Steve Holden's Blog

Google Reader Replacement Analysis Starting

As a long time Google Reader user I am not very happy with the recent news that Google will be shutting down the service on July 1, 2013. 

I just finished reading some of the latest coverage, analayis, and recommendations at:

• Google Reader is dying, but we have five worthy alternatives (CNET)
• Five Best Google Reader Alternatives (Lifehacker)
• The Economist on the end of Google Reader
• PC Magazine's interview with Dave Winer
• Seven Google Reader Alterantives (Mashable)

At this point I don't have a good solution recommendation for myself or others that like what they have currently in Google Reader.  I'll be check options out over the next month or so.  I don't have a huge sense of urgency as there is still time to make a discriminating decision.

Things I liked about Google Reader:

• mostly text-based outline views;
• can view content & sync in browser, iPad, & Nexus 7;  
• simple to add & delete feeds;
• search through all my feeds;
• can organize feeds in folders;
• easy to mark folders read;
• see only new posts;
• star/mark posts for future reference; and
• easy to share what I find interesting.

If you have a good recommendation then please let me know.

Running Tip - Electric Cars Require More Awareness

Just a friendly reminder to all my fellow runners, joggers, walkers, etc. out there exercising on the road -- the all electric cars are 'super quiet' and if you are listening to audio with headphones on they are even harder to hear.

I almost got hit by one the other morning.  Mostly my fault for not being as aware as I should.

Stay safe and be aware!

Quote from John Brown's Body poem by Stephen Vincent Benet

My friend Mark Horstman readily shares that his favorite part of John Brown's Body (Poem) by Stephen Vincent Benet is ...

If you take a flat map

And move wooden blocks upon it strategically,

The thing looks well, the blocks behave as they should.

The science of war is moving live men like blocks.

And getting the blocks into place at a fixed moment.

But it takes time to mold your men into blocks

And flat maps turn into country where creeks and gullies

Hamper your wooden squares. They stick in the brush,

They are tired and rest, they straggle after ripe blackberries,

And you cannot lift them up in your hand and move them.

It is all so clear in the maps, so clear in the mind,

But the orders are slow, the men in the blocks are slow

To move, when they start they take too long on the way -

The General loses his stars, and the block-men die

In unstrategic defiance of martial law

Because still used to just being men, not block parts.

Very powerful, thoughtful, and meaningful words that have now become one of my favorites also.

I recently noticed that Mark (who is co-host of Manager-Tools.com) read this part of the poem in a Career Tools podcast entitled How Not To Multi-Task (Part 2).

I took the liberty to edit a version of just the poem from the podcast.  It is going in my Monday motivational playlists and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

"New" Things I Did Turn On Apple iOS 6

I was able to successfully upgrade to Apple iOS 6 (Apple's What's New Page) on my iPad without any issues.  Here are the "new" things I enabled:

• Siri
• No Not Disturb: 9 pm to 6 am
• Limit Ad Tracking
• Reviewed all my Privacy Settings
• Clock (setup a bunch of cities)

I also had no problems updating Conrad's iPad 2.  Conrad is very happy with the new iOS 6, but when I asked him what specifically made him happy he wasn't able to pin any one thing down. ;-)

I am kinda bummed that Passbook isn't for the iPad yet. And the Panorama feature for the Camera that is in the iPhone/iPod isn't available on the iPad.

I also agree that Maps are in the need of work.  Here is a picture of downtown San Diego where the Star of India is at: just an outline of the Star of India (ghost ship?) and there is a monster of some sort coming out of the water at the pier to the north of where the Start of India is at.

UPDATE (3/23/2012): I was also able to update Christy's iPhone without any problems. 

Tip - Subscribing to Twitter Accounts in Google Reader

NOTE: As of October 16, 2012 the official Twitter API turned off RSS options per this article.  What I wrote here doesn't work anymore.

