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Sr. Ignatia Bruns 1982
Home/In Memoriam/Sr. Ignatia Bruns 1982
Sister Ignatia Bruns, 1906-1982
Born December 28, 1906, Cincinnati, Ohio
Entered St. Walburg Monastery, November 21, 1926
First Profession August 24, 1928
Died July 2, 1985
Sr. Ignatia Bruns was born to Frank and Margaret Meiners Bruns and given the name Mary Margaret at her baptism. Mary Margaret was one of eight children, three girls and five boys. She entered St. Walburg Monastery on November 21, 1926 and received the habit and her new name on June 20, 1927. Sr. Ignatia made first profession on August 24, 1928 and final profession on August 24, 1931. She celebrated her Silver Jubilee on July 2, 1953 and Golden on July 9, 1978.
After 1943 Sr. Ignatia served at the monastery in bookbinding and leathercraft and also as refectorian. Earlier she spent some years in the classroom at the following missions:
St. Benedict 1929; 1932-33
St. Benedict Commercial 1934-35
Holy Cross 1930-32
Blessed Sacrament 1935-38
Holy Cross High 1938-39
Sr. Ignatia died at St. Elizabeth Hospital on July 2, 1982.


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Wicklea Academy is a newly built three form entry Junior School located in St. Anne's in South Bristol. Its purpose built state of the art facilities includes spacious classrooms, excellent IT resources and a Library at the centre of the building. It backs onto the beautiful Nightingale Valley which offers opportunities of outside learning. Wicklea follows the same broad, balanced, engaging and challenging curriculum as Waycroft Academy which is well enjoyed by all pupils and staff.
Wicklea has forged good links with its feeder school, St Anne's Infants. There is an effective transition programme in place with opportunities for children and parents to get to know Wicklea before the pupils enter Y3. Results at the school are rapidly improving and their awareness of the world and personal and social development is being further enhanced through the Rights Respecting Schools programme.


I see women with many different gynaecological problems and aim to provide the most effective options for treatment in a caring & professional way.
Mr Burrell was appointed Consultant Obstetrician and Gynaecologist at Luton & Dunstable Hospital in 2000 & is the lead clinician for Fetal Medicine scanning & hysteroscopic surgery.
He sees both self funding & insured patients at Spire Harpenden Hospital and is recognised by all major insurers. Appointments for new patients are usually made after a referral by a GP.
Mr Burrell also sees NHS patients at the Clinical Assessment and Treatment Service Verulam Gynaecology (CATS) in London Colney.
Mr Burrell is on the General Medical Council Specialist Register (membership no. 3245590).
An endometrial ablation is a procedure that destroys the uterine lining (endometrium) and is used to treat dysfunctional or abnormal uterine bleeding in women who have completed their family. It can be a very good alternative to hysterectomy for many women although it isn't suitable if you have large fibroids, in which case a hysterectomy may be necessary.
ovarian cancer, uterine cancer, cervical cancer or cancer of the fallopian tubes.
There are different types of hysterectomy & the type performed will depend on the reason for the surgery and how much of the womb and reproductive system can safely be left in place.
Laparoscopic where a few small incisions are made in the abdomen & the womb is removed through one of these.
If it possible for a hysterectomy to be performed laparoscopically it has significant advantages over a vaginal or abdominal hysterectomy i.e.
The ovaries are usually left in place because they produce oestrogen. If the ovaries are removed this will induce the menopause. After a hysterectomy, you will no longer have periods or be able to become pregnant.
Depending on the reason for hysteroscopy it can be performed under local anaesthetic.
Laparoscopy is a minimally invasive procedure that allows access to the inside of the abdomen and pelvis without having to make large incisions in the skin. It can be used to either diagnose a condition, or to allow treatment. The advantages of this technique over traditional open surgery are that there is a faster recovery time, less pain after the operation and minimal scarring.
A laparoscopy may also be recommended when there are problems conceiving to see if there are any problems with the ovaries, fallopian tubes or womb.


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Creative Subtlety When Working With Doubled Vocals
by Björgvin Benediktsson 6 Jun 2013
Difficulty:BeginnerLength:ShortLanguages: English
This post is part of a series called Producing Vocals: From Mic Placement to Mixing.
Working a Multi-pattern Mic for Vocals
How to Process Vocals for Podcasts or Voiceover
The vocal sound is one of the most important aspects of a song. A guitar sound is pretty subjective and even drums can sound a little off without it taking away from the song. Especially if that song has a really great vocal production.
Doubling vocals is one of the most common ways to thicken up a vocal sound. It adds a dimension to the track that no artificial processing can do. Done right with an emotional performance you can double the power of emotion in the song.
But do it wrong and it'll just end up sounding weird.
In the following tutorial we're going to look at why you should double vocals, why automatic double tracking of vocals will never be a good substitute, what you should avoid, and how you can get a little creative.
Why Double Vocals?
A common question people ask is:
How do I get thicker vocals?
Plug-ins like EQ, compression, delay and reverb will all help to thicken up your vocal sound. However, there's nothing that fattens up a vocal performance like a well sung double. With those other plug-ins you're still just processing that one track and that will only go so far. But if you're working with two really good vocal takes, the vocal sound becomes better almost immediately.
Many engineers tend to get lazy and just use automatic double tracking to double the vocals. That will never stand up to an actual double since the intricacies of the performance are so different, even if the singer sings the exact same thing. With ADT you're simply copying the performance and delaying it slightly to create a perceived double.
With an actual double you're not delaying anything. The slight differences from one take to the other is what makes the double so special.
The Power of Subtlety
Many mixing tricks go unnoticed. Their point isn't to draw attention to themselves, but to the song. The same goes for a vocal double. You shouldn't necessarily hear if the vocal is doubled, but you should hear a difference if it's taken away. That's the thickening power of the double. It beefs up the sound without drawing attention to itself.
A normal, mono vocal sounds fairly good on its own.
It has reverb and delay on it since I'm currently working on it.
But with a double it sounds thicker:
But if you add too much it becomes a little too chorusy for my taste.
Someone might like it and leave it like that, but that's not the point I'm trying to make. Adding too much double is straying into "effects" territory, and we're mostly concerned with getting a solid, thick vocal sound and not a chorusy effect. To me it sounds unnatural and jarring to the ear.
To make it even more subtle, you can use EQ to tame the vocal double. By cutting in specific frequency areas where the vocal is most prominent you can reduce the attack and presence of the double, making it blend in more.
Reducing the presence in the high-mids is also pretty effective at making backing vocals blend in better. By reducing the mids and highs they sit better in the mix and don't take attention away from the lead.
Creative Vocal Doubling
Using doubles can get creative, even if you want to keep the chorusy effects subtle.
One way is to enhance certain parts of a song with some creative panning. If a song builds from a verse to a pre-chorus into a full chorus then there's reason to use the vocals to add to that build up.
In this next audio clip I've made the lead vocal slowly pan out to both sides, enhancing the stereo spectrum and making the chorus sound bigger and bigger.
The part starts off with a lonely double in the middle. Once the second part kicks in, the two lead vocals have been panned to opposite sides where they slowly pan out hard left and right until the chorus.
In this example the backup vocals are placed closer to the center than the actual lead. You don't always have to fix the lead vocal to the center if you want to get creative.
Just listen to all the vocals soloed to hear the difference the panned vocals make.
It might sound cool with everything stacked together like that but in the context of the music the spread of the vocals just sounds much better.
Different Ways of Creativity
You can do a lot with vocal doubles. For instance, if you already have a pretty great vocal sound you could use the double to accent certain phrases. You just mute the whole double except for the phrases that you'd like to accent. Specific words in a verse might evoke more emotion if doubled and doubling the closing phrase of a verse serves to reinforce the power of that part.
Doubling vocals is a powerful technique for a great vocal production. It's simply one of those things that doesn't stick out too much but still a necessary ingredient for a good sound.
I hope this tutorial has helped you to understand the importance of using actual doubles instead of relying on artificial double tracking. In addition, the use of EQ and volume can make the double fit right in. Finally, getting creative with panning and your backing vocals can really create a wall of vocals that enhance your musical production like nothing else.
Tell us some of your tricks you've used in your vocal productions in the comments below.
Björgvin Benediktsson
Björgvin Benediktsson is an audio engineer and writer. He is an Alumni from the SAE Institute and has been working in the audio industry since 2006. He has been writing about music production since 2008. Check out his blog Audio Issues where he has written guides on EQ, building a home studio and recording vocals. Follow him on Twitter and circle him on Google+ for more tips and tricks.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Let me take you on a little journey on how Azzip came to offer what we have dubbed Zero Sausage. It all starts in a place that is the source of so many other great decisions, Las Vegas, NV. Craig and I had been tasked in March with the challenge of attending International Pizza Expo, the largest pizza-centric food and equipment show in the world. Three days filled with nothing but walking around and eating pizza toppings and cheeses from around the world, checking out what's new and hot this year, and seeing all the small companies showcasing the product they hope will be the next big thing. It's a tough job, but someone has to do it!
*Side Note: I had my sights set on getting a low-carb cauliflower crust after listening to my wife complain enough about how she missed being able to eat pizza on her diet. Plus, I don't consider throwing toppings on parchment paper and eating it with a fork "Pizza." We found a great low-carb cauliflower crust while we were there. Learn about it here.
Holy cow did it deliver. Most of the other options that I have tried just seemed to be tired attempts to camouflage tofu into something that looks like meat. This was different. It had a fine ground sausage texture, good color, cooked and crisped like good fatty sausage, and it tasted great! If we were going to offer a new ingredient that was plant-based, we wanted first and foremost for the product to taste delicious. We were psyched that night after reviewing what we had discovered and discussed how quickly we can put it in the store. One small problem… the sausage was in test phase, and they had not scaled to production yet. Sooo, we waited.
During the wait, we got with our main supplier, Delco Foods, to get things set up for when the sausage was ready. Delco did let us know that we would be one of the first companies to offer the product. We thought this was really cool that we would be able to introduce this great new product to our customers! But we hit another hiccup; the minimum order size was three times the amount of Tofurky Chick'n that we purchased last year. We had to make a decision on if we felt customers would choose it enough for us to take the risk of not being able to use up the product before the use-by-date. After a discussion and another round of sampling at the home office, we decided that a strong marketing campaign to reach a vocal plant-based foods community would get people to give Zero Sausage** a shot and that the great taste would keep people ordering it.
**Another Side Note: In case you were wondering, the name Zero Sausage is one we coined as we tried to find a way to communicate the product to our customers and allow for an easy ordering experience. We had some really bad ideas before settling on this one.
Well, I am excited to say that since we introduced Zero Sausage in October, that it has been sold on 2% of all pizzas (versus less than 0.5% of pizzas with the Tofurky Chick'n), a number we are very excited by! We also think that as more people substitute vegetable alternatives and lessen the amount of animal products they eat, this number has room for growth. It is really an awesome part of my job to try and find fun, new, delicious products for you to try. I can't wait to go to the Fancy Food Show in San Francisco in January and see what cool products I can bring back and add to our menu in the future.


