Overhauling My Tech Life

This morning, Shawn Blanc provided a handy Mac media server setup guide that I think is worth checking out. This particular quote at the end struck a chord with me though:

"See? For some of us, all we need to for an iOS-only workflow is a Mac at home doing the heavy lifting."

For several months now, my wife and I have been saving up some money on the side so that we can do an overhaul on our home tech situation, and an iOS-workflow is actually something I've been considering.

Some Background

Each of us owns an iPhone 4S, but we have no Macs or iPads at the moment. This may come as a surprise to some of you considering the content of this blog and the fact that I used to work for Apple, but it's not really something I've wanted to make a big deal of on the blog.

If you look back through the archives, you'll notice that I talk about iOS a lot, but not so much the really nerdy Mac stuff that I'd love to sink my teeth into. I've also had to come up with some Windows workarounds for my Tools and Toys writing workflow in the meantime, which is a bit of a pain.

All of this is going to change soon, which I couldn't be more excited about.

Current Setup

Here's what I'm working with right now:

• At my full-time job, we only use Windows 7 Dell desktops. This happens to be where I get most of my writing work done at the moment.
• At home, my wife has a Windows 7 laptop that is servicable, but it tends to overheat and gets bogged down easily.
• My own laptop completely died over a year ago and we've never had a desktop, so whenever I'm writing at home I'm either on my iPhone or her laptop. Blech.

Decisions, Decisions

We know for sure that we want to set up an office area at home with a 21.5" iMac (probably not the newest slim model but the one prior, since she occasionally requires an optical drive for burning CDs), but for our respective mobile purposes we're still undecided on whether to get MacBooks or use iPad+keyboard setups.

If we've got an always-on iMac powering things at home, we could feasibly do the iPad thing and have no problems at all. She doesn't care about getting into the nerdy stuff, and most of my usage will probably be reading and writing, so really it just comes down to how much I want to tinker with scripts and stuff on the go.

At this point she's leaning toward getting an iPad 4 regardless of what I do, but I'm still deciding between:

• 13" MacBook Pro (non-Retina, because it's too expensive otherwise)
• 13" MacBook Air
• iPad 4
• iPad mini

If I opt for either iPad, there are further decisions to make, such as what keyboard to use. I've heard great things about using an Apple wireless keyboard along with the Incase Origami Workstation, but there are lots of great iPad-specific keyboard cases to choose from as well. There's also a case to be made for waiting until a Retina iPad mini is announced later this year (as is rumored) before I make a final decision.

Perhaps I'm just thinking about this stuff too hard, but this is a seriously huge expense for us and I do not take it lightly. Any recommendations are more than welcome here.

'Handmade Portraits: The Swordmaker'

In the same vein as the video I linked to last Friday, this video features one of the last remaining Japanese swordsmiths, Korehira Watanabe.

He tells the story of how the last 40 years of his life have been spent honing his craft as he attempts to recreate a legendary type of sword known as Koto, of which the manufacturing secrets have been lost for several hundred years.

Not only is this another example of a master craftsman doing what he does best, but an inspiring story of someone so dedicated to their craft that they are willing to spend their entire lives trying to get it right, even at the expense of being disowned by their family.

That kind of passion seems all too rare these days.

Letting Children Fail

Jessica Lahey, writing for The Atlantic:

"These are the parents who worry me the most — parents who won't let their child learn. You see, teachers don't just teach reading, writing, and arithmetic. We teach responsibility, organization, manners, restraint, and foresight. These skills may not get assessed on standardized testing, but as children plot their journey into adulthood, they are, by far, the most important life skills I teach.

Excellent piece, and I recommend reading the whole thing.

This is something I think about often, because I want to avoid being "that" parent. The one who coddles their children, never allowing them to learn from their mistakes and thus creating a sense of entitlement that will set the child up for inevitable failure in adulthood.

It's an easy pattern to slip into, I know. Even now, I sometimes find myself making excuses for Brendon when he's acting bratty. "Oh he's just a baby, he doesn't understand what he's doing." And maybe that's true to a certain extent, but my role is to be a father, not a buddy.

When I see that he's about to hurt himself in some way, my first instinct is to reach out and prevent that thing from happening, but I have to remind myself that sometimes I need to hold back and let the lesson be taught. (Obviously I still step in if the damage is going to be severe.)

