John's posterous

Using Miro for non-iPod iTunes podcasts (cludgey, but effective!)

Okay, so this method may seem a little excessive. The short form is running two apps to get nicely formated podcasts to my non-iPod mp3 player without having to right click to mark podcasts as played. Here's the story:

My setup:
After the recent death of my Android phone (a suicide, into a watery grave), I've been rocking my Sandisk Sansa Clip+ for listening to podcasts. I don't really listen to music that isn't Pandora, so I just wanted a simple solution for OSX which allowed me to sync podcasts to my mp3 player.

I used iTunes for a while, combining it with iTuneMyWalkman [http://ilari.scheinin.fidisk.fi/itunemywalkman/]. This works pretty well, but after I listen to the podcast on the Sansa, I had to remember which I listened to, and then mark it was played on iTunes. And uncheck it. This took three clicks, and that was annoying. I did it for a week, and then I decided one other straw was too much for my metaphorical camel. iTunes doesn't let you really sort by date. Every podcast is sorted by podcast, then by whatever sort criterion. 
Itunes

There's a screenshot of my fully maximized iTunes window, and as you can notice, I can only really see two podcasts without scrolling. And the second podcast doesn't show all its episodes. I have ten different publishers I listen to during a week, so having to scroll to find each podcast, then find the episode I wanted was a little much. In the end, iTunes sucks for podcasts if you don't have an iWhatever.

I considered other options:
  • Juice [http://juicereceiver.sourceforge.net/] is ugly, hasn't been updated since 2005, and doesn't have an in-built syncing solution. I grant that iTunes didn't, either, as I used the AppleScript iTuneMyWalkman, but still, I didn't have to leave the program to do the deed. 
  • gPodder [http://gpodder.org/] actually seems nice. It does the syncing in app. It is recommended by Lifehacker [http://lifehacker.com/5465842/five-best-podcast-managers], and seems to have been developed in this present decade. But, it's GTK, and while that's not a huge strike against it, my MacPorts install borked. And you might say, 'but John, you can add the flag +quartz, a la
sudo port install gpodder +quartz
to download a native version.' Yes, I will respond. If you're using a computer that wasn't made recently. 
Error: Cannot install py26-tkinter for the arch(s) 'x86_64' because
Error: its dependency tk only supports the arch(s) 'i386 ppc'
Hrmph.

Anyway, gPodder is out. So I went to Miro. I've used Miro in the past, but I've learned Miro does more than let you pirate stuff! 

Enter Miro:
Miro actually does a good job of importing your OPML file of podcasts, so I didn't have to add any more, and it does a beautiful job of sorting! I can order my podcasts however I darn well feel. So when I sort by date, I get the actual sort by date! 
Miro

Before you get too argumentative about what you see in the left nav bar, let's ignore that inclination and move on...

Miro has a native 'Miro Connect' feature which lets you sync to any MP3 player (but not iPods. Ha!) or even USB storage device. That's pretty nice. 

Now where it gets complicated:
For some reason, the base podcast available via RSS subscribed by Miro, the MP3 files come in with really crapped up ID3 tags. For a point of fact, every episode of Talk of the Nation that I got had a blank 'album', and its 'genre' tag was blues. You probably have the power to fix this, Sarah Handel.  You can verify it yourself by pulling the latest episode from http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=7454969 and checking the ID3 tags. 

As it turns out, the Sansa does a wonderful job about not caring about folders and only looking at ID3 tags to determine what mp3s are podcasts, and it groups them by Album, then by episode. So if your album is blank, you're not grouped, and your Podcast screen on the Sansa says 'totn-20203u438jkldfas.mp3'.
But I'm picking on ToTN, when everyone seems to have some blame. WBUR publishes its podcasts with the album being the same as the file. So you get 'On Point: Week in the News' folder, followed by 'On Point: Week in the News' episode. Pretty obnoxious.

iTunes sources don't have this problem. At this point, iTunes was looking pretty good.

The hacky solution:
What I currently have working for me is that I set up iTunes to download every episode of a podcast, and delete nothing. I then set up Miro to 'watch' the iTunes' podcast folder:
$HOME/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music/Podcasts
It actually adds this as a 'podcast' folder (which is why my screenshot above shows a Podcast called Podcasts/). This folder is then sortable by Miro, and though I neglected to mention above, Miro has only two clicks to mark an episode as played (and only two fingers, since there's no right click involved). 

I now use Miro to sort, mark played, etc. I don't have to search to see what I just played, because it's probably near the top. I get to use Miro's built-in Connect feature to sync my Sansa, and I have all of the proper ID3 information because the sources are acquired by iTunes.

I just have to have iTunes running in the background updating on occasion. It's workaroundish. It's hacky. But by golly, I don't have to actually use iTunes' crappy podcast interface, and I don't have to buy an iPod. My mp3 player (after a lot of trial and error) just works.

