Category: review

I gave a brief review of Path when it first arrived on the scene back in 2010. At the time I just started to use it and was pleasantly surprised by it’s approach. They not only seemed generally interested in a well designed social experience but also a well restricted one. They positioned themselves around the idea that this was a digital journal of sorts that was shared with only your closest family and friends. And, to further reinforce this idea, they actually limited the number of people one could count as a “friend” on the network to 150. This number was not arbitrarily made up. It was based on Dunbar’s Number, the suggested cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships proposed by British anthropologist Robin Dunbar.

Now, Path has had it’s growing pains. They made a stupid choice at one point to access and upload people’s contacts to their service. Unfortunately, this caused many users to write them off completely (and even for Apple to make some changes to an apps ability to do such a thing in the first place). The CEO apologized for it but for some it was either not enough or came off to them as not sincere. But, as one who stuck with the service, I really believe they have been actively working to change this perception. The iPhone and iPad apps (the only way to use the service, mind you) are some of the most beautifully designed and thought through ones I use. The company puts it’s values and story front and center on it’s website. In short, they have worked very hard to win back and deserve the trust of those that use it.

I still use Path pretty actively. I post something there at least once a day. Given it’s purpose and what I use it for, I’m pretty picky about who I connect with there. I really have to consider you a friend or someone I’m at least comfortable sharing more personal details with than I would otherwise share on the more open social networks. I share plenty of pics of my little girl, my day-to-day activities, my runs (it connects with Nike+), my current location, and the occasional selfie. It is the primary way I interact with some other social networks including Foursquare.

Here is how Path fits in for me. I keep the stuff I just want for my eyes only in Day One, the stuff I wish to share with a wide and indiscriminate audience I do on App.net or Twitter. Path sits in the middle of this sharing graph. It is for the stuff I wish to share but only with a selected few. I like to think of it as the “friendship” chair of Thoreau’s home.

The thing is though that I fear for Path’s health and future. Today, they had to lay off 20% of the staff. And though they recently rolled out a premium subscription model, I still am not sure if there are enough people using it and willing to pay for that to sustain them. I hope it sticks around.

But, most importantly, I would like to see and interact more of my friends there. I like it and I think most of them will too. So, if you are so inclined, I think you should give it a shot. And, feel free to look me up and reach out to me if you do.

Why I’m A Sucker For A Good Travel Blog

Travel blogs are a not oft mentioned, yet not entirely secret, pleasure of mine. I love travel writing in general. But a good travel blog, especially of someone actually living in a new place long term, is really my thing. Not only do they feed my desires and intentions for my own future journey, they provide brief and unique perspectives from someone who is both within and outside. A person that may be inside of a place but is now and likely will forever remain slightly outside a culture.

The things that make a “good” travel blog are, of course, subjective. To me they are this:

• Good Photos.
• Great storytelling.
• Deep insight into the truth of a place.

In other words, I would like to be transported. I want, for just a few moments, to be where the writer is and see with their eyes and experience through these words and understand a place as they do.

Recently, I have been enjoying a few of these that I will mention here:

• Spartan Wanderer — This is the blog of Seth who is spending a year in Daqing, China teaching English. It fits all of the criteria mentioned above. Compelling observations about life in China .

• David Byrne’s Journal — As multimedia artist David Byrne has been on tour with St. Vincent in support of their collaboration, he has been writing wonderful insights on all of the cities they play. Everything from a visit to a creationist museum to the circuses of Ancient Rome.

• Idle Words — Maciej Cegłowski, developer of Pinboard has a blog where he writes about travel and food and it is really good. I had no idea until Chris Gonzales alerted me to that fact today. Since, I have devoured several posts in what little free time I’ve had.

There are more but that should give you some idea of why I love this particular genre of writing. And, if you know of any you’d recommend please feel free to send them my way. I’m always open to sugestions in this area.

For no particular reason, other than the fact the people like to know these things sometimes and full disclosure, here are the apps I use every single day on my Mac. This does not account for everything installed and used. This is just the stuff I use every day without fail. I’ll likely do one of these in the future for iPhone and iPad as well.

• Safari — I believe in using the built-in tools whenever possible. It helps when the built-in tools are pretty darn good. I find Safari pretty darn good most of the time.

• Mail — The one email client I have used long enough and learned deeply enough to be maximally efficient with it.

• BusyCal — Way better than the built in Calendar app (formerly iCal) and has easy sharing of calendars which my wife and I depend on.

• nvALT — I’ve been a Notational Velocity user for over 8 years. I use it for all sorts of things. Currently contains 867 notes. nvALT is Brett Terpstra’s fork of this open sourse project that adds a ton of useful features which make it that much better.

• Byword — What I use for most writing when on my Mac.

• Twitter — Yes, Twitter. The official client. I still check in here daily despite having mostly moved to App.net.

