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	<title>KVET.CH &#187; gtd</title>
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	<link>http://kvet.ch</link>
	<description>You know me, I don&#039;t like to complain</description>
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		<title>Moved to WordPress</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2010/01/moved-to-wordpress/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2010/01/moved-to-wordpress/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:53:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>emory</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://kvet.ch/?p=156</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Hello, more stuff in the near future but first I wanted to move away from Typo to WordPress.  The permalinks and stuff should all work but my GTD paper has been pulled because it will live somewhere else.  I&#8217;ll update here.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Hello, more stuff in the near future but first I wanted to move away from Typo to WordPress.  The permalinks and stuff should all work but my GTD paper has been pulled because it will live somewhere else.  I&#8217;ll update here.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<item>
		<title>Before you get a BlackBerry</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2008/09/before-you-get-a-blackberry/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2008/09/before-you-get-a-blackberry/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:57:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[blackberry]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[There are a couple of gotchas in using a BlackBerry that I think people should be aware of, especially in light of the onslaught of devices from RIM the last couple of months. &#160;People often ask me if the latest BlackBerry device is &#34;better&#34; than another device (usually they&#8217;re comparing it to an iPhone) and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>
<basefont></basefont>
</p>
<div>There are a couple of gotchas in using a BlackBerry that I think people should be aware of, especially in light of the onslaught of devices from <span class="caps">RIM</span> the last couple of months. &nbsp;People often ask me if the latest BlackBerry device is &quot;better&quot; than another device (usually they&#8217;re comparing it to an iPhone) and like anything else it really depends what you&#8217;re going to do with it.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>What not a lot of people are aware of however, and where the BlackBerry really falls on its face, is email!</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<p>&nbsp;</p>
<div>If you&#8217;re an Enterprise user with Exchange servers and you spend all day staring at Outlook, the BlackBerry is a fantastic tool.  It does wireless sync with your email, Calendars, Address Book, and what you see on your BlackBerry is what you see in Outlook.  It&#8217;s great!</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>But if you&#8217;re not an enterprise user, or you instead opt to support open standards like <span class="caps">IMAP</span> because it&#8217;s a better decision for you and your organization, you may be surprised to know that the BlackBerry takes an immeadiate nosedive in value.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>You see, if you don&#8217;t invest thousands of dollars in software and more in hardware, you can&#8217;t do things like wireless sync of Contacts, Appointments, or email.  Sure, you can outsource all of your email to a third party and let them juggle Exchange, BlackBerry Enterprise Server, policy edits, and provisioning, but that isn&#8217;t always an appropriate decision either.  If you don&#8217;t use a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), you need to use BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS), which has some big limitations.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>First and foremost, it doesn&#8217;t know know how to access your email folders.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>That&#8217;s right!  A BlackBerry using <span class="caps">BIS</span> will not be able to view, save to, browse, or give you access to any mail folders you have stored on the mail server.  It is for this reason alone that many people don&#8217;t like using the BlackBerry, even though this limitation is something they don&#8217;t tell you about.  The BlackBerry cheerleaders will tell you that it&#8217;s simple to fix, just simply migrate all of your email from your server to an Exchange Server!  And buy a <span class="caps">BES</span>!  Or move all of your email to some third party that specializes in locking you into BlackBerry email!</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Reduced to its most simplistic explanation, your desktop computer doesn&#8217;t know if you&#8217;ve read an email or not, and since you can&#8217;t do any Folder operations, you can&#8217;t use your BlackBerry for email triage and filing mail to the archive folders, or sorting messages however you choose to do it on your desktop or notebook computer.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>No thanks.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>Gmail users however will appreciate that there is a Gmail application for the BlackBerry that is very good.  The only problem is that it only talks to Gmail of course, so you&#8217;re in the same limited group with no access to your own email except through that party.  The Gmail access is only &quot;wysiwyg&quot; in the Gmail application however, and not if you opt for mail delivery via the BlackBerry push system.  Kind of defeats the purpose of having one inbox to work from, no?</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>BlackBerry is great mobile email for people that use Exchange, but it is severely limiting to you if you don&#8217;t, and adds even more cost on the back end to get access to basic features, such as folder access.  If you are using a <span class="caps">BES</span> you get full wireless sync, contacts and calendars, and other features to bring the mobile <span class="caps">PIM</span> experience up from simple email transactions, but accessing an email folder is apparently &quot;enterprise-only&quot; as a feature to <span class="caps">RIM</span>.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>The new T-Mobile and Google Android venture and the iPhone have given some great options for mobile email. Even Nokia <span class="caps">S60</span> devices that have been coming out lately do a great job with <span class="caps">IMAP</span>.  Personally I&#8217;ve been very happy with the iPhone but I&#8217;ve always got my eyes open for something that could address the iPhone&#8217;s shortcomings as well.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>More on that another day.</div>
<div>&nbsp;</div>
