Five

Today, my eldest son, Camden, is five years old. This post has been written and re-written, section by section, about five times. I finally realized that rather than telling the reader what I have learned, I’d tell Camden directly:

Son,

I hope one day you read this and understand how much the last five years have meant to me. I was a different man before you came into this world, and I will be forever in your debt for the lessons you’ve taught me about life, as well as myself. Camden, you are such a special young man. The similarities between us are probably the reason that I learn so much from you. You are wise beyond your years. Your mind approaches things from a very familiar perspective, and your need to have things “just so” hits close to home as well.

While I never thought of myself as being selfish, I certainly was with my time and attention. You have taught me how important it is to place attention on the right things in life and how so many things that fight for your attention are not what is truly important. Being a hard worker and being passionate and knowledgable about what you do is great, but remembering those that you do it for is paramount. Seeing you transform in front of my eyes over the first five years of your life has made it crystal clear to me that if I didn’t look up, and quickly, I’d miss it in the blink of an eye. You are so patient with me, and I recognize that. Thank you for teaching me that investing in people you love is the most valuable thing you can do with your time.

Your mind and your perspective are so sharp. You see things in a very pure way, but your mind has the ability to boil down even complex situations to their most basic components. I have to believe you get this from me. I tend to overcomplicate things in my mind. I think, and re-think things that are better left at the simple, surface layer. If you read this early enough in life to be conscious of the gift and the curse an analytical mind can be, reap the rewards of the benefits, but keep things simple when they’re better that way.

I know that you will struggle with patience, especially with people. You will want to get to the end of something, often times at the expense of leaving someone behind along the way. Try to control this tendency, and learn to find joy in seeing others succeed along with you, versus being the only one at the finish line of something. I hope you never lose your ability to see the best in people, and help them see the best in themselves. In case you don’t remember (I have the recording of the ceremony if proof is needed), you were voted Most Compassionate in your K4 class. Give of yourself, but remember that your path is still the one you must walk down daily.

Master the ability to focus. Distractions are more prevalent in today’s society than ever before. There will always be a screen or interface fighting for your attention. Learn to turn them off and enjoy the calm that comes with things like reading. Reading is a way to train your mind to focus and to build things on its own. Your imagination is already so deep, so don’t let the easy satisfaction of packaged entertainment make you forget that your mind is where the real magic happens. I used to read, a lot. I hope to get back to reading more frequently, because I can directly correlate the degradation of my ability to focus on a singular task with the decrease in my reading of books.

All of the above was important, but if you take only one thing away from this letter, please act on this last section. Love your family, and do so vocally and with frequent demonstration. In the time you have been here, I’ve lost two of the people that I loved the most. Two of the people that enabled me to become the person I am, and specifically one that gave me an example of the man I strive to become. Looking back, and knowing that they wanted to hear my voice and what was going on in my life much more often than I took the initiative to call breaks my heart. I am so happy that they both got the chance to meet you, because you are the perfect image of all the love that I had, and still have, for them. There will be times in your life that you feel like no one understands you, but your family will, just give them the opportunity.

Thank you, Camden. Thank you for being you every day, and thank you for continuing to teach me how to be the best Steve I can be.

A lifetime of love and respect,

Dad

For anyone who read this open letter to my son, I hope it provoked a positive thought about your own life or the people in it.

2012 Aug·04

Sparrow Flies the Coop

MG Siegler discussing his feelings around the acquisition of Sparrow by Google:

On the other hand, it sucks that development of Sparrow itself is stopping (though it will continue to be offered an supported). Thank god they got that Retina version out just in time for the new MacBook Pros. I use Sparrow on a daily basis to pound through email at a speed that Gmail on the web simply cannot handle.

I agree, except that I wish they would have gotten out the iPad app too.

2012 Jul·20

Windows Writing Workflow

I detailed my tools and methods for creating site content from the iPad yesterday, so today I want to highlight my writing workflow on Windows. My company-issued laptop runs Windows 7, and while I prefer Mac OS, I have run Windows a majority of my life and don’t find it as horrible as some. Many of my requirements are the same, however, the tools differ quite a bit between what I use to write on Windows vs. Mac OS X or iOS.

