Artifacts: Patrick Rhone

Artifacts is a series that explores the items carried by some of my favorite creative people. It's not just about the what but also the why.

Patrick Rhone has kindly taken some time to tell me about all the items he keeps in his pocket and bag. I really dig the fact that most of them writing supplies. If you'd like to learn more about the man behind the artifacts, check out this interview I conducted with him a while back.

Enter Patrick:

* * *

Here is what I carry most days. Most days I only leave with what is in my pockets. It is enough. That said, I bring the bag on the days I need to (like for a client appointment or such).

Pocket:

1. Hellbrand Leatherworks Field Notes Cover — This is my main "on the go" notebook. I also keep a nice stash of 3x5 cards in here too. Also, some postage stamps and a couple of small envelopes.

2. Uni-ball 207 Retractable Micro Point Gel Pen — My fave "don't mind if I lose it" pen. Never leave the house without paper and a pen.

3. Jim Whittle Slim Wallet — Love this thing. Can hold ten cards and a few bills folded in thirds.

4. iPhone 5 — This is my principle writing device. About 95% of my blog posts these days are written on this using the onscreen keyboard. I have fast thumbs.

Bag:

1. GORUCK GR Echo Rucksack — Just enough to hold what I need and a bit more when needed. I even have packed a change of clothes along with the gear in here for an overnight trip. Can carry my MacBook Air 11" in the laptop pocket but I rarely bring along it unless really needed. Rock solid. Built to last. GORUCK Tough like me.

2. A bunch of pens (various colors and sizes) — Can never have too many pens either.

3. Victorinox Swiss Army CyberTool 34 — Extremely handy for a technical consultant like myself.

4. MAGLITE Flashlight, Blue — Flashlights are handy to have around too.

5. Hobonichi Planner 2014 — My journal. I love it. I really, really, adore it. Use it for a daily log and journal. It is in a cover from another notebook given to me years ago by a friend.

6. Earnest Eats Energy Bars — I'm hypoglycemic so I always try to keep an energy bar or two around in case I get snacky.

7. RHA MA750i Noise-Isolating In-Ear Headphones with Mic and Remote) — Fantastic earphones that I've been meaning to review. I'm no audiophile but these make everything sound better and do a great job of blocking out the rest of the world.

8. Pelle Journal — No longer made or available. Maker seems to have just disapeared from the face of the planet. I love mine but have no idea what I'm going to do when the current refill inside is used up.

9. Midori Traveler's Notebook Journal — Passport Size — Similar idea as the Pelle but in a much smaller size. Don't use this one as much but you can never have too many notebooks (at least that's what I tell myself).

10. WaterField Designs Case — I use this for cables and small accessories. They don't make this specific case anymore but I have linked to something similar. Been using their stuff for years. Had this for about 10. Looks brand new.

11. iPad mini — First generation. Black with grey Smart Cover.

Chicago Avenue Moon

Thanks to my buddy Nate Boateng, I discovered an awesome new app called Chicago Avenue Moon. As the developer describes it:

“Chicago Avenue Moon is a responsive, generative music app that gathers a set of variables including date, time, phase of the moon, and GPS location, and uses that data to determine how its music unfolds, in real-time. The piece is intended for a listener in motion, whose route and speed affect the composition. Composer Joshua Dumas wrote 1000 brief musical phrases which the app manipulates, sequences, and layers to create trillions and trillions of variations, a unique experience with every listen.

He imagines the piece as a personalized soundtrack for strangers’ mundanities—an effort to help re-enchant a person’s daily commute, trip to the laundromat, or evening jog.”

As I just wrote about on Tools & Toys, the music this app generates is very akin to the Journey game soundtrack, which I love it for.

Chicago Avenue Moon is only $1 right now, and will go up to $2 after Feb 11th. I highly recommend checking it out. If nothing else, it will totally change the way you experience a nighttime walk.

