February 2012
4 posts
7 tags
Reasons Why I Hate Email
Email is a daily fact of life for most people. Whether it’s just getting the updates from web stores about special deals or swapping files for work, email plays a big part of our lives. And I’ve begun to hate it on the Mac.
This seems like an odd statement and especially as its aimed at just OS X and Apple. Don’t get me wrong, I use email a lot. It’s de facto communication method at work...
3 tags
5 Km is my Bitch
Finally broke the 5 Km out running. Just felt like carrying on running at the end of the first loop so ended up doing the next loop. A more mid foot strike means my calves aren’t hurting like that which stopped me getting past 20 minutes of running before.
4 tags
5 Mac Apps I Can't Live Without
So for the second part of my 5 items I can’t live without, I’m focussing on Mac applications. I use a Mac at home and at work (I’m lucky – basically I bought my work laptop myself!) so I’ve a fair few apps that I’ve tried for various tasks, both at home and work. However, the best tools will be the ones that are used in both locations.
Alfred
Alfred is one of the...
3 tags
Garmin Run
First run with my Garmin strap for my Garmin 500. Uses the Garmin mounting kit for the Forerunner 201 and 301 (but actually fits the Gamrin 500 as well). Note that with the 500, the device runs down your arm, not perpendicular like a watch. Nothing major but something to consider.
January 2012
5 posts
5 tags
Blown Away by OS X Again
So the Mac has managed to blow me away again today, almost as much as when I first started using it, about this time last year. How you might ask?
Well I found out today that you can create custom keyboard shortcuts.
As a self confessed keyboard lover (I love shortcuts and desktop launchers, like Alfred ), I really missed some of the keyboard shortcuts in Mail that others such as Sparrow and...
3 tags
Garmin Going a Bit Mental...
Seems my Garmin is going a bit mental – those altitudes are very much out and that heart rate, whilst it looks reasonable, I’m not sure I hit 242 bpm!!
Time to sort out my bike and get back on that!
7 tags
iTunes Match
So I took the plunge this week and purchased iTunes Match. After using it for a bit, I thought I’d make a quick post about it.
Background
iTunes Match is a cloud based music system built into iTunes and iOS devices that allow you to upload your music to iTunes servers and lets you download it to up to 10 iOS and OS X devices. It’s primarily a music storage service, rather than a streaming...
6 tags
LaTeX to RTF
So for a while, I’ve been using LaTeX to write up my work but every now and then someone wants a copy of my work in Word so they can edit it or mark it up and they cant use a PDF editor. This means converting my PDF into a Word document or my LaTeX file into a RTF document.
The PDF route was probably the easiest as everything was nicely laid out already and set out as it should be and...
5 tags
DuckDuckGo Stickers
So I blogged about Duck Duck Go earlier last year. See it here. I’m still using it as it’s a great search engine and I want others to know about it – it doesn’t have to be all about Google! So far I’ve only posted online but it’ll be easier to get more people interested now as they’ve just announced a Stickermule store here . My favourites probably have to be the Tesla and...
December 2011
9 posts
3 tags
Ifttt
Sometimes a web service comes along with a fantastic idea of how things can be improved on the internet. One of those services is Ifttt .
Currently a beta service, Ifttt allows you to create “flows” from web services to other web services. Essentially, you create a trigger action and then Ifttt does something with that action.
For example, this is one I’ve setup to test/use/
Any new...
4 tags
Texpad - Revisited
I’ve reviewed Texpad once before here. I said it was a good, native, Mac LaTeX editor that had a lot going for it.
Well the version I reviewed was v1.0 and now it’s on v1.26 so I thought it was about time to review it again to see how it’s improved.
Improvements
The biggest one that the developers pushed was the code completion feature. This means it’ll complete any code that...
2 tags
Year of Change
Ok so its the end of the year and so its probably time for a quick yearly round up. This year has been a year of change for me. Quite a successful one as well to be fair and some of the changes have been quite drastic and range over a multitude of different areas of my life.
Technology
First and foremost change has been my total embrace of Apple and the Mac. This time last year I hated Apple...