Requirements

I write in Markdown no matter what platform I’m using, so I needed to find an appliation which would allow me to efficiently preview Markdown on Windows. Ideally, I’d like to have some Markdown-enabled composition tools as well. On a larger screen, I enjoy having a distraction-free writing environment. Since the site runs on Squarespace, I can easily pull up the web-based Squarespace composition window for publishing the post.

Apps

• Google Chrome
• Dropbox
• Dark Room
• MarkdownPad

I use Google Chrome for many parts of this workflow. I’m sure if I wanted to be a minimalist about post creation, I could do all of it in Chrome, but I prefer native apps when good ones are available. Google Chrome serves as my RSS reader (via Google Reader site) and Instapaper client (via the Instapaper website). I have yet to find native Windows apps that do either of these as well as Chrome. I use Dark Room for my distraction-free writing environment. I used OmmWriter in the past, but Dark Room is just more simplistic and has one killer capability that OmmWriter does not offer, transparency. I can have Dark Room running full-screen, yet have the opacity set to 75%. This lets me layer the writing environment over something useful, like a Markdown syntax cheatsheet, for example. If I’m creating a link post to someone else’s content, I can have the text of that article behind my composition so that I can refer to it without even changing applications or my hands leaving the keys.

Once the post is written, I save the .md or .txt file to Dropbox, and then open that file in MarkdownPad. Sure, I could simply copy/paste from Dark Room to MarkdownPad, but I like to keep the post in plain text format in Dropbox. This allows me to open the post (if in progress) from other systems and appliations very easily and adds both a backup element and a level of flexibility. Once the file is open in MarkdownPad, I am able to proof and preview the Markdown. Once that is complete, the file is saved again and copy/pasted into the Squarespace post editor for publishing.

I had been skeptical that I’d be able to find a Markdown app on Windows that compared to those that I use on my iPad and iMac. I can say that MarkdownPad was a great surprise. While it is no Marked app (a Mac app developed by Brett Terpstra), it does its job quite nicely.

2012 Jul·16

Name That iPad

There is much discussion lately about what a new, smaller form factor iPad might be called. Names that have been mentioned as possibilities include iPad Nano, iPad Mini and iPad Junior. Okay, the last one is more of a joke by Dan Benjamin, but he’s sticking with it. I have an iPad, and I can see why some might prefer a smaller, lighter form factor. I think that if Apple does in fact release this device, it will sell very well (especially if they hit the purported $199 - $249 price point). I don’t, however, think that any of the above names will end up being the one assigned to the device at launch.

Past Precedent

What the above names have in common is that they are rooted in Apple’s past naming schemes. The smaller iPod models got “Shuffle” and “Nano” appended to their base “iPod” name. The iPod remained the “iPod” for several cycles, and then became the “iPod Classic.” There was also the iPod “Touch,” which serves as the iPhone, without the phone, media player niche. “Mini” comes up in the “Mac Mini” product, and speaks to the devices tiny footprint. “Express” could even be mentioned from past naming, as the smaller AirPort product uses this to separate itself from the larger, slightly different in function, AirPort Extreme.

Why None Of This Matters

Apple is making a shift in its mobile product naming. What is different about all of the above examples and the possible new smaller 7” - 8” is simple. Each of those was a new product launch in a product “family”, but not simply a shrunken version of the existing product. The iPod variants each had their own personality and filled a unique position in the market. The Mac Mini was a category almost all its own.

It is my belief that the move to calling the (3rd generation) iPad just “iPad” was with future plans in mind. If they called it the iPad3, then that would significantly limit their options with another smaller device in the lineup. iPad4 or 3S (for small) wouldn’t make sense. Ipad4 would make it seem iterative when the product may actually have less advanced hardware than the 3rd generation iPad. The “S” in iPhone product names has typically been understood by most to stand for “speed”, not “small.”

The iPad

I believe that a smaller iPad would simply be launched as “the iPad.” Yes, I know that is the same exact name of the larger device that recently launched with a retina screen. It is also the name of the original device that launched a couple of years ago. I think Apple is taking a page from other product lines that have the same device, but in multiple size/spec configurations. The iMac has two sizes, yet share the same name. Same with the MacBook and MacBook Air lines. While it makes it a bit more difficult for writers and reviewers to specify which device they are discussing, that really isn’t Apple’s concern. When a consumer tells their friends they purchased an iPad, and the question of “which one” is asked, they’ll simply say, “the smaller one” or “the bigger one.”

