Droplr Pro launched recently, and the iOS app got a small update that allows you to mark shared items private or public. The Mac app, however, is in desperate need of an update. You still can’t mark things private. Invoking the shortcut with a file selected doesn’t upload the file, it creates a text note of the path to that file on your Mac. There are multiple types of notes you can create: plain text, Markdown, Textile, and Code but you can’t set the app to default to anything other than plain text and there’s no shortcut to quickly create a note. Lastly, another cool feature missing from Droplr that Cloud has is the ability to upload the contents of your clipboard. That can be very useful in certain situations. Droplr Pro is now a much better service than Cloud, but the Mac app is severely lacking. There are also no third-party Droplr clients for power users like the excellent Cloud to Go for iOS.
Category: text
Drell Adept
Reave is a lasting attack. It drains health, adds damage protection, can be buffed against armor and barriers and can set up or trigger biotic explosions.
Pull is useful against health-only enemies. It can get them out of the fight and give you a chance to focus on bigger enemies. It will also strip Guardians of their shields and you can detonate it with Reave.
Cluster grenades causes multiple explosions, cover a wide range and can detonate biotic explosions. Reaving a group of enemies and hitting them with grenades does huge damage and if very effective against tough enemies like Atlases, Primes and Brutes.
The Drell are frail but they are quick and agile. You get movement speed bonuses and you get a very good encumbrance bonus that allows you to have fast cool downs with even heavy weapons. A Drell Adept might do well to take a sniper rifle or a scoped pistol.
Drell Vanguard
A Vanguard’s most important attack is its charge. The Drell Vanguard is no different. With a fast cool down, you can charge every 3.5 seconds or so.
Pull is useful against health-only enemies. It can get them out of the fight and give you a chance to focus on bigger enemies. It will also strip Guardians of their shields and you can detonate it with Biotic Charge.
Cluster grenades causes multiple explosions, cover a wide range and can detonate biotic explosions. They are very effective against tough enemies like Atlases, Primes and Brutes. Helps if you have a Warp-capable squad mate to set up biotic detonations.
The Drell are frail but they are quick and agile. You get movement speed bonuses and you get a very good encumbrance bonus that allows you to have fast cool downs with even heavy weapons. A Drell Vanguard can have over 150% cool down bonuses with decently upgraded shotguns. Charge → shotgun → Cluster Grenades can be very powerful against big enemies, especially if you’ve got a fast firing/high damage weapons and the 25% power bonus after a charge.
I wrote a little while back about finance software. I’m still using Koku, which I was writing about, but I’ve changed the way I capture my transactions on the go. I was using a specific list in Listary that synced to Simplenote which I was copying my transactions from into Koku. I gave that up in favor of Omnifocus for iPhone. Omnifocus continues to be my fall back for almost everything lately. It doesn’t work any differently than my list in Listary did, except that I’m guaranteed to check Omnifocus. I wasn’t always checking Simplenote/nvALT. I know, if I put something into Omnifocus, I will process it. Because of this, I put information into Omnifocus whenever possible. That way, I know, for sure, it’ll get done. They say that the best camera is the one you have. Maybe the best finance software is whatever you’ll use.
I tried out Drafts this past week. I was skeptical of it because its developer also did Terminology, which I had heard was great, but didn’t really like. Agile Tortoise doesn’t make pretty apps. Drafts is also a bit of an eyesore. The original theme for Drafts was a mess of browns that looked like the inside of a toilet bowl after a large bowl of spicy curry. There’s a gray theme that isn’t much better looking, but at least it isn’t brown.
Drafts is a weird mixture of tweet composer, note composer and email composer. Drafts is definitely not a place to keep text. It’s a place to start a thought and then move it off somewhere else. You can send text to Omnifocus, Simplenote or any other app that utilizes the “Open in…” function in iOS. There’s a “Send to Dropbox…” function, but since you can only send text files to /Apps/Drafts, its use is limited for me. I want to be able to save to any folder I wish, and I know it’s possible, but the developer claims that Dropbox prefers you to use “/Apps/[app name]“. So for the sake of making Dropbox happy, you’re stuck with no options. Elements and Taskpaper let you use any folder, but Drafts will not. It’s pretty lame.