'Designing Unread'

Speaking of Unread, Jared Sinclair wrote a post detailing his decisions behind the app's design:

“I decided that best way to make Unread a comfortable app was to let the reader directly manipulate each screen anywhere her thumb might land. This freed me to remove interface chrome and focus on the text. It’s now a trite idea for design to focus on “content,” but in Unread’s case it really was an essential goal. I wanted readers to get their minds out of the email rut that has trapped their expectations of what RSS can be.”

I think he nailed the comfort aspect. The gestures in Unread feel so natural that I'm finding myself swiping around and exploring every corner of the app just because I enjoy the sensation of flicking things on- and off-screen.

Unread for iPhone

Unread, a new RSS app developed by Jared Sinclair (who also developed the excellent Riposte for App.net), has just been unveiled to the world. I'm apparently one of the few people on Earth who didn't get into the beta, so I don't have an official review written like my friends Federico Viticci, Shawn Blanc, and Stephen Hackett do. (I'm not bitter or anything.)

Even so, I'm already enjoying my experience with Unread in the short amount of time I've had to play with it, and I look forward to testing it a lot more.

The special launch price is only $2.99, so get it while it's hot.

FiftyThree: "Facebook should stop using our brand name."

Facebook just released an app called Paper today, which turns your Facebook feed into something that resembles Flipboard. This came as an upsetting surprise to FiftyThree, the studio behind one of my favorite iPad apps, also called Paper.

“There’s a simple fix here. We think Facebook can apply the same degree of thought they put into the app into building a brand name of their own. An app about stories shouldn’t start with someone else’s story. Facebook should stop using our brand name.”

I absolutely adore FiftyThree's app, and I certainly don't have any love for Facebook these days, but they should've seen this coming. 'Paper' is too generic a title to have any reasonable expectation that other developers wouldn't use it. Facebook isn't the only other iOS developer to do this, either (examples: 1, 2).

I'm not trying to be a jerk about this, but trying to claim such a generic word as yours, and ONLY yours, seems pretty indefensible to me. That's just my opinion though—I'm not a copyright lawyer.

'The Far Future of our Solar System'

Ethan Siegel wrote a fascinating piece on Medium that uses our existing understanding of physics to extrapolate what the far (and I mean far) future of our solar system might look like:

“But neither the accelerated expansion of the Universe nor our impending great galactic smashup will, in all likelihood, affect our Solar System. (In fact, you know how many stars are likely to undergo a collision with another star due to the entire merger process between our local group’s two largest galaxies? Just six, out of around a trillion stars!) Instead, let’s focus on our little corner of space in the Solar System, and look at exactly when certain spectacular events are likely to occur!”

It's a slightly different perspective of the future than the one portrayed in one of my favorite book series, but I'll let it go this time.

Artifacts: Jamelle Bouie

Artifacts is a series that explores the items carried by some of my favorite creative people. It's not just about the what but also the why.

Jamelle Bouie is a staff writer for The Daily Beast, where he writes primarily about politics and race (with a little pop culture thrown in for good measure). Some of his work has appeared in The Nation, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, and The Magazine.

He's also a phenomenal photographer and has an excellent sense of style, which is why I wanted to invite him to talk about his artifacts.

Enter Jamelle:

* * *

1. Timbuk2 Messenger (Medium): My everyday bag. I also use a camera insert, both for—you know— a camera, and to carry other stuff. On weekends, when I don't have lunches or electronics to carry, I have a smaller shoulder bag.

2. Pentax K-5 II DSLR Camera I almost always carry this. I don't always use it—especially on days when I'm commuting by bike—but it's nice to have when I see something that catches my eye, like racist protests or creepy birds. This particular camera was a Christmas gift, and replaces my much-loved Pentax K-x. I also carry three lenses, all part of Pentax's "Limited" series of primes: A 15mm, a 40mm, and a 70mm.

