It was one year ago this past Thursday when my iPad 2 arrived in the mail. So I thought it would be a good time as any to review my experiences with the tablet over the last year. To sum up the experience, however, the iPad was well worth the cost. Indeed, with the various apps I use, I have probably saved several times the cost of the device in labor-savings, efficiencies, and other cost-saving uses.

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”500” caption=”Me, this morning, celebrating the countless ways I’ve found to use my iPad in the last year.”][/caption]

The things I use most frequently

In the year that I’ve had to play and experiment, I’ve put together a “home” screen for my iPad that reflects my daily use and behavior.

Starting on the bottom are the apps I use most frequently. They are there because they’ll appear on any page I happen to be on. I think that my home screen reflects three activities that I do a lot of on my iPad:

1. Reading (Kindle, Zinio, iBooks, Reeder)
2. Writing and capturing information (Evernote, Paper, Penultimate, OmniOutliner)
3. Social Networking (Gmail, Twitter, Facebook)

There are also a few apps here that I use to relax: SiriusXM satellite radio, Music, and HBO GO.

Reading on the iPad

With the exception of the issues of Astounding Science Fiction that I read for my Vacation in the Golden Age, virtually everything I read these days is on the iPad. Indeed, I can count on one hand the number of individual books or magazines that I did not read on my iPad since it arrived. Now, if I didn’t read very much, this may not sound like an impressive claim. But regular readers of this blog know that I read quite a bit, books and short fiction, as well as various magazines.

Using the Kindle App for my iPad, in addition to reading most of the books I buy, I also read Analog, Asimov’s, F&SF, Clarkesworld, and InterGalactic Medicine Show. In addition, I read Locus using the Kindle App. I’ve also recently started reading Scientific American in the Kindle App, importing the monthly PDF files of each issue. Using the iBooks App, I read Lightspeed. In the last year, I’ve put quite a bit of mileage into the Kindle App.

Using the Zinio App for my iPad, I also read New Scientist, Discover, and Rolling Stone. Zinio has been a great app, second probably only to the Kindle App for my iPad reading. I love that I can take all my issues of all my magazines everywhere with me.

I use the Reeder App for all of my RSS feeds. This wonderful app can capture everything I filter through Google Reader and it’s simple and elegant interface makes it easy to keep up with the various blogs and sites that I read (more than a hundred at this point).

Writing on the iPad

When I first got my iPad, I had to experiment with different ways of writing fiction that would allow me to integrate with Scrivener, which is my primary writing tool on my Mac laptop. At first, I used SimpleNote to sync with Scriverner. Eventually, I found a better solution, using Scrivener, Dropbox, and Elements. This last solution has worked well for me since I discovered it.

In writing on my iPad, I don’t use the touch screen, which would be far too slow for me. I use the exact same keyboard—the same physical keyboard—that I use when I am writing at my desk at home. I have a standard Mac wireless BlueTooth keyboard that I sync with my MacBook. When I am going to be away from the house and I know I’ll be writing, I take that same keyboard with me. Sure, it means carrying a keyboard in my backpack, but the combined weight of the iPad and the keyboard still don’t add up to that of a small laptop, to say nothing of the menagerie of cables I’d have to take with me. Plus—and this has been really important—because I’m using the same keyboard, writing feels the same as it does at home, it’s just a smaller screen.

Note-taking and the paperless lifestyle

Getting the iPad finally made my goal of wanting to be paperless a realistic one. Evernote proved to be the perfect tool and service for me to capture anything I wanted without the need for paper. And the iPad provided the platform that made it easy to capture stuff no matter where I was. Even when I don’t have the iPad with me, I certainly have my iPhone and can send notes to Evernote, which in turn will appear on my iPad the next time I open Evernote there.

More than just Evernote, there have been several other apps that have made paper virtually obsolete, even when capturing sketches and handwritten notes.