I’ve found it useful to use Drafts when I want to quickly get something out of my head though. Drafts automatically opens up a new note when you launch it. From there, it’s one tap to send it to Omnifocus’ inbox or create a note in Simplenote. I also like that it auto-tags new Simplenote notes with the “Drafts” tag. I’d like it even more if I could choose my own custom tag to be assigned, but I won’t hold my breath. I know I can accomplish these same things (minus the auto-tag) with Launchpad. Launchpad still requires you to open the app and then choose your macro you’ve created. It feels faster launching into a text window straight from the home screen.
Drafts could also be very useful for creating templates. You can keep a draft of something, and use actions like send to Simplenote, Tweetbot or email whenever. Unlike Launchpad which doesn’t allow you to have line breaks when you create “Create new note with [insert text]” macros, Drafts would allow you to create relatively complex templates. Of course, if TextExpander Touch allowed for fill-ins on iOS, you could do everything with TextExpander like you would on OS X. (Sad face.)
Drafts is an interesting application and it certainly has its uses. It’s not going to replace any app you already have, but it’s possible that you could find a way to use Drafts that augments your currently used applications.
I wrote a little while ago about OpenMeta tags and some software to implement them. I continue to be a believer in tagging. At every opportunity, I reduced the number of folders I use and consolidate as many files as I can into one folder and then tag them, sparingly. Over tagging files can be just as bad as having too many folders. Here’s an example of overtagging:
For a while, I was tagging work documents as ‘work’ and ‘COMPANYNAME’. It was overkill. I should know that anything that is tagged with my employer’s name is work. I shouldn’t need to tag those documents as ‘work’ too. Those files are already in a ‘Work’ folder in Dropbox.
Two updates to applications I had tried in the past came out last week and their new inclusion of OpenMeta tagging support has gotten me back into them. The first is Path Finder 6. I tried Path Finder out in 2007, I think, and while I liked it’s extra abilities over the Finder, it wasn’t ready to be a replacement for the Finder. Path Finder’s come a long way, and I think you can safely leave Finder behind. What I essentially do is run both in tandem, and I redirect all “Reveal in Finder” commands to reveal in Path Finder and Path Finder lets you hide the Finder’s dock icon. Finder can run in the background for Time Machine and you can use Path Finder exclusively. It’s pretty seamless.
Path Finder 6 also adds the ability to work with OpenMeta tags. You can edit the tags for any file, but Path Finder has these nifty “tag groups” you can set up and then every time you apply a “tag group”, Path Finder adds multiple tags that you’ve already assigned to that “tag group”. I still use Tags.app because of the ability to tag anything, anywhere rather quickly and Tags.app has a great search feature and tag browser that Path Finder doesn’t.
Oh, one more bad ass thing. Path Finder 6 can queue file transfers! No more grinding hard drives to a halt when you initiate multiple transfers at the same time.
The other piece of software is the new version of the MailTags add-on for Mail.app. MailTags now adds OpenMeta tags so the emails you tag with MailTags show up in Tags.app’s tag browser. I guess tagging emails is a natural extension of my newfound love of tagging files. Adding tags like ‘@action’, ‘@followup’ and ‘@waiting’ have made it easy to create Smart Mailboxes that help me get to certain types of mail quickly. I have a Smart Mailbox called “Priority Mail” that contains flagged messages, ‘@action’ and ‘@followup’. I check this once in the morning and I can quickly see what needs to be acted on or processed in some way.
Overall, I’m really happy with my tagging setup. I keep everything in Dropbox, my MailTags tags sync through iCloud’s IMAP system (or at least they appear to be) and I’m taking advantage of Smart Mailboxes and Spotlight Saved Searches to keep everything at my fingertips.
