The Plain Text Productivity Experiment

I’m a big fan of plain text-based formats and tools, for a variety of reasons. As a result, I’ve moved almost all of my writing into plain text formats, primarily Markdown (MultiMarkdown, to be specific), and I recently spent a couple of months experimenting to see if a plain text-based productivity system would work for me as well. Here’s what I found.

<aside>I won’t go into a great amount of detail on why I wanted to see if a plain text-based productivity system would work, as I’ve discussed the merits of using plain text-based formats before (platform portability, application portability, longevity, etc.).</aside>

I first looked at Gina Trapani’s todo.txt system, which is plain text-based and has a thriving community built around its format. The todo.txt format is very straightforward and very simple—almost too simple. After trying it for a short while I found that it just wasn’t flexible enough to meet my needs.

A few weeks later, I stumbled on the TaskPaper format (named after the Mac app of the same name). Also plain text-based, the TaskPaper format also had a thriving community of applications and tools built around the format, and while also Continue reading

Apple Pay rival CurrentC coming in mid-2015

The mobile payments space is about to get more crowded: CurrentC, a platform backed by some of the country’s biggest retailers, will launch in the next few months and give Apple, Google and Samsung added competition.Few details are known about the service, but it is expected to merge payments and loyalty benefits and will give retailers additional insight into the spending habits of customers who are members. Less is known about the benefits it may offer consumers.A small -scale trial began last year and CurrentC is currently being tested in several undisclosed markets around the U.S. However, its use is restricted to employees of member retailers, which include Walmart, 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, Sears, Best Buy, Exxon Mobil and Gap.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple Pay rival CurrentC coming in mid-2015

The mobile payments space is about to get more crowded: CurrentC, a platform backed by some of the country’s biggest retailers, will launch in the next few months and give Apple, Google and Samsung added competition.Few details are known about the service, but it is expected to merge payments and loyalty benefits and will give retailers additional insight into the spending habits of customers who are members. Less is known about the benefits it may offer consumers.A small -scale trial began last year and CurrentC is currently being tested in several undisclosed markets around the U.S. However, its use is restricted to employees of member retailers, which include Walmart, 7-Eleven, Dunkin Donuts, Sears, Best Buy, Exxon Mobil and Gap.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Network Automation Training

If you are a frequent reader of my blog, you know that last year I left my job to do something that I was intrinsically motivated to do.  Unfortunately, because of this, I haven’t been able to write as much as I normally would.  I do hope that changes.  But, time is money now – literally.  My time has been spent driving business, negotiating, writing Scopes of Work, building a website, managing finances, and producing quality work for customers, and I hope all of that continues.

                                                                                                                                                       Read More

Chromebooks coming with Intel’s new Braswell chips

A new generation of low-cost Chromebooks are on the way, running the Intel Braswell chips that are expected to debut later this week.The new Braswell chips include new Celeron and Pentium processors, which will support both Chrome OS and Windows, said sources familiar with Intel’s product plans. More details on Braswell will be shared at the Intel Developer Forum in Shenzhen this week.New Chromebooks running Braswell are expected in the coming months from top PC makers, as well as from low-cost manufacturers China who might bring the price point down to less than US$200. Braswell will also appear in low-cost Windows laptops, desktops and tablets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Turkey blocks Twitter, YouTube over hostage photo

A Turkish court blocked access to numerous sites including Twitter and YouTube on Monday, over their hosting of images of an Istanbul prosecutor held at gunpoint by militants last week.An Istanbul court issued the ruling blocking Twitter and YouTube, as well as 166 other sites that had distributed the photograph, a report in The New York Times said. It also blocked the pages of several newspapers in Turkey that had printed the photo.Turkey’s Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, called outlets that had circulated the image “tools of terrorist propaganda,” the Times reported.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Uber’s hiring plans show outlines of self-driving car project

The most interesting people that Uber is now hiring aren’t drivers: they’re engineers whose innovations may ultimately put those drivers out of work.The mobile ride-hailing app has listed a slew of jobs at its new Advanced Technologies Center in Pittsburgh. The research center, created just two months ago in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University, is focused on developing self-driving car technology and other advanced vehicle safety and mapping systems. To staff up, Uber is looking for engineers in the areas of robotics, machine learning, communications, traffic simulation, vehicle testing, and software and hardware development.One Uber posting seeks mechanical engineers with knowledge of modern automotive electronics and diagnostics, who can handle “multiple design challenges.” It also wants software engineers to work in the areas of computer vision, vehicle controls and sensors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Samsung rebuts tester’s claim that Galaxy Edge S6 bends easily

Samsung has taken issue with a stress test that showed the Galaxy Edge S6’s frame bending and screen cracking under applied pressure, saying a smartphone wouldn’t experience such force in normal use.The Galaxy 6S Edge bent and its screen shattered after being exposed to 110 pounds of force, according to a test conducted by SquareTrade, which sells warranties for smartphones, tablets and other electronics. Even with a shattered screen, the phone still worked. SquareTrade posted a video of the test on Thursday.SquareTrade also tested the iPhone 6 Plus and the HTC One M9. The iPhone bent under 110 pounds of force, but the screen remained intact. The HTC device bent and became inoperable after it suffered 120 pounds of force.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

April CCDE Training class is going to start tomorrow

I am glad and excited to announce that my April 2015 online CCDE class will start tomorrow ( 07/04/2015) with 10 great guys. As I promised to them I limited to class to 10 , so everybody can ask as much as questions, join the discussions and share their comments. I will share their success… Read More »

The post April CCDE Training class is going to start tomorrow appeared first on Network Design and Architecture.