3. Olloclip iPhone Lens: Or at least, the fish-eye and macro lenses. I lost the wide-angle lens while having a picnic with my partner last year. I only use the macro anyway, so it's not a big deal.

4. USB SD card reader: Because the MacBook Air doesn't have a separate slot for it, and I don't feel like bringing a USB cable along with me, everywhere.

5. Small bottle of lotion: Because I have dry skin. You know how it is—life is hard out here on those streets.

6. Field Notes and Pilot G-2 .38mm pens: For note-taking and such.

7. Sol Republic Tracks Headphones: These aren't the greatest in the world, but for my purposes—listening to bass-heavy music and podcasts—they're more than adequate.

8. iPad mini with Retina Display

9. iPhone 5s

10. 2012 11-inch MacBook Air

* * *

You can follow Jamelle in lots of places at the handle 'jbouie': Twitter, App.net, Flickr, and Instagram.

Marco Arment on Long-Form Articles

“Too many people now ask for (and produce) “long-form” when they really want substantial. It’s entirely possible to be substantial without being long, and good editors have helped writers strike that balance for centuries. Emphasizing and rewarding length over quality results in worse writing and more reader abandonment.”

Anecdotally, I actually have saved articles to Instapaper simply because they were too long to finish in the allotted time, but otherwise I agree with Marco here. I've noticed a lot of fetishizing of word-counts in recent years, as if writing more words about a topic earns the author bonus points. It doesn't.

On the contrary, I prefer when a writer gets to the point in as few words as possible. There's a subtle sort of power and beauty to that. My work may not always live up to that goal, but I do my best to keep it in my sights.

Shawn Blanc's New Podcast: The Weekly Briefly

I've been listening to Shawn Blanc's daily, members-only podcast, Shawn Today, for a little over a year now. It's one of the few podcasts that I try to listen to every episode of, because Shawn and I share similar interests and I value his thoughts on those topics.

And now, he's branching out from Shawn Today and releasing one of the episodes to the public each week, under a different podcast name: The Weekly Briefly. The first episode—"Indie Life"—was just released in the last half-hour and I encourage you to go listen.

On Squarespace's New 'Logo' Feature

Earlier today, Squarespace announced a new feature called Squarespace Logo that allows users to create simple logos with some text, a tagline, and an icon. Pretty innocuous, right? Might even help a few people add a little personal touch to their site that they might not be able to create for themselves (or can't afford to have made by a professional).

But to a bunch of designers out there, this was a personal affront, a direct attack on their livelihoods. Do a simple Twitter search for 'squarespace logo' and you'll see this sort of thing:

I could keep going, but you get the idea.

The problem I see here is that these designers think that Squarespace is now in direct competition with them for their client base. On the contrary, I highly doubt this tool will affect the livelihood of any designer worth their salt.

If a person or company decides to make a logo with this tool and is happy with the result, then you can bet they were never going to hire you anyway. Maybe they're not interested in Building a Brand™, or maybe they just don't have the means to pay for a professional logo. Whatever the reason, the fact that they have tools to make this process easier for themselves is a good thing. Only a completely selfish person would think otherwise.

It's also pretty silly to say that these sorts of tools "devalue a profession". Professional photographers have been moaning for years about the rise of portable cameras and layman editing tools, but there's still a vibrant and necessary market for pro photographers. In the same vein, the advent of home video-editing tools hasn't done away with movie studios.

Maybe photographers and videographers and designers (and even writers!) will be made obsolete someday. Maybe. But I think that day is very far off in the future, and a designer scared of a tool that produces nothing more than a basic shape with some text is perhaps a designer not worth hiring to begin with.

So no, I don't think there's any cause for concern. Squarespace didn't kill the web designer market, and Squarespace Logo is not going to kill the field of icon design.

'Sad YouTube: The Lost Treasures Of The Internet’s Greatest Cesspool'

Mark Slutsky has been archiving YouTube comments, but not the ones you might think:

“...I discovered that, secretly, the YouTube comment box had become the strangest and most wonderful place on the internet. A place that was fascinating, endlessly moving, and heartbreakingly human.”