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TV ReviewsBlackadderSeason 4
Blackadder: "General Hospital"/"Back & Forth"/"Goodbyeee"
Kate Kulzick
Tim McInnerny, Hugh Laurie, Rowan Atkinson, Tony Robinson (BBC One)
BlackadderSeason 4
"Goodbyeee" / "Back & Forth" / "General Hospital"
"Goodbyeee"
"Back & Forth"
"General Hospital"
Blackadder protects his special someone
(Available streaming on Amazon Prime, Hulu Plus, and Netflix)
After the silliness of "Major Star" and larger than life antics of "Private Plane," "General Hospital" is a refreshing change of pace. This episode is unique, the only one of the season to not feature Capt. Blackadder striving to leave the trench. Assigned out of harm's way early on, Blackadder is able to relax and enjoy himself, certain he's found the spy and comfortable taking his full three weeks to report back. There's no sense of urgency, no fear for the soldiers put in danger each day the spy remains free. Blackadder cares more about his vacation than their lives, but then again, he is his own someone special—thinking of others does not come naturally for a man in such constant fear for his own life.
The monotony of this experience is highlighted in the first scene, as Blackadder, Lt. George, and Pvt. Baldrick play the world's least interesting game of I Spy. Rowan Atkinson's delivery of, "Mug!" highlights not only the character's exasperation with his neighbors, but his growing desperation. Scheme after scheme has failed to deliver him to safety. This changes with General Melchett's charge that he find the German spy in the hospital, Blackadder's most straightforward route to a desk job yet. The camera introduces the thread of espionage before Melchett can bring it up, adopting Capt. Darling's point of view and ducking down behind a desk before rushing up behind Blackadder. It's an unusual use of the camera by season four director Richard Boden—for Blackadder at least—but it works well, spicing up the action, however briefly. Afterwards, it's back to standard sitcom direction of the rest of the season, but with dialogue as loaded and sarcastic as Blackadder's, "Our battles are directed, sir?" visual flourishes aren't particularly necessary.
"General Hospital" takes its time, letting a handful of scenes stretch out for most of the runtime. These lengthier scenes give the episode its relaxed tone, but the funniest exchange is one of the episode's shortest—Blackadder's interrogation of Darling. The visual alone is fantastic, Darling trussed up in a chair, his pajamas neatly buttoned to the top and a chamber pot on his head. Tim McInnerny is great in the scene, Darling's high-strung personality pushing him over the edge almost immediately. He can't take the stress and Blackadder knows it. Atkinson barely suppresses a smile throughout, Blackadder fully enjoying his brief moment of power over Darling, and the culmination of the interview, with Darling giving examples of his British-ness—"I have a girlfriend named Doris!"—is absolutely hilarious. Darling's furious scramble out of the room, complete with chair, once Blackadder is done with him is equally great.
Miranda Richardson is back here, playing Nurse Mary in an arc that is a variation on her "Amy And Amiability" storyline. Introduced as a saccharine love interest for George, Mary is revealed to be far more interesting and intelligent and a better match for Blackadder, only to be unmasked in the end as a villain. Of course, "General Hospital" takes things a step further and makes Blackadder completely mistaken in his accusations, costing him his clever, beautiful girlfriend and his cushy new job. Richardson is excellent here, making Mary a far more nuanced and interesting character than the heightened Amy. Her performance carefully walks the line, working equally well as a genuine blossoming romance and a dastardly manipulation and after the fabulous Queenie and psychotic Amy, it's great to see Richardson in a more down to earth role. Given the dark tone of much of Blackadder Goes Forth, it's surprising writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton don't actually kill Mary off, even offscreen. It's nice to know there's a limit to the cynicism of this season.
Once again, Baldrick's role in the episode is limited, but as ever, Tony Robinson rises to the challenge and makes his few moments memorable. Baldrick's continual mispronunciation of, "hostipals" is a source of simple humor and his inability to grasp the concept of I Spy is particularly delightful. Hugh Laurie is a lot of fun as the painfully unaware George and Stephen Fry's delivery continues to make almost any dialogue work. Unfortunately, even Fry can't save the late episode "pooh-pooh" exchange. It starts entertainingly enough, but by the third "pooh-pooh," is trying too hard. It distracts, as does the episode's earlier closeups of Darling, highlighting his twitch rather than allowing it to remain the comparatively subtle touch it's best as. Fortunately, the rest of the episode is some of the best Blackadder of the season, and a lovely example of the show trying something a bit different before the end of the series.
Historical Hairsplitting: WWI saw many nurses serve with distinction, but among the most famous was Edith Cavell, a British nurse in Brussels who was executed in 1915 for helping Allied soldiers flee from German-occupied Belgium to the Netherlands. Cavell was one of a group arrested for this and, after confessing, she was sentenced to death, despite not having been charged with espionage. Cavell and the others are credited with helping around 200 men escape.
Cunning Plans: As far as Baldrick's plans go, this episode's is one of the more sensible—Baldrick recommends that Blackadder walk around the hospital asking everybody, "Are you a German spy?" and the eventual resolution of the arc is not much more subtle than this. Blackadder's mistake is not in overestimating the Germans, but in not underestimating the British.
Blackadder has a lot of great moments here, but his, "Nah" after Mary's, "I thought you loved me" is perhaps his best.
The Field Marshal Haig criticism continues here in the episode's darkest scene. Melchett's reaction to Blackadder's familiarity with the Grand Plan, "total slaughter until everyone's dead except Field Marshal Haig, Lady Haig, and their tortoise, Alan" is great, and his order to, "Hammer large pieces of crooked wood against all the windows!" prompts thoughts of a particularly witty and dry Blackadder zombie apocalypse movie.
Of the various dirty words discussed by Melchett, the most entertaining is easily, "job."
While it aired 11 years after "Goodbyeee," the 1999 millenium special, "Back & Forth," is rather slight, and so rather than end on that note, I'm invoking reviewer's prerogative and going to it first. And so…
"Back & Forth"
Blackadder has some holiday fun
Created as a holiday special, "Back & Forth" is a diverting, if not laugh out loud, addition to the Blackadder canon. Closer in construction to "Blackadder's Christmas Carol" than "The Cavalier Years," this special sees Lord Blackadder hosting a dinner party at the turn of the 21st century and falling victim to his own practical joke when the time machine he has Baldrick mock up to pull a fast one on his guests actually works. The two then travel through time, getting into scrapes and meeting historical figures. Much like "Blackadder's Christmas Carol," the character winds up using his glimpses at the past and future to shape his destiny, and it's great to see characters like Queenie, Nursie, and Lord Melchett return.
The whole cast is fun, and Rowan Atkinson and Tony Robinson immediately feel at home as the latest Lord Blackadder and Baldrick, but the most welcome presence is the appearance, presumably for the final time, of Miranda Richardson as Queenie. While Blackadder's attempt to distract her with a customer loyalty card is rather underwhelming, Queenie's fascination with breath mints is a cute nod to history—Queen Elizabeth was known for her sweet tooth and eventually, her affinity for sugar led her teeth to rot—that fits well with the character's persona.
The rest of the interactions are hit and miss, one of the most successful being Rik Mayall's cameo as Robin Hood. This is the best possible use of Mayall's Lord Flashheart persona—as an over the top, isolated, and very self-aware piece of a larger whole. Mayall's energy is infectious, not overwhelming, and the scene is comfortable allowing the familiar jokes to land without excess punctuation. Equally fun is Lord Blackadder's schoolboy revenge towards Shakespeare, with Colin Firth giving a delightfully flummoxed performance as the Bard. Other scenes are less effective. The stop at Hadrian's wall seems to be included solely to allow Stephen Fry to show off his Latin chops, which is certainly an entertaining moment, but having this be the only scene to feature previous incarnations of Blackadder and Baldrick is distracting. Even more forgettable is the shoehorning in of Napoleon, though Blackadder's horror at his creation of a French Britain is fun.
On the whole, this is a likeable, but utterly disposable installment of the series. It's nice to check in with this talented cast once more, 11 years after the series finale, and see how easily the group slips back into their characters and comedic rhythms. Placing this special in the present, unlike "The Cavalier Years" and "Blackadder's Christmas Carol," gives "Back & Forth" a strong feel of fan fiction, but this is a reunion show, intended as a bit of fun rather than a response to or continuation of the series four finale, and in that capacity, it works well.
"Goodbyeee"
Blackadder says his final farewell
