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ReQall v. Remember The Milk, Round 2

Dave — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:36:10 +0000

About a year and a half ago, I chose ReQall over Remember The Milk as my GTD/productivity reminder app of choice. I eventually upgraded to the Pro version of ReQall because I liked the idea of adding items by voice and the integration with Evernote. After upgrading to my iPhone 4S though, ReQall stopped recognizing my location and therefore couldn’t remind me to do something when i was near a particular location (i.e. pickup milk when I’m near the grocery store). I’ve been in contact with ReQall’s tech support since October 24, 2011 and they’re in no rush to correct the issue. They say the developers are too busy working on a new product called ReQall Rover. Personally, I think three months is too long to have to wait for a bug fix, especially since I’m a Pro user.
Because ReQall has been pissing me off lately, I’ve decided to give RTM another try. They’ve found a way to use Siri to add new reminders to RTM. I never really used the Evernote integration but it was nice to know that feature was there, should I ever want to take advantage of it. RTM also has the ability to remind me by location.
I tried using the built-in Reminders app in iOS 5, but it didn’t live up to my expectations. If I wanted to assign a location to an item, I had to have the address attached to a contact in my address book. I didn’t really like that I had to create a contact for my grocery store or my pharmacy just to add a location to an item. I did, however, like that I could have the Reminders app notify me about an item when I leave a location, instead of only when I’m arriving or near one. I’ve used it several times to remind me to do something when leaving work or home. I would use the Reminders app exclusively if there were a web interface through iCloud to add items more quickly and if there were a way to dictate a list of items to Siri and have her/it recognize it as a list and create one entry per item (instead of one entry for the entire list).

VirtualBox

Dave — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 18:30:47 +0000

Ubuntu 10.10 inside Windows 7

Yesterday, I posted an entry about creating a Hackintosh inside VirtualBox. I failed to realize that I never posted an entry about VirtualBox even though I’ve been using it for a while.
VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware, targeted at server, desktop and embedded use. A lot of companies are moving towards virtualization because they can have multiple virtual servers running on one physical server. Fewer physical servers means less room needed to house the servers and less power to run the servers. Virtualization also makes it easier when migrating from one physical server to another. Typically, only a few files need to be migrated, instead of having to copy hundreds or thousands of files over; or having to create an image (Ghost, Acronis, etc.) of the old server and restoring the image onto the new server.
Oracle (the company who makes VirtualBox now that they purchased Sun MicroSystems) lists the following as reasons why virtualization is useful:

Running multiple operating systems simultaneously. VirtualBox allows you to run more than one operating system at a time. This way, you can run software written for one operating system on another (for example, Windows software on Linux or a Mac) without having to reboot to use it. Since you can configure what kinds of “virtual” hardware should be presented to each such operating system, you can install an old operating system such as DOS or OS/2 even if your real computer’s hardware is no longer supported by that operating system.

Easier software installations. Software vendors can use virtual machines to ship entire software configurations. For example, installing a complete mail server solution on a real machine can be a tedious task. With VirtualBox, such a complex setup (then often called an “appliance”) can be packed into a virtual machine. Installing and running a mail server becomes as easy as importing such an appliance into VirtualBox.

Testing and disaster recovery. Once installed, a virtual machine and its virtual hard disks can be considered a “container” that can be arbitrarily frozen, woken up, copied, backed up, and transported between hosts.
On top of that, with the use of another VirtualBox feature called “snapshots”, one can save a particular state of a virtual machine and revert back to that state, if necessary. This way, one can freely experiment with a computing environment. If something goes wrong (e.g. after installing misbehaving software or infecting the guest with a virus), one can easily switch back to a previous snapshot and avoid the need of frequent backups and restores.

Any number of snapshots can be created, allowing you to travel back and forward in virtual machine time. You can delete snapshots while a VM is running to reclaim disk space.

Infrastructure consolidation. Virtualization can significantly reduce hardware and electricity costs. Most of the time, computers today only use a fraction of their potential power and run with low average system loads. A lot of hardware resources as well as electricity is thereby wasted. So, instead of running many such physical computers that are only partially used, one can pack many virtual machines onto a few powerful hosts and balance the loads between them.

I typically use it for running older operating systems (Windows XP, Fedora 10, etc.) or for testing out new ones (especially Linux based). I haven’t yet, but if I wanted to, I could use VirtualBox create a virtual copy of one of my existing computers (with the help of third-party software).