<div>But be careful what you&#8217;re buying from <span class="caps">RIM</span> and be aware that it is no longer as simple as &quot;mobile email = BlackBerry&quot;.  We&#8217;ve come an awfully long way in the last 12 months and I&#8217;m sure the best is always yet to come.</div>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Move Your SVN Repository to rsync.net!</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2007/05/move-your-svn-repository-to-rsync-net/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2007/05/move-your-svn-repository-to-rsync-net/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 28 May 2007 18:19:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false"></guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been keeping my Documents directory in Subversion (SVN) for a while now, and have found the ability to roll-back changes and view document history on any document I have to be a huge benefit to my workflow. Additionally, being able to keep different workstations in sync by using the SVN service has been a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve been keeping my Documents directory in <a href="http://subversion.tigris.org/">Subversion</a> (SVN) for a while now, and have found the ability to roll-back changes and view document history on any document I have to be a huge benefit to my workflow.  Additionally, being able to keep different workstations in sync by using the <span class="caps">SVN</span> service has been a huge lifesaver.</p>
<p>Not only can I tell you what I worked on, and on what days, I can tell you when things were added/moved/archived and give myself a nice timeline of events that I can use to see what exactly I&#8217;ve accomplished over the last week/month/year.</p>
<p>So I&#8217;ve been re-organizing my bits lately, and am pulling an <span class="caps">OS X</span> Server fileserver out of &#8220;production&#8221; and have replaced it with an <a href="http://infrant.com/">Infrant ReadyNAS NV+</a> with 2TB of storage online.  I&#8217;m using their expandable <span class="caps">RAID</span>-X service, so I can bump this unit out past 3TB when I need to.  This means I was going to lose my always-on multi-purpose server, however, so I was thinking about moving my <span class="caps">SVN</span> setup to my colo (that is currently serving you this webpage), but <a href="http://rsync.net">rsync.net</a> (whom I <strong>love</strong> and recommend whole-heartedly for offsite backup/fileservice) have recently started supporting <span class="caps">SVN</span> (via ssh(1)) making it a real no-brainer.</p>
<p>This isn&#8217;t a dispatch solely to extoll the virtues of rsync.net&#8212;I&#8217;ll do that another time though, because they seriously are some of the most amazing people I&#8217;ve ever done business with.  They happen to be the best in the industry as far as I&#8217;m concerned, and since I like the best of things, I use &#8216;em.  And this new service they&#8217;re offering makes them even more attractive and reinforces my belief that I was wise to start using them.</p>
<p>Now, onward to the meat and potatoes.  I did some testing and verified this works in my environment, and one of the excellent techs at rsync.net (seriously, you can&#8217;t beat these guys in any way for service provided, ethics, and support) validated my work and got me all squared away.</p>
<p>It turns out that all you need to do is move your existing repository (the actual directory of the repository on the filesystem) to your rsync.net home directory (or wherever you want to put it there&#8212;I called mine <span class="caps">SVN</span>-REWL on rsync.net &#8216;cuz that&#8217;s what I called it locally) and then aim your <span class="caps">SVN</span> commands yonder instead of the old one.  It&#8217;ll Just Work provided you&#8217;re using the right version of <span class="caps">SVN</span>, I had an older repository I tested and it wouldn&#8217;t work due to db incompatibilities and some other harsh language.</p>
<p>Some people use local filesystem repositories even on their local machine just to have the version control and revision history on documents they work on.  So if you&#8217;re one of those people, you can likewise just copy over the repository to your rsync.net account, and you&#8217;ll be ready to move on as well.  This is pretty easy though I had never done it before, so I was a bit pensive and skittish.</p>
<p>When you&#8217;re in your <span class="caps">SVN</span> working copy, which is the local &#8220;live&#8221; version you work out of, be it documents, audio files, source code, headers, and all the other crap you can throw into <span class="caps">SVN</span>, you can open up a Terminal and do</p>
<p><code><br />
svn info</code></p>
<p>&#8230;which will tell you all about your working copy, where you got it from, what the revision is, the <span class="caps">URL</span> and repository root, and other information.</p>
<p>In my case, it looked a lot like this:</p>
<blockquote><p>
<tt><br />
.<del class="~/Documents/@TRUNK">&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>(rewl@cosmo)</del><br />
`&#8212;&gt; svn info<br />
Path: .<br />
<span class="caps">URL</span>: svn+ssh://cosmo/Volumes/projects/SVN-REWL<br />
Repository Root: svn+ssh://cosmo/Volumes/projects/SVN-REWL<br />
Repository <span class="caps">UUID</span>: 6cc96013-d40f-0410-a444-e0d3ce12975d<br />
Revision: 179<br />
Node Kind: directory<br />
Schedule: normal<br />
Last Changed Author: rewl<br />
Last Changed Rev: 179<br />
Last Changed Date: 2007-05-22 15:59:45 -0400 (Tue, 22 May 2007)<br />
</tt>
</p></blockquote>
<p>I fired up Fugu and copied over my <span class="caps">SVN</span>-REWL filesystem off cosmo (the household fileserver) to my rsync.net account via sftp, which took around an hour to do on my craptastic cable modem.  Maybe two hours.  I don&#8217;t really remember, I was busy catching up on email and feeds.  Once it was there, I fired up <a href="http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/15527">svnX</a> and set it up to browse my new copy of my repository.</p>
<p><span class="caps">FYI</span>, this is the syntax you&#8217;ll want to use, if you&#8217;re on usw-s001 like I am:</p>
<p><tt><br />
<blockquote>
svn+ssh://(userid)@usw-s001.rsync.net/(userid)/SVN-REWL<br />
</tt>
</p></blockquote>
<p>I told svnX that my username was 1096, which should be superfluous since you&#8217;re specifying one.  I use ssh-agent and ssh keys, so I don&#8217;t need to give it a password, and I could instantly browse my newly-copied remote <span class="caps">SVN</span> repository.  I browsed, reloaded, looked at old revisions, until I was satisfied.</p>
<p>But now what?  Do I want to check out the entire thing again just to sync my local working copy against it?  That sounds a bit counter-productive, don&#8217;t you think?</p>
<p>Of course <span class="caps">SVN</span> has a way to deal with just such an eventuality.</p>
<p>Go to your working copy and type in something like this (you&#8217;ll see what to do):</p>
<blockquote><p>
<tt><br />
svn switch&#8212;relocate svn+ssh://cosmo/Volumes/projects/SVN-REWL \<br />
svn+ssh://(userid)@usw-s001.rsync.net/(userid)/SVN-REWL<br />
</tt>
</p></blockquote>
<p>And svn&#8217;ll grind away for a while and make that change happen for you.  Future update/stat/commit operations are successfully done against the rsync.net repository, and as expected, my output from svn info looks like this now:</p>
<blockquote><p>
<tt><br />