Watching this episode is a singular experience. While the series reaches tremendous heights at various points in its run, each season bringing its own personality and flavor, nothing compares to what this finale is able to achieve. "Goodbyeee" is a masterpiece, a hilarious and painful crystallization of everything Blackadder does well. It is without a doubt the best episode of the series and more than that, it's one of the best series finales in television history.
From the opening moments, "Goodbyeee" stands out. For the first time, Capt. Blackadder, Pvt. Baldrick, and Lt. George stand outside in the rain, the dismal weather setting the tone for the rest of the episode. This will not be a cheery adventure about a pigeon or a farcical case of mistaken identity—the end has come and the show knows it. After this ominous introduction, however, the characters walk out of the rain. In its final episode, Blackadder will not become a dour, self-important drama, and once the stakes have been established, the writers and actors get right back to making the audience laugh. Perhaps the single most impressive element of "Goodbyeee" is its masterful balancing of comedy and tragedy. Both are interspersed throughout, with each character given moments of laugh out loud brilliance and poignant reflection.
Hugh Laurie gets the first opportunity to shine, George reminiscing about enlisting with his classmates and slowly realizing they've all died. The pathos of this moment is tempered, however, by the sheer ridiculousness of each of his friend's names: Jacko, the Badger, Bumfluff… It's impossible to take him seriously, yet impossible not to, and Laurie handles the scene superbly, deftly leaping back and forth from fond memories to crushing realizations, George never allowing himself to feel the full weight of what he's saying.
Next up is Rowan Atkinson, who is remarkable throughout the episode, starting with his beautifully underplayed mad scene. Atkinson's ability to make the simplest of words uproariously entertaining has been featured in several episodes of the series, but never as effectively as in this sequence, when "wibble" and "pah-pah" somehow become unimaginably funny. Blackadder's confidence is a strong undercurrent throughout, allowing the audience to relax and enjoy Atkinson's performance, and when it's stripped away, his anxiety builds until it overtakes everything. Blackadder's panic and anger are palpable and all too relatable. Just as he begins to crack, to take the episode to a point of no return, Baldrick mentions his Cunning Plan and Atkinson relaxes, letting the audience breathe once more.
After being underused in the past several episodes, Tony Robinson finally takes center stage here. The secrets of Baldrick's coffee service are amusing in their own right and set up perhaps the biggest laugh of the entire episode, Tim McInnerny's perfectly delivered, "Ah! Cappuccino," but Robinson is even better asking the questions so many would ponder on a night like this, giving them an earnest, pleading authenticity. The writers use the character incredibly well and his confusion allows Blackadder to expound organically on the war. The scene is a quiet one, the characters sitting around and contemplating the larger machine that brought them to this point; Blackadder's, "it was too much effort not to have a war" is beautiful in its simplicity. It's also delivered with a pair of underpants on Atkinson's head and two pencils stuck up his nose—profound and scathing cynicism coming from a character with a tuft of hair sticking out of the crotch of his headgear of choice. It would be easy for an episode like this to veer into the maudlin or self-serious. Choices like this ensure it never does.
Much of "Goodbyeee" centers on the trio of Blackadder, Baldrick, and George, and rightly so, but two of its most significant exchanges are given to Capt. Darling. As mentioned above, McInnerny matches Atkinson's underplayed style wonderfully while bantering over coffee, and later, he gives the episode its darkest moment, as Gen. Melchett sends Darling to the front. Like Blackadder's underpants and pencils, this scene features a fantastic visual gag in the form of Melchett's mustache net, and yet this touch of absurdity only adds to its power. While Melchett was getting ready for bed and lounging in his robe, Darling fell asleep at his desk, fretting over the men being sent to their deaths. Upon receiving his orders, McInnerny is an open wound, utterly vulnerable and desperate, yet completely unheard by his privileged superior, played with devastating obliviousness by Stephen Fry. Darling has been an annoying git all season, and yet in this moment, that fades away and all the audience is left with is his humanity.
This moment is further strengthened by its visual flourish as a spotlight shines on Darling, a light turned on by the driver waiting outside the office. As Darling looks on in horror, the man steps forward, his shadow creeping toward Darling over the rug, the long arm of the war reaching out to take him, set to the beat of a snare drum. The rest of the episode is shot very straightforwardly, giving the episode the feel of a stage play and putting the audience's focus entirely on the words and performances. The laugh track, annoyingly juiced in much of season four, is comparatively subdued here and barring the aforementioned scene, there's no music until the final moments' return of the now plaintive theme. Director Richard Boden chooses these moments wisely, making his presence felt only when there are no words that can be said, when first Darling, then all of the men, face their fate.
The episode's final act, Blackadder's failed last-ditch scheme and the men's farewell, grows in weight as it progresses, finding ever-darkening humor in Field Marshal Haig's tin soldiers and the contrast between his and Blackadder's last campaign and their current one. With one last act of oppressive incompetence from the leadership, Blackadder resigns himself to his fate, and the episode does as well. All pretense falls away: Darling does not flinch at his name, George lets in his fear, and Doris, a punchline in "General Hospital," suddenly feels like a real person. There are a few more jokes, each less effective than the last, and then in a final show of empathy, separating himself from the Melchetts and Haigs, Blackadder comforts Baldrick and ends the series not on a note of cynicism—the gut-wrenching, "Who would've noticed another madman around here?"—but one of hope, however measured and doubtful, "Good luck, everyone."
It's easy to imagine a different ending to Blackadder Goes Forth. Capt. Blackadder could've snuck away. He could've followed in his Blackadder The Third counterpart's footsteps and maneuvered his way into the elite, leaving Baldrick and George behind. He could've been shot by friendly fire or refused to leave his trench while the rest of the men went over the top. There are a million ways the series could have ended, but anything other than the devastating one presented here would have been dishonest, and disrespectful of the sacrifice so many WWI soldiers made. Instead of taking an easy out, writers Richard Curtis and Ben Elton embrace the insanity of the situation, and by showing its absurd humor along with its overwhelming bleakness, transcend genre to make a pointed, powerful statement about war and privilege.
Historical Hairsplitting: The Christmas Truce, mentioned by Baldrick, took place around Christmas Day in 1914, about five months into the war. It lasted for varying lengths along the Western Front and saw German and British soldiers walk across no-man's land, sing carols, exchange gifts, and retrieve the bodies of their comrades. It was not repeated in subsequent years, with commanding officers threatening charges for anyone attempting to continue the tradition.
Cunning Plans: Baldrick's final Cunning Plan is one of his most straightforward—why not just phone the man in charge and ask to be let off the hook? For Baldrick, it would be useless, as he doesn't have a personal connection to Field Marshal Haig, but luckily Blackadder does. Where this plan ultimately fails is that it puts faith in the command structure, shown to be a mistake continually throughout the season.
For more thoughts on this episode, check out David Sims, Brandon Nowalk, Pilot Virulet, and Sonia Saraiya's excellent TV Roundtable on it here.
Laurie's reading of, "What madness is that?" kills me every time. His ability to make George likable and yet so completely unaware is impressive.
Baldrick polishing shoes with a rat is a nice callback to earlier incarnations of the character and Robinson's nonchalance while doing so is fantastic as ever.
This episode features a quick shout out to Mrs. Miggins, which is particularly fitting considering the coffee sequence.
If Blackadder's attire didn't undercut the potentially preachy tone of his early episode diatribe, his succinct description of the pre-war plan, "It was bollocks" works nicely.
Fry thankfully gets one last glorious, "Bah!" in this episode. He has been an absolute delight throughout the season, and that remains unchanged here despite his more sinister role.
This episode gives a final painful nod to class privilege when Melchett offers to let George sit out the push, but sends Darling to his death. Despite Darling's devotion to him, Melchett can only see him as an illegitimate son, not of the same ilk as himself and George.
I absolutely love this episode. It makes me laugh out loud, and then destroys me, every time. It's quite possibly the funniest episode of the series, and it's certainly the most dramatic. What I find most remarkable about it, though, is that every time I watch it, I like it more. I find new depth and humor. I feel strongly there is no such thing as a perfect television show or episode, but "Goodbyeee" comes dang close.