For sketches, I tend to use Paper. It is a simple and elegant interface that allows me to make drawings of any kind. It is intuitive and works just how you think it will. And I can email my drawings to Evernote so it makes integration easy.

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”500” caption=”A sketch I made for the Little Man using Paper”][/caption]

For more technical notes and sketches I use Penultimate which provides a few features that Paper doesn’t (like graph paper backgrounds and direct input into Evernote) and lacks a few features that Paper has. But the two together allow me to capture any kind of free-form notes I want.

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”400” caption=”Notes I took using Penultimate”][/caption]

Of course, both of these apps are easier to use with a stylus, and the one that I obtained was a Bamboo stylus and it has served me perfectly.

I don’t think I’d have been able to go paperless without my iPad.

Traveling with the iPad

I have not taken a laptop with my on any trip I’ve taken since getting my iPad. I’ve traveled to Boston and Newport, Rhode Island and southwestern Florida and have taken only my iPad. It’s been worth it simply because I don’t have to take a laptop out of my bag at airport security. But I also haven’t found anything I can do on my iPad that I can’t do on my laptop. Well, perhaps there are some things, but none of them are things I do with any frequency.

Traveling with the iPad really cuts down on what used to go into my backpack. No laptop. No laptop cables. No extra batteries. No adapters. Also, I don’t have to lug around books or magazines because they are already contained on my iPad. All I take is my iPad, my keyboard, a charger, and some headphones. It has been wonderful.

Entertainment on the iPad

I don’t get much time to play around on the iPad for fun. I’m either reading or writing or doing something with some stated purpose (researching for an interview or story, writing a blog post, etc.) But sometimes, I just need a break and I can turn to my iPad for that as well.

We have Sirius XM satellite radio in our Kia Sorento. When I reupped the free subscription, I added the Internet option so I can listen to 80s on 8 or 70s on 7 wherever I happen to be using the Sirius XM app for the iPad.

I don’t watch much broadcast or cable TV anymore, but every once in a while, I feel like watching a movie or keeping up with the latest episode of Game of Thrones. I can fire up the HBO GO app on my iPad and watch any of hundreds of movies or series episodes. I can be really convenient for when you just want to give your brain a break for an hour or two.

The one thing I don’t have on my iPad are games. I’m not opposed to game and they can be really fun. But I know what a time sync they can be and if there were games on my iPad, I might be in danger of not getting my reading or writing done.

Durability after one year

I’ve been impressed with how tough my iPad is. I don’t have a case that I put it into. I have one of those magnetic screen covers that shuts it off and on automatically, but other than that, it’s just the device. I’d say that my iPad has fallen from table-height, face down onto the floor at least three times since I’ve had it and it seems no worse for the wear.

Then, too, the battery life on the device seems as good as it ever was. Only one time in an entire year did I reach the 20% battery mark. Other than that one time, I’ve never even come close to that, despite fairly constant use of the device. (Granted, I’m pretty good about remembering to charge it overnight when I am not using it.)

Conclusions

From a sheer usage perspective, I’ve probably gotten more mileage out of my iPad in one year than I have in all the other devices I’ve ever owned combined. iPads tend to come with a hefty price tag compared to other tablets, but the iPad has more than paid for itself in terms of the efficiencies it has allowed me to make (going paperless, for instance).

I’ve also heard occasional complaints about the iPad’s weight, but it has not bothered me. Perhaps I’ve just grown used to it.

When the time comes to replace my iPad with a newer model, I would do so without hesitation. Indeed, I am sometimes asked by friends and family why I haven’t already upgraded to an iPad 3. The truth is that my iPad 2 has served me without fail for a year and I don’t see the features added to the iPad 3 as being compelling enough to upgrade when I have a device that already works magnificently for me.

Original Article

On Thursday, I reorganized some of the pages on the site. WordPress, once a page is renamed, does it’s best job to find a match for the page when someone searches the old site. Thus, people attempting to get to the Vacation in the Golden Age main page, were instead getting to the article I wrote about my Vacation early last year.