6 tags
Transferring Preview Signatures →
An excellent guide on how to move the encrypted signatures from one Mac to another. Just came in useful. Thanks to the author!
5 tags
Post Airsoft Run
Slowly increasing the distance again. Slight ache of the feet after this one but that could well be the full day of airsoft yesterday as well.
5 tags
LAN 31 Ride
Well about time I got back on the bike for a ride and since my feet are still aching from running (I tried another yesterday as feet felt fine in the evening the day before but I got about 3 minutes in and stopped). Anyhow, nice day for a ride, bit chilly and moist but the new fenders/mud guards I have protected me extremely well so didn’t get wet at all really which is a bonus. Downside, my...
Valletta Ventures: Valletta Ventures : our story... →
vallettaventures:
More than one sanctimonious acquantaince has tried to jolly me through a tough moment in life with the quote that “when life gives you lemons, make lemonade”. It never helps. When Jawad and I first sat down to start Valletta Ventures, a variant aphorism we did believe in was that “if life gives…
Well if anyone deserves to, it’s these guys. Texpad is awesome and...
Top 19 things to see in Leicester
heythereladyface:
and Belgrave Road is the main attraction?! It’s just a road with big houses on!
Is Leicester really that boring?!
Yes, though could be worse, could be Loughborough!
3 tags
To much to soon?
Been following the Inov8 guide to getting started with minimal shoes and last weekend I skipped a week out and went from 8 minute runs to 15 (due to an error in my route planning!). Anyhow, that passed fine and my run on Tuesday was fine at 15, so I thought I’d stick with the 15 minute run.
Seems like a mistake, I now have a pain across the left foot when walking. It’s fine with no...
November 2011
20 posts
10 tags
5 Online Services I Cant Live Without
Those that are members of UKAPU will know that one of newsletters monthly articles is a 5 Items You Cant Airsoft Without. I thought I’d add a similar feature to my site.
I toyed with what software but decided to make the first one an article on online services I cant live without. So without further ado, I give you my list of services in no particular order. You might be able to argue that...
Longest Run to Date
Thursdays Run
Valletta Ventures: The Chrome OS dreamland →
vallettaventures:
The reaction to my previous blog post about porting LaTeX to the iPad surprised me; I expected all manner of criticism, but what I didn’t expect was the chorus of “Why port LaTeX to the pad at all, why not just run it as a web service?”. My internal response was “because it is slow and unavailable…
3 tags
Self Control
I think everyone get’s it at some point – you need to concentrate on something important but you cant stop checking Facebook, Twitter or another website. There’s where the excellent Self Control app comes in.
Simple and Easy to Use
The principle between Self Control is easy – it blocks access to time wasting websites. It works by blocking access to websites in any browser you have installed....
4 tags
Early Morning Run
2 tags
Set iPhone to Sleep After a Specific TIme →
Didn’t realise the iPhone had this. Not really an issue as I tend to play an album on my Classic and then it shuts down but nice to know for the future should I have to move to an iPod Touch.
3 tags
Second Run
Looks like the Garmin’s aren’t fantastic on short distances…
3 tags
“To do a print screen while running Windows in Boot Camp and using a Mac...”
– Talk 19 to the Dozen
1 tag
4 tags
First Run
So I managed my first run today. As per the Inov-8 guide and all the barefoot running guides, I started with a short run. Inov-8’s guide for beginners is a 2 x 5 minute run in the first week. (Inov-8’s guide can be found here )
3 tags
Disregard Computer Games, Acquire Fitness!
Saturdays ride. GPS stopped recording just as I left Bradgate Park (Must have pressed lap/stop by accident as getting the bike through the gate), hence the straight line there. Only noticed it a few Km down the road when the GPS wanted to turn off.
4 tags
Music
Ok so I did this 6 months ago, and I thought I’d do it again. For fun. And to see how much more music I’ve got…I know I’ve spent a fair amount on it! That and I fancy testing out the name theme with lists and bits.
Original Post
Total Songs: – 7238
Hours/Days of Music: 21.2 Days
First Song: Estelle – A Man Called Adam
Last Song: Fall Apart – 1208
Shortest Song: Red...
