as part of a really cool set, the Copic Gray Ink Pro Kit.

Must stop buying ink

On the left, I keep the fountain pens. Five TWSBI Minis, and one Lamy Safari – all clear-bodied, essential to figure out what color I’m using. Lamy Safari’s come in so many colors, I considered getting one to match each ink color. I change inks fairly regularly, so I gave up on that idea almost immediately. Right now I’m using the following inks:

• Noodler’s Lexington Grey
• Noodler’s Red
• Noodler’s Blue-Black
• Noodler’s Golden Brown
• Noodler’s Navajo Turquoise
• Rohrer & Klingner Alt-Goldgrün

At the other end of the spectrum is the classic Mont Blanc Meisterstück fountain pen. It’s now the canonical look for a fancy fountain pen but it is truly a comfortable and well made writing implement.

The Mont Blanc Meisterstück

Yafa Pens

I’ve been a fan of Yafa Pens from the time I could afford to buy a fountain pen. I hung out in a stationery store and played with the fountain pens for over a year before I saved up enough money to buy my first good pen and I still chose a Yafa. It was heavy and silver and wrote like it was dispensing buttered oil. This was in the mid eighties, shortly after Yafa started. It was a new brand but I was inexperienced and just knew it felt great. I still have that pen.

Fisher Space Pen

The Ultimate Space Pen

The Fisher Space Pen is once again popular amongst the nerds. It’s gone through many periods of acceptance but it’s always been a great go-to pen for throwing in a glovebox or desk drawer. My new favorite variation is the Titanium Nitride with a black metal clip. This pairs perfectly with the Field Notes wallet.

The Rotring 600 mechanical pencil is a solid piece of construction. It’s weighted well and feels good for sketching. The 800 model brings the same attributes to a retractable pencil, which is nice if you want to carry it with you regularly.

“The bigger the better”

Audio Engineer’s Note

Nope, that title isn’t going to work. It sounds… professional. That’s just poor expectation management. Anyways, I’m thrilled to be helping out with the show – and the excuse to play with some new toys. If you have – or hear – any feedback, let me know on Twitter @takitapart, or email bob at vanderclay dot com.

Producer’s Note

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Potatowire finally leaves the crib, joining Gabe and Erik to discuss command-line text editing with vim. We learn how he started, why he uses a forty-year old text editor, and some cool things you can do when your hands never have to leave the keyboard.

This is weird

This is a strange episode for me. Usually I am the guy who comments from outside the conversation, and I am often the one who stitches the links and asides together with narrative. In this case Gabe and Erik asked me to come into the conversation as it happened, rather than afterwards.

This also meant that I had to listen to my own recorded voice, which I usually try to avoid. Anyway, what follows is a long discussion about Vim and the terminal. I am very strong proponent about Vim, but I try not to browbeat people about it, since I know that it works best for me, and not necessarily for everyone else. Though it should be. Damn it, that slipped out.

Also, if it seems like my attention occasionally wandered, my kids came home during the middle of the recording, and my daughter, in particular, thought she ought to have my undivided attention periodically. I am not a professional.

Introducing Potatowire

“I like my friends online where I can keep an eye on them.”

The story about how I became so fascinated by Vim and the command line is not terribly glamorous or interesting. I think Dr.Drang has a much better story, leaving aside some of the great material that exists from the formative years of these tools.

Like many kids, I liked video games before I liked computers, and in my case, the two first became connected by the Commodore 64, which was both computer and game platform. It wasn’t really great at either function, but I didn’t know that. I loved Jumpman and Popeye, and that even caused me to dig into the Programmer’s Reference Guide to try to write my own game.

Memories

I may have stunted my programming growth by starting too young though, because I didn’t go back to programming again until college.

It was also in college that I really realized that the command line lurked there underneath the surface of all that pretty GUI. I don’t remember what I was trying to do, but I was having some trouble accomplishing a task with the wonderful computer that I had been given, and the guy who lived across the hall from me asked me why I didn’t just do whatever it was in DOS instead of in Windows 3.11. I dug in a little, and the command line had me hooked.

Similarities

If a friend of mine hadn’t done exactly the same thing to me freshman year in college (and provided me with a lot of advice over the next few years) I’d be a much less capable computer user today.

Fast forward to 2004, and I had a little extra money that I excitedly plunked down to buy a PowerBook G4 1.5 17”. It was a revelation. As I poked around this new-to-me OS X I discovered the hidden settings made possible by defaults write. I was in love with the command line all over again.

The management regrets the error

I said that I bought my new Mac in 2007, but I meant 2004. Was there something else that happened in 2007?

My computer use took another leap forward in its evolution when I read a post on O’Reilly’s Radar, which has since been lost from both my mind and my bookmarks, about this editor called Vim that I really knew nothing about. This was interesting, but nothing really changed for me until I read Steve Losh’s post about Coming Home to Vim. I thought it was wonderful and compelling and I switched text editors on the spot.

Section Links

• MacVim
• Dr. Bunsen - The Text Triumvirate
  • zsh and Oh-My-Zsh
  • Vim
  • tmux

Learning about the tools

tmux - The Terminal Multiplexer

Tmux is a terminal multiplexer. That didn’t mean much to me when I was first told that either, but the idea is that you can have multiple terminal sessions in a single terminal window or emulator. You can organize these into panes by splitting the windows into sections, or into windows, which most of us would think of as tabs. Another main feature is that you can detach from a session, and anything you have in progress will continue on while you are away. When you later attach back to your session, everything is as you left it, even though you may have closed your terminal window, restarted your computer, or have decided to ssh-in using your phone.

Much of the discussion in the audio was devoted to Vim, and tmux alone is worthy of its own show, but if this has piqued your interest, there are countless resources available online, from basic crash courses to the more exhaustive. While I do wonder about the cost, the Pragpub tmux book is a very good way to go from zero to tmux-functional in a couple days. In case you’re wondering, I remained too cheap to buy it, but a friend gave it to me, and I can personally vouch for it as a good starting point.

Vim - Everything Improved

Now, those of you familiar with Vim know that it isn’t very easy to switch to without significant forethought. For starters, it is ugly right out of the box. Really ugly. Second of all, once you try to type something into the ugly window, say, hello world you will actually see this:

Windows version, so even uglier

This is because Vim opens into Normal mode. This is correct, right, sweetness and light, etc.; you just don’t know it yet. So, a text editor that won’t let you actually type text. Just bear with me. What happens when you start typing, hello world in normal mode is nothing until you get to l when it tries to move the cursor to the right, but it can’t because that is virtual space, since you haven’t yet “typed” anything. It’s not until you get to the o that anything other than a beep or visual bell happens, because when you type the o you are telling Vim to “open a line below this one and go into Insert Mode.” After this, you can type world with impunity. Insert mode is where you can type like usual.

At this point you may just want to quit Vim an move on. Wait, how in the Sam Hill do you quit Vim? For that you need to enter Command-line or Command mode by typing :. Then you’ve got to type q or q! to quit without saving.

Vim doesn’t seem to like beginners.

With this sort of first impression, why does anyone use Vim if they don’t have to? Well, in my mind the biggest reason is that Vim rewards hard work. It rewards hard work with efficiency and with value, and the main reason I say this is because of how the Vim vocabulary functions.

Vocabulary

Vim has its own vocabulary, and it applies everywhere, once you learn it. There are a lot of good resources about this language, but the basics are pretty easy to grasp. The general idea is that there are verbs, objects, and modifiers. To keep it simple (OK, simpler) we are going to talk about all of these in Normal mode.

The verbs fall into the general categories of movement and action. This is my distinction. The most familiar way to move around is with the arrow keys, or in better Vim fashion, using the h, j, k, and l keys.

hjkl

This isn’t very efficient though, and Vim lets you make bigger moves. A basic but useful subset of these bigger moves can be found in this table (each row has a command and its opposite):

I worked from big movements to small, and I left plenty of things out. Just like when learning a foreign language, you can function with limited vocabulary. You just won’t be very eloquent.

This small subset of the Vim “language” will allow you to move around, and once you have mastered these, you can expand your word list using one of the many great cheatsheets that exist, or you can use my method of putting a few new things you want to learn on a Post-it stuck to your monitor.

One other note on the table above, is that Vim distinguishes between words and WORDS. There is a pretty good description of what this means here, but stated simply, a “word” is literally a word, while a “WORD” is whatever surrounded by whitespace. I think WORD is the better choice for us right now, because it is usually what you want.

This is great, you can move around, but why is this any different from using keyboard shortcuts? The biggest way they’re better in my opinion is that these movements can be combined with the actions I mentioned earlier. Some examples of actions would be d to delete, y to yank (Vim for copy), c to change, and v to select. You can combine the actions with the movements, so for example, y$ yanks from the cursor to the end of the line, d} deletes from the cursor to the end of the paragraph, etc. One final note here, when you delete in Vim, you are in effect, cutting the text, because the contents are moved into the unnamed register. I wrote more about that in the clipboard episode of TD.

The last part of Vim vocabulary I’d like to highlight is the object. Now, the movements above would qualify as objects when combined with the actions in my examples, but some actions always require objects. Two good examples of this are t, meaning “till,” and f, meaning “find.” These both operate similarly, and both are probably best explained by an example.

Let the x in “hello world” represent the cursor position.

For hxllo world, tw yields helloxworld, and fw yields hello xorld. To elaborate a bit, the cursor moves forward until it finds the character that was the object, and it either stops right before the character or right on it. Because Vim seeks to be logical, F and T work the same way, only the cursor moves backwards. This relationship between uppercase and lowercase letter commands recurs often, and it is another example of how you can learn a Vim convention once and apply it everywhere

The last thing I will say about vocabulary is to point out that this only scratches the surface. I will leave the following as exercises for the reader: try typing any of the previous commands with a 2 in front, and try typing a . after any of them.

If you want to explore this language analogy a little more, try these links:

• Vim Text Objects: The Definitive Guide
• Vim as Language – This is part two of a series that Ben McCormick just started, but man, it looks like it will be a great help for those starting out.

Herr Doktor

I talked a bit in the audio about Dr. Drang’s thoughts on why Vim doesn’t work with the way he writes, as highlighted in this post. I seem to write in a similar way as he does, but while the modes bothered him, I always am ready to edit, because I spend most of my time in Normal mode.

I used to always find myself in the the wrong mode, but that changed for me once I decided that I would train myself to go back to Normal mode every time I wasn’t actively typing. This worked for me. Now my left pinky continually pecks at the Escape key any time I am deep in thought. I get a lot of weird looks in meetings, where there is usually no keyboard in sight…

While I’m talking about Dr. Drang (as I so often do here), you really ought to go back and read his series “Text Files and Me.” Seriously, go read the whole thing, I’ll wait.

• Part 1
• Part 2
• Part 3
• Part 3.5
• Part 4

“Next thing you know I’m playing a song in Pandora”

Tweaking your setup

As I earlier said, Vim is ugly out of the box, and some of its settings could benefit from some tuning. Vim makes this pretty easy… well Vim easy, at least. There are global settings for Vim which can be applied to all users, but most people keep all of their personal settings in a .vimrc file which lives in the home directory. This is just a plain text file that contains customizations written in the Vim Language, and sometimes I think 10% of Github is hosted .vimrc files. There is plenty of ready help online.

My Vim Setup

Custom colors

I have been using Ethan Schoonover’s Solarized color scheme ever since I first saw it, but I recognize that others remain color-curious. For those in that camp, I don’t think there is a better comparison-shopping resource than this. All of these themes are available in this repository, so switch around to your heart’s content.

Vim makes installing a new color scheme as simple as copying the folder to the ~/.vim/colors directory and typing :colorscheme solarized or :colo solarized. Vim has a short version of all common commands, and the convention for writing these is of the form :colo[rscheme], with the part in brackets being optional. I’ll write it this way from now on.

For Sublime Text refugees

I mentioned the Spacegray color scheme, and if you want it go here, because it is based on the base16 project.

Keyboard Mapping and the Help System

Gabe asked about seeing a list of all the key mappings, and the way to get a listing of your custom mappings all at once is to type :nmap, :imap, :vmap, etc. You can see a summary of all default mappings by utilizing :h[elp] index. I didn’t know about these commands when we recorded the episode and had previously just taken a look in my .vimrc when something in Vim surprised me. Now, these commands provide a listing and general summary, but it doesn’t really teach you anything. For that purpose, let’s venture into the help system.

The help system in Vim is very capable, and I have no problem saying that it is the best in any software application I have ever used. This being Vim, some homework is required. To drive that point home, you can even run :h[elp] help (which opens helphelp.txt), but I’ll highlight a number of techniques here so that you can be pretty capable right off the bat.

First of all, if you are browsing help just to learn, you probably want to have it take up the whole window instead of having it split. If so, type <C-W>o.

Conventions

C is how the Control Key is represented in Vim convention and the <> indicates the use of a modifier or special key, Control plus w then o in this case, and you’ll see this sort of thing if you read about Vim on the interwebs. I mention this becuase my small mind was confused by this for a little while. Anyway <C-W> is the way that you talk to the window, and in this case you are typing saying “Window, only,” because you want the active window split to be the only window split.

Regardless of how you get there, once you are in the help files, you can get away with just typing / to search and then navigate by going forward with n and backwards with N. That works fine, and I did it for years, but it is much better to utilize the tags in Vim help. With your cursor in |bookmark|, typing <C-]> will search for where that *tag* is defined in the help files. Even better, if you see an interesting term in the documentation, <C-]> will search the help tags for whatever WORD (remember that distinction earlier) the cursor is on.

Now, as you move around from tag to tag, you may want to go back, and the way to do that is either with <C-T> (think “Control Tag”), which jumps you back one older entry in the tag stack, or with <C-O> (think “Control Older”), which jumps you back one older entry in the “jump list” of old cursor positions (<C-I> takes you to newer cursor positions in the jump list). Jumping by cursor position is good if you have used / to search a little within the help file.

All of this assumes that you know what the help subject you want is, but Vim provides some tools if you don’t know exactly what you want. The first step here is to ensure that “wildmenu” on with :set wildmenu. Wildmenu in Vim allows for <Tab> completion in command mode, and it is fantastic. In this case, if you type :h patt<Tab>, Vim will cycle through the available options with each <Tab>. Even better, because the list of potential matches is sometimes long, you can type :h patt<C-D> and see a list of the available possibilities.

Another option when you are shooting blind if the use helpgrep by typing helpg[rep] {pattern}. You can navigate through the matches with the :cn[ext] or :cp[revious] to jump around between the matches. Or use :cw[indow] to get the list of matches.

One final assistance I can recommend is the Beautiful Vim Cheat-Sheet. I used an older one when i was starting out, but this version provides a nice logical layout of the basics for getting around Vim. I like it.

Plugins

I talked about this in the audio, but in general, I am against adding plugins to Vim too early. In a similar vein, I don’t think it is wise to just start with someone else’s .vimrc. I did that when I started and to this day, I have lingering confusion over whether some mappings are a part of baseline Vim or not.

If I had to do it over again, I would work with a barebones installation (with Solarized installed though. I am not an animal), and make changes to my installation only when I reached friction points in my workflow. I would also learn the help system right away. As a counterpoint, there are full Vim “Distributions” like Janus, so you are free to go in the completely opposite direction.

With my preamble out of the way, here are the plugins that I mentioned on the show:

• Pathogen - This plugin management system developed by Tim Pope is probably the reason that the Vim bundle ecosystem is so healthy. Pathogen makes adding a plugin as easy as copying a folder into your ~/.vim/bundles folder.
• Vundle - In my opinion, the only thing better than managing plugins through the filesystem is managing them right in the .vimrc. Using Vundle you simply put the location of a plugin’s repository in your .vimrc and Vundle clones the repository and puts everything in its proper place after running :PluginInstall from within Vim.
• YouCompleteMe - YCM, as the cool kids call it, is a code-completion engine for Vim, and I am in love with it. It works in virtually any language, and it is pre-compiled so that it is fast. I have run it locally and on a remote server, and it always seems snappy and responsive. The project page has some gifs showing it in action, so take a look there to see some pictures worth far more than a thousand of my words.
• UltiSnips - This text expansion tool is the next of new-to-me plugins that I am madly in love with. Similar in capability to the much-beloved TextExpander, this tool allows fill-in snippets, shell script expansion, and quick editing snippets while you work. The author has some great screencasts beginning with this one, and the always-great Drew Neil has begun a series on Vimcasts. My favorite feature may be its integration with YouCompleteMe, and which allows fuzzy-search to find snippets. As I talked about in the audio, I can’t remember keyboard shortcuts for the life of me. The starter set of snippets I mentioned in the audio can be found here.
• Easy Motion - This plugin takes Vim’s already great movement to the next level with some additional functionality and creative text highlighting. I am beating a dead horse, but learn baseline Vim motion before installing this. I cannot be held responsible for my actions if you ignore this advice.

Managing Dotfiles

Managing and tweaking your dotfiles can be an addictive pursuit if you’re not careful. We talked about it a little during the audio, but it is probably worth its own show (Yeah, right. Like Gabe and Erik will ever let me near a microphone after this episode). For now I’ll just point out a couple of good resources to learn more.

• Git - It used the goal of putting my dotfiles online as the impetus to actually learn Git, and I now know enough fix every third thing I screw up. I like Bitbucket’s Git tutorials best, and their Bitbucket 101 documentation is great for learning about either Git or Mercurial.
• Bitbucket - I keep everything on Bitbucket, because it allows me to have private repositories for nothing, and as I just demonstrated, I like their documentation. I don’t know if they are really better about their institutional misogyny, but I think it’s safe to say they are better than some others that come to mind.
• dotfiles.github.io - Earlier criticism aside, I don’t know of a better place to go to learn more about how smart people manage their dotfiles. I don’t have to give my opinion about simply installing someone’s complete dotfiles system, do I?

Working Remotely

I do some work when mobile, as in while moving, so I often am subject to the pain of spotty internet connections. I have found no better tool than Mosh to help me deal with this issue. Mosh, for “Mobile Shell” details a number of features on its page, but my favorite is “intelligent local echo.” This is what I talked about in the audio as “intuiting” the response, but the idea here is that it doesn’t wait for server response before locally echoing what was typed. This means that typing delay virtually disappears. You can find some technical details online, or you can consider it magic, like I do.

I also alluded to my love affair with DigitalOcean, and it is love, to be sure. I don’t like to be tied to a particular platform or OS at this point in my life, so I am slowly moving everything that is essential to my workflow onto my own online host. Right now, that host is DigitalOcean. They give me complete control of my own “droplet” (read: sudo and root access), so it is my server and their hosting. It also feels very fast, and I think this is probably due to magic too. I can use Vim on this server, with no noticeable lag, from any device, and the installation script I talked about in the audio can clone this setup to any Ubuntu system, so I don’t feel any lock-in. The script is four-for-five now, so maybe it does work…

Producer’s Note

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Intrigued by Gabe's frequent mentions of his Network Closet, Erik asks some tough questions. Why put the closet in the basement? Why all the extra ventilation? What happens when you run out of red printer ink? The answers may disturb and frighten you.

A Closet of His Very Own

Erik digs into the history of Gabe’s networking closet. How did he decide to build his own, and why? When this podcast was newly re-launched, we discussed how to wire a house for ethernet. This topic has come up periodically, but now it’s time to learn a little bit more about the center of Gabe’s wired house.

“I have a wife”

And Gabe’s wife doesn’t like nerdy hardware out sitting around. Weird double entendres aside, Gabe has always tried to isolate his networked and nerdy equipment. When you put a lot of running electronics in one place, however, they produce a lot of heat. For that reason, he thinks you should install vents at the top and bottom of your network closet if feasible. It may also make sense to add a temperature sensor too, but beware. Home automation can be a slippery slope.

“Like quiet and awesome mode?”

Having a network closet also means you can put your noisy devices in the one room and it will still be quiet enough that you can record a podcast.

What’s in there?

The network closet is likely the center of nerd necessities. For Gabe, his closet contains:

• 8-bay 1813+ Synology with seven drives
• Mac Mini
• 24 port Network Switch
• Network-based Printer Scanner
• Toolbox and Cables
• 3 UPS

“The Dobermans bring it up”

Nobody touches Gabe’s Network Toolbox.

The Toolbox

One of the primary uses for my network closet is to gather together all of my networking and computer tools in one place. No one goes in there to look for tools so I’m all but guaranteed to find what I’m looking for when I need it.

I love this little red toolbox. It’s all metal and built solid. The cantilever design keeps every compartment visible while it’s open but closes up to a compact little carry along.

My favorite tool is a simple multi-bit screwdriver by Channellock. This little driver is solidly made and has a variety of reasonably useful bits.

But when was the last time a normal driver bit was useful for a computer? That’s why I have a set of micro drivers and the iFixit Pro Tech Toolkit.

If you need to pull cables between floors and through walls, it can be a real pain to get it started. The Wet Noodle is a nice little find but kind of expensive for what it does. However, after you save yourself hours of pointless cursing at a hole in your ceiling, you’ll be happy to spend a hundred times what this item costs.

Here’s a rundown of various other tools I’ve hidden away:

• Wire crimpers and cutters
• Wire Strippers
• Punch down
• Ratcheting crimper for RJ45 plugs
• Network cable tester
• Aviation Shears
• A good quality but inexpensive knife
• Diagonal Snips
• Needle Nose pliers (get several sizes)

You can get a kit full of reasonably good quality tools for making network cables and connectors.

Flashlights

Boy am I a sucker for a good flashlight. I have some nice flashlights that can cook a turkey, but the one I use the most around the house is my Joby tripod light. It has flexible legs and magnet feet. It also takes standard batteries so I’m pretty much always ready to go with it. I upgraded to the more powerful 125 Lumen model from my trusty 65 Lumen model that my toddler now loves.

Gabe’s network closet was actually planned, so he has the benefit of having it on an independent power circuit, and it stays pretty cool naturally, since it’s partially underground. He also used slatted doors on the room to maximize the benefits of cooler air but has not noticed a noise penalty yet. Your mileage may vary.

“I kept them to menace the other drives”

The internal closet setup may require less premeditation, but is no less important.

Setup

Shelving

Get some simple but durable shelving. You’ll always put way more stuff on the top shelf than you expect, so anchor it to the wall. My network closet isn’t pretty on the inside so I don’t have high standards for how the shelving looks. There’s reasonable good plastic shelving at most hardware stores. I worried about WiFi interference with a large metal shelf and plastic is pretty easy to drill holes in. I’d also recommend open shelving without sides or backs. It’s easier to run cables around them.

Running Lines

A line puller is the best and worst thing I’ve used. When it works, you’ll do a little fist pump. When it gets caught on something you’ll fist pump the wall. There’s really not a lot of choice if you need to fish for a line over more than a couple of feet.

Green pull line comes in very handy. Every line you pull through your walls should have a pull line tied to the front of it. It means you always have an easy way of pulling another line down the same path. Trust me. It’s sanity saving advice.

Get yourself to Monoprice for bulk Ethernet cables and connectors. It’s the “teach a man to fish” model. If you learn how to make Ethernet cables, you will never be without an Ethernet cable when you need one the most.

But for short runs, just buy a few different colors and always keep one free. I have three hanging on a peg board all of the time. And remember, a crossover cable is something entirely different. You will be pissed the first time you need one and only have patch cables.

Power

We covered a lot of the power supply and backup UPS stuff in a previous episode of Technical Difficulties. Nothing has changed. I keep a couple of good quality UPS in my network closet. Each one is plugged into a different circuit. Yes, I have two circuits in my network closet. One powers only the router and network switch and inside light. The other carries everything else. It seems like overkill until you have a power converter on a laptop go bad and throw the breaker on one circuit once a day. It’s not a big interruption to lose access to a printer and various backup drives. Losing the network connection for the entire house would have been very frustrating.

Of course the UPS will keep you going for a while but that’s only if you notice the beeping.

I also really like this Auto-rewind extension cord with surge suppressor. It’s a bit expensive but it’s also a high quality extension cord with a carrier. It’s easy to quickly deploy and cleanup afterward. One push of a button retracts the entire 50 feet cord. There are a couple different models but the 16G version was just fine for my needs.

Lastly, there are the cables and all of the tech they enable.

Everything else

More Cables

I didn’t set out to collect cables. In fact, I make it a personal policy to throw away extra cables whenever I get new cables. But I do try to keep one of every kind of cable. Here’s a quick list of what’s hanging in my closet:

• Thunderbolt
• Flat 25 ft. HDMI
• Mini DVI to VGA
• Display Port to DVI
• Toslink
• Various USB cables (you don’t need a link for these. They’re everywhere)
• Firewire DV
• Firewire adapter

Tech

I have a color printer/scanner combo. I really just wanted a basic WiFi enabled color printer but I’ve actually found myself using the flatbed scanner more than I thought. Of course the ink is stupidly expensive but it’s rarely used unless it’s dire.

My Synology drive is my love affair. I can’t say enough good things about this beast. It’s more than a backup device. It’s a simple to manage server with a ton of easy to install features. So great.

I keep a lot of extra disks around. Most are old 1-2 TB disks from previous backups and hardware. I switched to the Red drives over a year ago based on recommendations on Twitter and not one has failed. They’re not as fast as the Black drives, but for backups, I don’t really care about fast. I care about reliable.

I’ve used a couple of different pluggable connectors for backups. I’ve had good luck with a USB3 dock since it’s the most commonly compatible.

I’ve recently added a dual-bay Thrunderbolt drive dock to my desktop, for realtime backups.

A 32 GB USB flash drive is pretty handy and stays in my network closet.

One way to drive home the strange ink value proposition is to make it pain to print by locating your printers in the network closet.

More Expensive than Blood

Gabe may have taken the “pain” part of that sentiment too literally.

“Turns out the printer head clogs with blood. Tried that.”