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	$('#left-sortable li').each(function(){
		$(this).removeAttr('onclick')
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	enableSubmission();
};

$(function() {
	$("list-group-item").sortable();
	$("#left-sortable").sortable({
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		containment : "document",
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	$("#left-sortable, #right-sortable").disableSelection();
});


text:
5 Things We Learned About Padma Lakshmi During Her Revealing Memoir Q&A
March 9, 2016, 2:28 PM ET
The #TopChef host opened up about her life while discussing new memoir Love, Loss, and What We Ate with fans.
Padma Lakshmi wrote her memoir, Love, Loss and What We Ate, to share another side of herself with the world. In fact, when she sat down with Andy Cohen on Tuesday during a Q&A session about the release, she explained one of the most important things she wanted fans to learn from the book. "I'm not the cold bitch I appear to be on Top Chef all the time," she said.
That's just one of the revelations Padma shared about herself during the sit-down, which featured questions from Andy as well as fans in attendance. The Daily Dish was on hand for the chat, which took place at Barnes & Noble in New York's Union Square. Here's the Cliffs Notes version of some of the tastiest tidbits we learned about the model/foodie/mom.
1. Nora Ephron Mentored Her
Yes, the book title is indeed a reference to Nora Ephron's Love, Loss, and What I Wore. The famed author helped Padma through the process of writing her memoir after they met at an Oscars party. "I kind of confessed that I was really struggling with this book and she very generously took me out to lunch, and she was very generous and became a mentor to me in the last year of her life," Padma told Andy. "When I was really struggling with the book and when it was still kind of supposed to be a healthy eating book... I kept struggling. I was lost in the forest of my own writing and she was tease me and say, 'Hey kiddo, how's Love, Loss and What We Ate?' She kept using that as a nickname for the book and it kind of stuck. And then after she died, I just thought it was a great title. She was a great friend to me."
2. She Once Had a Relationship with a Woman
Padma dished about a brief affair with a woman during her modeling days in Milan. "It was the first time I was far away from home and I was surrounded by the most beautiful women in the world," she recalled to the Watch What Happens Live host. "I'm not sorry. It was the first time I was an adult. I was experimenting with my sexuality. I never had had an emotional, romantic relationship with a woman. But I'm not sorry. It was a beautiful experience. It happened a few times and that's it."
3. Sometimes Bad Things Happen on Top Chef
During a more tense period with Adam Dell, the father of her daughter Krishna, Padma received the news that he was suing her for full custody while she was in the middle oftaping the show in the Bahamas. The news arrived via a call from her publicist. To make matters worse, Adam was visiting Padma and their daughter. "It was a very intense time," she said to Andy. "Highly tense and stressful. He was there to see Krishna. He was there to have his visitation... This is like dead-serious. This is like no-joke drama. I was shocked but I thank god for Top Chef. My work saved me because I had to stand on that 'X.'" But things are definitely better with Adam these days. "We certainly get the badge for Most Improved," Padma noted.
4. There's No One Journey in Life
Despite appearing poised and in control whenever we see her, there was a time in Padma's life when she didn't have everything planned out. In fact, around the time she was 30, she started to feel like she hadn't accomplished all that much. "Sometimes it takes longer to cook. I wanted to say I didn't know who I was for a long time," she told one audience member of her path to a successful life. "I'm really happy with who I am. And I'm even happy to have gone through a lot of the really hard parts of my life because they made me stronger."
5. Yes, She's Nervous About Krishna Reading Her Book
Considering the book goes into great detail about the love triangle she was in when she found out she was pregnant, there are aspects of the book that Padma does worry about her daughter reading someday. "I'm really proud of this book, but I'm nervous about everything my daughter reading it. I'm not gonna lie," she told the The Daily Dish. "You know the books came early and I was singing them for friends, and Krishna said, 'Oh I want one mommy.' And literally I felt nauseous. My stomach fell. But I think that in our house, if you came to my house, there are books all over. And my grandfather taught all of us the love of books. And so I do want her to love books. I think she'll probably read it much sooner than I want her to, but hopefully by the time she reads it she would have already had a lot of these things filtered down to her at every stage of life — by me, by her father, by her grandmother, by her aunts, by her uncles — in a way that's age appropriate. And what Krishna knows today is that 'Daddy and mommy weren't married. And that mommy really loved Poppy (former boyfriend Teddy Forstmann, who she initially thought may havebeen Krishna's father) and that all of them really love me.'"
It's a big week for Padma. In addition to the release of her memoir, Top Chef is gearing up for its two-part finale from Las Vegas this week. Check out a preview.
Take a look Padma's pics from her modeling days, below.
Padma Lakshmi's Throwback Modeling Shots Are Timeless
What's Padma Doing on Capitol Hill?
Padma Says She Was Unsure of Who Her Daughter's Dad Was


Collins Big Cat has a great seletion of fiction and non-fiction reader. The series benefits from different book sizes, wonderful illustrations, a variety of characters and lots of genres. Big Cat match the different tastes in your classroom and engage all your readers.


