Read It Later

I often see a website or email article that I would like to read. I don’t have time, or inclination, to read it at that moment, but I know I want to at some point. Way back, I would simply set a bookmark in the web browser, and come back to it later. It quickly became messy though, and there pretty much wasn’t any way to tag articles so I could easily find the information later if I couldn’t remember the name or even the URL of the website that I had found it on.

Evernote came along and with it, the ability to forward emails to it. Great it works fine. Instapaper came along with the ability to do a similar thing with web pages, as well as Evernote too. I never really got into Pocket a great deal, but there are some things stored there too.

A few months back I downloaded Readwise, which allows me to save highlights from books that I read. I find that useful as some passages in books can be very inspiring and it’s good to save them in one place. Now, though, Readwise has brought out Reader which allows me to save web pages, emails, PDFs, RSS feeds and even YouTube Videos in one place as a single library and feed source. I’m going to go with this, and we’ll see how it pans out over time.

If it works out, then I’ll only be paying £7.99 a month for Readwise instead of paying for both Instapaper and Evernote, so I’ll save a few quid too.

Not That Smart, Is It?

I love playing with gadgets. I use my iPhone and Apple Watch to monitor and record events in my life. I have a Smart TV, which of course is really just a TV connected to the Internet with added apps.

I just can’t get my head around spending money on a ‘Smart’ home though.

The central heating thermostat is set at the same temperature all year round and it does its job; the heating comes on when it gets cold enough.

I suppose a remote controlled lamp in the living room could be useful, but beyond that I can’t see much point. What’s the use of a smart kettle? It only takes a couple of minutes to boil and in any case I’ve still got to fill it up with water first. Same goes for a coffee machine or a toaster.

Until there’s a fully robotic experience, when the tea, coffee or toast is actually brought to my sofa ready to drink and eat, I think I’ll carry on as I am.

Vintage Kettle & Toaster
!970’s Kettle & Toaster

By the way, my electric kettle is 1970’s vintage, still going strong, and is made very more robustly than the plastic ones these days. 

The toaster is only a couple of years old but made to a long-time tried and trusted design.

An Evernote Alternative

I love Evernote. It’s great for holding notes of all kinds. I’ve been a member for several years now. The one thing anyone that knows anything about databases will tell you, is that it’s not how easy it is to put stuff INTO a database that important, but how easy it is to retrieve it, perhaps many months or even years afterwards.

Keyboard
Ever try and find information in postings in Facebook from just a few days ago? Difficult. More than a couple of weeks, and if you can’t remember the exact date or who posted it, then forget it.

Now Evernote is trying hard to be all things to everyone, and it’s becoming bloatware. It’s getting slow and cumbersome.

So here I am. Dropbox Paper.

I’m going to give this a try and share it with you, and see how this works out.

Let’s take a ride on this together.