Quawkle

Repost: What’s Pinging My iPad Battery? by Katie Floyd

2012-05-24T17:15:23Z

Great discovery by Katie Floyd, one half of the Mac Power Users Podcast on the mysterious battery drain of new iPads:

After additional investigation I discovered the iPad was consuming power normally when active, but was draining more power than expected when in sleep or standby mode. What was the cause? In my case, I’ve narrowed it down to Ping, Apple’s nearly forgotten “social network for music.” Like all good Apple geeks I checked out Ping when it was first introduced and setup an account, but I haven’t touched it since. Nevertheless, it seems that the Ping service will regularly check in with Apple’s servers in the background. I’m never going to use Ping, so it was time to disable it, though figuring out how to do so isn’t exactly straightforward.

Read the rest of Katie's post here

Installing Zinio Magazine Reader to the Kindle Fire

2011-11-18T19:20:36Z

I just found these instructions for installing the Zinio magazine reader on the Kindle Fire. They worked fine for me.

Temporary alternate download method for the Zinio app on the Kindle Fire

Note: these instructions are ONLY for users on the Amazon Kindle Fire. This installer is not supported for any other device.

From the main screen, tap Settings > More > Device > Allow installation of Applications (from unknown devices)> select “ON”

Download the APK (app installer) from here . http://imgs.zinio.com/faq/ZinioReader.1.13.4418.Regular-Amazon.apk

Select “Notifications” to monitor your download. Once the download is complete, select “Install” and press “Open” when the installation is complete.

We hope you enjoy the app! We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced when trying to install the app.

Sincerely, Zinio Customer Support

I am really growing more and more attached to the Fire after some initial stumbles.

iPads in the Pulpit

2011-09-19T13:01:59Z

Tip of the hat to Tim Challies for the link.

All good books on preaching start with a section on the character of the preacher. I tip my hat at this noble practice by reminding you that if you brandish your iPad to complement the trendy hipster image you are carefully cultivating like a hidden hydroponic hemp garden, know this: God knows your heart, and your people will soon smell the stale odor of your pretentiousness. Your iPad, like a ninja, should be undetectable to your congregation. If you pace the platform like a techno-peacock, toting your e-notes into plain sight, then you need to go back to your paper library and read the first chapter of all your preaching books. Be the right person.

Just Like Lewis and Clark: In Search of the Best Text Editor

2011-09-14T17:20:03Z

While driving to work yesterday, I was listening to the Mac Power User podcast episode (put number here). David and Katie had Brett Terpstra from The Unofficial Apple Weblog as their guest. The topic was text editors. If you blog or write on a regular basis, I recommend listening to this episode. Among the many things they discussed, was the text editor Byword and the Markdown preview tool, Marked written by Brett himself. I downloaded both of them last night from the Mac App store. My first impression of Byword is “Wow!” It is a beautiful editor that is both simple and extremely friendly and helpful for writers who like to use Markdown for marking up a document for posting to a blog. When using Byword in full screen mode, it is a clean, distraction-free experience that lets you focus simply on writing. Hopefully after I have had the opportunity to use it more, I will write a full review.

Marked is a Markdown preview tool that lets you drag a text document to the Marked icon and preview what your document will look like when rendered. It is a flexible and versatile tool for making sure your Markdown tags are correct and looking like you intend them too.

I am still searching for an editor, plug-in, etc. that will let me write a blog post and directly post/send to my blog. Currently I am using Mars Edit as my conduit. I love Mars Edit, but I still wish there was a way to eliminate a step from the workflow. I’ll keep searching - I need a Sacajawea to help me!

A Gentle Reminder, I Care

2011-09-14T12:08:12Z

This morning as I headed off to work, I stopped by Starbucks to pick up my usual boring drink, a tall Pike Place with extra cream. Sure, I would rather order a grande Carmel Macchiato, but it costs too much and has too much sugar for a regular morning drink. I'd rather save that as an occasional treat than a regular habit.

As I was pulling up to pay with my gift card, the barista handed me my coffee and said, "The lady ahead of you paid for your coffee." Although the barista seem rather matter of fact, I felt both surprised and appreciative. As I pulled out, I tried to wave to the car ahead of me to show some feeble measure of appreciation. I will likely never have a chance to verbally express my 'thanks' but I doubt that is what the thoughtful person expected.

This kind act of expression duly caught my attention because I had been feeling a bit low this week. Trudging through the rigors of the regular routine sometimes takes a bit of life away from your spirit. This small act of kindness really was an expression from my heavenly Father reminding me of His care for me. He simply used this persons gift as a tool to express that. I wonder what thoughtful deed I can do for someone else to also serve His means.