As of this morning, I have corrected this by adding in a redirect plug-in. This will allow you to continue to use the old link for things like the Vacation index, and still be taken to the new location. Chances are pretty good you haven’t even noticed this, but I wanted to mention it in case anyone had.

Other changes included moving things like my About, Bibliography and Contact pages. Redirects will be added for those as well.

Original Article

The Little Man

It’s been a while since I posted an update on the Little Man and now seems as good a time as any since we hit a second big milestone last night. But I’m jumping ahead. Let me go back to the first. Nearly three weeks ago, Kelly decided it was time for the Little Man to be completely potty-trained. He could do it when and if he wanted, but he was still in diapers and didn’t really have any incentive. So Kelly kept him out of school on a Thursday and Friday, giving four straight days to get it done. That Thursday, she put him into “big boy” underwear, and I am enormously pleased to say that he hasn’t used diapers since. There were little accidents along the way, but they have been few and far between. Even when he is at school, he generally does a very good job and no matter where he is, he has learned to tell someone when he needs to go.

The credit for this is divided between Kelly and the Little Man. Kelly was determined to make it happen and she endured a few difficult days to make it so. The Little Man has done his fair share, too, and now that we are coming up on nearly 3 weeks of his being diaper-free, I think we are all seeing the benefit of their efforts.

The second milestone took place last night, but requires a little back-story. Up until around the time the Little Miss was born, the Little Man would sleep happily in his room by himself. Once the Little Miss was born (which was back in August), he decided that he was missing out on the fun and no longer wanted to sleep alone. This evolved, after the first of the year, into me, sleeping on a mattress on the floor in his bedroom. Part of this was to make the Little Man happy, and part of this was because I could not sleep in our bed with the Little Miss there. After five long months of sleeping on the floor in the Little Man’s room, I finally returned to my own room and my own bed last night.

Much like his potty training, we simply picked a date that seemed sufficient, and Kelly moved my stuff out of his room and replaced it with a big floor mat that had roads and things printed on it. She took a bunch of the Little Man’s toys and made a town where my mattress used to be.

When the Little Man arrived home from school yesterday, he knew he has a surprise coming (he also knew that I was not going to be sleeping in his room; we prepared him ahead of time) and he ran excitedly up the stairs to see what it was. I think he was very happy with the result, since he played in there practically until bedtime.

Once bedtime arrived, I put the Little Man into his bed, read him Where the Wild Things Are (which is his most-requested book recently), let him watch an episode of Dinosaur Train on my iPhone and then it was time to go to sleep. He came into our room a few times to let us know he was okay or that he had to use the potty. Then I put him back to bed and sat there with him until he dozed off. He slept through the night and for the first time in more than five months, I slept in my own room and in my own bed last night.

The Little Miss

The Little Miss has had a few milestones of her own, as she turned nine months old. She says, “Da-da,” very deliberately and with such a sweet voice! She is close to saying “Ma-ma,” too, I think, but in this respect, she is opposite of the Little Man (whose first word was ma-ma.) She is opposite in another respect, too. The Little Man never crawled. He walked when he was 11 months, but he never crawled and couldn’t even turn himself over until he was 9 or 10 months old. Not so the Little Miss. She has been turning herself over for some time now. She can get in and out of the crawling position, has been crawling backwards for some week, and can haltingly crawl forwards, too.

She can also pull herself up and stand, so long as she is holding onto something. The crawling is particularly exciting because we never experienced that with the Little Man. At times, she can move pretty quickly when she crawls, but she will also, on occasion, back herself into a corner.

And so there are my updates and I even managed to condense them down to under a eight hundred words.