I personally like keeping track of some Twitter accounts (especially security related ones) using Google Reader.  Unfortunately, I've found lately though that Twitter keeps messing with RSS urls, and getting subscribed without errors can be hit and miss.

Here is my understanding of the current format as of this posting ...

If you have a Twitter account like @johnswayer that you want to follow in Google Reader.  Then take the following main URL (twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/) and add <twittername>+.rss -- for example:

"https://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/" + "johnhsawyer.rss"

Becomes:

 "https://twitter.com/statuses/user_timeline/johnhsawyer.rss"

And use that for the subscribe url.  I usually use a text editor to this (Notepad+ on Windows or TextWrangler on Mac).

Did I get this right? Did Twitter change this already? Is there a better way?  Leave a comment or send me email and I'll update this post.

 

Analysis Of "New" iPad Application Size Increase Claims

As a "new" iPad owner, one of issues outlined as a possible negative impact of having a Retina display was that application memory storage was going to be much bigger.  Since my plan was to move from iPad 2 with 16-GB to the new iPad with 16-GB, I was a little concerned since I seemed to have between 500-MBs to 1-GB free.

So, after a couple of recent updates where I noticed "Retina display' updates listed in the new feature list, I decided to try and track file sizes as updates were happening.  Here is the first sample of applications updated:

And this is the summary of increases for these apps:

• Stitcher v4.8.1 (13.9-MB) went to v4.8.2 (14.1-MB)
• Wikipanion v1.7.5.4 (2.5-MB) went v1.7.6 (4.9-MB)
• Khan Academy v1.01 (1.8-MB) went to v1.1.1 (1.9-MB)
• iThoughtsHD v3.3 (7.1-MB) went to v3.4 (12.7-MB) 
• The Weather Channel (TWC ) v2.3.2 (8.2-MB) went to v3.2.0 (97.7-MB) 

My second sampling included (less than a week ago):

With the following analysis:

• USA Today for iPad v2.0.8 (3.7-MB) went to v2.09 (6.6-MB)
• Redbox v2.4.0 (2.4-MB) went to v2.4.1 (2.8-MB) 
• Bible v3.8.1. (8.6-MB) went to v4.0 (15.9-MB)
• Where's My Water v1.4.1 (20.8-MB) went to v1.5.0 (38.1-MB)
• Google+ v1.0.10 (17.4-MB) went to v1.0.15 (17.7-MB)
• iThoughtsHD v3.4 (12.7-MB) went to v3.5 (12.6-MB) 
• Toodledo - To Do List v2.1.19 (5.5-MB) went to v2.2.0 (19.5-MB)  

So, it does appears that in general 'new' iPad applications are larger, and based on my sampling it looks like about 1.5x larger on average.  Most of the applications I tracked are all new Retina-savvy applications, but they also have other upgraded capabilities, new features, fixes, etc.  As the saying goes "correlation does not mean causation."

It was interesting that the iThoughtsHD most recent update went down in size (but did increase when it added "Retina display" feature).  Also the Google+ application is not Retina-savvy  per the application notes but it did have a small increase between versions.

The impact to my own iPad seems relatively minor since I seem to have between one to two GBs free (mostly changing based on music or video uploads) since moving from iPad 2 to new iPad.  I'll keep monitoring and will do an update post if something significant turns up.

Thoughts?!?

 

Reducing Drag - SD-CF II Card Adapter

I recently purchased a Compact Flash (CF) adapter that holds an SD card.  The one I got was: SD-CF II: SD to CF Type II Adapter (Supports SDHC MMC) from Amazon for under $20.

The reason I got this was to reduce some drag that was holding me back from taking my camera when I went out over the last couple of months.  Before the adapter, I had a standard CF Type II card that worked great, but I had created a work flow issue when I moved to my current workspace location at home.

Moving to the new space gave me an opportunity to set up my computer with no USB hub, card readers, etc. (ie. much cleaner and less cluttered).  However, now to get pictures off the camera I had to get out the adapter and hook up several USB cables.  Ugh.