Bringing Back Posterous

2011-09-10T22:27:06Z

After attending Julio Ojeda-Zapata's session today on Posterous, I have decided to start using my Posterous site again for quick blogging, multi-posting, etc. I like what Julio said about friction-less blogging and posting by using Posterous. Let's see if this works now.

Posted via email from quawkle's posterous

Be Careful About What You Ponder

2011-09-08T18:15:56Z

Yesterday morning as I was driving to work, I was contemplating how reliable our Saturn L200 has been and how I had never been broken down by the roadside with a car issue. Then late afternoon during rush hour as I was going southwest to meet up with my daughter, BAM - self-fulfilling prophecy - or something like that! Heading west on I-494 and about to take the south exit onto US-169 right in the middle of a bunch of road construction, I felt a hesitation in the accelerator. I sensed immediately that something was wrong, but I hoped that it was either an anomaly or something I could deal with later. I slowed down and coasted into the cloverleaf ramp. Rounding the ramp upward, I attempted to accelerate through the curve and the power just died and eventually the car stalled. I did my best to pull over to the right up over the slanted curb to get out of the way. All attempts to start the car failed and I knew I had a repair issue. First, I called my wife to tell her what was wrong and make arrangements for our daughter to be picked up. Then I called AAA and setup a priority tow request. All this time, I was watching rush hour traffic swerve left around the curved ramp to avoid me. Cars and pickups did fine when they were paying attention. It was the semi trucks that would swerve to the left and the back right corner of the trailer would miss my car by less than 4 feet - that made me nervous. When I had a chance, I popped the hood, got out of the car, raised the hood to let drivers know I was stranded (I already had my flashers on but the bright sun made them harder to see), and stood behind the car on the grass/weeds. I figured if the car was hit by a semi trailer, at least I wouldn't be in it while it rolled down the embankment and into the pond below!

Eventual, the tow truck showed up and a nice guy towed my car and me to the repair shop. We chatted about the Upper Pennisula of Michigan, Pasties, Mackinac Island, and Western University of Kalamazoo. Today, I got the estimate call - $900 for new fuel pump and installation. Oh, well.

Now On The Inside

2011-07-10T22:56:47Z

After waiting for a week, I finally am using Google+. Even after getting an invitation from Julio Ojeda-Zapata, it still took me two days to sign up on Google+.

My impression so far is that the service has some legs to stand on. One of the best features is the use of Circles. It's like a fine tune control on your posts giving you the ability to determine who sees your posts.

I am using a "training wheels" tool with Google Chrome browser. It is a Chrome extension called Extended Share which lets you share a post from Google+ to Facebook and/or Twitter. So far, I haven't had any luck with getting posts to Twitter but I have been able to share posts with Facebook.

All in all, I like Google+ but it's real value will come once Google opens its up to the public and more people I connect with on Facebook and Twitter sign up and start using the service.

Using Dropbox for Blog Images

2011-07-01T21:45:04Z

I use SquareSpace for my blog hosting. It is a great service and I highly recommend it. I also use BBEdit for writing my blog posts in Markdown. The one thing about SquareSpace that I don't like is the inability to push images up to the site via FTP. The only way I can store images on the site is to use the File Management tool which requires a lot of extra steps.

I have decided to try using Dropbox to host my blog post images. I already have a paid Dropbox account so using it for image storage seems like a "no-brainer". Images simply need to be stored in the Public folder and then you need to grab a link to the image from either the desktop client (on the Mac you control click on the file and select "Copy Public Link")

or from the Dropbox website

I'm not sure I will make this a permanent procedure, but I am sure interested in trying it out. Word is out that the new version 6 of SquareSpace is coming soon and will have some awesome features!

Sorry, We're Closed

2011-07-01T14:18:55Z

The Minnesota state government shutdown has commenced as of this morning. Although it has been in the news for a couple of weeks, I haven't thought much about it until last night. That is when I realized that it would directly affect us. We are planning to head north to Duluth for the Fourth of July weekend. Part of our plans include visiting Split Rock Lighthouse and also Gooseberry Falls. Both of those places are managed by State government employees who will not be working as of today.

My first thought was disappointment for my family. But contemplating about it a little more, I started to think about all of the people who work for the state and how their livelihoods will be affected by this shutdown. If it is short then the disruption won't have as much of an effect on their income, however, if it drags on, it will have a much bigger impact. Having been through a long spell of unemployment myself recently, I am much more sensitive to how things like this affect a family.

I hope the budget issues can be resolve quickly with as little political posturing as possible - not for my sake, but for the sake of those whose lives are directly and economically affected.