Original Article

This is just a quick test that you can safely ignore. Testing, testing, one, two, three. Whenever I do stuff like this, it reminds me that I need a test installation of this blog so that I don’t have to bother people with this kind of stuff in public. (57YDYJ9EUFFP)

Original Article

Every once in a while, someone will comment that various browser plug-ins report this site as unsafe. The reason for this is that some of those plug-ins use the Web of Trust website to determine the safety of various sites. Web of Trust is a crowd-sourced site in which people can report positive and negative experiences with a site. When I first started hearing reports that my site was flagged as unsafe, I looked into the matter, and sure enough, some folks had reported the site was unsafe because of a random reference in a listing elsewhere. There was not much I could do about this at the time, other than make my regular readers aware of it. I wrote about this back in November 2011.

I am pleased to say that in the months since, the Web of Trust rating of this site has greatly improved, and much of the credit goes to readers who have reported the site as “safe” and given “thumbs down” to those who’ve commented otherwise. When I looked at the Web of Trust rating for this site today, here is what I saw:

In 3 of the 4 ratings, the site ranks “good.” I have no idea what “vendor reliability” means, or why it should be lagging behind there, but the truth is, I’m not all that interested. I’ve gotten the word out and folks have taken action and the rating has improved which is good only for those folks who use software that make use of the data Web of Trust provides. I’m glad the ratings have improved because I’ll get fewer questions about it and folks should be less confused about it going forward.

Original Article

I have finished with changes and tweaks to the site. Most of what I changed was minor and was intended for improved usability:

• Changed the style, increased the size and spacing of the font on the main article section of the page (what you are reading right now).
• Made the archive pages like the main index page. Previously the archive pages showed only a very brief summary of the posts. They now show either the entire post, or that portion up to the “Read More” as indicated on each post. This was something several folks requested and should make these archives (category pages, tag pages, etc.) more useful.
• Added an improved Facebook “Like” button that should be more reliable than what I’d previously had.

I’ve browsed the page in Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari on my iPad and all looks well. Let me know if you see any immediate problems.

Going forward I am considering a few additional changes:

• Fixing a minor vertical spacing issue at the bottom of each post (where the Like and Share This buttons are).
• Updating my About, Bibliography, and Contact pages

I am also considering one fairly major change. While I like the overall style I’ve developed, the page is beginning to feel a little too crowded. I am therefore thinking about going from 3-columns down to 2-columns to give more space to the main content. The remaining right-hand column would be a hybrid of some (but not all) of the information currently present in both the sidebar columns. Let me know if you have an opinion on this.

Original Article

I almost exclusively by e-books these days. The only time I don’t is when: (a) the book is by a friend and I want a signed copy; (b) the book is by a writer I admire and I want a signed copy. I went a little overboard (for me) at the Nebula Weekend. Here’s what I picked up:

[caption id=”” align=”alignnone” width=”400” caption=”Click to enlarge”][/caption]

The list includes:

• Movement by Nancy Fulda, which she signed for me.
• Going Intersteller edited by Les Johnson and Jack McDevitt.
• A Talent for War by Jack McDevitt, which he signed for me.
• Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded by John Scalzi, which he signed for me.
• Corrupting Dr. Nice by John Kessel, which he signed for me.
• Lifeboard Earth by Stanley Schmidt, which he signed for me.
• Embassytown by China Miéville.
• Blackout and All Clear by Connie Willis, which she signed for me.

Missing from the picture, because it’s already up in the Little Man’s room, is Alpha Oops! by Alethea Kontis, which she signed rather artfully for both the Little Man and the Little Miss.

I already had digital versions of Movement, Embassytown, Blackout and All Clear. But now I have some signed copies, which is very, very cool.

Original Article

We interrupt this blog with the following important message:

I will be experimenting with better font styles for the main (left-hand) column of the blog and website over the next 24-hours, attempting to improve the font used there for better readability. Just wanted to alert those used to seeing that font that’s been there for nearly 2 years, in case you notice some changes.

We now return you to your regular programming.