I almost decided against linking to this article because, well, BuzzFeed—but it's so good I couldn't help myself. Do yourself a favor and check it out.

Harry Marks on the Editing Process

“Adverbs are almost always unnecessary. I don’t eliminate them with wild abandon the way some writers do, but after the second or third reading I start to see where they present a problem. The context of the sentence should dictate how the line is supposed to sound to the reader. The adverb is a lazy way of screaming, “This is how the character feels right now.””

Lots of great advice in this article. All writers—authors and bloggers alike—should have a rigorous editing process, no matter their experience level.

I particularly agree with the point about reading your work in a variety of mediums while editing. I can't exactly figure out why, but no matter how many times I've read over a draft in Editorial, I almost always catch something that needs fixing as soon as I've published it to the web.

Artifacts: Ben Brooks

Artifacts is a series that explores the items carried by some of my favorite creative people. It's not just about the what but also the why.

Ben Brooks is a commercial property manager and writer living in Lakewood, WA. You probably know him best from his site, The Brooks Review, where he's not afraid to share his opinions on technology, politics, and a host of other things. He's also someone who appreciates nice things, which made him the perfect first guest for my Artifacts series.

Here are Ben's artifacts, as told by himself:

* * *

1. Retina MacBook Pro 15": This is the first retina Mac – with the low end processor – but maxed out RAM. I bought it to last me for at least three years, I think it will make it just fine. Love this machine.

2. Travel Kleenex: There's only like a two-month span of the year where my nose isn't runny. These little packs of tissues are crucial. I only buy Kleenex brand because every other brand I've tried isn't up to the task.

3. Chris Reeves Small Sebenza 21: I spent over a year looking for the perfect pocket knife and found it in the small Sebenza. Fantastic knife, but fantastically expensive. I don't leave home without it (unless I am boarding a plane).

4. Fenix E11 Flashlight: About 100 lumens from this tiny little light and powered by an easily attainable battery. It's simple, waterproof, and great to keep in your kit.

5. Apple EarPods: I rarely listen to music while out and about, but I often watch videos from Devour and I can't stand having them play aloud.

6. Apple Screen Cleaning Cloth: I think I got this with a Cinema Display, or maybe an iPad. I love this, best cleaning cloth I have found. I can't believe there are people in this world that go somewhere without a cleaning cloth.

7. Hard Graft Box Card Case: I just got this from my wife for my birthday present and I love it. It looks great and holds my business cards securely. Most importantly it holds a lot of cards — I was tired of being the “sorry I just gave out my last card” guy.

8. Patriot 32gb USB 3.0 Flash Drive: My hard drive is only 256gb so when I need to offload some stuff quickly, this is where I turn. It's fast, and large. I keep wishing for a Thunderbolt flash drive, but I probably couldn't afford it.

9. Olympus OM-D E-M5 with 12mm f/2: I used to be a guy that carried around a dSLR with him everywhere. Then the iPhone camera got pretty good and the cost of carrying the huge dSLR around started to make less sense. And then I bought the Panasonic GX1 and fell in love with the micro-4/3 format. I just got the E-M5 a little while ago (and the 12mm even littler ago) but I love this camera. There’s something about shooting with the E-M5 that just evokes a response in me that I’ve only ever felt when shooting with my 5D. Something about the camera just speaks to me and says: this image is going to be great. (I wish they all were great…)

10. Bamboo Stylus: I'm not a big stylus guy, but I loved the Cosmonaut — unfortunately it really is too cumbersome for me. This is a good little stylus that I mostly have for drawing diagrams when in meetings or for others to sign stuff on my iPad. I don't like carrying it, but I need it too frequently to not carry it.