At some point he must learn what is right and wrong, and I'm trying to instill these values in him early on so we can avoid the whole "damage control" thing years from now, when it will be too late to reverse any coddling we've done. Is there a better way? I don't know, there was no manual handed to me when I became a dad.

One thing I do know though: it doesn't feel good to tell him no, but it must be done.

Khoi Vinh on Blackberry 10

"None of what is on display here — the clean yet unremarkable typography, the tasteful but de rigeur color gradients, the straightforward but rudimentary iconography, the communicative but nearly featureless spinners, arrows and other visual cues — is particularly distinctive or unique to Blackberry. In fact, they demonstrate a startling lack of character, almost a willful desire to be mistaken for any other random operating system."

I totally agree. My very first impression of the new Blackberry homescreen was that it looked like a cheap imitation of Android 2.2 (Froyo) from a few years ago. I think "missed opportunity" is a bit of an understatement here.

'The Best Waffle in America'

I really enjoyed this piece, but the following quote stuck out in particular:

"The majority of things in the world float in a sea of mediocrity. But when you find the products that are truly wonderful, they easily rise above."

So true. Now if you need me, I'll be the guy boarding a plane and flying to Vermont to visit this waffle joint.

The New 128GB iPad

An interesting thing happened today. Although we're only a few months into the iPad 4's product cycle, Apple introduced a 128GB model to the lineup this morning, which will be sold at $799 for the wifi-only model and $929 for the wifi+cellular model.

But the most interesting aspect of this isn't even the mid-cycle thing, it's the idea that Apple is pushing to reframe the iPad as a device for pros. Of course, plenty of professionals already own and use iPads for work, but Apple seems to be strongly suggesting that anyone currently using MacBooks for work should start thinking about making the switch to iPad, and soon.

And why not? A 128GB iPad combined with a keyboard case or similar accessory is certainly a compelling choice even compared to a MacBook Air. I'd wager that most people are perfectly capable of getting their work done on an iPad and have no real need for a laptop anymore. There are limitations within iOS that may keep true Power Users™ using their MacBooks even years from now, but these people are fringe cases and their numbers are ever-dwindling.

Not everyone uses nerdy stuff like Keyboard Maestro macros or TextExpander snippets or application launchers like Alfred/LaunchBar. Most people aren't writing AppleScripts to accomplish tasks. All they need is the right kind of app for a specific task, and iOS is a goldmine for things like that.

I expect the next few years to be pretty interesting, since Apple appears to be rapidly chipping away at Microsoft's iron grip on the work/productivity market.

Typekit Integrated Into Squarespace 6

Until now, I've been using various Google Fonts throughout this site's existence on Squarespace 6. I have a free Typekit account, but a lot of the typefaces I really want (such as FF Meta Serif Web Pro and Proxima Nova) only exist on the paid plans and I haven't opted to upgrade just yet.

Today though, those fonts and a lot of others have been made available for all Squarespace 6 users, thanks to a deal the two companies have struck together. This makes me pretty happy.

Happiness > Money

My wife Chelsea and I recently started adhering to a stricter financial budget than we have in the past. We've assessed what our monthly expenses are, we set a goal for how much we want to transfer into our savings account at the end of each month, and we've started keeping certain spending activities to a minimum.

We rarely eat at restaurants anymore, preferring instead to cook at home and eat the leftovers for lunch the next day. We've opted for a combination of Netflix Instant and Hulu+ rather than paying for cable TV, which is a huge savings. We almost never go to the movies, we just wait for stuff to become available on Netflix, or maybe a Redbox kiosk in a pinch . We don't buy lots of knick-knacks for ourselves or Brendon; we've got plenty enough stuff as it is.

I say all this because yesterday something unusual happened. Chelsea, in a moment of quick decision, spent $40 to buy two sets of Irish dance shoes (hard-shoe and soft-shoe, respectively) for one of her dance students as a birthday present. Now, even our own family members only get birthday/Christmas gifts worth maybe $20, and Chelsea is typically the stricter one when it comes to our budget, so when she told me about this purchase I think she expected me to be upset. But I wasn't upset in the least.

If anything, it made me smile :)

For one thing, those shoes can easily run for over $100 a pair, so $40 to get both pairs at once was a steal. A lady on some obscure dance forum was trying to get rid of the shoes since her daughter had grown out of them, and Chelsea had to act quickly in order to score the deal.

