Google has released the new version of Gmail, which I am checking out. I have been using, and like, Inbox mostly because how quickly I can use it to triage email. By triage I mean browse for messages I want to read and then quickly archiving all the remaining messages. No other app, including Gmail provides as easy a way to archive a group of messages.

The downside of Inbox is that it is very JavaScript heavy and therefore the web app performance can suffer. Another downside is that the app versions don’t look as good on larger screens such as on my 10.5 iPad Pro in landscape.

So, I am considering using Gmail on large screens and Inbox on small screens. However to decide that, I need to use the new Gmail for a while.

Did a little more investigation into the watch face that Fossil “pushed” to my smart watch last weekend. What happens is, you receive a notification saying that you “unlocked” a face and whether you want to enable it. What I have found is that amongst the many faces that are pre-installed on the watch is one called Seasonal, and this is the face that Fossil pushes updates to. Consequently, Fossil is not consuming additional storage space on the watch with each “new face” as it is updating one face that is designed for different appearances, which in reality is how all faces work.

I am wondering whether there is a Wear OS app that will automatically change watch faces I specify on a set schedule. I would like to rotate through some like the Outlook face that I like to use during the work day.

I use a simple process for telling whether my computer is working too hard, I listen for the fan. By this simple measure I determined that Chrome was just killing my computer and checking Process Explorer I did see high CPU utilization. I switched to Firefox as my primary browser and so far the fan has been quiet and the browser more responsive.

I use Amazon Lightsail to host the Dockerized version of a CRM application. There has just been a major release and the latest version of the Docker image is not working for me. I take snapshots of the server as a back up, so I was able to revert back to the prior version of the server pretty easily. The process does involve creating a new instance from a snapshot, moving the public IP address to the new instance, and then deleting the old instance.

Do any of the other apps for micro.blog provide a way to edit posts?

Really disappointing that we still cannot edit posts in the micro.blog app.

Washington Post: how to assess your survival odds

Don’t expect stats to predict your future. And most important, live your life to the max.

So, Flickr has been acquired by SmugMug. Pondering whether I want to keep my pics in Flicker and let them go along for the ride to SmugMug, or cut ties and only use Google Photos.

People suggesting that Trump did something wrong by not attending the funeral for Barbara Bush might stop to consider whether he was invited by the Bushes.

I got a Fossil Explorist Q, which is a Wear OS smart watch, for my birthday. Today Fossil pushed a face, commemorating Earth Day, to my watch, which was unexpected. Now I am curious to learn what other faces Fossil will push. I think this is a nice Easter egg.

All the way back on March 24, 2009 I wrote

when corporations own all mass media, how can we trust the news?

Back in September 2008 I thought the United States was in the worst state of my life time. I was very wrong.

Everything restored on the Pixel 2 except for the Android Wear settings, so now I have to factory reset my watches and completely reconfigure them to manage them in the Wear OS app. What an awful user experience.

Something really bad just happened to my Pixel 2 to shut down and then not boot. I have had to do a factory reset. Now restoring from backup. I had just downloaded the NASA picture of the day and was making it the wallpaper on the phone when this happened.

Stacey Harmon: “Why Michael Hyatt is Wrong about Organizing Evernote with Tags”

The right way for me — as well as the vast majority of the people I have coached over my years as an Evernote consultant — is by using notebooks and stacks as the primary organizing blocks of Evernote, with tags being used not as an organizational tool, but a find feature in Evernote.

I have used Evernote for a long time, and I use notebooks and stacks as the primary organizational method and tags to help find information. When seek information in Evernote I usually search for that information across all notes unless I expect to only find it in a certain notebook or stack.

Best iPad Keyboard Shortcuts (for Smart Keyboards or Bluetooth)

These keyboard shortcuts don’t require the Smart Keyboard or the iPad Pro. These tricks will work if you pair a Bluetooth keyboard with any iPad running iOS 9 or later.

I have installed Drafts 5, purchased the yearly subscription, and I am now writing my first micro.blog post using it. Let’s see how well this works. Sent over to the micro.blog app where I can edit further. Of course, this method requires that you have the micro.blog app installed on your iPad, but you don’t have to generate a new app code for it to work.

Yippee! I made it to 52!

After one day of full time usage, I am finding Firefox to be significantly faster than Chrome. One exception does seem to be with Inbox, which is heavy Javascript. I also may not have all of the Extensions installed in Firefox as I have in Chrome.

Mirroring360 looks like a useful addition to my toolbox. Found via a blog post about the Apple Pencil.