Category: Things I Like
Like most of the blogosphere, I’ve been trying to use Flipboard since its extraordinarily well executed (or well hyped – I can’t tell yet) announcement. But, like almost everyone I know, I can’t get it to authenticate Twitter or Facebook. Two days ago I entered in my email address to reserve my place in line. Today, at 9:55 AM AKDT I got an email titled “Your Flipboard is Ready to Customize” that said:
Hi there. We’re now ready for you to set up your Facebook and Twitter accounts on Flipboard. Try it out and let us know what you think. And thanks again for your patience and enthusiasm.
I went to connect up my Twitter and Facebook accounts. Nope – doesn’t work. At 10:34 AM AKDT I got an email titled “Apology, and Flipboard Confirmation”
We just sent you an email telling you that we were ready for you to set up your Facebook and Twitter accounts. We are sorry to say that our email system sent the wrong email. We were actually trying to send you an email confirming your place in line for you to setup your Facebook and Twitter sections.
You will receive another email when your reservation is ready. We are working around the clock to get you your invite and will send you your official invite soon.
Thanks again for your patience and support.
Oops.
While I still don’t have my jetpack, I do have my picturephone.
I was four when the AT&T PicturePhone appeared on the scene. This dude went through a lot of iterations over the year – my favorite is in this Western Electric ad.
This morning as I was drinking my coffee, waking up, and trying to get motivated to go running in the rain (I think I’ll go swim instead), my dad called on Skype. I answered and we had a nice video chat. I heard about my mom’s newly rediscovered Corvette lust (go mom!) and the hike they were going to do. I saw the study in my Keystone house where they are staying which made me smile. And then I said a quick hello to my mom.
I really hate the phone. I always have – and spend much too much time on it. But for some reason I like the videophone. Maybe it’s the novelty of it, maybe it’s a different way it grabs my attention because I really engage fully with it.
Regardless, the future is catching up with my childhood in interesting ways.
Last week there was a kerfuffle over Standing Cloud’s use of the Papyrus font for their logo. It was kind of cute and endearing and my pals at Standing Cloud reacted with appropriate contrition over offending the font police.
Today I came across a brilliant McSweeney article (thanks to @daveschappell) on Comic Sans titled I’m Comic Sans, Asshole. My wife Amy is sitting next to me as I type this laughing her ass off. As a special bonus, our friend Comic Sans makes fun of Bauhaus and then goes and parties with Papyrus.
Well my Mac experiment is going extremely well. I’m not sure I remember how to use a Windows PC, nor am I sure why I’d want to. I’m using a Mac that is at least a year old (2.4 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo with 4 GB RAM) so I’m not even tuned to the max but I’m absolutely loving the overall experience. As so many people have told me, “shit just works.” And so far, whenever I’ve had a problem, I’ve been able to quickly find the answer with a Google search (e.g. “three pane mail view in Mac Mail” – two choices: WideMail or LetterBox).
As I’m starting to go well beyond the things I did with my Windows PC, I’m starting to bump into some issues. I’m using Skype constantly for video and audio calls, including regular phone calls. It’s way better than my iPhone (oh – the irony) and given how solid the audio / video on the Mac is I feel like I can just use it whenever I’m in front of my laptop.
But – there are a few things I’m struggling to figure out. I’ll lay them out here for y’all in case anyone has suggestions. I’m also interested in any Skype-related Mac happiness people have found – please leave hints in the comments.
Issue 1: I’m still using Exchange for my mail, address, and calendar store. Mac Mail, iCal, and Mac Address Book are working great – no issues at all other than sending large attachments through the Exchange server (which is a well documented issue.) But for some reason I can’t figure out how to get Skype to include all my Address Book contacts. I only seems to integrate with the contacts listed in the “On My Mac” folder, which is empty since I have all my contacts stored on the Exchange server. Any clue how to get Skype on the Mac to read the Exchange contacts?
Issue 2: I can’t find a Safari plugin for Skype. I’ve got a Firefox one – where any phone number gets highlighted. But I’d like one for Safari also.
Oh – and if you want to reach me via Skype, it’s just bradfeld.
Emily Eveleth, a favorite artist of mine and Amy’s, was profiled in the Boston Globe this weekend in an article titled It’s Time To Paint The Doughnuts. My long time friend Shawn Broderick (who runs TechStars Boston) knows about our Emily doughnut obsession and pointed it out to me.
Amy and I are huge collectors of Emily’s work and have tons of doughnuts, some hula hoops, and as of this month, a magic eight ball and a dinosaur which Amy bought for me as my life dinner present on July 1 this year.)
If you want a quick feel for her art, a Google Image Search on Emily Eveleth will give you several pages of doughnuts. I asked Amy how many she thought we had in our collection – she guessed 10. Yum.
Amy wrote a post in 2005 titled Emily Eveleth Paintings that has one of our hula hoops on it. She also pointed to the two galleries that we buy Eveleth’s from – Howard Yezerski Gallery in Boston and the Danese Gallery in New York. They are both awesome galleries – if you are in either city stop by and take a look.
My favorite Emily Eveleth moment was a Zippy the Pinhead cartoon from 1994 which I’ve been trying to find forever. Of course, it’s there – front and center on Emily Eveleth’s bio page!
Now I’m hungry for doughnut.
In addition to missing the sun up here in Homer today, I miss my dogs.
I guess I need to get them on a Skype call later today, kind of like what Todd Vernon did with me earlier today.
One of my favorite quotes of all times is “these are not the droid you are looking for.” The only “misdirection” line I’ve ever heard that comes close was Swordfish – actually, it wasn’t a line, it was the whole movie. Or maybe just Gabriel. Or maybe Halle Berry. I can’t remember anymore.
My partner Ryan sent this around today. Poor storm trooper. I wonder how a storm trooper commits seppuku.
If you are a fan of my mom’s art (Cecelia Feld), she’s part of an exhibit at the St. Julien Hotel in Boulder called Splash. The opening is this Wednesday July 7th from 6pm to 8pm. I won’t be there as Amy and I are hiding in Homer, Alaska for the month, but my mom is coming down from Keystone and I know she’d love to see my friends if you are around. It’s a real exhibit opening, so there will be food and wine for anyone that shows up!
I’m a week into using a Mac as my primary computer and loving it. Every day I discover at least one little thing that makes me go “why the fuck didn’t my PC ever do that.”
Today’s was the time zone thing. For two decades I’ve been bedeviled by time zones whenever I travel. For a long time I had to manually set the time. Eventually on the PC I got things into a state with my calendar where changing the time zone worked, but I still had to do it manually.
On the Mac, I simply check a box on the Time Zone screen that says “Set time zone automatically using current location.” Voila – I’m in NY and the time zone is set correctly on my Mac.
While I know this is a trivial little thing, but I’ve spent N hours of my life changing the time zone manually on my Windows box. I want those N hours back.
When I reflect on the week, I’ve started to master Quicksilver, found an automatic natural text widget that lets me type “lunch with dad from noon to 2pm on Saturday” and an item appears magically on my calendar, and I’m enjoying Ctrl-1, Ctrl-2, Ctrl-3, and Ctrl-4 to quickly switch between screen states (or “spaces”).
I’ve been stubborn for a while about this Windows / Mac thing but I’m starting to get it.