• Reeder (awaiting update) — My RSS reader of choice. Only worked with Google Reeder so I have not used it since that shut down on the first of this month. Once it updates to support FeedWrangler I’ll gladly fire it up once again.

So, those are all the “app” apps I use. But, what about the menubar and “just runs in the background” sorts of things? Here are those:

• Droplr — For sharing files, screenshots, and quick one off notes easily.

• Dropbox — If it is a file of any sort it is likely in here.

• Day One — Which I use more as a daily log than a journal.

• Jumpcut — Clipboard buffering. Keyboard driven. Full on awesomesauce.

• Shortcat — Use your keyboard to find and click on buttons and links. The less I have to touch my trackpad/mouse, the faster I am.

• FastScripts — Execute scripts with keyboard commands.

• QuickCal — Enter calendar events quickly using your keyboard and natural language processing.

• Quicksilver — Launch apps and do all sorts of other cool things using your keyboard (Are you sensing a theme here?).

• DragonDrop — Provides a “shelf” with the shake of your mouse to drag stuff temporarily before dropping it.

I might have missed a few things but that’s what I use every single day on my Mac.

I’m a full-time independent writer who works hard to bring you quality reading and ideas here daily. If you enjoy what you read here, please consider a free will donation of any amount.

The purpose of this book is to encourage the teen to make their education their own responsibility. They can remain at school, or as a homeschool take only some classes, or find apprenticeships, volunteer, or even skip directly to college. In short they are designing their own self-education, where ever it may happen. Along the way they develop a better idea of themselves and many more life skills then they would in formal school.

via Cool Tools – The Teenage Liberation Handbook.

I have not read this book but, based on the review alone it is the book I wished someone had given me at the start of high school. Perhaps it will save a few others who are there or have children there.

I was a terrible student by the time I got to high school. It was not because I found the subject matter difficult. Quite the opposite. I was bored to tears.

You see, as a child I was a voracious reader. From the earliest time I could read, you almost never saw me not reading something. If I was ever idle the first thing I would was to grab the nearest thing I could read. I was reading at a college level by age eight. And, most of what I read was non-fiction reference material. For instance, my Grandmother got me a set of encyclopedias yearly — World Book, Britannica, Childrens, etc. — and I read as many of these from cover-to-cover as I could. My Mom would get me a Time Life Book Series collection on Christmas for several years. Each one had a theme like Space or The West (with real saddle leather covers). I would read these over and over again too. Of course, it was not all serious. There were plenty of comics, Mad Magazines, fantasy classics, and the occasional novel.

Therefore, by the time I reached high school, school seemed very forced. Not only did I know a lot of the material but I would have rather been given a book and told to come back and prove that I knew it by writing an essay on the subject matter (standardized testing being too uncreative for me). And, in some particular areas of my interest, I often knew more than my teachers could have taught me (English and History to be specific). In order to combat and rebel, I started skipping classes or making up wild and elaborate stories about myself. I would pay no attention in class or mark multiple choice tests into a one time pad cypher that, if decrypted, would have revealed my feeling on the very act of taking it (“This is Stooopid”).

I likely would have flunked out if not for the intervention of three teachers who, separately, reached out to me and got to the root of the issue. All were perplexed that this “seemingly bright” kid was doing so poorly. They cut through my bullshit and discovered that I knew the material, was bored out of my skull, and could prove it to them as long as it did not involve a standardized test (you should have heard the three hour debate my History teacher and I had about the The War Between The States). I passed all the classes that allowed me such flexibility in my own education with high marks.

All of this is to say that I believe our education system is broken. The one size fits all model it is based on is for producing a different kind of human than is required in this modern age. It needs to be redesigned from the ground up to give our kids the flexibility to truly learn (and, more importantly, to develop a love of learning). Since that is not in the best interest of anyone currently in control of such things, the time is ripe for kids to take education into their own hands as I ultimately did.

And, I would be remiss if I did not say how much I fear for my daughter as she enters Kindergarden next year. We are not quite sure yet what type of learner she is. My wife had great success in the traditional, college-prep private school, she attended. She succeeded in the traditional system as many do. Beatrix has attended a very “by Maria’s book” Montessori pre-school for the past two years with a strong belief in fostering the self-motivated child. Therefore, between all of these factors, Beatrix could go either way or somewhere down the middle when it comes time to enter a more traditional system.

We chose the school we are sending her to largely based on it’s reputation. It is not only the top-rated public elementary school in Saint Paul but there is a strong emphasis on reading. I’m hoping this mix of traditional and self-directed translates to a good learning experience for her. But, you can be rest assured, that the moment it stops working I will advocate for change and do whatever is on my power to ensure that she has the framework to design her own education. And, if the institutions of learning are not there to support it, if I have anything to do with it she can and will opt-out.