Surviving without a smart phone

Since losing my original Motorola Droid in a glass of water, I have bucked up and found a way to live my life. I have three months left until my early upgrade, and I was very glad to hear from Verizon:
If you put a 'feature phone' on your line, you can cancel the data plan without paying an early termination fee! 
So I ran to Craigslist and found a cheap, QWERTY keyboarded phone for $25. It's a blue Samsung Intensity 2. So far I like it quite a bit. It seems totally solid (and at $25, who cares if I drop it?). 

Samsung-intensity-2-cell-phone

After dropping the data plan and activating my new phone, I added a texting plan (since all prior texting was via Google Voice). I didn't want to irritate the people I communicate with the most by having them change numbers, so I was glad to learn information which is well documented elsewhere (see http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/networking/how-call-proxying-works-with-google-voice/1311) The short story is that if you get your contacts to text your GV number, they are assigned a number from area code 406, 504, 916, 617, or some other number. You add that number to your phone contact list (not their actual number). When you text this number, say 504-298-9601, the recipient sees that the message came from Google Voice (even though in my case it's from my Verizon number). 
And another interesting piece, if you tried to call the previously mentioned number, your call won't go through. That's my brother's phone number, but only as Google has assigned it to my GV account. If I call that number from any GV-linked phones, Eric will receive the call. If anyone else tried, it fails, because those phones aren't linked to my account. It's really brilliant.

Now, all that aside, I have a plan phone that can do text messages. What I actually used my phone most for was podcasts. Enter my Sansa Clip+ which has been sitting in my glove box. Welcome back, old friend. 
I've used iTunes to subscribe to all of my favorite podcasts, and downloaded a third-party app iTuneMyWalkman (http://ilari.scheinin.fidisk.fi/itunemywalkman/) which provides an MP3 Player to iTunes bridge. Since I only care about the podcasts and not the music, that's the only feature I can attest to. Aside from having to manually mark episodes listened in iTunes, the system works quite well.

Now finally, I was curious what else I could do over SMS, since that's basically all my phone is capable of. The answer is apparently quite a lot. 
*I've linked my phone to my Twitter account so that I can post tweets by texting 40404. I also get @ replies and direct messages sent to my phone.
* I can update my facebook status by texting the message to FBOOK (32665, I think). I turned off all notifications, because even on Android I had notifications turned off. Facebook is enough of a life-draining influence. I don't need it beeping my phone all hours of the day.
* I set up severe weather alerts from my local news station. @KOMUNews provides free weather alerts (along with school closing, news alerts, and lots of other things I don't generally care for, but I'm happy to see available. Everything is opt-in, so I just picked weather).

And now life goes on. I'm on day two without a smart phone, and so far so good. I've listened to a lot of podcasts on my Sansa, I've been reading more on my Kindle (wasting far less time on the internet), and of course spending the same amount of time with my daughter. I tried my best to always pay attention to Penny when she wanted it, and to play and all that without looking at my phone, and I usually succeeded. But guess what? No smart phone means, "who the hell cares what my phone says." I'm not at all distracted.  If I get a message, it's a quick glance at the screen, and back to the pocket. 

Yay for less distractive living! 

(boo for no smart phone, but heck, I'm saving $20-25 a month for the next three months without a data plan... maybe I'll decide I don't need one...)

Updates:

I've also linked my phone to Google (text GOOGL), and you can search almost anything. Check out http://www.google.com/mobile/sms/search/ for more information

And finally, I also discovered a method by which you can record audio notes and get them transcribed by Google Voice. Check out http://www.drewvogel.com/2010/04/05/google-voice-transcription/http://www.dre... for more information.

"Damn."

“Dammit all,” she exclaimed. “It’s over. It’s all over.” 

No one around her seemed to notice what she was looking at. It was an odd utterance from an oddly dressed woman. She was sitting alone in a coffee shop, and seemed to be yelling at her coffee.

“Phone.”

“What?” an older man asked. He had finally noticed her wriggling in her seat and a feeling of fatherly responsibility set in on him.

Her eyes locked into his.

“It’s over.” She told him. 

“I’m sorry, miss. What’s over?”

“My phone. It’s in my coffee.”

“That’s not a good place for a phone.” The man helpfully observed.

“I know that. It’s a tragedy. It’s the worst possible outcome. It’s over.” She buried her head in her hands and proceeded to whimper quietly to herself.

“Nutcase.” The man muttered to himself as he returned to his cranberry cardamom scone. “Young people and their damned ‘phones’.” he continued to moralize.

He didn’t understand, she thought to herself. He didn’t know her escalating failures. Her repeated difficulties in graduate school. Her financial worries. The mounting pressures of her job. And now, her phone. Her identity wasn’t wrapped into her phone, but it represented the core of her being. It was interconnected with the world in a way which she had not for many years. She was able to communicate with friends lost over time and space. And now, those friends were floating in a skinny chai latte. With fat free whip.

“Damn.”

Sending long online articles to your Kindle via Instapaper

Sarah and Mom! Now that you are Kindle owners, you might want to start sending long internet articles to your device for leisurely, offline, non-backlit reading. Here's a little tutorial to get you started. I'm including tons to images to make it as easy as possible.

