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iPad Pro OLED

May 7, 2024 By Bobby Voicu

I wanted to buy an iPad Pro 11′ with OLED screen for a long time. The only issue? Until today there was none.

But starting today, the iPad Pro line has OLED screens across both devices.

Adding in the mix the new M4 processor, this iPad will be used 5-7 years from now as well. Seeing that now I still use a 2018 iPad Pro, it wouldn’t surprise me, frankly.

Other things announced today:

  • iPad Air 13′
  • Apple Pencil Pro
  • camera on the long side of the device

There are other things you might be interested in, including Final Cut Pro changes, but the above are the things I care the most about.

SD Card formatter for Raspberry Pi compromised SD cards

July 25, 2021 By Bobby Voicu

I use lots of SD cards (well, micro SD) to install different OS-es on the Raspberry Pi. The problem is that a lot of the times I can’t use the SD card on another computer anymore because I can’t format it for my Mac, let’s say.

Well, I found SD Card Formatter, a free app from the SD Card Association that solves this issue. And here it is, just so I don’t forget about it, because it’s not the first time I “discover” it.

Bitclout

May 20, 2021 By Bobby Voicu

I’ve just created an account on Bitclout.

I didn’t hear too many things about this crypto based social network before, but I’ve recently read an article on AVC about it so I thought it’s worth creating an account just to test it.

I don’t know if Mirror is the new WordPress or if Bitclout is the new Twitter. We will see. But it sure feels like we are back in the early 2000s again, experimenting with decentralizing media. I have the same feeling of excitement I had back then.

From here: Decentralized Media – AVC.

It really is worth “experimenting with decentralizing media”. It reminds me of the early days of Social Media, as well.

MacOS quick actions: Resize image and change to jpg

May 12, 2021 By Bobby Voicu

I’ve changed both my laptop and desktop to M1 Macs recently. One thing I had on the previous laptop that I loved was that I had some quick actions to resize images and to change image type from HEIC to JPG.

Some friends asked me about it and I never remember how to do it. Since I’m looking for it on my own now, here are links to the solutions:

  • Quick action to change to JPG
  • Quick action to resize images

The solutions are using Automator, an automation MacOS app that exists on every Apple computer.

How to search reddit for specific domains

May 9, 2021 By Bobby Voicu

I’ve found myself searching on reddit for links from specific domains lately and I always forget how to do it.

So here it is, in case you ever need it:

https://www.reddit.com/domain/longreads.com/

Of course, change the domain name for whatever you need.

It’s a neat little trick that can help you at some point.

Reminder: Some CSS for this blog

May 3, 2021 By Bobby Voicu

I’ve been adding some design elements to this site and I always forget what they were. I put them here just so I don’t always go back to research.

It’s nothing in particular, just the size of the post title font, the blockquote design and the shadow for the images on the site.

.entry-title {text-transform: none; font-size: 40px;}

blockquote {
margin: 20px;
padding: 20px;
background: #ffeeee;
font-weight: 500;
font-size: medium;
font-family: inherit;
font-style: inherit;
border-left:5px solid red;
}

cite {
font-style: italic;
font-weight: bold;
font-size: small;
}

.post img {
border:2px solid #C0C0C0;
box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;
-moz-box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;
-webkit-box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;
-khtml-box-shadow: 5px 5px 5px #ccc;
}

Featured photo by Pankaj Patel on Unsplash

Calendar Alarms Shortcut: Don’t Forget Your Calls Anymore

February 15, 2021 By Bobby Voicu

Like many of us now, I have lots of calls these days. Usually not back to back, but with 10-15 minutes in between them. And you know what happens in those 10-15 minutes? I start writing an email. Or reading something. And I forget when the next call starts. I remember 5 minutes in and I’m embarrassed.

So I asked our developer at KeepClose.ai to build an iOS shortcut for me that creates an alarm 2 minutes before each meeting I have in the Calendar. I start the app in the morning and I have alarms for the entire day. Of course, if I add another meeting during the day, I need to re-run the shortcut.

Here’s the shortcut (you need to allow Untrusted Shortcuts to be installed, see here how):

Calendar Alarms Shortcut

Now, there are some things you need to know. Because of the limitations of the Shortcuts app, you need to keep these things in mind:

  • if there’s already an alarm set for 2 minutes before your call (from a previous day), it will be put to on. BUT! It will not change the name of the alarm (it can’t be done through Shortcuts on iOS). We can’t delete it and replace it, as well.
  • it only reads the iOS calendar, so you need to have your calendars added to that app, otherwise it won’t work
  • because it reads the iOS calendar, if you add a call through another app (Google Calendar), you need to wait for the iOS Calendar app to sync, otherwise the shortcut won’t see the new meeting. There’s no Sync button on iOS Calendar, so sometimes it can take 5-10 minutes. I couldn’t find any way to change this.

P.S.: Finally, a little bit of promo for what I’m working on now: I think LinkedIn is bloated and almost unusable. So I’m working with my team on a solution that allows you to take back and easily manage your professional network. It’s called KeepClose.ai and it’s still in the early days, but if you think you might need something like this, get on our email list to be notified when we launched our alpha version.

