Why Evernote has won my heart: An Ode

I'm in love! With a cloud note-taking program that is.  If I love it so much why don't I marry it you say?  MAYBE I WILL.  I'm thinking a summer wedding, so as not to compete with William and Kate's nuptials...

BUT ANYHOW, I have spent the past year (or longer) searching for the perfect cloud replacements for all my go-to software, and I found a lot of good ones.  However, I still hadn't come up with a suitable replacement for MS OneNote.  It was driving me insane.  I rely on OneNote to supplement my infamously spacey memory, as well as satisfy my secret obsession for militant organization and overly-complex filing systems.

In all my searching, Evernote was the only software that came close to doing what I needed.   Last year, I dabbled in Evernote, but hesitated to make the switch for one major reason:  my life was already in OneNote.  Since OneNote files (.one) are totally proprietary, I felt trapped.  Either I painstakingly cut and paste every important note into Evernote, or I stick with bulky, expensive and poorly cloud-integrated OneNote (Yes Gates, I know about MS SkyDrive, and it kinda sucks).  Not to mention the fact that the OneNote syncing and backup process is a total mystery to me, which makes me uncomfortable.

But I recently discovered that in late 2010, Evernote Windows changed my life forever.  Evernote now imports OneNote notes, automatically filing them in a new notebook with the right name, with tags based on their OneNote sections.  AND it doesn't make you find the OneNote files on your computer (which, as I said, I don't understand), it just finds them itself, and then asks you which notes you want from which notebook.  HELLO AMAZING.

Evernote has some other awesome features as well, like the new "Trunk."  The trunk is basically an app store, but for every platform, and also hardware. And all of it interacts with Evernote in some way.  For example, there are several iPad apps (and Blackberry apps, and Android apps, and iPod apps, etc) that will gather information (drawings with a stylus, video recording, pictures of receipts, etc) and send them directly to Evernote.  There are also a list of scanners that can send directly to Evernote, as well as more efficient note managers that sync, and of course the Chrome Evernote Web Clipper Extension and Chrome app.

All of this plus tagging, which is a way more intelligent organizational system than folder.  And a super cool elephant  logo, which is really, really important.  If I'm going to be clicking on an icon almost every day, it better be damn good lookin'.

Thus concludes my confession of love.  Expect the save-the-dates in the mail soon.

Decision 2011: I'm getting an iPad (2)

I have obsessed over portable cloud-ready devices that I can keep in my purse for long enough.  It is time for me to make a purchase.  And the decision is... (click play below for the drum-roll)

iPad 2!

You may be surprised to hear this (unless you read the title of this post).  I have never been a Mac junkie.  I pledged my loyalty to Microsoft long ago.  And in fact, my first impulse was to get a netbook.  But there were a couple of things holding me back from committing to the netbook.

First, the nipple.  I've said it before, but I hate touchpads.  I love trackpoints.  When I asked the guy at Best Buy if there were any netbooks with these eraser-head pointing devices he said "those things that were on the old ThinkPads?  They haven't made those for years."  First of all, he is clearly dead wrong.  Several big laptop companies still include nipples on all their normal-sized laptops (Lenovo and Dell, for example).  Second of all, the nipple is clearly the superior pointing device, as it allows manipulation of the cursor without having to lift one's fingers from the keyboard.  So that guy can go jump in a lake.

But I digress.  The point is only one netbook includes a nipple, and it is the Sony Vaio P.  The Vaio P, simply by virtue of being made by Sony, is prohibitively expensive (~$1000), especially among netbooks, which typically range from about 200-400 bucks.  Sony claims it is not a netbook, just a small laptop, but give me a break.  It's a netbook.

Sony Vaio P display at Grand Central Station

As for weight, most netbooks really aren't that light.  The smallest netbook is (sigh) the Sony Vaio P.  And guess why they can cut out so much weight?  Because by adding a nipple and getting rid of the touchpad, they could cut off all that extra stuff below the keyboard!  It all comes back to the nipple.

