Crappy Computers So the sentiment that crappy computers are good enough for casual users is exactly backwards: casual users are the ones that need high-end computers, while proficient users are the ones who can work around the limitations of crappy computers.

Since I’ve discovered Markdown, I’ve wanted to write everything in it (bar my thesis!). The code is so simple and make it so much easier to format text without having to revert to using a mouse, just to emphasise a specific piece of text. I switched to writing my notes in Evernote in Markdown, even though Evernote currently doesn’t support markdown in the (potentially vain) hope that they’ll implement it in the future.

So coming to edit some Markdown notes on my iPad today and I come across one flaw. Don’t get me wrong, I love Markdown and my Markdown app of choice (Writing Kit) is fantastic, with Dropbox auto sync (every 10 key strokes) and built in web browser, it’s still missing something. That something happens to be syntax highlighting. I didn’t realise how much I miss it until hitting it up on the iPad and missing the feeling I get when I see the different colour code such as when I open documents in Multimarkdown Editor on the mac.

So I’ve now been a Mac owner for the past year and half, if not a little more and it’s caused me to be laughed at, ridiculed and insulted. I have thick skin, I can let that all go because you pay your money and take your choices in life. My choice was to go Mac. And I wanted to mention one reason why I went this way. Engineering. I’m an engineer - again, my specialism suggests to other general engineers that I’m not.

So when I discovered Markdown, I quickly became a fan. The ease of creating content and not having to worry to much regarding the style of the content until after the writing was finished reminded me of LaTeX but allowed a much easier syntax to be used and it was also cross platform and compatible with Mac, Windows and iPad. But as someone that writes a lot, not only for my work (try writing a thesis!

So I’ve written before on my use of Spideroak. The service has proved to be a fantastic help and runs nicely in the background but I’ve hit a few snags using the program itself. Going in to change the details of what’s being saved to the Spideroak servers, I find that the client gives me a lot of the “spinning beachball of death” Ok, I don’t have to change the saved folders very often but like today where I decided to remove a .

So I ran into various issues this morning in trying to submit a journal to the Springerlink journal, Fire Technology. As recommended by the journal, I was trying to submit my paper in LaTeX form. After all, I spent the time learning it for my thesis, might as well write the paper in it as well right? Yeah, especially as the Word template they provide is terrible and is a complete pain in the ass to use on a Mac (or a newer version of Office than it was designed for – so probably anything after 2003 by looks!

So I’ve been trying some new writing tools for the thesis. Possibly a bit late in the game now but I’m still writing other things for various reasons, for example the UKAPUnewsletter editor and I’ve written a few magazine articles for the UK weekly computer magazine Micro Mart and not to mention I’m still writing academic papers. So when I learnt of Scrivener , I thought I best give it a go.

Is Moneywiz worth it? I’d say so. There we are, simple answer to a simple question. However, those that don’t know what Moneywiz is might be scratching their heads at this point. What is it and why is it worth whatever it is? Intro Moneywiz is an iPad and iPhone app from Silverwiz . It’s a personal finance app designed to be powerful but yet easy to use. Since I’ve got my iPad (and Mac), I’ve played with various personal finance apps but never found one I liked until now.

Now here’s something I never thought I’d ever be posting. Today I broke the 10Km barrier. Pushed it towards the end but managed to make it home in just over 10Km. A few aches and pains (I managed to get a blood blister on my toe and my shoes rubbed a little on the side of my right foot) but overall feeling pretty chuffed with that. Will have to try and carry it on but drop it to a sub 60 minute run if I can.