For what it’s worth, I also believe that the next iPhone will simply be called “the iPhone” for similar reasons. At one point, the race towards the next device launch was iterative, and the naming took that into account. Now, it is just a natural transition like new versions of the next luxury vehicle in a line. People use a descriptor which is not part of the make/model name, like the year, or 2-door/4-door to specify which version they have. It works just fine, so why would the company that is always advertising “simplicity,” complicate it?

2012 Jul·15

iPad Writing Workflow

I’ve been reading a lot about workflows and ways to be a creator with the iPad, vs. just a consumer of content. Below is the writing workflow I have started using. I thought it could be helpful to others, since there is no shortage of apps and tips out there.

Requirements

I had a few requirements that apps I evaluated needed to satisfy. I write in Markdown, so I needed the app, where I will do my composition, to support both Markdown syntax and Markdown preview. A keyboard with Markdown shortcuts was not a requirement, but was a “nice to have” addition. Export options needed to include both plain text and HTML. Dropbox sync was also a must. Brett Terpstra has put together a truly awesome iOS text editor comparison chart, located here. You can click on the features across the top and it will dim the apps that don’t meet that requirement. I work from a few different machines/devices, so Markdown/plain text composition allows me to work with the files no matter what OS I’m dealing with at the time.

T&C runs on Squarespace, which has great iOS and Android apps for publishing. The app’s post composer recognizes Markdown natively, but I prefer to write and preview elsewhere, and let the Squarespace app handle the publishing step.

Apps

• Reeder
• Instapaper
• WriteUp
• Squarespace

I read RSS feeds through Reeder, sometimes saving longer reads in Instapaper. If I’m creating a link post, these two apps are integral to consuming the info, which I then add my thoughts to via T&C.

WriteUp is an app that met all of my text composition needs on the iPad. I use Byword on the Mac, and they also offer an iOS app, but I find WriteUp to be perfect for my needs so far. It has Markdown keyboard shortcuts, which are really nice to have. I write, proof and preview the post in WriteUp. This syncs to Dropbox for long term storage of the plain text. When the post is complete, WriteUp exports the plain text to the clipboard and I paste it into the composition window in the Squarespace app. I’m able to tweak post settings, add tags and finally, publish.

That’s pretty much it.

2012 Jul·15

RIM hit with $147.2 million patent verdict

Rob Beschizza writing¹ about the $147.2 million patent verdict against RIM:

When people use the term “death spiral”, it implies the existence of a useful aerodynamic characteristic influencing the descent. RIM’s looks more like a death plunge.

Couldn’t agree more.

2012 Jul·14

[Before & After - Simplify Strategy]

Made some fairly minor updates to the site UI today. Luckily, Google cached the site earlier and I was able to take this “before & after” screenshot.¹

The purpose of the redesign was to simplify the site so that its core focus is the content. The Twitter sidebar is gone, as is the “Contact T & C” panel below that. Padding was removed and the thick white border around the post container has been removed as well.

The focus should be on the posts, and my focus should be on creating more of them.

2012 Jul·14

How Yahoo Killed Flickr and Lost the Internet

I’m a Flickr user, that barely uses Flickr. I’m not the minority in that regard. I was once a Flickr Pro user, for 2 years. Then, when my subscription came due, I realized that the site that I loved had become something that I just hoped didn’t die because it is feeding a digital photo frame in my parent’s house with images of their grandkids.

This is the story of a wonderful idea. Something that had never been done before, a moment of change that shaped the Internet we know today. This is the story of Flickr. And how Yahoo bought it and murdered it and screwed itself out of relevance along the way.

I always assumed that Yahoo was to blame. The login issue was one that especially bothered me, because I didn’t want to have to have a Yahoo account just to use my Flickr account.

Because Flickr wasn’t as profitable as some of the other bigger properties, like Yahoo Mail or Yahoo Sports, it wasn’t given the resources that were dedicated to other products. That meant it had to spend its resources on integration, rather than innovation. Which made it harder to attract new users, which meant it couldn’t make as much money, which meant (full circle) it didn’t get more resources. And so it goes.