I continue to be super happy with Pocket. I saw Marco Arment say that Pocket is as much a competitor to him as Evernote is, but I think he’s dead wrong. I was starting to lose faith in Readability. The iOS app is a dog; it’s slow and unresponsive. I was thinking of going back to Instapaper. Pocket came out at the right time. I like tags better than folders, you can do bulk editing, it handles images and videos in posts way better than Instapaper or even Readability do and the article view is super clean and easy to read. I think this is where Marco is getting it wrong. The reading experience with Pocket is fantastic. Marco has too many fonts (it’s possible to have too many), the automatic night mode is clunky and Instapaper just isn’t as fast as Pocket. Pocket is insanely fast.
I think Idea Shower should’ve kept Read It Later Pro’s model and stayed a premium-priced application. As much as I love the performance of Pocket, its lack of a business model worries me. It’s ad-free and they’re not taking any money for it anymore. If they want to charge an annual subscription for something extra (a la Simplenote), I might be up for paying for it. I’ve done more reading in Pocket in the last three days than I had done with Instapaper in two weeks. Maybe it’s because it’s shiny and new, but Pocket is also really fast and a great platform for saving content for later.ch a competitor to him as Evernote is, but I think he’s dead wrong. I was starting to lose faith in Readability. The iOS app is a dog; it’s slow and unresponsive. I was thinking of going back to Instapaper. Pocket came out at the right time. I like tags better than folders, you can do bulk editing, it handles images and videos in posts way better than Instapaper or even Readability do and the article view is super clean and easy to read. I think this is where Marco is getting it wrong. The reading experience with Pocket is fantastic. Marco has too many fonts (it’s possible to have too many), the automatic night mode is clunky and Instapaper just isn’t as fast as Pocket. Pocket is insanely fast.
I think Idea Shower should’ve kept Read It Later Pro’s model and stayed a premium-priced application. As much as I love the performance of Pocket, its lack of a business model worries me. It’s ad-free and they’re not taking any money for it anymore. If they want to charge an annual subscription for something extra (a la Simplenote), I might be up for paying for it. I’ve done more reading in Pocket in the last three days than I had done with Instapaper in two weeks. Maybe it’s because it’s shiny and new, but Pocket is also really fast and a great platform for saving content for later.
I used Instapaper for a long time. Then recently, I made a big deal about switching to Readability. I wound up disliking Readability, because no matter how much I like the way it looks, I can’t stand the way it runs, which is like a dog. Readability is slow in every respect. Saving in Safari with its bookmarklet is slow and you can switch tabs until the process is done. The iOS app is often unresponsive, it doesn’t auto-update on launch (it does a “media check” which doesn’t add new unread articles) and the download process is slow. Instapaper is faster, but it’s ugly, and fails on multipage articles that Readability smokes with no trouble. I’ve yet to make a point of testing Pocket with multipage articles (1UP’s are the worst and most difficult). Pocket’s reading view is clean and easy to read. It handles video and images beautifully too. It doesn’t have a bunch of fonts (only two) but two seem to be plenty to me.
My only gripe is the “How to Save” button that sits in the Home screen if you don’t have anything saved to read later. It’s not a big deal, but if you are letting your thumb wander around the screen, you might accidentally tap the “How to Save” button. That’s seriously the biggest complaint I have. Pocket is great, and it’s free. I don’t know where this business model is going, but for the time being, it’s the best option out there.
I recently purchased a Nikon D5100, which has been a great camera so far. I quickly realized that I didn’t have a bag picked out for it though, and I had a trip to Kyoto rapidly approaching. The first place I checked for camera bags was Tom Bihn, and while they have recently released a camera bag, I bought my bag before Tom Bihn’s was announced and Tom Bihn’s bag is definitely not what I was looking for. I wanted a lightweight camera bag that would let me get my camera out fast. I started poking around Amazon and came across Kata bags. I had heard of Kata bags through Alex Lindsay and I figured if they’re good enough for him, they’re probably good enough for me. The bag I wound up choosing was the Kata KT PL-A-14 Pro-Light Access-14 Holster. It’s the smallest holster that Kata makes, I think. It’s very lightweight, and it’s got a quick release clip that makes it easy to pull the camera out and put away quickly.
