Neurotic

Follow me at Anxious Robot

2016-01-12T06:29:37-08:00

Late last year I created and started writing at Anxious Robot, a site powered by Medium. My first piece there explains why I decided to spin up another site after almost 15 years, and why I chose to go with Medium; the short answer is convenience.

If you’ve enjoyed my writing here over the last decade+, I’d love it if you would join me at my new endeavor. The easiest way to read the Anxious Robot stuff is to follow me on Medium, and read the articles either on the web or inside Medium's apps. When you do that (and you have a Medium account), you can recommend the articles you like (by tapping the heart) and thereby increase their reach, etc.

If you prefer using RSS to keep up, kindly point your aggregator at https://medium.com/feed/@jblanton.

Thanks for reading!

The books I read in 2015

2016-01-02T05:35:30-08:00

Below is a list of the books I managed to power through in 2015. While I'm certain I read more in 2015 than in any other year of my life, I think the vast majority of that reading was done outside of books. I'm hoping to change that in 2016. (If interested, here's my entire list of books.)

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Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction by Philip E. Tetlock
Mint Condition: How Baseball Cards Became an American Obsession by Dave Jamieson
The Beginning of Infinity: Explanations That Transform the World by David Deutsch
Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Cryptocurrencies by Andreas M. Antonopoulos
Insanely Great: The Life and Times of Macintosh, the Computer that Changed Everything by Stephen Levy
Becoming Steve Jobs: How a Reckless Upstart Became a Visionary Leader by Brent Schlender
Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye
The Gunman and His Mother: Lee Harvey Oswald, Marguerite Oswald, and the Making of an Assassin by Steven Beschloss
Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies by Nick Bostrom
Smarter Than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better by Clive Thompson
The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House by Kate Andersen Brower
The Secret Agent: In Search of America's Greatest World War II Spy by Stephan Talty
A Killer in the Family by Peter Range

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Alan Turing: Unlocking the Enigma by David Boyle
End of the Innocence 1964-1965: The 1964-1965 New York World's Fair by Lawrence Samuel
Chasing the Ripper by Patricia Cornwell
Hidden History: An Exposé of Modern Crimes, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups in American Politics by Donald Jeffries

iPhone 6 vs. iPhone 6 Plus

2015-09-08T09:57:47-07:00

TL;DR: 6 Plus

First things first, I love the iPhone 6 Plus. I love it more than you do. I adore it. I’ve had it since the first day it was available and have used it 10+ hours every day since then. I work from it. A lot. It’s my favorite.

All of that said, a few months ago I was really itching to give the non-Plus 6 a shot, despite its inferior rear camera. Its size appealed to me for a number of reasons, and I just thought it looked and felt nice. So, I went out and bought one, used it for a few days and then…switched back to the 6 Plus. But, after a couple of days I went back to the 6. There definitely were moments when I had convinced myself that I’d keep the non-Plus and sell the Plus, but ultimately I decided that, on balance, the Plus is a better fit for me.

I realize some of you are looking for me to tell you which way to go, full stop, but I just can’t. They’re both great devices and at the end of the day you just have to figure out which fits your use-cases the best.

For me, battery is a huge deal, because I literally use the device all day long. I’ve been able to go 10 straight hours with the Plus, just reading RSS, responding to email, Twitter, Pocket, messaging, etc.—“normal” use. The non-Plus can’t get anywhere near that number; while its battery isn’t bad, I’ve just been spoiled by the 6 Plus. It’s hard to explain the peace of mind I get from the Plus’ battery; I just know it’ll be available when I need it. I do the vast majority of my job these days from my iPhone, and so a bigger battery really is useful to me.

I also prefer how the hit targets of the keyboard on the 6 Plus are quite a bit larger due to the keys themselves being, well, larger. Because of this I can type much faster and with fewer errors on the 6 Plus. Again, for someone who uses this device as much as I do (and for a lot of mission-critical stuff), all of these efficiency gains really do start to add up.

Another potential differentiator is the PPI of the devices. While the added PPI of the 6 Plus is noticeable (the contrast ratio is also higher on the 6 Plus), it’s just not a game-changing feature for me anymore given that once you get above 300PPI at these short distances the distinction starts to fall away. That said, the better screen of the 6 Plus definitely jumps out at you after you’ve been looking at only a 6 for a couple of days.

Obviously, the biggest selling point of the 6 vis-a-vis the 6 Plus is its smaller size. I found the dimensions and weight of the 6 to be nearly perfect for prolonged sessions (though those sessions are a bit shorter than those with the 6 Plus). It just feels great in hand—solid, sleek, modern. The 6 Plus can wear out my “cradling” pinky after holding it for just a little while; I often find myself changing my holding position because my hand is starting to ache or cramp. (To that end I bought a PopSocket, which I can’t believe I like, but I do. Yes, it’s ugly. Yes, it makes me self-conscious in public. Yes, I hate what it does to this svelte beauty. BUT, it works, and works really, really well.)

One final plus for the Plus is that it made me comfortable not owning an iPad. I got rid of my iPad the day I bought the 6 Plus; I just couldn’t justify having both, and well, I’m kind of militant about consolidating when I can. With the 6 though I often found myself thinking about the iPad and even ended up researching them a bit.