11. Montblanc Rollerball: I've had this pen since 9th grade. It's been with me through a lot of things in my life and signed almost every important document in my life. I love it, and even though I rarely use it, I wouldn't feel right not having it around. It writes like a dream.

12. Blistex: Because we all hate chapped lips, or worse, cracked lips.

13. Glif Tripod Mount: I've always carried one, but I just got the newest model. I can't say I like it better as it is much larger, but I'll stick with it a while longer. (Eventually I won't have a choice I suppose.) I keep a GorillaPod in my car to use with it.

14. Monoprice battery pack: There's a reason it looks worn — I take it everywhere. It doesn't work wonders on your iPad, but for an iPhone it kicks ass. It's pretty light and fits in my back pocket if needed. The Lightning cable I carry is long enough to reach from my back pocket to the front so I keep the battery pack in my back pocket while I charge my iPhone in the front pocket. It looks ridiculous, I am sure, but works like a charm.

15. Cables: I have this handy little Incase kit and I keep a longer Lightning cable with it. I find the cables in it too short for iPhone charging if you want even an outside chance of using the phone while you charge it.

16. iPhone 5s: Constant companion that I almost forgot to include because it never leaves my pocket or my hand. (Unless I am sleeping that is, or showering I suppose.)

17. iPad Air: This is the best iPad to-date and one of my favorite things I carry with me. I'll use just about any excuse to use the iPad over other things. Reading. Writing. Photo editing. You name it.

* * *

You can find Ben as @benbrooks on App.net.

'Snow Drawings Transform Frozen Lakes'

“Many of the patterns can only be seen in their entirety from the air, last only for a few days at the most, and can require up to 60 volunteers to complete. Hinrichsen encourages volunteers with hot coffee and camaraderie, the only requirement being a pair of snowshoes. After the walking is done she tours the site with a pilot, shooting photographs of the snow drawings. ”

Incredible.

Dan Benjamin's New-and-Improved Podcasting Equipment Guide

Like the previous version, this podcasting equipment guide is very thorough and addresses which rigs to shoot for based on the type of podcast you intend to run. There's also a place to sign up to be notified about Dan's upcoming book, which will go into even more detail about setting up a podcast and even making a business out of it.

Day One Introduces 'Publish' Feature

One of my favorite apps just unveiled an upcoming feature that will allow you to publish any of your journal entries to a unique, responsive webpage. This is so cool.

Although I probably wouldn't publish any of my entries in their current state—mainly because I don't edit them very vigorously—some of them do contain the nuggets of ideas that end up on Unretrofied. I can imagine that other people who put more effort into their entries are going to publish some excellent stuff.

I'm excited to see where this feature goes. If you'd like to sign up to be notified of its release, head over here.

'The Road to Geekdom'

John Siracusa nails it:

“Geekdom is not defined by historical entry points or even shared experiences. A geek must possess just two things: knowledge and enthusiasm.”

MacStories' Guide to Automating iOS with URL Schemes and Drafts Actions

MacStories invited Alex Guyot to write a gigantic guide to understanding iOS automation:

“This article will attempt to centralize all of the necessary information for a complete beginner to quickly and easily go from little to no prior knowledge of the subject to being able to understand and build their own complex workflows with Drafts and URL actions. I will only be focusing on Drafts here, but the skills learned throughout this guide should be easily transferable to other apps.”

It doesn't get much more nerdy (or awesome) than this, folks. Keep it bookmarked and study up.

Making the Wooden Muddler for the Neat Ice Kit

The guys at Studio Neat put up a video showing the step-by-step manufacturing process of the wooden muddler that comes with the Neat Ice Kit (an item I wrote about on Tools & Toys a while back). I love getting glimpses of how awesome things are made.

'How to Knock Off a Bag'

Dave Munson, CEO of Saddleback Leather, made a funny, 12-minute-long video showing the best and cheapest methods competitors should use if they want to copycat his products. This might just be the cleverest form of advertisement I've ever seen.