So what about Erik? He needs a network closet, but his office is on one end of his house and doesn’t have one. Long cable runs aren’t a real problem for Ethernet, but it can be nice to co-locate your network closet and your primary workspace if possible. Maybe if he moves sometime soon…

Producer’s Note

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Fed up with their Apple TV, Gabe and Erik talk about Plex and the Roku Media Player. They cover what Plex is, how it works, and the advantages and disadvantages of pairing Plex with the Roku.

Authorizing…

The discussion begins (as so many episodes do) by relating the challenges of the leading solution in the field: in this case the Apple TV.

“The problem is you’re trying to pull a very large file from a very distant place”

“And we’re spoiled”

Choosing Plex

What is Plex?

Plex is a media management application with server and client components. Since its early days as a fork of the XBMC Media Center, it has grown to a cross-plaform service which includes a cloud component.

Serving your Files

The Synology is a terrific NAS but it’s not the only server to provide an easy setup for Plex. On the Synology it takes a couple of clicks to add a Plex server. Once it’s up and running, the Plex server is controlled through the same web interface as from any other Plex server. The Plex server on the Synology runs well enough but large MKV files had a noticeable lag when loading. I think the default RAM configuration on a Synology is too small to run all of the standard file sharing services PLUS a Plex server.

Using a Mac Mini as the Plex server provided a better experience. The files all still lived on the Synology NAS, so that rules out disk performance or network streaming as a bottleneck.

One primary benefit of the Plex server running on the Synology is that it starts at boot and all of the files are available at any time. On the Mac Mini you’ll need to setup some scripts and cron jobs to check and remount the NAS if the Mini reboots. I’ve ordered more memory for my Synology since I really just want the Plex server running on my NAS. I don’t really want a Mac Mini media server.

Let’s Talk about the Roku

Metadata

Several years ago, I was using XBMC on an Xbox (the first one, not the new One–that’s not at all confusing, Microsoft), and I loved the way it displayed so much information about my movies and shows, but its crawler wasn’t as robust as it could be. I dug in a little, and saw that the best crawler (installed as a plugin) used TheTVDB.com as its data source, and I learned to follow the recommended file-naming conventions and manually edit the xml files (gross) when there were errors. This made everything look the way I wanted, and life was good.

Somewhere around this time, I started to run my media center on a Mac Mini, which allowed me to start using MPEG encoded movies (the Xbox hardware had trouble decoding anything other than AVIs). This switch to the MPEG-4 format meant smaller file sizes (storage wasn’t especially cheap then) and the potential to utilize atoms to store the metadata in the video files themselves. The nice thing about this is that I never had to worry about what happened when a file which was renamed by iTunes or whatever, because the file itself held the data, including its “album art”. Initially, I manually set this at the command line using AtomicParsley, but soon enough, I wrote a script to do the heavy lifting for me.

The next sea change for me was when I got an Apple TV and saw how television show purchases made through iTunes had better season and episode data than the DVDs I had ripped and encoded, with a fuller episode summary. This led me back into the atoms and I learned about what Apple was adding to the defaults. Fortunately, some smart people were there first and this fork of the original AtomicParsley project was able to write the Apple additions. It was a little hacky then, but this fork is well-maintained, and the process is much easier now.

At this point, you are probably thinking that the word “easier” shouldn’t be in the discussion at all, but take heart! There’s an app for that now. Actually more than one, but I can personally vouch for iDentify, which works very well. The nice thing about my (crazy) process is that my metadata is right, no matter whether it is on the Apple TV, Plex, iPad, or backed up on my home server. They look the same as anything purchased directly from Apple.

Next time, tales of encoding…

The Remote

The Roku remote is a bit cartoonish but far more functional than the AppleTV remote. It’s big and plastic with purple buttons but it wins when you’re feeling for a button in the dark. It would be even better with backlighting. The other great feature of the Roku remote is the WiFi connection. It doesn’t use traditional IR which means direct line of sight is not required.

The Roku 3 remote also includes a motion sensor for controlling games, if that’s your thing. But the best feature is the headphone port. Plug in a pair of headphones to the Roku remote and watch a movie on the home theater without waking up the kids. Every functional detail was considered (except backlighting) with the Roku remote. It’s a real selling point.

If you’d prefer to use a $600 remote, there are several passable iOS apps. The real benefit with an iOS app is the keyboard support for search. Unlike the iOS app for the AppleTV, the Roku iOS apps only send text after the enter key is pressed. Gabe found this annoying. Honestly, the Roku remote is pretty darn good but the iOS app can be used for more complicated searches.

• Roku
• The free Roku iOS application allows you to control your Roku player from your mobile device and more.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• Roku Remote 7
• Roku Remote 7 is an iOS-7 compatible app to control and manage your Roku device. It automatically scans for Roku devices in your home network, and allows you to use it as a remote control.
• Price: $0.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• RMote Roku Remote
• Never worry about losing your Roku remote again! Simply connect to your wifi to begin!
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

Setup Your Channels

The channel selection on the Roku includes most of the channels I cared about on the AppleTV, plus some that were pleasant surprises. The Disney Channels work well and actually have good content. I also like the Vimeo channel. On the Roku it’s easy to organize the channel lists. With a channel highlighted, hit the “*” key on the remote to move it around. Or just delete it entirely. Roku also provides web access to add and remove channels through a browser.

The Amazon channel is really where the Roku shines. While it’s missing the iTunes store, the Amazon video content is really compelling. Amazon Prime provides a nice bonus (such as the entire Avatar series) for Prime members without spending anything extra, but Amazon offers about as much as iTunes at comparable rental prices.

M-Go is another Roku video rental service. I find that it has more up to date content at higher prices. Whereas Amazon is about $5 for an HD rental, M-Go is generally $6.

Crackle is another channel that I’ve used only through the Roku. The content is of variable and sometimes dubious quality but occasionally there will be a nice surprise like Ghostbusters available for free.

Roku Variants

• Roku Streaming Stick
• The Roku 3500R Streaming Stick (HDMI Version) is a convenient little stick that streams loads of entertainment to your TV.
• MSRP: $49.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

• Roku 1 Streaming Player
• The Roku 1 makes it easy to enjoy over 1,000 entertainment channels on your TV.
• MSRP: 49.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

• Roku 2 Streaming Player
• Crank up the volume, and enjoy the show with the Roku 2. Dive into 1,000+ channels of movies, TV shows, sports and more in stunning 1080p HD. Watch without disturbing the house when you plug the included headphones into the remote. Enjoy free features like channel shortcut buttons and much more.
• MSRP: $69.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

• Roku 3 Streaming Media Player
• Faster and more powerful than ever. Enjoy 1,000+ channels of movies, TV shows, sports, and more. Plug headphones into the motion-control remote to play games or watch late-night flicks without disturbing the household. Fully loaded with one-stop search, 1080p, dual-band wireless, Ethernet, USB, plus a free Roku app. The Roku 3—the new streaming standard.
• MSRP: $89.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

“I ended up just unplugging the Apple TV”

What we miss

AppleTV really owns the market on series subscriptions. With automatic downloads in iTunes and new episode notifications, Apple makes it convenient to subscribe to an entire season of a TV show and keep up.

Watching a TV series through the Roku is possible but it takes planning and research. Sure, you could use something like Sickbeard to do some less than ideal things, but that’s quite a bit more work than purchasing through the AppleTV.

I Miss Music

While I’ve loaded Plex with my music library, I really miss the iTunes Radio and Beats Music for streaming services. There’s Pandora, Spotify and Rdio support through the Roku, but iTunes Radio and Beats are what I prefer. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of audio channels I like on the Plex side of things.

Purchasing through the Amazon service on Roku is pretty easy once it’s configured. There’s a lot of content on the Amazon store. Search and browse on the Roku is good enough to find what you’re looking for. The only advantage to Apple in this area is the convenience of purchasing through the iTunes Store iOS app. If you hear of a good flick or TV show to watch when you’re away from your TV, the iOS app is convenient for making regrettable purchases. Maybe the lack of Amazon video purchases on iOS isn’t such a bad thing.

Using Plex

• Plex
• With Plex, you can easily stream your videos, music, photos and home movies to your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch from your home computer running Plex Media Server (available for free at http://plex.tv).
• Price: $4.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

“I’ve had my Apple TV disconnected for so long I can’t remember”

Plex Pass

The Plex Pass is a good deal for the features. There are three different price points to satisfy most users: $4 per month, $30 per year or $75 for a lifetime subscription. The Plex Pass provides camera upload, cload streaming and syncing with a mobile device. All of the premium features work well and Plex is a totally different experience on iOS with it.

“I don’t have a lot of friends”

The Plex It bookmarklet is fantastic. Find a YouTube or Vimeo video you want to watch later on the TV? Hit the bookmark and it’s added to you Plex queue. I’ve added a whole lot of music videos this way and it’s great.

Other Neat Stuff Plex can Do

Plex serves up the photos and music files on the Roku. Just add a new media index in Plex and point it to a directory with audio files or images. Plex will index the audio and add meta data. Photos are structured according to the file structure they are saved in and the metadata is available for viewing.

The Roku Vimeo channel worked great for the latest Joss Whedon experiment. I rented the movie on Vimeo through a web browser and later watched it on my big screen TV through the Roku Viemo app. It looked and sounded great.

“It’s become the Internet Explorer 6 of Media Managers”

Photo Slideshow

If you enjoy the photo presentation mode on the AppleTV, Plex provides a nice alternative. It lacks some of the polish of the AppleTV like the Ken Burns effects but it works well and it works with photo directories as if they were albums. After a fun day out with the family, I can drop the photos into a folder on the Synology NAS and then browse to the folder on Plex and watch the slideshow. This is a real usecase it’s really great.

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find our infant gofer on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to email techdiffpodcast at potatowire dot com.

Bob VanderClay returns to discuss the ultimate topic for Technical Difficulties: Home Automation. We touch on several popular tools, including Hue, SmartThings, WeMo, and Nest.

The Ultimate Topic

Home automation is a troubled topic that exemplifies pretty much everything that’s broken about technology these days.

“Or everything that you can broke”

Like any technology early in its adolescence, the various manufacturers in the industry are trying to appeal to a broad audience, but in doing so they are presenting a wildly differing, and often incompatible visions of ideal home automation. Luckily, the rise of mobile technology and improvement of IFTTT-style API bridges have made it more possible to unite these disparate systems into a somewhat coherent whole.

This week, friend-of-the-show Bob VanderClay rejoins Gabe and Erik as they revel in their home automation triumphs and bemoan their tragedies.

(Re)Introducing Bob VanderClay

Bob VanderClay

You might remember Bob from Episode 032 where he discussed blogging platforms.

Bob worked as a developer for NASA, ETS, BAE, and the US Joint Forces Command, before moving into the private sector. He’s currently Erik’s partner at high90 where he develops web applications for the multifamily software industry.

A Litany of Disasters

It’s probably best to start with a short overview of where everybody is coming from. The table below highlights the systems we’ve used, loved, and hated over the years.

Sonos
Logitech Harmony Ultimate
Nest
WeMo
Synology Surveillance Station
SmartThings
Hue
GE/Jasco Smart Switches

“It went back into the somewhere box.”

Smart Switches and WeMo

In theory, the dream has always been to have your smart home be wired into the walls. We’d be able to interact with everything the way we’re used to, but could also do it more awesomely with technology. Unfortunately, that remains more of a dream than a reality, as “smart” wiring options have proven anything but. Gabe’s experiences are sadly typical in this arena.

So Many Options

X10 has been around since the 70’s and has become the defacto standard for wireless appliance controls. One advantage of X10 modules is that communication can occur over the home power lines. Many X10 controls rely on wall-warts and lightbulb adapters but the most severe issues with X10 are caused by interference with the signals between devices caused by appliances and wiring.

Insteon, Z-Wave, and ZigBee followed on the heels of X10. Insteon is a proprietary technology that is widely available in the US and works as a mesh network over a combination of power line and RF.

ZigBee is based on the 802.15 standard and also works as a mesh network operating without a single master control.

Z-Wave operates as an RF mesh network in the 900MHz range. Z-Wave may interfere with sub-GHz cordless phones, if those are still around. Interestingly, the Open Z-Wave project aims at making an open standard free of expensive development kits. This has already resulted in a Raspberry Pi daughter board.

Hobbyists

One of aspects of this industry that I find fascinating is the work that goes on in the parallel hobby electronics industry. There have been wireless communications tutorials like this one online since 2008, and individual chipsets can be had for as little as $10. Versions of the Xbee, even directly supports the ZigBee protocol, but general 802.15, Bluetooth, and NFC components can all be purchased for a relatively small (monetary) cost.

Let’s face it, all home automation falls squarely in the “tinkering” camp, and if I’m going the tinker, I’m going to tinker.

Smart Switches: Wiping out on the Z-Wave

As you might recall from earlier episodes Gabe’s home was built in the seventies, and is full of pleasant (read: unpleasant) surprises in the walls that interfere with the sorts of modern conveniences he’s come to expect in a family home.

Gabe bought about a dozen of the GE/Jasco Z-Wave Smart Switches for his home, called an electrician and got down to work.

Z-Wave

I didn’t know a whole lot about Z-Wave before the show, so I was surprised to find out that it creates its own low-bandwidth wireless network at 900 MHz. While that might interfere with older cordless phones, it won’t interfere with WiFi which operates mostly in the 2.4 GHz band. As we discussed in an earlier show, interference can be a big concern in a home with a lot of connected toys… er, devices.

If you’re interested in learning more about Z-Wave, here are a few useful links:

• Z-Wave on Wikipedia
• The Z-Wave Home Page
• The Z-Wave Alliance
• The Open Z-Wave Project

Unfortunately, given the crazy topology of his home wiring configuration, they didn’t integrate well and were returned. His specific problems might not crop up in your home, but Gabe particularly struggled with the 3-way dimmers and toggles. The 2-way ones worked much better.

I Was Warned, 3-Ways are Hard

I did a good amount of research into the Z-Wave switches and there are plenty of reports of difficulty with 3-way switches. It was obvious that 3-way (not to mention 4-way) switches would be a challenge. I like challenges. My electrician? Not so much.

In general, trends seem to be moving away from this kind of in-wall support given the rapidly changing state of the technology and wide variety of alternatives.

Lutron and X10

Many builders use Lutron home automation products as well. It’s a proprietary system with marketing that seems geared towards contractors and large organizations (so, not us).

On the other end of the spectrum is X10, a home automation protocol which has been the standard since shortly after its inception in the late 1970s. Devices have historically been cheap and accessible, and there are many manufacturers who offer a wide range of compatible hardware.

You can find a short history of X10 here, and for more on the technical aspects of the X10 protocol, you can look here.

Wall Warts: WeMo

A popular alternative to expensive switches and smart outlets is WeMo. Belkin has been working on WeMo for a few years now, gradually expanding their lineup from a simple networked wall wart to lighting and power efficiency solutions.

WeMo Outlet WeMo Motion WeMo Insight WeMo Switch WeMo Lighting

Christmas Lighting and Beyond?

I’ve used WeMo outlets for two years now as my primary Christmas lighting control, and they’ve worked great. They’ve even stood up to some fairly chilly winters outside (not recommended if you live in an area with liquid precipitation) attached to an outlet on my front porch. You can set up timers inside the WeMo mobile app, basing it on local sunset or a specific time.

Erik’s WeMo Stack

Despite their success during the holidays, I’ve struggled to find a use for them the rest of the year because they’re a bit awkward in practice. If they’re on a switched outlet, that switch always has to remain on. If the outlet is low to the ground and you don’t have your phone, you have to bend over to activate it with the button on the housing, which can be difficult if the only outlet is buried behind your couch.

In my house, I’ve also struggled with units occasionally dropping off the network. For timed holiday lights this is no big deal at all – the timers still work fine. For daily use lighting, it can be pretty frustrating.

The biggest problem with WeMo?

Wall warts are ugly.

On and Off Doesn’t Always Mean On and Off

I’d argue that the biggest problem with the WeMo controls are that with many modern electronics toggling power doesn’t actually turn the device back on. Toggle the power on an air conditioner and it almost always means the air conditioner stays off until a human touches the “on” button. It might work for a refrigeration unit or floor lamp, but it’s no solution for a computer or TV. Electronics are too smart for us now.

Hue

Phillips’ Hue bulbs seem like the perfect expression of the internet of things. Each light is connected wirelessly and is individually addressable, has a nearly infinite color palate, is controllable via a well-designed remote application, and includes a robust API.

The color options are fun, but not really practical unless you’re a kid, really into crazy accent lighting, or like to throw sweet disco raves.

“There are very few rave parties at my house.”

The aforementioned API is an excellent feature, however, and there are plenty of devices which take advantage of it. Bob uses an Android App called Lampshade.io which provides a much broader ability to control your bulbs.

• Lampshade.io
• LampShade is the leading Android app for controlling smart lightbulbs
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• Play Store

Lampshade’s Pro upgrade offers lockscreen and home screen widget integrates with an app called Tasker that acts as a kind of IFTTT for your phone. For example, when Bob triple-clicks the volume-up button on his Nexus 5, an app called QuickClick fires off a Tasker macro that tells Lampshade to toggle the lights in his house. Similarly, using IFTTT Bob’s WiFi-enabled scale tells his lights to come on when he steps on the scale first thing in the morning.

Despite their extensive feature-set, Hue still falls short of the ideal when ease-of-use is considered. They work passably with switches, in the sense that providing power to a Hue bulb turns it on. Unfortunately, the bulb powers on at full brightness and in its default color, which might not be what you’re expecting.

Not glowstick friendly

A rave requires precise lighting management. Everyone knows that.

Fortunately, Hue is planning bring out a series of portable, wireless switching units to market soon. This will help, but not completely solve what may be an unsolvable problem: As long as there is a way to cut power to a smart device, it will probably always act dumb. Even if you do need mood lighting.

“I don’t use any of the Getting in the Mood Themes”

SmartThings

SmartThings started off on Kickstarter as a way to make the little things in your life just a bit smarter.

They’re now a fully-operational enterprise that offers several products, all of which connect via a wide range of protocols and networks including Zigbee (2.4 GHz), Z-Wave (900 MHz), and WiFi. Many of their offerings remove the need for wire being battery powered, and there are several manufacturers signeed up, so you’ve got multiple options if you’re choosy.

Dumb Things

Of all the products in my automation experiment, I liked the SmartThings-branded hardware the best. Mostly because they are dead simple to install if you have an iOS device. The hub setup involves plugging in the hub and tapping the connection button. You launch the iOS app and connect it to the hub with the code provided. That’s it. To connect a sensor, you pull the tab out of the back which separates the battery contacts. You then open the iOS app and the new sensor is ready to setup. The whole system setup is pretty similar to IFTTT, and there are a bunch of pre-configured options to choose from. I’m not sure it could be any easier.

Given the number of sensors available, the possibilities are nearly endless. Gabe has a sensor in his garage which will alert him if the garage door is open longer than 30 minutes, so he doesn’t inadvertently let the dog out. Bob has a vibration sensor that tells him when someone knocks on his front door, even if he’s in another state (mental or physical–we’re not quite sure).

Nest

Nest Labs got its start by creating a simple, intelligent, next-generation thermostat. The company was founded by the guy who helped create the iPod, and they’ve recently branched out by creating a hybrid smoke and carbon monoxide detector.

Privacy

They were also recently purchased by Google, which spawned innumerable jokes on Twitter and the inevitable privacy (over)reactions. Sometimes conveniently contained in the same post. Come on people, it’s not like we’re talking about Facebook here.

One of the major selling points of the Nest thermostat is that it’s (usually) simple to install and even simpler to use. One of the biggest problems with home automation solutions is that they’re often difficult for the technically disinclined. Nest passes that test with flying colors. Turn the knob, set the temperature.

It’s simplicity hides a sophisticated algorithm and built-in motion detectors which attempt to be smart about when you’re home and away, to cut down on your energy use. Unfortunately for people who work at home like Erik and Bob, that feature doesn’t get much use.

Also, as friend-of-the-show Bradley Chambers mentioned in Episode 061 Nest operates on 2.4 GHz WiFi only, which could be an inconvenience if you’re otherwise ready for the interference-busting benefits of the 5 GHz variety.

Finally, Nest does require relatively modern wiring so it can stay powered. That’s enough to keep Gabe from installing it altogether.

“I’m a little concerned about calling my electrician at this point.”

Sonos

We’ve already discussed Sonos extensively on Episode 056, but it fits nicely into this discussion, too. Gabe has had more success with his setup recently, though the speakers still come ungrouped every now and then. His daughter likes how good it sounds playing her favorite movie soundtrack again and again. And again.

“Let it go, Gabe”

Unfortunately, Sonos is still complicated enough that it doesn’t pass the six-year-old test, a common refrain for this kind of home automation product. While Gabe thinks Hue is simpler to use than Sonos, Erik and Bob disagree.

“Text #FFFFFF to Hue Bulbs at…”

Bob has had a lot of success using an Android App called Macronos to create playlists, groupings and volume controls that reside as shortcuts on his phone’s home screen just like apps.

• Macronos for Sonos
• Macronos is the easiest way to get music playing on Sonos. Control Sonos directly from the various apps using the Cast icon. Press the Cast icon, select the MacronosCast device and choose a Sonos player (No setup required).
• Price: Free
• Play Store

Macronos ties into Tasker as well, meaning Bob has one button that turns off his lights and turns on a music playlist when he goes to bed. It can also trigger via an NFC tag on his nightstand.

Sonos continues to be in active development, with a beautiful new controller app in beta and the recent addition of Google Play Music integration. That latter addition was enough to allow Erik to drop his Spotify account entirely.

“How AirPlay is supposed to be”

Universal Remotes

Universal remotes were among the first attempts at home automation, but the bewildering array of devices that a good remote must control means very few companies have been successful.

Logitech Harmony Ultimate

After a great experience with the more traditional Logitech Harmony One, Erik decided to give the Harmony Ultimate a try.

• Logitech Harmony Ultimate
• Harmony Ultimate gives you all the control you deserve. Control home theater devices behind closed cabinets and walls. Access IR devices as well as Bluetooth game consoles. Even use your mobile phone as a powerful, personal universal remote control.
• MSRP: $349.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

It’s as reliable as you can expect something to be that has to control multiple devices via multiple methods, but at least it offers a handy fix-it-myself mode to get any unruly devices in line with a minimal amount of fuss. The remote has to be programmed via website, which is great in that it remembers what devices you own, but it’s kind of a pain to have to install Silverlight and use Safari on a Mac just to program your remote.

The mobile app is capable, if a bit cumbersome. To bring the discussion full circle, it will also control your Hue lights if you want.

Other Options

Roomie Remote is a $9.99 iOS based universal remote app that will control connected devices natively and IR devices with any of a number of adapters available in their store.

• Roomie Remote
• Roomie is a universal remote to control your home theater components supporting thousands of devices – often via direct communication over your home network rather than requiring additional hardware.
• Price: $9.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

The number of supported services are truly dizzying, and a reminder of what can already be controlled purely via the network:

• Insteon
• Vera
• Sonos
• Hue
• IP Control TV
• Plex

Yet another option Gabe tried was UnityRemote, a Bluetooth IR blaster for iOS. Unfortunately it’s no longer available. Gabe’s ended up in his “somewhere” box alongside his Smart Switches.

Gabe’s Somewhere Box

Am I the only one creeped out by this?

Wrapping it Up

NFC is still a dream technology, and like nearly all dream technologies, it’s not nearly reliable enough to be magical. It’s particularly susceptible to electromagnetic interference from power cords and chargers.

This is a common refrain across all platforms these days. We expect car-level or light-switch-level ease-of-use and reliability, but often forget that cars and home wiring took over a century to become as reliable as they are today.

Well…

Maybe not car-level ease-of-use

“It seems like we’re waiting for a Blackberry moment”

The lawsuits against Nest are just one example of how these disruptive new technologies frighten the incumbents of home automation.

API integration services like IFTTT and Zapier are another reason for optimism. They are the glue that binds many different platforms together. Since this show was recorded, IFTTT has released their Android app on the Google Play store.

Until next week

There is still plenty of time to hope for a home automation future worthy of a science fiction novel, but in the meantime, we nerds will continue to demonstrate the potential to non-believers with refrains of, “hold on, I just gotta reset this one thing… You’re gonna love this.”

I want to believe.

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

We're thrilled to welcome Helene Wecker to the show this week. Helene recently published her debut novel The Golem and the Jinni. On the show, Helene discusses how she got started as an author, her approach to writing, and some of the tools she uses to bring her stories from concept to reality.

Meet Helene Wecker

Helene Wecker is the author of The Golem and the Jinni. Recently nominated for the 2013 Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America Nebula Award, the novel tells the story of a group of immigrants (both natural and supernatural) living in New York City at the turn of the last century.

Helene got her start in the Marketing and Public Relations field. Seven years into her career, she decided to stop writing about other people’s awesome projects and start working on her own instead.

Having written Doctor Who and Star Trek fanfic in high school and leaning on some additional experience in creative writing classes, Helene chose to pursue a career writing fiction. Perhaps leaning towards the Type A side of the personality spectrum (no comment – pw) she was talented enough to graduate from the prestigious Master of Fine Arts Degree program at Columbia University in New York.

Welcoming Helene Wecker

At the end of Technical Difficulties 67 with David Sparks, Gabe ressurected a Generational feature he calls “Tell Me About Something You Like.” In it, Gabe told us about a great book he had just finished.

On his recommendation I made it my next audiobook, and Erik added it to his Kindle library. Well, it turns out that the author herself heard the mention and after Gabe saw this, he was able to arrange this interview.

Though we were all a bit starstruck, Helene proved to be a gracious and wonderful guest. We think you’ll agree.

On being published

Among the benefits of Helene’s Columbia MFA program were the annual mixers which allowed students to interact with literary agents. While these events didn’t offer any guarantees of representation (much less fame, fortune, and a show on HBO), Helene was able to make a connection with someone who could offer some guidance. Over a period of four to five years he helped her refine the novel and stay on track, eventually becoming her agent and helping Helene sell the novel to HarperCollins Publishers when it was roughly half-complete.

