Excession by Iain M. Banks is a great read with a fun mix of space opera, humour, morality, and mystery 📚

A great video on the Standard Model of physics

Really well done and fascinating video on The Sounds of Space

Currently reading: Excession by Iain M. Banks 📚

The iPadOS save dialog for MS Office has become confusing. I can never figure out which of these “Documents” folder is my documents folder, rather than a colleague’s

Back in the office after a 13 month gap and spotted my first PPE vending machine on the commute. A sign of how things will be after COVID-19 🦠 😷

Mortal on Amazon Prime is good. A nice take on the Thor myth that doesn’t adopt the Marvel spectacle style (though that style is good fun)

A nice run along Taylor Creek 🏃‍♂️. Except for the hill up to Lumsden Ave near the end; that part was horrible

I’ve been using the iOS betas for just over a week. The new Focus feature is as useful as I’d hoped. Being able to change notifications and home screens by context is great. Especially for switching off from work

Currently reading: The Little Drummer Girl: A Novel by John le Carre 📚

A quiet run along the beach this morning. Certain to be much busier this afternoon 🏃‍♂️

The Tomorrow War is totally ridiculous. And, I watched it anyway

Finished reading: Matter (Culture) by Iain M. Banks. This was a straightforwardly entertaining read 📚

A misty run this morning 🏃‍♂️

Humid out there 🥵. Good thing there was a breeze by the river 🏃‍♂️

Second vaccine doses administered! 💉 👍

Might as well try another one from Kensington Brewing

Trying out a new (to me) brewery: Kensington Brewing

This episode of the Mindscape podcast was a nice mix of my interests in math, politics, and voting theory

Finished reading: The Strategy Paradox: Why Committing to Success Leads to Failure (And What to do About It) by Michael E. Raynor 📚

Green Mars by Kim Stanley Robinson is a good second book in the Mars trilogy. So much great detail, you really get a strong sense of Mars as a place that is distinct from Earth 📚

I’ve listened to a few Spatial Audio songs on Apple Music and I’m impressed! If you listen to a familiar song, you can really notice the difference. Lots of space and previously unnoticed details in these new mixes 🎧🎶

Switching from Agenda to Craft, for now 📅🗒

In my corner of the internet, there’s a well trodden, twisted path of searching for the one true notes app. I’ve reached a fork in the path between Agenda and Craft. As I wrote earlier, I’ve been using Agenda for a while now and its date-based approach really suits my meeting-dominated work. Now, though, Craft has added calendar integration and I’m testing it out.

There are several things I really like about Craft, relative to Agenda:

1. Document syncing is far more reliable. This isn’t entirely Agenda’s fault. I’m restricted by corporate policy from using iCloud Documents, so have been using Dropbox sync for Agenda. I often have to wait an indeterminate, though long, time before documents sync across my devices. Craft sync has been instantaneous and very reliable.
2. Having access to my documents from a web browser is great. I’ll be back to working from the office on a Windows laptop soon and won’t have access to my iPad. So, web access will be important.
3. Performance is much better on Craft. Agenda often freezes in the middle of typing and suffers from random crashes. This could very well be something about my particular setup, though it doesn’t happen in any other apps.

On the downside, I do miss Agenda’s simplicity. Craft has lots of ways to organize notes (such as cards and subpages). Of course, you can mostly ignore this, but I like Agenda’s well-thought-through approach that didn’t require much deliberation about where to put things.

Of course, having just made this switch, Apple announced Quick Notes and I may well be back on Apple Notes in a few months.

The new Focus feature in iOS 15 looks promising. I already hide and show home screens based on context and this looks like it will help make this even more effective. Lots to unpack from WWDC

After thinking it over for a few years, Lucy has finally decided to try the outdoor couch