2 tags
Code Test Post
Here’s a test of the new code CSS code I inserted into my theme.
code {
text-decoration: none;
border-left: 3px solid #989696;
margin-left: 20px;
padding-left: 15px;
font-family: monospace;
}
If this works, the above CSS should appear as a code block in Tumblr (incidentally, the above is the code I used to get the code block so this may or may not work)
3 tags
A Customers View on the Mac App Store
So the Mac App Store has been about for a while now and I’ve seen plenty of talk on what it means for the developers and Apple. We’ve seen arguments on the cost of using it (Apple taking 30%) and on it requiring sandboxing and what this means for the consumer.
However, I’ve not seen any posts on how we feel, the consumer, using the store.
Why the App Store?
I’ll...
Earth need to upgrade it's PR →
6 tags
Texpad - A Mac LaTeX Editor
I’ve written before on part of my thesis writing workflow here. I was testing out Mou, Pandoc and LaTeX and whilst it’s good for getting ideas down into cyberspace, it begins to fall down when you start introducing more complex LaTeX code into the documents. For example in my thesis, I’m using acronyms so I’m using the acronyms package and I also need to reference scientific...
3 tags
Duck Duck Go(oose)
So I’ve been using Google for years with my loyalty to other search engines being fairly poor – just like the search engines themselves. The only one I stuck with for a length of time was the distributed search engine, Majestic 12 , mainly because I was part of the search team for a while.
However, recently I was introduced to Duck Duck Go by reddit .
I’ve been using it for a...
You might be a cyclist if... →
7 tags
I swapped my MacBook for an iPad+Linode →
Excellent article on working in the cloud using a VPS and an iPad.
October 2011
11 posts
5 tags
Sparrow and iCloud
Ok, so Sparrow has been released on the App Store today and features iCloud support.
Having now tried it, I can safely say it sucks. Don’t get me wrong, Sparrow is a fantastic email client. It very quickly replaced Mail for me as it was nice and simple, uncluttered and allowed me to send email quickly and it worked great with my Gmail, Gmail App account and my Work Exchange Server (accessed via...
the understatement: Android Orphans: Visualizing a... →
understatementblog:
The announcement that Nexus One users won’t be getting upgraded to Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich led some to justifiably question Google’s support of their devices. I look at it a little differently: Nexus One owners are lucky. I’ve been researching the history of OS updates on Android phones…
2011 Riding To Date
So a brief round up of 2011 before the cold weather really sets in and slows down the riding. Close to the 1000Km mark – I’ll aim to break that before the end of the year, shouldn’t be to hard, weather permitting!! Potentially able to knock it out in one long ride.
However, something to work on next year is that average speed. I’m not sure if the image from Garmin covers my walks...
Mid LAN Ride
Bullets for Zombies! →
Wow, this is pretty awesome! Glow in the dark tipped ammo for shooting the undead!
3 tags
5 tags
Alfredapp Extension
It always annoyed me that Chrome wouldn’t open by default in Incognito mode. Sometimes you just want to be able to open it Incognito for whatever reason you might have…
Anyhow, I lived with opening it manually until I found out about Alfred . This excellent tool lets you open any app from the command line and recent releases has allowed the ability to be extended with user made extensions....
6 tags
Markdown, Pandoc, Mou and LaTeX
For those that haven’t guessed already, Markdown is my new thing. It’s a fantastic little language that allows you to quickly write HTML and XHTML without knowing HTML!
Writing with it is quite natural (for those fans of Reddit, it’s the code method used to write replys) as it’s fairly simple.
# Item
gives a headline.
**item**
gives bold text etc etc.
After using it for a bit in...
8 tags
Spideroak Vs Dropbox
Intro
Ok, so I’ve been a fan of online backup now for probably over a year or so. I never used to like the idea of my data being stored off-site but then after reading various backup methodologies, I realised I needed an offsite backup solution to be truly safe from data loss.
So I tried the various different options at the time and basically played around with two options, Spideroak and...
1 tag
Tumblr
As much as I like Tumblr, why cant it centre images nicely?
I have to use the deprecated
<center>….</center>
tags.
Why?!
September 2011
3 posts
And it appears...
…that Tumblr doesn’t like center tags for layout. That sucks!