Before you go thinking that the Sony Vaio P would be perfect and I should just save up for one or get financing or something, the P is not perfect.  Its tiny keyboard is apparently difficult to type on, and it's tiny screen is difficult to read on. Since one of my major impetuses for purchasing something is for reading PDFs and traveling, this is a big deal.  Not to mention the fact that nipples have been linked to major finger joint problems (I've probably already done too much damage to reverse).

To be honest, my 3 year old ThinkPad is about as small and light as a laptop gets, so getting a netbook really  just seems redundant.  I would just be getting a crappier computer than I already have to shave off a little weight.  I want to shave off weight while expanding my computing capabilities, rather than replicating them.  I want something that can do things my ThinkPad can't.  Like be at my disposal on the bus instantly.  Or last 10 hours without having to be plugged in.  Or turn into a piano.  All while still letting me surf the web, read PDFs and books, Skype, blog, and take notes in class.

Let's go over a few of the iPad's downsides and why they aren't downsides at all:

No physical keyboard?  No problem! I took one out from the library last week, and it turns out I can touch type on it like a maniac! I'm not saying I'm going to write my whole dissertation on it, but if I want to bang out a chapter or two on a flight to Maryland, no biggie (yes, I can write 60 pages in 6 hours shush).

No file system?  No problem!  If you think that I'm a fan of saving data locally, you clearly have never read this blog, or talked with me for like fifteen minutes.  Pages (Apple's touch word processing program) integrates with Dropbox, as do several other common apps.  Having no files system will only accelerate my move to the cloud.

No Flash?  No problem!  I have already figured out how to play Flash on my iPod touch using something called  iOS Flash Video.  There are also several iOS web browsers out there that can play Flash, and that also allow downloads and tabbed browsing, unlike Safari.

As for the lack of USB ports, I have no excuse for Apple here.  Now what am I going to do with all my awesome food themes USB sticks???  What the heck is wrong with you Jobs????  You popularized it, now use it!!!!!

It's okay iPad, I forgive you.  Did I mention it comes in white?

Things to do with your books now that you have a Kindle

I don't have an e-reader, but I assume you, my sophisticated, cloud-ready reader, probably do.  So what do you do with all those piles of books sitting around?  You can hoard them, as I do, ignoring your boyfriend's pleas to downsize.  Or you can get creative, like these folks:

Juniper Books Christmas tree from Museum Muse.

Headboard from Instructables, featured on Ohdeedoh.

Desk from Delft University of Technology, featured on PhDAZZLE.

Reader's table from This Into That.

Book page vases from Country Living

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Cloud update: WHEN IS THE SPEEDBOOK COMING????

I have not ranted about the cloud in a while.  That doesn't mean I haven't been thinking about it a lot. In fact, I've been checking the Google Chrome project blog at least once a week looking for updates about the arrival of Google branded netbooks with Chrome OS installed.  They promised Fall 2010!!!  October is here, and still no word.

I have a feeling they felt like they needed to step up their game after the arrival of the iPad, and are scrambling to be as awesome as Apple, but the iPad does not meet my needs.  I want a small netbook, something that fits in a purse rather than a backpack, but I need a keyboard and stand up screen on the go.  I do a lot of word processing, which is just about the only thing that iPad sucks at.  Oh, that and running multiple programs at a time.  Oh, and running FLASH.  COME ON.

Rumors are that Google quietly copyrighted the name "Speedbook" recently, which implies that they are working on their own hardware for the Chrome OS platform.  The phone they made for Android was kind of a bust, but I think this might be an emptier corner of the market.  I am already salivating.  Who knows if I'll be able to afford a Speedbook (although Google has promised cheapness), but it's always nice to have something to aspire to.  Mostly I'm tired of lugging around backpacks.  Backpacks are difficult to make look good, as discussed eloquently by Glitter-and-Spandex at PhDazzle, a blog about PhD fashion and living.  How awesome would it be to have a super-speedy cloud-based computer in your purse?  Not only is it small and convenient, but you don't have to worry about damage (except the expense), because everything is in the cloud!  No setup, no cluttered desktop, no additional anti-virus software necessary, or expensive Microsoft suites.