At the end of the day, the better battery on the 6 Plus is what really kept it in my hands. Even though I generally preferred the size of the 6, especially for prolonged use, there was just no getting around the fact that the 6 Plus is a workhorse.

How to keep iOS Mail from shitting the bed when swapping signatures

2015-07-10T09:10:38-07:00

I recently asked someone on my team to come up with a simple way for me to automatically email a group of people (e.g., my team) from within iOS Mail. I’d tried the usual suspects like TextExpander (which doesn’t work inside Mail.app) and the shortcuts feature built into iOS, but something funky with how email addresses were being delimited would result in only the first person in the list being emailed (and it wouldn’t throw any errors).

A person on my team mentioned that Workflow had a built-in workflow to bring up a pre-populated email sheet. It does, and it works great, but that got me thinking about whether I could do something similar in Drafts, because that sits on my home screen and I’m in it all day long.

Turns out, Drafts has an awesome action for handling this sort of thing that, if you format your text in a certain way, auto-fills the subject and body when you invoke it (in addition to the email addresses you previously added to the action). It’s great.

The issue I’m running into doesn’t have to do with Drafts per se, but rather how the iOS Mail app handles signatures. On iOS I use Mail for both my personal email and work email; work because I have no choice (I’d love to use Outlook, but it has serious security issues that MS doesn’t seem to want to address), and personal because I’m emailing constantly from the share sheets of apps other than Mail, and iOS doesn’t let you specify a default email client other than Mail. (It’s 2015, right?) (And yes, I realize some third-party email apps have share extensions now.)

I use a signature on my work emails, but not on my personal emails, and therein lies the problem. I have any new emails generated outside of the Mail app default to using my personal address, because I don’t want to accidentally send via work email something not related to work. If you have a similar setup, and you’ve ever tried to switch a draft email from an account with no signature to one with a signature, you know that the sheet just disappears. No error, no actions, just *poof*, and whatever you typed is gone forever.

Obviously, I found this incredibly frustrating, especially in view of the Drafts action I mention above, because it basically meant I couldn’t use the action and instead would have to type out the email address of every one on my team every time I wanted to send an email to them. I played around with this some and it turns out that if you simply add a “space” character to the signature of your email account that currently has no signature (from within the Mail settings), Mail won’t shit the bed when you switch from that account to your “work” account; instead, Mail substitutes in the proper signature as you’d expect and you get on with your day.

From the Razer Boomslang to the Zowie FK2

2015-07-03T13:59:53-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I tweeted that I needed new mice. I had been using a Razer Diamondback 3G for the last eight years, and other Razer mice before then, including the original Boomslang. They stopped selling the Diamondback 3G a number of years ago, but I just kept buying them off of eBay. They’re very difficult to find (new) these days, and while the three I have work perfectly fine, they’re disgusting and probably can’t be properly cleaned at this point.

One of the first responses I got to the tweet mentioned above was from Twitter follower @crspence, who implored me to get a Zowie FK1. A what?! I thought for sure it was bullshit because of the name alone. I haven’t been deep into PC gaming for about 15 years, and so I had never even heard of the company. I did a little research and realized they were legit and used by lots of pro gamers.

After looking at their models I quickly decided on the FK2, because it’s basically the FK1 (the one that was recommended), but ambidextrous, which means it’s symmetrical (and with my “claw grip” I only use symmetrical mice ;). The FK models are similar to the Diamondback 3G in the sense that they’re relatively small, and their tracking is perfect and configurable, as is the polling rate.

I swear, I’ve tried nearly every mouse on the planet and something always felt weird with the tracking (especially Bluetooth mice), and often my hand would cramp up after lengthy use. I used the FK2 for just half a day before I ordered two more—one for work and, of course, a backup. I’ll likely order a couple more at some point. I mean, I do plan on using these until at least 2030. ;)

Back to The Hit List

2015-06-28T01:52:22-07:00

Long story, very, very short—I’ve started using The Hit List again. The what?! Yeah, the same THL whose developer I was so upset with in 2011, because he kind of fell off the face of the earth, and development lagged and lagged and lagged. He eventually sold the app to Karelia Software, which has kept a steady development pace ever since.

My big issue with THL is that though it offers a crazy-fast sync service, it doesn’t encrypt your data at rest (what year is it?), and so it’s not something I can use. If you’re following along, that means I’m running THL only on my iPhone 6 Plus. (Semi-related: I like the iOS icon.)

Not being able to enter tasks from my Mac is annoying, but it’s not as bad as I thought it would be. Truth is, I do so much of my job these days from my phone, that it’s rarely even out of my hands anymore. Will I tire of the inability to enter tasks from anywhere other than my phone? Maybe, but I am really enjoying using THL again, and after installing it, I quickly remembered why it always was my favorite task management app.

If I do end up sticking with this iPhone-only approach, I’ll be able to futz around with all of the other task management apps that don’t offer secure syncing, e.g., Things, Todoist…basically everything but OmniFocus.