Used Lenovo ThinkPad Buying Guide

May 3, 2020 By Bobby Voicu

I’ve been looking to buy a cheap Lenovo ThinkPad to play with Linux distributions (later edit: I bought a t440s, update at the end of the post). I’ve lost contact with the PC laptops world a while ago, so I needed to find a good source of information.

This is the best I found:
Used ThinkPad Buyer’s Guide

Used ThinkPads are cheap because they are business-grade computers – and business-grade equipment is purchased new typically every 3-4 years. This is fantastic for the smart or thrifty, as software requirements haven’t changed much since mid 2011. Even better, business-grade PC’s tend to last far longer, and function far more consistently than consumer or even ‘prosumer’-grade technology.

This is a freely offered guide on technology that I, and many others, consider to be the best of the best. That said, your mileage may vary – I can’t promise how much you will like it. :)

It covers everything you’d want to know about the devices.

The only thing that is a bit annoying (not the author’s fault in every way) is that the prices in EU are quite a lot bigger than the ones mentioned (from the US second-hand market). Sometimes it’s even double the price.

Here’s another good guide, if you want to compare advice, just to be sure.

Reddit helped again.

Later update: In the end, I bought this T440s, from eBay, for about €195 (didn’t receive it yet):

  • Lenovo THINKPAD T440s
  • Touchscreen, 1920×1080
  • Processor: Core i5-4300U @ 1,9GHz
  • RAM: 8GB
  • HDD: 500GB – I’ll probably swap it with an SSD

Featured image credit: wikipedia.

Transpose and Remove Duplicates in Google Sheets (Docs)

April 6, 2020 By Bobby Voicu

I’ve had to do some cleaning for a list of numbers recently and I used Google Docs for that. Of course, I used the Excel equivalent, Google Sheets.

Since it’s not the first time I looked for this information, I thought I would put it here, in case I ever need it again. And in case anybody else needs it.

How to TRANSPOSE cells in Google Docs (Sheets)

  • Use this function: =TRANSPOSE(A1:C11)
  • Change A1 and C11 with the top left and bottom right, respectively. You can see how in the image below.

How To Remove Duplicates in Google Docs (Sheets)

This is even simpler.

  • Just select all your fields (or not, since you also have the option of remove duplicates in the entire sheet).
  • Go to Data -> Remove Duplicates in the top menu (see the image below).
  • Then you are taken to another window, where you can select exactly where you want to remove the duplicates.
  • And that’s it!

Space for Disorganization: The organized chaos we all need

January 19, 2020 By Bobby Voicu

There was a joke in communist Romania:

“At an exam for policemen, they are given a ball and a cube and a board with two holes: one round and one square. The task: fit the cube and ball through the board in front.

The conclusion of the exam:
5% of the policemen are quite smart, 95% are really strong.”

While I’m not a policeman in communist Romania, that’s me. That’s you, I bet, as well: you try to clean and organize your office. Your room. Your email account. Whatever. And you find things you don’t really know what to do with. And you try to push them into a set of categories you already established for your stuff, but it doesn’t really work.

I feel it’s the same thing when you’re trying to organize your life/space in any way. We’re really, really strong: we’re trying to fit stuff in categories it doesn’t fit and it’s never completely as it should be.

The solution: a Space for Disorganization. A space where you dump things you don’t know where to put yet. Or you don’t have the time right then and there. As Janet and Isaac Asimov say:

It also helps to have one – and only one – Space For Disorganization, a shelf or drawer where things can be dumped until you have time to be neat, methodical, and are able to make decisions about where things should go. When you think you’ve lost something, it will probably be in the space for disorganization.

And if you wait long enough you’ll find that more of its contents can be just thrown out, and the process of doing so can serve as a Constructive Activity to Raise Self-esteem.

I found this quote in How to Enjoy Writing by Janet and Isaac Asimov.

And I’m actually doing something akin those lines, even if I never defined it. Especially now, when I’m putting together my home office in the new house.

Here it is, my Box of Disorganization, in the photo below. It’s filled with cables, gadgets, batteries, device manuals, I even see a Halloween decoration piece on top there.

I also have a similar space in Evernote, which is my tool of choice to get things from around the web that I “might” need at some point. Including the links you read in the weekly newsletter I send.

The “Space for Disorganization” in Evernote is a notebook called _Inbox. That’s where I drop everything that’s not specifically targeted for something. And every 2-3 months I go through the notebook and see if what I saved has a more specific place. If not, it just goes to another notebook, called Reference, where I might find it in the future using the search function of the app.

The advantage, for me, for the existance of a “Space for Disorganization”?

It doesn’t generate “paralysis by analysis”.

If I don’t think of a specific place for some thing or for some information, it goes straight to the Space. Also, as you know, small decision sap your energy. Because there’s no effort to think too much about what I need to do with something, I lose less energy on these small decisions, of where to put what. This allows for more energy to organize my space and keep it clean. Physical space or online space.

Keep in mind, though, it needs to be only ONE Space for Disorganization. If you have more than one, you just made a really good system of being disorganized.

Do YOU have a Space for Disorganization? As you can see, even a box from IKEA works.

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