Hackintosh VirtualBox

Dave — Tue, 31 May 2011 17:12:59 +0000

I successfully created a Hackintosh inside VirtualBox. For those that don’t know, a Hackintosh is a PC, originally designed to run Windows, running the Macintosh operating system instead. I had bought an eMac about five years ago but the hard drive died in it about two years ago. I’ve wanted to get a new Mac (most likely a MacBook) to replace but just couldn’t justify the expense. I had Windows computers in my house which were still running and were cheaper to replace. For a while now, I was thinking about trying to create a Hackintosh but I didn’t want to dual-boot one of my computers or blow away the operating system just to install OS X. I had read an article on Lifehacker which gave step-by-step instructions on creating a virtual Hackintosh. I haven’t had the motivation to try it until today.
I originally tried with an image I found called SnowLeo. I got that to install to the virtual hard drive without an issue; yet when I rebooted, I got the spinning beach ball of death (the OS X equivalent to a BSOD – Blue Screen of Death). Then I found an image put out by a person/group called Hazard. Not only did that version match up with the instructions that were listed in the article, but it installed and rebooted successfully.
I’m a little hesitant to update the OS because I don’t want something to break afterwards. It did only take me about an hour from start to finish, so it wouldn’t be too time consuming if I had to do it all over again.

Springpad v. Evernote

Dave — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 01:04:05 +0000

I’ve been using Evernote for a couple of years now; and recently I subscribed to their Premium service. For the last few months now, I’ve been trying out a competitor to Evernote – Springpad.
While Evernote has a client for Windows and Mac OS X PCs, Springpad is only available through a web browser. Both though have apps for iOS and Android devices.
Springpad recognizes what you’re “clipping” and classifies it accordingly. If you clip a recipe from a website, it will mark it as a recipe to make finding it later much easier. Springpad considers recipes as copyrighted material, so they link to the recipe online instead of including the directions. The downside is that if a recipe you have stored winds up getting deleted, you lose the directions. The only solution is to manually copy and paste the directions from the recipe into your note. I was going to use Springpad for this reason but immediately changed my mind when I learned it only linked to the instructions.
One feature I do like about Springpad involves remembering movies. Let’s say you’re really looking forward to a movie coming to the theaters. If you add it to Springpad, you’ll receive alerts when it’s

released to the movie theaters
available on DVD/Blu-ray
available on Netflix

Unlike Evernote, Springpad can scan a barcode and add the appropriate item to your notebook.

Will I switch? Probably not right now. There are still a lot of things I find useful with Evernote. I would like it if they added some of the features already available in Springpad (auto-detection of note type, barcode scanning, alerts). Until then, I’ll use Springpad when it’s the better app to use; otherwise I’ll stick with Evernote.

Below are videos about Springpad and Evernote created by each company.

Genius Scan

Dave — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 22:56:07 +0000

I found a very cool program for my iPhone called Genius Scan. It comes in a free version and a ‘plus’ version, for $2.99, called Genius Scan+. Both versions allow you to

Scan a picture with the camera or pick one from the library.

Crop and straighten your page thanks to Genius Scan frame autodetection and perspective correction.

Enhance your document. Genius Scan turns your grayish documents into real black and white. And it makes color documents look more vivid.

Group pages together to easily create PDF documents.

Quickly copy documents to your computer via Wifi sharing

Share your documents by email or export them to iBooks

The ‘plus’ version allows you to export your documents to Dropbox, Evernote or Google Docs.
I decided to upgrade to the ‘plus’ version since I use Dropbox and Evernote a lot.

Google Chrome

Dave — Thu, 11 Nov 2010 23:17:01 +0000

I’ve been using Firefox for the last five years and have been very happy with it (other than being a bit of a memory hog if left running for a long period of time). It allowed tabbed browsing long before IE. I’ve tried other browsers in the past, yet always came back to using Firefox. I even tried Google Chrome when it was first released. I didn’t care for it then but lately I’ve decided to give it another try.

Google Chrome is a lot more minimal than Firefox is. There isn’t any menu bar or bookmarks bar. There are tabs across the very top and directly beneath the tabs is a combination address and search box. Chrome also doesn’t have a title bar, which allows the browser window to show more of the web page being visited.