.<del class="~/Documents/@TRUNK">&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-<del>&#8212;</del>-(emory@daydreamer)-<br />
`&#8212;&gt; svn info<br />
Path: .<br />
<span class="caps">URL</span>: svn+ssh://1096@usw-s001.rsync.net/1096/SVN-REWL<br />
Repository Root: svn+ssh://1096@usw-s001.rsync.net/1096/SVN-REWL<br />
Repository <span class="caps">UUID</span>: 6cc96013-d40f-0410-a444-e0d3ce12975d<br />
Revision: 179<br />
Node Kind: directory<br />
Schedule: normal<br />
Last Changed Author: rewl<br />
Last Changed Rev: 179<br />
Last Changed Date: 2007-05-22 15:59:45 -0400 (Tue, 22 May 2007) rewlLast Changed Rev: 179Last Changed Date: 2007-05-22 15:59:45 -0400 (Tue, 22 May 2007)<br />
</tt>
</p></blockquote>
<p>So there you have it.  Moving an <span class="caps">SVN</span> repository to rsync.net really is painless.</p>
<p>Right now rsync.net is perfect for people who keep projects or documents in <span class="caps">SVN</span> like I do, but they don&#8217;t yet have the facility in place to allow other users to access your repository, only you.  I think they&#8217;re going to be adding basic auth soon, which would allow workgroups to use rsync.net for svn and remote storage, which makes rsync.net once again more attractive than the others out there.</p>
<p>Thank you to the support tech that answered my questions on a Sunday afternoon 15 minutes after I sent an email.  On a holiday weekend.  You made my day.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>Lazyweb Request: WTB: Free/Busy Exporter for iCal</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2007/04/lazyweb-request-wtb-freebusy-exporter-for-ical/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2007/04/lazyweb-request-wtb-freebusy-exporter-for-ical/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 18 Apr 2007 15:54:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organization]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false"></guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I want an Applescript or something similar to look at my shit in iCal, and export a subscrib-able calendar of my availability. I don&#8217;t want details of my appointments in the exported calendar. I just want someone to look at this and know when I&#8217;m free, or when I&#8217;m busy. Help! UPDATED: Yes, I have [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I want an Applescript or something similar to look at my shit in iCal, and export a subscrib-able calendar of my availability.  I don&#8217;t want details of my appointments in the exported calendar.</p>
<p>I just want someone to look at this and know when I&#8217;m free, or when I&#8217;m busy.</p>
<p>Help!</p>
<p><span class="caps">UPDATED</span>:</p>
<p>Yes, I have like 10 calendars in iCal.  I want them <strong>all</strong> combined into a unified free/busy calendar that has no details on my appointments.</p>
<p>Sorry for the ambiguity.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>the Nokia E70 in review</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2007/02/the-nokia-e70-in-review/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2007/02/the-nokia-e70-in-review/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 26 Feb 2007 02:36:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[email]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mac]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mobile]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[productivity]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[s60]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false"></guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve gone back and forth on mobile email. I&#8217;ve had several different varieties of the BlackBerry device, used a GoodLink&#8217;ed Treo, and after taking a long break I&#8217;m trying to get back into using mobile email sanely. I was having a hard time doing this on my N73, so I thought I&#8217;d pick up an [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I&#8217;ve gone back and forth on mobile email.  I&#8217;ve had several different varieties of the BlackBerry device, used a GoodLink&#8217;ed Treo, and after taking a long break I&#8217;m trying to get back into using mobile email sanely.</p>
<p>I was having a hard time doing this on my <span class="caps">N73</span>, so I thought I&#8217;d pick up an <span class="caps">E70</span> instead.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402431441/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/145/402431441_018908072d_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="2007-02-24 at 16-32-14" /></a>   <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402431554/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/136/402431554_ce863dd35b_m.jpg" width="240" height="160" alt="2007-02-24 at 16-32-32" /></a></p>
<p>It has WiFi, Bluetooth (of course), the S60v3 OS, a 2MP so-so camera, and a <span class="caps">SIP</span> client (untested so far), and also the Apple WebKit-esque browser and runs a wide variety of software for the <span class="caps">S60</span> platform.</p>
<p>Mine isn&#8217;t operator locked and branded, so I don&#8217;t have to worry about not using self-signed certificates for network services and application installation.</p>
<p>So, we have my Levenger <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/sempai/sets/72057594080925444/">Shirt Pocket Briefcase</a>, which lives in my back pocket most of the time, or in my front pocket with a big bankroll I get from all the donations I keep getting via PayPal for writing consistently great product reviews.  Hint.  And the Nokia <span class="caps">E70</span>, and a Nokia <span class="caps">N73</span> for size comparison.  And, what the hell, I tossed in a BlackBerry 7290 as well.</p>
<p>The <span class="caps">E70</span> has a very serviceable keyboard.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402431739/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/129/402431739_0726dc721a.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="2007-02-24 at 16-33-14" /></a></p>
<p>The keypad in &#8220;phone mode&#8221; is quite solid and good.  I really like it a lot, actually.  The keys feel solid and the joystick feels better than the one on the <span class="caps">N73</span>.  There is also a button on the side for activating the Voice Recorder application, which I think is pretty awesome.  You apparently can retask it for a push-to-talk application if your operator supports it.  T-Mobile <span class="caps">USA</span> doesn&#8217;t support much of anything, so I&#8217;m not holding my breath, and honestly the day I take a push-to-talk on a phone from anyone is the day I throw myself off a bridge.</p>
<p>Folding out the <span class="caps">E70</span> reveals the keyboard, of course.</p>