The Basis for the story

The Golem and the Jinni is a story that interweaves Jewish and Arab American traditions and mythologies amidst the backdrop of New York City in 1899. Ensuring that a novel with such distinctive themes rang true required Helene to conduct exhaustive research and pay careful attention to the “rules” of the world she was creating.

Fortunately, Helene had access to family traditions from both cultures as well as the Columbia University library. That being said, making a golem and a jinni believably walk the streets of The Lower East Side and Little Syria requires an immense amount of good old-fashioned hard work – far more than just a quick viewing of Funny Girl.

• Maronite Church
• Eastern Orthodox Church
• Judaism

Caution

Erik’s lack of appreciation for the romantic charms of Dearborn, Michigan does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the management.

Fitting Research into a narrative

When a story expands to the length of a novel, a line needs to be drawn somewhere between fleshing out a tale’s detail, and writing a textbook. And what about the characters? A world needs a full cast to feel real, but nothing feels like more of a cheat to the reader than when the author’s hand can be seen dropping an extra into the plot in order to keep things moving.

“That starts to feel a little woo-woo”

On Being a Writer

One of my favorite aspects of this interview was the obvious dichotomy of becoming a professional writer. Anyone can become a “real” writer and professional story teller, but not just anyone has the tenacity and professionalism to make it a career. I think Helene is a character study in the birth of a professional writer. She gave up a lucrative career, worked very hard at perfecting her craft, and stuck with it until someone noticed.

While I do believe that it takes talent to be a professional writer, I think Helene’s story is compeling because of her fortitude and persistence in achieving that status. It’s fun, but it sure is a lot of hard work too.

Sometimes carefully prepared and even beloved writing has to go into the trash heap when it isn’t right, and Helene experienced this herself when writing the ending of her book. Like a surgeon’s cut, sometimes excess or damaged pieces need to be removed.

Details, Details

Helene was kind enough to provide some additional information about the tools she used when writing her novel. While some elements were alluded to in the audio, we’ve interleaved some additional detail into the notes where appropriate.

Hardware

• Apple MacBook Pro
• MacBook Pro with Retina display, 16GB of memory, 2.8 GHz processor, 500GB of storage
• MSRP: $2199.00
• Manufacturer’s Page

I treated myself to a new MacBook Pro back in December. I’d been saving up for a while, but I waited until they announced the new line. My old laptop was a five-year-old plain vanilla MacBook, and it was running on borrowed time. For the new one, I maxed out the memory and the processor, but not the storage. Now that I’ve decided to go paperless, I’m wondering if that was the best decision.

• Samsung T24C550ND 24-Inch Screen LED-Lit Monitor HDTV
• Whether you’re working or kicking back, you’ll appreciate the Samsung TC Series 5 23.6-inch MFM monitor’s Full HD picture quality and range of versatile features.
• MSRP: $169.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Your basic monitor. It isn’t the greatest at talking to the laptop; when it wakes up it cycles through its analog and HDMI inputs before it hits “Digital” and finally connects. I’m sure there’s some setting in its frustratingly Byzantine menu that fixes this, I just can’t be bothered to find it. I certainly don’t think you need an external monitor in order to write, but it does make it easier to look at research while writing, or two versions of a manuscript side by side.

• WD My Passport Ultra 1TB Portable External Hard Drive USB 3.0 with Auto and Cloud Backup - Titanium
• My Passport Ultra portable hard drive features WD SmartWare Pro backup software that lets you back up to the drive itself or use Dropbox to back up to the cloud.
• MSRP: $77.91
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Mainly I use this for Time Machine. I recently had to buy a new one, when my bad habit of unplugging without ejecting caught up with me. Turns out the warning’s there for a reason. Huh.

• Drobo
• The Drobo is the latest generation of the award-winning platform that started it all. It holds true to the unique design and simplicity that has made Drobo the best desktop storage solution for storing and protecting all your data.
• MSRP: $599.00
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Our family NAS is an eight-year-old Drobo that sits on a shelf in the family room, behind my daughter’s board books. We use it as our media storage (connected to our TV via a Mac Mini) but I also back up to it sporadically. (I need to be more diligent about that, probably with the help of SuperDuper.) We’ve had a couple of bad-drive scares, but it’s still chugging along. We’d like to buy a new one soon, if only because this one’s making a noise like a lawnmower. Could be the pound’s worth of cat hair in the fan.

Research

• Scrivener
• Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft.
• Price: $45
• Developer’s Page

I didn’t keep any research in Scrivener while writing THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI. Instead I stuck it all in Evernote, and went back and forth. But for the next book, I’ve been loading everything into Scrivener’s research folder instead. It was just too irritating to switch between apps, especially when I’d start to second-guess myself over some historical detail: “Wait, did I really read this somewhere, or did I make it up?” And then I’d have to switch to Evernote and dig out the right note. Whereas if everything is in Scrivener, I can link from the draft in progress to the right document in the research folder. Once and done.

Granted, it’s much more of a pain to get everything into Scrivener. The Evernote folks have gone out of their way to give you 17 different ways to toss content into your notebooks, but with Scrivener it has to be done from inside the app. There’s probably some way to use Hazel rules and AppleScript to save items into a Dropbox folder and then automatically load them into a predetermined Scrivener document, but learning AppleScript isn’t high enough on my priority list to figure it out. Rumor has it that Literature & Latte is working on an iOS version of Scrivener, which I’d really love to see. Might give me a reason to use my iPad more often.

• Evernote
• Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

I have a love-hate relationship with Evernote. Sometimes it’s invaluable, and sometimes it feels like a junk closet. Admittedly, I’m not the best at keeping it organized. Recently I went through it and created a handful of new notebooks; hopefully that’ll help. But part of the problem is that Evernote has really fuzzy boundaries, and ends up half-sharing the duties I use a lot of other apps for. Should I keep my to-read articles in Evernote, or in Instapaper? What about small but important pieces of reference info: Evernote, or Simplenote? Recipes are a no-brainer, but what about articles on time- or event-sensitive subjects, like tax advice or seasonal gardening tips? Do I create OmniFocus reminders for those, or make an Evernote “tickler” notebook a la GTD? It leads to muddy workflows and duplication of effort. Sometimes I’ll do a Google search on something and toss the results into Evernote, only to see I’d already clipped that article a year ago. It’s like buying a new lightbulb, and then finding a blister pack of them hidden in the linen closet.

• PDFpen
• The all-purpose Mac PDF editor! Add signatures, text, and images. Make changes and correct typos. OCR scanned docs. Fill out forms.
• Price: $59.95
• Developer’s Page

• Fujitsu ScanSnap ix500
• The ScanSnap iX500 provides PC and Mac users an effective way to greatly reduce paper clutter, storage space, and security risk associated with unmanaged paperwork at home or office.
• MSRP: $451.62
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

I stuck these two together because they really are a team: together, they’re twice as useful as they would be alone. Since a lot of my research involves stuff like out-of-print books, old maps, and articles from academic journals, I end up making a lot of photocopies. This used to lead to entire shelves devoted to three-ring binders. Now that I have the ScanSnap and PDFPen, I’m turning it all digital. It’s all on my laptop, right where I need it, and easily searchable.

The direction of writing

While she used various techniques along the way, Helene gradually moved her story forward, often taking steps back into the past to refine a character’s path through the story or correct wrong turns. This attention to detail and internal consistency allows for the reader to know that the book’s universe has rules. Having other readers at this stage of development is particularly useful in order to avoid a frog-in-a-pot scenario. A word of caution: learning this skill may ruin your ability to enjoy entire swaths of literature.

Writing Apps

• Scrivener (Again)
• Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft.
• Price: $45
• Developer’s Page

I said this in the show too, but it bears repeating: I don’t know how I could’ve written THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI without Scrivener. That book had at least a dozen moving parts, and Scrivener allowed me to treat them as exactly that: parts that I could move around, swap in and out, try out different versions of, banish to a “graveyard” folder and later resurrect if I felt like it. I bought Scrivener in ‘06 or ‘07, back when it wasn’t quite so feature-rich. I’m sort of glad I did; I know that Scrivener’s current complexity can scare away potential users, and I might have been one of them. Suffice to say, if you’re a writer and MS Word’s pissing you off, give Scrivener a try.

• Byword
• Byword is designed to make writing more enjoyable with Markdown on your iPhone and iPad.
• Price: $4.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

I’ve just started using Byword, mostly on my laptop but sometimes on my iPad. I use it mostly for short-to-midlength pieces (like this one) and sometimes for long emails. I really like the stripped-down aesthetic. I’ve started teaching myself Markdown, so the Preview option gets a workout.

• Simplenote
• Simplenote is an easy way to keep notes, lists, ideas and more. Your notes stay in sync with all your devices for free
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

In the past I’ve rotated between Notational Velocity, NVAlt, and Simplenote, and right now Simplenote’s on top. I’m pretty happy with it, though I miss Notational Velocity’s nifty “search and create from the same line” feature. I used to keep everything I wrote (that wasn’t part of a book) in Simplenote, including the short-to-midlength pieces I now write in Byword. But that started to get unwieldy, and it gunked up the search results. Now I use Simplenote mostly for lists, reference info that I need to access quickly and often, and travel itineraries. The sync to iOS is pretty reliable; I’ve had my grocery list decouple a few times, I suspect because I had it open and edited in both devices. So now I keep a template, just in case.

Outlining

• Tree
• Tree is an outliner featuring a horizontally expandable tree view. Tree assists you in organizing your information, sketching plans and brainstorming new ideas.
• Price: $14.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

I started playing around with Tree while I was outlining the new book. I like it quite a bit, though some of the actions don’t behave the I want them to, so they don’t stick in my muscle memory as well as I’d like. The horizontal view is fabulous for looking at a lot of info on the screen at once. Weirdly, I use Tree to write presentations instead of Scrivener, which would be the more obvious choice. I think my brain has partitioned off Scrivener for writing fiction; doing anything else in the app just feels odd.

• OmniOutliner Pro
• Welcome to OmniOutliner 4, an amazingly flexible yet lightweight program for creating, collecting, and organizing information. Use OmniOutliner’s document structure to brainstorm new ideas, drill out specifics, and construct a beautiful document for sharing.
• Price: $99.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

I used to use OmniOutliner back in the days of Kinkless GTD, but I never really got familiar with the app itself, and that’s something I’d like to change. Too many people have recommended it not to use it. I’ve tried at least twice to get to know the latest version, and each time I’ve retreated back to Tree, a victim of the exact same feature overwhelm that keeps a lot of writers away from Scrivener. Ridiculous, I know. I love everything the Omni folks do, and eventually I’ll get there.

• Aeon Timeline
• Aeon Timeline is the timeline tool for creative and analytical thinking. It provides an intuitive, responsive interface to help you create and edit your data on the fly. It allows you to hide and filter information so that you can focus on what is important to you at the time.
• Price: $39.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

Oh man, do I wish Aeon Timeline had been around eight years ago. AT lets you create incredibly complex but easily readable timelines, along decades or years or even minutes. (Scifi and fantasy writers, check out the feature that lets you define non-Earth-standard time increments!) You can organize your events along different “arcs,” which is incredibly helpful if you want to keep groups of events separate from each other, but still want to see where they intersect. For my next book, I’ve built a timeline with different arcs for events from World War I, New York history, the lives of various historical figures (Ameen Rihani, Louis Brandeis, T.E. Lawrence, etc.), and the lives of my own characters. So when I go to actually write the book, I can be clear on which real-world events have already happened, which will happen within the course of the book (and possibly influence the characters’ actions or attitudes), and which events the characters will create themselves in the course of the plot. If this sounds confusing, just take a look at the demo, where they’ve broken down the entire plot of Murder on the Orient Express. It took me about a half hour of playing with AT to go from “Hmm, it’s a little pricey” to “SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY.”

Email

• Gmail (in Browser)
• Gmail is a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page

Am I weird for using Gmail in the browser? Everyone else seems to use Apple Mail or MailMate or what have you. I’ve tried them all, but I always end up back in Chrome. (Though once a week I open up Apple Mail and let it slurp down all the new stuff, just so I’ve got everything in storage.) Of course, my email needs are relatively uncomplicated: I’ve only got one account to manage, and I don’t have to worry about syncing with an Outlook server or the like.

That said, I’ve experienced a lot of growing pains around email in the last few years. It wasn’t too long ago that I’d get maybe six emails I cared about in the course of a working day. These days, I have a lot to respond to, much of it time-sensitive. I’m still trying to figure out how to manage it all. I set up a bunch of filters set up to move low-priority email to a “Later” folder, so that (hopefully) the most important emails float to the top, but I don’t entirely trust it yet. I tried the SaneBox demo, but I’m too much of a control freak to be happy with it. I kept second-guessing the algorithm, and wondering what I wasn’t seeing. Maybe someday I’ll be able to let go (and justify the annual fee), but for now I’ll keep struggling with email on my own.

Productivity

• OmniFocus
• OmniFocus is designed to quickly capture your thoughts and ideas to store, manage, and help you process them into actionable to-do items.
• Price: $79.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

It’s probably an exaggeration to say I’d be lost without OmniFocus, but not by much. I’m still (perpetually) refining my OF workflows. I used to keep separate folders for work projects, travel, and home or personal projects, regardless of whether they were short-term or ongoing. Now, as soon as a project gets a deadline, it goes in the Deadlines folder, no matter which part of my life it comes from. That way I can scan the folder quickly to see what I’ve got coming down the pike. I don’t want to have to look in two different places to realize that I’ve got a blog Q&A due the same day I’m hosting a Passover seder.

Like a lot of OF users, I struggle with how – or even whether – to break down large creative projects into OmniFocus tasks. It would feel weird not to have my next book represented in OF in some way, since it’s the biggest thing on my plate. But at least with the last book, once I was in the thick of writing, a daily repeating OF task labeled “Write two hours” seemed kind of silly. Kind of like having a task called “Eat lunch” or “Put your clothes on.” What the hell else was I going to do that day? So right now, my next-book OF project only has a few ancillary tasks in it, like “Research NYC orphanages in 1910s,” and “Go to UC Berkeley library for JSTOR access.” Maybe as I (hopefully) acquire an official deadline and the book gains substance and momentum, I’ll figure out a good way to break it down into trackable chunks.

N.B.: I can’t remember which productivity blogger or podcaster suggested creating app-based contexts (“@Chrome,” “@Byword,” and so on) but whoever it was, I owe you big. It changed my entire workflow. Now I just open an app, go through my task list, and then move on to the next app. Genius.

• Freedom
• Freedom is the wonderful app for Windows, Mac, and Android that locks you away from the ‘net. If online distractions kill your productivity, Freedom could be the best 10 dollars you’ll ever spend.
• Price: $10
• Developer’s Page

There are days when turning on Freedom is the only way I get anything done. It’s painful, especially when I’m in research mode or waiting for a response to an email. But still, invaluable.

• RescueTime
• With so many distractions and possibilities in your digital life, it’s easy to get scattered. RescueTime helps you understand your daily habits so you can focus and be more productive.
• Price: $9/mo
• Developer’s Page

I’ve started using RescueTime again, now that I’m trying to get back into Serious Writing Mode. It keeps me accountable over the long term, the same way that Freedom does over the short term. And it’s always fun to try to beat yesterday’s stats.

Automation and Shortcuts

• Hazel
• Hazel is a System Preference pane that works silently in the background, automatically filing, organizing and cleaning.
• Price: $28
• Developer’s Page

I finally bought Hazel about a month ago, after hearing everyone talk about it ad nauseam. I’ve barely scratched the surface of what it can do, but already it’s saving me tons of time and mental energy. Moreover, Hazel makes me think about how I label my documents upfront, instead of what I used to do: just call them any old thing and toss them in a giant bucket. It’s helping me create an in-the-moment organizational discipline that, with any luck, will spill over into other aspects of my life.

• Alfred
• Alfred is an award-winning productivity application for Mac OS X. Alfred saves you time when you search for files online or on your Mac. Be more productive with hotkeys, keywords and file actions at your fingertips.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page

Oh, Alfred, how I neglect you. I know you’re more than just an app switcher and document finder. Others whisper amazing things about your clipboard prowess, but do I take the time to figure you out? No, I just tell you to open iTunes again. Poor Alfred.

• TextExpander
• Type more with less effort! TextExpander saves your fingers and your keyboard, expanding custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures.
• Price: $34.95
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

I’ve been tinkering with TextExpander for a few months, figuring out where the big wins are. At first I created a zillion snippets for small, often-used phrases, but I found it was more effort to remember the snippet than to just type out the phrase. Now I’m much more interested in long-form snippets. Recently I figured out how to use TextExpander snippets to write answers to frequently asked questions. I tend to answer the same dozen or so questions repeatedly, either in email interviews or in readers’ emails. I wanted a way to speed up the process, but I didn’t want to copy and paste canned responses. So I developed a set of snippets that present me with lists of phrases related to each answer. For instance, if someone asks about my inspiration for THE GOLEM AND THE JINNI, I type “.inspiration” and get this:

started at Columbia
working on short stories
combined tales from families
immigration to America
issues of language, culture
collection refused
complained to a friend
she pointed out
realist stories
sci-fi and fantasy
challenged me
fantastical instead
switched characters
golem and jinni

Now I have a handy cheat-sheet of phrases. I can incorporate them straight into my answer, or reword and tinker with them, or just read them over to get the engine going and then write something completely different. This way I can to tailor each response to fit the situation (relaxed-and-chatty blog Q&A vs. more formal press interview, etc.) without having to start each answer over again from square one.

The hazards of hearing your own writing read aloud

When you write a book over a period of years, there are likely going to be sections that benefit unequally from increasing skill. This is usually transparent to the reader, but an author may want a few more editorial passes done on a completed book, if they are forced to spend to much time with their own words.

This is made worse for someone hearing George Guidall perform their story. Dostoevsky might even want to revise a paragraph here or there.

Narrators

George Guidall is probably the best there is, but I have a soft spot in my heart for the narrator couple of Kate Reading and Michael Kramer after hearing them read the whole Wheel of Time. I also love Stefan Rudnicki, Gabrielle de Cuir, and Richard Ferrone.

Proper (we hope) name pronunciation is one of the benefits of hearing a professional read a book to you, and the characters in The Golem and the Jinni really highlight this. Helene’s method of combining names from family members, ship manifests, and other period source material give the world its feeling of reality.

You Need a Budget

This doesn’t have to do with writing per se, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention You Need a Budget (YNAB). I’m essentially a freelancer now, so I get paid in erratically spaced, odd-sized chunks. That means I need serious control over my monthly expenses, so I can build a cushion for myself and have some certainty about how long it’ll last. And then there’s the joy of quarterly taxes, saving for retirement, tickets home for the holidays, etc. It didn’t happen overnight, but with YNAB’s help, I’ve managed to create a realistic, all-inclusive budget and stick to it, for the first time in my life. Frankly, it feels pretty great.

Spoilers Ahead

For the sake of listeners who haven’t had a chance to read the book yet, there are spoilers from this point on. Once you have finished, you can return to this section of the audio which adds additional character insight and some thoughts on faith in the world of the golem and the jinni.

SciFi and Fantasy

Science fiction and fantasy has gotten a bad rap over the years. For a long time it was second class to works by authors that focused solely on the human condition, like Hemingway and Fitzgerald. I made my way to the genre through Vonnegut, who elegantly intertwined time travel and alien planets with alcoholism and suicide. It was a surprise when I learned that fiction and scifi were two separate things. With the popularity of vampire stories and comic book movies, I think the mainstream is steadily moving toward my own happy conclusion: SciFi is just fiction with an imagination.

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Have you ever had to reset a password? Have you ever forgotten the new password after you reset it? Gabe and Erik share their password struggles and talk about how they're trying to solve them, mostly with the help of 1Password.

Have You Ever Been Forced to Reset a Password?

We all know passwords are important. Sure, they’re important. But they’re also boring, and sometimes it takes a security blunder by one of the critical links in our online systems to make us remember to pay attention again. Consider this episode a reminder, too, and do some housekeeping.

Explaining Passwords

One of the hardest things to do is to explain password security “best practices” to an average “Alice” or “Joe”. I’ve tackled the discussion about changing passwords with my family and they look at me like I suggested they change their first name. Passwords are looked at like house keys. As long as you keep them in your pocket, there’s nothing to worry about. But I try to explain it more like, a valet car service. You give them your key and then you have no idea what they do with it for the other 99% of the time you have a relationship with them.

The Applications

This is not one of those times when we are going to recommend a whole host of possible apps for you to try. All of us use 1Password, and I bet this is true of most of our listeners too. The AgileBits have created a great app that is well-supported and available on most platforms. More than that though, they seem to have a great mindset towards security, and they take the time to educate the masses on their site. All of this usually ends the app search before it begins.

• 1Password
• 1Password gives you the security you need in today’s online world without slowing you down. 1Password makes you more productive while simultaneously increasing your security with strong, unique passwords for all your accounts.
• Price: $24.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

There are, however, some other apps to consider, if you aren’t interested in 1Password for any reason.

• Dashlane
• Dashlane is the best, free password manager and secure digital wallet for your iPhone, iPad, and other devices.
• Price: Free/$19.99 per Year
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• LastPass
• LastPass is the last password you’ll ever have to remember. Once setup you’ll have your login and password data on your PC and your iPhone/iPad seamlessly synced via a Host Proof Hosting method which does not allow LastPass (or anyone else) access to your sensitive data.
• Price: Free/$12 per Year
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

For edge cases

The first password app I ever heard of and used was KeePass, which is still likely the best choice for the open-source crowd. It is also a good choice for a universal solution, since it has unofficial ports on virtually every OS. It has also been around internet forever, as in it was there when Lifehacker was still good and before Merlin became sick to death of talking about GTD.

As to universal access to yous passwords, there is also the somewhat hidden gem of 1PasswordAnywhere, which allows you to view your data in a browser window. One gotcha that can affect those of us on IT lock-down is that 1PasswordAnywhere unfortunately (wisely) does not support Internet Explorer.

Creating Good Passwords

Perhaps the best lesson on password strength can be found in a cartoon.

xkcd: Password Strength

Of course, xkcd is not your average webcomic, and Randall Munroe is not your averagewebcomic author, so the truth found here should not be discounted.

Remember that you are trying to win the opportunity cost battle with a hacker here, and the length of a password equals computer cycles and time. In the time it takes to crack a long password, there are thousands of the Password! variety that could be had.

Also keep in mind that the length of the password can be offset if the phrase you’ve chosen is not random and is instead be found in a cracker’s files already. Say, for instance, that it is a notable quote from the Big Lebowski…

About the One Password

One day, I walked my spouse through creating a strong password for 1Password. I explained the importance of using something that wasn’t easily guessed. All was going great and felt pretty good about myself. When we finished, she pulled out her little notebook and immediately wrote the strong password down.

The next time, I used a phrase that she could remember but I also understood that nothing I said would change the fact that she was going to write the password down for at least the first week she used it. By using a phrase, it’s unlikely anyone would even suspect that it was a password.

Sharing Passwords

Sometimes a password is required to be easily passed verbally, or potentially under duress. An example having both of these requirements would be your home security system’s “all-clear” password, but banks and billers sometime require a code word in order to take actions on your account.

password

You can certainly pass your long, not-a-word, alphanumeric password to the bank teller, but even if you choose 1Password’s “pronounceable” option, you may find it hard to convey. No matter what, you probably shouldn’t pass it to the teller on on folded slip of paper. Especially if you have shifty little eyes.

Passwords for Humans

Seriously, take it easy on the rules about password complexity for anything that you must remember. In my experience, people give up pretty quickly and just start cheating. They write it down or end up making the passwords too obvious and easily guessed. Not all systems accept space characters as part of the password either. Because the space character was only invented in 2003.

Whether you are protecting access to a bunch of already maxed-out credit cards or to a strangely valuable Twitter Username, you should put some care into setting your one password (to rule them all). AgileBits expounds on the wisdom in the xkcd comic above, and it marks a good entry point for the nerdy.

Default Passwords

Modern technology makes it pretty easy to be lazy. Just don’t forget that thousands of other people buy the same devices and know what the default passwords are too. It’s worth the extra time it takes to change the default user and password on routers. Don’t believe me? Here’s a list that probably contains the password your router had when you first installed it.

Managing Passwords

Any password management system worth its salt needs to be available when you need it to look up a password. Depending on what your needs are, there are several syncing options. 1Password uses Dropbox or iCloud to sync between devices. The benefit of Dropbox syncing is that it’s available on Windows, Android or in a web browser through Dropbox. The 1PasswordAnywhere option is convenient if you find yourself stuck on a new machine without 1Password installed.

mSecure also provides cross platform syncing through Dropbox. Both application suites creat their own encrypted data file but rely on Dropbox to handle the heavy lifting for syncing. Each device keeps a complete copy of the data, so if there’s a Dropbox outage, the data is still accessible on your computer.

LastPass offers another option for syncing passwords between browsers across platforms. Instead of using Dropbox, LastPass is a centralized password syncing service made available across platforms through a browser extension.

Most modern browsers also offer password syncing between instances. Chrome provides syncing as a Google services. Firefox also indicated through a nightly build that it will also be moving toward a centralized syncing service using Mozilla servers.

Your sensitive bits

Remember, passwords aren’t the only pieces of sensitive information we need to track and recall. 1Password is a secure note system too. I store a lot of different things in 1Password, partly because it’s very secure and partly because I like to keep all of it in one place. Here’s some of the stuff I store in 1Password. It’s not all sensitive but it’s secure and available any time.

• Family info (social security, maiden names, birth counties and hospitals)
• Tax IDs for business
• Mortgage information and scans
• Day Care information
• Old Credit Card details
• A list of previous and expired passwords
• Codes for emergency key lock box
• Photos of various super saver cards
• Photos of social security cards
• Car VIN numbers
• Reset code for car stereo
• Scans of medical directives

The great thing about adding scans and photos to 1Password is that it’s instantly available to me with my iPhone, iPad or Mac and if it’s even mildly sensitive I know where it is.