text:
echo "--- system details"
$Properties = 'Caption', 'CSName', 'Version', 'BuildType', 'OSArchitecture'
Get-CimInstance Win32_OperatingSystem | Select-Object $Properties | Format-Table -AutoSize

# Install winrm
winrm quickconfig -q

# Install cmake
choco install cmake
$Env:path += ";C:\Program Files\CMake\bin"

gem update bundler --no-document

echo "--- Print Runtime Environment"
echo $Env:path
ruby -v
bundle --version
bundle config set path 'vendor/bundle'
bundle env

echo "--- bundle install"
bundle install

echo "+++ bundle exec rake"
bundle exec rake spec

exit $LASTEXITCODE


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Movie Review: 'The Theory of Everything' Excels at Simplifying the Complex
Bill Graham // Film Critic
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING | 123 min. | Rated PG-13 | Director: James Marsh | Stars: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, Harry Lloyd, Tom Prior, Alice Orr-Ewing, Simon McBurney, Christian McKay, Emily Watson and David Thewlis
James Marsh's THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING is a heartbreaking biopic and simultaneous celebration of what it means to have a disabling illness yet persevere and do extraordinary things. Following theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, the film is anchored by two extraordinary performances from Eddie Redmayne (Stephen Hawking) and Felicity Jones (Jane Hawking). But it's also about the power of true love. Many hours could be dedicated to the theories that Hawking has given us and yet the film manages to do more than just glaze over this information. Instead, Marsh gives us enough detail to both understand and ignite our own curiosity. In that way, it does Hawking proud.
For those unfamiliar with Hawking's life, he wasn't always paralyzed. Instead, he lived his younger years with a lot of vivacious activity. He was a known slacker but he was always trying to ignite his passion. Hawking found it when he was in college, and that's where we catch up to him to start our story. It's an intelligent place to start this film that is just a touch over 2 hours, because it gives him to us at the point where his life would rapidly change. In quick succession, he met Jane, he found his passion, and he also started to degenerate muscularly due to ALS.
Also, check out our interview with Eddie Redmayne here.
Felicity Jones (Like Crazy) and Eddie Redmayne (Les Misérables) play Jane and Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything. Photo courtesy of Focus Features.
There are hints at first of his condition. Almost too much so, but the real life accounts likely back it up. After all, this is inspired by the book Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen by Jane Hawking, whom screenwriter Anthony McCarten tirelessly pursued to get her permission. That's because as much as this is a film about Stephen, it is also about their journey together, and much of it takes place from her perspective.
And that's where the film revolves most heavily. Indeed, Jones and Redmayne practically sparkle on screen. They have a charm as two lovers that fall for each other despite coming from very different backgrounds and interests that resonates. And while the film has to move quickly through their initial meetup, once Hawking's body starts to degenerate we end up with her as his translator at times. It's beautiful to witness and encapsulates a lot of what their relationship was like at the time.
As wonderful as the love story at the center of the film is, the mathematics that are shown aren't treated as a minor character. The froth from a pint of beer, the coals of a fire, or simply peas and potatoes at a dinner table all become objects to explain these complex theorems of astrophysics and it simply works. Shockingly so. But it's all part of the charm of the film.
In the hands of a lesser screenwriter and/or director, this could have turned into a very sad tale. Instead, despite Hawking's degenerative illness, there are moments of outright hilarity even when he is fully enveloped by ALS. Hawking, to this day, remains a very humorous man and it shows in the film. If anything, his quick wit and charm are highlighted because of his condition and THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING ends up being quite inspirational of the persistence of the human mind and personality.
Felicity Jones, Stephen Hawking, and Eddie Redmayne. Photo courtesy of Focus Features.
And let's not forget the incredible journey that Redmayne goes through as the film progresses. To have a healthy, young actor portray someone who starts the film as lively and ends curled up into a chair over the course of several decades is no small feat. Makeup artist Jan Sewell does remarkably subtle work that never feels out of place and transitions over the course of time with tricks of the trade. By the end you not only see Redmayne as Hawking, you become used to the appearance and are able to relax into the story.
Marsh likely won't get the credit he deserves for his balancing-act of three very difficult themes that could each end up being their own film. Yet, with the help of McCarten, Marsh is able to tell a remarkable story that never feels rushed or hampered by time. Ultimately, THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING never seems to overreach and instead finds a beautiful simplicity in this remarkably true story.
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING opens today.
Eddie Redmayne3 Felicity Jones7 James Marsh1 The Theory of Everything3
Best of the Fest: The Films at Lone Star Film Festival '14
Movie Review: 'Rosewater' An Earnest Portrayal with a Surprisingly Comedic Perspective
Preston Barta
Hello, there! My name is Preston Barta, and I am the features editor of Fresh Fiction and senior film critic at the Denton Record-Chronicle. My cinematic love story began where I was born: off planet on the isolated desert world of the Jakku system. It's there I passed the time scavenging for loose parts with my good friend Rey. One day I found an old film projector and a dusty reel of the 1975 film JAWS. It rocked my world so much that I left my kinfolk in the rearview (I so miss their morning cups of green milk) to pursue my dreams of writing about film. It wasn't long until I met two gents who said they would give me a lift. I can't recall their names, but one was an older man who liked to point a lot and the other was a tall, hairy fella. They got me as far as one of Jupiter's moons where we crossed paths with the U.S.S. Enterprise. Some pointy-eared bastard said I was clear to come aboard. He saw that I was clutching my beloved shark movie and invited me to the "moving pictures room" where he was screening the 1993 film JURASSIC PARK to his crew. He said my life would be much more prosperous if I were familiar with more work by the god named Steven Spielberg. From there, my love for cinema blossomed. Once we reached planet Earth, everything changed. I found the small town of Denton, TX, and was welcomed into the Barta family. They showed me the writings of local film critic Boo Allen. He became my hero and caused me to chase a degree in film and journalism. After my studies at graduate of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, I met some film critics who showed me the ropes and got me into my first press screening: 2011's THE GREEN LANTERN. Don't worry; I recovered just fine. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD was only four years away.


Abstract: Maritime safety has undergone considerable change in the past decades, particularly inits improved approach to risk quantification analysis. This article reviews the challenges of maritime safety analysis and the different approaches used to quantify the risks in maritime transportation. Formal safety assessment (FSA) is examined with a focus on its deficiencies, and its recent developments are described at the International Maritime Organization (IMO) level. The possible applications of FSA in maritime security and piracy analysis are discussed given its growing impacts on safety at sea. Some new uncertainty and risk modelling techniques are also presented to demonstrate how risk quantification analysis facilitates the transformation of maritime safety culture from a reactive prescriptive scheme towards a proactive goal-setting regime.