<p>It takes a little getting used to, and honestly I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m as fast on it as the BlackBerry but this is mainly because the BlackBerry has amazing autotext functionality that <span class="caps">S60</span> does not.  For example, if you hit space twice on a BlackBerry, you get a period, if it thinks you&#8217;re typing an email address because you&#8217;re in a field that says &#8220;Email Address&#8221;, a spacebar will put in a &#8217;@&#8217; for you.  Little things like that and only having a little bit of travel in the keyboard makes the <span class="caps">E70</span> seem a bit too spread out.  And if you have small girlish hands like I do, the <span class="caps">E70</span> is a cinch to thumb on, but if you have bigger hands, the proximity of the keys and the shallow travel in the keyboard will be problematic, as the keys are very close to one another without the distinct separation between them that the Treo and &#8216;Berry have.</p>
<p>Some weird things about the keyboard are they rearranged some keys a bit.  I have no idea why they did this other than to be easier for people to reach commonly used symbols, but if you&#8217;re making a <span class="caps">QWERTY</span> device I think people expect to have the symbols in the right place.  On the other hand, having no room for / + = and &#8221; as well as commonly used accent characters in a small space was surely hard to pull off, and since you&#8217;re looking at the device and its keyboard anyway, it doesn&#8217;t really annoy me too much.  The keys are in the vicinity of where you&#8217;d expect if they&#8217;re not exactly there, and you don&#8217;t spend much time hunting around.  It isn&#8217;t like you&#8217;re going to touch-type on this thing.</p>
<p>So, why mobile email?  And why on <span class="caps">S60</span> instead of the BlackBerry or a Treo?</p>
<p>Will, simply put, I like the <span class="caps">S60 OS</span> a lot better at the end of the day than the Treo or the BlackBerry, and if I wanted BlackBerry email I could get that on the <span class="caps">E70</span> anyway, and the <span class="caps">PIM</span> functions on the BlackBerry are archaic and the GoodLink&#8217;ed Treos have a disconnect between your server-side <span class="caps">PIM</span> functionality and the built-in functions which makes synchronization a bit of a pain in the ass if you&#8217;re not using Outlook and Exchange.</p>
<p>I use <span class="caps">IMAP</span>.  I like it a lot.  The <span class="caps">S60 IMAP</span> client has gotten very good over the years, and it even does <span class="caps">IMAP</span>-IDLE pushes now, though Apple&#8217;s Cyrus server in Mac <span class="caps">OS X</span> Server doesn&#8217;t support <span class="caps">IDLE</span>, so I can&#8217;t use that.  I have scheduled email checks every 30-60 minutes or on-demand for when I don&#8217;t want the interruptions.  I like the option to really send emails that aren&#8217;t one-sentence long because I&#8217;m really just not interested in carrying a laptop everywhere I go anymore.</p>
<p>Another thing I like a lot about the <span class="caps">E70</span>?  It doesn&#8217;t spastically flash LEDs at you like a neon sign outside a liquor store coaxing in the alcoholics with promises of gratification.  In fact, in the current firmware, you can&#8217;t even turn it on if you wanted to.  There is an <span class="caps">LED</span>, it just isn&#8217;t being used today.  No idea why.  Don&#8217;t care.</p>
<p>So the <span class="caps">E70</span> has two primary modes of operation, one where it is flipped closed and awfully phone-like.  The design of this is quite good though it could have been more elegantly designed while still retaining a professional, almost un-interesting appearance.  I also don&#8217;t like that has such a plastically feel.  The upside is that it feels sturdy, not frail at all.  And the hinge mechanism for the keyboard fold-out maneuver is <strong>solid</strong>.  You&#8217;ll hear no complaints about the feel of that piece from me.</p>
<p>When you crack it open the screen rotates into a different orientation for you, as expected.  Apparently the earlier firmware was really slow about this, but the version I&#8217;m running (2.0618.07.10) seems to be very responsive to me.  There are the odd hangs now and then, and it is my hope that Nokia is still refining the firmware on this device because it <strong>is</strong> still in the 2.x range, and typical wide-release production firmware is 3.x from Nokia.</p>
<p>Now before we go on a bit, I&#8217;d like to tell you that I know I&#8217;m using a very strange theme.  I like it because it is so odd.  It clashes nicely, if there is such a thing.  Since it is so easy to do, I swap themes every other day or so and there are hundreds and hundreds of them available and I like mixing it up a bit.</p>
<p>So, with the flip closed and the device in &#8220;Hello my name is mobile phone&#8221; mode, we have an active standby display that is user-customizable and lets you view a mailbox on your dashboard there, and also assign shortcuts to some of your most used applications.</p>
<p>For those unfamiliar with the <span class="caps">S60 UI</span>, the bottom left and right corners are soft-key mappings depending on what application you&#8217;re in, or in what context they&#8217;re visible.  Usually it&#8217;ll be things like &#8220;New&#8221; and &#8220;Back/Exit&#8221; or &#8220;Options&#8221; and &#8220;Write&#8221; when I&#8217;m in my IM client, you get the idea.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402467007/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/127/402467007_68d94631bb_m.jpg" width="203" height="240" alt="Screenshot0013.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>Now, since I&#8217;m lazy, I haven&#8217;t redone this screenshot yet.  I took it while it was in the middle of re-drawing the screen after opening it up, so this may lead you to believe I was being too kind about the redraw time.  I&#8217;m not going to lie, it isn&#8217;t <strong>instant!</strong>, but it is quite quick and doesn&#8217;t really slow me down any.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402466980/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/165/402466980_c993407119_m.jpg" width="240" height="203" alt="Screenshot0012.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>Getting online with the <span class="caps">E70</span> is a cinch, I use my mobile operator&#8217;s data service (T-Mobile <span class="caps">USA EDGE</span>) and it is plenty quick for pulling and sending emails as well as browsing.  And the <span class="caps">E70</span> also has a built-in <span class="caps">RSS</span> reader, so I can put my favorites or my current high-priority feeds in there but I usually just use <a href="http://www.newsgator.com/'s">NewsGator Mobile</a> web interface, even though I have some gripes about it.  I&#8217;ll save that for another time.</p>
<p>But when you&#8217;re at home, or the office, and have WiFi available, of course it is faster.  And of course you&#8217;ll want to use that, especially if you&#8217;re on metered data service.  I have a flat-rate unlimited <span class="caps">EDGE</span> connection for <span class="caps">USD</span>$19.  I don&#8217;t go out of my way to use WiFi but I use it at home.</p>