Original Article

I have just returned from an incredibly fun conference, attending and participating in the Nebula Awards Weekend. In the science fiction and fantasy realm, the Nebula Awards are our equivalent of the Academy Awards. The awards are voted on by members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) and are given out in various fiction categories like Best Short Story, Best Novella, Best Novel, etc. I attended both as a member of SFWA and as a presenter of one award. I also accepted an award (the Nebula for Best Short Story) for the outstanding writer, Ken Liu.

When I first decided to go paperless, way back in September 2010, I had this idea in the back of my mind that it would be wonderful, one day, to be able to attend a conference and not have to deal with any paper. For my day job, as an application software developer, I’ve had to attend many conferences, and despite many of these conferences be “tech” conferences, I seem to always be weighed down with tons of paper: conference programs, course material, notebooks, business cards, handouts. What I wouldn’t give, I used to dream, to attend a conference where I needed carry nothing around but a small computer or perhaps even my phone.

Well, I still have not achieved a totally paperless conference, but this past weekend, I managed to come pretty close, so I thought I’d provide some tips on how you can use the various tools I’ve discussed in earlier posts to make conference attendance as paper-free as possible—and in some cases, more enjoyable.

Paperless conference materials

While some conferences make their conference materials available in electronic format, not all of them do. When I arrived at the Nebula Weekend registration, I received a conference program printed out on paper. However, the conference program was also posted on the conference website and I simply used Evernote’s Web Clipper plug-in for Chrome to capture the conference program into Evernote. I did this the morning of the conference to ensure that I had the most recent version. Walking around the conference with my iPad, it was only a matter of pulling up the program in Evernote and glancing at what I needed. To make that even easier, I added a Saved Search that pulled up the conference program so that I could find it quickly.

So the three tips I’d offer here are:

1. Check for conference material online before the conference starts and load it into Evernote.
2. Make the notebook to which you save the conference material an Offline notebook so that you can access it without a network connection.
3. Create a Saved Search in Evernote to quickly pull up the conference program.

But what if there are no paperless conference materials?

Well, the Nebula Weekend just happened to be a local conference for me. But had I been traveling, I might have brought my Canon P-150M portable scanner with me. When I returned to my hotel room, I could scan in what material I had, sync it with Evernote and leave the heavy materials in my hotel room. Plus, scanning in the material with a Premium account makes it searchable, which can be a huge help.

Capture session notes

Most conferences have the same basic format. There are keynote speeches and conference-wide events, often with lots of breakout sessions and even different programming tracks, and the Nebula Weekend is no different. In attending the various sessions, I often want to take notes, so I create a note in Evernote as each session begins to capture what I need.

One thing I love about some of the recent updates to Evernote on the iPad is that it will automatically fill in the title of your note based on your Calendar app on the iPad. And the Calendar app on my iPad is synced with my Google Calendar. Since I put all of the sessions I want to attend in my Google Calendar, creating a note for that session is as simple as hitting “New Note.” Evernote will automatically fill in the title of the note with the title of the meeting on my calendar for the current time, “SFWA Business Meeting,” for instance, if that is what is on my calendar.

I can then take notes, make an audio recording of the session, take pictures, whatever right in the note. And it works even if I am not connected to the hotel network because Evernote will simply sync the note once I make a connection. No need for paper or pens. Well, that’s not entirely true…

Suppose that in one of the sessions, the presenter is sketching something on the whiteboard that might be of interest to capture. I could try to take a photo of it, but depending on where I am sitting, it might not come out clearly. However, I can open up an app like Penultimate, sketch out what the presenter has done, and then send that sketch directly into Evernote:

So, my tips for capturing session notes:

1. Add the sessions you will be attending to your calendar app so that Evernote will pick them up for the note title when you are in the session
2. Take advantage of apps like Penultimate or Paper that can send handwritten sketches directly into Evernote.

Networking, networking, networking

A lot of networking happens at conferences, and the Nebula Weekend is no different. Authors are meeting with editors or agents. We are being interviewed by the press or we are conducting interviews ourselves for various publications. There are book signings and meals of all kind. And it’s often helpful to have a record of all of this on something other than a stained napkin.

