In 2012, I’m not going to buy anything except what I’ve used up or worn out. For all else, I’ll make do with what I already own or I’ll do without.
Mr. Daisey and the Apple Factory
Stunning piece on This American Life this week that examines the source of all of our gadgets - particularly Apple. As a family that’s bought more than our fair share of Apple gadgets over the past five years, this was especially sobering.
It made me think a lot about Mr. Money Mustache, one of my favorite personal finance bloggers, who wrote about the virtues of buying used items thusly:
So I view Craigslist not just as an Environment Saver – by preventing the unnecessary manufacturing of a bunch of new stuff – but also a Community Machine – connecting millions of people to do real activities together, as opposed to the soul sucking model of big corporations stamping out stores across the world, staffing them with minimum wage workers, connecting them to a stream of wasteful products flowing straight from China, and having us all drive into the big boxes every day to bring home SUV-loads of it which will soon end up buried in a landfill.
“The E-Reader, as we know it, is doomed”
Marco Arment hits the nail on the head with his defense of the e-reader:
I don’t think the e-reader is “doomed” at all. It may just be relegated to a fringe device for reading nerds, but that’s what it’s been for most of its lifespan as a category and it’s been fine.
I bought myself the $79 Kindle a few weeks ago - largely because of Marco’s own recommendation - and have been astonished at how much I enjoy using the device. I have tried several other Kindles (in fact, I’ve owned all of the other Kindles), but have never gotten into reading them exclusively, because they were a bit large and ungainly, and I was always more easily distracted by my iPad.
Since loading Game of Thrones onto my Kindle, though, I have barely been able to put it down. I’m sure this is partly because the book is so good, but it also has a lot to do with how great the device is. Have you seen the new Kindles? They’re remarkably small. Tiny, even! My new Kindle fits in the pocket of my jacket. I can pull it out on my train ride without fussing with my backpack. I can hold it easily in one hand, with my coffee mug in the other.
Just as important, though, is what Marco says:
And there are other big advantages to reading on a basic e-ink reader, such as the lack of a bunch of apps and multimedia features to distract you from reading.
That’s what great about the Kindle. There’s no Words With Friends, or Twitter, or e-mail, or Reeder. It’s just your book. And that’s why I’ll always own both an iPad and a Kindle.
White Noise
I downloaded White Noise yesterday on Dan Benjamin’s recommendation, and haven’t stopped listening to it since. It’s an excellent way to block out distractions at work - just put your headphones on, crank up a non-distracting sound (I prefer Brown Noise), and get to work. I also have it on my iPhone and use it to drown out the noises on the train, all the better to lose myself in Game of Thrones.
This + the Pomodoro Technique = my productivity strategy for 2012.
No personal spending in 2012
I have a few big goals for 2012 (one of which, incidentally, is to spend less time reading blogs and more time writing blogs, so you’ll hopefully see much more content from me around these parts). But there’s one in particular that I’d like to write about today:
Spending $0 on discretionary personal purchases for all of 2012
Now before you freak out, please realize that I do not mean that I will spend $0 in 2012. I fully intend to continue to purchase necessities for our family - things like groceries, toiletries, our heating/electrical bills, etc. What I’m looking to eliminate is discretionary spending on things that benefit only myself. So things like:
- Books: Instead of buying books from Amazon, I will borrow them from the library. Instead of buying Kindle books, I will also borrow them from the library (which I’ve already done with Game of Thrones) and use the new Kindle Lender’s Library. If I really get hard-up for a book, I will read one of the countless books that I own and have never read. It’s like a library in my attic. And incidentally, when I’m done with those books, I’ll give them away.
- Music: I paid for a year-long subscription to Pandora back in November for $36. This is enough to guarantee me endless commercial-free music throughout the year. If I have a craving for a particular song, I’ve found that it’s fairly easy to find most songs on YouTube, even legally.
- Coffee: I am lucky enough to work at an office with unlimited free (good) coffee. I’ve been pretty diligent about eliminating the daily Starbucks visit, and I’ll just keep this up. I received a very nice Yankees coffee mug as a Christmas gift, and I’ll bring it to work and re-fill it throughout the day. Besides, it wouldn’t kill me to
eliminatereduce coffee altogether from my diet. - Apps: I have more apps on my iPhone than I could ever use. I have games that I’ve paid for and never played. I can’t imagine I will need any more apps - ever. If I ever get bored, I’ll just open one of the aforementioned never-played games, and check it out. And the geniuses at Rovio are pretty good about rolling out new levels of Angry Birds every few months - so that’s always there for me as a nice bonus.
- Subscriptions: I used to subscribe to Rdio, Spotify, Audible, the New York Times, and the New Yorker. I do receive the Wall Street Journal and the Economist, but I paid for both of those subscriptions using airline miles and find myself rarely reading either.
