Technology

Amazon Kindle

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After years of dragging my feet, I have finally purchased not one, but two, Amazon Kindle e-reader devices.

The first was a cheap ($15) Fire tablet from a pawn shop. I had no intention of buying anything, just a passing curiosity but then I saw it and thought, “Why not have a dedicated reader?”. I liked it. I enjoyed having a smaller tablet to read myself to sleep with every night as opposed to a large iPad or my phone. However, the weight of the tablet, the highly reflective, smudgy, glass screen and the fact that the tablet had the capability for distractions (apps) had me wondering if I should just go back to what I had using the iPhone instead.

I came across the Kindle Paperwhite edition yesterday and took another look at the possibilities. This is a minimal, reading-focused, no distraction reader that has an amazing glare-free screen that weighs less than nothing. Perfect. So I left the store and stewed on it. Not two hours later I went back and purchased.

After signing in to a new Amazon account (ugh, I despise Amazon) I realized there were constant ads on the Home Screen. Nope. After researching online, I discovered they can be removed…for a $20 fee? I chatted up an Amazon rep and they were able to waive the $20 instantly. Now it is perfect again.

I have no intention of “purchasing” digital books from Amazon ever again. I learned this way back in 2013 when I canceled my original Amazon account and discovered I could not take my books with me. Digital Rights Management (DRM) be damned.

For the past few years I have enjoyed reading books from public libraries using their Libby app on my iDevices. But now I can read in their app or send to the Kindle instead. Brilliant.

Now I need a solution to export all highlights and notes I make on the Kindle to other software platforms to use as a reference.

I hope that with the proper tools such as the Kindle, I will be able to exceed my this year’s reading goals again. 

Publishing On The Go

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My website has being going for over twenty years. In that time, technology has transformed my life and the way I write has gone through some pretty major shifts. What was first typed into a frustratingly slow WordPress installation can now be published from a variety of apps with surprising ease, and often now straight from my phone.

It’s amazing to me that I can sit in my car waiting, and type out my thoughts to instantly post online.

I love pushing the “Publish” button, and appreciate even more the ability to do so while I am mobile as opposed to sitting at my computer all the time.

Photo Archive & Curation

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2023 is the year I finally go RAID (redundant array of independent disks).

After that, a dedicated photo file server.

Then organize images with tags, keywords, geotags, faces. Easily searchable.

Convert to the Digital Negative format and use as backup

One Lightroom catalog per yearly archive as backup.

Make yearbook prints out of the top 24 images per year, two per month.

Apple Photos for cloud storage. Maybe even Flickr.

Suggested Reading

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I have a particular hatred of American politics and its ability to worm its way into everything. During the entire Trump administration, even tech blogs managed to sneak in some snark and commentary. No thanks. All media and social media were covering the poison of politics (still do) and then infiltrating everything that large-scale services suggest I should read. Now, media outlets auto-suggests posts that they think I want to read, which means I don’t read as much. It is not clear how the recommendations work, but clearly, some people are reading these posts, but that person is not me.

Taking recommendations from a broad a selection of people, or making all the suggested posts human-curated. This may work for some people, but again, not I.

In a world of algorithms and intelligent services, you would think that someone, somewhere would be able to learn what I enjoy reading and recommend more like it. I do not want to live in an echo chamber, but I want to avoid having to put in as much work as I do to find enjoyable articles. This is precisely the type of useful application new technology should have instead of manipulating people on media and social media. Can I not just find things for me of interest to read?

RSS

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Whether you are sick of social media, want to get away from endless notifications, or just want to read all your news all in one spot, an RSS reader can help. RSS stands for “really simple syndication.” It’s a protocol that allows an RSS reader to talk to your favorite websites and get updates from them. Instead of visiting 10 different sites to see what’s new, you view a single page with all new content. There are two parts to RSS: the RSS reader and the RSS feeds from your favorite websites. RSS has been around a while now, so there are a lot of very good RSS readers out there. Most of them feature built-in search and suggestions too, so you don’t have to go hunting for RSS feeds yourself. You just might discover some cool new sites to read, too.

Wired magazine

If you’re reading this, then you are most likely a someone who spends some part of your day reading. For as long as I can remember (2005?) RSS has been the backbone of my web reading experience. Reeder is my RSS client and GoodLinks is my read-it-later/bookmarks client. If you want to get started with RSS these are both great apps.

Once you discover how to consume content with RSS, I’m sure there is no going back because the user experience in RSS is so much better than consuming content on an advertisement-infested, tracker-filled website.

Want this website to be the first in your feed reader? Add me @ chrisdenbow.website/feed/

Overorganized & Underused

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Over-organizing is a great way to procrastinate.

Am I doing something useful or am I avoiding something that is intellectually more difficult?

I am not an archivist.
But I want to curate my notes and articles.

I am not making notes for legal documents.
Just for me.

For 99.99% of my notes, lists, notebooks, drafts, files… done is better than perfect.

If I can reliably find my notes and figure out later on what I meant when I wrote it, that’s all I need.

iPhoneography Tips

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There are phases I go back and forth with in my photography such as mobile-only for awhile or a professional camera. This article will discuss my continuing fascination with iPhoneography and tips on how to make it better.

iPhone Camera app interface
  1. Clean the lens on your iPhone

Our iPhones get stuffed inside pockets, purses, backpacks, etc. You’ve seen how dirty your screen can get, now go show your camera lens some love. A clean lens will give you sharper, higher-contrast images. Make it a habit to regularly clean your iPhone camera lenses.