I have a feeling that this happens quite a bit in large companies.

So let’s say Flickr finally gets it together. Let’s say it fixes its app, reinvigorates the community, and finally gets back on path. The question is: Is it too late?

Yes.

Flickr is still pretty wonderful. But it’s lovely in the same way a box of old photos you’ve stashed under the bed is. It’s an archive of nostalgia that you love dearly, on the rare occasion you stumble across it. You pull them out, and hold them up to the light, and remember a time when you were younger, and the Web was a more optimistic place, and it really was almost certainly the best online photo management and sharing application in the world.

And then you close the box.

And you click over to Facebook, to see what’s new.

I agree with everything here except the last statement. I deactivated my Facebook account two weeks ago, however, I do click over to Instagram, Twitter, etc. By the way, if Instagram ever requires a Facebook login, I’ll consider it killed as well.

2012 May·17

Turntable.fm: Where Did Our Love Go?

Really interesting article about the origins and struggles of a web start up that I have heard a lot about, but never actually used personally (until today). I find that getting the history of how a popular web brand got to where it is fascinating.

Then traffic started falling. By autumn, it dwindled to less than half its peak, and the very same tech watchers started wondering whether it was all over. Goldstein says he can hear the doubt in the voices of his Silicon Valley friends. “I can tell now when people say, ‘How’s it going?’ they mean, ‘You’re flattening, aren’t you?’”

Thinly masked methods of asking if a company is floundering can be an artform.

2012 May·08

Starkintosh

This video is nothing short of pure awesome. It combines my love of Ironman, Mac nostalgia and a great drink pour close-up.

2012 May·08

How Mad Men Landed the Beatles: All You Need Is Love (and $250,000)

When I watched the May 6th episode of Mad Men, I was literally floored to see Megan Draper hand Don the Revolver album. She flipped the LP jacket over and said “This one.” The next few seconds as Don placed the record in the player and lowered the needle to the right position probably had my brainwave diagram charting like an earthquake analysis. WHAT SONG WILL IT BE!? Tomorrow Never Knows was not my top guess, but it was the right choice for so many reasons.

Mr. Weiner declined to discuss the licensing costs, but said: “Whatever people think, this is not about money. It never is. They are concerned about their legacy and their artistic impact.”

Matthew Weiner gained so many respect points for this statement. Most people focus only on the monetary aspects of The Beatles “business”, and never even consider that this is about legacy. The Beatles is more than just a brand. Luckily for their legacy, they have used that tenant in their decision process as a constant.

Mr. Weiner said he had been trying “for a few years” to get different Beatles songs onto “Mad Men,” but had been rejected by Apple Corps in the past.

While I have no insight into the past attempts, I’ll venture the guess that the treatment of the song in context to both the story and overall series progression was not implemented as flawlessly as it was in “Lady Lazarus” on May 6th.

2012 May·08

Byword of Mouth

I have been hearing about the Byword application on countless podcasts for months now. Until today, I had not tried it first-hand or understood how it could be a better distraction-free writing environment for me to draft blog posts.

Now that I am writing this via the application, I can honestly say that I do not anticipate using any other text entry application for drafting posts in the future. I have previously used several apps (including OmmWriter, TextMate and TextEdit), but none of them live up to the features of Byword. OmmWriter does have some nice features that Byword does not, but they don’t make the writing experience more efficient in the same way. Below I’ll call to attention my three favorite features that make Byword the best writing application I’ve used on my iMac.

Click on the feature heading to see an example screenshot.

Line Focus

I’m not even sure why Byword doesn’t have Line Focus on by default. Had I not heard about the feature in one of the podcast reviews, I might not have immediately looked for it in the View menu. Line Focus allows you to have the current line of your writing highlighted by dimming the surrounding lines to a lighter shade. It doesn’t seem like a big thing, until you use it. By having the other text fade to the background of what is already a distraction-free, full-screen, immersive experience, the current line of your writing flows in the same way that thoughts do from your brain. As your your thoughts progress, how you got to your current focus has faded. The feature makes writing less about going back and seeing how you got to where you are, and more about putting down the current thought in your mind and getting to the next in logical succession.

