Jonny the Recovering Technophiliac

So just because I’m celebrating the holidays in a village 4 hours from Bogota where it seems like time has halted, doesn’t mean I’m not going to find a way to keep an honored tradition alive and well…festivus. And it seems that 2009 did not disappoint in making my list of grievances quite lengthy. So without further ado, on with the show:

- Getting sick on the plane. Simple, I got bronchitis and paid for it badly. Regardless, it still beats the stomach flu.

- having to convert to metric for just about everything. It’s a pain in the neck, why can’t our country just jump on the metric bandwagon?

- The draconian rules that regulate the App Store. Then apple still wonders why people still jailbreak their phones.

- The Jersey Shore

- The earbuds that come with the iPhone that seem to last about a week before they fizzle.

- Cable TV in Colombia…and I thought Time Warner had a cheesy selection of channels.

- That telemarketer who called me while I was in Bogota. The caller ID did not look anything like a real number, but when I found out who it was, I hung up. Still. t-mobile was going to charge me $3 anyway…fail.

- ABC who decided to cancel FlashForward…why? I mean you couldve cancelled V instead.

- people who gloat about their vacation plans every day for weeks before their travel date knowing that in this economy, some people can’t afford said luxury.

- The NY Mets…as a fan, again you find new and amazing ways to dissapoint me. I won’t go into semantics, but aside from blowing the season, I now have to hear it from Yankee fans every day.

- Windows 7…it still annoys me even when I try to use it.

- Still no flash for the iPhone…what the hell

- The bigwigs of the NYCMTA…if this was a driving society like Miami, you all wouldn’t last a second. I hate you like I hate swine flu.

- repeated pop-up msgs on my phone reminding me about the affects of data roaming…yes, I get it, it’s been disabled already!

(I’ll add more as they pop in my head)

Yes I intentionally misspelled that last word, and there’s a reason why. I’m not going to go all “grammar police” on the blogsphere because no matter how many spell checkers we have on our word processors, email clients, and even mobile devices…spelling errors can and will by happen. And nine times out of ten, they happen by accident. Even i make a typo or two…it happens. Continue reading →

Welcome to The Plug, where i like to give a review to anything tech and non-tech that i feel needs a shameless plug due to my liking.

This week i wish to discuss something i love to do…write.  If i did not like to write, then i’d probably not be maintaining a blog nor even having a twitter account…then again to write a tweet is the same as writing a text message…so never mind i said that.  I have a different editor to suit my needs…i use Word for general distributable docs, Textmate for coding and basic editing, and Scrivener for major writing such as short stories.  However, whether i’m writing a blog post, or a long chapter that requires my 110% attention, i dont like to be distracted.  Sure i could put my phone on airplane mode and close iTunes, but lately the typical windows/mac desktop contains so many things that could distract anyone…icons, system tray pop-ups, widgets, gadgets.  Even maximizing Word still shows me a plethora of buttons and options i can click with ease…truth be told, i love buttons and blinking lights…that’s how i got interested in tech and gadgets to begin with.

Enter WriteRoom from Hog Bay Software (mac only).  it’s essential, simplified, distraction-free writing.  Double-clicking on the app presents with a full black screen with green lettering…no buttons, no gimmicks, and the menu bar appears only when you point the mouse to it. Now lets talk about the iphone version…as far as text editors for phones are concerned, there’s so much you can do.  But for WR, i love it.  It does autosave, portrait, landscape, 3 buttons (left/right navigation, one to export), AND it’s distraction-free…well, provided i put the phone on airplane mode.  The only downside is that it doesn’t have any sync capabilities btween phone and desktop as well as with it’s Writeroom.ws service. It allows you to make it as a web-server so you can edit the doc from a browser, which isn’t steller if you can’t sync.

But i know what you’re thinking

why not just use notes.app?

Well it does have a minimal set of buttons, and it looks simplified.  The main difference is that the notes can be synced with Apple Mail and i’m sure Outlook for windows as well(i think…i need to verify that).  In the end, if syncing’s the big issue, stick to notes.  Otherwise, WriteRoom can offer you the best in simplified, distraction-free writing on the iPhone.

And don’t worry, as much as i’m a mac guy, i haven’t abandoned my windows bretheren.  For distraction-free writing, i use DarkRoom.

Welcome to The Plug, where i like to give a review to anything tech and non-tech that i feel needs a shameless plug due to my liking.

This week along with my browsing of blogs and articles, i passed on this page from my friend Paul.  He lists the applications, products and services he personally uses on a regular basis, not because he was paid to, but because he just felt a mention was warranted.  So for this blog post, i’ll might as well join the bandwagon and write my own basic list too.  If i get enough things to add on, i’ll probably turn this into a page, who knows.  Anyway, on with the show:

Software

• NetNewsWire for my RSS news
• Adium for AIM, GTalk, and Twittering
• Safari 4 & Firefox 3 for web browsing.
• iCal for my calendar
• Things for my to-do lists
• iStat Menus for my system monitor tools
• Textmate for text-editing
• Subethaedit for collaborative text-editing
• 1Password for password management
• Transmit for FTP
• Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Soundbooth CS4
• Writeroom for distraction-free writing
• VLC
• hulu Desktop
• Transmission
• Flip4Mac WMV
• Growl
• SuperDuper
• AppZapper
• Sequel Pro
• Final Cut Express 4
• UnRarX
• The Unarchiver
• Microsoft Office 2008
• VMware Fusion with Windows XP & Windows 7
• Keyboard Cleaner
• ScreenFlow
• Quicksilver
• AudialHub
• VisualHub
• Rosetta Stone 3 with Greek (i got my reasons! lol)
• Pixelmator
• pzizz
• Macfusion

Services

• Google Apps for my domain (jkdesign)
• Roadrunner broadband
• Google Voice
• MobileMe
• 1and1.com VPS
• Skribit account
• T-mobile for iPhone EDGE service

Computer Setup

• 13-inch 2GHz MacBook (Black) with 2 GB of RAM and an 120 GB SATA hard drive.
• pirate skull crossbones under the apple logo on the back (see photo)
• LaCie 250 GB FireWire portable hard drive, designed by F.A. Porsche
• ThinkGeek.com Bi-Color LED Blow On-Off Candle
• Targus 4-port portable USB hub
• Targus USB laptop light
• Plantronics .Audio 400 DSP foldable stereo headset

Hardware/Gadgets

• Plain ‘ol CRT Toshiba SDTV (i don’t watch much tv anyway, just online)
• Plain ‘ol Aiwa 3-CD 2-Deck AM/FM Stereo System (i don’t listen to much radio anyway, just online)
• Canon PowerShot SD700 IS Digital Elph with 2GB SD card
• Linksys WRT54G (version 5) wireless router
• 32 GB iPhone 3GS unlocked with T-Mobile
• 30 GB IPod Classic White