2. Composition

Keep your compositions simple or minimal. Duh.

3. Shoot from various angles

iPhones are compact compared to a heavy DSLR or mirrorless camera. This makes it far more effective when shooting high, low or at various angles. Put your iPhone on a tripod mount and explore all those options too.

4. Get a new camera (app)

The stock iPhone camera app is brilliantly intuitive, but you can get more control with other dedicated camera apps such as Halide or Camera+. These allow you to adjust settings manually, shutter speed, ISO etc. This seems like an appropriate time to mention editing apps.

5. Post-Process Fun

There are plenty of amazing iPhone editing apps but only a few are really worth your time as a serious photographer.

Adobe Lightroom
Hipstamatic
Snapseed
VSCO
Everything else are just fad apps.

With the above apps, you can adjust image exposure, crop to improve the composition, correct image white balance, add beautiful color effects, improve sharpness, and so much more. Many of these apps also offer advanced features, such as vignetting, noise reduction, and masking. If you really want to have fun with editing images, there are specialist applications that’ll remove image backgrounds, objects, and apps that’ll stitch layers images together.

I enjoy editing images. It’s a fun way to enhance your photos, and once you’re done with the basic enhancements, you can have fun adding creative effects.

6. Shoot It Until You Get It

Digital photography has an advantage over film in that you can afford to shoot a lot. You can also make a lot of mistakes that can be forgiven quickly. Pick out your best images later. Don’t delete any photos while you are out shooting. Wait until you are done to properly review.

7. Zoom with your feet

All cameras have two types of zoom options: optical zoom and digital zoom. An optical zoom is created by the camera’s lens. A digital zoom is made by cropping an image. The iPhone deletes pixels to create a zoom effect. Digital zoom destroys the quality of your images.

Don’t sacrifice image quality, just zoom with your feet. Move closer to your subject if possible. If it isn’t possible, then shoot your image and crop later. The difference in quality is improved and you’ll be happier.

8. Hold your phone like a camera

I always shoot in landscape mode (phone is horizontal instead of vertical.) I also almost always shoot with two hands on the iPhone for control and stability.

Mojo Island (GCA06T7)

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With my friends joining me, I have claimed an island in the middle of the Arkansas river as my own and renamed it “Mojo Island.” After verifying GPS coordinates, I placed a container full of treasure and a log for those intrepid explorers who follow me. From the geocache description:

This geocache is rated as a  5/5. Not everyone may be able to attempt this cache. It will require walking down rocks, wading, or possibly swimming in river water currents (not suggested) You may have to use a canoe or kayak to access Mojo’s island. Either way, you need to understand that you assume the risk. Myself, nor Geocaching.com/Groundspeak can be held responsible for your decision to attempt to retrieve this cache. You are looking for a container on the island itself. It could have a tendency to leak, especially in high water, so if you cannot sign it then a photo of you and the container will qualify as a smiley in your log. Due to the nature of the terrain and difficulty level, photographic proof is required in addition to the signing of the log. Please send images to me directly instead of in the geocache log. Good luck and stay safe out there as there are potentially sharp rocks along the shorelines. 

– Geo Mojo, host of Mojo’s Island

I’ll be headed back to Mojo island as soon as I have found a more suitable container, more treasure to add to it and even a human skeleton that I will chain to a tree as a waypoint for future explorers to discover.

Support

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In the entire twenty years of this website’s existence, I have never monetized it. No ads, no gimmicks, nada. It has been self-sufficient this whole time. But, all of a sudden I find myself in a situation where rising costs of server hosts and email hosts may be too much at the moment.

The domain for this website (chrisdenbow.com) expires next month.

The email address services (hello@chrisdenbow.com) also expires next month.

For the couple of hundred interested followers of this site, thank you for your interest through the years. If you have the kindness and appreciation for me and or this site, please consider sending a donation to help keep this site going for another year.

Apologies in advance. I am not use to this situation and I find it difficult to type these words. If interested, please send me a message to the above email address before October 24, 2022.

Thank you.

Watch 9 Compass App with Wayfinding Integration

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The latest iOS software version has been released this week and I have some ooh, ahh and WTHs.

Apple WatchOS has a new way finding tool built in to its compass. Why the hell didn’t Apple see fit to update the same Compass app design with Wayfinding in its iPhone?

WatchOS 8
WatchOS 8
iOS 16 Compass app

I would enjoy equal use of this on both devices. Make it happen, Apple.

This Week

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It’s been about a solid week since re-using iA Writer exclusively, instead of Ulysses and I’m thrilled to be back. I’ve never stuck with iA Writer except for editing Markdown files but now I am using it exclusively to publish here.

I’m thinking I have too many cameras and one has to go. Eek!

After reading about the latest iPhone, Watch and AirPods I think I will…pass on upgrading this year. I’ve finally arrived to the point where I am content and this is a unique experience for me. That Apple Ultra Watch though…

Must. Resist. The. Temptation.

The idea of using a manual typewriter is a nice one but I almost never use it because it is very loud. Satisfying but loud. (::::::)

I have stacks of notebooks with virgin paper to fill but I’ve been too lazy. This has got to change or they go out the door.

I’ve decided I am going to do one more portrait session with the film cameras and then I’m going all-digital for awhile. Film prices are outrageous right now. Ten years from now when the film market is abandoned, I’ll dust off the 35mm cameras and be a hipster photographer.