One idea might be to use Evernote Hello to capture a picture and information about each person you meet, but I’m not quite at that level yet. I still feel awkward saying, “Hi, my name is Jamie, what’s yours, and let me grab your photo by the way.”

Typically, what I will do is to create one note for each interaction—after the interaction has taken place. If I chat with an editor and promise to send a story, I’ll create a note and enter the gist of what we spoke about. If I chat with another writer and it’s important to capture that information, I’ll do the same. If a photo happens to be taken, I’ll add it to the note, but that isn’t always the case.

Sometimes, someone will hand me a business card, which I will tuck away until the meeting is over and then I’ll take a quick photo of it with my iPad or iPhone and bring it into Evernote.

And, of course, we are constantly eating at these conventions. The most important meetings, it seems, happen over meals, breakfasts, lunches, dinners. If you are interested in recalling what it was you ate, you can always use Evernote Food to capture that information. But since many of these meetings are important business meetings, it means that they are to some extent, tax-deductible and so I capture the receipts in Evernote, either by snapping a photo of the receipt or scanning it in at the earliest possible convenience.

To summarize my tips for capturing information about your conference networking:

1. Create a note for each person you meet, after you’ve met them.
2. Photograph or scan any business cards you’ve been handed
3. Capture your meal receipts so you have a record for tax or travel expense purposes.

Capturing multimedia

I interviewed a few people at the Nebula Weekend for various science fiction magazines and markets. It was great to be able to record the interviews on my iPhone and later add the voice recording to the same note in Evernote that contained all of my interview notes for said interview.

Organizing your conference notes

As I’ve written before, I’m not big on tagging, but a conference like the Nebula Weekend is one place where I will make use of tags to quickly organize and find any and all conference related information. Here is what I did for the Nebula Weekend:

1. Select a tag for the event. For the Nebula Weekend, I chose nebula weekend.2012.
2. Create a Saved Search. I created one called “Nebula Weekend Conference Material” and it was simply a search for tag:nebula weekend.2012
3. Tag each conference-related note with the tag you’ve with the tag you’ve chosen to use.
4. Keep your Saved Search as your main entry-point into Evernote (on my iPad I did this by selecting Home->More->Saved Searches->Nebula Weekend Conference Material)

Whenever I needed to find something, I opened Evernote and my saved search showed me only those notes that were related to the conference. I generally sort my notes by most-recently updated. I could either skim them, knowing the newer ones were listed first, or I could type in a search.

A totally paperless conference?

I noted earlier that I have still not achieved a totally paperless conference. It is a little tricky at something like the Nebula Weekend, which is centered around science fiction and books. I am as much a fan as I am a writer and I lugged around a backpack full of books to be signed by friends and authors I admire. So to that extent, the conference wasn’t “paperless.” I was handed various pieces of paper throughout the conference, and while I converted them into digital format as quickly as I could manage, there was still some paper to deal with.

Perhaps the most glaring place where I could have been paperless, and didn’t quite have the guts, was when I accepted the Nebula Award for Best Short Story. There I stood, on stage in front of hundreds of other writers and industry professionals, many of whom I’d been reading since I was a kid. It might have been impressive to read Ken’s acceptance speech off my iPad, but I didn’t quite have the courage to do that. I had printed the speech out on a single piece of white paper, in a large and easily readable font, and I read his speech from there. But the next time I have to be on stage, I’ve promised myself to do it without paper.

It’s good to have a stretch goal.

(This and all my other Going Paperless post are also available via Pinterest.)

Original Article

In the week leading up to the Nebula Weekend, I had the opportunity to interview Brad R. Torgersen, whose story “Ray of Light” is a Hugo and Nebula nominee. It was a lot of fun and we talked a lot of shop. You can head over to SF Signal to read the interview.

Original Article