All PayPal everything

2015-06-21T08:54:59-07:00

I figured this was common practice, but after seeing some co-workers’ reactions to my mentioning it, I guess maybe it isn’t? In any event, the general idea is that I use PayPal whenever and wherever possible. Do I particularly like PayPal? No, but it is about as ubiquitous as internet-based payment services get (and you can pay for things with either a checking account or credit/debit card).

The main reason I try to concentrate payments there (especially recurring payments) is that it lessens substantially the number of services I have to update if and when my debit/credit card numbers get stolen. In the past year my card number has been stolen twice, and when that happens, as you likely know, it’s a damn pain going to the site of every service you use and changing the card number on record.

My process now when a card number gets stolen is 1) I add my replacement card number to PayPal and remove the old one; and 2) I reference a list I maintain of the services I pay for that don’t use PayPal, and update each of them. It’s a real time-saver.

On iOS badges and information density

2015-06-12T09:14:56-07:00

Invariably, every time I post a screenshot of my iOS homescreen to Twitter, the @replies roll in fast and furious regarding the badges on many of my icons. The comments range from “Wow, how can you stand all those badges?!”, to “Wow, you’re so behind on x, you should just give up!”. Nonsense, all of them.

The pocket computer (for the past few years I've loathed calling these things phones) is a tool. I use it for work, play, and damn near everything in between. I’m fond of saying that these days I can do 90% of my job from this hand-held machine—it’s THE BEST. Also, I’m an information junkie and to actively not surface data that I think would be useful seems insane to me.

Does that mean I get notifications and badges for every app on my iPhone? Of course not. You’ll notice, for example, that the Mail app has no badge. Of course that’s not because there is no unread email (honestly, it’s a safe bet that each day I deal with more email than you or anyone you know), but rather because that information wouldn’t help me at all—I always know there’s a kajillion emails waiting for me. (For the record, I also don’t get notifications for email—work or personal—because it makes no sense to be interrupted with a small fire every 30 seconds.)

I’m on my iOS device 10+ hours a day. I like to be able to, at a glance, get a sense for where certain things are, and badges help me do that; I like to know what my various “queues” look like (e.g., RSS, Instapaper, Slack, messages, etc.). I don’t look at this device 1000 times a day because I have a pretty background (I do) or because I’ve rearranged my icons into a “fun” pattern (I haven’t). I look at it 1000 times a day to get stuff done and manage my time.

The iPhone is a beautiful tool, but a tool nonetheless. Let the machines work for you now, because soon enough we’ll be working for them.

The reasons above are the same reasons why I use the “Modular” watch face on my Apple Watch, and frankly, it never even crossed my mind to use any other. The whole point of me glancing at my watch is to glean some information (above and beyond just the time), not to see how cute Mickey Mouse can look while eating up 50% of my beautiful retina display.

Read Ruler sorts your Pocket queue by article length [link]

2015-06-05T03:36:04-07:00

The inability to sort by reading time has long been a pain point for me with Pocket. I read more than nearly everyone—according to the stats Pocket puts out each year I read more than 99.9% of other users, and that doesn’t include books!—and so an easy way to auto-sort by article length (a feature Instapaper has had for a good while) would be welcomed with open arms.

Enter Read Ruler, which “lists your articles saved in Pocket by reading time and can also automatically add reading time tags to each article on Pocket”. It’s a brilliant solution and faster than I ever thought would be possible, especially given how large my queue is (it usually hovers between 550 and 600 articles). And yes, you can define your WPM and it will adjust its time-to-read tags accordingly.

One almost smart feature of Read Ruler is that it lets you specify tags you already use to signal to the service that articles so tagged should be filtered out of the article lists shown to you at readruler.com. I say almost smart because I think it should go one step further and exempt entirely those tagged articles from Read Ruler analysis. The Pocket share extension on iOS lets you specify tags at save time, and so, for example, I routinely use “media” as a way of specifying that the content is a video; even though an article is already tagged with “media”, Read Ruler still gives it a time-to-read tag as well, and so this video shows up in my list of 1-minute articles.

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Kindle issues, years on

2015-04-25T06:34:50-07:00

I've had every generation of physical Kindle device (yes, even the DX…and I loved it) and have used every iteration of the iOS software, and still, after all of these revisions, I have a single niggle with each implementation (that doesn't exist in the other implementation).

In iOS I hate that I still can't scroll through my books. I’m instead made to page through them like it's Q12006. For whatever reason, and it may be just a feeling, I feel like I read faster when I scroll. (Maybe because I tend to keep my eyes focused on the same physical area of the device and scroll content through that area?)

With the physical devices, the thing that still really irks me is that it insists on showing the percentage of the book completed. I was hoping the Voyage would rectify this, but no dice. Amazon, no one wants to see this all of the time! You've always hidden this in the iOS app, so why not here too? You hide it in the web reader as well, and the Mac app! (UPDATE: Minutes after posting this, David Dixon reached out to me on Twitter to let me know that this information can indeed be suppressed on the physical devices. On my Voyage, I simply tap the bottom left of the screen, where by default it says “Loc XXX”; tapping there cycles through the display options, including displaying nothing!)

All of that said, I LOVE my Kindle(s), and continue to read like a crazy person.