Password Tips

Once you begin using 1Password for its basics purpose of securing your online presense, it comes time to explore the preferences and tinker, like all good nerds should. AgileBits has packed a lot of value into the app itself, and there are many great features that you won’t know you needed until you you discover them.

Sharing Vaults

The hardest part of getting someone to start using a password manager is getting them to remember to use it at all. By pre-populating it with a bunch of useful information, you give them a big reason to even open the app. Once they see the value, hopefully they add their own stuff too.

The latest version of 1Password for the Mac now allows access to multiple vaults. This is a great way to create and manage a vault that you share with a family member.

Sharing a vault in 1Password is possible because of Dropbox sharing. Agile Bits have created a robust system but the real work of syncing is performed by Dropbox. There’s a good tutorial available on the Agile Bits Web site. I find that the value of sharing a vault is all in the ease of helping to administer passwords for my family. When I update a password for a bank account or cable TV, I can easily edit the entry for both my wife and I. I keep two separate vaults, one for me and one for my wife, so passwords must be updated in each vault separately.

In addition to its out-of-the-box utility, a lot of efficiency can be gained by using your favorite keyboard launcher to access your secured data.

Launch Center Pro

1Password is a little slow on the draw when you just want to get in a do a search. Launch Center Pro takes a lot of the fiddling out of the process.

Here’s a good source of a complex 1Password action for Launch Center Pro. Phillip is crafty with URL schemes and in particular has some nice examples of Launch Center Pro actions.

I use a Launch Center Pro action (you can install it from that link) to open a URL on the clipboard in the 1Password browser almost every day. Open in 1Password is almost always more convenient if I need to end up logging into a site or creating a password.

I also regularly use a LCP action that prompts for input and then searches in 1Password. This takes far less time than navigating to the 1Password search box.

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

How do you read these days? Gabe and Erik talk about the devices and apps they use for casual and serious reading.

You Do Much Reading?

While we’ve already delved a bit into books on previous episodes, reading is a subject that can take a conversation in any direction. For people of a certain generation, reading often connotes a book of one sort or another, but the 80s generation may be the last to make that connection. With the ever increasing popularity of hand-held computers, you no longer have to know what you want to read, only that you want to read. Gone is the now-ancient requirement to literally “pick up” a novel, history (chemistry?) book, or magazine.

Casual Reading

Reading on the web used to be as simple as opening up Google Reader and browsing through your (thousands) of feeds, but the RSS landscape is a little less clear these days.

Syncing

After reading an exhaustive set of reviews there may not be a clear winner, but since Gabe stuck with Feedbin, I think it is probably the best choice for the otherwise unconvinced. I chose a fourth option by quitting RSS altogether. I may go back someday, but for right now, I visit a handful of sites manually (while carefully avoiding others) and haven’t missed any big news yet. I do continue to miss subtweets, however…

What the RSS market comes down to now, really, is selecting a client and then adding in the feed syncing afterward. All of the top Reader replacements have easy OPML import and export, and all of the top clients support multiple sync services. This is a pretty sane way to operate overall, but a little more innovation wouldn’t hurt either.

• Feedbin
• A fast, simple RSS reader that delivers a great reading experience.
• Price: $3 per month
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

There are many great RSS clients available for iOS and Android, and the decision likely comes down to preference in the end. Most of the audience has probably been using Reeder and Mr. Reader for years now, anyway.

• Reeder
• An Elegant RSS Reader for iOS.
• Price: $4.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• Mr. Reader
• Mr. Reader is a powerful RSS News Reader for your iPad that synchronizes with popular services.
• Price: $3.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• Press
• Press is a simple and elegant Android RSS client for popular syncing services.
• Price: $2.99
• Developer’s Page
• Play Store

More on Press

Most of our users have an all-iOS device stable, but for those who use Android I highly recommend Press by TwentyFive Squares. It has quickly become my favorite mobile RSS reader on any platform for its elegant design, intuitive functionality, and speed.

My favorite feature is double-tapping on an article to bring it up in Readability mode, which is handy for sites without full RSS feeds. It also handles XKCD image titles gracefully, which has lately become a primary yardstick by which I measure RSS apps.

When I’m reading feeds on my iPad, Press is the app I wish I was using.

Gabe has given up on desktop RSS apps, but Erik is still clinging to the dream. He uses ReadKit.

• Readkit
• ReadKit is a full-featured read later and RSS client that supports services from Instapaper, Pocket, Readability, Pinboard, Delicious, Feedly, Fever, NewsBlur, Feedbin and Feed Wrangler and has built-in RSS capabilities.
• Price: $6.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

The Chromebook

I’ve been trying to move to a more cross-platform, web-friendly workflow recently, and as an experiment I’ve been toying around with an HP Chromebook 11.

Fast, Cheap, Good… Well, it’s sure not fast.

Tekniska museet

Even in the age of the iPad, sometimes it’s nice to have a keyboard-equipped device. The HP Chromebook is great as a cheap laptop if you have reasonable expectations and are willing to tinker a bit. It reminds me of the old plastic MacBooks in the absolute nicest way.

The HP has an ARM processor, which isn’t speedy, but will charge with a micro-USB connector. The IPS display puts the 11” MacBook Air to shame, which says less about the Chromebook than it does about the MacBook.

I took my little Chromebook on a business trip last year as my only laptop (and also brought no Apple products, a story for another day) and the machine worked great for light web development (mostly in Ubuntu) and day-to-day web use. The display was perfect when I had to demo a new website design for a client, and the battery was surprisingly long-lasting. What was even cooler is that I only took one charger with me for the entire trip.

A full review of this thing is beyond the scope of this aside, but I’m sure I’ll get around to writing it up eventually.

Whether using Feedbin in the browser or just reading a site in place on the web, viewing a blog with its intended styling does have its own merits. That way you can enjoy the hard work that designers put into the presentation of their ideas, while also appreciating the various shades of green they employ. In any event Fluid is still the finest implementation of site-specific browsing there is.

• Fluid
• Fluid lets you create a Real Mac App (or Fluid App) out of any website or web application, effectively turning your favorite web apps into OS X desktop apps.
• Price: Free/$4.99
• Developer’s Page

Reading Later

While reading on the web, it is easy to come accross something you would like to save for later reference or for later reading. Bookmarks have long existed to satisfy both needs, but features like offline access and improved mobile presentation brought read-it-later services into common use. Instapaper was (arguably?) the first of these services, but many great options exist now.

• Instapaper
• Instapaper is the simplest way to save and store articles for reading: offline, on-the-go, anytime, anywhere, perfectly formatted.
• Price: $3.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• Pocket
• Don’t lose track of the interesting things you find by emailing yourself links or letting tabs pile up in your browser. Just save them to Pocket.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• Pinboard
• Pinboard is a fast, no-nonsense bookmarking site. No ads, no fluff.
• Price: Varies (Currently $10.35)
• Developer’s Page

Pinboard Reading

I have just a few tips for getting the most out of Pinboard. First, get the archive account so that you can search the full text of your bookmarked content. With an archive account, Pinboard caches a copy of the content. If the page goes away, you can always view Pinboard’s last known cache. It also means you get access to full content searching from right within Pinboard.

Second, use tags sparingly and with a system. I have a few tags that I combine to provide a lot complex meaning in favor of overly explicit tags. For example, “humanity”, “politics”, and “programming” can all modify other tags to change their meaning. For example, “politics” and “humor” is going to be very different than “programming” and “humor”. “Politics” and “humanity” rarely occur together though.

Third, group links for a project together with a unique tag. I pre-pend a project tag with an underscore. If I was writing a book, all of the reference links would be tagged with “_book”. Filtering by that tag shows me what I have but it also shows all of the other tags I added to those links. It makes filtering really easy.

Finally, use the note field in Pinboard. That content is searchable too. Often, the article title can be misleading. The note field is visible inline with the Pinboard bookmarks so finding the needle becomes a lot easier.

When it comes to iOS apps, I really like Pinswift. It’s fast and supports full text search. Pushpin is nice but I regularly have issues with it not loading bookmarks. To each their own.

For those who do use Pinboard for read-it-later links, you really ought to check out Paperback by the very talented Nick Wynja.

• Paperback
• A clean and simple way to read Pinboard articles later.
• Price: $15 per Year
• Developer’s Page

Cheap

The value proposition offered by Paperback is unbelievable (seriously, the man does not place a single pixel awry), but I reject Gabe’s notion that $15 is cheap. Why, that is an entire quarter’s worth of earnings for a podcast show notes producer! I’m saving up.

News Filter

Many of us have a handful of sites we like to read regularly or have systems to parse our own RSS lists, but that often leaves a gap in news or new content discovery. This gap in knowledge and awareness is one that many of us used to to fill with a newspaper, but a handful of services try to stand amidst the torrent of information online in our stead. One of them, Zite, clearly stands out for Gabe, although he fears for its future.

• Zite
• Zite is an intelligent magazine that helps you discover interesting things to read.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

Zite Training

Zite isn’t just an aggregator of news and social feeds. The topics can be tuned to provide a custom tailored reading experience that still offers a lot of pleasant surprises. It pays off to provide Zite some basic categories for news, like “technology”, “brewing” or “writing”. The categories you choose influence the tops stories but they are also a topic-specific reading library.

Rating articles as thumbs-up increases the likelihood that similar articles will show up in the top stories feed as well as the category feeds. You can also give a topic a thumbs down or even block entire domains or sub-categories. The culmination of this fine-tuning is a reading experience that is perfectly tailored to my current tastes. If I decide I want a bit more science in my Zite feeds, I give the sciency stuff a boost with some thumbs-up ratings. All of my other categories and main news feed will immediately start to show more articles with scientific slants to them.

Banning entire domains really helps with a news discovery service too. I pretty much never want to see anything from Buzzfeed or Mashable so I block those domains in Zite. That forces Zite to fill the space with better content.

Zite offers a wide variety of categories for building your news experience. I recommend experimenting and tuning. For example, I have a “Python” category which started out as a mix of programming and unfortunate stories about snakes in Florida. After a few rounds of rating articles the category became much more focused on code than pet store accidents.

Another Contender

Flipboard is another popular online, magazine 2.0 thingie, and is by most accounts very good. None of us use it enough to offer a full opinion on it though.

Shaun Inman’s customer-hosted RSS service Fever offers a grand premise, mostly delivered: chuck at it every link you find remotely interesting and let Fever filter the news by “temperature.” The developer makes sure that it functions properly, but it’s officially not a priority for him. He gets points for honesty.

• Fever
• Fever takes the temperature of your slice of the web and shows you what’s hot.
• Price: $30
• Developer’s Page

News

In recent weeks, I have been getting my filtered news from two sources. Each weekday morning (on the US East Coast, at least) Stefan Constantinescu releases a new issue of Tab Dump, which is essentially half tech news and half “real” news. It is a great snapshot of both worlds, and Stefan presents it with just the right amount of commentary. You should become a supporter.

My other weekday news source is Dave Pell’s NextDraft. This one is likely more familiar to most, and it provides a nice summary of the day with more of a E! TV feel to it.

More News Sources that Don’t Stink

In addition to Zite, I really like Quartz and Digg. Quartz has some stellar writing and reporting and Digg generally has high quality articles to recommend. The Digg iOS app is also very good.

Serious Reading

While there is plenty of serious reading to be done on the web, books still mean serious reading, right? As Gabe explains, and Erik laments, it is realy time to leave paper behind (maybe). Many or most (who knows how many, Amazon won’t tell us) serious readers adore their eInk Kindles, and the close approximation of paper combined with Amazon’s vast library make a compelling argument. Only time will tell whether younger generations will be just as comfortable home reading a glowing LCD screens as on the facsimile of a printed page, but no matter what, the contents of an electronic books are less secure than those of a tome on a shelf.

One particular niche of books that seems inarguably better on a tablet is that of technical books. With the benefit of more responsive text manipulation, better search, and color, a retina LCD screen is likely to best for a while. Erik gives highest marks to O’Reilly and Pragmatic Programmers, and both companies have rejected DRM from the beginning, and that is worth a lot. O’Reilly’s Safari Books Online provides a Netflix type of access to its own books and many more.

DRM Sucks

Enough said.

Inkling’s interactive eBooks are another example of innovation in a very traditional market, but as Gabe explained, there are still some kinks to be worked out.

• Inkling
• Inkling’s interactive eBooks are designed to help you learn, study, and discover just about anything, whether it’s for school, work, or play.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

One final example of how reading can still be advanced is in Amazon’s Whispersync for Voice. While the mechanism can be a bit opaque in its execution, if you own both the Kindle and Audible versions of a book whose publisher permits, then you can sync your place between the professionally narrated audiobook and the Kindle version on any of your devices. There are discounts provided when you buy both versions, but this is a relatively expensive way to enjoy a book. It is pretty magical though. You can visit Amazon’s Matchmaker to see what your existing “audio upgrades” would cost.

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

The topic for this week is the new collaboration service Slack – what is it, what can you do with it, and why is it useful?

The Most Difficult Problem

It’s not that bad

If Erik and Gabe sound a little too exited about a team site, then you underestimate the pain that they have previously endured. Slack is a revelation.

CriticMarkup is a project that tries to bring simple change tracking to the wonderful word of plain text. It was the first big thing that Erik and Gabe worked on together, and they quickly realized how hard it was to do. Already being prone to trying out every possible solution to every possible workflow, they went on a chat vision quest.

• Glassboard
• Google Hangouts
• Viber
• Patter
• Basecamp
• Wordpress P2
• Hall
• HipChat

There are many players in the team collaboration space, but each of them lack at least one critical feature. Erik and Gabe’s needs were not necessarily universal, but they were not unique either.

Collaboration vs. Chat

Most of the services we tried were great for pure chat messaging. A good chat service just needs to maintain message order and provide some kind of push notification. The competition gets thin when you need document sharing and support for code syntax highlighting. By the time you get to named-guest access and private or public discussions there’s almost no one left in the race.

The World Changed

Slack is a messaging tool designed by Flickr co-founder Stewart Butterfield, and it is the logical extension of the IRC-esque system that he and his team designed and used while building the browser based MMO game called Glitch, which has since shut down. Unlike Glitch, Slack has already garnered a large user base.

Graph from Gigaom

The number of users that a service gains can be an early indication of future success, but it is far from the only factor. In Slack’s case, the best indication of its potential may be the nearly universal joy it seems to inspire in its users.

Chat in Channels

When people first started talking publicly about Slack, they almost seemed to be describing a social aggregation system, but at its heart it is a messaging system. The innovation is in the execution details.

Chat Messaging

Each channel is its own chat board. Messages are associated with only one channel but files can be associated with multiple channels. Chat is not threaded in Slack but you can link to a specific comment if needed. The linking process is a bit tedious but works well enough. Marking messages as a favorite (starring) also makes them more easily accessible in the sidebar. This is helpful for referring back to specific statements or files.

Chat posts feel instant in Slack. Posting from iOS causes the message to refresh dynamically on the web page in under a second. I initially thought that we were benefiting from the beta status and low user count during the pre-release period. However, as Slack moved out of beta and received a lot of press, I have not noticed in difference in posting. It’s fast.

The notifications in Slack work great. The work on iOS, Mac and with a web browser that supports notifications. They are also almost instant. As soon as a message appears on the web page, I receive a notification on iOS. If a Slack instance is open and active, there are no notifications. Imagine that.

I also really like the option to delete or edit a message in Slack. One of the most frustration aspects of Glassboard is the inability to fix a typo on a group board. Slack solved this from the start. The option to delete a file attachment or even an entire channel is great too. No need to clutter a board unnecessarily with mistakes.

Links

When Slack sees a link of any sort, it follows it behind-the-scenes in order to provide some in-line context. We’ll discuss later how this is done in the case of tweets, but any web link provides enough useful information so that the thread of a conversation isn’t lost by having to click a link and come back.

In context

File Handling

File Handling

Files and images (and Emoji–hold that thought) are displayed in-line and with obvious indication of the file types. Clicking an in-line object opens the instance in Slack for viewing or opens the external file for editing where appropriate.

The Slack Mac and web apps both support dragging any file into the window to upload it to Slack. The item is tagged to the current channel for easy browsing but you also get a complete list of all files available to the group.

Files like PDFs, text files and Word documents are indexed for searching. They’re not just embedded chat links, they are working documents.

Paste in a Google Doc link and that also becomes searchable within Slack and directly linked from the group chat and search results. The Slack file organization and browsing is also well considered. Browse just your private documents, a single channel or all documents across all groups. You can also filter attachments by file type and favorite status.

Filtering Comments

While you can easily reference a file in a chat, each file also has its own comment thread. This is nice when working on a document together, even a Google Doc. It makes it convenient to discuss changes and make them at the same time. Or use the comments as a reference for reviewing changes.

Files in Slack have a title and comment field to provide additional context and meta data. You can paste directly into the message box to upload an image or drag a file to the browser (or app) window.

Direct Messages

Just like on Twitter, you can send messages to a single person privately and leverage all of the file sharing and code syntax highlighting available in the group chat. Direct Messages are just like group messages except only visible to the two parties participating.

Direct Messages

Standing out

While direct messages receive a slight highlight color, I could imagine an active channel with many contributors could be a bit confusing. The only differentiation between users is the avatar. I’d like a way to add some subtle call-out coloring to a particular user. But that’s a minor complaint when I consider that Slack already provides an option to selectively highlight user selected keywords.

Private Groups

You can set up private groups within your Slack team too, so that you don’t have to worry about being locked into only a Twitter type of communication format. Private groups can be as big or small as you like and the content is not archived or available in global search. Private groups can grow too. Any member of the private group can invite other participants. It’s a nice way to have a sideline conversation outside of the official record for the team.

Private

Service Integrations

Github Integration

Slack has excellent Github integration for both commit messages and new issues or pull requests. It will ask for an account and repository to link, then you’ve got some basic control over how the Github posts look when they show up in your timeline.

Github Settings

As you can see, you’ve got full control over the icon and name, giving you the option of supporting multiple integrations with more than one Github-based project.

Github Posts

Once the posts make it into your timeline, they’re clear and concise. We just recently started integrating Git more deeply into our collaborative editing workflow, and Slack has made it much easier to see who is editing and when.

Asana Integration

Group Tasks

Asana is a nice collaborative task manager and rather than try to invent their own solution, Slack embraces what makes Asana good.

After adding the Asana integration (I pointed it to a specific team channel called “Scheduling”) new, completed and overdue tasks in Asana automatically create posts into Slack. If you like working in Asana then you can keep doing that. However, Slack provides what I would call a command-line interface to Asana. Type “asan/” followed by an action and Slack executes that action in Asana. You can list all active tasks or mark one as complete without ever leaving the Slack team site.

Integration on iOS Commands on iOS

Zendesk Integration

Zendesk integration is fairly new to Slack, but it’s quite capable. Here’s a look at your integration options.

Zendesk Settings

There are plenty of different ways you can configure this to meet your needs. Just like with the other integrations, messages are tasteful and restrained in your timeline.

Zendesk Posts

Twitter Integration

Whether you use your Twitter account as customer service or as a way to watch for people who like your podcast, Slack can pull your mentions in automatically.

Tweets in-line

If you post a link to a tweet, Slack will provide the same in-line format for it.

Search and Rescue

Since storage is so cheap these days, most of us have become used to saving everything, which is great until you need to find that needle in the haystack. This is when searching comes to the fore, and this turns out to be another one of Slack’s great strengths.

Strange

That hypothetical situation seemed weirdly specific.

“Hypothetically”

Search

The search function in Slack is a huge win. Not only is it exhaustive but it’s fast too. Finding files is easy with the file browser but finding a specific conversation thread is just as easy.

iOS Search Search in the app

The results aren’t just the exact sentence or word that matches, but rather a few messages above and below the match. I think this is pretty important for search in a message-centric application than can have thousands of messages. After a couple years of use, search results could become useless otherwise. As I mentioned in the file handling section, the content of attached files are also searchable. While the file hits are obvious in the search results, there’s no way to know exactly where in the file, the term was found.

“What”

Managing Multiple Teams

Things are a little complicated when if you’re working with multiple teams, but it may be as complicated as it needs to be. Slack makes an effort for you to have your own ID that is irrespective of your email address. This idea here seems to be an distinct separation of teams, while still allowing easy access to other teams.

Multiples

You can be a member of multiple groups in Slack and each group can have a different login email yet still be accessible from the apps and web site with a single menu selection. The only shortcoming is that I only received notifications for the selected Slack group.

A Few Slack Tricks

Simple Rescaling

As the Mac app is browser-based, you can increase or decrease the size of the text and UI elements by typing ⌘ + or ⌘ - just like you would in Safari or Chrome. This is such a useful feature I wish more apps supported it, especially on machines with retina-class displays.

Using Slack with Fluid

If you’re not familiar with Fluid, it’s a great way to package webapps as self-contained applications on your Mac. It’s free to use, but if you pay $5 for a license you can give each instance its own cookies, allowing you to run multiple Slack sessions side-by-side.

Fluid is well worth its price for a lot of reasons, but it pairs great with Slack.

• Fluid
• Fluid lets you create a Real Mac App (or Fluid App) out of any website or web application, effectively turning your favorite web apps into OS X desktop apps.
• Price: Free/$4.99
• Developer’s Page

“Finally there’s somebody that got it all right”

Working with Code Syntax Snippets

Messaging and code

Slack knows its audience well. At any time I can send formatted code as a message. Just start typing in the chat box and hit ⌘ + ⏎ to bring up a code entry screen. There’s a good variety of syntax highlighters available too.

Syntax highlighting

Tekniska museet

The thing I really like about this implementation is that a bit of code can be given a title as well as its own comment thread. This helps with search and context. So great.

Custom Emoji

Emoji are insinuating their way into every form of text communication, so it is not surprise that Slack supports them here. In addition to the usual GUI method of clicking the smiley face icon in the right of the text input window, you can also type :: and the first or more letters of the emoji name.

Eloquence

If the usual suspects are not good enough to express the depth of your inner angst, Slack will also let you create your own emoji.

“This is the tool we’ve been waiting for”

Pricing Tiers

Slack seems to have its sights set on more than just the small developer and podcaster markets. On its site, Slack lists companies such as Adobe Typekit, Heroku, SoundCloud, Rdio, BuzzFeed, and Medium, and their pre-announced Enterprise Plan seems to indicate still larger goals.

Business Model

I’m happy to see that Slack has a real business model from the start. A free account is available but limits include, a maximum of 10,000 messages stored in the archive, a maximum of 5GB of file storage and a maximum of 5 integrations. That’s pretty generous.

The standard account are $8 per user per month. That seems reasonable for something that I’ve used every day since joining the beta. This removes most of the limits but raises the maximum file storage to 10GB. It will eventually grant guest access and email forwarding to Slack as well.

More details here and here

Setting the Record Straight

It was actually Gabe who first suggested Slack to us for team communication.

It’s not his fault

Erik wouldn’t have to make this correction if we’d had searchable chat history on our previous collaboration tool.

Slack Support

One detail often overlooked when shopping around for a new service is customer and technical support. Slack has shown a good trend here as well, by being both quick to respond and effective in their Gabe response thus far. Perhaps even better, they have intelligently integrated their answers into the interface, so that everything is done within the Slack system. It’s a small thing, but a good indicator nonetheless.

Until next week

Gabe exaggerates, I’m only stuck on IE 7. That being said, I was able to rig up some ugly JavaScript and HTML forms to send chat using Slack’s incoming webhook integration. We are using Slack for everything now, too.

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Gabe takes time from his high-volume blogging schedule to join Erik for a chat about writing tools and workflows. Along the way, they touch on the apps and devices they use to write for the web, work, and themselves.

A High-Volume Writer

Some bloggers consume an above-average amount of space.

Big boned

The good news is that many of these same bloggers are also in the habit of spending an unusual amount of time refining their writing workflow.

Gabe navel-gazes, we profit.

Gabe’s Desktop workflow

Gabe has “mentioned” mind maps before but after a great deal of experience using them in general, and iThoughts in particular, it’s now just the way he thinks about a big project.

• iThoughtsX
• iThoughtsX is a mind mapping app for the Mac. It is based upon and fully compatible with iThoughts on iPad and iPhone.
• Price: $59.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

From there Gabe’s workflow is plain text all the way down, with Markdown at its core. From a basic tool like nvALT to the more complex ones such as Sublime Text, it’s easy to manage your writing when it all lives in some form of plain text.

• nvALT
• Notational Velocity is a way to take notes quickly and effortlessly using just your keyboard. You press a shortcut to bring up the window and just start typing. It will begin searching existing notes, filtering them as you type.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page

• Sublime Text
• Sublime Text is a sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose. You’ll love the slick user interface, extraordinary features and amazing performance.
• Price: $70
• Developer’s Page

Sublime Text

I’ve progressed through TextEdit, TextMate and BBEdit to end at Sublime Text as my primary text editor. The best part about Sublime Text is the keyboard-centric control it provides. Everything is a keybinding or accessible through fuzzy text matching in the command palette.

The second best thing about Sublime Text is the ludicrous number of plugins available. The SDK for Sublime Text provides enough control over the application that plugins feel like a natural part of the main program and not an add-on script. I think the great diversity in the plugins results from the multi-platform support in Sublime Text. A Sublime Text license works on Mac, Windows or Unix and many of the plugins work equally well on all three platforms.

My least favorite part of Sublime Text are the configuration files. To adjust or tweak anything requires a deep dive on a JSON file. For those looking for just a basic writing app, this is probably a deal-breaker, but for anyone that has worked in HTML, CSS or any programming language, it’s trivial. The text-based configuration files are very flexible which means there’s more control over every little detail in Sublime Text. That’s a net gain in my book.

