Long reads and Instapaper

One of my trusted internet services is Instapaper, a simple tool to save web pages for reading later. In today's CNN and Facebook-inspired short attention span world, it sure is nice to take the time and read long form journalism.

There are several ways that I discover interesting stories to read:

  • Via RSS, entries in my news reader that are longer-form reads (yes, that means you Doug) or point to other long form articles.
  • I don't do Twitter anymore, but I subscribe (via RSS) to the Longreads Twitter stream

When I encounter an article (on my desktop, iPhone, or iPad) I simply click the bookmarklet installed by Instapaper and the article is added to my unread list in Instapaper. When I launch the iPad or iPhone Instapaper app it syncs everything up and I'm ready to go for offline reading. If you have a Kindle or other eBook device you can probably have Instapaper just email the articles to your device.

Here are the 20 most recent articles I pulled into Instapaper:

  1. A Boy Named Dug: Fighting Formations Replay - Scenario 7
  2. Pentecostal Services at Trinity Episcopal-FTW!
  3. As if You Don't Have Enough to Read - NYTimes.com
  4. Long Exposure Photography Technique Explained
  5. DAILY REVIEW: Little Churches Everywhere: California's Evangelical Conservatism
  6. Fantasy Flight Games [News] - Martell's Joust Triumph
  7. 15 Minutes of Prayer at City Bible Church
  8. In which we take a break from reality at the Alice Street Spiritualist Church
  9. Life After Zionist Summer Camp | The Awl
  10. Martha! The Herd Needs a'Thinnin'!
  11. HealthWatch: Sitting Vs. Smoking « CBS San Francisco
  12. iOS 5: What you need to know | Mobile | Macworld
  13. 1987 NFL replacement players - a generation of fans doesn't know about them, but to the players, it doesn't matter. They're part of history. - ESPN
  14. The Anosognosic's Dilemma: Something's Wrong but You'll Never Know What It Is (Part 1) - NYTimes.com
  15. The Last Father-Daughter Road Trip - NYTimes.com
  16. Put This On • Q and Answer: What Color Shoes Should I Wear With...
  17. Court: Passwords + Secret Questions = 'Reasonable' eBanking Security -- Krebs on Security
  18. iCloud's real purpose: kill Windows « I, Cringely
  19. Put This On • The Necktie Series, Part VIII: Taking Care of Your...
  20. 12 steps for surviving a privacy breach investigation | Healthcare IT News

Notes and Text Files with DropBox

A while back I wrote about my current Mac OS X ecosystem. Part of this ecosystem has evolved quite a bit - I'm no longer using Notational Velocity or SimpleNote. The main reason is that DropBox is the begin and the end of my synchronization needs - SimpleNote adds an unnecessary level of complexity to my world and at times would step on DropBox's toes and cause problems.

DropBox support has become ubiquitous on iPad applications. The DropBox app itself is more than adequate for viewing text files, but I prefer to use the fantastic Nebulous Notes as it excels for both viewing and writing text files.

DropBox for Text Files

Nebbulous by default will attach itself to a particular DropBox folder which matches perfectly how I manage all my plaintext notes on my desktop with TextMate. I can create and edit content on any of my devices and everything will stay in synch easily through DropBox.

There are several decent text editors available on the iPad with decent DropBox support - I've tried many of them. I prefer Nebulous because of the text macro bar support which makes it dead simple for me to compose in MultiMarkdown. The iPhone app is just as good.

Finally, on the Mac desktop I've become proficient enough with TextMate to obviate the need for a tool like Notational Velocity. If you don't have TextMate then certainly considering using this tool (but use the nvAlt fork, not the original).

How Google Voice Saved me from AT&T

I first obtained a Google Voice number back on December 18, 2007 - back then it was still GrandCentral Communications but had been acquired by Google earlier in the year. I did it partly for the novelty and partly because I could get email notifications with attached voicemails.

The utility of this number has only grown over time. My house is in an AT&T dead zone and for various reasons (work-related) I've been chained to AT&T on my BlackBerry and then iPhone for 10 years. I can get a bar or two of reception if I go upstairs to the bonus room by the window. No chance that I can take or make calls from my home office. Google Voice solves this issue for me - more on that below.

Here are some ways that I use Google Voice:

  • Voice Memos - I have a special Google Voice rule I setup to short-circuit my usual voicemail greeting so that I can quickly record a memo for myself. It then shows up in my email inbox, perfect for later GTD processing.
  • Compensate for AT&T - I have Google Voice setup to ring my desk phone at the office during normal business hours, and my home phone number at night. For conference calls that I take in my home office I increasingly use the integrated voice chat integrated with Gmail. When I call numbers from voice chat it shows my Google Voice number on caller ID.
  • Do Not Disturb - I can easily send all calls immediately to voicemail, handy when I don't want to be disturbed for a while.
  • Saves me from having another phone line at home - Another benefit of Google Voice plus the integrated voice chat (I could use Skype in the same way) is that I don't tie up our landline at home when I need to make business calls.
  • SMS texting from the desktop - SMS is how I often communicate with Jacob and Matthew, and having these text messages flow to email make it easy to reply quickly. Especially when I'm at home and the texts won't even arrive at my iPhone.