With the new year I’m giving using my iPad Pro as a primary computing device another go. I’m not using my iPad Pro exclusively, but I am using it as a “sidecar” during my workday. While work has me trying to do things on a Windows 10 all day long, I can swivel to my iPad Pro to take care of personal tasks that pop up during the day, play music, etc.
So far the experience has been acceptable.
One of the frustrating things about my iPad Pro is that it’s still running a glorified version of iOS, which was originally designed for the iPhone, and it seems stuck in that paradigm. I’m really hopeful that Apple will change direction on this soon, as the iPad Pro line feels very overpowered for what’s generally asked of it to do.
Another thing that slightly bothers me about my iPad Pro is not Apple’s fault at all. The YouTube app on iPadOS doesn’t allow me to use plugins to hide comments and their idiotic “shorts”, something I always do in all web browsers on all platforms when I’m in YouTube land. I detest shorts and with the rapid degradation of society, comments in general are really not worth my time. It takes a little more brain power to ignore these things when using the YouTube app. My solution is to just not watch videos from YouTube on my iPad Pro.
That’s probably better for my mental health all the way around.
Jack Baty at baty.net recently referenced an old post around Productivity. In his original post, Jack talked about his cycle of trying different ways of maintaining his productivity workflow, or his to do list.
I have been an on-and-off again OmniFocus user since late 2009. I like the application very much, and if I was still completely in on Apple’s ecosystem I’d probably use it full time. But I don’t have an interest in being any corporation’s ecosystem completely and full-time, and work has deemed that I must use a Windows 10 laptop, so that all falls apart in my mind. Now, the fine folks at The Omni Group do offer a web portal for their software, but it costs an extra $50/year and while I have paid for it in the past, I’m reducing subscriptions and I’m no longer interested in paying $50/year to do something at work. Work should be paying me (and they do, let’s keep it that way).
Plain text has always been my jam. If for some reason I want to use a VIC-20 to get to a plain text file, I can. So these days I am using todo.txt, a plain text productivity system originally written as a bash script by Gina Trapani. With this specific plain text format, I am able to get to my todo list from any computer, remotely, locally, and with confidence. And further more, I am able to write my own automations to generate tasks on a schedule or as needed.
Now, with OmniFocus and Apple’s Shortcuts platform, there are automation opportunities there as well. In that regard, OmniFocus is a strong player in making sure you have access to your data. I have always found Apple’s Shortcuts to be maddening and illogical to a certain degree. Perhaps it’s because I’m old school, but dragging and dropping blocks in a GUI is not automation, it’s doing app things.
With todo.txt, I am able to write my own little snippets and scripts to work my automation magic. For example, as a private pilot, I’m all about checklists in all parts of my life. I like being able to check things off as I complete them. Not only does it give me a sense of satisfaction around the actual completion, I’m also able to put something on a list and forget about it until it has to be done, build reminders, and make sure I do all the things I need to do by looking for a mark of completion or not. The paradigm keeps me safe in the cockpit and keeps me organized throughout my entire life.
When I’ve scheduled a flight, I create a bunch of tasks in my todo.txt file, the one bucket that manages all parts of my life, and have them waiting for me at prescribed times to prepare for that flight. I can log into my personal server from any computer in the world, get to a command prompt and type “flight”, answer a couple of prompts, and off we go. And even though I’m not a fan, I’ve built a little shortcut in Apple Shortcuts so I can say “Hey Siri, next flight…” and give the relative details. From the command line, it ends up looking like this:
A few lines of code, a few data points, and some logic, and voila, I have a project called Flight03TUS in my todo list for a flight I have scheduled for the 3rd to Tucson. I don’t even need to know the exact date, I can tell the script I have a flight on Wednesday and it figures it out for me. Magic? No, just simple code.
If you’re interested in the format of each of those entries in the screen shot, the todo.txt website has all the details.
Ah, but what about the iPhone and iPad? Simple! A very smart developer named Michael Descy created the Swiftodo app, which works great on iOS, iPadOS, and MacOS. A lot of what I do with plaintext productivity was inspired by his website Plaintext Productivity.
And in case you’re wondering, yes I do use Dropbox to keep my plaintext productivity work all in sync between all my devices. Because Dropbox works with just about everything and the files are very small.
So, while there are plenty of pretty, robust, wonderful proprietary, for pay applications out there, as an old-school developer that is trying to keep it simple in 2024, I feel like I’ve settled on this approach to keep track of everything I have going on in my life.
So, this is typewriter mode on IA Writer on my iPad Pro. The editor is clean and simple and best enjoyed with some breezy, easy music in noise cancelling headphones while one is composing their latest missive.
Is that the correct word, missive?
I like idea of a digital typewriter, especially when paired with a mechanical keyboard reminiscent of the 1980s IBM Model M keyboard or something equally poundy.
The only issue with my Velocifire mechanical keyboard is the spacebar has a certain rattle that I don’t enjoy. I need to figure that out. Or, I need to buy a new keyboard, something that would not please my husband. He doesn’t understand these things.
I’m typing away and acting like this is going to be a blog entry. It’s more exciting than “Hello, World”. And it’s much more exciting than typing out the script for an American test of the Emergency Alert System. I can do that by memory, you know, because 30 years ago it was my voice that recorded that for the group of radio stations I worked at. My claim to fame.
I really miss dot matrix printers, especially in the retail world. When we purchased our new vehicle last weekend, the finance manager processed all the paper work using pre-printed forms fed through a dot matrix printer designed for that sort of thing. It was earlier technology magic that has no need for replacement; it does what it needs to do it and it does it well.
Restaurants still use dot matrix printers as well because the thermal printed tickets would be rendered useless by the heat of your typical kitchen. When you place your order at the counter of a fast food restaurant, to hear it print out on a printer in the kitchen is music to my ears.