I prefer medium-light text on a dark background. Many people call this “dark mode”. I call it “not squinting mode.” There are also “inverted” modes that some prefer. Whatever text editor you use, I recommend finding a theme that works everywhere and sticking with it, especially if there is any kind of syntax coloring. It takes the distraction out of the distraction-free writing environment.

Take a look at Colorsublime for a great collection of themes as well as an interactive demo of each. This is a seriously awesome resource.

Buy Me a Soda is a very popular theme for Sublime Text and TextMate but there are plenty of great themes around. Pick one and then stick with it for at least 6 months. Stop futzing with your color schemes.

There are a few plugins I recommend for Sublime Text that make for a better writing experience. None of them are necessary. But at the very least, get comfortable with the commands and memorize the keyboard shortcuts built into Sublime Text. Being able to quickly jump through a document makes all the difference when working on a large block of text. I also recommend learning how to use split panes.

Here’s a look at the Project dialog boxes that Gabe and Erik highlighted:

Project File Actions Open Recent Project

Through the wonders of TextDrop, you can even have ubiquitous access to your notes in almost any web browser. Gabe also makes extensive use of the Sublime Text SFTP Plugin, which provides him another way to remotely manage his text, while being at home in Sublime Text.

• TextDrop
• The fastest way to edit text files in your Dropbox using a web browser. It’s designed for situations where you don’t have Dropbox installed, like when you’re at work.
• Price: $12.75 per year
• Developer’s Page

“I made her use Pages before they ruined Pages”

Also note that even when your writing’s eventual destination is an email recipient or even, perish the thought, Word, you can still use the tools you have honed for plain text composition. Unless dashing off a quick note (and maybe even then) you’re probably better off using what you know or prefer.

Gabe’s Mobile Workflow

On the mobile side of the house, things are in some ways much the same. Without commenting on whether the iPad is a consumption or production device, many of us do the bulk of our work on a conventional desktop or laptop. Likewise most of us do need to do some work on a mobile device, and there are many great apps that permit easy work with plain text and markdown, and Dropbox to it all in sync.

• Editorial
• Editorial is a plain text editor for the iPad with powerful automation tools and a beautiful inline preview for writing Markdown.
• Price: $4.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

Editorial

Editorial is the pinnacle of writing on iOS and may be one of my favorite writing tools. The singular focus of an iPad helps to enforce my intent but there’s just enough flexibility in Editorial to let me quickly look something up on the web without falling down a rat hole.

For the uninitiated, Editorial is a Dropbox-enabled plain text editor for the iPad. At launch, it provides a light and dark writing mode, document syncing, Dropbox powered version control, MultiMarkdown preview and a built-in web browser. But the real power of Editorial is the workflow engine that extends the application in a variety of ways. There are plenty of overviews of the application, as well as a book you can buy to learn more about the tool. But I’d recommend a few workflows to get you started:

• Paste Workflow to save effort trying to trigger the pop-over
• Select Forward and Backward by whole words
• Find and Replace workflow (or by popover)
• Smart Case conversion workflow

Some Other Noteworthy Mobile Editors

Gabe and Erik discussed iOS text editing on an earlier episode of the show, but there are a couple worth revisiting here.

• Nebulous Notes
• Nebulous Notes is a powerful, yet simple, text editor for note-takers, writers, and coders. Your notes are backed up and available from Dropbox, the best back-up service in the world.
• Price: $7.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• WriteRoom
• Write without distractions. WriteRoom is a full screen writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you’re used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing.
• Price: Unavailable
• Developer’s Page

While any of these apps can separate types of writing through the use of Dropbox directory structure, a useful tip is to separate out certain bits of your writing by confining it to a specific app. A perfect example of this is the way Gabe keeps his personal writing in Day One. He discussed his journaling workflow on his blog in 2012.

Day One and Time Travel

You owe it to yourself to go read Gabe’s article now. We’ll wait for you to come back.

While this can just be a simple way to ensure no personal detail is accidentally shared, don’t discount the mental benefits of shifting your mindset by switching to a single-purpose app.

• Day One
• Record life as you live it. From once-in-a-lifetime events to everyday moments, Day One’s elegant interface makes journaling your life a simple pleasure.
• Price: $4.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

A Low-Volume Writer

At the other end of the spectrum is Erik, at best a semi-periodic “blogger.” While Erik may only write rarely for the web, he does write. For Erik, new tools should fit into his existing workflow, which is development focused.

Sublime Text is his primary tool, as his workflow is almost purely laptop based. Most of the time that he doesn’t have a laptop with him, he’s not in a position to write anyway. Erik may not always write when mobile, but when he does it’s usually with Byword.

• Byword
• Byword is designed to make writing more enjoyable with Markdown on your iPhone and iPad.
• Price: $4.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

The main things going for Byword are its speed, its simplicity, and its near-unique ability to take Markdown input and send it to Evernote. For those reasons, it’s what Erik turns to when he isn’t using Sublime Text.

• Google Reader was powered down on July 2, 2013.
• Generational 041 - Death and Life of RSS

Tools We’d Like to Use

Dictation is one of those things that seems like a perfect way to write on the go. Instead it usually ends in frustration. iOS dictation is improving, but you still have to wait for the server. Android dictation is significantly faster and gives you the benefit of seeing your text appear word by word, but in the end you’re still talking into a rectangle in your hand.

• Dragon Dictation
• Dragon Dictation is an easy-to-use voice recognition application powered by Dragon® NaturallySpeaking® that allows you to easily speak and instantly see your text or email messages. In fact, it’s up to five (5) times faster than typing on the keyboard.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

In the event of a website emergency, if all Erik had was an iPad he’d turn to Diet Coda from Panic. With recent updates, it supports local files, Dropbox, 1Password integration, and a bunch of really great features you’d expect in a desktop editor. Unfortunately, as a paranoid shut-in, Erik rarely ventures out without his laptop.

Although, if the laptop died…

• Diet Coda
• What happens when you take the power of Coda, our Mac OS X web code editor, and crunch it down into a powerful, feature-packed iPad package? Introducing Diet Coda, the best way to make quick edits to your websites on the go.
• Price: $19.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

If you’re looking to write the next great novel, or even take part in NaNoWriMo, you have probably considered Scrivener. It’s like an IDE for books. The lack of an iOS version is its only Achilles’ Heel, but hey, at least it runs on Windows and even Linux.

Bah

Vim runs everywhere, too.

• Scrivener
• Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. While it gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft.
• Price: $45
• Developer’s Page

Many of us have aspirational tools that we really think should be perfect for… something. Our hosts are no different in this, but then again, if a tool really is a right fit, it will likely worm its way into your workflow, rather than be denied.

Tools We Use Without Even Thinking About Them

Some workflow tools like the system dictionary, exist in the background rarely(?) needed. Some tools like TextExpander, are so vital that minor panic attackes ensue whenever their absense is considered. For Erik TextExpander is the glue that holds his writing together, but we should all fear dependency…

Expanding on Expansion

If I were to pick a tool I couldn’t live without, it would probably be TextExpander by Smile Software. It’s the kind of tool that gets stuck in your workflow and never quite gets out. Whenever I’m on a non-TE platform (Windows, Linux, Android, most iOS apps) I find myself typing my snippets and waiting a few seconds for them to appear.

…and they never do!!! SOB

TextExpander is such a part of my workflow that I’m a bit afraid to keep using it, since I feel it might disappear on me at any moment. This nearly happened with iOS 7.

• TextExpander
• Type more with less effort! TextExpander saves your fingers and your keyboard, expanding custom keyboard shortcuts into frequently-used text and pictures.
• Price: $34.95
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

Yet one of my biggest uses for TextExpander is writing for this site and my blog. You see, I do a sort of meta expansion – using snippets to write templates. On many modern blogging platforms Template Engines allow you to do TextExpander-like expansion of a few variables into a whole lot more HTML. They keep the markdown files of your blog fairly readable, and they make it easy to extend your design with new functionality quickly and painlessly.

Discussing the virtues and perils of templating engines is beyond the scope of these notes, but to give you an idea of what they can do, I’ve included below a few of the templates we use on this site, along with the corresponding TextExpander snippet, the HTML and rendered output.

Sub-Head Time Stamp

These go just beneath our section headers and embed a linked Soundcloud time stamp.

Typing ;tsc turns into this template:

{{ theme:partial src="timestamp" url="{{ soundcloudurl }}" time="" }}

Which gets turned in to this HTML:

<div class="timestamp">
  <span class="listen">Listen to this section on SoundCloud:</span> <a href="https://soundcloud.com/techdiffpodcast/069-writing-workflows#t=0:00">0:00</a>
</div>

And ends up looking like this:

Fancy Quotes

What about those fancy time stamped pull quotes? Same deal. ;tfq becomes this (once I’ve filled in the variable values):

{{ theme:partial src="fancy-quote" url="{{ soundcloudurl }}" time="0:00" person="erik" quote="Surely you can't be serious." }}

Which is rendered as this HTML:

<table class="fancy-quote erik">
  <tr>
    <td class="avatar">
      <img src="http://technicaldifficulties.us/assets/img/erik-avatar.png" />
    </td>
    <td class="quote"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/techdiffpodcast/069-writing-workflows#t=0:00">“I am serious.”</a></td>
  </tr>
</table>

Which comes out looking like this:

“And don’t call me Shirley.”

Images

We even use it to optimize images, using the built-in transform tag in our CMS. Typing ;timg turns into this:

{{ theme:partial src="image" title="Much expand. Wow." show="{{ number }}" file="doge.jpg" }}

To this (with the variables left intact so you can see under the hood):

<a class="fancybox" alt="{{ title }}" title="{{ title }}" rel="page" href="{{ _site_url }}assets/img/{{ file }}" >
  <img src="{{ _site_url }}{{ transform src="assets/img/{{ file }}" width="1024" type="jpg" action="resize" }}" /><span class="title">{{ title }}</span>
</a>

To this:

Much expand. Wow.

Capturing Thoughts

Very often we need to quickly jot down an idea before it flees us, and that quick-capture muscle memory is important one to train. Drafts is without peer for the Dropbox fans, but if you don’t mind having your notes living in a database of some sort, Evernote offers a nice solution, especially if you have an inbox notebook.

• Drafts
• Drafts is the quick, easy way to capture and share text. In Drafts, text comes first – open the app and get a new, blank draft – ready to type.
• Price: $2.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

• Evernote
• Evernote is an easy-to-use, free app that helps you remember everything across all of the devices you use. Stay organized, save your ideas and improve productivity.
• Price: Free
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

It is worth pointing out that dead tree paper is still the best choice for when you want to show that you’re paying attention and not just multi-tasking.

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Microphones and headphones are the topic of the day, as Gabe and Erik talk about the ones they like and the ones they don't really like, but own anyway. Along the way, they try out a bunch of different microphones, so listen in and decide for yourself.

Headphones

A good pair of headphones is indispensable for recording, editing and enjoying audio. Here is a short list of the headphones we use, and why.

Closed Cups

I generally prefer closed-cup headphones and do not enjoy noise-cancellation. Closed-cup headphones reduce outside noise and prevent audio bleed-through to the external world. Unfortunately, it seems hard to get closed-cups that work well. I imagine it is difficult to isolate the internal diaphragm but still allow for air movement. I’ve tried some in the past that actually made my eyes water because of internal pressure changes with deeper bass.

I’m also not a big fan of earbuds for long term use. Unless I spend a small fortune (which I have) on custom-modeled performer-grade earbuds, they hurt over time. While some brands are more comfortable than others, after 4-6 hours of use, I always end up with ear pain, which can lead to tinnitus.

Erik’s Headphones

Audio Technica ATH-M50

I was lucky enough to have a knowledgeable friend talk my wife into buying me these headphones for Christmas, and they’ve been great. I use them for recording and editing, and their collapsability makes them seem much smaller than they actually are when not in use.

Pros

• Exceptional sound
• Comfortable
• Collapsible, so they’re easy to store

Cons

• None that I’ve experienced

• Audio-Technica ATH-M50
• Designed especially for professional monitoring and mixing, these studiophones feature an efficient collapsible design for space-saving portability and storage.
• MSRP: $199.00
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Gabe’s Headphones

Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro

Beyerdynamic is a solid company. They’re small but produce excellent headphones that are dependable and well made. I’m using the 250 ohm version of the DT770 Pro. This means they are effectively driven by a laptop but in theory struggle with an iPod. Beyerdynamic also makes a 32 and 600 Ohm model. The higher the impedence, the better the coil response but a lower impedence requires more power to achieve the same volume. In reality, I think the 250 Ohm model works fine with an iPhone or laptop.

I can’t stress enough how comfortable these headphones are. I can easily wear them all day without a problem. There’s enough flex in the headband that there’s little pressure. Since the cups do not rest on the ears, they also do not bother me while wearing glasses. Oh, and they sound amazing.

Pros

• Extremely comfortable, even with all-day use
• High quality audio with a good response range
• Replaceable felt lined cup pads
• Adjustable headband for gigantic heads
• Ludicrously long cord with 1/8” plug
• The cord is not coiled, which means tangles aren’t really a problem

Cons

• A bit large
• Sound isolation isn’t perfect
• The cord is so long that it can be problematic if you want to walk around with these headphones
• They are fairly bulky which means I love them for airplanes, but I hate traveling with them

• Beyerdynamic DT 770 Pro
• The DT 770 PRO is a closed dynamic headphone of exceptional quality suitable for the most demanding professional and audiophile applications.
• MSRP: $299.00
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Sony MDR7509HD

The Sony MDR7509HD are almost as comfortable as the Beyerdynamic DT 770. I grew up with Sony studio headphones in the 80’s. Back then they were considered top of the line for consumers. I’d say they are still very good today. I like the sound from the Sony’s better than the Beyerdynamic, but comfort is a big part of the experience for me.

The MDR7509HD headband is slightly tighter and the cups are smaller than the Beyerdynamic. They are just small enough that there is some pressure applied to my ears that I find irritating after 4-6 hours.

Overall, if I want to enjoy a new album, I choose the MDR7509HDs because they sound great for less than a couple of hours. If I’m working all day with headphones (which is most days) I prefer the Beyerdynamic DT770s.

Pros

• Durable, since they are more metal than plastic
• They are more compact than the Beyerdynamic DT 770
• Truly excellent sound quality

Cons

• Not as comfortable as the Beyerdynamic DT 770
• Coiled cords are awful. They tangle and stretch, and I loathe them

• Sony MDR7509HD
• Designed for critical listening applications, the MDR7509HD headphone features newly developed HD Driver units that deliver ultra-wide dynamic range and incredible power handling capabilities.
• MSRP: $499.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

“Something to consider is being cordial to your neighbors.”

The Microphones We Use to Record

The first thing you need if you’re going to start recording a podcast is a good microphone. Unless you want to set up a mixing board and really geek out on the audio, you’ll want a USB mic. There are two major contenders in this space: the RØDE Podcaster and the Blue Yeti.

Gabe’s Recording Microphone

RØDE Podcaster

The RØDE Podcaster is one of the most common microphones in use by amateur podcasters. It connects by a single USB cable which makes it simple to get up and running but it has a great sound to it. It’s shaped like an actual microphone which means it’s compatible with common mounts and can actually be held in the hand if necessary.

Pros

• Headphone plug and dedicated volume control
• Dead simple connection over USB
• Great isolation from background environment

Cons

• No mute switch on the Mic
• No gain control on the Mic

• RØde Podcaster USB Dynamic Microphone
• The RØDE Podcaster is a dynamic, end-address USB microphone that combines broadcast-quality audio with the simplicity of USB connectivity, allowing recording direct to a computer without the need for an additional digital interface.
• MSRP: $369.00
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Erik’s Recording Microphone

Blue Yeti

The Yeti is a great USB mic with some pretty neat extra features. In addition to the headphone plug with master volume, it also has a mute button, dedicated gain control, and a nifty selector that changes the microphone’s polar pattern between, stereo, cardioid, omni, and bidirectional layouts. The Yeti is a side-address microphone, which means you talk into its side, not the end.

Yeti Pattern Settings

Tekniska museet

Pros

• Headphone plug and dedicated volume control
• Polar pattern selector offers a lot of options for position and sensitivity. Blue has some suggestions for how to use this feature on their website.
• Dedicated gain control
• Excellent sound quality

Cons

• Side-address and weight means it can be tough to keep upright on a boom
• Minimal shock isolation out of the box – you’ll want a boom and shock mount at the very least

• Blue Microphones Yeti
• The Yeti is one of the most advanced and versatile multi-pattern USB microphones available anywhere. Combining three capsules and four different pattern settings, the Yeti is an ultimate tool for creating amazing recordings, directly to your computer.
• MSRP: $149.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Microphone Accessories

While the microphones mentioned above both have simple mounting solutions out of the box, you’ll probably want to add a boom and shock mount, and maybe even a pop filter.

The first two help you reposition the mic and isolate it from vibrations (like typing and bumping your chair into your desk). The Podcaster and Yeti are surprisingly large, and it can be really helpful to get them off your desk. A pop filter helps keep the recording from clipping on words and… well… “popping”.

Gabe’s Setup

• RØDE PSA1 Swivel Mount Studio Microphone Boom Arm
• The PSA1 is a studio boom arm for radio, broadcast, studio and home use.
• MSRP: $109.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

• RØDE PSM 1 Shockmount For Podcaster
• The perfect suspension shock mount for the Procaster or Podcaster, the PSM1 provides isolation from external vibrations which can translate as low frequency noise or manipulate the microphone position.
• MSRP: $49.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Isolating the Desk

The combination of the RØDE Swivel mount and the shockmount mean that almost no vibrations from my desk interfere with the audio recording. The Shock mount is a metal cage suspended by elastic bands. There are no solid connections between the Mic and the swivel arm.

The swivel arm is also convenient, with 5 points of rotational freedom. However, there are only locks on the two points closest to the Mic. This means the arm can be moved out of position very easily. This is both a pro and con.

Erik’s Setup

• Heil Sound PL-2T Overhead Broadcast Boom
• The Heil Sound PL2T Topless Boom mount is a unique and versatile boom that utilizes a system of perfectly balanced internal springs to provide perfect balance and silent, effortless adjustment of its position.
• MSRP: $141.70
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

• Blue Microphones Radius Microphone Shock Mount
• The custom shockmount for the Yeti and Yeti Pro USB microphones. Combining cool vintage styling with rugged durability, the Radius isolates the microphone from ambient vibration.
• MSRP: $69.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

• Nady MPF-6 6-Inch Clamp On Microphone Pop Filter
• Designed for studio use and other professional vocal recording environments, the MPF-6 eliminates popping sounds caused by the impact of fast moving air on the microphone during recorded speech and singing.
• MSRP: $24.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

“I haven’t noticed anything exceptional from you because you don’t have one”

Other Microphones

Sometimes a big boom-mounted studio microphone isn’t what you’re looking for. Mobile and lecture-hall recording requires something a little more portable and discreet. These smaller microphones may work well where the others don’t.

We’ve taken several different microphones and swapped them out during our recording session, so you can hear how they sound. We’ve tried to leave the levels and other sound settings the same so you can hear the differences between each microphone as accurately as possible.

Samson Meteor

A Few Words on the Meteor

The Meteor Mic is very stylish. It looks futuristic with a full-chrome body and folding legs. But the sound isn’t very good. Not to mention that the legs have no shock isolation (other than cheap rubber pads) so all vibrations on the desk are amplified in the recording.

Pros

• Fold out tripod legs
• Mute button
• Volume control
• Not expensive
• Indicator lights for mute and clipping
• Can be powered from the iPhone with USB connector kit

Cons

• Noisy when desk-mounted
• Inferior audio quality when compared to other options.

• Samson Meteor Mic USB Studio Microphone
• Meteor Mic is the universal solution for recording music on your computer. Perfect for your home studio, Meteor Mic is also ideal for Skype, iChat or voice recognition software.
• MSRP: $149.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Shush

Gabe and I both use a great little Mac app called “Shush” for temporarily muting our microphones while recording the show. Shush lets you specify a hotkey (mine is the “fn” key) that can be used in push-to-talk or push-to-silence modes.

Push-to-talk is really helpful for long conference calls where you know you’ll be doing more listening than talking anyway, especially if you’ve got a noisy background. Push-to-silence is great if you need to cough during a recording, and it’s both easier to use and more responsive than the hardware mute button on my Yeti.

• Shush - Microphone Manager
• Voice chat is awesome, but sooner or later you’ll send something you wish others hadn’t heard. Shush solves this problem by providing simple hotkey microphone management.
• Price: $2.99
• Developer’s Page
• App Store

Samson Go Mic

A Few Words on the Go Mic

Samson has a real knack for making interesting-looking microphones. The Go Mic looks like they shrunk a Mic from the 50s down to an impossible scale and attached it to a clip. It looks like it would be the perfect travel Mic until you realize that it needs a Micro USB connection. This makes the entire package pretty bulky.

This is a good recommendation for someone that wants to record auditorium lectures or meetings with a laptop or iPhone. It can be placed in the center of the table and has several different directional recording modes. I wouldn’t recommend it for basic dictation with an iPhone but it could be a good option for an external (and superior) dictation microphone for a Mac or Windows PC.

Pros

• Small
• Built in Screen Clip
• USB connection can be powered by iPhone
• Desk stand can be placed further away from the recording device which is better for recording lectures
• Multiple directional modes
• Inexpensive

Cons

• Requires USB connection
• Not the best audio

• Samson Go Mic Compact USB Microphone
• Further expanding on its diverse line of USB microphones, Samson introduces Go Mic, a portable recording microphone that clips to your laptop. Go Mic is perfect for recording music, podcasts or field recording, but it also makes a great solution for use with voice recognition software, iChat, web casting and even Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
• MSRP: $89.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Dayton Audio iMM-6

A Few Words on the IMM-6

Wow. This thing is tiny. It plugs directly into the headphone jack of an iPhone or Mac and has a pass-through for monitor headphones. The audio quality is certainly good enough for recording a lecture or doing dictation.

Did I mention this thing is tiny? Pop it in your pocket, or lose it in a backpack. It’s basically a microphone that can always be with you and provides a huge improvement over the built-in mic of most electronics.

Pros

• Tiny
• Uses the 1/8” microphone jack.
• Surprisingly good quality
• Very Inexpensive

Cons

• Sticks straight out with no directional control

• Dayton Audio iMM-6 Calibrated Measurement Microphone
• The Dayton Audio IMM-6 is a professional-quality measurement and recording microphone that is designed to work with the entire suite of Apple “iDevices” – iPad, iPhone, and iPod. The rugged construction and compact size make it the perfect companion for audio professionals who must work on-location performing acoustic analysis, monitoring audio levels, or recording.
• MSRP: $39.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Casual Microphones

Here are a few desktop-use microphones that we had lying around for comparison. One (the Logitech G35) is a gaming headset, and the others are built-in headsets on a MacBook Pro and Apple 27” Thunderbolt Display.

Unsurprisingly, none of these options are optimal for high-quality recording.

Logitech G35

A Mutable Gaming Headset

The G35 is a USB headset targeted at online gamers which offers a few buttons on the left ear cup and a swing-down mic boom.

On a PC the buttons are programmable, but on Macs they’re locked to next-track, play/pause, and previous-track. There’s a dedicated mute button, but the headset will also mute when you swing the boom mic up, which can be really helpful on a long phone conference.

The headphones sound great, but (as you’ll hear in the recording) the microphone is unremarkable. As it runs without supporting software on the Mac, the general consensus is that it sounds better on PCs. At this time I haven’t been able confirm that myself.

Pros

• Convenient all-in-one package
• Boom mic raises for mute
• Sound quality

Cons

• Weak Mac support
• Average microphone quality
• No discernable sidetone.

• Logitech G35 7.1-Channel Surround Sound Headset
• Powered by Dolby Headphone, G35 delivers immersive 7.1-channel sound and a winning mix of play-all-night comfort and power-at-your-fingertips customization.
• MSRP: $129.99
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Apple MacBook Pro

• Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch)
• With fourth-generation Intel Core processors, the latest graphics, and faster flash storage, the incredibly advanced 15.4-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display moves even further ahead in performance and battery life.
• MSRP: $2599.00
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Apple Thunderbolt Display

• Apple Thunderbolt Display (27-inch)
• With built-in Thunderbolt technology–the fastest, most flexible I/O ever–the 27-inch Apple Thunderbolt Display can do things other displays simply can’t.
• MSRP: $999.00
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

On the Move

Our final category takes us into the mobile world, with a few earbuds and one Bluetooth headset. Listen in and you’ll hear some striking differences.

Klipsch S4i

Stylishly Average

The Klipsch Image S4i is an attractive-looking pair of earbuds, with sound-isolating ear inserts that work a bit like earplugs. If that’s comfortable for you (and if you can keep them in) the sound quality is quite good.

The microphone is another matter, and is as average as you’d expect at this price point and size. It’s fine for talking on the phone, but don’t expect much more out of it.

Pros

• Looks cool
• In-ear design isolates you from noises
• Good audio quality

Cons

• Tends to pop out of your ears
• Microphone quality is nothing spectacular

• Klipsch Image S4i Noise-Isolating Headset
• The Image S4i employs a moving coil micro-speaker with controlled damping for smooth, full-bodied sound that’s similar to a more expensive design.
• MSRP: $99.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

An easy upgrade

I think Comply foam earphone tips are a great upgrade to any set of in-ear headphones. They have different versions which will fit nearly every conceivable model out there. Your mileage may vary, but I won’t ever willingly go without them again.

• Comply Tx-400 Isolation PLUS Earphone Tips (3-pack)
• Delivering maximum isolation for a superior audio experience, Comply Isolation Plus Tx-Series provide amazing comfort and stay-in-ear fit — so you hear music the way it was meant to be heard.
• MSRP: $19.95
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Sennheiser px 200-II i

All-around Headphones

These are my all-around headphones. I wear them on walks and when doing casual work requiring some mobility. I think the audio quality of the microphone is much better than most other iPhone headphones. While I have no problems talking with them on, some users may tend to yell a bit more since there is no pass-through from the mic to the headphones (sidetone).