Besides that, the student these shoes are going to—despite being in my wife's class for a few years now and being truly dedicated to it—has never had the opportunity to buy them herself. She comes from a family that's been going through some hard times lately, and it's only because of her love for the class that her parents scrape together enough extra money to keep paying each month.

And that's why I don't mind the sudden purchase my wife made. The reason we're putting money into savings isn't out of some Scrooge-like hoarding greed or anything. We have lots of financial goals we'd like to meet of course, but all of that pales in comparison to the happiness that those dance shoes will bring to that little girl. Forget making her day, this gift will probably make her month or maybe even year.

Isn't that really the more important thing? I certainly think so.

'The Birth of a Tool, Part 1 - Axe Making'

I love videos like this where you get to watch a master of their craft in action. If you like the first video, be sure to check out the rest.

'About App Icons'

Louie Mantia:

"Consider walking down a candy aisle at a drugstore. If you have a craving for Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, you know how to find it. Of course, it’s the bright orange wrapper with a bubbly yellow word on it. Instant. Most candy bars have very distinct brands which can be instantly recognizable at a glance of the entire aisle. This should be precisely how you approach your app icon design."

He goes on to point out some fantastic examples of app icon design, including some groups of apps that fit under a single brand and have been designed to make this fact prominent, such as Nike.

When I got to this part...

"If you take that same logic to app icons, any style you have in your app should be applied to your icon."

...I immediately thought of Check the Weather, whose icon does not match a single part about the app's interface at all. It's one of my favorite apps, but that icon is about as generic-looking as you can get. Which is a shame, since the app itself has a very unique design aesthetic.

Go read the rest of Louie's post, it's pretty fascinating.

iCloud Sync Headaches

Via Nate Boateng, I came across this blog post by developer Jumsoft, which discusses why they've reverted back to their older wifi sync system over iCloud:

"After many months of constant issues, we thought we saw a light at the end of the tunnel when Mountain Lion and iOS 6 came out, because we finally managed to build a Money version with an operational iCloud sync. However, as we can see now, it was a bit too early for champagne."

They're not the only developers tossing iCloud aside. A notable feature of Instacast 3 was the removal of iCloud sync in favor of a homemade Cloud Sync solution.

Some developers have had to publish webpages specifically to address iCloud issues for their customers. Two examples off the top of my head: Day One and Smart Notes. I'm certain there are others.

I agree with Nate that Apple should really sort these issues out, although I disagree with his assertion that it doesn't have to be for consumer-facing reasons. One of the first things listed in Day One's in-app FAQ page is a recommendation for the customer to use Dropbox sync over iCloud.

Maybe it's not a huge deal to people like Nate and myself, but it's definitely not the "It Just Works" sync solution for everyone that Apple claims it is. Not yet, anyway.

Tips to Overcome Writer's Block

Writer's block is something we all face at some time or another. That frustrating feeling of having this desperate urge to write, but being unable to get the words out. Sometimes it's so bad we can't even think of a topic to write about! After banging our heads against the wall for a while and getting nowhere, we throw in the towel.

Inevitably, we'll wake up in the middle of the night, suddenly struck by an idea that we must get out of our head immediately or else risk losing it. The human mind sometimes works in mysterious and beautiful ways—but this phenomenon is rare. Most of the time writing does not feel magical at all, but rather like pulling teeth.

Sooner or later you're going to hit that wall, just like everyone else does.

So, how can we overcome this wall? After some trial and error, I've found some ideas that have worked for me, and I thought I'd share them with you guys. I don't claim to be an expert, but maybe this stuff will help you too.

Tip #1: Exercise

You might ask yourself, "What the heck is this guy on? Exercise? I'm trying to get some writing done, not break a sweat." But I'm completely serious here.

One reason I end up having writer's block sometimes is that my head is too full of information I've absorbed throughout the day. After skimming hundreds (if not thousands) of RSS posts and tweets, not to mention all the fantastic stuff people have been linking to, I find it difficult to focus on my own task at hand.

Our brains aren't really built to process such a river of information every day, and yet I and many others keep doing it. It's an information addiction I'm working to rid myself of.

