I read an interesting review of Ecto in my daily meanderings through the blogsphere yesterda
y. Just like the article’s author, I’m constantly on the look out for a MS Live Writer replacement for the Mac. Although my current setup works – there is something evil, dirty, shameful about firing up a whole VM running Vista JUST to use a blog editor. (Ye Gods! why is MS Live Writer so damn good?!).
Category: Reviews
Evernote is a new online service that allows you to clip and store rich text data. The data can be video clips, music, images, documents, text, web clips, whatever. What really makes this service powerful is the number of client interfaces that you can use. They have native clients for Mac, Windows, browsers, Windows Mobile, iPhone (coming soon.)
The service is in beta right now. It appears to allow you to store 100 megs worth of data for free.
I’m sure this will all change once the service gets out of beta. You can only be ‘invited’ to join the beta. However, the invitation process is to a) go to their site, b) register your email address. You’ll get an invite pretty quickly.
So far I’ve installed the Mac client and the FireFox tool. I’ve been able to access my information from my Mac, PC (via browser), my iPhone (via Safari) without any issues. The only nagging thing is that you do have to log into the service to access your information. (I can’t wait for the day that our systems will do that automatically for us. Oh well.)
In any event, I’m finding all sorts of information that I wanted to store. For instance, I have a webclip of a table that details the format of SMTP address of mobile phone numbers by provider. This is useful from my iPhone since it doesn’t have MMS capabilities (yet!) Another tidbit I’ve stored up there is directions on how to configure my Nikon D80 to work in tether mode with my MacBook. I even have a gif file of the NYC subway system. Something that comes in handy at the weirdest times.
So I’m enjoying the service for now – I’ll see if I continue to use it after the Beta period is up.
-JT
Categories
New Printer – a Color Laser
The prices on color laser printers are finally coming down in price. After some Stumbling around the other day, I encountered a review of the Brother HL-4070CDW on MacWorld’s site that was quite favorable. I’ve loved my Brother HL-2040N (no longer made) since the day I brought it home a few years ago. It was a simple black and white laser – but with the number of projects my kids have for school, this was a godsend. I figured that I had such a great experience, I’d gamble again on another Brother product.
If you are like me, you probably spend a ton of money every year on 3rd technical 
publications/reference manuals. I’ve spent many years as a software consultant and had to keep on top of the latest and greatest technologies and methodologies. I easily spent hundreds of dollars every month on books and reference manuals. Considering that each book cost $40-$60 – it’s easy to spend thousands per year. This is even with access to the Internet and Google.
The costs of the books are easily justified when you look at your account receivables or you took that next step on the corporate ladder. Some of these books are worth their weight in GOLD. Of course, they also feel that way when you are lugging them around on your daily commute, or when your wife/girlfriend/significant other complains that the bookshelves are bowing because of the number of the books and it’s time to have a garage sale. Oh yeah.. now you have to deal with who’s going to buy that Foxpro for Dummies book now?
O’Reilly’s Safari Online service to the rescue. I’ve been using this service for at least two years and it has COMPLETELY replace all my reference book purchases.
Categories
Digital Photography Books
I’m very much into digital photography lately and I’ve been spending most of my time off devouring as much as I can about the subject. However, I’m in no way can be considered the next Ansel Adams. There is so much to learn to consistently take good shots with your camera. Then there is all the post-processing that one can do to edit their pictures.
I did encounter a couple of books mentioned by one of my new favorite sites Lightroom Killer Tips.