<p>The real reason this device has WiFi though, is for the <span class="caps">SIP</span> client allowing for VoIP calls on the handset itself, which is pretty bitchen, though I haven&#8217;t had the time to set it all up yet.  I&#8217;m very curious how well it will work, though from what I&#8217;ve read online, people are having good results with it.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402467437/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/402467437_0cceb43b9a_m.jpg" width="240" height="203" alt="Screenshot0029.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The <span class="caps">SMS</span>/MMS/Email messaging application is standard fare, though <span class="caps">S60</span> has gotten so much better about this over the years it makes my head spin.  It used to be horrifying.  It has improved dramatically, actually making email management and triage useful instead of something that makes me want to beat my head against the wall.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402466930/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/170/402466930_9243496ccc_m.jpg" width="240" height="203" alt="Screenshot0010.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402466910/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/135/402466910_f618cdf7dd_m.jpg" width="240" height="203" alt="Screenshot0009.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>Know what I can&#8217;t do though?  I can&#8217;t move something from Inbox to @ACTION.  I don&#8217;t know why.  I think it has to be a bug that you can&#8217;t move messages from one folder to another in the <span class="caps">S60</span> email client.  It has to be, right?  Surely this is something that was just overlooked during QA.  That would make this device fantastic as a triage device.  In the meantime you could use an application like <a href="http://www.lonelycatgames/">Profimail</a> though I really like to use the integrated client whenever possible.</p>
<p>The archive function is good, you can copy messages into folders locally on the device, of any variety.  By default it only retains X numbers of messages you send out, so you can raise that threshold if you want to archive both sides of a text/mms conversation, or whatever.</p>
<p>I presently have over 900 <span class="caps">SMS</span> and <span class="caps">MMS</span> messages saved as copies on my handset.  I&#8217;ve had an <span class="caps">S60</span> device for quite a while.  And if you store your messages on the storage card (mine is 1GB) you can move it from handset to handset and always have your same message library available to you.  Nice!</p>
<p>Again, I know the theme is a bit in-your-face, but this is the visual indicator and alerts for new emails and <span class="caps">SMS</span> messages:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402466895/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/132/402466895_dc0720bdc8_m.jpg" width="203" height="240" alt="Screenshot0008.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>The icons in the grey bar towards the top, in order of appearance are: WiFi &raquo; Bluetooth &raquo; new email &raquo; new <span class="caps">SMS</span>.</p>
<p>Missed calls and such will also show up there.</p>
<p>The calendar functionality in <span class="caps">S60</span> sucks.  If you don&#8217;t believe that, you&#8217;re wrong.  And iSync on Mac <span class="caps">OS X</span> used to work better than it does today, but it has always been flakey.  All-day events show up as 00:00 &#8211; 23:59 &#8220;meetings&#8221; on the handset when they&#8217;re synced over from my Mac.  You can make a proper all-day-appointment (or, in <span class="caps">S60</span> parlance, &#8220;Memo&#8221;) on the handset, and even sync it back to your Mac and then sync again and have it stick around, but you cannot initiate an all day event in iCal, and have it sync over as a &#8220;Memo&#8221; on a <span class="caps">S60</span> device.</p>
<p>But I found a really nice-looking and very flexible application that touches the same event database as the standard Calendar and Task application, which uses more of the functionality of the backend engine as well as having a much nicer UI.</p>
<p>To top it all off?</p>
<p>It sees 00:00 &#8211; 23:59 meetings as &#8220;anniversaries&#8221;, which isn&#8217;t the same as a &#8220;memo&#8221;, but it&#8217;s good enough for me.  No more twenty four hour meetings.  I&#8217;d like to take this time to shill a bit for the developers and the application, <a href="http://www.sbsh.net/products/papyrus_symb/"><span class="caps">SBSH</span> and Papyrus for <span class="caps">S60</span></a></p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402466707/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/133/402466707_3144fa5a14_m.jpg" width="203" height="240" alt="Screenshot0003.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>Isn&#8217;t that nice?</p>
<p>So the vast majority of my tasks live on 3&#215;5 cards along with project materials and all the other things I work on.  The only thing I use &#8220;tasks&#8221; for on my mobile phone are things I want to be reminded of without booking an appointment to do so.  This will be things like &#8220;Don&#8217;t forget to ask so-and-so about blue,&#8221; and &#8220;schedule time to do whatever&#8221;, if I&#8217;m not convinced I&#8217;ll have it on a card (cuz sometimes I write these reminders on the go and may not have the relevant materials with me).</p>
<p>If you don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m talking about when I say &#8220;project card&#8221;, &#8220;context card&#8221; or &#8220;action list,&#8221; you may want to read about how I use track projects and process workflow in my <a href="http://kvet.ch/pages/gtd-whitepaper-emory">paper on the subject</a>.</p>
<p>I really like the <span class="caps">E70</span> a lot.  I think the camera kind of sucks but I like having one for those situations I need to capture <strong>something</strong>, and I don&#8217;t expect Nokia to go all-out on a nice camera for such a device.  Indeed, I&#8217;m glad it is there at all, and 2MP is about the lowest I&#8217;m willing to go anymore, since the <span class="caps">N73</span>&#8217;s 3MP camera gets very good results.</p>
<p>The 2MP camera is perfect for capturing whiteboards, index cards, notes, sketches, doodles and other things to share, as well as emergency candids.</p>
<p>While the <span class="caps">E70</span> has a media player and can do videos and audio, I don&#8217;t really use those functions that much, and the N-series devices do it better.  But if you&#8217;re wondering, you can in fact play music off the <span class="caps">E70</span> and use headphones via a Pop-Port adapter or use Nokia&#8217;s music headphones, which have a nice mic lead on them so you can listen to music and take calls without unhooking yourself.  You can push audio over via Bluetooth or with a card-reader, so you can easily enough shove some podcasts or favorites onto the <span class="caps">E70</span> and take it with you.  The memory card lives under the battery door, but not under the battery.  This is alright, I guess, but I usually want my memory cards a bit more accessible.</p>