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apple nerd
Apple Video Series – Taking iPhone Photos
Apple has prepared a series of tutorials about how to take photos with the iPhone 7. Several focus on Portrait mode, but most of them provide good advice for taking photos on any mobile device with a camera.
Tags ios, iphone
nerd productivity technology
No Smile Here as TextExpander Subscribes to New Business Plan
Years ago I got hooked on automation for fun and productivity, and expanding snippets of text on my Mac made me feel like a wizard.
In those early years, I waffled between Typinator and TypeIt4Me before the introduction of the iPhone. I moved to TextExpander sometime around 2010 when it began syncing with my then-new iPhone. I used it exclusively until Tuesday, April 5, when Smile Software announced the transition to a subscription plan.
Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall. —Proverbs 16:18 (NKJV)
The idea of a subscription model doesn't bother me. The software is awesome and remains the only snippet expander that is widely supported by iOS app developers. Why write off more than five years of building habits and muscle memory?
The exorbitant cost.
Expanding Costs
I think I got into the game with my first purchase of Textpander 3 circa 2010 for $19.95 (after taking advantage of a $15 discount). Continuing to invest in the system, I later upgraded to version 4 for $19.95 followed by an upgrade to the last version for another $20. These purchases for my Mac were coupled with versions 3 and 4 on iOS for $4.99 each.
If you're keeping up, that's a total investment just a hair short of $70 to license the software for roughly five years, or about $14 a year.
Under the new subscription model, the cost is easy to project for the next five years. The charge over five years for new users paying monthly will be $297. "Loyal" users get a break for 12 months. Here is a full breakdown of subscription costs over a five-year period.
New Annual
New Monthly
Upgrade Annual
Upgrade Monthly
$237.60 $297 $213.84 $267.36
Doesn't Compare
Smile Software isn't breaking any new ground with its move to a subscription model. Adobe and Microsoft also made the move, but the return on investment simply doesn't compare.
If my memory hasn't faded too much, major version releases of Adobe's Master Collection arrived about every three years with an upgrade cost of $1,800. The company now charges $50/month to access the entire stable of pro editing software with regular updates, or $1,800 every three years.
Microsoft's Office Suite used to be in the neighborhood of $400 with deep discounts for students to $150. Now, those apps are available to regular users of Office 365 for $6.99/month, or $419.40 every five years. This includes services such as free tech support, 1 TB of OneDrive cloud storage, and web versions of Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook in addition to the full desktop apps.
The cost to subscribe software from Adobe and Microsoft is comparable to the prior cost to buy boxed versions off the shelf. Based on my personal experience, the cost to subscribe to TextExpander will increase from an average of $14/year to $42.77/year, a 205.5 percent annual increase.
There are other concerns beyond price.
Smile seems proud to drop sync services with Dropbox and iCloud to host its new Meteor app on the Galaxy cloud service. No more free to cheap, widely available, mature services available. Just the new textexpander.com. They seem to be taking Steve Jobs 2007 "very sweet solution" for developers to heart.
This was a case where history proves that Jobs wasn't always right. Smile's mandatory replacement locks users into a service that is arguably less secure. After fallout from the company's initial announcement and press release, Smile Software issued a clarification the next day explaining upgrade options and the company's intention "to support it on El Capitan and the next major upgrade of OS X."
After turning off snippet expansion in TextExpander, I am adding snippets to Keyboard Maestro as needed. Keyboard Maestro is life-changing software I already owned that easily handles snippet expansion and so much more.
What Else Can Keyboard Maestro Do? Pretty much anything you can imagine including launch applications, click the mouse, palettes, execute scripts, insert text, manipulate windows, record macros, built in flow control, use text tokens, menus and buttons, open, file actions, clipboard history, control itunesnotifications, notifications, and perform image actions.
I lose syncing with iOS this way, but will just enter my oft-used snippets into the the Text Replacement features built into iOS. You can find these options on your iPhone under Settings > General > Keyboard > Text Replacement. Snippets entered here will sync with your other Apple devices, but lack form entry and support for multiple lines or paragraphs of text.
A few other options include Typinator (by ergonis) and TypeIt4Me (by Ettore Software, App Store affilitiate link) along with aText (by Tran Ky Nam Software), the cheapest alternative for a sawbuck. Ettore also offers TypeIt4Me Touch (App Store affiliate link) that syncs with iOS using iCloud.
It's too late to keep this long story short. If you scrolled to the end, here's the nut of it. TextExpander has priced itself out of my business and I'm using Keyboard Maestro instead.
Tags ios, macosx
technology writing
Sorting Out How I Work With Plain Text
My cup runneth over with superb apps for writing, manipulating, and writing text on any Apple device; so much so that it's hard to pick the one I want to work in right now. A nice problem to have, but still a problem. A post by @macdrifter published on New Year's Day, Quick Notes with Sublime Text, prodded me think about this.
As a nerd plunked firmly in the "fiddly" class, at least I know one thing. After years of agonizing over which font I want to use and how big the margins should be, I committed a long time ago to working in plain text using Fletcher Penney's MultiMarkdown (based on John Gruber's Markdown). All of my files are synced using iCloud or Dropbox for ubiquitous access from my Mac, iPhone, and iPad mini.
On my Mac, most ideas start in Sublime Text 3. It is always open and one of the best text editors on the market (along with BBEdit, of course).1 A bonus to both text editors is the hot exit; all open files are saved and reopened the next time you launch the app. This alleviates my File Naming Anxiety Disorder (FNAD), an affliction that submitted for inclusion in DSM-6.
So from my Mac I may start quickly in Sublime Text, but at some point I freeze and wonder, "Is this really where I want to be working on this?" These are my top three options, all of which recognize variants of Markdown while curating their own unique strengths:
MultiMarkdown Composer — This application for writing in MultiMarkdown is designed by Fletcher Penney, the man who designed the markup language. What could be better?
Ulysses III — In my memory, Ulysses kicked off the plain text editing revolution on the Mac. The developers completely overhauled the design and it is beautiful (and dovetails perfectly into their iOS app Daedalus Touch).
Byword — Another popular app with many writers on the web, Byword's designers built in capabilities to publish directly to WordPress and Tumblr.
All three are terrific. Though it's a Mac application, Ulysses III works the most like an iOS app; open a new file, start typing, and it's just saved somewhere in the app without irritating my FNAD. Byword and MultiMarkdown Composer (MMC) work with standard files that are saved in iCloud or Dropbox, respectively. MMC handles MultiMarkdown metadata better than the other two (as it should coming from the man who wrote the spec).
Another Can of Worms
This has so far focused on the Mac while ignoring two other platforms, the iPhone and iPad. I'm getting bored with this topic for now, so I'm just going to rip out a few points here.
Byword is available on all three platforms
Ulysses III, coupled with Daedulus Touch, is sort of available on the Mac, iPhone, and iPad.
MultiMarkdown Composer is Mac-only, but being plain text is available for easy editing on any device when synced with Dropbox.
Findings?
The whole purpose for writing this article is to sort through my options and determine a system that works best for me. I don't think I am quite there yet. If you're still reading and curious, I chose to write this article in MultiMarkdown Composer. When I nail down something that works for me, I'll let you know.
BBEdit is still my go to app for cleaning up and reformatting documents using Text Factories. My most common use case is copying the text of meeting agendas sent to me in MS Word, pasting into BBEdit, running a Text Factory that strips weird spaces and characters, converts to Markdown, which is exported into HTML to publish online. ↩
Tags apps, ios, macosx, txt, workflows
check tags
Nailing the Workflow
I've played around long enough. It's time to commit to my writing tools and stick to them. Here's the list.
On my Mac
As far as I'm concerned, Scrivener is the winner on Mac. I've tried them all and have no more questions. Scrivener is it for me.
On my iPad
Discovering Writing Kit made this decision easy. It quickly became the de facto app for writing on my first-generation iPad.
On my iPhone
I'm still waffling here, but since growing to version 2.0 Writing Kit has the edge. It not only syncs with Dropbox (natch) and handles Markdown beautifully and mimics the writing environment I enjoy on my iPad. Elements 2 by Second Gear Software still runs in my stable on my iPhone and iPad because it allows me to send HTML-formatted emails from within the app.
By setting my default Dropbox folder to the root directory, I can move within both apps from one project to another. For instance, I just swapped from my Mac to my iPhone and back to edit this article within the Scrivener hierarchy. Cool huh?
Note: I've heard it's best to close Scrivener when you leave your Mac if you plan to edit files while you're away. I hear that's bad juju.
Just because I'm nailing my workflow to the apps I described above doesn't mean I'm excluding apps–such as OmniOutliner for iPad and iThoughts–that support my work.