It is possible to turn off the menu bar in Firefox but it does make certain tasks (like disabling or uninstalling addons) more difficult without the menu bar. Firefox has two separate boxes for web addresses and searches. Firefox also has a title bar, which can’t be turned off without going “under the hood”, which make the viewed page smaller.
After Firefox 4 is finally released, I’ll try it and see if I’m willing to stay with Firefox or if I’ll make Google Chrome my default browser.

Evernote

Dave — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 23:42:32 +0000

I’ve been using Evernote for a while now, so much so that I’m surprised I haven’t written about it yet. The beauty of Evernote is that it can help you remember anything. You can type a text note, clip a web page, snap a photo or grab a screenshot. It’s all searchable too!! Premium users get priority image recognition, though. I’ve been using Evernote recently to keep track of different jewelers my girlfriend and I have visited and engagement rings we’ve looked at. I took photos of the business cards of the associates who assisted us. On the back of the cards are the specifications about the ring(s) my girlfriend liked. I can go back and search for keywords in the specs and view the entire card. I don’t have to keep track of the original card. As long as I have an Internet connection, I can also view the notes on my iPhone. If I mark a note as a favorite, I can view it even if I don’t have Internet access.
Premium accounts can upload 500MB/month (free users only get 40MB/month) and notes up to 50MB in size (free users can only upload notes <25MB). One nice feature about Evernote is it can be configured to monitor selected folders for importing files. I have mine set to monitor my Dropbox folder on my home PC. I wish Evernote offered a referral system, similar to Dropbox, and would grant additional upload capacity (10MB?) per month for each referral.

ReQall v. Remember The Milk

Dave — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:39:59 +0000

For a while now, I’ve been using ReQall to remember tasks that needed to get done. I tried using Remember The Milk but didn’t like that the iPhone app wasn’t free (you had to sign up for a Pro account). Now, RTM has decided to offer the iPhone app for use with free accounts but limited the functionality. The limits imposed on the free accounts are very similar to what you get for free from ReQall.
One thing I do like about ReQall (should I ever upgrade to Pro) is the integration with Evernote. I can add items to ReQall either by voice or text. I can follow my ReQall calendar in Google Calendar using the iCal URL. I can add items using the official Firefox plugin; RTM doesn’t have an official plugin.
One of the features I like about RTM is that I can tell it that an item repeats however often, in plain text, and it’ll recognize the time frame; ReQall only gives you a dropdown menu to choose from. RTM has a tighter integration with Google Calendar but I like being able to turn the calendar on/off when a day/week gets too crowded with appointments/tasks. RTM allows you to tag an item with a location, regardless of the account type; this feature is only available to ReQall Pro users. The free version of RTM only syncs once a day, whereas ReQall Standard syncs constantly.
They both offer something that the other only includes in the pay version, so I’m going to keep using both until I can decide on one over the other. If I ever do pay for one, right now I would pay for ReQall Pro.

TeamViewer

Dave — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 23:16:41 +0000

Whenever I wanted to remotely connect to my home computer, I had to make sure the correct ports were forwarded in my router and the PC was statically assigned an IP address. I just learned about a program called TeamViewer through one of the guys I work with. It works very much like GoToMyPC or LogMeIn, yet it’s free for non-commercial use. Some of the capabilities of TeamViewer are:

Remote Access/Remote Office
Remote Support
Meetings/Presentation

Like LogMeIn and GoToMyPC, TeamViewer allows web-based access to a computer without needing to run software on the remote machine. It also allows for file transfer between the remote computer and the computer you’re using. It can be executed without being installed. If it is installed, the remote computer can be configured to be accessed unattended. I’m going to see if I can execute it from my thumbdrive to access my home PC instead of using the web-based access.

Google Sync

Dave — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 23:42:54 +0000

Shortly after my last post, about moving to the cloud, I found Google Sync. With it, I’m able to sync GMail, Google Contacts and any editable Google Calendars to my iPhone. Because of all of this, I don’t plan on renewing my MobileMe account in a few months. I signed up for MobileMe because I liked the idea of instantly updating my Outlook contacts/appointments when I add/change a contact/appointment on my iPhone and vice versa. Ever since I got my Windows 7 PC, MobileMe hasn’t been syncing as well as it did on my Windows XP machine, especially with the calendars.