<p>It folds up into a reasonable shape and size while still having a full <span class="caps">QWERTY</span> deck available on-demand, and feels like a phone when you&#8217;re talking on it, instead of a saucer like the full-format BlackBerry devices.  Bluetooth audio seems a bit fuzzy to me compared to other handsets, I&#8217;ve tried a few headsets with it and had similar results.  The audio quality on-handset is quite good, however.  I really like the sound reproduction on this device, and find calls to be very clear and clean.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m using a Euro-spec <span class="caps">E70</span>, so I&#8217;m using <span class="caps">GSM 900</span>/1800/1900 on this one.  I can&#8217;t comment on the US-specific release with 850 in lieu of 900.  I don&#8217;t know how well it works on Cingular because I don&#8217;t care.  When Cingular lets me have unlimited unfettered data service for <span class="caps">USD</span>$19 I&#8217;ll start paying closer attention.</p>
<p>Having an email and messaging device that isn&#8217;t obnoxious and with a nice OS under the hood has been really quite pleasant.  It has freed me up from my desk a lot, and has allowed me to stay in touch a bit better with people that are important to me, and since it isn&#8217;t an office email device, I don&#8217;t feel like I&#8217;m being taken advantage of by The Man.  No work email gets to my handset.  I probably would check office email now and then if I could, but my employer doesn&#8217;t allow such things unless it is on a company-monitored and supplied device.  Nothanks!</p>
<p>Now that the more immediately useful parts are out of the way, I&#8217;d like to conclude with a few things for the nerdery:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402467317/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/132/402467317_ffab891b76_m.jpg" width="240" height="203" alt="Screenshot0024.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>Yes that is the Python shell.  Turns out there is a pretty complete Python implementation for <span class="caps">S60</span>, and so I&#8217;ve been playing around with that a bit making little widgets and learning more about the language.  I have been hearing an awful lot about Python lately and decided I may as well look into it a bit more seriously.  I use it a bit for the Jabber to <span class="caps">AIM</span> gateway I use and also use Python a bit at home, but never really hacked at it much.</p>
<p>Nokia actually gives you access to UI elements, Bluetooth, the Messaging system and other bits via the Python implementation.  It is really quite ready for application development and prototyping.</p>
<p>But of course where there is <span class="caps">QWERTY</span>, there is a PuTTY.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402467270/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/128/402467270_75e480affa_m.jpg" width="240" height="203" alt="Screenshot0022.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/402467297/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/150/402467297_53f6787c30_m.jpg" width="240" height="203" alt="Screenshot0023.jpg" /></a></p>
<p>So if you&#8217;re ever inclined to login to a remote host to do a little troubleshooting, use a proper <span class="caps">IRC</span> client, or show off, you can do that too.</p>
<p>I&#8217;ll be interested to see how the new <a href="http://www.nokia.com/link?cid=PLAIN_TEXT_118960">Nokia <span class="caps">E90</span> Communicator</a> will compare to the <span class="caps">E70</span>.  I know I&#8217;d like the display a lot better and the camera is much better, as well as having an integrated <span class="caps">GPS</span> and Navigation system.  So I&#8217;ll probably want to upgrade when I can, but in the meantime, the <span class="caps">E70</span> has been a real treat to live with for this past week.</p>
<p>I purchased mine from MyWorldPhone.  And I ordered one from CellHut.com, and I wouldn&#8217;t ever recommend them to anyone I liked because I canceled that order and they still haven&#8217;t given me back my $420.  I&#8217;m going to have a very strongly worded conversation with CellHut tomorrow afternoon.</p>
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		<title>imified &#8211; Broken for Backpack via SSL</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2007/02/imified-broken-for-backpack-via-ssl/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2007/02/imified-broken-for-backpack-via-ssl/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:19:06 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[life]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[productivity]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[via Lifehack.org: With Imified you can use Web applications like Google Calendar, Basecamp, Backpack, Remember the Milk, WordPress, and Blogger, all from within your favorite instant messaging client. But what it doesn&#8217;t do is work with your Backpack if you use SSL. I wrote them last week about this, and it still doesn&#8217;t work. I&#8217;d [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.lifehack.org/articles/productivity/add-productivity-to-instant-messaging.html"><br />
    via Lifehack.org</a>:<br />
<br />
With Imified you can use Web applications like Google Calendar, Basecamp, Backpack, Remember the Milk, WordPress, and Blogger, all from within your favorite instant messaging client.<br />
</p>
</blockquote>
<p>But what it doesn&#8217;t do is work with your <a href="http://www.backpackit.com/">Backpack</a> if you use <span class="caps">SSL</span>.  I wrote them last week about this, and it still doesn&#8217;t work.  I&#8217;d like to use imified a bit more, and it seems quite interesting but I&#8217;m not really that sure what I can trust with it.</p>
<p>On the imified <a href="http://www.imified.com/privacy.cfm">privacy and security page</a> it says this:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Your data is stored encrypted on our servers in a secure data center in the Rocky Mountains. All interaction on the Imified website is handled over <span class="caps">SSL</span>. We do not ask that you enter login details for accessing an application over IM. To add a service we present you with a link to a secure web page for the purpose of entering this information. We store this data securely so you can interact with your services over your IM client without having to repeatedly enter your login details. We encrypt your data using private key 128 bit <span class="caps">AES</span> encryption. Please be aware that the IM messages you send to Imified are not and cannot be encrypted due to the nature of the protocol. We have no control over this.</p>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<p>We personally use Imified all day long to interact with a number of services and our friends and family do to. We take every precaution to keep your data safe and secure.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I understand that the transactions between the services are as safe as their APIs are, and I also understand that my IM traffic isn&#8217;t encrypted.  I&#8217;m curious how the data is stored encrypted on their end though, since obviously it has to be decrypted to present it to me.</p>
<p>So are the filesystems encrypted?  Is that why they tell me that the data center is in the Bat Cave somewhere in Rocky Mountains?</p>
<p>I&#8217;m more interested in knowing what the providers of applications like this do for code review.  What standards they hold themselves to.  What best-practices and guidelines and methodology for testing and assessment are used, if any.</p>