Tags appleinc, ios, macosx, writing
Some blogs are comprised of audio, photos, or videos, but most of them are still brewed the old-fashioned way, by stringing together a bunch of (hopefully) related words and publishing them to the Internet for everyone to read and discuss.
Rinse. Repeat. Rinse again. Seriously, go wash up. People are beginning to talk.
My first thought as I began to think about which direction to steer my blog was, "What do I want to read?" I reviewed some of my favorite writers and major influences and found a few common threads:
They're smart – John Gruber is just as likely to quote Cormac McCarthy (as he did during his talk at Webstock 2011), recite stats from his beloved Yankees (despite living in Philly), or wax rhapsodic about which actor portrayed the best James Bond (Connery, hands down) as he is to share his candid thoughts about the latest tech news.
They're funny – My favorite comedy is dry as an aged John Cleese (is there any other kind?) It's Adam saying "I hate you guys" under his breath during an episode of You Look Nice Today. Dirty Rotten Scoundrels? Pure gold.
They're experts – Dan Benjamin has had a set of cans on him since he was a toddler. Organizations from Rutgers U. to Google and others pay Merlin Mann lots of money to tell them what they're doing wrong and how they can do it better. He was also at Webstock '11 with Gruber, whose sites get "fireballed" by readers who follow his expert commentary and Claim Chowder.
These folks are the cream of the crop. It's ridiculous to set my goals so high, but that's what I've done. I'm not here to compete with them and surely don't claim to join them. I do understand the craftsmanship that goes into what they do and I'm a huge fan of their work.
¡Mios Dio, man! This could get embarrassing!
By the way, most of my reading happens in Instapaper, which Marco Arment (@marcoarment) updated to 4.0 this week. You really should go and buy it now.
Tags ios, reading, writing
Apple TV update failures
I found Apple's Express Lane while haggling with a new piece of tech over software updates.
We got tired of wrestling weirdness with the dying first generation Apple TV in our living room. It's dying a painful death, so we bought another second generation Apple TV to put in that room.
The Apple Store had a refurbished model in stock and we ordered it without hesitation. I've had great success with refurbished Macs and this Apple TV is not an exception. It arrived in perfect condition, just like the brand new Apple TV we bought a few months ago.
The only problem we've had is that the refurb came with iOS 4.1.x installed and the updater refuses to install the latest version (the one with the MLB, NBA, and stability fixes).
At first I feared we had received our first dud from Apple, and the jury is still out on that one, but it looks like it is simply a server issue on Apple's end.
I picked up a thread on Apple's own discussion forums where other users from all over the U.S. and Switzerland to Australia were struggling with the same issue. There are sporadic stories of success, but it wasn't finding me. That's when I discovered Express Lane.
Support in the Express Lane
The support service is represented by what looks like an iOS app icon in Apple's now infamous blue hue. Log in with your Apple ID, leave a phone number, and set up a time for Apple to call you back.
It worked like a charm.
I set an appointment for today at 11 a.m. My iPhone 4 rang just a few minutes after and I had an anticlimactic answer by 11:10 a.m.
The rep told me the "higher ups" know about this issue and confirmed there is a problem with the Apple TV updates server. While he couldn't give me a firm ETA, he did let me know they are working to fix it.
Patience is the fix. It isn't what I wanted to hear, but the update should install correctly sometime in the next few days. So I will muster my patience and try the update again tomorrow.
Followup:Patience failed. We downloaded the ipsw file from a squirrelly source, connecting the Apple TV to a Mac with a Micro USB cord (the same cord used with the Amazon Kindle) and using iTunes to manually update the device (hold the option key and click restore).
Tags appleinc, appletv, ios, support
iPad: My review one year late
Using an iPad (first generation) for a few weeks now improved the way I work.
Taking notes helps me stay focused and engaged during a meeting or conversation. If you saw me in a meeting, it was a safe bet a notebook or legal pad (yellow paper please) wasn't far from my side. The physical act of writing with a pen or pencil is one of my simple pleasures, yet as a prolific notetaker, the problem I found with collecting mounds of handwritten yellow pages is the lack of an easy way to search them. Proper filing makes pages easier to find (sometimes), but without a meticulous and impractical concordance I know of no way to search those files beyond simple topics. Using the iPad, I can tag my digital notes and search them with ease.
Not only can I take notes at work and church, but the combination of my iPad and iPhone constitue a digital filing cabinet I always have with me. I have used notebook computers exclusively for nearly a decade and an iPhone for about three years now, but the iPad has taken mobile computing to a whole new level for me.
Creating new content
Lots of people–naysayers and devoted iPad users alike–say the iPad is only for consumption and unsuitable for creation.
I'm no artist, but the tools on the market appear to be amazing. Adobe Ideas, Sketchbook Pro, and Brushes are three that come to mind and the number of high-quality photo editing apps is virtually overwhelming.
Words are my craft, and there is no shortage of tools to help writers. I'm juggling several apps right now until I find a home. IA Writer is my favorite so far for creating narrative content (this article for example). I haven't settled on a favorite app for taking notes, but I've narrowed the field. Nebulous Notes is great and I've used PlainText and Elements. The new player on the field is OmniOutliner for iPad from the software ninjas at The Omni Group, and it looks perfect for taking notes.
Like any writer/geek these days, I use Scrivener on my Mac and and look forward to paying for final release of the beta version running on my Windows netbook. Sharing files between Mac OS X and Windows is seamless, but there are no plans to bring Scrivener to the iPad. A wise developer decision, but I'm still flailing about until I can find a pleasing way (for me) to edit writing contained in Scrivener projects while I'm on the go.
About that consumption
I disagreed with those who believe the iPad is only good for consumption, but I don't disagree that the device is a terrific tool for digesting everything the Internet has to offer (unless it runs in Adobe Flash, which is fine with me). This is another area where my workflow has transformed.
The iPad is as close to perfect as anything I've seen for plowing through RSS feeds and other news sources online. I've been using Reeder on the iPhone for a long time, but more for triage than actual reading. I have to admit that I'm getting older, my eyesight isn't what it used to be, and the larger screen makes reading easier and following up on the Web a pleasure when necessary. Videos on YouTube, Vimeo, and Netflix run like a technicolor dream (unless you're into black & white recordings, and those work fine too).
Tags apps, ios, ipad, productivity, writing
Everyone in the room sighed and rolled their eyes skyward. "He's written about this so many times. Too many times."
I like Macs, but recently added a Windows-based netbook to my lineup of writing tools. Here is an update of the software I use all the time. I'll be brief.
Adium X for instant messaging
Adobe InDesign for page layout
Apple Mail for work email
MoneyWell for personal finance
NetNewsWire for managing & reading newsfeeds (but I'm looking into Reeder)
nvALT for entering text
OmniFocus for project management
Scrivener for writing projects
Sparrow for home email
Textmate for editing text
Twitter for Mac for Twitter (duh)
ResophNotes for entering text
Scrivener again
Text Editor O'the Day (either Elements, Nebulous Notes, Notesy, or PlainText)
Beluga for private family instant messaging
Calvetica for my iPhone calendar
Camera+ for photos
Due for quick timers and reminders
MoneyWell for iPhone
Instacast for managing and listening to podcasts
Instagram for social photography
Instapaper for reading
iPod for listening to music
Reeder for reading newsfeeds
Tweetbot for Twitter on iPhone and the official Twitter client for iPad
…and I mean everywhere.
1Password for managing logins and passwords. Priceless.
This isn't comprehensive, but it covers the bases. I could go on–go ahead, ask anyone–but I won't. You're welcome.
Tags applications, apps, ios, macosx, software, windows
So, I got a netbook
Coming soon… Posts that aren't so nerdy!
Julie gave me a netbook last week. My last PC was a 386 with an 80mb hard drive and 8mb of RAM. I replaced it with an Apple Performa 6116CD, which science can carbon date to the early 1990s. I have been a dedicated Mac user ever since and have long-since forgotten how to parse the specs for a Windows machine. The netbook is new to me although this model was released about a year ago.
The keyboard isn't too shabby compared to other netbooks I've used. While it isn't full size, the keys are large and responsive enough to make it a decent and very portable writing tool (until I can afford a MacBook Air). The additional couple of pounds compressed into my white plastic MacBook seems unbearable now compared to the netbook.
One big step forward for me was securing a Windows license for 1Password, the premiere password management solution for iOS, Mac OS X, and Windows produced by Agile Web Solutions.
Having used Macs exclusively for nearly 20 years now (20 years?!) it seemed like a no-brainer to pick up another Mac license for 1Password with the MacUpdate Spring Bundle I bought three weeks ago. It didn't take me long after cracking this netbook open last week to realize my mistake. I needed a Windows license for 1Password!