What you'll need is your laptop (presumably you're already on it) and your Kindle. You'll also need to find your Kindle's email address, which is found either in the Kindle -> Menu -> Settings, or in the info on http://www.amazon.com/myk, as pictured below.

Amazon

First, get started by signing up for a new account at http://instapaper.com.

Instapaper_save_interesting_we

After you've set it up, it's time to get all the Instapaper features set up for your browser. If you haven't already done so (during account set up), you can go to the Extras screen found on instapaper.com, and get the Read Later bookmarklet

Instapaper_apps_tools_email-in

Next, browse around to any website (favorite news site, a blog, even this post), and click that Read Later bookmark. This will be saved to Instapaper for later reading.

Now, we're going to set up Instapaper to send articles to our Kindles. Click up there on the Account button, and you'll see the screen which allows you to fill in Kindle information.

Instapaper-1

Instapaper-3

 

That page has its own directions of what to do next, as far as setting the end on Amazon's page. Complete those directions, and you can hit "Send Now" in the Instapaper window (as pictured previously).

That's it. It's really simple once you follow the many steps, and if you have any questions, you can feel free to email me (if you're Sarah or Mom) or post a comment on the blog. I hope it helps get you started.

This is why I love Google Voice

Here's why I love Google Voice as my voicemail provider.  It transcribes your messages really poorly!  And the even better part is that as the message is played back for you, the word in the transcript is highlighted like a Sesame Street sing-a-long.

Here a voicemail I got from my friend apparently named ASAP. E.

 Hey  John,  ASAP.  E.  We  wanted  to  extend  the  invitation  for  you  guys  to  come  down  on  Friday  evening  and  then  go  to  the  party  got  hard  great  day  Saturday  morning  and  and  I  was  just  there  won't  be  able  to  talk  to  you  but  give  me  a  feel  should  be  a  good  time.  Thank  you  in  your  thing  about  coming  in  so  I  think  it  should  be  fun.  So  keep  us  in  mind  and  let  us  know  he  thinks.  Bye. 

Classic.

Getting Things Done on Remember The Milk

This post details my updates to my Remember the Milk set up for my Getting Things Done (GTD) system.  My previous system was working fine before the semester started, but once I needed to track actual topics of study for each individual course it didn't work out. I'm hoping that this updated system will help me better organize my graduate school life.  This is my second revision, but I anticipate the system to continue changing over time.

Locations:
Obviously location based information

Home: Tasks that actually require me to be physically present at my house
Work: Tasks that require me to be at the Math office.
Anywhere: Tasks that can occur independent of my actual location.  Examples include homework

Tags:
These will be used for non-location contexts required for accomplishing the task

@phone: need to call someone
@mac: need desktop computer
@online: need any web connection
@email: send email
@droid: (probably unused) require my phone
@iphone: e.g. required for app testing
@errands: Generic items I need to purchase
@<person name>: Tasks which require talking to people

Lists:
Major projects will have their own lists.  Drawback I can see so far: no keyboard shortcut on the web app to change the List folder.

    Inbox: Holding place for all tasks coming in that need to be processed.  This should be emptied frequently
    P-Complex: Topics I need to learn/study for complex analysis
    P-Calculus: topics for advanced calculus
    P-Algebra: For this semester, Linear algebra topics
    P-Teaching: Tasks for my courses I'm teaching (grade papers, update gradebook, make quizzes, email students, etc)
    Staged: Tasks which aren't tied to a project but need to live somewhere

    I may add new lists like P-AnalysisQual, but at this point, I don't think that's quite necessary as a real list since it would combine topics of Complex and Real Analysis, and these will have overlap with P-Calculus and P-Complex.

    I'm am going to be continuing to use smart lists to join topics.  My current examples are People which matches all individuals which are people tags; my Mac smart list combines tasks that can be done on or offline, and those that require a mac (XCode for example); the Droid smartlist is all those that require the online portion as well as making phone calls.
Here's a couple of the search queries for example:
    .Mac: (tag:@mac or tag:@online or tag:@email or tag:@web) not tag:waiting
    .Droid: (tag:@droid or tag:@online or tag:@email or tag:@web or tag:@phone) not tag:@waiting
    .Classes: (list:P-Calculus or list:P-Complex or list:P-Algebra)

A word on software:
I'm using the official Remember The Milk app for Android after signing up for a Pro account (I exhausted my free trial, and Astrid didn't quite work for me since it didn't handle the lists like I expected). My Mac is where most of my task entry occurs and there I use the RTM Quicksilver plugin (http://www.binaryminded.com/qsrtm.html). It's actually the only thing I use Quicksilver for.  After batch adds, I use either the android app on the go or the web app on the mac to manage my tasks.

Entertainment area before and after

Here is the entertainment center area. I finally got around to doing
something about the mess. I hid it in another room within Bluetooth
range! Behold the before and after photos.

It's so very organized now.  It makes my family room a lot nicer looking.  Less like a death trap.  Huzzah!

(download)