My friend Mike was complaining that he has to put too many feeds into his feed reader to keep up with me. There's this blog, my tumblr mini-blog, my twitter feed, my flickr feed, and so on and so forth. Well, today FriendFeed launched and it solves that problem. I now have put virtually all of my feeds into this one place and now anyone who actually cares can follow along with me as I post pictures, post entries, add things to my Amazon wish list, and more. (Though I did not include twitter as it is both largely redundant and I thought would make the feed a constantly changing thing and thus annoying).

If you care, go here: http://friendfeed.com/aaffleck or subscribe directly to: http://friendfeed.com/aaffleck?format=atom

Tags: blog, writing

I started at tumblog... not sure what I will do with it but since I am using a content management system which requires me to be at my laptop to post to this blog, I wanted something I could easily post to from my iPhone. It's more for short entries, quick quips, photos, etc.

Tags: blog, tumblr

My review of WireTap Studio has been published and is up on TidBITS' website. I really enjoyed playing with this tool and as much as I am huge fanboy of Rogue Amoeba's products, I have to admit that they've been leapfrogged by Ambrosia. Of course, that means that the next releases of Fission and Audio Hijack Pro will both be very exciting as I have no doubt that they will, in turn, leapfrog Ambrosia.

I would love to start producing podcasts again, especially my long dormant Take Control of Podcasting Podcast. What I lack is a studio (I had to move my desk into the back of the kitchen for many reasons -- right near an old, noisy refrigerator) and every day my aging 1.25GHz PowerBook G4 just seems slower and less able... we're going to get a new, hot stuff iMac soon and when we do, I fully expect to go a little crazy on that and other projects. So, I'm itching to do more with these audio tools but don't feel I really can just yet.

For now, I'm content to digitize old cassette tapes and clean up the audio as best I can.

Tags: writing, tidbits, mac, audio, Podcasting

My latest article for TidBITS is now live. "Cook from your Mac: 10 Recipe Tools Compared" has been many months in the making. It took more work, more testing, and a lot more time than I thought it would but I am very pleased with the results. And I found a program, MacGourmet, I love using and have been moving all of those recipes lying around the kitchen on little pieces of paper into it. Now I just need to stop playing with it so I can actually get back to cooking! Update: The article finally went out in an issue of TidBITS and I'm starting to get some email feedback. I'll respond to the more interesting comments in this blog in a day or three. Thanks for the comments!

Tags: recipes, cooking, Software, mac, tidbits

Well, after nearly five years, I've pulled the old design down. Well, it's still there, just at the old URL until I decide what I want to do with it. It's been a long time coming. I love the old design but I'm also sick of it.

I decided to also take this moment in time to launch my own vanity domain. Raggedcastle will remain and will likely get repurposed in some fashion. But I wanted to make this change. So, there it is.

The new design is actually a template in the tool I use to manage this site (RapidWeaver) and I'll be designing my own template at some later date. But for now, this will do nicely.

With this change I am also enabling comments for the first time in years. If this new system keeps the spam at bay, then I'll keep them enabled. You're welcome James.

I got an iPhone. I got swept up in the hype and did what I swore I would not do: I got a 1.0 device. I knew full well that 2.0 would be far better and that by getting 1.0, I would not be able to get 2.0. But on the other hand, while the very first iPod was not at all compelling to me (I didn't get an iPod until the 3rd generation), the iPhone is a very compelling first generation device. And in the two weeks I've had it, I have come to depend on it. It's my grocery list, it gives me directions to get places, it lets me take pictures when I don't have my camera with me, it's my iPod, I watch movies on it, I watch TV shows on it, I find myself watching YouTube on it, something I never did before, I show off photographs on it, I follow stocks on it (why on why did I not buy Apple when it was $12/share?), I surf on it... oh, and I also use it as a phone!

A lot of people have complained about the AT&T part of things but I was already in an AT&T contract so I had no qualms about that particular move. I firmly believe that all of the cellular providers are fundamentally evil so I really don't see the downside of this one versus that one.

I've even submitted my first hint to MacOSXHints..

A few blogs and podcasts have made my iPhone experience that much better. They are as follows:

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• NetNewsWire: This venerable RSS/Atom Newsreader is an excellent way to keep up on my news feeds. I follow nearly 200 sites in a fraction of the time I would were I visiting each one sequentially. It is made even more useful by the addition of search feeds which allow me to search the net for arbitrary terms (such as "iPhone") and capture news from more than just those sites I regularly follow.
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• The Apple Phone Show: This podcast and blog has been one of the better sources of news and info about the iPhone.
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• CaliTV: Cali Lewis provides wonderful, short video podcasts (perfect for watching on the iPhone) of quick tips, news and notes.
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• MacBreak Weekly: This is a LONG podcast and yet I manage to find the time to listen to the whole thing. Leo Laporte has a virtual roundtable with Scott Bourne (of the Apple Phone Show, above), Merlin Mann (43 Folders and much more), and others. It's 40% bizarre banter (which I find endlessly diverting and fun) and 60% good information. My only wish is that I was part of the conversation. I often find myself wanting to interject a comment or correction or quip. You guys taking volunteers?
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• The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW): While not iPhone specific, it still provides a wealth of good information and news. I am late to this particular party but finding it one of my favorite Apple-related blogs.
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Tags: iPhone

Some of the books that Take Control publishes (not mine, in this case) are being heavily discounted this month. Details may be found here. I highly recommend all titles, not just my own! I have found these books to be incredibly useful in many different situations.

Technorati Tags: Macintosh, MacOSX, TakeControl