But then I realized my main system has a built-in SD card slot so the adapter streamlines getting the pictures to my computer.  Pop the card out of the camera, take out the SD card, and then put it in my computer for upload.  Simple.  Less drag.

Here is a picture (also on Flickr in a larger format) that I wouldn't have taken without this tweak: 

Anyone else have any other tweaks or gear recommendations that have reduced drags in their systems?  Let me know if you do!

Getting Started with Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen

From my perspective the goal of David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) is to get you focused on the things you want to do, when/where you can do them, and with the energy/motivation you might have at the moment of decision.

I cannot recommend this book Getting Things Done enough. 

If you are an audio learner then you can check out their free podcasts.  One of the best intros of GTD is by Meg Edwards.

There is also an awesome 2004 interview with David Allen at the Atlantic magazine.

Check out DavidCo.com for more resources.

 

Unwrapping Christmas 2010 in San Diego, CA

Unwrapping Christmas 2010 in San Diego, CA via Christ Lutheran Church in La Mesa, CA:

• Sunday, Dec. 12, 10:30 a.m. (Gym) - Christmas Worship with Sunday School Puppets
• Wednesday, Dec. 15, 6:00 p.m. (Gym) - Preschool/School Christmas Program
• Sunday, Dec. 19, 8:00 & 10:30 a.m. (Sanctuary) - LESSONS & CAROLS with Sanctuary Choir, Handbells, and Instruments

Out Christmas services include:

• Thursday, Dec. 23, 7 p.m. (Gym) - Pre-Christmas Contemporary Worship with Praise Band and Grounded Band
• Friday, Dec. 24, 5:30 p.m. (Sanctuary) - Family Christmas Worship with Children's Message 
• Friday, Dec. 24, 7:30 p.m. (Sanctuary) - Festival Candlelight Worship with Handbells and Sanctuary Choir
• Saturday, Dec. 25, 10 a.m. (Sanctuary) - Christmas Day Communion Worship with Handbells
• Sunday, Dec. 26, 10 a.m. (Sanctuary) - Standard service

Location: Christ Lutheran Church, 7929 La Mesa Blvd, La Mesa, CA 91942. Phone: 619.462.5211.

Getting PDF Feeds Automatically On Your iPad

With the release of Apple's iTunes 9.2 and the iBook 1.1 application release for the iPad (this also works reportedly on any iPhone or iPod Touch with iBook 1.1), you can now get PDF files automatically downloaded into the iBook application.

 

Here is how I was able to get it done:

1. Subscribe to a RSS feed in iTunes that provides you PDF content.  For me that was Make Magazine, Beatweek magazine, and premium content from Manager Tools.
2. Then hook your iPad to your computer and do a Sync.  After the sync is done, go to the iPad icon in iTunes and select the Podcasts tab and make sure your iPad is syncing to the RSS feed content. If the feed like Beatweek is selected in the Podcasts tab you won't see anything in the Episode list since a PDF isn't according to Apple a media format like MP3 or MOV.
3. Now go to the the Books tab on the iPad and check Sync Books.  Depending on your preference you can select All Books or Select Books to sync.  I used Select Books and then checked the books I wanted.
4. Then you can do a Sync and your PDF's will be in the iBooks applications on the iPad.

I did notice two "bugs" or "issues".  The first, only PDFs that appear to be listed in the Books Selection area in iTunes are PDFs that have been downloaded since iTunes 9.2 was released.  I haven't been able to seamless get older PDFs to load in this manner. The second, the feeds now show up in your Podcast list in iTunes.  If you go to a podcast feed with PDF files, the PDFs are listed there (--:--), and if you click on them the screen goes blank trying to play them like an audio or video file.  Just tap once and you should be able to exit out.

Before this option, I have been successfully using GoodReader for PDFs reading, but this new iBook method is pretty compelling as it can be setup to be automatic.  These two bugs are pretty distracting though, and hopefully they will get addressed soon.

Thoughts? Comments? Let me know!