<p>The service is free, and has no warranty.  But I think users should start asking for more information about how their data is retained, retrieved, and what has been done to prevent things such as another user gaining access to My Stuff by impersonating me to imified by sending queries for data that belongs to me.  There are any number of ways that this could happen&#8212;there are, after all, no fewer than 5 ways to get at the service, over 5 different protocols.</p>
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		<title>Merlin Drops some Stikkit Science</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2007/02/merlin-drops-some-stikkit-science/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2007/02/merlin-drops-some-stikkit-science/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 07 Feb 2007 19:31:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[As promised, I wanted to start sharing some of the reasons I&#8217;ve been digging Stikkit, so I thought I&#8217;d begin at the beginning: Stikkit&#8217;s use of &#8220;magic words&#8221; to do stuff based on your typing natural (albeit geeky) language into a blank note. There&#8217;s a lot more to Stikkit than magic words, but this is [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<blockquote><p>
As promised, I wanted to start sharing some of the reasons I&#8217;ve been digging Stikkit, so I thought I&#8217;d begin at the beginning: Stikkit&#8217;s use of &#8220;magic words&#8221; to do stuff based on your typing natural (albeit geeky) language into a blank note. There&#8217;s a lot more to Stikkit than magic words, but this is a great place to start. (And, yeah, future posts will be more about how to implement stuff with Stikkit, but it&#8217;s worthwhile to start with mechanics.)</p></blockquote>
<p>The latest post on <a href="http://www.43folders.com/2007/02/07/stikkit-introduction/">how to use stikkit</a> on 43folders is top-shelf stuff.  I&#8217;ve been playing with Stikkit for a while now and while I just don&#8217;t have the trust in it that I have in Backpack, I could easily see that changing.</p>
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		<title>GTD on Wikipedia</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2007/01/gtd-on-wikipedia/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2007/01/gtd-on-wikipedia/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 29 Jan 2007 00:57:49 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false"></guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Would it be tacky to link to my own GTD paper on the Wikipedia page on GTD?]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Would it be tacky to link to my own <span class="caps">GTD</span> paper on the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GTD">Wikipedia page</a> on <span class="caps">GTD</span>?</p>
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		<title>my desk @work, annotated</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2007/01/my-desk-work-annotated/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2007/01/my-desk-work-annotated/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 22 Jan 2007 17:02:00 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organization]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[i need to straighten up my desk something awful. but it has been worse.]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>i need to straighten up my desk something awful.</p>
<p>but it has been worse.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/366007918/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://farm1.static.flickr.com/176/366007918_b47e3ad31e_m.jpg" width="240" height="180" alt="01222007324" /></a></p>
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		<title>How-To: Print DIY Planner Hipster PDA Cards Direct to 3&#215;5</title>
		<link>http://kvet.ch/2006/12/how-to-print-diy-planner-hipster-pda-cards-direct-to-3x5/</link>
		<comments>http://kvet.ch/2006/12/how-to-print-diy-planner-hipster-pda-cards-direct-to-3x5/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 05 Dec 2006 05:26:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>admin</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[gtd]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hipsterpda]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[organization]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[So I know some of you were wondering what my latest flickr pool was all about but clicking around you probably figure it out fast. I spent a lot of time and a lot of brain power on getting an HP C5180 all-in-one scanner, copier, printer, photo printer, hipsterpda authoring tool. It wasn&#8217;t pleasant. In [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>So I know some of you were wondering what my latest <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/sempai/sets/72157594397481855/">flickr pool</a> was all about but clicking around you probably figure it out fast.</p>
<p>I spent a lot of time and a lot of brain power on getting an <span class="caps">HP C5180</span> all-in-one scanner, copier, printer, photo printer, hipsterpda authoring tool.  It wasn&#8217;t pleasant.  In fact, it was pretty horrifying considering that the latest drivers and software on the HP website are <a href="http://kvet.ch/articles/2006/11/28/dear-hp-your-software-for-the-c5180-all-in-one-sucks">badly broken</a>.</p>
<p>Also, I know I&#8217;ve been busy lately.  I assure you this is more related to work and family than a terrible fixation on <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/sempai/314624470/in/photostream/">a certain gnome</a>, though I&#8217;m starting to get teased a little by my friends for such things.  So onward and upward.</p>
<p>This guide is designed to help the owner of an HP All-in-One model printer (or any other HP printer and perhaps any printer that will feed 3&#215;5 cards) print cards using Mac <span class="caps">OS X</span>.</p>
<h1>Assumptions:</h1>
<p>You&#8217;re an awesome hipster and have a <a href="http://www.diyplanner.com/templates/official/hpda">deck of cards</a> in <span class="caps">PDF</span> format, 1-up, to prove it.</p>
<p>You have a printer similar enough to the <a href="http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/product_detail.do?product_code=Q8220A%23ABA&#38;aoid=26243">HP Photosmart <span class="caps">C5180</span></a> that you can fake having one or have already cleared off room for your own.  (It is worth looking at&#8212;Epson doesn&#8217;t have a printer of this capability in the same price range at the moment and my <span class="caps">RX500</span> died because I used stupid third-party inks that blew out my heads.  It also prints photos very well though the scanner software sucks and HP has issues with QA of their software apparently.)</p>
<p>You have yourself a nice place to put all those cards, such as a <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/sempai/sets/72057594080925444/">Levenger Shirt Pocket Briefcase</a>, or a <a href="http://flickr.com/photos/sempai/sets/72057594091944594/">Levenger Rope Case</a>.</p>