When I need to clear my head of all that cruft, I simply step away from my laptop and go for a light jog around the neighborhood. Give it a try, it may work wonders for you. Preferably sans-iPhone, so that you're not tempted to put on music or a podcast or whatever. That would defeat the purpose of what we're trying to accomplish here.

During the jog, try not to think about all the stuff you need to get done, or the deadlines you're facing, or the work you failed to finish previously. None of that matters right now. Instead, focus on your breathing. Enjoy your surroundings. Wave at the neighbors. Smile.

By the time you're done, you might just feel more relaxed and have a clearer mind. And if you do, I bet that the words which seemed so far out of reach earlier will come to you more freely.

If exercise really isn't your thing, give meditation a try. You don't even have to leave the house or office. Shut off all distractions, find a comfortable place to sit up straight, close your eyes, breathe slowly and deeply, and try to empty your thoughts of all worries.

Even if it doesn't solve the writer's block, you'll feel tons better.

Tip #2: Photography

Writers are creative thinkers. Whether we know it or not, this tends to translate to having a natural eye for photography. Maybe not true in all cases, but in my experience, some of the best writers I know can produce some incredible photos. These skills seem intertwined as far as I can tell.

So, when the part of your mind that controls word production gets a little worn out, try getting out a camera and taking some photos for a while. Find something you've seen a million times and find a new way to capture it, perhaps using a different perspective.

Engaging a different portion of your artistic side this way can be the spark that ignites your creativity.

It doesn't have to be a DSLR or anything. If you've got a smartphone, chances are you've got something decent to work with. Or maybe you've got an old disposable camera laying around somewhere. As the saying goes, the best camera is the one that's with you.

Tip #3: Writing Assignments

Rather than doing all the work of coming up with a topic to write about, allow someone else to take care of that part for you. Writing assignments are wonderful exercises that can help jump-start your brain and get the creative juices flowing. They can also be done as a warm-up before you get started on your own topic.

A good resource I've found for writing assignments has been over at First Today, Then Tomorrow. There, playwright and author Randy Murray puts up a new practice writing assignment once a week, and they've never failed to get me thinking. Great stuff.

Tip #4: Look to Other Writers for Inspiration

Most of us have writers that we look up to and respect. Chances are, they've written about something that has interested you, or else you probably wouldn't have become a fan in the first place.

If you're struggling to find a topic, get out a book or browse through some of your favorite blogs until you see something you can add some insight to. There's nothing wrong with expanding on an idea you didn't originally come up with. Writers borrow from one another all the time. It's a natural part of what we do and I daresay that the world would be a dreary place without the sharing and building upon of such ideas.

Tip #5: Write Something. Anything.

Yes, you read that right. Another way to overcome writer's block is...write something. Anything at all. You can write about the coffee you had this morning. You can make up a backstory about that cat you see wandering around the neighborhood every day. Write a letter to your kid that they'll read when they're older. Write about the delicious meal you just had.

Seriously, just write something. It doesn't matter what. There's no need to share it with anyone else, so don't worry too much about content or style.

Sometimes the most difficult thing about writing is simply getting started. We could make every excuse in the book before we've even begun. Don't defeat yourself that way. Once you've started, you've already started winning the battle. You may even notice your hands struggling to keep up with all the words trying to escape your head. It feels completely manic, but in a good way.

Every person, whether they know it or not, is living a life worth writing about. They just have to find those stories, however small, and connect the dots until a story emerges. It's kinda like weaving a tapesty but WAY simpler. Anyone can do it.

* * *

There you have it. Those are the techniques I've used to help me overcome my writer's block. I really do hope you'll find some use for these tips, or be inspired to put together a list of your own.

If you have a great technique not mentioned here, let me know! It's nice to get a peek into the minds of other people struggling with the same things I am.

Raise Up, Rather Than Bring Down

Even as a natural pessimist, one behavior I don't understand in people is this desire to see others brought down. Or, to be the ones bringing the other party down themselves.

What is it in our nature that drives us to such bitterness? Why must we scrabble and clamber over one another in reach of something we'll never grasp?

Today I witnessed a fine example of this. A coworker has decided that another of our colleagues is not living up to his standards, so he has decided to track every little failure she makes, gathering data into a chart that contrasts her perceived failures with his successes. Once he has enough data to work with he will show it to the next person higher up on our sad little totem pole. And for what? Some brief moment of pale superiority?