Can you imagine if retail establishments still had to use dot matrix printers today? No longer would CVS receipts be measured in feet with useless marketing messages. Kohl’s cashiers couldn’t write on the receipts with their fingernails. We wouldn’t be bombarded with surveys and coupons and the like.
It’s worth the screech of the dot matrix printhead and the challenge of threading a roll of receipt paper between the ribbon cartridge and the platen.
It’s a rainy Saturday morning so of course I am settled in on the couch to watch an episode of “Shazam!”, the first half of the “The Shazam/Isis Hour” from 1975. I never missed an episode when I was a youngster.
Today’s episode was from season two, episode two, and probably the first episode featuring John Davey as Captain Marvel. Jackson Bostwick played Captain Marvel in season one and in the first episode of season two, but was released from the production when he didn’t come in for filming. It was later revealed he was dealing with an injury from a stunt the day before, as he did all his own stunts as Captain Marvel.
I always preferred John Davey in role, probably because of his strong jaw and handsome good looks. Plus, he had a fairly heavy beard (even though he was clean shaven) and even at age 7 I found that quite handsome.
The episode “Debbie” included a moral review tag at the end of the show, like all episodes of “Shazam” and “The Secrets Of Isis”. In “Debbie” we learn that sometimes our parents exert their authority as an expression of their love. The moral tags were definitely a strong contributor to my moral foundation.
I’ve mentioned before that as part of my focused interest in “all things connected”, I find power lines to be absolutely fascinating. Like many things modern, the steel “unipole” designs we see being erected in the 21st century don’t interest me as much as the high voltage installations from the early 20th century.
I believe these 115kv pylons date to the early 20th century, probably before 1925. Larger than newer counterparts, this particular design can only be found in the former Niagara-Mohawk Power Corporation region of New York State, specifically in the area around the eastern shore of Lake Ontario and the northern suburbs of Syracuse.
While making my way through the workday today I decided to throw on a Youtube video or two. I’ve been in a nostalgic mood lately. I ended up dialing up a 1947 film which was basically a 30 minute infomercial for an electric range by Westinghouse.
In this film, a couple has invited their rich uncle over to convince him to help pay for their daughter’s tuition at the community college. They’re dependent on cooking the perfect meal for him, and when their old oven door blows off, their neighbor comes to the rescue with her new electric range by Westinghouse.
A special nod to the uncle’s nurse play by Margaret Hamilton, also known as the Wicked Witch of the West.
I really enjoy these old presentations. People dressed nicer, folks seemed friendlier, and the appliances they’re showing off are built to last a generation. And the knobs on the stove are real knobs with a color indicator as to the heat setting for the burner! What will they think of next!
So it’s been 10 days since my friend Chris gave me a computer he was intending on sending off to the recycling center. The computer in question is a Microsoft Surface Laptop 2. The specs on this machine are impressive. I’ve been running Ubuntu Linux 22.04.3 LTS since obtaining the laptop. The experience has been very good, in fact, it’s been an unexpected pleasure.
Now, because of my history with Apple products I tend to compare today’s computer hardware to that released by Apple. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 2 is dang close to the MacBook Air experience. The hardware is light to carry, the display is gorgeous, and I really like the fabric covered keyboard area.
I usually stick to LTS, or Long Term Support, releases of Ubuntu because it’s usually the most stable. 22.04.3 LTS has not disappointed in any way. I needed to do a couple of things to modify the experience, but that mostly based on personal preferences. For example, I like my “dock” to be along the right hand of the screen, regardless of the operating system I’m working with. If I can change the default fonts of the interface I usually change it to something like “GE Inspira“.
This experience thus far has been flawless and I’m enjoying the computer very much. Not bad for a computer destined for the recycling center.
If you’re looking to give new life to old equipment, I highly recommend Linux, especially Ubuntu Linux. It’s not overly fiddly and the paradigm presented for the user experience feels familiar.
I recently picked up an analog wall clock from a school in North Dakota. It’s rare for these clocks to be on ebay these days, because the Lathem Time Clock Company didn’t make their “Airtime” line of clocks for very long. These clocks are controlled wirelessly from a little master clock I have elsewhere in the house. The master clock pulls in the clock signal from the Atomic Clock in Colorado and rebroadcasts the correct time to all compatible clocks. As far as I can tell, only Lathem Airtime clocks are compatible with this particular system.
Lathem had a few different styles of clocks available in the series, including a digital clock that I had hanging in this space prior to today, and a solar powered model that boosted its battery power by ambient light in a room.
The whole thing is very clever. And my family is happy I haven’t pulled wires through all the walls to power an older style clock system.
I’ve been working on rebuilding my Flight Simulator rig this weekend. Using monitors that were destined for the recycle bin, I decided to configure everything into a bit more of a panoramic flight experience.
My flight simulator software of choice is X-Plane 12. In the past I’ve run this on my Linux gaming desktop, but Linux didn’t play well with so many monitors. Instead of diving into why that was turning out to be such a pain, I decided to just put Windows 11 back on the computer. Things are now configured and working well.
I have a monitor stand coming for the monitor on the left as shown in the photo below. This will bring it up to the same level as the other two main monitors. I’m working on tweaking X-Plane 12 to get things just the way I like them and then I’ll start my flights this week.
Generally I don’t really enjoy flight simulators, as I’m always trying to figure out what makes them tick. However, it’s good to practice instrument approaches and get a feel for airports I’m not familiar with. I look forward to plenty of hours on this new setup.
Just a guy with a husband. We’ve been together 28 years and he still makes me see fireworks on a daily basis. Hiker. Storm Chaser. Private Pilot. Tech Guy. Hackerish.
