Rob Kitson

Giving Evernote a Go

2008-04-09T01:27:14-07:00:00

I've been looking for a good ubiquitous note taking application ever since I read that Microsoft OneNote had a mobile client that would sync with the desktop app whenever you did a local ActiveSync between your Windows Mobile SmartPhone and your PC. After taking the time to install OneNote on my laptop and phone, I found out that when they said 'Sync' what they really meant was that any notes that you type into OneNote on your phone will be copied into a special section in OneNote on your desktop, and from there you can sort them into their appropriate categories. All in all it felt clunky, so I never used it.

I took a step back and asked myself why I was disappointed and what features would make me happy. I realized that the feature I've been looking for more than anything is the ability to access my notes from just about anywhere: My new work machine, my rapidly aging Dell Precision M90 development box at home, the family Mac Mini, one of the many laptops that the wife-to-be's newly formed company are using, or my new AT&T Tilt. So, when I came across a post about Evernote on TechCrunch a few weeks ago, I decided to give it a go.

The fat client has now been installed on all the machines where I spend more than a couple'a minutes per day. I'm going to be shelving the Moleskine notebook for a few weeks to roll exclusively with Evernote to see how it works out. I'll post a follow up at the end of the month, but in the mean time I may have a comment about it on Twitter.

The new workstation at the day-job.

2008-04-09T01:29:17-07:00:00

It just showed up on Monday and it screams!

64-bit Quad Core
4 GB RAM
3 15k drives

Wow!

Only problem is that we had to buy it through HP. Putting together a similar box with parts from NewEgg would cost close to 1/3 what we paid... Ouch!

Why's Why's Guide to Ruby so silly?

2008-03-28T14:11:34-07:00:00

I'm getting excited about the prospect of Silverlight, the DLR, and using Ruby with .Net. So, I've decided to start getting familiar with Ruby, and found a book online that promised to do just that, Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby.

So far it's an easy enough read. I haven't wept yet, as promised in the intro, but it's early still.

In the 'Parts of Speech' chapter Why is going through the elements of the language, describing how they look and work. I can appreciate how Why tries to demonstrate how fluid the language is by encouraging the reader to say some of the statements out loud, it worked nicely.

Although "You've got to be kidding me." is the only thing I've actually said out loud. I just got to the section on Block Arguments and had to read this passage a couple times before I was convinced that I wasn't seeing things: (emphasis mine)

Block arguments are used at the beginning of a block.

{ |x,y| x + y }

In the above example, |x,y| are the arguments. After the arguments, we have a bit of code. The expression x + y adds the two arguments together.

I like to think of the pipe characters as representing a tunnel. They give the appearance of a chute that the variables are sliding down. (An x goes down spread eagle, while the y neatly crosses her legs.) This chute acts as a passageway between blocks and the world around them.

I mean, is that really necessary?

But seriously, I thought it was strange that he starts the chapter talking about the parts of speech and how the language 'reads' and moves directly into describing how it 'looks'. I especially thought the description of curly braces ( '{' & '}' ) when they enclose a Block as giving "the appearance of crab pincers that have snatched the code and are holding it together" as silly, and a bit childish. Although, now that I've made a fuss about it, I'll definitely remember it.

Music tax?

2008-03-28T18:21:14-07:00:00

So there's been a bunch of noise this morning about the Warner's proposed music tax.

The RIAA is shaking down ISPs, and I have a feeling that ISPs aren't going to put up a fight. Essentially, the RIAA is proposing that ISPs pay a fee for every subscriber they have, and in return they promise not to sue. Kinda sounds like extortion to me. And the rub? ISPs will just pass the fee along to us, even if you don't partake in the activity of downloading music, legally or otherwise. To paraphrase a quote I saw somewhere earlier "It's like charging a cigarette tax to non-smokers."

I also agree with Michael Arrington's observation about the artificial inflation of the industry (from $10 Billion to $20 Billion) and how it will effectively stall innovation. What would motivate the record labels to find new artists and foster their creativity if they know that twice as much money is coming in, when they haven't done anything to earn it, and when they know it will keep coming in whether their next release goes platinum or is a steaming pile.