The PX 200 are comfortable but do rest directly on the ears. Wearing them with glasses on all day is very painful for me.

The sound is pretty good for this level of headphone. While I wouldn’t say they provide “sound isolation” there’s not a lot of audio bleed-through to the outside world. They do reduce outside noise but are in no way closed headphones.

Pros

• Comfortable
• Non-silly-looking
• Foldable
• Great mic

Cons

• Uncomfortable with glasses
• Imperfect sound isolation

• Sennheiser PX 200-II i Lightweight Supra-Aural Headphones
• The closed, dynamic, supraaural PX 200-II mini headphones immerses you in great Sennheiser sound. The speakers provide excellent isolation from outside noises, so you can enjoy a superb listening experience without being disturbed – or disturbing others.
• MSRP: $109.95
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Apple EarPods

You Already Have Them

Apple definitely improved their earbud design with the latest iteration. The new shape is comfortable for some and downright painful for others. Personally, I like them but I think they are too expensive. The audio quality is good enough for listening to podcasts but is pretty rubbish for music.

The microphone in the Apple earbuds does a pretty good job of isolating outside noise on a call or when doing dictation. However, the audio fidelity is terrible.

Pros

• Comes with your iPhone
• Pretty good for dictation and phone calls

Cons

• Not the greatest quality
• May survive the washing machine several times

• Apple EarPods with Remote and Mic
• Unlike traditional, circular earbuds, the design of the new Apple EarPods is defined by the geometry of the ear. Which makes them more comfortable for more people than any other earbud-style headphone.
• MSRP: $29.00
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Panasonic RP-TCM125W

Cheap but Passable Buds

Pros

• Super Cheap
• Amazon Prime means you can have replacement headphones in a day
• Comes in several colors if that’s your thing
• Not terribly uncomfortable

Cons

• Serial number naming is hard to remember
• They feel cheap
• You get what you pay for

• Panasonic RP-TCM125-K In-Ear Headphones with Mic
• ErgoFit design for ultimate comfort and fit. Compatible with iPhone, Palm, and Blackberry.
• MSRP: $19.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

“That’s my favorite number”

Motorola HX550

Great for Podcast Listening

Bluetooth headsets have near-universally terrible sound quality. That being said, with a surprisingly excellent mono Bluetooth audio profile, it’s a great option for listening to podcasts when you’re doing chores around the house. This is my primary podcast listening headset, and for that, it’s worth a mention.

Pros

• Flip arm makes turning it on or off very easy.
• Mono audio quality is excellent for podcasts.

Cons

• Terrible microphone
• Typically unfathomable one-button UI

“Are you inside of a car trunk?”

• Motorola HX550 Universal Bluetooth Headset
• Comfortable Bluetooth headset with multiple wearing styles–on-ear; in-ear without hook; and in-ear with earhook.
• MSRP: $59.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

They don’t all suck

I love Bluetooth headphones, but not Bluetooth headsets. My clear favorite is the LG Tone HBS700 (I bought the older version based on the Amazon reviews). They have great sound, to my ears, and you can also use them to place and receive phone calls, but this leads to the only potential negative mark against them. The Tones vibrate if your phone rings, and the part of them that vibrates sits against your collarbone. I was so startled the first time I received a call that I peed myself and fell out of the chair I was sitting in.

I’m kidding. I kept my seat.

• The LG Tone Wireless Stereo Headset
• The LG Tone Wireless Stereo Headset brings you the high quality audio experience of stereo sound with the convenience of Bluetooth technology.
• MSRP: $69.99
• Manufacturer’s Page
• Amazon (Affiliate)

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire, or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

David Sparks joins Gabe and Erik to talk about why he switched from writing paper books to writing iBooks. Along the way they touch on ideas, tools, inspiration, collaboration, and Star Wars.

Guest Spotlight: David Sparks

David Sparks

David Sparks likely needs no introduction here, but it may be easy to forget how accomplished he is. As is so often the case, David probably says it best on his own “about” page, “David Sparks is an Orange County, California business attorney and a geek. David is also a podcaster, blogger, and author who writes about finding the best tools, hardware, and workflows for using Apple products to get work done. David also writes for Macworld magazine and speaks about technology.”

He has taught a lot of geeks many things, but what brings him here today is the “author” part of his bio. He is a published author of “dead tree” books, iPad at Work and Mac at Work, and eBooks, MacSparky Field Guides. There are currently six books in the series, and thankfully there are even more on the way.

• Mac at Work
• iPad at Work
• 60 Mac Tips
• Paperless
• Markdown
• Email

Why not Paper?

“The man is very large and very busy”

Many of us lovingly associate the smell of a new paperback or old library book with childhood and adolescence, so an eBook has a lot of nostalgia to overcome in order to win our loyalty. For many of us, they have done just that, being infinitely portable, often cheaper, and easily searchable.

Books

I can’t remember the last time I bought a book for personal-use that was printed on paper, but I still have boxes filled with novels, and nothing gets my imagination going more than rooms lined with heavily-laden bookshelves. The heart wants what the heart wants.

“Not every ePub is created equal”

There is a difference between working on a book that will be collaterally published electronically and writing an eBook. As David points out, not all eBooks are created equal. The old trope that a picture is worth a thousand words holds true in many cases, and this is particularly the case when trying to teach people how to do unfamiliar things using technology. Unfortunately, pictures add a lot of cost to traditional publishers, and the meager allowance that the author of a technical book receives makes life very challenging.

Books

I’m a little bit intimidated by the idea of an army of geeks ready to step in to replace an intransigent author, but I already knew that “respect” isn’t the right word to describe a big publisher’s side of the relationship.

In David’s case, this is best illustrated by the time he wanted to explain how to create an encrypted disk image on a Mac. Screenshots are nice in this case, but this is an ideal use case for a screencast. Screencasts can teach a true beginner how to do complex things on a computer, but you can’t put video into a book.

Why Choose iBooks Over Alternative Bookstores?

• Apple Reinvents Textbooks with iBooks 2 for iPad
• Saving Mr. Banks: The Official Multi-Touch Book
• OmniGraffle 6 User Manual
• 10,000 mistakes as David’s 10,000 hours of practice

In January of 2012, David’s behind-the-scenes book writing found a better outlet, when Apple announced iBooks 2 and iBooks Author. The snarky Apple opinionators panned this (as always) but David immediately knew the tools could help him produce a better book.

Opinions

Maybe I should have made that “opinionators” bit an aside…

Already convinced that the “Apple Experience” was better and knowing that his target audience was already on Apple devices, David still had other reasons to commit to the iBooks Store.

The other big contender for David’s first solo eBook was Amazon, but the economics of the then wrong-way 70/30 revenue split was a problem, and beyond that, Amazon’s download fee is based on file size, and that meant that he would again have to ration his multimedia. Not the right direction to be going.

The iBooks Store is of course not perfect. Many potential international customers would have no access to the the book were it only sold through that venue, and some of the target audience didn’t own an iPad. iBooks author provided a solution at this point too: PDF export, including the media. While the PDF specification allows for a full multimedia document, David chose to package it all in a folder, maximizing flexibility.

How Do You Put an iBook Together?

With an end goal in mind, now came the trivial step of producing the book. Begining life as a title in an nvALT text file, David’s books pass through many different stages.

Starting With the Outline

• Mind Node
• iThoughts

Like Gabe, David likes to order his thoughts and create an outline in MindNode or iThoughts.

Maps

We won’t touch on the religious war between these two systems other than to point out that Gabe loves both of his children. As David puts it, he “cooks on” these outlines for a month, and this is a lesson that many authors could stand to learn. He is really just setting up a skeleton here in bullet points, focusing on structure rather than narrative. Once a sound foundation is built, it is time to move on to a writing platform.

Moving to Scrivener

• Scrivener
• Byword

David’s usual way to begin writing is to export his mindmap as OPML to Scrivener, although he once wrote a book in Pages, “for a giggle.” One of the real benefits of Pages here is reliable sync across devices and locations. This is not a reality using Scrivener, since it doesn’t currently have an iPad app, and the only way to approach “sync” is by being disciplined in having only one instance of Scrivener open at any one time.

Churning out the words

• Siri
• Dragon Dictation

In the audio, David relates a great anecdote about Sam Maloof that sums up a great mindset towards one’s tools: you use what works. Dictating into Draft while sitting in a car is a perfect example of that. Unless you possess the preternatural touch-screen typing of a teenager, dication might be a great tool for you on the go. Additionally, this may provide your work with a more conversational style that is even more welcome in the case of a technical subject.

David’s Creation

Another great point here is that setting writing goals can be helpful, but it can be more useful to focus on blocking out your time “lunch pail style,” because you may become frustrated trying to meet word-count goals when work or children intrude into your workflow. Even worse, you may meet your quota of words by volume and not quantity.

Working with Others

• Google Docs

Because the challenge of writing a book was not enough, David decided to expand his work to include co-authors. Fortunately, he had the luxury of working with authors he chose himself, and each of his two co-authored books has its own unique feel.

60 Mountain Lion Tips

First was the screencast-focused 60 Mountain Lion Tips written with Brett Terpstra, which was designed to re-create the magic show effect that their Macworld panel with Merlin Mann “40 Tips in 40 Minutes” on January 27, 2012 had. David and Brett divided up the tips into screencasts, so it had a unique feel for a book.

Markdown

David’s book about Markdown offered a more conventional approach, and was written with Eddie Smith. The major collaboration for it was done in a shared Google Doc, and one of the new challenges here was for the book to have a unified voice.

Working with an Editor and Typesetting in iBooks

• Cortés burning his ships

Whether Cortés actually burned his ships or not (probably not), the metaphor remains useful to anyone who considers one phase complete and then moves on. In this case, David burns his outline when moving into Scrivener, and he also burns his version in Scrivener when he moves on to working with his editor. Working with an editor seems like a stage reserved for working with a big publishing house, but as David tells us, anyone can hire an editor. He also points out how vital this is to achieving a professional result. Besides the obvious function of cleaning up grammar and spelling, an editor ensures a technical book utilizes the same convention throughout its length when referring to common terms such as the “control” key (or is it the “alt” key?)

When making this transition, Pages offers some nice benefits, such as wider familiarity and a “track changes” feature. The hosts of this show might care to point out that there are, however, plain text alternatives to this last bit.

Now nearing the point of sales, it comes time to worry about tweaks to style and format. In keeping with Apple’s sensibilities, there are many good templates included with iBooks Author, but like most self-respecting nerds, he decided to “monkey” about with the templates a little. Having previously enjoyed building Craftsman-style furniture, David sought to invoke this feeling, while having a continuity of style within the MacSparky Field Guides.

Paperless 60 Mountain Lion Tips Markdown Email

Another unique addition to the MacSparky Field Guides is the inclusion of interviews, which David selected to broaden the book’s perspective beyond his own experience. An example of this need is how Paperless reads for those who have Evernote as an integral part of their workflow.

Choosing Topics and Getting Help

Choosing topics can be a challenge, but if you start with what you know, you’ll have a ready list to begin working with.

The process of getting into the iBooks Store turns out to be a relatively easy proposition. They even provide an 800 number that authors can call (!) if there are problems with the process. There is some automation that can reject a submission pretty opaquely, so the ability to have some help from Apple in working through this is a big help.

The Future of the iBooks Format and Publishing for Yourself

When you commit to one store, the lack of redundancy doesn’t leave many options if problems arise here. In David’s case, he is confident that the iBooks Store isn’t going anywhere and that it is in fact something that Apple needs to make work. Even with his in mind, there is some lock-in protection provided by the ease of producing a PDF.

If you don’t intend to create for the store, you will likely want to export to PDF and separately archive your media files, but the iBooks ePub format is very good for distribution to family through usual means such as email.

Since David saw the potentional for this tool so early, he had to learn a lot himself. The WWDC videos are a good resource in many cases, but David had already bumped into solutions himself by the time the videos were released.

While the iBooks Author tool is great in so many ways, there is certainly room for improvement:

• Keybooard shortcuts
• Template customization
• Track changes
• Enhanced support for video
• Better support for larger file sizes

“It’s kind of the love child of iWeb, Keynote, and Pages”

Tell Us about Something You Like

Launch Center Pro

Launch Center Pro for iPhone is a great app for creating shortcuts to other apps. It relies on URL schemes but has quite a few benefits if you you do similar tasks a lot.

Launch Center Pro for iPad was recently released and is very similar to the iPhone version. You can sync actions between the two versions too.

HipChat

HipChat is a part of Atlassian’s greater development suite, which also includes JIRA, BitBucket and other popular collaborative tools.

Despite competition from the popular new upstart Slack, HipChat offers a solid cross-platform discussion tool, with desktop, mobile and web clients, group and individual chat threads, a decent API for integrating other services, and a reliable notification back-end.

It’s free for teams of up to five, and is worth a look if you’re in the market for a small-team chat service.

The Graveyard Book

Neil Gaiman is about as good as it gets for fantasy writing. I’ve never been interested in dragons and knights. Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book falls into his classic “fairy tale for adults” genre.

It’s a story of an infant that is raised by a graveyard of ghosts. The story follows the character through puberty, all the while building on various subplots as only a master like Gaiman can do. One of my particular, favorite quirks of Gaiman’s writing is how he plays on words for character names. It twists the mundane into the fantastic by slight changes in pronunciation.

If you’re a fan of Gaiman, then you do not want to miss the Audible version which is read by Neil himself. This isn’t the case of an egomaniac writer wanting the spotlight on the audio book. Neil is the perfect voice for his stories and he captures each character with subtle accents unique inflections. The Graveyard Book

The Golem and the Jinni

The Golem and the Jinni is the debut novel by Hellene Wecker. I came across it from the Incomparable podcast and it was a very fun introduction to an entirely new (to me) genre. It pulls together mythology from various middle eastern cultures and plunks it down in the early 1900’s of New York.

As with most books, I experienced the Golem and the Jinni as an Audible book and it was terrific. The voice acting helped keep the myriad character straight through the almost 20 hrs of audio. George Guidall voiced the story and delivered a typically superlative performance. It’s like a one-man radio drama. The Golem and the Jinni

Proper Star Wars

Most old-school Star Wars fans refuse to acknowledge the existence of Episodes I-III. However, if you have a little kid, they will certainly enjoy episode I the most. Kids love to watch other little kids. It’s hard to resist, but I forced my daughter to start with A New Hope and progress through Empire and Return of the Jedi. After that set it, I then tolerated a viewing of the unmentionable episodes.

The Star Trek trading cards documented many on-screen and behind the scenes aspects of the show. If you had the complete collection, it was like having a tiny cardboard version of a wiki.

Check out Darth Plagueis on Wookiepedia (warning: spoilers) for a detailed outline. You can buy the book on Amazon in a variety of formats. The Audible version is also outstanding

For the uninitiated, Philip K. Dick is a legendary science fiction writer that created and elaborated many tropes we all take for granted today. Several of his books and short stories have become cult classic films, including Blade Runner and Total Recall. I particularly enjoyed Time Out of Joint and Ubik

Making of Empire Strikes Back

I distinctly remember covetously fondling a Star Wars “movie magazine” as an eight-year-old. It was awesome with pictures of C3PO with his face mask off … and there was a man inside. He looked like a really old man to eight-year-old me but was, nonetheless, a man. At that point in my life my wealth was measured in packs of baseball cards, which cost 20 cents. The $10 magazine was a bridge too far for me but I remembered and 38 years later bought this iBook. My life is complete now.

Vadering

I can’t hear about Gabe and Erik’s erstwhile attempts at revenge upon their foes without thinking about the Vadering meme from last Spring. Now they just sub-tweet.

Revenge

Tekniska museet

Things We Don’t Like

• Midi-chlorians
• Jar Jar

The future if Jobs had bought LucasArts instead of Pixar?

• Even the prequel deserts were too clean

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Gabe and Erik take a look at a number of different online sync and storage options for moving your files to the cloud.

Gabe’s Latest Crazy Online File Syncing Scheme

Gabe begins the discussion by describing a scheme to use a separate Dropbox account running on his WebFaction web hosting, because he can sftp from within Sublime Text even though he’s unable to install any online syncing services.

Easy.

The cloud is always easy when you have IT autonomy…or can find a loophole.

Being able to sftp-out does not provide the same benefit of a proper syncing service, but there are some tools that try to help:

• Backup Box
• FTP Box
• Wappwolf

Generally, these tools work by offloading sync to a web host. Sure, you can achieve this benefit by sftping into a computer at home, but then you face issues such as DNS intermediaries if you don’t have a static external IP address, opening ports into your home network, or just having to leave your home computer on all the time. You may want to consider having someone else worry about your uptime.

Again with the Synology

This episode would have been about five minutes shorter if Gabe could have figured out how to install Dropbox on his beloved Synology. His loss is our gain.

Online Storage and Sync Options

In a embarrassment of tech riches, there are many great sync systems available for free or a modest fee:

• Cloudfuse
• Dropbox
• Box
• Windows Azure
• Google Drive
• Plex Cloud Sync

Dropbox offers a very refined experience, both through its web interface and its seamless filesystem integration, but your Dropbox folder will probably require some pruning to stay below your subscription’s space limit. Hazel is a big help here, as it is with so many other menial system tasks.

Many of us remember when cool new services like IFTTT only supported Dropbox, but these days most web services start off with integration for virtually all of the usual hosting suspects. On the other hand, these systems aren’t much use if they can’t sync to mobile, and right now Dropbox is most widely supported.

“You almost need a Dropbox account at this point just to use iOS”

Steve Jobs purportedly called Dropbox a service rather than a product, but since so many developers have settled on it for sync, things may not have been that different in effect. A little bit of a shakeup in the developer community could be nice, because there are some interesting alternatives:

• BitTorrent Sync
• Transporter

When syncing needs go beyond the usual, there are other niche options available. Whether you feel the need to control your own data or you want more granularity in administering permissions, you can probably find a service that will meet your needs. While Transporter offers an elegant ready-to-go personal Dropbox, BitTorrent Sync offers a distributed sync setup which you may be able to construct with old equipment already on had.

Welcome @modernscientist

Because I knew that @modernscientist has been using BitTorrent Sync, I asked her to add to the disussion here.

BT Sync

I have recently started using BitTorrent Sync to manage the synchronization of approximately 200 GBs of data between two Macs used for my research. While the end result is similar to traditional cloud storage options such as Dropbox, the BitTorrent protocol does not utilize a centralized server to which all clients upload and download files. Instead, every client can upload and download to all other clients. This decentralized, peer-to-peer model requires the user to provide the devices that will serve as synchronization points (peers), but that requirement also has many advantages. In my situation, it is more cost efficient to provide my own (existing) hardware than pay the monthly fee for increased cloud storage. The BitTorrent protocol also allows users to avoid storing data on servers belonging to someone else, potentially making BitTorrent Sync more private.

BitTorrent Sync and Dropbox have many similar features, though there are some subtle differences. Much like Dropbox, BitTorrent Sync uses a folder paradigm for determining which files are synchronized. However, folders that are synchronized by BitTorrent Sync can be located anywhere accessible to the peer, including on an attached hard drive or local network. BitTorrent Sync has options that are analogous to Dropbox’s selective synchronization and version control features; however BitTorent Sync’s selective synchronization recognizes basic file globbing, making it more powerful than Dropbox’s implementation. Files can also be shared with others using BitTorrent Sync, and write access can optionally be restricted for these shares. Unfortunately, a share must include the entire contents of a torrent, and right now there’s no option for downloading shared files through a web browser.

Perhaps the most important–and very subtle–difference is that BitTorrent Sync does not support extended attributes. This isn’t an issue for me, as most of my files do not have extended attributes and those that do have them don’t seem to actually use them. Usage scenarios differ, so this limitation should be tested carefully. For example, devout users of file tagging in Mavericks, which relies on extended attributes, may find that BitTorrent Sync does not suit their needs.

BitTorrent Sync is available on the standard desktop platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux. Though my primary need is the synchronization of files between two Macs, there are advantages to additional peers. A minimum of one updated peer is required for synchronization, so more peers adds robustness to the system. Similarly, additional peers provide more download sources during synchronization, which can make this process faster. For these reasons, I am also running BitTorrent Sync on my Drobo 5N and on a Backupsy server. BitTorrent Sync runs as a command line application on these peers and, thus, setup is a little more complicated than on a Mac.

iOS and Android versions of BitTorrent Sync are also available. These applications are similar to their Dropbox counterparts in that they only download files on demand.

More info

@modernscientist blogged about this on her own site in more detail, so head there if you’d link to know more. Also, the Backupsy link provided above will discount the service as much as 40%, while getting her some extra storage space. Win/win.

The Challenges of Sharing and Syncing

• Dropbox for Business
• Box

When you fold in additional users of your files in the cloud, you also fold in a lot of complexity. Syncing solutions designed for business can make this complexity more manageable, but that is more capability (and cost) than most individuals, families, and small businesses need. Leaving these specialized solutions aside, managing your shares can be a bit of a challenge.

Forgotten

It was me. He was trying to share with me.

Clicking on the “Sharing” icon in Dropbox’s web interface does provide a snapshot of your shares.

Dropbox Sharing

Google Drive also provides this information by showing what is shared with you on its web-view sidebar, and you can view the “visibility ” of all your documents by clicking the drop-down in the search field.

Shared with You Shared by You

One of the challenges of app integration is a cluttered Dropbox root folder. As Gabe alluded to, permission polices have had the unexpected benefit of causing more apps to use the app folder. Some more finicky (cranky?) users think apps unnecessarily restrict themselves.

Apps shouldn’t be able to claim Dropbox support unless they let the user specify which folder to use.

— potatowire (@potatowire) January 4, 2014

Regardless of whether these policies (or your own) locate folders in inconvenient or inappropriate locations, you can always symlink to whichever location you prefer.

Syncing apps are not always the best stewards of your internet connection, however, and while Drive will allow you pause sync, you can’t specifically throttle its bandwidth. Dropbox gives you both of these throttling options, but it sure does work the CPU over.

“It’s reticulating splines”

SFTP and Git: Less Friendly, More Configurable

• Sublime SFTP
• Transmit
• Github
• Bitbucket
• Sourcetree

We may be living in a Post-PC world, but plenty of us would rather have explicit control over our data. Distributed Version Control with Git or Mercurial has long been a staple in programming circles, but if you take the time to learn the language, you’ll find that repositories make good homes for prose (or verse) too.

The Next Big Round of Innovation

When something like sync is designed to fade into the background, the whole thing can seem a bit stale. The next round of innovation might involve more abstraction to the cloud, like Evernote, but hopefully some of it will be finding new convenient ways to access our data from anywhere, like TextDrop .

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Clipboards and Pasteboards are the topic of the week, as Gabe breaks down the tools and utilities he uses to get through the day on his Mac.

How did you just do that?

After reminiscing about how confusing and surprising other people’s Portal runs can be, Gabe tries to figure out why Erik isn’t using a clipboard manager.

Use Cases

• Rich Text to plain text/Markdown conversion
• Converting text case
• Appending text
• Stripping characters
• Encoding Strings

Many people treat the clipboard as a temporary way station between apps. While that’s true, it’s also an opportunity to transform and manipulate the information before it gets to its final destination.

Plain text is awesome, but many apps support RTF formatting that can be a nuisance when jumping to another app like your email client. While some applications support the “paste and match style” function, that’s not a universal option. Rather than relying on some developer’s whim, try stripping out the formatting when the text is on the clipboard.

The clipboard is another good opportunity for converting and encoding text. Whether it be converting lower case to title case or URL encoding a string, why bother using a totally separate application when it’s already on your clipboard?

Sync and Online Services

• Cloud App
• Droplr
• Evernote

Sync or Share

I refer to these services as clipboard syncing services which is technically incorrect. I use them as a way to share clips between devices. Some use them to share clips with other people. Using any of these services to make clippings available between devices requires a conscious effort to put the material on their host.

If what you want is true clipboard syncing then there are a few methods. CloudClip is what I would recommend. It doesn’t have a web interface but it does sync your clipboards over the Internet using iCloud. There are also utilities that use Bluetooth like Scribe, but those require your devices to be near each other and connected by Bluetooth. There’s also Command-C which works over WiFi.

I still prefer Evernote because it’s available everywhere, including the web and Windows. I also rarely wish that my clipboards were “automatically” syncing. I don’t want sensitive data flying around unnecessarily.

Of the three of these web-based clipboard services, Gabe prefers Evernote for its ubiquity. Previously, he was a CloudApp user. All three can handle images and formatted text. Droplr has the best support for code snippets. They all provide options for sharing links to clippings and are private by default. You can’t really go wrong with any one of these services.

The CloudApp Mac app is a good option if just want a web-syncing clipboard tool. The Mac app is easy to use and provides a history view of the items you have uploaded.

CloudApp Clipboard

Why Do It?

I’d suggest thinking carefully about what you are trying to accomplish with clipboard syncing and sharing services. Most of my needs are simply to get bits of information from my Mac to an iOS device or vice versa. These are usually one off situations. I have never encountered a problem that required my entire OS X and iOS clipboards to be perfectly in sync. Most of the time, I really just need a bit of text on my phone that I have on my Mac. There are numerous ways to do this today.

Most text editors sync through Dropbox before you can even open your other device. Before there were good reliable ways, I used Pastebot. However Pastebot hasn’t been tocuhed in a very long time and is downright horrible on an iPad. I’d also suggest that iMessage is a good basic solution for getting information between Apple devices.

Mac Applications

• iClip
• CopyLess
• Alfred
• Chrome Plain Text Passwords
• Alfred Clipboard History and Snippets
• Cobook
• TextExpander
• Brett Terpstra’s TextExpander Tools

iClip is a very good and highly visual clipboard manager. It’s not as sophisticated as some of the tools Erik and Gabe dive into, but it may be the right fit if you just want an easy to use clipboard history browser on your Mac.