I already own a license for Mac so I crossed my fingers and emailed customer support at 9:22 EST on a Wednesday night asking them to revoke and replace my latest Mac license. "Happiness Engineer" Nik L. responded 13 minutes later at 9:35 with a Windows license. 13 minutes! "Computer Whisperer" Marty S. (love the titles) even followed up at 1:11 a.m. EST to ensure the new license worked for me.
So many people limit their opinions to the bad times. I spent enough time in the service industry to understand the value of positive comments. The company had no obligation to grant my request, but they did.
The folks at Agile Web Solutions displayed unparalleled customer service for what I already knew to be a superior product. My experience was like staying at a hotel and realizing a day or two later you want a different room. You don't have a good reason, but their staff happily moves all of your things to an identical room across the hall.
There are other password managers for Mac OS X and other platforms, but I have never heard anyone rave about them. Users treasure 1Password. Merlin Mann and others on Dan Benjamin's 5by5 podcasts mention it regularly. Agile Web Solutions sponsors the MacPowerUsers podcast, but I think hosts Dave Sparks and Katie Floyd would flaunt the cross-platform value of 1Password whether they were paid to or not.
1Password is superior software and Agile Web Solutions' customer support is prompt and impeccable.
ResophNotes
Text editors get regular use on all of my devices all tied together with the indispensable twine Dropbox provides. I rely on nvALT (a variant of the open source Notational Velocity) on my Macs. I never can settle on which horse to ride from my stable full of iOS text editors. My top three picks are:
Elements – for search capabilities and general use
Nebulous Notes – for macros and superior Markdown integration
Notesy – for user interface and choice of using a monospace or proportional typeface per file
My search was quick; ResophNotes fills the void on Windows. Because the interface is nearly identical to nvALT on my Mac, ResophNotes dovetails perfectly into my workflow.
Scrivener is my choice for composing longform articles, research-based writing, and incubating book ideas. I committed to using Scrivener several years ago after finding Literature & Latte. Software developer Keith Blount knew exactly how to make writers happy because he happens to be an author himself. He wrote the program to serve his own writing needs and selflessly shared his work with us.
The Windows version is a relatively new venture–still in beta as I write this–but should be available for release soon. I look forward to adding a license soon after Scrivener's imminent non-beta release.
It seems like everyone has something good to say about Dropbox. The company's version of cloud storage is a must-have tool that should be installed by default on every single new computing device on every platform. If you don't have it, get it.
The netbook came with a relatively impressive collection of fonts, but I had to add two more free ones–Inconsolata and Bitstream Vera Sans Mono–to keep my wits about me in a text editor. I'm still debating whether I need something as powerful as TextMate for the netbook and I'm open to suggestions for a Windows replacement.
Tags applications, apps, ios, iphone, macosx, netbooks, windows, writing
Writing Anywhere and Everywhere
Writing applications are growing as plentiful and affordable as the number of platforms on the market to help me record my thoughts. I am using this blog to review and define my system of capturing ideas.
I no longer have to wait until I have my favorite notebook and pen or return to my computer desk. Smart phones like the Apple iPhone and other devices running Android are great for capturing ideas or even making progress on longer work.
For the record, I prefer the iPhone and will focus on iOS apps and work on a Mac so you can stop reading now if that's not how you roll. I didn't write this to tell you what you should do, but if it works for you then that's terrific. This article is selfishly focused on helping me work better.
I've narrowed the types of words I capture to three types, and use different applications on different platforms depending on my environment.
My iPhone is always at hand, making it a nearly perfect "ubiquitous capture tool" (to use the lingua franca of GTD) for basic notes. If I overhear something interesting or funny, I jot it down. Think of something I don't want to forget? This is the perfect tool to help me remember it.
One offs. Lists. Scribbled thoughts. Nothing formal here, just random thoughts. A few bits of reference I want to have with me all the time. I periodically review and process these notes to create or supplement projects or delete them.
How I get notes into my iPhone depends on the situation. I use JotAgent to fire off a quick note. The app creates a new file stamped with the date and time down to the seconds. This ensures I won't have two files of the same name and I can add a description later when I process my notes.
Applications I Use: JotAgent and Elements on the iPhone. [Notational Velocity][41] on the Mac (I prefer Brett Terpstra's variant [nvALT][42]).
Honorable mention: MarkdownMail, Nebulous Notes, Plaintext, Simplenote, and Writeroom (for iPhone and Mac).
Some notes are more refined than others, and I am going to call these research notes. These are notes that may drive my writing to some end, or maybe notes from meetings I attend.
This is an area where I struggle. I still take notes the old-fashioned way, with pen and paper, and I haven't figured out how to digitize those notes. I know the LiveScribe pen is one option, but it just doesn't sound right to me. I don't think I would like it.
I tried pairing an Apple bluetooth keyboard with my iPhone. It works, but it's still a clunky kludge and not much better than using a laptop.
The iPad 2 is appealing—the MacBook Air, too—but I don't have the spare capital to swing either purchase right now.
Applications I Use: Elements on the iPhone. Scrivener and TextMate on the Mac, which I keep coupled together using QuickCursor.
Honorable mention: DEVONthink Pro and Yojimbo for data storage and retrieval.
Snippets grow into notes, and ideas develop into a novel, a blog post, or a research paper. A note captured while walking to the mailbox could grow into a masterpiece to export later into LaTeX or some other formatted output for publication.
Applications I Use: Scrivener and TextMate, MarsEdit for blog posts, Pages for print.
Honorable mention: Mellel, Microsoft Word, Pagehand.
BBEdit, TextMate, Text Wrangler, Ulysses
All of my writing that ends up being worth anything spends a good deal of life in a text editor before publication in print or online. TextMate is my weapon of choice, and my bullets are written using Fletcher Penney's MultiMarkdown, which extends the formatting capabilities of John Gruber's original Markdown.
MultiMarkdown is a markup language that allows for semantic text editing. As a plain text file it is infinitely portable and flexible. The file can be exported to Rich Text Format, LaTeX, HTML, and other formats for further processing before publication.
Ulysses is another kind of semantic text editor worth a closer look.
Word Processors
Mellel, Microsoft Word, Pagehand, Pages
Word processors do more than edit text. They allow you to pick different fonts, adjust margins, and all kinds of other fiddly activities you should really avoid unless you are actually finished writing. Until then, I'll stick to a text editor and recommend you do the same.
You would be amazed how liberating a simple monospaced font can be for your writing. Try it.
Microsoft Word is my least favorite word processor, but it's a necessary evil because it is so deeply ingrained in office culture. If you need to share a file and preserve formatting, you're probably going to need Word.
Having said that, I only use it when I must share my files with someone else. If someone sends me a file, I open it in TextEdit or Path Finder's text editor.
Outliers and additions
Evernote is a terrific application. I keep trying to work it into my workflow, but it just doesn't fit. David Sparks summed up my feelings during the podcast he records with fellow attorney Katie Floyd. About 19 minutes into their episode titled Taking Notes on Mac OS X and iOS he said, "Evernote is, in my case, an elegant solution where I don't have a problem."
That's exactly what I've been thinking but lacked the eloquence to package my thoughts.
OmniOutliner Pro can't be beat for making outlines, but for some reason it slips off my radar when I'm at a point where it makes sense. I crank out most of my outlines in a Markdown text file, but OmniOutliner is the ultimate outlining tool on the Mac.
TextExpander (and it's iPhone counterpart TextExpander Touch) is the glue that holds my writing life together. Apps that have a hook for TextExpander to grab onto don't get a lot of use from me.
Thoughts on file names
I've tried some naming schemes that got awfully convoluted, but they got to the point that I couldn't remember what was what. I'll probably make it difficult for myself again, but for now I stick with dating each file and providing a brief descriptive name. Like this:
2011-03-06 brief descriptive name
See? Easy!
Just remember to lay down some context for your notes or you may find yourself a bit lost in the days, weeks, or months to come.
Like I said in the beginning, this article is an exercise to help me define how I work. I hope it helps you in some way, but recommend that you try several options to see what works best for you.
Tags ios, iphone, macosx, notes, writing
∞ Thirty Percent
Eddie perfectly sums up Apple's much-discussed 30 percent cut in the iOS App Store. Amen and pass it on.
∞ Thirty Percent:
Apple isn't taking jack from you because without Apple you wouldn't have a business developing iOS apps. Plain and simple. People really need to get this. If Apple did not create, maintain, pay for, hire people, construct, scheme, profit from the App Store — there would be no App Store to speak of.
(Via The Brooks Review)
Tags 30%, apps, ios, iphone, whiners