Of course, speaking of expensive MS software suites, I still haven't found a replacement for OneNote.  Google notes just doesn't do it for me, nor does Evernote.  I like the tab layout of OneNote, and all the customization options.  OneNote is the one thing holding me back from jumping head first into the Cloud revolution (oh yes, I said revolution).

I did find a nice PowerPoint replacement however.  I also found several online LaTeX editors!  My favorites were ScribTeX and MonkeyTex.  The problem with these is that I like to use several files to keep large projects organized, with one main tex file that calls each chapter individually, and neither of these cloud programs were able to do that for me.  Maybe I was doing something wrong?

I experimented with Cloud desktops, but it doesn't really fit into the way I do things.  They are all trying to too hard to look like a traditional Windows or OS GUI, and I don't think that's necessary.  My computer desktop is completely empty, in fact, except for the Recycling Bin, a result of my hatred of clutter and the awesomeness of the Windows 7 search function.  And as I've mentioned before, although I use Google docs more often because of the convenient integration with Gmail, Adobe Buzzword is a great online Word replacement.  If I didn't have Word on my computer, I would use Buzzword over getting Open Office, as I like the GUI better.

Google, I'm getting impatient here.  Tell me more about this Speedbook thing, first of all.  And then, improve Google Notes so that I can have a cloud OneNote without buying Office 2010!  Which completely undermines the point of cloud computing by requiring the purchase of a huge offline software suite.  Oh, and it would be awesome if you could make it compatible with old OneNote files, just like Google docs is compatible with MS Word files.  Thanks!

8 Sites that Would Have Made High School Science Way Cooler

Not listed in order of awesomeness.

1. Astronomy: In-browser interactive planetarium app.   There are a lot of these popping up right now, and they are really cool.  The planetarium program I had in high school was limited, expensive and came on five or six floppies. 

2. Planetary Science: Duh, Google Mars.  Pretty much the best map of another planet I've come across.  I have the iPod app too.  

3. Science and Society: A recreation of the Apollo 11 released for the 40th anniversary last year by the JFK library.  In addition to the top-notch simulations of every stage, they have incredible pictures, audio, and even video.  One of my favorites was someone (I think maybe Aldrin?) playing with a blob of water on the capsule.  Listening to the audio from this incredible mission never fails to bring tears to my eyes, it's kind of pathetic.  

4. Physics: A game from the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.  You help this cute little creature named Twitch collect little parts for a robot using simple machines (incline plane, fulcrum etc).  A super simple way to introduce physical concepts.  I love it!

5. Cellular Biology: Chock full of animations about cell biology.   A little clicking around will eventually get you to some very cool but simple animations of what goes in our bodies on a microscopic level.

6. Zoology: An online, interactive version of Swiss Naturalist Conrad Gesner's famous work, known as the starting point of modern zoology.  My favorite entry is the Unicorn.  Let's just say zoology has moved forward a bit in the past few centuries. 

7. Genetics: An instant eye color calculator.  It turns out the likelihood of my parents having a blue eyed kid was 1.8 percent!  That makes me feel special.  Play around with genotypes and phenotypes to see what color eyes your kids will have.  

8. Chemistry: An interactive periodic table. .  Depending on your choice of source in drop down menu at the top left, clicking on an square in the table will bring up all kinds of information, photos and videos about that element.  One of my favorite features is the temperature scale, which you can move up and down to change the states of all the elements. 

Christmas

So as if the computer crash weren't bad enough, my mom and a friend and I were driving to dirt Mulholland for a hike when my Subaru made crazy noises and broke down. It's sitting in Van Nuys now waiting for the mechanic to open tomorrow at eight. I wish there was such thing as cloud driving. When is Google Car coming out?

I did make some egg cozies though, to keep (my new favorite thing in the world) soft boiled eggs warm. I also made an amazing pie yesterday. It's apple sour cherry with apple jack. MMMMMMMM.