CopyLess is the one Gabe prefers, because of his penchant for removing all text styling on the clipboard. This area is so well served that it may just take one feature to win you over. CopyLess has good keyboard shortcuts and does a good job of preserving information like the source app in the history view.

CopyLess Clipboard

The pbcopy and pbpaste Commands

Mac OS X provides the built in Darwin functions pbcopy and pbpaste. This is a simple way to write scripts that work with the system clipboard. I’ve used it in many Python scripts and Keyboard Maestro macros without a problem.

Alfred

If you are already an Alfred user, then you already have a pretty good clipboard history app. Just turn it on in the Alfred preferences and configure a shortcut. The history can go back as far as 3 months but it’s user configurable. You can even exclude some application like 1Password from the history to avoid holding on to sensitive information too long.

Alfred Clipboard History

Local vs. Web History

Since applications like Keyboard Maestro and Alfred only exist on my Mac and do not sync information over the Internet, I don’t have any concerns about sensitive information being recorded in the history. I use FileVault on my Mac, so in theory someone would need to know my master password to view the history. However, there are plenty of tools that sync information through the Internet and I would think twice about allowing them to grab my passwords.

Keyboard Maestro

Keyboard Maestro is a macro execution system for the Mac. Macros are simple to assemble, using a wide range of flexible pre-configiured actions. Many of the macros that Gabe describes use the standard actions available without any programming knowledge required.

• Mac Power Users 064
• Zett’s Markdown Library

One Tool to Rule Them All

There are so many options for powerful and customizable workflow tools on the Mac that it can get a little messy. I’ve assigned each of my primary tool-chains to a different domain. All snippet expansion is done with TextExpander, unless there’s something it just can not easily do. All keyboard shortcut actions are handled by Keyboard Maestro. All launcher and search functions are handled by Alfred.

Clipboard actions was the first domain that it was difficult to restrain myself because TextExpander, Alfred and Keyboard Maestro each do something the other does not. I’ve settled on using Alfred for the basic clipboard history stuff and Keyboard Maestro for everything else.

The Keyboard Maestro clipboard history viewer can be as simple as a list of your most recent additions. You can also create and manage any number of custom clipboards separate from the system clipboard. The items in the clipboards are static and live on after reboots.

Keyboard Maestro History Viewer

Down the Vim rabbit hole

Vim also has the ability to use multiple clipboards of a sort, and they are called registers. If you have used Vim at all, you may already know a register as the thing you yank (copy) or delete (cut) into. This particular register is known as “unnamed,” and there are nine types of registers in all. Registers are identified first with the " character, and the unnamed register is really just named "". I’d like to highlight a couple of nice things about these registers.

As you yank (y) or delete (d, c, s, or x) you move your selection into "" and into the numbered register 0 with a yank or register 1 for a delete or change. I often delete a few items before realized that I still needed some of the text, but the nice thing is all may not be lost, because each time you delete or change, the item in 1 is rolled to 2, 2 to 3, etc. Gone but not forgotten…well, except for item number nine. It actually is forgotten, so this is only good for a quick fix. If you know you will need some text again, put it into a named register. Note that the 0 is always the last yanked item, and it never rolls anywhere. That is because you don’t delete text when you yank it, so it isn’t lost the same way deleted text can be.

When the goal is text re-use, you can specify one of 26 single-letter named registers. A lower case number fills the register from scratch, but a capital letter appends to what’s already in the register. I know, Vim is awesome. An example command to illustrate this is "ryy, which yanks the entire line into the r register. To get it back out of there, you could type "rp which puts (pastes) the yanked line into place after the cursor.

It’s easy to lose track of the state of your registers, so remember that you can type the command :reg to print out all of your defined registers. I could go on, but I hear the conductor playing me off the stage.

Keyboard Maestro also provides a way to share the full contents of a clipboard instance between Macs on the same network. Jump into the preferences an enable the webserver on the Macs.

Keyboard Maestro Clipboard Sharing

As an exmple of how simple it is to use Keyboard Maestro to do complex clipboard manipulations, Gabe describes a macro to paste the clipboard text through typing. That macro can be as simple as a single pre-made action. With a just a couple of tweaks, you can create a macro that responds appropriately to based on the content current on the clipboard. If it’s text, it gets typed out, if not, it gets pasted as normal.

Type Clipboard Text

Gabe also mentions a “plain text clipboard” in Keyboard Maestro. This macro copies text to a named clipboard and automatically removes all styling information.

The Plain Text Clipboard

Keyboard Maestro also provides actions for doing very sophisticated things with text. For example, URL encoding a string by converting things like spaces, brackets and other “un-safe” characters with a single macro action.

URL Encode Clipboard

TextExpander

TextExpander is typically used to expand snippets but it also includes functions for working with the clipboard contents. You can also trigger a shell script or AppleScript to be executed during snippet expansion. That’s an easy way to grab the clipboard and start ripping it apart.

Unlike Keyboard Maestro, TextExpander will only operate on text after it has been placed on the clipboard rather than converting selected text.

One place where TextExpander wins, is with the cursor position token. After expanding a snippet, the cursor can be repositioned within the string.

The Clipboard Conduit

It’s easy to think of the clipboard as just a temporary holding place between apps or for a short period of time. When I started to think of it as an entry point for scripts and macros, it transformed (pun intended) the way I worked. If I can get it on my clipboard, I can do almost anything with it.

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

This week's topic is navigation apps. From Gabe and Erik's earliest dedicated GPS devices to today's location-enabled everything, they break down the good and the not-so-good in today's market.

The Time Gabe’s Wife Almost Divorced Him On the Way to Ikea

In-car navigation has come a long way in the last decade or so. Gabe’s Garmin Street Pilot 2720 is a classic example of the big, heavy, dedicated GPS that straps to your car’s dashboard. Erik’s Palm OS based Garmin iQue 3600 was an early attempt at streamlining the device and expanding beyond basic navigation functionality, but the cost was almost unusably low battery life.

Convergence

Part of the reason I thought the iQue was so cool (in 2003) was that it pointed the way towards increasing convergence in mobile devices. Let me know if these capabilities sound familiar to you:

• Maps and Navigation (obviously)
• MP3 Player
• 320 x 480 pixel color LCD touchscreen
• Productivity apps like calendar, contacts, and a to-do list
• Third party applications for ebooks, games, and a bunch of other useful stuff

Garmin iQue 3600

The thing was basically trying to be an iPhone without the phone (or data, or the web, or usability, or battery life). There were limitations, but this was nearly four years before the iPhone’s unveiling, in a package that was basically the same size and weight (about .4″ larger in each dimension and about .4 oz heavier). It may not have been successful, but it sure was ambitious.

It’s easy to take for granted how much power your run-of-the-mill smartphone gives you in this day and age.

Car Navigation in the Modern Era

The field has both multiplied and evened out for smartphone navigation apps in the last few years. Here are a few key players:

• Navigon USA
• TomTom USA
• Garmin USA
• Google Maps
• Apple Maps

Navigon TomTom Garmin USA Google Maps Apple Maps

“So I guess I’m going 24/30ths of the speed limit”

While accuracy has improved in recent versions, the GPS can never be any smarter than the driver.

There are a bunch of ways you can attach a phone to your vehicle. Erik has had great success with ProClip USA, which offers a wide variety of mounts and clips for pretty much any mobile device and vehicle.

Erik’s Previous Car Integration

Live in the Now

While I no longer drive around with an iPad mini as my car computer like the image above, I have had continued success using the Satechi Bluetooth MediaRemote velcroed to a non-airbag-obstructing location on my steering wheel.

Yes, I took this picture with an iPad

Tekniska museet

With judicious use of the handy on-off switch, its battery lasts about six months. The remote is very helpful at keeping my eyes on the road as I manically shuffle through Spotify playlists on the desolate highways of western Nevada.

Satechi Bluetooth MediaRemote

Tekniska museet

I’ve also moved on from ProClip’s excellent car mounts to the more minimal Kenu Airframe which works even with bulkier iPhone cases (in width, not depth – the Mophie Juice Pack Air is pushing it).

Kenu Airframe

Tekniska museet

Its low profile, rotating vent-grip, and easy removal makes it useful for taking on trips in a rental car. You’ll probably want to turn off airflow to the vent it’s mounted on, since your car’s climate control can make your phone ice cold or even hot enough for it to turn itself off.

Also useful is the Griffin BlueTrip for routing phone audio to vehicles (like mine) that lack Bluetooth Audio integration. Its one big failing is that the microphone is both greedy and terrible, so you’ll find yourself fumbling to connect via your car’s hands-free connection when somebody calls.

Griffin BlueTrip

Tekniska museet

The ability to disable the Bluetooth phone audio profile while keeping the media audio profile on a per-device basis is one of the things I really like about Android. It makes disabling the BlueTrip’s microphone as easy as checking a box.

Gabe’s shiny new Acura can even talk to his iPhone using the AcuraLink Connect app.

Going Farther Afield

There are lots of options in the outdoor GPS app space, and it’s no longer totally necessary to rely on Gabe’s old, clunky (but waterproof and self-powered) Garmin 60CS.

MotionX-GPS

Erik likes using MotionX GPS, but any heavy use of the screen backlight and location services can drain your phone’s batteries quickly. You may want to consider attaching a Mophie Juice Pack to get through a day on the trail.

If you’ve got a non-case-mounted external battery pack, you might also appreciate the waterproof, shockproof line of Lifeproof Cases to keep that fancy smartphone of yours from croaking in the great outdoors.

“It does seem to know that I’m still stuck in the tunnel”

Waaaaayyy farther afield

There’s a whole category of GPS apps out there targeted at aviators. The things that make an iOS device great for navigating in a car make it even better for navigating in an aircraft, where there are a whole lot more maps to deal with and getting lost can have some pretty serious consequences.

Many Charts A Nice Size Extended

Tiny screens are tough to use when bouncing around in turbulence, but the iPad is a much better fit when looking at complex aeronautical charts. iPad mini is the perfect size for small cockpits and kneeboards, while the iPad Air can fit on the yokes of many light civil aircraft.

My iPad mini enjoyed the F-5 much more than the Volvo

Tekniska museet

My app of choice is ForeFlight, which has some really great capabilities. If you want to know a little more about the app and how I use it, I did a mini-review for MacStories in December 2012.

Social Navigation

Even if we’re anti-social in real life, we like to keep up with our more social friends and family. Here are a few apps that have proven useful in that regard.

• Yelp
• Around Me
• Glympse
• Waze
• Localscope

“Oh, you checked in! Here’s an acorn.”

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

This week's topic is responsive web design, both what it is, and how it's done. Erik steers clear of the controversies surrounding the issue and talks about what it actually takes to make your site work on a wide range of screen sizes.

Before we begin

It should be obvious to anyone familiar with our hosts that this episode’s topic is right in Erik’s wheelhouse. He is in control of the notes this week, and I think they have now realized that they don’t need me. It’s been nice knowing you.

Introducing Responsive Web Design

Responsive web design is the way you structure and style a website so it looks appropriate for all screen sizes and platforms.

“Some people have a hard time making their site look good on any device.”

In audio portion of this episode, Gabe and Erik focus on the strategic issues around responsive web design. The show notes, by comparison, will look at the things you have to do on a tactical level to make a responsive site happen, using a simple, effective toolchain.

For a live example of responsive design, load up any of these sites on a desktop or laptop with a fairly large screen:

• Technical Difficulties
• Macdrifter
• The Mindful Bit
• NerdQuery

Drag the window’s edge until it’s as narrow as you can make it, then expand it slowly and watch as the page elements and fonts grow and respond to the changing width of the browser. All these sites use the exact same tools and techniques we discuss here.

As the show notes progress, we’ll walk you through building a simple responsive site. Here’s a link to the live demo of the tutorial site, if you want to follow along.

• Tutorial Live Demo Site

Who is this for?

By necessity, this is a more technical topic than we’ve discussed on the show before. Still, we believe it’s one that’s relevant to a large number of our listeners, many of whom have personal blogs or reference sites.

To get the most out of this tutorial, you will probably need to be comfortable with a few things first:

• Simple HTML/CSS
• Basic web design principles
• Running a given command in the terminal
• Text editing, using whatever plain-text editor you prefer
• Running a web server on your local machine

If you don’t meet any of the above criteria, don’t worry. There are many tutorials available on the web or in books that can help you get up to speed. You still may pick up something by listening in and reading through the show notes, so stick with us.

What’s the problem?

The problem is that since the mid-2000s the number and variety of devices and screens used to view websites has exploded. Ten years ago, it was safe to assume that people would be looking at your site on a 1024 × 768 screen using Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.

Win some lose some

I think that we lost a lot of true artistry in addition to uniform experience.

Those days are long past.

Today, you should be prepared to serve your site to browsers as small as the original iPhone (320 × 480 pixels) all the way up to desktop displays sporting 2560 × 1440 pixel resolutions or higher. Even on the desktop there’s a wide variety, as some users prefer narrow overlapping windows, while others prefer browsing full-screen.

It’s difficult to make font and interaction element choices that work equally well on both big and small screens. Some designers prefer to keep things simple, making a single layout (usually around 960 pixels wide) and trusting mobile users to pinch and zoom for reading and navigation.

Strictly speaking, there’s nothing wrong with this sort of design, especially for content-driven sites with simple navigation. Unfortunately, some sites with long line lengths may be difficult to read even when zoomed in. Other sites with detailed, interactive navigation (think multi-level, nested hierarchies) may make it difficult for users of small screens to find what they’re looking for as they pan through a zoomed site seen though their virtual soda straw.

The alternative is to adapt your layout so that it responds properly to the size of the browser window being used. That’s called responsive or adaptive design.

Flamewarning

There are some major philosophical flame-wars over responsive design, adaptive design, whether there’s a difference between them, and even whether we should be designing this way at all. Like any inexact science or art, there are substantial differences in perspective, and they all offer good arguments and accept different compromises.

I’m not here to tell you how responsive design should be done. I’m telling you how I do it. If you’re interested, I highly encourage you to scour the web for alternate perspectives and tools. It’s a great way to broaden your horizons.

If you find something cool, let me know. I like cool things.

Before We Begin

We’ve created a simple responsive website as part of this tutorial. You can find the source code for the tutorial as well as for the Technical Difficulties site itself on Github.

• Tutorial Source Code
• Technical Difficulties Source Code
• The Mindful Bit Source Code

The Tools

We’re going use the following languages and libraries to design a simple responsive site:

• CSS
• Sass
• Compass
• Takitapart Web Framework

Each library in this toolset builds on top of the one before it like nesting dolls, with basic CSS at its core.

Why these tools?

There are tons of similar platforms and frameworks out there. Why do I use these?

A few reasons:

• They work
• They’re what I know and use every day
• They’re fairly simple to get up and running
• They offer a tremendous amount of flexibility and growth potential

As always, if these tools don’t work for you, look around, try a bunch of new things and find a workflow that fits your needs. Then come back and tell me about all the awesome new tools you’ve found, so I can start using them too.

Configuring the toolset

Before we start discussing the different tools, let’s get them installed. We’re assuming you’ve got a web server running on your computer already.

Web Servers

Due to time constraints and the broad variety of platforms out there, the act of setting up a web server is outside the scope of this discussion.

If you’re on a Mac, you’ve got a couple of options. You could use OS X’s built-in Apache server. You could use the free version of MAMP. Or you could do what I do and use Homebrew to install php 5.5 which lets you create a temporary webserver via the terminal with one simple command:

php -S localhost:8888

There are many options, so feel free to contact me on App.net, if you run into any problems that Google can’t help you surmount.

You can also try me on Twitter, but you don’t know pain until you’ve helped somebody troubleshoot their development platform 140 characters at a time.

In the root folder of your new site, run the following command in a terminal window, followed by your password if necessary. It will install Sass, Compass, and the Takitapart Web Framework on your machine:

sudo gem install compass.takitapart.framework

Next we’re going to create the foundational files for your design. It’s another one-liner:

compass create

Let’s make some tweaks to those files, just to be sure they’re all set for our use.

In the root of your directory you should see a file named config.rb. Open it up and after the first comment add this line:

# Require any additional compass plugins here.
require "takitapart"

That tells Compass we’re using the Takitapart Web Framework.

Finally, we’ll need to give the web-server something to show. Create a file called index.html in the root of your web directory and fill it with the following lines:

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <link href="/stylesheets/screen.css" media="screen, projection" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/stylesheets/print.css" media="print" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <!--[if IE]>
        <link href="/stylesheets/ie.css" media="screen, projection" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <![endif]-->
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum at orci magna. Phasellus augue justo, sodales eu potatowire ac, vulputate eget nulla. Mauris massa sem, ttscoff sed cursus et, semper tincidunt lacus. Praesent sagittis, drang id egestas consequat, nisl orci vehicula libero, quis hotdogsladies nulla magna interdum sem. Macdrifter eget orci vitae eros accumsan mollis. Cras mi mi, rutrum id aliquam in, aliquet vitae tellus. Sed neque justo, cursus in commodo eget, facilisis eget nunc. Cras tincidunt auctor varius.</p>
  </body>
</html>

If you load this simple web page in a browser, you’ll notice a few things right away. First, unless you have a thing for unleaded Times New Roman, it’s not the most attractive site, but it is fairly readable. Second, it doesn’t look like we’ve done anything but put some text on the page. What’s all that Takitapart stuff for, anyway?

Trust me. We’ll get there.

Third and most importantly, if you shrink down the browser window to as tiny as you can possibly get it, the site doesn’t look a whole lot worse. In fact, those shorter lines even seem a little easier to read. What’s up with that?

Wide Narrow

The central takeaway is this:

Before you add any styling to a website, it already works better in a tiny mobile browser than a big desktop one. As you style the site, make sure you don’t “break” the experience for mobile users. This is one of many reasons why it’s smart to design with a mobile-first mindset.

Development Browser

You’ll probably want to use a browser with good development tools. Every browser has them, but my favorite is Chrome with the Web Developer extension.

Chrome Dev Tools

Tekniska museet

I use the web inspector a lot when I’m developing, and on a big screen I usually pop it out into its own separate window.

Let’s take a break now and briefly discuss what each of these fancy libraries do.

Sass

The folks who make Sass call it “CSS with superpowers” and I have to agree. Sass is an extension of CSS that adds a whole lot of great stuff that probably should be there from the start:

• Variables: Useful for a lot of things, like defining a color at the beginning of your stylesheet so you only have to change it in one place.
• Nesting: This can save a lot of redundant CSS lines while making it clearer what styles apply to which elements, and limiting their scope.
• Mixins: Think of these like functions for your stylesheet. They’re particularly helpful for handling widely varying browser-specific syntax with one elegant line of code.
• Math: This is critical for grid layouts.

The way Sass works is by creating .scss files that you later compile into valid CSS. You can see that our initial setup left you with a few of those files ready to go in your website’s cleverly named sass directory.

We’ll work with those in a little bit.

Compass

Compass describes itself as “an open-source CSS Authoring Framework”. Building on Sass, it offers two things that are really useful:

• A toolset to compile and compress Sass
• A library of mixins for making a whole lot of tricky cross-platform styling much easier

There’s actually a third thing it offers which may be more important: excellent documentation.

Let’s do something fun with Compass real quick. Open up a new tab in Terminal and make sure you’re in the root directory of your website. Now type this command:

compass watch

You should get a response that looks like this:

Keep Watching…

Not very interesting, huh? Let’s change things up a bit.

Takitapart Web Framework

Now go in and add the following lines to your sass/screen.scss file after @import "compass/reset":

@import "takitapart/normalize";
@import "takitapart/typography";
@import "takitapart/grid";
@import "takitapart/form";
@import "takitapart/print";

Save your file, and check that terminal window one more time:

I told you to keep watching!

Compass saw that you changed your screen.scss file (not changing any others) and recompiled it for you. Refresh your browser and you’ll see that it’s starting to look a little different, with a sans-serif font and a little more line spacing.

Well, something happened.

The site changed because the Takitapart Web Framework added a bunch of normalization to your stylesheet. Take a look at the stylesheets/screen.css file real quick.

Whoa! Five lines of Sass is now nearly 800 lines of CSS!

But, but… SLOW!!!

I know, you’re worried that all the helpful stuff Compass puts in your CSS file makes it huge and your site slow, aren’t you?

I feel bloated.

Tekniska museet

Despite being very helpful during development (remember, your web inspector only shows you the CSS (for now) - try finding that styling bug without the Sass line numbers) you probably don’t need all that nice breathing room and helpful commenting cluttering up your production stylesheet.

You can get a nice compressed version of your CSS file for your production site by running compass compile --output-style compressed --force which will minimize file size (usually it’s about 1/3 the size of the uncompressed version) speed up your site for bandwidth-limited visitors.

Much better.

Tekniska museet

The Takitapart Web Framework builds on Compass to normalize the often conflicting default styling across different browsers. It also gives us the tools to build a grid.

Not this…

…this.

Grids are helpful because they give us a tool to logically lay out text, images and other elements in a design. They’re even more helpful in responsive design because their sequence of alternating columns and gutters lends itself well to expanding and contracting content as the browser size changes.

We’ll get back to the grid in just a little bit, but first let’s fix the viewport.

Setting the Viewport

What is a viewport anyway? Well, it’s the area your browser uses to display a site.

“Like on a submarine?”

In the old days, there used to be just one kind of viewport, which was the size of your computer’s browser window. When iOS came out, Apple engineers needed a way to make normal sites functional on a very small screen. Their solution was to have iOS tell the websites that the browser was really 980 pixels wide instead of 320. Other mobile browsers followed suit.

Here’s a little more information for those who want to get into the details:

• A Tale of Two Viewports Part One
• A Tale of Two Viewports Part Two
• Configuring the Viewport

Unfortunately this is a bit counterproductive where we’re concerned. Why?

Tiny Text!

Well, because without some tweaking, that text is going to look incredibly tiny on a mobile browser. And pinch-to-zoom isn’t going to help you much unless you like scrolling horizontally… a lot.

Scroll, scroll…

Fixing the viewport

Overriding this feature is actually pretty easy. Just add the following line just after <head> in your index.html file.

<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">

This tells the mobile browser that a pixel is a pixel.

Fixed!

Well, Actually…

On retina devices, it still pretends that it’s a low-resolution screen, so one pixel is equal to four retina pixels and…

Oh… you knew all that already…

Establishing the Grid

Now that a pixel is (mostly) a pixel on all platforms, let’s get to building that grid. The Takitapart Web Framework offers a good set of defaults, but they have to be initialized first.

Add the following lines to your screen.scss file after the @import calls:

// Base font-size in pixels.
$font-size: 16;
// Base line-height.
$line: $font-size * 1.5;
$em: $font-size * 1;
// Number of columns.
$columns: 12;
// Width of the outer margin, in percent.
$outer-margin: 5.55555%;
body {
  @include grid();
}

Refreshing your browser won’t show much in the way of change, but we’ve set some important values as variables.

First, we set the base value for the $font-size variable to 16 pixels. This is a good default, but you can move it up or down as needed by your site’s design and its audience. The next two lines build on this, setting the line-height to 1.5 times the base font size, which we also set equal to one em.

Ems vs. Pixels

Since switching to a responsive workflow I avoid setting the sizes of elements using pixels and predominantly use the relative measure “em”. This allows me to adjust the size of multiple elements with one line rather than adjust each individually.

This is extremely useful when building a responsive site, as you can have the font size and other elements change with browser size.

See also: W3C - The Amazing em Unit and Other Best Practices

The next variable is the number of columns, which we’ll set to 12. As the site adapts to larger screen sizes, different elements will start by filling all twelve the columns then gradually shrink, sharing horizontal space with other elements as space allows. Twelve is a good number because it breaks into groups easily, allowing 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 column layouts.

The final variable is outer margin width, which is independent of the gutter width between the columns. The default is 1/18 of the viewport width (5.55555%) which is as good a starting place as any. As you gain more experience, you may wish to set this value to zero and handle all margins on an element-by-element basis.

The final step is to initialize the grid on the body element, using the @include syntax, which tells the Sass compiler that you want to use the grid() mixin.

Refresh your browser and you should see those nice outer margins drop into place. Our new responsive website is coming along nicely.

Responding to Screen Size

Now that we’ve got everything set, let’s start filling the site out. First we’ve got to add a little structure to the bare content, so update your index.html file so that it looks like this:

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
    <link href="/stylesheets/screen.css" media="screen, projection" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/stylesheets/print.css" media="print" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <!--[if IE]>
        <link href="/stylesheets/ie.css" media="screen, projection" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <![endif]-->
  </head>
  <body>
    <div id="header">
      <h1>My Awesome Responsive Site</h1>
    </div>
    <div id="core">
      <div id="content">
        <h2>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet</h2>
        <p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum at orci magna. Phasellus augue justo, sodales eu potatowire ac, vulputate eget nulla. Mauris massa sem, ttscoff sed cursus et, semper tincidunt lacus. Praesent sagittis, drang id egestas consequat, nisl orci vehicula libero, quis hotdogsladies nulla magna interdum sem. Macdrifter eget orci vitae eros accumsan mollis. Cras mi mi, rutrum id aliquam in, aliquet vitae tellus. Sed neque justo, cursus in commodo eget, facilisis eget nunc. Cras tincidunt auctor varius.</p>
      </div>
      <div id="nav">
        <div id="posts">
          <h2>Posts</h2>
          <ul>
            <li><a href="/">Page 1</a></li>
            <li><a href="/">Page 2</a></li>
            <li><a href="/">Page 3</a></li>
          </ul>
        </div>
        <div id="links">
          <h2>Links</h2>
          <ul>
            <li><a href="/">Site 1</a></li>
            <li><a href="/">Site 2</a></li>
            <li><a href="/">Site 3</a></li>
          </ul>
        </div>
      </div>
    </div>
    <div id="footer">
      <p>Made with awesome responsiveness by me, 2014.</p>
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

Hopefully you’re beginning to see the wisdom of the “mobile-first” philosophy. Since small screens offer the most constrained canvas for design, building this way forces the developer to answer all the hard questions first.