An alternative to Line Focus is Paragraph Focus, which applies the same idea to the entire current paragraph. This could be helpful if what you are writing is structured into very specific sections where the focus needs to be on properly classifying thoughts to the entire section.

Typewriter Mode

Typewriter Mode takes me back. I remember learning to touch-type on an old-school electric typewriter at my grandfather’s desk. My father and mother (who had desks in the same family-owned office) had upgraded to modern electric models, but my grandfather kept the model he had used for years. The keys were chunky and while they didn’t require a great deal of force, the tactile feedback you received as you watched the magic the words being imprinted in the paper as the forged letter slugs swung to action, mounted on their long, thin arms was amazing. In a way it motivated me as a young writer. I wasn’t writing anything of much value, but it created a thirst that is still quenched by putting words on a page (or screen) to this day. The biggest difference between writing in a current word processing application and the typewriter is that the current line is always in focus as far as position for the latter. The paper moves, the placement of where the writing is happening does not. I had never given this much thought before today. None of the other apps I’ve used offered this option (or perhaps I had just never discovered it), but it is nothing short of inspiring. It allows my eyes to remain fixed on the current line being written and they are not required to track down the page as I write more. Using it in combination with Line Focus is just awesome.

Markdown Preview

I’m very new to the wonderful world that is writing in Markdown. The thing that attracted me to it most is that it allows you to perform formatting, while still drafting in plain text. The best way to illustrate this idea is to show you two examples. This is what I see while I am drafting this post. The three hashes before the section title are used to create the HTML heading tag that will be applied when the Markdown text is rendered as HTML script. Here is how the same text will appear when published. Using Markdown Preview allows me to quickly and easily see how my post will look once published to the site. My blog platform (Squarespace) supports Markdown in draft-mode, so all I have to do is export my Byword writing and paste it in. I believe there are even more shortcuts that will save me even more time in the process of getting text out of Byword and into my blog, but I’ll need to research that a bit more.

Word By Word

I am still fighting to build the habit of writing daily. Whether it be working on a blog post for this site, or simply putting down a few thoughts in an app like Day One. In order to become great at something, you have to do it until the process comes naturally. I can’t say that I sit down at the keyboard and instantly have the thoughts flow into a cohesive and illustrative narrative, but I’m trying. What I can definitely assert is that using Byword, process is getting out of the way in a very natural fashion and the words are just flowing. Just like they did sitting at my grandfather’s typewriter, they’ve never been more amazing to watch.

2012 Apr·09

A Little iEnvy

I <3 Android

I really do enjoy Android as a mobile OS. Android offers a world of choice and customization that is painful to implement (at best) on the iOS platform. I started my affair with Android almost two years ago with the Nexus One, and have recently upgraded to a Nexus S. I had an iPod Touch (2nd Gen) when I used a BlackBerry Bold as my phone, but have since gone to just my Android phone and gave the Touch to my son. I am running Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) on my Nexus S, and think that it is a great upgrade from Gingerbread. I also picked up a HP TouchPad during the “fire sale” and have it running ICS as well. ICS made that $150 tablet feel as nice to me as my wife’s 1st generation iPad.

I respect iOS

I enjoyed iOS when I used it on the iPod Touch and when I borrow my wife’s iPad. The app ecosystem that Apple offers is truly unmatched. Not only are the apps on iOS more plentiful for the types of use cases I am concerned with, but they are certainly more beautiful as well. Reeder on the iPad is probably the app I miss most when using my Android tablet, but there are several examples on the phone. I should mention here that I run an iMac as my primary home computer and am in no way an exclusive “fanboy” for any one company or platform. I use what I feel best fits my situation and my preferences. Several factors can play into those criteria. Cost (I wouldn’t have an iPad of my own if I hadn’t gotten the TouchPad for such a steal), workplace restrictions (I am not able to place my work issues SIM card into an iPhone due to carrier billing differences) and variety all play into my choices. My wife uses an iPhone 4 and the 1st generation iPad, so anytime I’d like to play around with a new app or sync my Jawbone UP band, I borrow her devices.