IPv4 Address Market Takes Off

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As the available supply of IPv4 addresses dwindles, the market for these virtual commodities is heating up.  In recent months, the pace of the address transfers has greatly accelerated as evidenced by RIPE’s table of IPv4 transfers, as well as the increasing number of IPv4 brokers facilitating the exchange of IPv4 address space.  However, the transfer of IPv4 address space isn’t always problem-free and, in this blog, we’ll review this new trend and some of the issues that can arise.

Buying and selling IPv4

In 2011, when Microsoft paid $7.5 million for 666,624 IPv4 addresses as part of the Nortel bankruptcy, observers wondered whether this development would usher in the era of the commercial sale of IPv4 address space.  As statistics from European registrar RIPE show, the market may have had a slow start, but we’re in that new era now.

RIPE’s table of transfers of provider independent IPv4 address clearly shows a rapidly increasing rate of transfers of IPv4 address blocks and unique IPv4 addresses.  The following two graphs illustrate the uptick in recent months of address space movement.  February 2015 saw that most organizational transfers (373), while November 2014 saw the Continue reading

Acer’s Revo One RL85 desktop comes to US with Broadwell chips

Acer isn’t as well known as Apple for product design, but its new Revo One RL85 compact desktop looks dapper—and with Intel’s latest Broadwell chip it also has muscles.The multifaceted desktop can be a PC, but it also can sit in a corner and serve as a media player or be used for backup storage. The desktop is now available in the U.S., and starts at US$249.99 with Intel’s entry-level Celeron processors, and at $479.99 with Intel’s Core i3 chips code-named Broadwell.With its unorthodox design, the Revo One RL85 stands out from today’s mundane beige boxes. Its sharp finish resembles a smaller version of a Kenmore bread maker, but it looks attractive nonetheless. It is just 15.5 centimeters tall.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

You’ve seen Apple logo a million times, but what’s it look like?

UCLA Actual Apple logo? None of the above Even Apple fanboys and fangirls might be sick of seeing the company's logo, but that doesn't mean they actually would remember exactly what it looks like when pressed. In a new study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, UCLA psychologists found that only 1 of 85 undergraduates could draw the logo correctly from memory.  Fewer than half correctly ID'd the logo when shown it among a number of similar logos. Most of the participants used Apple products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

You’ve seen Apple logo a million times, but what’s it look like?

UCLA Actual Apple logo? None of the above Even Apple fanboys and fangirls might be sick of seeing the company's logo, but that doesn't mean they actually would remember exactly what it looks like when pressed. In a new study published in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, UCLA psychologists found that only 1 of 85 undergraduates could draw the logo correctly from memory.  Fewer than half correctly ID'd the logo when shown it among a number of similar logos. Most of the participants used Apple products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

So were those Black Friday electronics deals really worth the hassle?

With memories of the crowds and lack of sleep from Black Friday 2014 now distant memories for those of you who partook in the massive shopping day four months ago, you'll be glad to know you really did save yourself a bundle on certain electronics. An analysis of the best deals on TVs, laptops/PCs, tablets, cameras and video game consoles shows that prices indeed have risen significantly for most items since them. The biggest price increases (both dollar-wise and percentage-wise) were seen for televisions, according to BestBlackFriday.com, one of numerous outfits that tracks deals. + LOOK BACK: 20-Plus Eye-Popping Black Friday Tech Deals +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

So were those Black Friday electronics deals really worth the hassle?

With memories of the crowds and lack of sleep from Black Friday 2014 now distant memories for those of you who partook in the massive shopping day four months ago, you'll be glad to know you really did save yourself a bundle on certain electronics. An analysis of the best deals on TVs, laptops/PCs, tablets, cameras and video game consoles shows that prices indeed have risen significantly for most items since them. The biggest price increases (both dollar-wise and percentage-wise) were seen for televisions, according to BestBlackFriday.com, one of numerous outfits that tracks deals. + LOOK BACK: 20-Plus Eye-Popping Black Friday Tech Deals +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft gives one of Windows Phone’s best features to iOS, Android

Windows Phone is not setting the world on fire, which means that only about 3% of all mobile phone users even know about some of its cool features. Rather than keep those features to itself, Microsoft is making them available to other platforms.The company has announced that Office Lens, its photo scanning app that crops pictures and automatically drops them into OneNote or Onedrive, is available for free at Apple's App Store, and that the Office Lens Android Preview is available for testing.The idea behind Office Lens is comparable to the Scannable feature in Evernote. It lets you take a quick picture of a whiteboard, receipt, billboard, or anything else similar and quickly scan and save it to a storage service. The app will auto-crop receipts, whiteboards, and anything else where there is a white object against a dark background.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Vulnerable Dell support tool now detected as risky software

Security vendor Malwarebytes has flagged the Dell System Detect tool as a potentially unwanted application after older versions of the program were found to put computers at risk.Last month a security researcher named Tom Forbes warned that attackers can exploit a weakness in older versions of Dell System Detect to remotely install malware on computers when users visit specially crafted websites.The program allows Dell’s support website to automatically detect the service tags of users’ PCs, so it can offer the corresponding drivers. The tool is offered for download when users click the “Detect Product” button on the website for the first time and continues to run in the background after installation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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