I’m not sure if I’ll make it the entire year, but I imagine it’ll be fun to try. So far I’ve been pretty good about it, but then again, it’s only January 3rd. I’ll be sure to keep you posted on my progress.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Transfer Domains Out Of GoDaddy
Follow these step-by-step directions to transfer all of your domains from GoDaddy to NameCheap.
Just did this, and it was super easy. I’ve been unhappy with GoDaddy for a while now - mostly because I think their Super Bowl commercials are tacky, and I was put off by the whole CEO hunting elephants thing. The whole SOPA thing is icing on the cake.
If anyone out there is looking for an excuse to switch as well, this is as good a guide for doing so as I’ve found.
Source: jeffepstein
Why aren’t Amazon’s gift recommendations better?
About 99% of the stuff I buy comes from Amazon. The same applies to my wife. So Amazon is able to recommend a lot of products that I would enjoy - and generally their recommendations are pretty accurate.
But why can’t they recommend things that my wife would like? Ostensibly, there are some privacy implications to this, because it’s probably not cool for Amazon to broadcast my product preferences to the entire world. But it would be great if I could designate a small group of people (maybe a “circle”?) with whom I’m more comfortable sharing my preferences.
And it would be great if Amazon could “suggest” gifts that my wife would like, so that when I find myself looking for gifts (three days before Christmas), I get some guidance.
Forgetting the Milk
One of the reasons I was so excited to get the iPhone 4S (see my review here) was the prospect of integrating its reminder service with Remember the Milk, which is the bible of my productivity system (GTD). RTM’s website touts the service, and I have to admit it works great for basic reminders - for example, saying “Remind me to empty the garbage tomorrow at 9pm” puts a task on your RTM task list to do just that. It’s excellent.
Unfortunately, because RTM doesn’t yet support location-based reminders, adding a location-based reminder to Siri causes it to disappear into a black hole of non-reminderness. The reminder gets synced to Remember the Milk, it disappears from Siri, and you don’t get reminded at a particular location. So, for example, “Remind me to deposit the check from Mom when I get to the office,” turns into a task on your RTM list - but Reminders doesn’t ping you when you get to the office.
It’s a minor nit to pick, but I hope Bob the Monkey is working on a fix for this.
It’s not a frequent topic of discussion, but doctors die, too. And they don’t die like the rest of us. What’s unusual about them is not how much treatment they get compared to most Americans, but how little. For all the time they spend fending off the deaths of others, they tend to be fairly serene when faced with death themselves. They know exactly what is going to happen, they know the choices, and they generally have access to any sort of medical care they could want. But they go gently.
How Doctors Die « Zócalo Public Square
Amazing article.
Source: zocalopublicsquare.org
Initial thoughts on the iPhone 4S
I have been a longtime iPhone user, having owned all of them since the first one in November 2007. Last week, as a result of my early upgrade eligibility on AT&T, I upgraded to the iPhone 4S. Here are a few of my initial thoughts:
- It’s a little bit faster than the iPhone 4, but not much. I can notice that the performance is a bit snappier when switching between apps, and big apps (like the New York Times app) load a bit faster on the 4S, but it’s not super noticeable.
- The faster camera loading time is a noticeable improvement. As a father of two young boys, it’s nice to be able to have the camera load up at a moment’s notice (whenever one of them is doing something ridiculous). Being able to grab a picture with about two seconds notice is great, and a huge upgrade.
- Image quality is a noticeable improvement. Pictures are a lot nicer with the new 8MP camera. I would feel entirely comfortable using the 4S as my one and only camera for all but the most formal events.
- Siri is fun, but I’m not using her as much as I thought I would. In fact, I thought I would be using Siri a bit more than I have been. I still find it a bit easier to just open up the Remember the Milk app and jot down a task that comes to mind. The Remember the Milk Siri integration, however, is great, so when I do remember to add myself a reminder through Siri, I appreciate that it shows up on my task list.
- AT&T service is no better, in fact it may even be worse. I was hopeful, based on initial reviews, that the improved antenna on the iPhone 4S would give me better access to 3G service during my commute from suburban NJ to NYC. Unfortunately, it’s no better - in fact, I think it’s worse. I can’t use AT&T for most of my commute. In fact, as I mentioned in a tweet earlier this evening, re-upping with AT&T was probably the biggest mistake I made in upgrading to the 4S.
The best thing about my upgrade to the iPhone 4S, however, was that I got the phone virtually for free. I sold my year-old iPhone 4 on eBay for $315. Since I was eligible for an early upgrade from AT&T, I was able to get the 32GB 4S for $299. So I actually profited on the transaction.
Thanksgiving is a one of our better ideas. We, theoretically, reflect on how fortunate we are to have what we have. The day after Thanksgiving would be a great day to start thinking how we might start addressing wrongs perpetuated on anybody trampled in the process of putting together the comfort and security we are so thankful for. Instead, we’ve turned it into a symbolic date for acquiring shinier objects in anticipation of how we can best miss the point of our next major holiday.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Added to Christmas list.
Source: birthdayshoes.com