My Current iEnvy

My current “iEnvy” is fueled by two primary factors. First, my wife never worries about her phone’s battery life. I constantly worry about mine. This is the same case with our tablets, however, I don’t use my TouchPad nearly as much as I do my phone. Battery life should be Android’s number one focus with it’s next Nexus device and future operating system decisions. I haven’t talked to any Android lovers who are not taking steps to conserve battery life with apps like Tasker or JuiceDefender. My wife is not as heavy a user of her phone as I am, but she leaves Wifi on always, and her screen timeout is set to some ridiculous value on the high end. I’d have to actually carry an iPhone 4 or 4S for a few days to know if I would be in a better position with it vs. my Nexus S, but I’m 99% sure that I would be based on talking to others that use those devices.

The second driver of my iEnvy is that both the iPhone and iPad now sport Retina displays. Simply put, no one has better mobile device displays than Apple. I read a lot of text on my phone and tablet and know just from helping my wife with things on her iPhone 4 that the experience of a Retina display is unmatched to anything else. I’m in a position now where I question whether I need to have two Android mobile devices, or if I would be getting the best of both worlds by having either an iPhone and my TouchPad or my Nexus S and an iPad. This brings back the criteria limitations I brought up above, but I’m working to determine if either move would be feasible. I think it would change my use patterns a bit. I’d read less on my phone and more on my tablet if I had an iPad. I’d still enjoy the customization and freedom that comes with Android on my more heavily used device… but I’d still have shitty battery life.

Envy is a Deadly Sin

I’m not really thinking along the lines of Ten Commandments… but more the “geek law” variety. So many people are in one camp or the other when it comes to Android vs. iOS (both hardware and software). I find myself looking over the fence and saying, “I should really tear down this fence and eat any colored grass I like.”

2012 Mar·08

Griffin USB Mini Cables

Using is a series on Tangible Life that highlights products that the author personally uses and finds to be nothing short of awesome. Just click the product link below to be taken to an Amazon product page.

My occupation requires me to be be fairly flexible and mobile when it comes to the tech I use. Over the past two years, I’ve worked to downsize the amount of items that I carry in my bag (and the size of the bag itself) to just those things that are necessary to get the job done while working remotely. I’ve read blog posts from various sites that highlight the items in their bags, and this particular item was highlighted in several. I realized that I was carrying three types of USB cables to interact with other items in the bag. All were between 4 and 6 feet in length, and I had wrapped up each using the ‘bull horn’ method of cable management and stuck them into a inner compartment.

After seeing this product, I realized that there were very few times that I had ever needed the 4 to 6 feet of cable when using these connections remotely. The mini-USB cable is for hooking up an external hard drive, which is always in very close proximity to my laptop itself. The 30-pin iPod connector is obvious, and again, never needed to be very far away from the laptop as I was using it to either sync or charge the Apple device in my bag. The micro-USB cable is actually the most used out of the 3 cables, because I have a few gadgets that use this connection. The decision I made in the end is that there was no need to have a long cable for any of these 3 connection types in my bag, and so I picked up a set of the Griffin Mini Cables. They sit very nicely in the inside upper pocket (which is tiny), and take up relatively no space in my bag, but provide all the functionality that their much longer predecessors did.

After using these cables for well over a year, I can state that they are extremely durable. The connections “stay put” when in my devices, which is a very important factor for any mobile cable selection. The only drawback of the cables that I can cite is that when you lend one out, you may have to hunt down the borrower to give it back. Seriously though, the only minor thing I’d like to see integrated into this product would be a color indicator near the non-standard USB tip. When light is low, I sometimes have trouble telling the difference between the mini and micro-USB variants. If you are trying to reduce your mobile tech into a more compact set of tools, these cables are an awesome start.

2012 Feb·14

When I was young, I clearly remember the BIOS screen flashing by, counting it’s now tiny amount of RAM as our first family computer (running Windows 3.1) booted up.  I also clearly remember the sounds coming from our kitchen at all times of the day as my father filled the coffee pot with water (from the tap, of course) and then poured it into the reservoir of the Mr. Coffee drip coffee maker.

Completing the template structure and header logo feels kind of like those two memories converging.

C:\> win

2012 Feb·01