In the end, I hope all of this information helps start similar conversations and reflection about education in your home. Because we owe it to our kids and the future of our societies to ensure that we are raising strong, smart, active learners.

I’m a writer. Writing is how I make this world better, friendlier, stronger place. If these words improved your day, please let me know by contributing here.

I keep a list of books I read each year. After I finish each one, I put it on the list with a short review. Though I’m way behind where I was last year at this time, I’m still hopeful I will meet last year’s total number. Here is what I’ve read so far.

• Broken Blade (A Fallen Blade Novel): Kelly McCullough — First novel in a series that follows the exploits of Aral The Shadowjack (or Kingslayer). A fast paced mashup of fantasy and hard boiled detective noir. Great start, compelling story and characters, and leaves one wanting to jump right in to the next book.

• The Art Of Not Sucking: Hugh MacLeod — Another nice ass kicker and reality bringer from Hugh.

• The Icarus Deception: How High Will You Fly?: Seth Godin — This one fell flat for me. Not quite sure why. I think it is largely because I’m already at where this book wants to encourage the reader to be. That said, it is likely great for those who need it.

• The Sketchnote Handbook Video Edition: the illustrated guide to visual note taking: Mike Rohde — The book I bugged Mike for years to write finally was released and it is better than I could have imagined. It makes the artform he pioneered accessible to every skill level to engage. So, so, good.

• Designing Disney’s Theme Parks: The Architecture of Reassurance: Karal Ann Marling — Fascinating. And confirmed many of my impressions about Disney World.

• The Willpower Instinct: How Self-Control Works, Why It Matters, and What You Can Do to Get More of It: Kelly McGonigal Ph.D. — Simply great. Real, science based actionable information. This gives you all the tools you need to build better willpower. Also, some surprising facts (like how much meditation and simply getting outside for a walk help).

• Tenth of December: Stories: George Saunders — Brilliant and mesmerizing collection of short stories. I’d give more than one appendage to write this well.

• Bared Blade (A Fallen Blade Novel): Kelly McCullough — Part two in the continuing adventurers of Aral. This book is even better than the first of the series. In this round, Aral (and the rest of the book’s world) is on the hunt of a sacred ring that, if not found, could start a great war. Of course, this means that some would rather it not found. Lots of nice twists and turns. And, you can really feel the fun that Kelly is having writing these. Strongly recommended.

littleBits is open source library of electronic modules that snap together with magnets for prototyping, learning and fun. We were given a starter kit by a friend who accidentally ordered two during their successful Kickstarter campaign. It’s really great. Especially for kids.

I spent some time playing with it with Beatrix last night and was quite impressed. The packaging and presentation was top notch. What you get are little modules one that magnetically snap together into ious configurations and make little projects. The modules are essentially divided into four color-coded categories — Power , Input, Wire, Output. The possibilities of what to do with these are largely up to your experimentation. The instructions do provide a couple of example projects to give you an idea of how it all works but the rest is up to you. That said, there seems to be an active community of folks sharing their projects ideas. A great resource.

This is a perfect thing to get kids excited about electronic experimentation and making. Beatrix had a blast in the half hour we had to play with it before bed. She insisted in bringing it up to her bedroom so that she could remember she had it to play with in the morning. Which, in Beatrix’s world, is the best vote a toy can receive.

I’m not one of those guys. I’m no Marco Arment, who I’m betting can tell you what Chinese factory a headphone was manufactured in based on the treble sound alone. All I care about is a decent set of speakers that fit my ears and allow me to listen in comfort. In fact, I’ve even been generally OK with most of the comes-with models that have shipped with every iDevice I’ve bought. That said, I have tried and owned some more expensive models and can at least tell that they are better in every conceivable way than the less expensive alternatives. So, there’s that.
That said, I was recently sent a pair of MA450i Noise Isolating Earphones to try out. I’ve been using them for a couple of weeks now in all sorts of conditions and listening to both music, voice and video. They have performed admirably in all situations. They are very comfortable in ear. In fact, I often forget they are there. They sound great! Far better than their fifty dollar price point would give away. I would put them on par with other, more expensive,“Marco Approved” models I have owned.
They have been especially good for running. Most in ear models I have owned start falling out as soon as I start to sweat a bit. These stay put. This might be because they include six sets of interchangeable ear buds to ensure there is a set to fit just about any ear. The default ones fit me perfectly out of the box though.
The cord is cloth wrapped and, therefore, less prone to tangle (and fairly easy to untangle when it does). The in-line remote and mic do the job. The jack itself maintains a solid connection. There all help to lend a more professional and expensive feel to the overall build quality.
These are keepers for sure. They are an Apple Store exclusive right now. Though, you can find their non-iDevice-remote laden cousin, the MA 350, at Amazon for ten dollars less.
Either way, it’s a square deal.
Your kind donation of any amount helps to support a full-time independent writer. Thanks for reading!