This sort of thing saddens me more than anything else. I would advocate for a method of encouragement and community rather than plotting someone else's downfall. Which leads me to ask...

...What are you doing in your everyday life that improves the lives of others around you?

...Are you always aware of the kind of effect your attitude has on those people?

...When was the last time you gave someone a compliment out of the blue?

...Wouldn't you rather totally make someone's day instead of being the one who utterly ruins it?

Just something to consider over the weekend. If you've got a story of a thing you did recently that made someone's day a little brighter, or helped them achieve any level of success, I'd love to hear it.

Renewed Focus

I've been at this writing thing for over two years now. Every so often, I get into a sort of funk and spend weeks relentlessly asking myself questions like this:

"Am I truly proud of the work I've done?"

"Have I published articles of lasting value, or have I simply been spinning my wheels?"

"What am I even trying to accomplish here?"

"Does this site help other people improve their life or even give them some food for thought?"

The list goes on and on and on and...you get the point.

I imagine that lots of writers go through phases like this from time to time, and I acknowledge that it's probably a good thing, although it doesn't feel that way at the time. It feels more like falling into a deep well of negavity that's hard to get out of.

Even so, there's something natural and healthy about doing a little soul-searching so that we can reassess our goals and redefine our purpose for writing in the first place. Doesn't everybody desire a fresh start sometimes?

After taking a good hard look at myself and my writing, I've decided that I want to shift the focus of this site a little. Or rather, I'd like to narrow it down to a smaller list of topics than I have in the past. I sat down and thought long and hard about which topics I care most about and get the most enjoyment out of writing. This is what I came up with:

• Writing/Publishing
• Minimalism/Simplicity
• Inspiration/Motivation
• Technology/Design/Photography
• Tips/How-To's

Items that got cut were things like "Apple's sales" and "Rumors" and "Inter-company politics" and "News" and at least a dozen others. I'm not John Gruber or Jim Dalrymple — I just don't care as much about that stuff. I also feel that writing on a huge number of topics is a good way to "dilute" what I'm doing here.

From here on out, I will be making an effort to stick with the list of topics above. They're more of a guideline than a strict set of policies that I can never deviate from, but keeping my mind focused should help me produce more meaningful work. Narrowing down to this list alone has already felt like lifting a huge burden off my chest. It just feels right.

I want to look back on my articles at the end of 2013 and really, truly say that I'm proud of what I've done. We'll see how that goes, but it should be an exciting year either way.

Unretrofied is Now a Member of the Fusion Ads Network

Starting today, this site will feature a single ad over there on the upper right, provided by the Fusion Ads network. I'm proud to be a member of this network because their ads are tasteful, unobtrusive, and feature the kinds of content I'm actually interested in. I bet you guys will like their offerings too, because they're specifically tailored to tech geeks and writers like us.

If you're an AdBlock user, I would humbly request that you add unretrofied.com to your whitelist, maybe even click an ad every now and then. If you do, thank you so much for your support :)

Special thanks to Wesley Friend for assisting me with the code placement.

AT&T Allowing Facetime Over Cellular Network

Mark Collins, SVP of Data and Voice Products at AT&T:

"As a result of ongoing testing, we’re announcing AT&T will enable FaceTime over Cellular at no extra charge for customers with any tiered data plan using a compatible iOS device.

This means iPhone 4S customers with tiered plans will be able to make FaceTime calls over the AT&T cellular network. AT&T previously made FaceTime over Cellular available to customers with a Mobile Share plan and those with an LTE device on tiered plans."

As an iPhone 4S owner, I couldn't be more excited. It's about time AT&T did a good thing when it comes to their network.

Update: As noted by reader Jay Torres, this new rule doesn't apply to people still using their grandfathered unlimited plans from the old iPhone days. Didn't catch that on my first read-through of AT&T's blog post, so thanks to Jay for pointing it out to me.

(via Jim Dalrymple)

'My Father's Eviscerated Work'

Christopher Tolkien, in his first-ever press interview, on the juxtaposition between his father's work and the Lord of the Rings films:

"Invited to meet Peter Jackson, the Tolkien family preferred not to. Why? "They eviscerated the book by making it an action movie for young people aged 15 to 25," Christopher says regretfully. "And it seems that The Hobbit will be the same kind of film."

I personally loved the films, but damn.