<p>You have a Mac running <span class="caps">OS X 10</span>.4+.  I only say that because I&#8217;m not sure if the UI elements look the same in Panther.  Its been a while.  Maybe you should upgrade.</p>
<p>You have a stack of index cards.  I get mine at a local office supply store (Morrison Office Supply on Thayer Street, Providence Rhode Island, US) because I just love the owner and his shop.  You can probably get them just about anywhere though.  I like plain ones.  I go for a nice weight that isn&#8217;t too stiff and isn&#8217;t so flimsy that they&#8217;re going to easily tear.  The HP lets you put them in the main tray.  Don&#8217;t try using the photo paper tray.  It doesn&#8217;t work.  They&#8217;re too small for that, but the big huge tray lets you accommodate smaller sizes.  Go figure.</p>
<p>When you load the cards, you can&#8217;t even see them anymore.  It makes it hard to know how many you have left.  I&#8217;m usually only printing 10-20 cards at a time though, so it isn&#8217;t like I&#8217;m raking the leaves while my printer sits waiting for cards.</p>
<h1>Preview.app</h1>
<p>Preview.app is the preferred way for me to open the hipsterpda DIYplanner templates.  It is a great <span class="caps">PDF</span> viewer all-around anyway.  First things first, open the document.</p>
<h2>File &raquo; Page Setup</h2>
<p>Make a custom page size.  I self-assigned 0.00 inch margins.  This is roughly similar to 0.00 centimeter margins.</p>
<p>I called mine &#8220;Hipsta&#8221; and set the page size to width 3 inches by height 5 inches.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/309485739/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/105/309485739_6ba90d09f0_m.jpg" width="240" height="172" alt="Picture 1.png" /></a></p>
<p>Easy.</p>
<p>You&#8217;re going to want to set your Paper Size to that custom Hipsta selection you just made.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/314641516/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/117/314641516_fa54b0eeb6_m.jpg" width="240" height="192" alt="Picture 2.png" /></a></p>
<p>You&#8217;re also going to want to change the scale a bit.  I got the best results at 95% but I&#8217;ve had great luck with 96% as well.  100% is too big, and your cards will get the edges cut off by the margins, even though they&#8217;re at 0.00.  Ping me if you get a better result than this.  I&#8217;m happy with the results I&#8217;m getting, but would probably prefer getting a larger print onto 3&#215;5.</p>
<p>So yeah, I set mine to 96%.</p>
<p>Punch the big OK button.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/314641507/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/110/314641507_018d360182_m.jpg" width="240" height="190" alt="Picture 1.png" /></a></p>
<h2>File &raquo; Print</h2>
<p>Here we go.</p>
<h3>Name your preset.</h3>
<p>Create a new preset.  Call it &#8220;HP Trying&#8221; or whatever you want to call it.  Something like &#8220;I hope this works!&#8221; is fine, too.  Don&#8217;t get cocky with your naming of this preset, I think it interprets assertiveness as a threat.</p>
<p>Save your preset.</p>
<p>You&#8217;re going to save your preset after every change we make, so get used to it.</p>
<h3>Go to Layout</h3>
<p>Select the drop-down menu below Presets.</p>
<p>Pick Layout, and make it look like this:</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/309485749/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/104/309485749_e825851dd1_m.jpg" width="240" height="163" alt="Picture 2.png" /></a></p>
<p>Save your preset.</p>
<h3>Paper Handling</h3>
<p>Select the drop-down menu below Presets and select Paper Handling.</p>
<p>Leave everything as-is, but change &#8220;Scale to fit paper size:&#8221; and change that to Hipsta.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/309485760/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/104/309485760_e0115ab727_m.jpg" width="240" height="171" alt="Picture 3.png" /></a></p>
<p>Save your preset.</p>
<h3>Paper Type/Quality</h3>
<p>Select the drop-down menu below Presets and select Paper Type/Quality.</p>
<p>I like to use Plain paper.  I leave quality on Automatic.  I use sRGB even though the cards are all grayscale now.  I think they used to have some with little faint splashes of color.  Or my Epson was so cracked out that it was injecting some color where none should be.  That doesn&#8217;t seem all that unlikely.  I really screwed that printer up.  That&#8217;ll learn me.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/sempai/309485784/" title="Photo Sharing"><img src="http://static.flickr.com/118/309485784_bef5046fc4_m.jpg" width="240" height="204" alt="Picture 5.png" /></a></p>
<p>Do you see Paper | Color Options | Ink?</p>
<p>Click on Ink.</p>
<p>The middle setting bleeds too much.  I nudge it down a peg.  Your mileage may vary.</p>
<p>Save your preset.</p>
<h3>Copies &#38; Pages</h3>
<p>Select the drop-down menu below Presets and select Copies &#38; Pages.  Set the number of copies you want, and what page-range you want.  It will probably be 10-20 copies of Page X.</p>
<p>Don&#8217;t forget to do this because if you don&#8217;t, you&#8217;ll hurt yourself scrambling to launch Printer Setup Utility to stop the print job you just kicked off lest you get showered with 84 index cards.</p>
<p>This printer cranks them out fast.  Like little ninja throwing stars they&#8217;ll spray at you.  Heads-up.</p>
<h2>Now what?</h2>
<p>That&#8217;s it, slacker.  Now that you have a saved preset you can dig through your 1-up <span class="caps">PDF</span> hipsterpda templates and find the one you want, hit Print, change to your hipster-pda printing Preset you created (Please Work, HP Trying, or Tickle Me Merlin) and assign how many copies you want of that card.</p>
<p>If you come back and print more later after having closed the document, you have to pick Page Setup again to tell Preview.app you&#8217;re printing to Hipsta again.  It will not remember that on a document-by-document basis, which would be nice.  I submitted a feature request to Apple for that.</p>
<h2>Wrap-up</h2>
<p>So that is that.  You can crank out cards really fast on this printer, and they turn out really well.  Honestly I think my Epson controlled ink output better, but the HP does pretty awesome and also lets me load cards directly, instead of cutting my own, which is very error-prone because I have the patience of a 3-year-old.</p>
<h2>Shout-outs</h2>
<p>To my peeps on the <a href="http://board.43folders.com/">43 folders block</a>, merlin, berko, pookster, keep it real.  Real organized.</p>
<p>The fine folks at <a href="http://www.diyplanner.com/"><span class="caps">DIY</span> Planner</a> who slave night and day to make your life easier.</p>
<p>I&#8217;d like to <a href="http://kvet.ch/articles/2006/11/28/dear-hp-your-software-for-the-c5180-all-in-one-sucks">give the finger to HP</a> for putting borked software on their downloads site.  You guys should try installing your software once and attempting to use it before putting it on the download site.  I bet that may solve your problem of putting broken software online.  Unless you did test your software and decided that it was good enough in spite of not working.</p>
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