If you refresh your screen and take your browser down to its narrowest width (320 pixels wide for Chrome, which is convenient for iPhone layouts) you’ll see that a lot has naturally fallen into place. You’ve got a header with a site title, your content next, your site navigation after that, and a footer at the bottom.

By thoughtfully picking the location of your major elements, you’ve already a pretty good mobile layout without doing anything special.

In order to make the elements a little easier to visualize, let’s give them some color using variables. Before body insert these lines:

$header-color: #f6a9a9;
$content-color: #a9a9f6;
$nav-color: #dddddd;
$posts-color: #ac76c3;
$links-color: #76acc3;
$footer-color: #a9f6a9;

Then replace your body styling with this:

body {
  @include grid();
  #header {
    background-color: $header-color;
    @include column(12);
  }
  #content {
    background-color: $content-color;
    @include column(12);
  }
  #nav {
    background-color: $nav-color;
    @include column(12);
    #posts {
      background-color: $posts-color;
      @include column(12,12);
    }
    #links {
      background-color: $links-color;
      @include column(12,12);
    }
  }
  #footer {
    background-color: $footer-color;
    @include column(12);
  }
}

When you refresh your browser, the different elements should stand out a bit more. By this point, your site should be looking something like this (click or tap to enlarge):

Taste the Rainbow

Notice the gray bars outside the #posts and #links elements. The#nav element is colored gray here, and since it encloses the #posts and #links elements, you are seeing the automatic column padding showing through.

Let’s get back to the Sass for a bit. Did you notice the nesting? How about the variables for the colors? Pretty simple, huh?

Now let’s talk about that other line that crops up everywhere:

@include column(12);

That line is telling the element to take up all twelve columns in the grid, making one big column appropriate to a mobile browser. So what about the @include column(12,12); for #posts and #links? That tells a sub-element to take up all twelve of the parent’s columns. Because the first sub-element #posts fills all twelve columns, the second sub-element #links is forced beneath it.

That gray padding in the #nav element doesn’t look too nice, so get rid of it by adding padding: 0; to the line right before #posts.

Them’s the Breaks

Let’s give our site some breathing room and look at the screen at 600 pixels wide:

Like an old Kindle Fire

Not bad. The header looks fine and the content is still quite readable. We’re wasting a lot of space with those #nav sub-elements though. Maybe we could stack ‘em side by side or something. We’ll do that with CSS media queries.

Put the following code immediately after the closing brace of your body styling:

@media screen and (min-width: 32em) {
  body {
    #nav {
      #posts,
      #links {
        @include column(6,12);
      }
    } 
  }
}

Refresh and:

Side by Side

Pretty good! It makes for a more efficient use of space, that’s for sure. What we’ve done is tell the browser that for window widths greater than 32em (512 pixels here, since we set 16 pixels = 1em) we want the #posts and #links sub-elements to take up only six of their parent’s twelve columns. Because the Takitapart Web Framework floats all column inhabitants to the left by default, they nestle up right next to each other.

Resize your browser window width back and forth around the 512-pixel point and you’ll see the elements snap from stacked to side-by-side and back again, without refreshing the browser. This point is called a breakpoint.

Point Break…point

Here are a couple of guidelines I use when choosing breakpoints. First, you should let your content be your guide. If the site looks fine at a given browser size, it doesn’t need a breakpoint. As soon as it starts to look bad, break it and try an altered layout.

Additionally, you may want to avoid picking common screen sizes for your breakpoints. Strange things can happen at a break, and you don’t want those quirks messing up the experience for your site’s visitors.

Finally, try not to get too picky about your exact element sizes. There are no pixel-perfect layouts when designing a fluid web page, so expect things to look a little strange sometimes. Fix what you can and accept that this is the web and not print. If you do need a rigid, pixel-perfect layout, use fixed design within each breakpoint, and bridge the gap between those breakpoints with fluid margins. If that sentence doesn’t make sense, then you probably don’t really need a rigid, pixel-perfect layout.

Adding a sidebar

Stretch your site out to 768 pixels wide, which is the width of an iPad in portrait orientation. The site still works, but the line length of the text is getting a bit too wide. Let’s try using that excess space for something useful like a sidebar.

Beneath the closing brace of your @media query, put the following lines:

@media screen and (min-width: 42em) {
  body {
    #content {
      @include column(9);
      float: right;
    }
    #nav {
      @include column(3);
      padding: 0;
      #posts,
      #links {
        @include column(3,3);
      }
    } 
  }
}

So what are we doing here? First, we set a new breakpoint at 42em (672 pixels). Next, we shrink the #content element from 12 to 9 columns, overriding the default float so that it stays right instead of going left. Remember, elements pile up in the order they appear in the HTML file. Since the #nav element comes after #content, you have to force it right with the float: right; instruction.

Lastly, we’ve resized the #nav element to three columns, reminded it that we don’t want those gray padding sidebars, and told both #posts and #links that they should utilize all three of their parent’s columns. Let’s refresh the browser and see how it looks.

Now With 100% More Sidebar

Not bad at all! Note that the #footer element automatically clears both of the columns above because it’s twelve columns wide – too wide to do anything else. Pretty cool, huh?

It’s All Just Math

The mathematically-inclined reader may have already guessed this, but all the @include column(3,3); line is doing is setting the CSS width: property to the first number divided by the second number. In that sense @include column(6,12); is precisely equal to @include column(3,6); or even @include column(1,2);.

That being said, I try to keep all the numbers “un-reduced” unless I need to fit, say, three equally spaced elements into a four-column parent. Then, bending the rules works like a champ.

Work on the Core

Stretch your browser window width past 1024 pixels or so, and things start to get a little too stretchy. There are two solutions available to you at this point, and we’ll give them both a try.

The first option is to add columns of white space to the left and right of your content. To do this, we use the @include push(x,y); mixin. To that end, let’s add a third breakpoint to your screen.scss file:

@media screen and (min-width: 62em) {
  body {
    #header {
      @include column(10);
      @include push(1);
    }
    #core {
      @include column(10);
      @include push(1);
      padding: 0;
      #content {
        @include column(7,10);
        float: right;
      }
      #nav {
        @include column(3,10);
        padding: 0;
        #posts,
        #links {
          @include column(3,3);
        }
      }
    }
    #footer {
      @include column(10);
      @include push(1);
    }
  }
}

What we’re doing here is making the widest elements ten columns wide, and pushing them one column to the right, leaving a column of space on both sides.

You may have noticed the #core element earlier and wondered why it’s there. This kind of enclosing element allows us to take the entire central block and push it right, without disrupting the elements within or having to individually @include push(); them.

Refresh your browser and see how it turned out.

A little space on the sides.

You Can Pull, Too

The @include push(x,y); mixin has an evil twin: @include pull(x,y);. It works the same as push, just in the opposite direction. I’ve only used it a few times, but it’s nice to have when you do need it.

Making things a bit bigger

The sidebars were a nice fix, but you’ve got the same problem again once your viewport reaches 1200 pixels wide. One option is to enlarge the sidebars by using @include push(2); and shrinking the widest elements to eight columns wide. You can keep going with that for a bit, but after a while it becomes a little unwieldy.

There’s another option you may want to use, and that’s to make everything bigger. We do that by adjusting the size of the grid itself.

Add the next nine breakpoints (yes, nine) below your previous ones:

@media screen and (min-width: 70em) {
  @include baseline-grid(20);
}
@media screen and (min-width: 80em) {
  @include baseline-grid(22);
}
@media screen and (min-width: 90em) {
  @include baseline-grid(24);
}
@media screen and (min-width: 100em) {
  @include baseline-grid(26);
}
@media screen and (min-width: 110em) {
  @include baseline-grid(28);
}
@media screen and (min-width: 120em) {
  @include baseline-grid(30);
}
@media screen and (min-width: 130em) {
  @include baseline-grid(32);
}
@media screen and (min-width: 140em) {
  @include baseline-grid(34);
}
@media screen and (min-width: 150em) {
  @include baseline-grid(36);
}

Refresh your browser, and if you’re on a large display pull the window as wide as it will go.

Big Text

You’ll see everything smoothly increase in size assuming you scaled everything in relative measures like ems and percentages. This is why it’s a good idea to avoid exact pixel sizes whenever possible. They don’t scale.

Except…

Every rule has an exception, and this one is no… exception. When I need a hairline border, I use border-width: 1px; since that will always give me the thinnest border possible on that platform.

We’ve Only Just Begun

There’s so much more to cover, but it goes beyond the scope of an intro. There are three issues we should touch on before you go: accessibility, images, and unfriendly (old Microsoft) browsers.

Accessibility

Unfortunately this critically important issue that is just too big to squeeze into this discussion. Luckily, nothing we’ve done so far should hinder accessibility, and the font scaling can help in some cases.

Images

Responsive image manipulation is still in its infancy, but here are a few considerations that will help you now and start you down a good path for future exploration.

First, try to work as much as possible in a vector image format like SVG. Anything that looks more like a diagram than a picture (many logos, interface elements, or other similar graphics) can be presented in razor-sharp fidelity at all screen resolutions by serving up a vector SVG file.

All modern browsers support SVG natively, and you can offer a CSS background-image: fallback for older applications.

Older Browsers (IE)

Speaking of older browsers (generally IE 8 and earlier) you can use conditional comments to serve up an alternate stylesheet that will only be used Internet Explorer. You can even target specific versions if you like. In fact, you’ve already used conditional comments in the demo site. Check out lines 7 through 9 in your index.html file:

<!doctype html>
<html>
  <head>
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width">
    <link href="/stylesheets/screen.css" media="screen, projection" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <link href="/stylesheets/print.css" media="print" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <!--[if IE]>
        <link href="/stylesheets/ie.css" media="screen, projection" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" />
    <![endif]-->
  </head>
  <body>
  ...

Those lines serve up an alternate ie.css file generated from the ie.scss file. Compass includes it by default.

That About Does It

Remember that there are no hard-and-fast rules for any of this stuff. This field is changing every day, and new tools, technologies, and hacks regularly come along to change your entire workflow.

This is awesome though, and hopefully it’s the reason why we started messing with this stuff in the first place. Good luck, happy coding, and let us know if you run into any problems that a Google search doesn’t readily solve.

Until next week

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com. Also let us know if you like this instructive type of show. It’s an experiment that we may re-visit again.

Struggling with unreliable power at home and on the road, Gabe and Erik talk about how they make sure their gadgets stay running.

On the Unreliability of Home Electricity in the 21st Century

Lamenting the frequency of blackouts and brownouts in the Sierra Nevada and Northeast US, Erik and Gabe trade horror stories of natural disasters and run-of-the-mill outages.

“Ding!”

Technical Difficulties

Sometimes Gabe and Erik’s Technical Difficulties are weather related:

2008 ice storm

Tekniska museet

Hurricane Isabel

Tekniska museet

Sometimes not…

@techdiffpodcast You guys will do anything to live up to the name.

— Dr. Drang (@drdrang) December 28, 2013

Let’s Talk About UPSes a Little Bit

An uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is simply a big battery that sits quietly plugged in to an outlet, trickle charging. Should disaster strike, however, it leaps into action and begins to beep loudly. Oh yeah, it provides power, too.

As a quick reminder, recall that a home’s electricity is supplied from the power company in the form of alternating current (AC), while a battery supplies its power in the form of direct current (DC). Since everything connected to a wall outlet via the UPS expects AC power, the UPS employs a power inverter to convert AC to DC for charging and DC to AC when powering your gadgets in a blackout.

Full circle

In a nerd’s house, this power is almost always converted back to DC. Digital devices need DC power, because the 1s and 0s everyone is always talking about are actually distinct changes between on and off using 0 and 5 volts (It doesn’t have to be 0 and 5V, but that is the convention). Since AC power is a flow of energy alternating between a positive and negative charge, it is ill-suited to represent 1s and 0s.

A nerd will of course turn this carefully-delivered power into tweets about power outages.

There are many good models of UPSes, but the common brands are CyberPower, APC and Tripplite. The naming conventions hearken back to the days when all computers were some color of gray, but there is a system if you look hard enough.

“It’s in dimensionless units of awesomeness.”

Within each brand’s line, there are products designed to handle a particular electrical load. When you dig in, you’ll see the capacities are listed in volt-amperes (VA), which is typically the way that AC capacity is measured. This makes sense given that AC power is what’s being supplied, but you can also find the battery’s capacity measured in watts, if that is more meaningful to you. there are various sizing tools designed to help, but although they have been updated since Gabe last looked…

Quadra LC II G5 PowerMac

…don’t expect the representative devices to have the most up-to-date specs.

Rather than allowing you to finish your magnum opus, a UPS exists to provide a graceful end to your current work. If you have un-monitored equipment, most new UPSes are able to communicate with a computer or server in order to initiate a normal shutdown. As Gabe mentioned, a 1000 VA UPS will add about an hour to a rMBP’s battery life.

Forced shutdown

My home server is a homebuilt ZFS server, and the boot drive can be corrupted after an unexpected shutdown, requiring the drive to be re-imaged. While the data you care about may be safe on the other drives (if you do it right, and buy a Synology if you’re not sure you did) that’s a pain that can easily be avoided with the help of a UPS.

In addition to the protections offered during a full blackout, UPSes are a good investment in areas prone to brownouts or other issues of power quality. The protection offered in this case is a smoothing or evening-out of the power that is coming from the power grid. During an under-voltage situation, a UPS will maintain acceptable power to attached equipment, and a line-interactive UPS can do so without the use of its battery.

The act of converting AC to DC power for battery storage, and then from DC to AC power for use, can distort the voltage and some sort of filter must be applied to correct this. Higher quality UPS equipment is more likely to provide cleaner power, so this is not the place to cut corners. Consistent low power fluctuations can damage computer hardware in many insidious ways.

If you’re having trouble selecting a UPS to buy, you could always just go with the what the hosts purchased. Gabe has the CyberPower CP1000 (Amazon average price $104.61, and Erik has the APC ES-750 (Amazon average price $86.45).

Buy Gabe’s

My APC is just fine, but I bought it off the cuff at Best Buy a few years ago. Knowing how much thought Gabe puts into his purchases, I’d say you should get the CyberPower if you can afford it.

Surge Protection

On top of the risk of under-voltage, there is a danger of voltage spikes. The types of UPSes sold for use with electronics are also designed to protect against surges, but dedicated surge protectors can be had for much less. Surge protectors work by blocking unsafe voltages of sending them to ground. They are rated by how much electricity they let through and by how much excess energy they can safely handle.

Surge protectors are extremely common, but if you are on the market for a higher-quality part, Erik’s choice is the APC Performance SurgeArrest 11 (average Amazon price $24.89). Keep in mind that he is prone to flouting the rules, which is not necessarily a good idea.

Bad memories

If you are wondering why Erik felt he needed permission to confess his rule-breaking habits, remember that he has often been subject to random inspections at home and work.

Home Sweet Home

“Have you ever looked into a whole-house surge protector?”

While it may be tempting to try to protect all of the electronics in your house from the evils of high voltage, whole-house solutions are not likely to be worth the cost. You could always ask Gabe for the name of his electrician.

Power on the Road

“Hey, do you mind if I put my surge protector in there?”

Charging electronics while traveling can be a challenge if you don’t come prepared. Once you arrive at your Holiday Inn Express, you can actually use the goofy lamp outlet if you remember to bring the swivel-plugged wonder that is the Belkin SurgePlus.

Average Amazon price $23.44

Correction

Gabe and I mentioned that the Belkin SurgePlus doesn’t have iPad class (2.1A) USB ports, but that’s no longer true. The new version supports 2.1A (combined) for its two USB ports. This was such a killer feature for me that I went out and bought a new one.

It’s easy to keep your batteries topped while sitting in your car, which may also be your office, and if you plan ahead, you can charge everyone’s batteries.

Average Amazon price $32.42

“The previous one I had was like this giant tumor that hung off of the dash”

When selecting a portable battery to charge without access to a power source, you can opt for a battery case or a battery brick. Both have pros and cons, and you likely know which you prefer before setting out to purchase one. One other benefit of the battery bricks that was unstated in the podcast is that they provide the ability to power anything that uses a USB charger.

Erik is partial to the Mophie:

• Mophie Juice Pack Air
• Mophie Juice Pack Dock
• Mophie Powerstand

While Gabe prefers the power brick variants:

• Monoprice Charger

“I tend to be a battery hoarder”

When it comes to keeping your laptop ready to use, the best bet is to either always be carrying your charger or to prolong your battery life. And you may need to do both.

Laptop Batteries

Gabe and Erik briefly touched on laptop battery best practices, but there seems to always be some controversy here. Apple says not to leave them plugged in, but other smart people say that this isn’t really a concern with modern chargers and lithium-ion batteries. Memory effect is definitely not an issue with Li-ion batteries, but they are still damaged by heat and only have a finite number of cycles (using and recharging 100% of battery capacity-not necessarily in one fell swoop-equals one full charge cycle) available to them. Minimize both of these ill effects, and the lifespan of your battery should improve. I lack the discipline (and desire) to charge only to 80%, while not dipping below 40%, but I know you are better than me.

“I’m UPS-promiscuous but with my Synology I’m pretty dedicated.”

Until next week

Erik’s old Garmin iQue 3600 may have lacked the battery life required to walk around the block, but it does serve as a reminder of how easy we have things now. Battery technology is a little better, power consumption technology is much better, and most of our devices never see a power cord during the day. We’ve come a long way.

Well, that’s it for this week. If you have anything that you’d like to add to or correct in the show notes you can find me on Twitter @potatowire or feel free to send an email to me at potatowire dot com.

Bradley Chambers drops by to help Gabe and Erik understand how to make WiFi work in the home. Along the way they talk about the way wireless signals propagate and interfere, how to select the best hardware, and how to configure your router's software to ensure a secure and reliable wireless network.

Guest Spotlight: Bradley Chambers

Bradley Chambers

Producer’s Note

This week marks our second episode with a guest expert. Before we begin, here is a bit more about Bradley Chambers, this week’s guide to the tricky world of WiFi.

Bradley’s sparse Twitter bio sums him up as “Jesus follower, husband, father,” and that’s a good place to start. He lives in Chattanooga, TN with his wife and two sons and serves as Director of Information Technology for Brainerd Baptist School.

Bradley can be regularly heard on the Out of School podcast discussing educational technology with his co-host Fraser Speirs. He also blogs (not daily) at Chambers Daily and the content there is of the same high quality you’d expect from the author of Learning to Love Evernote and Learning to Love Photo Management.

You can find Bradley online via Twitter, ADN, and LinkedIn.

When was the last time you re-thought how you’re doing your WiFi?

Gabe begins the episode by asking Erik a silly question about whether he has reconsidered how he does a thing – WiFi in this case.

Skype problems caused Erik’s most recent clean sweep and (as is so often the case in the world of tech) the new setup completely failed to solve his actual problem, but he liked it better anyway. Since this opens a can of worms, Gabe and Erik invited someone with both a broader and deeper knowledge of WiFi onto the show to help them dive deeper. Enter Bradley Chambers.

Mass per Unit Volume

This material is very dense and while the show doesn’t stray much, you can certainly tell this is a complicated subject when listening. The show notes here will occasionally fall down some of the rabbit holes that the hosts were able to avoid, but in general, I will also try to hit the high points, while offering some useful links that provide additional depth.

When Bradley started his IT job in 2009 or so, WiFi was not ubiquitous, but now it’s included in previously dumb household items, is the default network connection for television doohickeys, and shares its frequency with baby monitors and microwaves. This ubiquity means that WiFi tools and support for the protocol have never been better, but it has also spawned a host of interference and bandwidth challenges.

A firm foundation of what Wifi really is

WiFi, in its most basic from, is very easy to understand: a wireless way to network computers. Reduced another step in tech complexity, WiFi just means “internet.”

Behind this simple veneer, however, there is immeasurable complexity. No one knows this better than Bradley Chambers, whose day job involves ensuring WiFi delivers the interwebs in the same automatic way that a faucet delivers water.

Water

Or in the same automatic way that a faucet delivers beer in the Weatherhead house

The keezer is near complete. pic.twitter.com/MGMATldF

— macdrifter (@macdrifter) February 2, 2013

A network hub is really just a dumb version of a network switch, the latter of which you may remember from the Ethernetworking episode of Technical Difficulties. The main difference between these two devices is that the hub rebroadcasts its signals, rather than trying to properly address its communication. When Bradley calls WiFi “hubs in the air,” this is the distinction. Wireless access points broadcast their signals omnidirectionally, so that all participating devices can “see” the signals.

2.4 vs 5

When we consider the transmission of individual ethernet frames for an increasing number of devices, the radio signal itself becomes important. In common use are both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz.

Generally speaking, 2.4 is widely considered the “junk band” and can be compared to the lanes nearest merging onramps of a congested highway, while the 5 GHz band is like the passing lane. Continuing this traffic metaphor, the passing lane is faster when there aren’t too many cars in it, and since the 2.4 GHz band is the most commonly used industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands, there is a lot of merging traffic. Even considering only WiFi traffic, 2.4 has an increased problem with Co-channel interference, because it is only 72 MHz wide, while the 5 GHz band is 910 MHz wide.

WLAN Channel Overlap

Tekniska museet

To beat up my metaphor a bit more, 5 GHz has more lanes. Also, note that a channel just refers to a small, 5 MHz segment of its respective band. It is much easier to say your WiFi router is on channel 11 rather than 2.462 GHz, and defining the segments in this way improves interoperability.

Congestion and interference aren’t the only reasons that 5 GHz is faster though. Since the 2.4 and 5 band represent the frequency of the carrier wave that the WiFi router is using to transmit its information, all else being equal, moving to the higher frequency band would carry information slightly more than twice as fast.

---

Correction

Shortly after going live with this episode, an error in this last paragraph was pointed out by Allen MacKenzie:

@macdrifter Same bandwidth with same noise/interference has same capacity, regardless of carrier frequency.

— Allen B. MacKenzie (@mackenab) January 5, 2014

Essentially, the question of speed boils down to how much information can be transmitted and received in a given period of time. Because these waves travel at the speed of light, the only way to convey more information per unit of time is to code more information into the carrier signal.

The informational capacity of a wave is defined by the bandwidth which is defined in this context as the difference between the higher and lower frequencies in a given set of frequencies. The set of frequencies in this case corresponds to a WiFi channel, and since both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands have channels that are 5 MHz wide, they have the same “storage capacity.”

That being said, modern equipment can pair multiple channels together, thereby increasing the available bandwidth and providing a speed benefit. These wider channels are more prone to interference, however, because there are more frequencies that can be affected. As discussed above, the 5 GHz band is less prone to interference and is therefore more able to support wider channels.

So… the 5 GHz band is faster. Easy, right?

---

One trade-off with a higher frequency signal is range. I am unqualified to talk about the physics involved here, but all waves are attenuated as they travel through a medium, but lower frequency waves can travel further before they are attenuated to an unusable level.

An illustration of an extreme extension of this principle in action is the communication with submarines using extremely low frequency waves, often using frequencies as low as 3 Hz which penetrate seawater to a submarine’s operating depths. You may want to use 2.4 GHz, even with all of its negatives, in an old house with lath-and-plaster walls, in order to get sufficient range. As Gabe notes, old houses can also resist Cat-6 cable installation in many creative ways.

• For more information on interference, here are a few additional resources.
• You could also focus on selecting the best channel.
• The 802.11 protocol you choose may decide your band anyway.

Channels and Speed

We didn’t cover channel width because it doesn’t affect home users as much, but it does affect speeds. Learn more here. Channel width and QAM is very important in 802.11ac to see max speeds. Learn even more here.

Planning your network

Very fancy hardware can also band steer and select the best band available, and dual-band routers are becoming pretty commonplace. You can really customize your wireless if you have ethernet everywhere.

“My rule is that everything that is stationary gets plugged in to ethernet”

Adding access points will increase the airtime available for other devices. Additionally, the available WiFi bandwidth won’t be limited by devices streaming data at a high bitrate.

Bradley has provided some very good guidance about the eventual transition to 802.11ac, but a lot of deals can be found on 802.11n hardware, and for most people, he recommends getting the older AirPort Extreme and an Airport Express.

If you want to do it all with one router, you can go the route Gabe did and leave the walled garden, which will allow you to buy huge antennas if you need more range.

Wirecutter says “Wait”

The Wirecutter has their “Best Wifi Router” – currently Gabe’s Asus RT-N66u – in its “Wait!” status due to current versions all being 802.11AC. As discussed in this show, there is not currently an obvious need to go AC, but if you are at all concerned about being future-proof (for a bit longer, at least), then it might be good to wait, if you are happy with your current setup.

For my part, this router has had an average price on Amazon of $144.95, but it was last at an historic low of $124.99 and is out of Amazon’s stock. This seems to indicate the end of the current part’s run, so I will also add the less-revered “potatowire Wait!” status to it.

Having multiple access points should allow effortless physical movement through the network’s coverage. This is sometimes called a roaming network, and is built in to enterprise hardware and Apple’s and other high-end consumer equipment.

WiFi Configuration Clarification

The best possible setup is to configure multiple access points, connected through Ethernet, and broadcasting on the same SSID. Most devices can then roam from one access point (AP) to another as needed. If you do this using Apple AirPort base stations connected by Ethernet, then setup is as easy as having them broadcast the same network SSID. Ideally they would broadcast on different channels.

Extending a network wirelessly by repeating the WiFi signal itself typically works in a hub-and-spoke model. Only one central base station’s transmission can be repeated, and while you can have multiple repeaters, they all are repeating the same signal. This has reduced throughput in most cases because the same antenna is used to transmit and receive. The alternative is to repeat with multiple APs or to utilize multiple-input and multiple-output (MIMO) technology, which has the same effect but is executed through the use of multiple antennas in a base station. Extending a network in either of these ways is called a mesh network, and you may remember this term from our Sonos episode.