They don’t call it “Insanity” for no reason. I was called crazy for doing it. Playing Mass Effect 3 on Insanity for my first play through, that is. It really wasn’t that bad. The thing about Insanity in Mass Effect 3 is that you just get a lot more enemies and their take a lot more damage before they go down. Some might say that I compounded my difficulties by going with Vanguard for my Shepard’s class, because the Vanguard has no long game. Vanguard is fast and up close. The only ranged biotic power that the Vanguard class has is Shockwave and Shockwave’s range is limited and it doesn’t track to enemies the way Warp or Throw does. It does however have the advantage of being able to pass through cover. You can position yourself behind a wall and send Shockwave through the wall and still be able to inflict damage on an Atlas. While the Shockwave is recharging, you can pop out from behind cover, fire off a couple shotgun blasts and then hide again and fire another Shockwave.
The Vanguard’s ability to zip across the field and hit a far off enemy is the game’s most bad ass ability for sure. Combine the Biotic Charge with Nova and you can easily take down a small group of Cannibals or even Marauders with ease. Phantoms, the second most vicious enemy in Mass Effect 3′s multiplayer (only behind Banshees) are nothing against Vanguards. A Vanguard with a level 6 Nova that has a 100% boost to barrier, armor and shield damage can charge a Phantom, Nova away its barrier and then either charge the Phantom or shotgun blast it almost instantly.
The bane of the Vanguard’s existence, especially on Insanity, is the Cerberus turret. The Biotic Charge has the added benefit of staggering enemies, but you can’t stagger a turret. Because of this, Cerberus Engineers should be your first target, after shield pylons, of course. If you don’t take them out, you’re asking for trouble. Because of this, areas with lots of Cerberus enemies in areas where you can be swarmed from multiple directions are extremely dangerous. The atrium at Grissom Academy is the most frustrating area in the game by far. It’s an almost endless stream of enemies, there are lots of turrets and Cerberus keeps pressing in on you from all sides. The requirement for getting the doors to open up so that you can proceed past the atrium is unclear and I was just thankful that I made it past it.
Banshees are also a big pain in the ass. Their ability to instantly kill you is a huge problem. If you get too close to a Banshee, it can 86 you, and Vanguard have to get close to do most of their damage. My tactic was to charge into the Banshee, use Nova while jumping away from the Banshee, fire a couple rounds with the shotgun and then charge into the Banshee again (because you probably got your barrier damaged while shooting at the Banshee). Horizon’s got a Banshee-heavy area towards the end that can be a problem.
Happy charging!
Are you angry at Readability? Do you love Instapaper and want to have Marco’s baby? Do you have sand in your vagina?
I can’t believe how up in arms the Internet (read: know-it-alls) have gotten about Readability’s “link hijacking”. The crux of the KIAs’ argument is that their darling Instapaper links back to the original link (that Instapaper hijacks when you save it directly from a Twitter client) while Readability sends links directly to the copy of the saved article on Readability’s servers. While I can understand that content creators don’t want to lose page views, let’s not forget that Marco and Instapaper have made their money by stripping pages of their ads and reformatting content and storing a copy its own server. Even if the reading service visits the originating page for a moment so that the original site can log a page view, Instapaper, ReadItLater and Readability are all stripping ads from the site. So you’re either pulling page views from the writer, or side-stepping the advertisers’ intended ad. All reading services screw somebody, be it the writer or the advertisers they’re bypassing.
Nobody wants to admit that they’ve been looking past the intended way of viewing the content they saved to Instapaper through their own Twitter client. The KIAs love Marco. He’s been around for a while and he’s the little guy. He’s a one man shop (and it shows in his visual design). When Gruber calls Readability “scumbags” he’s abusing his celebrity. I doubt Readability’s goal was to screw Daring Fireball out of page views. Readability was probably just trying to make it easier to share the view that its users actually want to share. If you’re reading something in Readability, you like the way Readability formats your saved articles and you probably think other people should read them in the same manner that you yourself did. Calling Readability “scumbags” denotes that they were trying to slight you intentionally, which I can’t believe they would.